IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Serindia : vol.3 |
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Citation Information
APPENDIX K
NOTES ON TIBETAN INSCRIPTIONS OF BUDDHIST
PAINTINGS FROM CHIEN-FO-TUNG, TUN-HUANG
BY
0
L. D. BARNETT, M.A., D.Lirr.
KEEPER OF ORIENTAL BOOKS AND ISIANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH NIUSEUM
Paper painting, Ch. 00376
(See above, p. 993, and Thousand Buddhas, Plate XXXII)
The space under the figure of the saint is divided by two perpendicular lines into three fields, in each of which is written a short Tibetan sentence, in fair dbu-can script. In the space on the left arc the following words, which are preceded by the usual symbol for om
°P`ags pa flan t`o[s] c'en po° 1
Dus ldan II °kor ston c`ig brgya
` The honourable great Disciple (mahâ-.frâvaka) Kâlika. Retinue (i.e. of disciples) one thousand one hundred.'
Kâlika is well known as one of the apostles of the faith in Buddhist records, in which he is usually placed fourth in the succession.2 It is noteworthy that he is here represented with a bowl in his right hand (another of the Sthaviras, Pindola Bharadvaja, also has a bowl, but in his left), whereas in the more modern pictures of the Sthaviras he is regularly depicted with two ear-rings in his hands.3
At the bottom of the central space are two syllables, before which one or two letters may have been obliterated. They are go bzi. If the first syllable is to be emended to mgo, the meaning would be ` four heads', and the reference would be to some detail of iconography or legend which is not evident. It is however possible that the syllable go is complete in itself, and that the meaning is ' four ranks'. This would be equally obscure, as it seems hardly possible to strain these words to mean ' fourth rank', namely in the order of apostolic succession.
In the right-hand space is the artist's subscription, in somewhat larger script :-
Do k`on legs kyis bris u
Do-k`on-legs made the drawing.'
Written EA. Cf. Ancient Kholan, i. p. 549 f.
2 See E. Pander, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Huluktu, p. 84 f. ; A. Grünwedel, Mylhol. d. Buddhismus, pp. 7, 37, 204.
3 See Pander, ut supra, p. 85 ; Grünwedel, ut supra, p. 7; S. Oldenburg, Sbornik Izobrazhenii 300 Burkhanov (Bibliotheca Buddhica, V), pl. 66, No. 196.
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