Mongolian Buddhist Terminology through the Centuries
50th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Kazan 2007
The translation of Buddhist works into Mongolian started as early as the 14th century. Some of the early translations were made on the basis of Uighur works and preserved a significant number of Uighur terminology. These translations contain a lot of Sanskrit words, especially as far as proper names are concerned.
During the second Buddhist conversion sutras were translated from Tibetan and the old translations were also re-edited replacing the old fashioned Uighur expressions with new ones. Tibetan literary persons translated the Sanskrit expressions, even proper names, word for word. This practice was taken over by the Mongol translators, as well. So, instead of the earlier arqad “Arhat” they use the expression dayin-i darugsan “the one who defeated the enemy”, instead of bhagavant they use ilaju tegüs nögcigsen “victoriously passed beyond”, the Sanskrit Bhagavant. The tendency is even more obvious in case of proper names. While old texts use the Sanskrit terminology, later translations translate the names word for word. E.g. instead of Birudhaka Skr. Virudhaka they give Ülemji törölkitü “One with Perfect Birth. For Sangkapala Skr. Sankhapalo they write Labai sakigci luus–un qagan.
Certain texts were copied again and again through the centuries without any change, however, the same text could have met dedicated neologists who tried to retranslate the given text or, at least, clear it from the old expressions and names. So, we are lucky to have the same text in parallel translations. Comparing them we can get a clear picture of the translation practice of the 14th century as well las that of the 16–17th century.
This paper will concentrate on the well known Buddhist text the Pañcaraksa. Some proper names of the old and the re-translated versions will be compared.
Carrying out this work with several further texts we can get a closer idea about the translator activity, the persons who were responsible for these translations and the places where this translation activity took place.