PIS'MENNYE
PAMYATNIKI
VOSTOKA

Vol. 21, No. 3 (58)
Autumn 2024

Journal based in 2004
Issued quarterly

Full text as a *.PDF file

PUBLICATIONS
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, PHILOLOGY

Kirill M. BOGDANOV. A Tangut Manuscript Fragment with a Description of the “Six Yogas” Tantric Practice. Preface, translation from the Tangut language and commentary — 5

This article presents a Russian translation, commentary and brief textual research of the Tangut manuscript (10th–13th centuries) describing a tantric practice possibly related to the doctrine of “Six Yogas” of the famous Indian tantric master Naropa. Since the handwriting of this manuscript is nearly illegible, I have published here only part of this text which is more or less comprehensible due to its general meaning and structural completeness. Considering the fact that research aimed at the identification of the original specific traits of Tangut Buddhism which make it distinct from the neighboring Buddhist traditions that had, in their time, a strong impact on its formation is a most important trend in this field, the publishing of this textual source could be helpful in this context.
Keywords: Tangut Fund of IOM, RAS, Tangut Buddhism, Tantra, the “Six Yogas”.

Artiom V. MESHEZNIKOV. Fragments of the Sanskrit Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (SI 3492, SI 3650) in the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS) — 13

According to the latest data, the Sanskrit part of the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS) includes 667 storage units, which represent manuscript fragments of various Buddhist texts. About 100 of the largest and most well-preserved manuscripts have been studied and introduced into scientific circulation by Russian and foreign researchers. At the same time, many other texts in a rather scattered and fragmented condition still remain unpublished. Among the unexplored Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts in the Serindia Collection, the most important place belongs to the fragments of fundamental texts in the Mahāyāna tradition — the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras (“Sūtras on Perfect Wisdom”). The present paper deals with three previously unpublished Sanskrit fragments (SI 3492, SI 3650) housed in the Serindia Collection as part of the “N.F. Petrovsky Subcollection”. Fragments have been identified as parts of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (“Sūtra on Perfect Wisdom in 25000 lines”). Judging from the external characteristics and contents, these fragments not only belong to the same manuscript, but also fit together like three puzzle pieces. The paper includes a description of the fragments, a transliteration of the manuscript and its comparison with the critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the Sūtra, a Russian translation, and facsimiles made before and after its restoration.
Keywords: the Prajñāpāramitā, Sanskrit, Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS), Khotan.

Vadim Yu. KLIMOV. Sinran’s Hymns Dedicated to T’an-luan. Translation, foreword and notes — 28

This publication presents the texts of laudatory versified hymns by Shinran 親鸞 (1173– 1262), a Japanese monk, thinker and the founder of the “True Faith of the Pure Land” school (Jap. jōdo shinshū), in which he addresses one of the five founders (“Patriarchs”) of the “Pure Land” school (Chin. jingtu-zong), the Chinese monk T’an-luan 曇鸞 (476–542). In his praises, Shinran refers to T’an-luan as the “Primordial Mentor”, the “First Teacher”, as well as a bodhisattva, the “master” and the “Great Master”. The texts are given in Japanese, complete with transcription, translation into Russian and annotations.
Keywords: Shinran, T’an-luan, Buddhist school “Jodo Shinshu”, Amidism, buddha Amida.

RESEARCH WORKS
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, PHILOLOGY

Alexandr L. KHOSROYEV. On Docetic Christology in Early Christianity. Pt. 4.1 — 47

Continuing to explore the question of how, where and when the so-called docetic Christology arose, the author turns to the Gnostic texts of the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E., which, having come down to us in Coptic in translation from Greek, reliably testify to such a Christology in all its diversity. Having previously analyzed the synoptic gospels (see Pt. 1), the epistles of St. Paul (see Pt. 2.1; 2.2; 2.3; 2.4) and the writings of the John corpus (Pt. 3.1; 3.2), the author draws attention in this part of the article to such texts from Nag Hammadi and from the so-called Tchacos Codex as “The Second Treatise of the Great Seth”, “The Apocalypse of Peter”, “The Gospel of Judas”, etc., in which the docetic idea (in the form of the idea of a substitute crucifixion, i.e., that someone else was crucified instead of Jesus) found its clear expression.
Keywords: early Christianity, gnostics, docetism, substitute crucifixion.

Sergey L. BURMISTROV. Buddhapālita’s and Candrakīrti’s Interpretation of the Concept of Causality — 66

Buddhapālita and Candrakīrti relied on different traditions of commenting Nāgārjuna’s Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikās, and the tradition presented in Candrakīrti’s “Prasannapadā” is closer to Nāgārjuna’s autocommentary “Akutobhaya” than Buddhapālita’s tradition, though in conceptual aspect both of them are practically identical to each other. Causality is understood there as a law that permeates all saṃsāric existence and makes all existence empty, for only that which is the cause of itself could be non-empty. But Buddhist philosophy denies the very possibility of the existence of such realities, because, were saṃsāric existence based on something self-existent, saṃsāra would be insuperable. Both traditions treat the relationship of cause and effect as chronologically “adjacent” to each other. However, all the judgments presented above are true only on a relative level; from an absolute point of view, they are based on the differences between the true and the false, the meaningful and the meaningless, the being and the non-being, the subject and the object, etc., and therefore are empty. Hence any judgment about causality is also empty in the absolute sense.
Keywords: religious and philosophical systems of ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit philosophical texts, Buddhism, Mahāyāna, Madhyamaka, theory of causality.

