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A 47

Known as:A 47; THT 680
Cite this page as:Gerd Carling; Fanny Meunier; Michaël Peyrot. "A 47". In A Comprehensive Edition of Tocharian Manuscripts (CEToM). Created and maintained by Melanie Malzahn, Martin Braun, Hannes A. Fellner, and Bernhard Koller. https://cetom.univie.ac.at/?m-a47 (accessed 05 May 2024).

Edition

Editor:Gerd Carling; Fanny Meunier; Michaël Peyrot
Date of online publication:2013-10-04

Provenience

Main find spot:Shorchuk
Specific find spot:Stadthöhle
Expedition code:T III Š 95.03
Collection:Berlin Turfan Collection

Language and Script

Language:TA
Script:classical

Text contents

Title of the work:Unknown Avadāna
Passage:Gaṇitasthāna
Text genre:Literary
Text subgenre:Jātaka/Avadāna
Verse/Prose:prose; verse

Object

Manuscript:A 1-54
Leaf number:///
Material: ink on paper
Form:Poṭhī
Number of lines:6

Images

Transliteration

a1na ṣmā (–) – [¯]k pukaṃ [n]· ///
a2ka¯ ¯nt ma hā ka lpa ///
a3ta sthā naṃ klyaṃ tra • we ○ ///
a4(–) ke¯ ¯ñcä pa ñcäṃ ga ○ ///
a5(–) [kka]¯ ¯ts klyaṃ tra • la¯ ¯ks̝ – ///
a6(–) ·[o] ·[m]· na kka¯ ¯ts klyaṃ t·· ///
b1(– –) – ptā ñka tka ṣṣiṃ [o] ///
b2(– –) ntaṃ yā mlu ne yo s·a ///
b3(–) ñcraṃ wra mna śśä¯ ¯l ○ ///
b4lpa lpu ktri ā pā y· (·)aṃ ///
b5l] klo pa¯ ¯s̝ : ta myo – ///
b6wka ·[o] (–) ñka tka [ṣ](·)i ///

Transcription

a1 n1n2 näṣ (śtwarā)k pukaṃ n· ///
a2 känt mahākalpa(ñ) /// (gaṇi)-
a3 -tasthānaṃn3 klyaṃträwe ///
a4 (tā)keñc päñcäṃ ga(ṇitasthānaṃ) ///
a5 (ṣa)kkats klyaṃträlakṣ – ///
a6 – ·o (t)m(a)n-äkk ats klyaṃt(rä) ///
b1 – – – ptāñkät käṣṣiṃ o ///
b2 – – ntaṃ yāmluneyo s(k)a(mat) ///
b3 n4 (ci)ñcraṃ wramnaśśäl /// (śa)-
b4 -lpal puk tri āpāy(tw)aṃ ///
b5 l klopäṣ : tämyo /// (tanne)
b6 wkä(ny)o (ptā)ñkät käṣ(ṣ)i ///

Translation

a1 ... from ... not 40 in all ...
a2 ... hundred Mahākalpas ...
a2+ ... they stand in the ... gaṇitasthāna.
a3 Two ...
a4 ... if there are ..., (they stand in) the fifth Gaṇitasthāna ...
a5 ... certainly they stand (in) ... 100,000 ...
a6 ... stand exactly at that moment.
b1 ... the Buddha, the teacher ...
b2 ... by doing always ...
b3 ... together with lovely things ...
b3+ ... to be redeemed ... in all three bad incarnations ...
b5 ... from sorrow. Therefore ...
b5+ ... in (this) way the Buddha, the teacher ...

Commentary

Remarks

Transcription and references have been transferred from the "Text and Reference Database of the Tocharian A Language" (Gerd Carling Lund University) (funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and SCAS).
Transcription and translation are based on Carling et al. 2009.

Philological commentary

General note: The key word in the technical passage on the recto is the term Gaṇitasthāna, which denotes different levels in high numbers; in Tocharian A, we find A 18 a3 kaśaṣi lame 'number place'. It is used to structure the large number of Mahākalpas that makes one Asaṃkhyeya "uncountable" period. The first Gaṇitasthāna contains 1 to 9 Mahākalpas, the second 10 to 99, the third 100 to 999, etc. There are in total sixty Gaṇitasthānas, which correspond to the list of powers of ten in Mvy. (Sakaki) 7988 - 8048. The division of an Asaṃkhyeya into Mahākalpas is discussed in Abhidh-k (de La Vallée Poussin 1923/1923: vol. 2, p. 189-190 = ch.3, 93d), where sthāna instead of the more technical Gaṇitasthāna is used (the Chinese has chù 處). Compare also a similar passage in A 18 a1-b1.
n1 näṣ: probably an ablative, perhaps (gaṇitasthā)näṣ.
n2 (śtwarā)k: this tentative restoration, one of the very few that are palaeographically possible, would fit the second Gaṇitasthāna. The concept of 40 Mahākalpas is also found in A 289 a6.
n3 we: probably we wälts '2,000' (if in the fourth Gaṇitasthāna), less likely we tmāṃ '20,000' (if in the fifth Gaṇitasthāna).
n4 wramnaśśäl: a vowel ä has been erased above mna. After l\ a piece of paper has been glued upon the fragment, apparently for repair.

References

Online access

IDP: THT 680; TITUS: THT 680

Edition

Sieg and Siegling 1921: 27; Sieg and Siegling 1921 p. 27

Bibliography

Carling et al. 2009

Carling, Gerd, Georges-Jean Pinault, and Werner Winter. 2009. A dictionary and thesaurus of Tocharian A. Volume 1: Letters a-j. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

de La Vallée Poussin 1923/1923

de La Vallée Poussin, Louis. 1923/0031. L’Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu. Paris/Louvain: Geuthner/Istas.

IDP

“The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.” n.d. http://idp.bl.uk.

Sieg and Siegling 1921

Sieg, Emil, and Wilhelm Siegling. 1921. Tocharische Sprachreste, I. Band. Die Texte. A. Transcription. Berlin/Leipzig: de Gruyter.

TITUS

Gippert, Jost, Katharina Kupfer, Christiane Schaefer, and Tatsushi Tamai. n.d. “Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien (TITUS): Tocharian Manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan Collection.”