On the Colophon to “Mani-kambum” Сompiled by Zaya Pandita Namkhai Gyatso (on the problem of comparative textological analysis of the manuscript and printed texts of the Mongolian translation)

Introduction. The article examines the colophon to the Mongolian translation of the major Tibetan monument of Buddhist literature, Mani-kambum, made by the famous Oirat Buddhist figure Zaya Pandita Namkhai Gyatso in 1643–1644. The colophon is written in the style of traditional Mongolian versification using initial alliteration. Materials and methods. The material for the analysis was a woodcut edition and a handwritten text of the colophon to the Mongolian translation of “Mani-kambum” made by Zaya Pandita in 1643–1644. The work uses traditional methods of textual analysis. Results. A comparative textual analysis of the contents of the Zaya Pandita colophon has been carried out based on the woodcut edition in the Mongolian language in the collection “Yum-chenmo” and the handwritten version in the Mongolian language presented in the book comp. by Luvsanbaldan. The use of the handwritten version of the colophon for text comparison was dictated by the peculiarities of printing the Beijing woodcut in Mongolian with the characteristic absence of some diacritics in it, the substitution of individual graphemes, and their indistinct display. As a result, the fragments of the text that were omitted in the handwritten colophon or written down with errors were restored, and at the same time, the correct spelling of a number of words in the woodcut, printed with errors, was established. Thus, one of the key points that needs to be taken into account in the work on compiling and clarifying transliterations of the Tibetan-Oirat corpus texts has been confirmed, namely, the use of not only woodcuts of Zaya Pandita’s translations in Mongolian language, but also their lists and copies. In addition, several stanzas of the colophon were considered, composed by Zaya Pandita in the tradition of the Mongolian versification, which enriches our understanding of him not only as a translator of Buddhist texts, but also as a talented writer.

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