{"id":119341,"date":"2018-08-28T13:18:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T07:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=119341"},"modified":"2018-08-28T13:18:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T07:48:49","slug":"the-rama-story-and-sanskrit-in-ancient-xinjiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=119341","title":{"rendered":"The R\u0101ma Story and Sanskrit in Ancient Xinjiang"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published at Medium.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Most people do not know that until about a thousand years ago, the Tarim Basin (northwest of Tibet, which is the part of Xinjiang below the Tian Shin Mountains) was Indic in culture and it was a thriving part of the Sanskritic world; its people spoke\u00a0the G\u0101ndh\u0101r\u012b language<\/a>\u00a0which many see as descended from Vedic Sanskrit, and\u00a0Khotanese Saka<\/a>, which is also closely related to Sanskrit. Perhaps the region to compare it most is Kashmir, to whose north it lay. There was also much interaction between the two regions with many scholars traveling from Kashmir to Khotan, and silk culture is believed to have passed from Khotan to Kashmir and then into India.<\/p>\n

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Ancient Khotan by Aurel\u00a0Stein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

G\u0101ndh\u0101r\u012b inscriptions have been found as far east as Luoyang and Anyang in Henan province in Eastern China which attests to the vastness of the influence of Sanskrit. Europeans in recent centuries called the whole region\u00a0Serindia<\/a>, indicating the meeting place of China and India.<\/p>\n

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Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Khotanese kings were Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhist but as we know this sect incorporates Vedic and Tantric systems, with all the devas such as Indra, \u015aiva, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and Sarasvat\u012b, and just places the Buddha at the head of the system (as in Vidy\u0101kara\u2019s Treasury<\/a>). There was also\u00a0Krishna worship in Khotan<\/a>\u00a0and we find\u00a0the R\u0101ma story<\/a>\u00a0in Khotanese language, of which there is also a Tibetan version.<\/p>\n

The Buddhists put a characteristic spin on the R\u0101ma story, which has had immense power on the imagination of the people all over Asia. In their variant, R\u0101va\u1e47a, after losing the war is spared his life, and becomes a worthy Buddhist to accord with\u00a0the La\u1e45k\u0101vat\u0101ras\u016btra<\/a>, set in La\u1e45k\u0101, in which the Buddha instructs R\u0101va\u1e47a. Likewise, in an effort not to lose followers of R\u0101ma, Jain texts show him as a faithful Jain.<\/p>\n

The Khotanese R\u0101m\u0101ya\u1e47a is not the standard R\u0101ma story. In it Da\u015baratha, who is called Sahasrab\u0101hu (\u201cthousand-armed\u201d), fights with Para\u015bur\u0101ma and gets killed, and his sons R\u0101ma and Lak\u1e63ma\u1e47a are saved by a queen. When they grow older they slay Para\u015bur\u0101ma in revenge and become masters of all Jambudv\u012bpa.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the R\u0101k\u1e63asas are ruled by R\u0101va\u1e47a (Da\u015bagr\u012bva). A daughter is born to his chief queen and it is prophesied that she will be the cause of his ruin. So he orders the girl, S\u012bt\u0101, to be cast upon the great river in a box. A \u1e5b\u1e63i chances upon the box and raises the girl lovingly. This is of course somewhat similar to the account in Adbhuta R\u0101m\u0101ya\u1e47a.<\/p>\n

Later in the story, R\u0101ma, Lak\u1e63ma\u1e47a and S\u012bt\u0101 are in the forest and as the brothers leave to hunt, Lak\u1e63ma\u1e47a draws the magic circle around S\u012bt\u0101 for protection. Da\u015bagr\u012bva sees this lovely woman from the air, and not knowing she is his own daughter, approaches her and persuades her to step out of the circle to abduct her.<\/p>\n

