Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g7rbq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T01:10:19.636Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On Ravigupta's ganas1, 2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

That the Khotanese version of Ravigupta's Siddhasāra was made from the Tibetan translation extant in the Tanjur has been known since H. W. Bailey's convincing demonstration in BSOAS, X, 3, 1940, 599–605. But it is clear that the situation is more complicated than would at first appear. There are very numerous instances where the Khotanese version shows a correct understanding of the original Sanskrit while the Tibetan translation is in error. In fact the translation is at times so good that one wonders why the translator ever let himself be led astray by the Tibetan. There can be little doubt that the translator of the Khotanese knew Sanskrit far better than he knew Tibetan. Nevertheless, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the Khotanese rendering was based on a combination of the Sanskrit original with the Tibetan version.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

3 cf. Dh. N, 39: ka tukālāmbunῑ tumbi lambā pinda-phalā ca sā ikṣvākuḥ ksṣatriya-varā tikta-bῑjā mahā-phalā.

4 cf. Upendra-nātha-dāsa, Kavirāj Śri, Nava-paribhāsā, Benares City, 1949, p. 6, verse 22Google Scholar:

caturbhiḥ kuḍavaiḍ prasthaś catuḍ-prastham āḍhakam.

Similarly already in Caraka, Ka. 12.94:

catvāraḥ kuḍavāḍ prasthaś catuḍ-prastham āḍhakam.

5 MS hīśā, emended by Bailey to hīśaṃ.

6 loha- = aguru- in Bh. N, 194, and Dh. N, 98. Note also Bh. N, 786.72: loham ayaḥ kāmsyam aguru ca.

7 I notice, however, that in Bh. N rujā-kara- is given as a synonym of karmaranga-, which Chunekar-Pandey identified as Averrhoa carambola (580–1).

8 Vol. III, indexes, p. 72. The Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna, K. K., second ed. (Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies, xxx), Varanasi, 1963, 3 volsGoogle Scholar.

9 Notice Khotanese bu' ‘perfume’ here where the Sanskrit has rasa-. So also in 2.4 Khotanese has syaucä bu’ (10 v 2) where Ravigupta has sarja- (A 4 v 4: so read, with MS B, for Bailey's srajā-) corresponding to Suśruta's sarja-rasa- (Sū. 38.12). The Tibetan has sra-ći pog. Tibetan pog = Khotanese bu' also in Tibetan pog dkar-po = Khotanese śī bu' for Sanskrit kunda- discussed below.

10 MS jäbi, emended by Bailey to jaṃbi.

11 MS kanaka-phalä. n and t are very similar. It is thus likely that this MS of the Siddhasāra was copied from an earlier, more accurate one. The same error occurs in Pelliot 2892.150, KT, v, 323, in the late script.

12 So earlier Dutt, U. C., The materia medica of the Hindus, Calcutta, 1877, 324Google Scholar. The same identification is given by Chunekar-Pandey in Bh. N, 409, and by Śarmā, Priya-vrata in his Dravya-guṇa-vijñāna, parts II–III, second ed., Varanasi, 1969, p. 685 (367)Google Scholar.

13 cf. Bh. N, 521, where bahu-sravā = śallaki- and gaja-bhakṣyā- .

14 Vol. I, Sūtrasthāna, ed. Chāṅgāṇi, Vaidya Śrī Govardhana-śarmā (Kāśῑ Sanskrit Series, 157), Varanasi, 1954Google Scholar.

15 viṣa-muṣṭika- = mahā-nimba- also Bh. N, 783.112.

16 maruko at A 6 r 2, KT, I, 111, is a misreading of A maruvo, B maru[.

17 For the introduction of the nasal note Buddhist Sogdian mr' ynčk' in the Padmacintāmaṇidhāraṇῑ-sűtra, 28 (ed. Müller, F. W. K., SPAW, 1926, 4Google Scholar) and Tocharian B mrañco in Filliozat, J., Fragments de textes houtchéens de médecine et de maqie, Paris, 1948, 52, 124Google Scholar.

18 The form sātalā- (Bh. N, 310) is given by Ḍalhaṇa and Arunadatta, and sadala is found in the Tibetan version of Vāgbhata.