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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
IRANIAN ELEMENTS IN MONGOL 573
Äzrua, which in the Manichean texts of the Uigur appears as the name of an Iranian deity. C. SALEMANN 1 has promised a discussion of this word, but I have not yet seen this article. Meanwhile GAUTHIOT 2 has solved this problem on the basis of the Sogdian form 'zrw' (= azrwa), which appears as the equivalent of Brahma in the Sogdian Buddhist texts. The Sogdian word, according to him, is the equivalent of Avestan zrvan.
Mongol suburgan, tope, Stûpa, is derived from Uigur supurgan. The latter may be of Iranian origin, and, as suggested by GAUTHIOT,3
go back to spur-xân ("house of perfection"). .x
Mongol titim, diadem, crown (corresponding in meaning to and rendering Sanskrit mukuta). This word is traceable to Sogdian SiSim.4 The prototype is Greek batbnya (whence our "diadem"), which has been preserved in Iran since Macedonian times.' In New Persian it is dâhim or déhim, developed from an older *dëSém. Mongol titim, accordingly, cannot be derived from New Persian, but represents an older form of Iranian speech, which is justly correlated with the Sogdian form.
Mongol .imnus, a class of demons (in Buddhist texts, translation of Sanskrit Mara, "the Evil One"), is doubtless derived from Uigur innu, the latter from Sogdian gmnu.6 Cf. also Altaic and Teleutic §ulumys (" evil spirit ").
In view of the Sogdian loan-words in Mongol, it is not impossible that, as suggested by F. W. K. MÜLLER,7 the termination -ntsa (-nca) in §ibagantsa, cibagantsa, or .§imnantsa (" bhiksuni, nun;" Manchu cibahanci) should be traceable to the Sogdian feminine suffix -nc (presumably from inc, "woman"). The same ending occurs in Uigur upasanc (Sanskrit upâsikei, "Buddhist lay-woman") and Mongol ubasantsa. R. GAUTHIOT 8 is certainly right in observing that it is im-
1 Bull. de l'Acad. de St.-P ét., 1909, p. 1218.
2 In CHAVANNES and PELLIOT, Traité manichéen, p. 47.
3 Ibid., p. 132.
4MÜLLER, Uigurica, p. 47•
NOLDEKE, Persische Studien, II, p. 35; cf. also HÜBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, p. 199.
6 F. W. K. MÜLLER, Uigurica, p. 58; Soghdische Texte, I, pp. I I, 27. In Sogdian Christian literature, the word serves for the rendering of "Satan." According to MÜLLER (SPAW, 1909, p. 847), also Mongol ni.an (" seal ") and badman (not explained) should be Middle Persian, and have found their way into Mongol through the medium of the Uigur.
7 Uigurica, p. 47.
$ Essai sur le vocalisme du sogdien, p. 112.
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