Higuchi Kōichi 樋口康一
A Consideration on the Background of the Creation of Todo Script
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Gotemba 2025
It is widely recognized that the Todo script was invented by Zaya Paṇḍita in the mid-17th century, although various aspects of its origin are still not fully understood. One fundamental question is why there was a need to reform the already well-established Mongolian script. A commonly cited reason is to enable the more accurate transcription of Tibetan and Sanskrit forms in translating buddhist works into Mongolian. However, is that the sole explanation? This study examines the accuracy of translations using the traditional Mongolian script and the Todo script developed by the subject of analysis. It is shown that accurate translation was not necessarily unachievable with the traditional Mongolian script. Moreover, the Todo script version does not exhibit a significant improvement in accuracy when compared to the Mongolian script translation. This paper seeks to explore the background of the Todo script’s creation through an analysis of some specific Buddhist texts translated by no other than Zaya Paṇḍita.