संकथा- Samkatha

We are happy to present to the scholarly world selected papers of the International Seminar on "Buddhist Narratives" held in the memory of Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn. The seminar was organized by the Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University from 24th to 26th February 2016. It was funded by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities and the Quality Improvement Programme of the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. The Department had, in fact, planned to organize this seminar in consultation with Prof. Hahn during his stay in Pune in January/February 2013. However, for some reasons, this plan did not materialize at that time. In the meanwhile, Prof. Hahn breathed his last on July 12, 2014. After a few months's deliberations, the Department decided to go ahead with its plan of organizing the seminar, although this time sadly, without Prof. Hahn.

Twenty-five scholars from different parts of the world participated in the seminar. Although, due to various reasons, we could not include all the papers presented in the seminar, contributions of nine participants have been incorporated in this volume. Out of these, two articles deal with the Buddhist narratives in Pali, two with those in Sanskrit and Tibetan, one with Buddhist narratives in Chinese and two with modern Buddhist narratives. Thus, although the number of articles is small, they still cover a vast time-span.

In the seminar, Prof. Dr. Shrikant S. Bahulkar had delivered the key-note address on "Contribution of Prof. Michael Hahn to Studies in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature." This key-note address along with Prof. Hahn's complete bibliography is now included in this volume. We are grateful to Dr. Mitsuyo Demoto-Hahn (Marburg) and Dr. Roland Steiner (Marburg) for helping us with finalizing Prof. Hahn's bibliography.

During his visit to Pune in February 2020, Prof. Dr. Peter Skilling informed us about his article "Oceans of Story: A Note on Buddhist Narrative Literature," which he had dedicated to the memory of Prof. Hahn. We are extremely thankful to him for accepting our request to allow us to include it in this volume. The article takes a thorough overview of the Buddhist narrative literature and is, therefore, a fitting tribute to Prof. Hahn.

Prof. Dr. Jurgen Hanneder (Marburg) and Dr. Roland Steiner (Marburg) kindly agreed to contribute an obituary for Prof. Hahn. The same is included here at the end of the volume.

In January 2019, the Department invited Dr. Lata Mahesh Deokar to lead the editorial work of this volume and decided to bring it out jointly with the Deshana Institute of Buddhist and Allied Studies, a brainchild of Prof. Hahn. Ms. Sayuri Deokar was also requested to assist the editorial work of the volume. Mr. Aditya Goel of the Aditya Prakashan (New Delhi), who has earlier published some works edited by Prof. Hahn, happily agreed to be a co-publisher of this volume.

We are aware that the publication of the volume has been somewhat delayed. However, we are sure that the scholarly community will appreciate our humble efforts in bringing it out.

We express our sincere gratitude to all the scholars who participated in the seminar and made their papers available for publication. We are grateful to Dr. Lata Mahesh Deokar for the hard work and dedication with which she has brought this volume to completion. A special mention must be made of Ms. Sayuri Deokar who has provided valuable editorial assistance and has done the work of copy-editing meticulously. Our heartfelt thanks are due to Prof. Dr. Johannes Schneider (Munich), a member of the editorial board of the Deshana Institute, who, in spite of his hectic schedule, went through the volume and brought it to the present elegant form. Our dear student Mr. Liu Shi deserves special mention for helping us with the proof-checking of Prof. Willemen's article which includes several Chinese terms and citations. We are thankful to Mr. Gaurang Oza for the exquisite calligraphy of the front and back covers of the volume. Our thanks are also due to Aditya Prakashan (New Delhi) for printing this volume neatly and beautifully as usual.

**Contents and Sample Pages**