A Mongolian manuscript on divination by omens from the collection of the Manuscript Fund of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the RAS

Introduction. Investigations of source issues dealing with history of everyday life have been intensively developed in Oriental studies — including Mongol studies — since the mid-to-late 20th century, and still remain a vital task. Meanwhile, this area of social history can help take a fresh look at many processes that have taken place in Mongolia. It covers all cycles of everyday life of the Mongols ‒ economy, life and seasonal rituals, daily religious practices, magical rituals associated with sacrifices, treatment of cattle, divinations, etc. The goal of the current article is to introduce into scientific discourse one rare source, a written artifact, characterizing divination practices used by Mongols in everyday life. The source base of history of everyday life, as a rule, is incomplete as materials to make a picture of everyday life of people are always insufficient. Moreover, these lacunae are obvious in the field of written sources. It is clear that the detection of texts that would reflect all aspects of life of Mongolia’s population in full is impossible. Various aspects have not been captured in writing, many have been lost. However, there are still a number of texts. The main material for research was the text under code Q 695 from the Manuscript Fund of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the RAS (St. Petersburg). The latter deals with omens and divination by omens. The text has no title page, so the title is totally unknown. The results of the research demonstrate that inherent qualities of the text itself and its contents that might indicate its origin are not evident. The significant attention paid to the cattle breeding theme might attest to the Mongolian character of the monument. However, there are also stories that are not typical for nomadic life. There are signs of use of Tibetan and Chinese materials. Thus, one can say that this work has a heterogeneous character and is a compilation from different sources. As for the concepts of omens themselves, those obviously have a wider area of distribution than certain national borders and reflect practices of protecting life in a wide area of Central Asia, Northern India, and China. The manuscript consists of 8 sheets, pages 3 and 9 are absent. The manuscript is not old, the text is written on Russian paper in black ink, pen. The handwriting is not professional, the text is full of spelling and grammatical mistakes. The work can be divided into several parts, e.g., omens regarding behavior of animals: horses, cows, sheep; birds flying into in homes; barking and howling of dogs; buzz of pots; deformity of animals; behavior of dogs, appearance of a tornado, on the gnashing of teeth. Obviously, the work is a collection of narratives from various sources.

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