Blurb:

The new Gāndhārī manuscript finds from Afghanistan and Pakistan, which
date from approximately the first century BCE to the third or fourth century
CE, are the earliest manuscript witnesses to the literature of the Indian Buddhist
nikāyas or schools. They preserve texts whose parallels are found in the
various Tripiṭakas, or what remains of them, preserved in other languages
and belonging to various nikāyas, including sections of āgamas such as the
Ekottarikāgama and Vana-saṃyutta of the Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyuktāgama and
anthologies of such sūtras, besides many texts that are not generally classed
as “canonical”, such as commentaries. These very early collections of texts
raise questions concerning canon-formation, such as whether the Gandhāran
communities that produced these manuscripts had fixed āgama collections
and closed canons or whether this material witnesses a stage in which collections
and canons were still relatively fluid and open, and whether these
manuscripts, which span several centuries, witness a shift towards fixity. This
paper addresses these issues and re-examines our understanding of the formation
of the canons of the early Indian nikāyas in light of the new Gāndhārī
manuscript finds.