I’ve started working on a comparative study of various extant Dhp parallels. The list contains: Sarvastivadin Udānavarga, Theravadin, Subasi, Patna, Gandhari (1st), Taisho t210.
I’ll try to work this out to build our a general, pan-sectarian dhp in the future hopefully.
I tried to translate the titles to their Pāli terms whenever possible. With the indian schools it’s been a challenge, and there might be some issues; but I’ve used machine translations for chinese titles so they might be a bit funky. Perhaps @cdpatton could help with the Dhp titles if you’re ever in a good mood.
Some interesting notes are:
The similarities on the chapter orders of Sarvastivadin Udānavarga and Subasi, they have almost the exact same chapter orders.
Craving, Path, Flowers, Mind, Brahmin are chapters common in all books.
Potentially, Gandhari might have Diligence as well as it’s missing text, making Diligence another text in all books.
Potentially Mendicants might be included in the Chinese edition as well.
Also linking here the great works of Ven. @Vimala:
It would be helpful if there were chapter numbers on the T210 column. Otherwise, it’s rather difficult to tell which Chinese title has been converted into what Pali title.
While this is a very important and detailed work, it unfortunately still has a Pāli bias, and is only concerned with locating which verses have parallels in other Dhp copies (and canon).
For example, Diligence chapter, is just our stock Diligence Dhp chapter, showing the parallels in other Dhps. However, Patna version Diligence has about 20 verses compared to Pāli Dhp’s 12 verses.
In some cases, other Dhps has verses located elsewhere in the Pāli canon (for example, Patna version again has the Snake chapter from Snp). In other cases, there are additional verses in the Dhps, with the Snp trademark of repetition verses with slight differences, that are not found in the Pāli Dhp.
There are some chapters that are quite common across other schools, yet not found in the Pāli Dhp: Aniccavagga, Kammavagga, Saddhavagga exist in Sarvastivadin Udanavarga, Patna, Taisho. I have just barely started getting in the gritty with these, first hoping to find parallels in Pāli canon if possible.
So, I’m hoping to bring together all the extant versions for a as complete EBT Dhp collection as possible, to preserve the literature. My plan is to translate the MIA versions into Pāli wherever possible first, and then a complete english translation. As for the chinese Dhps, well, I’ll try to find all th help I can get.
A great book for this would also be Willemen’s Odes of the Law published through BDK. The translation of T213 is not artful, but he has done all of the comparative work in his annotations down to individual lines of verse. I’d recommend looking at it to avoid duplicating too much work. Though it does pay off to do the comparative work to get the direct insight that it gives.
Chapter 10’s title is actually Pamāda (wayward) rather than Appamāda (careful). It’s an oddity, the chapter is called Appamāda in T212 and T213 (which are versions of the Udanavarga).
Chapter 12’s title lit. means “flower fragrance” - so, maybe “perfume” is the intended meaning. Or maybe the expression was Mālāgandha, “garlands and perfumes.”
Chapter 17’s title lit. means “bad/evil conduct” - so it may have been something like Duccarita in Pali.
Chapter 20’s title means “craving self” of “love of self” - not sure offhand what the Pali would be. That’s assuming 身 should be read as a pronoun. It could translate sakāya or just kāya.
Chapter 28’s title lit. means “practice” or “walking the path” - so maybe Pāṭipada could be a Pali equivalent.
