He 1 and 2
| Known as: | He 1 and 2; He 1; M 8533; He 2; M 5436 |
|---|---|
| Cite this page as: | Martin Braun. "He 1 and 2". 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-he1and2 (accessed 16 Dec. 2025). |
Edition | |
| Editor: | Martin Braun |
Provenience | |
| Expedition code: | TM 177, T II D 67 |
Language and Script | |
| Language: | TB |
| Script: | Manichaean |
Text contents | |
| Text genre: | Literary |
| Text subgenre: | Hymn to Jesus |
| Verse/Prose: | verse; prose |
| Meter: | 4344 (1x), 4343 (1x), 4443 (1x) |
Object | |
| Material: | ink on paper |
| Form: | Codex |
| Size (h × w): | 6.2 × 13.5 cm |
Images
Images from turfan.bbaw.de by courtesy of the Digitales Turfan-Archiv at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Transliteration
| a1 | /// [k]·wmyn p[rk] /// |
|---|---|
| a2 | [my]nšw mwnšw • lˀynyk t[nz] /// |
| a3 | frmnyk tnzˀ pwsˀ[ḍ]m •• /// |
| a4 | šwgyy yyšwˁyy tsg t[s] /// |
| a5 | •• čndˀmnyy bˀmyḍˀ t /// |
| a6 | čwnyyyˀzyjˀ ˀzyj[mndt] /// |
Transcription
| 1a | a1n1 (1) 4σ ; pärk(or) (ram) ; (2) /// 4σ a2 meñ śommoṃśu • ; |
|---|---|
| 1b | (3) ylai-ñäktents(e) ; (mukur) (ram) ; a3n2 (4) bram-ñäktentse ; pusa ram •• ; |
| 1c | (5) /// 4σ a4n3 śuke yiśwe ; (6) tusā-k tus(ā-k) ; (pällāmar) a5 •• ; |
| 2a | (7) cintāmani ; wamer ra{m} ; (8) t(arne) (āssi) ; a6n4 culñe aṣā{ṃ} ; |
| 2b | (9) mant t(we) 5σ /// |
Translation
| a1 | (1) (Like) the ris(ing) ... |
|---|---|
| a1+ | (2) ... moon ... |
| a2 | (3) (like the diadem) of Indra |
| a3 | (4) like the garland of Brahma |
| a3+ | (5) ... nectar [is] Jesus. |
| a4+ | (6) Therefore, (therefore I praise [you]). |
| a5 | (7) Like the cintāmaṇi-jewel |
| a5+ | (8) (to wear on the crown [of the head]) [this] ornament [is] worthy, |
| a6 | (9) as [are] (you) ... |
Commentary
Remarks
| Two fitting fragments of a bifolium (i.e. double sheet) from a book in codex form. Parts of the gutter (i.e. the central margin) are preserved. The double sheet was folded vertically and bound through the fold in the center. It thus bears remains of a total of four pages (a, b, c, d). | |
| Only one page (a) contains text in Tocharian B. The other pages (b, c, d) contain text in Western Middle Iranian (i.e. Parthian or Middle Persian) and a title in Sogdian in red ink (line b4), and are not treated here. Henning described them as well-known Manichaean hymns, composed and sung for the installation of church dignitaries (von Gabain and Winter 1958: 34). | |
| Measurements of the fitted fragments as estimated from the photographs: width 13.5 cm, height 6.2 cm. Published measurements of He 1 (M 8533): width 7.0 cm, height 4.0 cm (Weber 2000: 56); for He 2 (M 5436): approx. width 10.8, height 4.0 cm (Yoshida 1999: 196). | |
| The two fragments were originally among the Iranian Manichaean texts edited by Walter Bruno Henning, hence the signatures He 1 and He 2. The first edition by Werner Winter (von Gabain and Winter 1958: 34-38) relied heavily on the written notes and transcription provided by Henning. | |
| Images of He 1 (M 8533, TM 177): von Gabain and Winter 1958: Taf. II, DTA recto, verso, Weber 2000: pl. 147-8; images of He 2 (M 5436, T II D 67): von Gabain and Winter 1958: Taf. II, DTA recto, verso, Weber 2000: pl. 131. | |
| In the notes of the DTA (Digitales Turfan Archiv), the fragments M 5435 through M 5463, including He 2 (M 5436), are marked as lost. They have all been mounted together in one frame of which only black-and-white scans exist. Also, the upper section of He 1 (M 8533) has been lost prior to taking the most recent photograph (Weber 2000: 44). By consequence, only about half of the originally published Tocharian text is still preserved today. | |
