“The Shastra preached by Usun-Debiskertu Khan” from the Oirat Manu­script Collection D 22 (Based on Materials from the A. M. Pozdneev Collection, stored at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the RAS)

Introduction. The Oirat collection D 22 from the collection of the prominent Russian Mongolian scholar A. M. Pozdneev, kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is one of the text samples brought back from his trip to Mongolia and China. Along with travel notes and diaries, handwritten and printed texts were used in the preparation of fundamental works on Mongolian studies. The aim of this article is to present the composition of the manuscript collection D 22 and to describe one of the works from this collection, entitled “The Shastra Preached by Usun-debeskirtü Khan”. Materials. A shastra-like text included in the manuscript collection D 22 (Ösün debeskirtü xāni nomloqson šaštar orošibüi), as well as other similar texts recorded in the catalogues of the Mongolian collections of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences by A. G. Sazykin and the Oriental Library of St. Petersburg State University by V. L. Uspensky. Results. An analysis of the composition and content of manuscript collection D 22 from A. M. Pozdneev’s collection revealed that it contains shastra texts that are examples of a distinct genre of Buddhist didactic literature. The content of the shastra was analyzed, and fragments combining secular and religious principles were translated. The inclusion of Mongolian and Oirat translations of the shastra in these collections (selections) testifies to their popularity among the Mongolian peoples due to their focus on teaching people the “rules of life,” and khans and rulers rational behavior and the science of governing the state.

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