Acta Orientalia

Some observations on the linguistic situation in the Tarim Basin oasis towns during the first millennium of the Common Era

Claus Peter Zoller — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0100

During the first millennium of the Common Era, Indo-Aryan (Niya Prakrit), Iranian (Khotan Saka) and Tokharian (Kentum Indo-
European) languages were spoken in the oasis towns at the edge of the Tarim Basin. Many of the speakers of those languages were Buddhists and many written documents in these languages address Buddhist topics. The aim of the article is twofold. First: to show that the representatives of the three language families (Niya, Sakian,Tokharian) displayed tendencies towards a linguistic area. This concerns mainly certain phonetic trends but also some shared vocabulary and perhaps the morphological feature of an l-past grammeme shared by Tocharian and several Indo-Aryan languages. Second: to show that some of those phonetic trends must originate in dialects of Old Indo-Aryan that were different from Vedic Sanskrit. The second topic is closely related with the theory of a distinction between Outer and Inner Languages in Indo-Aryan. Niya Prakrit, closely related Gāndhārī and the modern Dardic and Nuristani languages are all part of the Outer Languages as against Inner Languages like Vedic Sanskrit or Hindi. It seems that for some time texts in Gāndhārī language were brought to China, where they were
translated into Chinese before the same happened with Buddhist texts in Sanskrit. Niya Prakrit, on the other hand, was particularly a language of administration and perhaps nobody’s mother tongue. However, its use as a lingua franca must have facilitated the flow of Buddhist literature from India to China.

The Saurasaṃhitā: The Earliest Surviving Tantra on Sun-Worship

Diwakar Acharya — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0100

The Saurasaṃhitā is the earliest surviving Tantra text on Sun worship available by far, and is preserved in a palm-leaf manuscript preserved in National Archives, Kathmandu, dated Nepal Samvat 69 (equivalent to 949 CE). The Saurasaṃhitā is a little-known but important text that identifies the Sun god with Śiva. What is special in the Saurasaṃhitā is the fact that the cult of Śiva-Sūrya has lost its independence existence in South Asia, whereas in Bali it has not only maintained its independent but also taken central stage.

Editing the Manuscripts of Forgotten Sanskrit Texts

Shrikant Bahulkar — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0100

The article will point to the fact that there is vast scope for acquiring the manuscripts of forgotten Sanskrit texts and editing
them on the basis of all possible helpful sources. Instead of treading the conventional paths, young scholars should attempt to take up new subjects based on the study of the manuscripts of unknown or forgotten Sanskrit texts.

Vimarśa: The Concept of Reflexivity in the Philosophy of Utpala and Abhinavagupta

Sthaneshwar Timalsina — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0100

The concept of vimarśa is foundational to the philosophy of Pratyabhijñā for multiple reasons. It is not just to confirm the
reflexivity of consciousness that vimarśa occurs in this school. It is in this reflexivity that recognition as a fundamental character of consciousness is inscribed. Furthermore, it is due to vimarśa that the mirroring of consciousness is not just self-mirroring but also mirroring the other, the object that it grasps, and it is in this mirroring that consciousness synthesizes different modes, having synthesis its intrinsic nature. While the emergence of consciousness is depicted as non-temporal and non-sequential, the sudden emergence of consciousness underlies the synthesis of different modalities, making conscious event as both non-temporal and temporal, non-object directed and in that sense immanent and transcending its own horizon and reaching out to objects.

试论梵语声字在般若经典中的形态与功能 On the Form and Function of Sanskrit Akṣara in Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras and Śāstras