Aliy I. KOLESNIKOV. The Verbal Root Raqa‛ in Moslem and Biblical-Aramaic Texts — 81

The paper pursues two goals: (1) to trace the evolution of semantics of the verbal root raqa‛ and its lexical derivatives (participles, verbal names, etc.) in Persian and Arabic Moslem texts; and (2) to compare the obtained results with semantics of the same Semitic root in the Biblical Aramaic texts of the Old Testament. The comparison reveals a great variety in branches of the root raqa‛ in Persian and Arabic Moslem texts and shows a shortage of those in the Biblical-Aramaic texts. The author explains this phenomenon by the specific contents of the Old Testament where the verbal root raqa‛ with its derivatives is used to glorify God the Creator of the Universe and to curse idolatry.
Keywords: Raqa‛, riqā‛, muraqqa‛; Arabic, Persian and Afghan dictionaries; the Holy Bible, the Old Testament, Judeo-Persian Pentateuchs, the Koran.

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
TEXTOLOGY, CODICOLOGY, PALEOGRAPHY, ARCHEOGRAPHY

Anastasia M. SMIRNOVA. An Overview of Works on the History of Kashmir: From Traditional Sanskrit to New English Sources — 94

This article provides an overview of key sources on the history of Kashmir, covering the period from ancient Sanskrit chronicles to more recent historical works in Persian and English. The paper analyses texts such as Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, which is considered to be one of the most important sources on the history of Kashmir, the works of Narayan Kaul, Muhammad ‘Azam Didamari, and others. The study of these historical works allows us not only to reconstruct the events of the past but also to understand whether the perception of the history and culture of Kashmir has changed in the minds of people over time. Comparison of various sources helps to identify common themes and differences in the interpretation of historical events, which contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex and multifaceted history of the region, and sheds light on the role of Kashmir as a cultural and political hub, its relationships with neighboring regions, and its influence on the development of the Indian subcontinent as a whole. This makes it possible to consider the history of Kashmir not in isolation, but in the context of broader historical processes taking place in South Asia.
Keywords: Kashmir, history, sources, manuscripts, the Persian language.

COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

Vladimir V. EMELIANOV. On the History of the St. Petersburg Assyriological School: Rostislav Antonovich Gribov — 101

The article is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the remarkable Orientalist and teacher Rostislav Antonovich Gribov, who trained several generations of Russian Assyriologists. It contains a biography of the scholar, supplemented by characteristics of his scholarly and pedagogical activities. The main directions of R.A. Gribov’s activity are considered: the creation of a new methodology for teaching the cuneiform languages of Mesopotamia, a study of the socio-political history of the city of Mari, works on the history of Russian Assyriology. A list of published and unpublished works is attached to the article.
Keywords: R.A. Gribov, Assyriology, St. Petersburg State University, Mari.

Ekaterina M. BELKINA. Samuel Wiener’s “Book” Letters to Baron D.G. Günzburg — 111

The article is a publication of two letters from Samuel Wiener, a librarian of the Asian Museum in St. Petersburg in the late 19th century, to the baron David Goratsievich Günzburg, a collector and Orientalist of Jewish origin. The letters were written in Hebrew in 1897–98 and are housed in the Günzburg’s archive at the National Library of Russia. Through the commented translation of the letters into Russian, the article analyzes the subject matter and the level of interaction of Jewish intellectuals in that time: renowned scholars are mentioned (C. Salemann, D. Chwolson, O. Lemm, etc.), books purchased by the baron, in Hebrew and other languages, a problem of delivering these books to St. Petersburg is highlighted. In addition, the letters turn out to be a vivid example of relationship between the scholars, as well as a source of information on the acquisition of personal libraries in the Russian Empire: S. Wiener described in detail what the collectors were “hunting” for and how they competed with each other.
Keywords: baron Günzburg, Samuel Wiener, Jewish manuscripts, Collection, incunabula, palaeotypes, correspondence, Jews in Russia.

ACADEMIC LIFE

Olga M. CHUNAKOVA. Seminar in Memory of A.A. Freiman–2024 (St. Petersburg, May 27, 2024) — 136
Keywords: A.A. Freiman, Iranian philology, Iranian textology.

REVIEWS

Michail V. USPENSKII. Kuniyoshi and His Time. St. Petersburg: Arca, 2024. 472 рp., il. (Vasilii V. SHCHEPKIN). — 140
Keywords: Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Kunisada, Japanese woodblock prints, ukiyo-e, Edo period, Hermitage.