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

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.