Email this article Tibetan Subscripts ya and wa in Oirat Clear Script
- Authors: Yampolskaya N.V.1
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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
- ID: 100360
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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
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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).
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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:.
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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...).
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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.
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Fig. 5. Fragment of sheet 14r of the manuscript "Collection of Dharani reading methods", Hebrew RAS, Mong. From 461.
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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.
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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.
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