| If the reconstructions of the text are correct it can be calculated that about 64% of the text width is preserved. By consequence, the length of a line originally must have been about 9.74 cm, not including possible space at the line ends or fillers to justify line lengths. |
Philological commentary
| On the meter, see U 99. | |
| For better comparability of parallels and all variants of transcriptions and translations, all cola in U 99, U 100, U 101, U 102, U 103, and He 1 and 2 are numbered in accordance with Pinault 2008a: 117-118. | |
| von Gabain and Winter 1958: 37-38 has: (1) ...(Anfang mir unverständlich) (2) ... meṃ śommoṃšu“... starker Mond.” (3) (y)laiñikteṃs[e mukur ram]“wie das Diadem des Indra,” (4) bramñikteṃse pässak ram“wie der Kranz des Brahma,” (5) yi[šwe lkāsi] śukye yišwe“(ist) Jesus, der strahlend zu sehende Jesus:” (6) tu sa tu s[a pällāmar] ...“darum, ja darum preise ich.” (7) Cintāmani wame[r] ra“Wie das cintāmaṇi-Juwel” (8) t[arne nʼ āšāṃ] CWNYY āssi ś“auf dem Kopf getragen zu werden ... würdig,” (9) mant t[we lkāstar ...]“so wirst du gesehen ...” | |
| n1 | Line a1: One would expect colon (1) to be kauṃ-ñäktentse pärkor ramas in U 99 b5. However, apart from ‹p[rk]› for pärk(or), the character sequence does not support such a reading. |
| n2 | Line a3: The spelling ‹pwsˀ› does not directly represent TB pässak, but rather the Western Middle Iranian (i.e. Parthian or Middle Persian) form pwsˀg/pusa/, which is spelled pwsˀwhen not word-final (Hitch 1993: 115-116). |
| n3 | Line a4: The spelling ‹ṯsg› can represent tusaor tusā-k. Hitch argues for tusa, with ‹g› at the end reflecting the Manichaean writing tradition where final -gafter vowel is lost in spoken Western Middle Iranian but was retained in Manichaean orthography (Hitch 1993: 115). However, ‹ṯsg› could just represent tusaplus the emphatic particle -kas Couvreur has already pointed out (Couvreur 1961a: 102). |
| n4 | Line a6: Winter appears to judge the repeating character sequence ‹ˀzyj› as writing error, giving only ‹cwnyy ˀzyjˀmndṯ[› (sic!) (von Gabain and Winter 1958: 35) instead of, e.g., ‹cwnyy yˀzyjˀ ˀzyj(mndṭ)› (Yoshida 1999: 193). |
Parallel texts
| Appearently, this text contains the same hymn as the fragments U 99 etc., but praising Jesus instead of Mani. Lines a1 through a6 correspond to U 99 b5 through U 100 b2. |
References
Edition
Bibliography
Couvreur, Walter. 1961a. “Review of: Türkische Turfantexte IX. Ein Hymnus an den Vater Mani auf ‘Tocharisch’ B mit alttürkischer Übersetzung.” Bibliotheca Orientalis 18 (1-2): 100–102.
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. n.d. “Digitales Turfanarchiv. Depositum der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin — Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung.” https://turfan.bbaw.de/dta/.
Hitch, Doug. 1993. “The Kuchean hymn in Manichean script.” Tocharian and Indo-European Studies 6: 95–132.
Pinault, Georges-Jean. 2008a. “Bilingual hymn to Mani: Analysis of the Tocharian B parts.” Studies on the Inner Asian Languages XXIII. Papers in Honour of Professor Takao Moriyasu on His 60th Birthday, 93–120. http://hdl.handle.net/11094/16397.
von Gabain, Annemarie, and Werner Winter. 1958. Türkische Turfantexte IX. Ein Hymnus an den Vater Mani auf “Tocharisch” B mit alttürkischer Übersetzung. Abhandl. d. Deutschen Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Kl. f. Sprachen, Literatur und Kunst 1956, 2. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Weber, Dieter, ed. 2000. Iranian Manichaean Turfan texts in publications since 1934. Photo Edition. Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Supplementary Series 4. London: School of Oriental and African studies.
Yoshida, Yutaka. 1999. “Review of: Iranian Manichaean Turfan texts in publications since 1934. Photo Edition.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series 13: 191–96.