There is war and Dasagriva is defeated. But in the end R\u0101ma doesn\u2019t kill him. Here\u2019s the original with translation that gives a sense of the language:<\/p>\n

sahasrrab\u0101hi: p\u016bra harya<\/em><\/p>\n

the sons of Sahasrab\u0101hu escaped.<\/p>\n

rr\u0101mi hamye \u015b\u016br\u0101\u1e43 my\u0101\u00f1a<\/em><\/p>\n

Rama was among the heroes. (Bailey translation)<\/p>\n

At the end of the story, the Buddha \u015a\u0101kyamuni is identified with R\u0101ma and Maitreya with Lak\u1e63ma\u1e47a. Da\u015bagr\u012bva comes to the Buddha and receives instruction in the Dharma as in the La\u1e45k\u0101vat\u0101ras\u016btra.<\/p>\n

Some history<\/strong><\/p>\n

The traditional date for the founding of Khotan, on the southern and the more ancient branch of the Silk Road, is the reign of A\u015boka Maurya (3rd century BCE). It was ruled by Buddhist kings until it was conquered by the Muslims in 1006. Some of the kings mentioned in the \u201cProphecy of the Li Country\u201d, composed in 746 CE, dealing with events of the recent past are Vijaya K\u012brti, Vijaya Sa\u1e45gr\u0101ma, Vijaya Dharma, Vijaya Sa\u1e43bhava, and Vijaya V\u0101hana.<\/p>\n

Many Khotanese cities had Sanskrit names. For example, Khotan in Sanskrit was Gaustana \u0917\u094c\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0928 and the modern city of Kashi (Kashgar) was called \u015ar\u012bkr\u012br\u0101ti (in Sanskrit \u015ar\u012b+kr\u012b+r\u0101ti, \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0930\u093e\u0924\u093f \u2018Glorious Hospitality\u2019). Kashgar itself appears to be the popular name from Sanskrit K\u0101\u015ba+giri (\u0915\u093e\u0936\u0917\u093f\u0930\u093f bright mountain). The Khotanese called their language hvatanai \u0939\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0928\u0948 which later became hva\u1e43nai \u0939\u094d\u0935\u0902\u0928\u0948; this is equivalent to the name de\u015b\u012b that is used for language in India (vatan,\u00a0<\/em>from\u00a0svatana = de\u015ba)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The liturgical texts in the region were written in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, whereas those in the region of Kror\u00e4n (Chinese Loulan), an important oasis further east of Khotan, used Prakrit in administration. A third language called Tocharian was also used both to translate Buddhist texts and as an administrative language. Many Sanskrit texts of India remember the general region as Tu\u1e63\u0101ra or Tukh\u0101ra, and it retains currency as a popular proper name.<\/p>\n

Another major language was Khotanese Saka, which is sometimes seen as an eastern Iranian language (that is emerging from the region just west of Kashmir). But since the large number of the\u00a0\u015aaka who ended up in India as rulers or soldiers have always spoken the more easterly Indo-Aryan languages<\/a>, I personally believe that the Saka languages were also principally Indo-Aryan, although as one traveled further west, the Iranian elements would have increased.<\/p>\n