Guangrong Zhou — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0100

内容提要
梵语“阿剎罗”（akṣara）一词在印度古代文化背景中具有哲学、语言学两个方面的意义。从哲学层面言之，akṣara 一词具有
不灭、不朽之义，因而用来指称常住不灭的终极存在；就语言学层面而言，其义项为不可分析、不可拆分之义，通常指音
节、字母，即梵语言文字最根本的拼读、书写单位。在汉译佛典中，“阿剎罗”通常被译作声字、字、字本、字母，以陀罗尼、
真言、明、咒、秘密语等形式，在以《般若经》为代表的大乘佛教经典中有广泛应用。《般若经》是出现最早的大乘佛典，是大乘佛教成立的标志；自公元前后起般若类经典一直在不断地增广，到十三世纪前后仍有相应的新经典产生，堪为大乘佛教发展演变的活化石。在早期般若经典中，声字是以陀罗尼的形式出现的。其中最根本、最典型的陀罗尼，即是被称为陀罗尼门的四十二字门。从其语言学属性来看，四十二字是犍陀罗语的根本字母或字母表，这种字母最初是用佉卢文来书写的；从义理层面来看，四十二字门诠表的法义是初期大乘佛教义的浓缩与集粹。六、七世纪以后，随着秘密佛教的兴起，梵语声字在新出现的般若类经典中应用的更为普遍，其形态也更为多样，其功能也越来越丰富。在初期的密教经典《金刚大道场经》中，编纂者将此期依据般若类经典发展出的印咒法门都为一集。伴随着佛教秘密化倾向的加剧，七、八世纪出现了依般若经成立的秘密经法，如理趣经法、仁王经法等。在理趣经法中，梵语声字以
多种形态出现，如陀罗尼、真言、种子字、字门、字轮、布字、曼陀罗等，几乎遍及整个秘密行法的各个环节。从梵语声字的前后变化中，可以看出它在般若经典的形态经历了一个由简单到复杂、由单一到多样化的过程，其功能与属性也经历了一个由方法到本体，即由方便到究竟的过程。

The Sanskrit ‘akṣara’ is loaded with both philosophy and linguistics significances in the ancient Indian culture. Philosophically, ‘akṣara’ means immortality, and thus is used to refer to the ultimate existence of immortality. From a linguistic point of view, it
means‘unanalyzable’ and ‘inseparable’, usually referring to syllables or letters, which are the most fundamental units of spelling and writing in Sanskrit. In the Chinese Buddhist scripture translations, ‘akṣara’ is usually translated into “声字“（phonetic words/śabda-varṇa?), “字”（words/varṇa）, “字本”（fundamental letters, and “ 字母” (letters/ mātṛkā-varṇa) . In the Mahayana Buddhist scriptures represented by Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras, akṣara is widely used in the form of dhāraṇī, mantra, vidyā, spells, guhyavāc, etc. Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtra is the earliest Mahayana Buddhist scriptures and symbolizes the establishment of Mahayana Buddhism. From around the A.D., this kind of scriptures have been continuously enlarged until around the 13th century. Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras deserve to be considered as the fossils of the development of Mahayana Buddhism. In the early Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras, akṣara appeared in the form of the dhāraṇī. The most fundamental and typical dhāraṇī is the ‘forty-two dhāranī-mukha’( 四十二字门), which is generally called dhāranīmukha（陀罗尼门）. From the perspective of its linguistic attributes,‘forty-two dhāranīmukha’ is the component letters, or alphabet, of Gandhari，which were originally written in Kharosthi. Regarding Buddhist theory, the doctrines interpreted by ‘forty-two dhāranīmukha’ represents the genesis and essence of the early Mahayana Buddhist doctrines. After the 6th and 7th Centuries, akṣara was more commonly used in the emerging Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras with the prosperity of Esoteric Buddhism. Its forms were more diversified and its functions became more and more abundant. In the early Esoteric Buddhist scripture Vajramahābodhimaṇḍala-sūtra, the compilers integrated all mudrā and spells (印咒法门 mudrā-mantra-dharma-paryāya) into one volume, which were developing during this period according to Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtras. Along with the intensification of the tendency of Buddhist secretization, 秘密经法 established on Prajñā-pāramitā-Sūtras like “理趣经法“、“仁王经法”appeared in the 7th and 8th centuries. In Prajñā-pāramitā-nayaśata-pañca-śatikā-kalpa/viddhi, the akṣara appears in various forms, such as dhāraṇī, mantra, bīja, the Word Wheel，nyāsa, maṇḍala, etc., and they are present almost throughout the entire esoteric practices. From the evolution of the akṣara, it can be seen that it has gone through a process from simplicity to complex, from singularity to diversification. And its functions and attributes have also gone through method to the ontology, from convenient methods(upāya) to ultimacy(satya).