SHT 4438
| Known as: | SHT 4438 |
|---|---|
| Cite this page as: | "SHT 4438". 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-sht4438 (accessed 08 Nov. 2025). |
Provenience | |
| Main find spot: | Unknown |
| Expedition code: | T I ? |
| Collection: | Berlin Turfan Collection |
Language and Script | |
| Language: | TA; TB |
Text contents | |
| Text genre: | Literary |
| Text subgenre: | Gloss |
| Verse/Prose: | prose |
Object | |
| Material: | ink on paper |
| Form: | Poṭhī |
| Size (h × w): | 9 × 22.5 cm |
| Number of lines: | 6? |
Images
Images from idp.bbaw.de by courtesy of the International Dunhuang Project Berlin, the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Orientabteilung.
Transliteration
| a4x | ka rsn[ā]¯ ¯l |
|---|---|
| a5x | yso /// |
| b1x | eṃ – [lu] ne yä¯ ¯[s̝] |
| b2x | – la mā [y]a¯ ¯lä |
| b4x | ka nta ntu yo |
| b5x | [ā] rs[k]o[ṃ] |
Transcription
| a4x | n1 kärsnāl |
|---|---|
| a5x | n2 yso(mo) /// |
| b1x | n3n4 eṃ(tsā)luneyäṣ unread yāmunt |
| b2x | n5n6 (ya)l{†ä} mā yal unread kärpisyo unread śaiṣṣe |
| b4x | n7n8 käntantuyo unread träṅkluneyo wlär |
| b5x | n9n10 ārskoṃ unread ānāptune |
Translation
| a4x | to be known |
|---|---|
| a5x | altogether |
| b1x | because of taking ... done |
| b2x | to be done [and] not to be done ... by the mean ... world |
| b4x | by hundreds ... they died because of clinging |
| b5x | each day ... ? |
Commentary
Remarks
| Expedition code only on tag/label. | |
| Main text in Sanskrit, glosses in Sanskrit, TA and TB, plus a few entirely illegible ones. |
Philological commentary
| n1 | glosses Skt. jñeyaś 'to be known' (Schmidt 1983a: 279; Wille 2012: 34). |
|---|---|
| n2 | glosses Skt. samagrā /// 'all' (Wille 2012: 34). |
| n4 | eṃ(tsā)luneyäṣ glosses Skt. p(a)rigraha° 'possession; taking'. yāmunt glosses Skt. °kṛt· 'having done'. |
| n6 | (ya)l mā yal glosses Skt. k(ār)yākārya° 'to be done and not to be done'. Schmidt 1983a: 279 reads only the second half of the gloss: mā yal. Nevertheless, a trace of the first yal can be seen rather clearly, even though the first akṣara is hardly visible. The second, kärpisyo, glosses Skt. anāryair (instr. pl.) 'by the mean'. The third item, TB śaiṣṣe, glosses Skt. jagat 'world'. |
| n8 | käntantuyo glosses Skt. śataśau (for śataśo) 'a hundred times'. träṅkluneyo wlär glosses Skt. trigartā hatāḥ 'the Trigarta women were killed'. |
| n10 | ārskoṃ glosses Skt. – – [ra]ha, which is probably to be restored as (aha)raha for aharahaṃ or aharahar (or aharahaḥ) 'day by day' (Wille 2012: 34). ānāptune glosses Skt. navaśamaṃ '(with) new tranquility (?)'. |
Linguistic commentary
| n3 | Although the Sanskrit term is part of a compound p(a)rigrahakṛt· (see below), eṃ(tsā)luneyäṣ (abl.sg.; rather not eṃ(tsā)luneyaṣ, pace Peyrot apud Wille 2012: 34; also the translation 'ergriffen habend' ['having seized, grasped'] given there is not exact) glosses only p(a)rigraha°. The precise function of the ablative of eṃ(tsā)luneyäṣ remains unclear: in any case, together with the following gloss yāmunt it does not form a coherent whole. yāmunt, then, glosses °kṛt· separately; there appears to be no syntactic relationship with the preceding gloss. yāmunt can be obl.sg.masc. or pl.fem. |
|---|---|
| n5 | It is remarkable that all Tocharian glosses to this fragment are in TA, except for śaiṣṣe (however, there are also some glosses in Sanskrit and a couple that are so fragmentary that not even the language can be established (see Wille 2012: 34-5), which are not discussed here). There seems to be no palaeographical difference between the TA glosses and this gloss in TB. It is unclear why only this word should be glossed in TB: might it be because TB śaiṣṣe is only two syllables, twice as short as the TA equivalent ārkiśoṣi? |
| n7 | käntantuyo is an instr.pl. As pointed out by Dieter Maue (p.c.; see also Wille 2012: 34), the second gloss träṅkluneyo wlär must be an explanation of the Sanskrit text, not a translation. |
| n9 | ārskoṃ must stand for ārts koṃ. ānāptune clearly contains the abstract suffix -une, but is further unclear. Conceivable is a connection with the adverb āptā 'before', i.e. a negated 'what was not before'. Any relationship with āpti 'right' does not seem likely; also an alternative reading āwāptune is probably not to be preferred. |
References
Online access
Miscellaneous
Peyrot 2014: 162-4; Wille 2012: 34-5; Schmidt 1983a: 279
Bibliography
“The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.” n.d. http://idp.bl.uk.
Peyrot, Michaël. 2014. “Notes on Tocharian glosses and colophons in Sanskrit manuscripts I.” Tocharian and Indo-European Studies 15: 131–79.
Schmidt, Klaus T. 1983a. “Vorläufige Bemerkungen zu den in der Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin neu gefundenen tocharischen Handschriftenfragmenten.” In XXI. Deutscher Orientalistentag vom 24. bis 29. März 1980 in Berlin. Vorträge, edited by Fritz Steppat, 271–79. ZDMG Suppl. 5. Wiesbaden: Steiner.
Wille, Klaus. 2012. Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden. Teil 11. Die Katalognummern 4363–5799. Vol. 11. Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland 10. Stuttgart: Steiner.