That Khotanese Saka was principally a Indo-Aryan Prakrit is reinforced by the fact that the texts are in Indian scripts of Br\u0101hm\u012b and Kharo\u1e63\u1e6dh\u012b. Many of these documents were collected in\u00a0archaeological explorations to Chinese Turkestan<\/a>\u00a0by Aurel Stein, who is also known for his translation of Kalha\u1e47a\u2019s R\u0101jatara\u1e45gin\u012b. Stein came across tens of thousands of manuscripts from 5th to 11th centuries in various sites including the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas in the Kansu (Gansu) province. One of the principal scholars who edited and translated many of these texts was H.W. Bailey and this literature remains a\u00a0popular field of study for scholars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aurel Stein says in his celebrated\u00a0Ancient Khotan<\/a>: \u201cThere was little to prepare us for such overwhelming evidence\u00a0.. on the large place which Indian language and culture must have occupied in the administration and daily life of this region during the early centuries of our era. That Sanskrit Buddhist literature was studied in Khotan down to the end of the eighth century A.D. has been proved beyond all doubt by the texts in Br\u0101hm\u012b script which I excavated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mummies of Tarim Basin<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discovery of the\u00a0Tarim mummies<\/a>\u00a0that go back to 1800 BCE strengthen the view that the region was Sanskritic. The earliest mummies in the Basin are exclusively Caucasoid, and the American\u00a0Sinologist Victor H. Mair has said<\/a>: \u201cBecause the Tarim Basin Caucasoid corpses are almost certainly the most easterly representatives of the Indo-European family and because they date from a time period that is early enough to have a bearing on the expansion of the Indo-European people from their homeland, it is thought they will play a crucial role in determining just where that might have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some have suggested Europoid identification to explain the blonds and red-heads among the mummies, but there is no need to travel thousands of miles to Western Europe to explain this; Kashmir, just south of the Basin has plenty of red-heads and blonds.<\/p>\n

One of the DNA studies notes that the population had \u201crelatively close relationships with the\u00a0modern populations of South Central Asia and Indus Valley,<\/a>\u00a0as well as with the ancient population of Chawuhu.\u201d This is perfectly reasonable if the original inhabitants of the region were from Indus Valley [code for India] and they left a genetic trace in the region.<\/p>\n

The end of a civilization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Protected by the Taklamakan Desert, the Tarim Basin world survived attacks from steppe nomads for a long time. There was a break in the tradition of Buddhist learning during the social and political turmoil under Tibetan rule from after 790 to the mid-9th century. Things began to change with the arrival of Turkic immigrants, who included Buddhist Uyghurs and Muslim Karluks, from the collapsing Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia in 840.<\/p>\n

The Islamic attacks and conquest of the Buddhist cities east of Kashgar was started by the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan who in 966 converted to Islam. Islamic Kashgar launched many jihads which eventually ended in the conquest in 1006 of Khotan by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir.<\/p>\n

The end of civilization makes one wonder about assumptions regarding life. Going beyond ephemeral loves and heartbreaks, does one see it as\u00a0parikalpa\u00a0<\/em>(false assumption) and\u00a0\u015b\u016bnyat\u0101,<\/em>\u00a0as scholars had argued? There was no time for philosophizing, and fearing the worst,\u00a0monks during the reigns of Khotanese kings<\/a>\u00a0Vi\u015ba \u015a\u016bra (r. 966\u2013977) and Vi\u015ba Dharma (r. from 978) began to copy texts which were sealed in caves to be preserved for posterity. What followed was a period of destruction and vandalism\u00a0equaling the worst<\/a>elsewhere in the world. At the end of it, the populace retained no memory of their collective past and until the discovery of the mummies and the literature they did not know that their ancestors spoke Indian Prakrits.<\/p>\n

The end of the civilization was\u00a0commemorated by the Karakhanid writer Mahmud al-Kashgari in a short poem<\/a>:<\/p>\n

k\u00e3l\u00f1izl\u00e3y\u0169 aqtimiz<\/em><\/p>\n

k\u00e3ndl\u00e3r \u00f5z\u00e3 \u010diqtimiz<\/em><\/p>\n

furxan \u00e3win yiqtimiz<\/em><\/p>\n

burxan \u0169z\u00e3 si\u010dtimiz<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe came down on them like a flood,<\/p>\n

We went out among their cities,<\/p>\n

We tore down the idol-temples,<\/p>\n

We shat on the Buddha\u2019s head!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally published at Medium.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published at Medium. Most people do not know that until about a thousand years ago, the Tarim Basin (northwest of Tibet, which is the part of Xinjiang below the Tian Shin Mountains) was Indic in culture and it was a thriving part of the Sanskritic world; its people spoke\u00a0the G\u0101ndh\u0101r\u012b language\u00a0which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}