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THT 1231

Known as:THT 1231; Prelim. No. 48
Cite this page as:Svetlana Burlak; Michaël Peyrot. "THT 1231". 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-tht1231 (accessed 05 May 2024).

Edition

Editor:Svetlana Burlak; Michaël Peyrot

Provenience

Collection:Berlin Turfan Collection

Language and Script

Language:TB
Linguistic stage:classical
Script:classical

Text contents

Text genre:Literary
Text subgenre:Buddhastotra
Verse/Prose:verse

Object

Material: ink on paper
Form:Poṭhī
Number of lines:5

Images

Transliteration

a1/// ś· mñe ṣṣe – ///
a2/// – (–) – ś[ai] ṣṣe ne ī ke – ///
a3/// – kk[e] nta śai ṣṣe ntse ma rsa rṣṣa ñca la kle nta [śl]e ///
a4/// ta nma ṣṣe ñca po yśī nta ā we mā ce rśai ṣṣe ntse kre ///
b1/// ·ñ· po nta kre ntau na¯ ¯ts yo lai ññe nta tra ṅko nta cā ///
b2/// 6 me ska rai twe śi la ṣṣi ka lṣa mñe ṣṣa – – ///
b3/// [sa] 80 7 nau mye nta [ṣ](·)· ///
b4/// yo ktsi ci ñca ·e ///
b5/// – ///

Transcription

a1 n1 /// (ai)ś(a)mñeṣṣe – ///
a2 /// – – – śaiṣṣene īke – ///
a3 n2n3 /// – kkenta śaiṣṣentse marsärṣṣañca läklenta śle ///
a4 n4n5n6 /// tanmäṣṣeñca poyśīnta āwe mācer śaiṣṣentse kre ///
b1 /// ·ñ· ponta krentaunats yolaiññenta träṅkonta ///
b2 n7 /// (80-)6 meska raitwe śilaṣṣi kälṣamñeṣṣa – – ///
b3 /// sa 80-7 naumyentaṣ(ṣ)· ///
b4 n8 /// (śwātsi) yoktsi ciñca(r)e ///
b5 /// – ///

Translation

a1 ... of wisdom ...
a2 ... in the world ... a place ...
a3 ... the ... of the world; one who makes forget the sorrows; with ...
a4 ... one who begets omniscient [Buddhas]; the grandfather [and] mother of the world; ... the good ...
b1 ... of all virtues; evils [and] offences ...
b2 ...(8)6 Joint [and] connection of moral behaviour; ... of endurance ...
b3 ... 87 ... of the jewels ...
b4 ... (food) [and] drink ... lovely ...
b5 ...

Commentary

Philological commentary

Striking is the lack of any finite verb form in the fragment: as far as can be established with the fragmentary portions preserved, the text consists of a series of nominal phrases consisting of a head noun and an adjective, genitive, locative, object, etc. In style it thus reminds of for instance the Buddhastotra with epithets in alphabetical order edited by Schlingloff 1955: 82-83. Indeed, this fragment seems to be part of a Buddhastotra as well, but so far no system in the sequence of the epithets can be found. The asignment of recto and verso is uncertain.
Even though pāda-marking punctuation seems to be lacking completely, the whole text is probably metrical, witness the strophe numbers b2 (8)6 and b3 87. The metre is most probably 4 x 7¦7, in view of the fact that in all lines sequences of 4 and 3 syllables alternate: a1: (ai)ś(a)mñeṣṣe + 3 syllables a2: 4 syllables + śaiṣṣene a3: 2 syllables + kkenta śaiṣṣentse a3: marsärṣṣañca läklenta a4: tanmäṣṣeñca poyśīnta a4: āwe mācer śaiṣṣentse b1: 1 syllable + ·ñ· ponta krentaunats b1: yolaiññenta träṅkonta b2: meska raitwe śilaṣṣi b2: kälṣamñeṣṣa + 3 syllables b3: naumyentaṣ(ṣ)· + 3 syllables b4: 2 syllables + yoktsi ciñca(r)e The only places where pāda-marking punctuation might be found are b1 krentaunats\, if the virāma dot replaces the pāda-final dot; and a4 śaiṣṣentse, which has a remarkable extra stroke on top of the last akṣara. If the metre is indeed 4 x 7¦7, the length of one line was approximately 50 syllables (4 x 14 = 56 syllables from 86 to 87; but since 87 stands about 7 akṣaras right of 86, the line length is 56 – 7 = 49).
n1 (ai)ś(a)mñeṣṣe: possibly followed by sārathiṃ 'charioteer', cf. PK AS 5B a5 = THT 313 a5.
n2 /// – kk[e]nta: possibly the e-vowel is actually r. A reading to consider would be [y](ä)[r]kk(e)nta.
n3 marsarṣṣañca: the second r is miswritten for e; read marsaṣṣeñca (see Malzahn 2010: 758; Peyrot 2013b: 787.
n4 : cf. Thomas 1988a: 161.
n5 āwe: the translation 'grandfather' of Thomas 1988a: 161 is here provisionally followed, even though this definitely needs further confirmation.
n6 śaiṣṣentse: a stroke on top of the last akṣara is probably to be ignored.
n7 meska raitwe śilaṣṣi: This sequence is difficult to analyse. The easiest seems to take meska raitwe as a juxtaposed meske raitwe 'joint [and] connection'. However, the following śilaṣṣi can only be a nom.pl.m., so that the two words meske raitwe together would be a plural, a construction not normally found in Tocharian (perhaps this is a calque on Sanskrit?). Not probable is an interpretation meska rai twe 'O joint, you!' with meska as a vocative, because then śilaṣṣi would be even more difficult (the regular vocative would be śilaṣṣu).
n8 yoktsi: there are traces under the first akṣara that cannot belong to it if this reading is correct.

References

Online access

IDP: THT 1231; TITUS: THT 1231

Edition

Tamai 2007a: №1231

Bibliography

IDP

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

Malzahn 2010

Malzahn, Melanie. 2010. The Tocharian verbal system. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

Peyrot 2013b

Peyrot, Michaël. 2013b. The Tocharian subjunctive. A study in syntax and verbal stem formation. Vol. 8. Brill’s Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

Schlingloff 1955

Schlingloff, Dieter. 1955. Buddhistische Stotras aus ostturkistanischen Sanskrittexten. Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden 1. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

Tamai 2007a

Tamai, Tatsushi. 2007a. “A preliminary edition of unpublished texts from the Berlin Turfan Collection.” Thesaurus indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien (TITUS): Tocharian manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan collection. http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/tocharic/tht.htm.

Thomas 1988a

Thomas, Werner. 1988a. “Toch. B orotse-pacere ‘Großeltern’?” Historische Sprachforschung 101: 155–65.

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.”