Unedited Old Uighur Buddhist Literature Preserved in the National Museum of China: the Mahāpratisarā dhāraṇī and ‘On the Three Qualities’

Ma, Fu (2022) Unedited Old Uighur Buddhist Literature Preserved in the National Museum of China: the Mahāpratisarā dhāraṇī and ‘On the Three Qualities’. ACTA ORIENTALIA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 75 (4). pp. 563-592. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

Two Old Uighur manuscripts housed in the National Museum of China have remained unidentified and unedited since their discovery by Huang Wenbi in 1928–30. A philological study based on examination of the originals is given in this paper. The first manuscript, a fragmentary codex with seven folios, can be identified as an Old Uighur transcription of the dhāraṇī text belonging to the Sanskrit Mahāpratisarā Mahāvidyārājñī . It may have served as a handbook for Uighur Buddhist monks or practitioners to recite the dhāraṇī in public ritual or private practice. The reconstructed Vorlage demonstrates a close relationship with the Tibetan and Tangut versions. A group of blockprint fragments in the Pelliot Collection from Dunhuang can also be identified as coming from the same text. The second manuscript, with 30 lines of text, belongs to a thus far unknown Old Uighur Buddhist treatise related to the qualities conducive to the attainment of ‘entrance into the stream’ ( srotaāpattyaṅga ) in Buddhist spiritual practice. It is likely a commentary composed by Uighur Buddhists.

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