Email this article Tibetan Subscripts ya and wa in Oirat Clear Script
- Authors: Yampolskaya N.V.1
-
Affiliations:
- Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS
- Issue: Vol 19, No 2 (2022)
- Pages: 73-85
- Section: History and historiography
- URL: https://journals.eco-vector.com/1811-8062/article/view/100360
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.55512/WMO100360
Cite item
Full Text
Abstract
The paper presents some observations on the special characteristics of two signs used in the Oirat Clear Script alphabet—two additional graphemes that imitate the Tibetan subscripts ya (yatag) and wa (wazur). These two signs are unique because they transfer the principle of Tibetan orthography into Clear Script: if a syllable contains the vowel a, it is not marked in writing. Although the two signs that imitate yatag and wazur are consistently used in Clear Script and can be found in most texts of Buddhist content, in academic publications they are often overlooked and not marked in transliteration, which can lead to inaccurate interpretations of certain words. This paper justifies the necessity of employing special symbols to distinguish these signs in transliteration, and offers examples showing the use of yatag and wazur in seventeenth-century manuscripts, which allows one to trace their history back to the very first decades of the existence of the Clear Script alphabet.
About the authors
Natalia V. Yampolskaya
Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS
Author for correspondence.
Email: nataliayampolskaya@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2198-768X
Ph.D. (History), Senior Researcher
Russian Federation, St. PetersburgReferences
- Alekseev, Kirill. “On the Correlations between the Copies of the Mongolian Manuscript Kanjur”. In: The Mongolian Kanjur. International Studies. Ulaanbaatar, 2017, pp. 37–50 (in English).
- Beyer, Stephan V. The Classical Tibetan Language. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992 (in English).
- Iakhontova, Natalia S. “Vliianie tibetskogo iazyka na sintaksis oiratskikh perevodov” [The Influence of the Tibetan Language on the Syntax of Oirat Translations]. Mongolica, 1986, vol. I, pp. 113–117 (in Russian).
- Iakhontova, Nataliia S. Oiratskii literaturnyi iazyk XVII veka [Oi-rat Literary Language of the Seventeenth Century]. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura, 1996 (in Russian).
- Iampol’skaia, Nataliia V. “Svodnyi perechen’ fragmentov rukopisei ‘chernykh’ mongol’skikh Gandzhurov v kollektsii IVR RAN” [A Consolidated List of the Fragments of the “Black” Mongolian Kanjurs in the Collection of IOM, RAS]. Mongolica, 2015, vol. XV, pp. 48–58 (in Russian).
- Indian Scripts in Tibet. Reproduced by Lokesh Chandra from the Collection of Prof. Raghuvira. New Delhi, 1982 (Śata-piṭaka Series, Indo-Asian Literatures, vol. 297) (in English).
- Jamсa, Tüdübeyin. Todo üzügiyin dürüm [The Rules of Clear Script]. Chifeng: Öbör mongγoliyin šinǰileku uxān tehniq mergeǰiliyin kebleliyin xorō, 1999 (in Oirat).
- Kara, D’erd’. Knigi mongol’skikh kochevnikov (sem’ vekov mongol’skoi pis’mennosti) [Books of Mongolian Nomads (Seven Centuries of Mongolian Writing)]. Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, 1972 (in Russian).
- Kara, György. The Mongol and Manchu Manuscripts and Blockprints in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2000 (in English).
- Kara, György. Books of the Mongolian Nomads: More Than Eight Centuries of Writing Mongolian. Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, 2005 (in English).
- Luvsanbaldan Khaltaryn. Tod üseg tüünii dursgaluud. Nemzh baiazhuulsan khoer dakh’ khevlel [The Clear Script and Its Monuments. Second Edition, Revised]. Ulaanbaatar, 2015 (in Mongolian).
- Oiratskaia versiia “Istorii o Molontoine”. Faksimile rukopisi. Izdanie teksta, vvedenie, perevod s oiratskogo, transliteratsiia, kommentarii i prilozheniia N.S. Iakhontovoi [The Oirat Version of the Story of Molontoyin. Manuscript Facsimile. Text Edition, Introduction, Translation from Oirat, Transliteration, Commentary and Appendices by N.S. Yakhontova]. St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoie Vostokovedenie, 1999 (Pamiatniki kul’tury Vostoka: Sankt-Peterburgskaia nauchnaia seriia, VI) (in Russian).
