Mehrdad Derafshi

This research provides a new edition, English translation, commentary, grammatical sketch, and glossary of the Late Khotanese version of the Vajracchedika Prajñaparamita—one of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism. After the tentative edition and translation by Sten Konow in 1916, the work was almost ignored for over 100 years, despite its importance for both the history of Buddhism and the Khotanese language. Given the significant advances in the understanding of Khotanese language in recent decades, this Late Khotanese text deserves a new and thorough study. The starting point for this research is the preliminary materials for a critical edition with translation and glossary that were left unfinished by the late Ronald E. Emmerick.