Work in progress
SHT 2054.b
| Known as: | SHT 2054.b |
|---|
| Cite this page as: | "SHT 2054.b". 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-sht2054b (accessed 11 May 2026). |
|---|
Provenience |
| Main find spot: | Sengim |
|---|
| Specific find spot: | [purchased] |
|---|
| Expedition code: | T II S 50 |
|---|
| Collection: | Berlin Turfan Collection |
|---|
Language and Script |
| Language: | Skt.; TB |
|---|
Text contents |
| Title of the work: | Aśvaghoṣa, Buddhacarita |
|---|
| Passage: | 2.48a-54d |
|---|
| Text genre: | Literary |
|---|
| Text subgenre: | Gloss |
|---|
| Verse/Prose: | prose |
|---|
Object |
| Material: |
ink
on paper |
|---|
| Form: | Poṭhī |
|---|
| Size (h × w): | 5 × 3.7 cm |
|---|
| Number of lines: | 4+ |
|---|
Transliteration
| a2x | ai ma su |
|---|
| a3x | kā wa ñe sa |
|---|
| b1x | [p]r·¯ ¯m [ñ]ä kte ra¯ ¯m |
|---|
| b2x | /// lki(·) wa lo tā ka |
|---|
| b2y | ka mā te |
|---|
| b3x | /// [y]a ma te |
|---|
| b3y | ra /// |
|---|
Transcription
Translation
| a2x | wishing |
|---|
| a3x | by killing |
|---|
| b1x | like Brahman |
|---|
| b2x | because [of ...] he was a king |
|---|
| b2y | brought |
|---|
| b3x | he did (?) |
|---|
| b3y | ... |
|---|
Commentary
Linguistic commentary
| n1 | The clasical form would be añmassu (Adams 2013a: 43); aimasu is probably a late variant of it, although the precise status of the variant āyme of the base word āñme 'soul, self' has not been settled yet (cf. Peyrot 2008: 159-60). Most forms are from late texts or texts with late features: THT 289: a5 āymtsa (late), THT 330: a1 āymesa (late), THT 1393.c: a3 āyme (fragmentary), THT 1575.a: a5 āym° ? (late), THT 1635.a: b5 āym (Tocharian text fragmentary). The problem is that we also find one archaic attestation: THT 1214: b4 aymäntse. A similar variation is found with añmālaṣke 'pitying' and the derived abstract: THT 1298: b1 aym(ā)lāṣke (perhaps arch.), IOL Toch 139: a5 āymelaṣkäññesa (a text with both arch. and late features). |
|---|
| n3 | The classical form would be kāwälñesa (as in THT 358.a: b3 kāwälñemeṃ, though we also find THT 102 kāwalyñesa): note the late simplification of lñ to ñ and the spelling of wä as wa. |
|---|
| n5 | Note late ram for class. ramt. Conversely, the vocalism of ñäkte seems clear and the expected late ñikte is not found. |
|---|
| n8 | kamāta is the 3sg.pt. of pər- 'bring'. |
|---|
| n10 | yamate is no regular form of any known Tocharian B verb. Closest in form would seem to be yamaṣṣate 'he did', for which it could be a mistake. If so, this would at once explain why the first and second syllable both have short a: in a regular non-causative preterite the second should be long, in a regular causative preterite the first. This mistake may have been favoured by the fact that in the late language the classical preterite with a 3sg.mid. yamaṣṣate had developed into a shorter stem with a 3sg.mid. maṣṣate* (the late stem is so far only attested in the active, i.e. 3sg. maṣṣa; Peyrot 2008: 160). yam- 'do' is frequently used in phrasal verbs, and was probably used with a preceding frozen noun here as well, even though a suitable combination is not attested so far (cf. Meunier 2013). |
|---|
Philological commentary
| n2 | glosses Skt. Bc.2.48d (ārur)ukṣa(ṃ) 'wishing to ascend'. |
|---|
| n4 | glosses Skt. Bc.2.49d hiṃsrā° 'cruel, murderous', a text variant found in this fragment, the correct reading of the Buddhacarita text being rather hiṃsā° 'injury' (Hartmann 1988a: 60; Johnston 1935: I, 18). |
|---|
| n6 | glosses Skt. Bc.2.51d (ka) iv 'like Ka'. Apparently the glossator preferred to replace Ka with the more common Brahman. A tiny piece of paper seems to cover the upper left stroke of the p. A trace of a further gloss is found right of ram\ under Bc.2.51d ād(ikale) 'in the beginning'. |
|---|
| n7 | The first item seems to gloss Skt. Bc.2.52d dadarśa 'he regarded' (Olivelle 2008: 55), if we understand it as an explanatory gloss clarifying that dadarśa here effectively means 'reigned over'. Schmidt apud Hartmann 1988a: 60 reads (pe)lkiṃ, but no anusvāra is visible; the dot to the left of the l probably belongs to the body of the l. |
|---|
| n9 | The second item glosses Skt. Bc.2.53a babhā(ra), here 'fostered' (Olivelle 2008: 55), 'maintained' (Johnston 1935: II, 30), and is written a little higher than tāka, the last word of the gloss to the left (see above), and so apparently does not belong to it. |
|---|
| n11 | glosses Skt. Bc.2.53d (āca)kāṃkṣe (v.l. of ācakāṅkṣa, Johnston 1935: I, 19) 'expected, desired' (Olivelle 2008: 55, 'sought'). |
|---|
| n12 | A further, fainter gloss is found to the right, starting with ra ///. |
|---|
References
Online access
IDP: SHT 2054b
other
Peyrot 2014: 154-6; Hartmann 1988a: 59-60; Malzahn 2007b: 312-3