- Otgonbaatar Rinchinsambuugiin & Tsendina Anna D. Obraztsy pis’mennoi traditsii severnoi Mongolii. Alfavity, transkriptsii, iazyki (konets XVI — nachalo XX v.) [Specimens of the Writing Tradition of Northern Mongolia. Alphabets, Transcriptions, Languages (Late 17th — Early 20th cc.)]. Moscow: Nauka, Vostochnaya literatura, 2014 (in Russian).
- Sazykin, Aleksey G. Katalog mongol’skikh rukopisei i ksilografov Instituta vostokovedeniia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Tom II [A Catalogue of Mongolian Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vol. II]. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura, 2001 (in Russian).
- Sizova, Alla A. “Mongol’skie teksty, postupivshie v sobranie Akademii nauk v pervoi polovine XVIII v.” [Mongolian Texts Acquired by the Collection of the Academy of Sciences in the First Half of the 18th Century]. Elektronnyi nauchno-obrazovatel’nyi zhurnal “Istoriia”, 2022 (in Russian) (in print).
- Tsendina, Anna D. “Dva mongol’skikh perevoda tibetskogo sochineniia ‘Kniga syna’ ” [Two Mongolian Translations of the Tibetan Text “Book of the Son”]. Mongolica, 2001, vol. V, pp. 54–74 (in Russian).
- Töröbatu, Tariyanči-yin. Todo γaliγ üsüg-ün sudulul [A Study of Galig in Clear Script]. Kökeqota: Öbör mongγol-un arad-un keblel-ün quriy-a, 2014 (in Mongolian).
- Tsyrempilov, Nikolay. “Khoshut Ablai Taiji and His Fortified Monastery on the Upper Irtysh”. Acta Orientalia Hungarica, 2020, vol. 73 (iss. 2), pp. 269–289 (in English).
- Yampolskaya, Natalia. “The Oirat Heart Sutra on Birch Bark from Ablaikit”. Manuscripta Orientalia, 2022, vol. 28, no. 1 (in print) (in English).
Supplementary files
Supplementary Files
Action
1.
Fig. 1. Fragment of the colophon (l. 16v) of the manuscript "Collection of methods of reading Dharani", Hebrew RAS, Mong. From 461. XVIII century. Paper, black ink, kalam: oqtoryyuyin dalai / rab ‘byams za ya paṇḍida / orčiuluqsan (translated by Ogtorguyin Dalai rab-zhamba Zaya-pandita).
Download (50KB)
2.
Fig. 2. Fragment of sheet 1v of the manuscript "Sutra [on how] Molon-toin rescued his mother from hell", Hebrew RAS, Mong. C 22. XIX(?) c. Paper, black and red ink, kalam. The title of the composition in Sanskrit and Tibetan, written in "clear writing": enedkegiyin kelen-dü: / ayarya ma γalya ya na ma / ma na ha da na ra ka dha / du mobha südra: töbödiyin kelen-dü: paqspa meüyal ky'i / bü cen poi na ma dmya lkasns / dmy'eng pai mdo:.
Download (208KB)
3.
Fig. 3. Fragment of sheet 4r of the manuscript "Prajnaparamita-hridaya", Hebrew RAS, Mong. B 12 (B 13): ...biligiyin činadu kürüqsen tarni / ögöülebei: dadyā ta oṃ gade / kade pa ra kade pa ra saṃ kade / bodhi ye swā hā: šariyin köböün / bodhi sad-wa mahā sadwa-nar tere / metü biligiyin činadu kürüq-... (...said dharani Prajnaparamita tadyatha oṃ gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā. Shariputra, that's how bodhisattva-mahasattva [practices] prajnaparamita...).
Download (209KB)
4.
Fig. 4. Fragment of sheet 14v of the manuscript "Collection of Dharani reading methods", Hebrew RAS, Mong. From 461. XVIII century. Paper, black ink, kalam.
Download (84KB)
5.
Fig. 5. Fragment of sheet 14r of the manuscript "Collection of Dharani reading methods", Hebrew RAS, Mong. From 461.
Download (59KB)
6.
Fig. 6. Fragment of the manuscript of the sutra "Prajnaparamita-hridaya", the Regional Museum of Local History of Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan). XVII . Birch bark, black ink, pun.
Download (51KB)
7.
Fig. 7. Samples of writing words and syllables from the manuscript containing the ritual writings of Panchen Lama IV, Hebrew RAS, Mong. K 38, L. 59r: dyam, bidya, swaha, bôdhi sadwave.
Download (73KB)
