Precepts of the Omniscient [Manjushri]: Two Oirat Manuscript Copies from the Collection of N. D. Kichikov Revisited (A Case Study of Materials from Ketchenery Museum of Local History and Lore)

Abstract

Introduction. The written heritage of Kalmyk Buddhist priests, their daily practices,
liturgical repertoire still remain a poorly studied page in the history of Buddhism among Mongolic
peoples in the 20th century. The survived collections, clusters of religious texts prove instrumental
in revealing most interesting aspects of their activities, efforts aimed at preservation of Buddhist
teachings, their popularization and dissemination among believers. Goals. The paper examines
two Oirat copies of the Precepts of the Omniscient [Manjushri] from N. D. Kichikov’s collection,
transliterates and translates the original texts, provides a comparative analysis, and notes differences
therein that had resulted from the scribe’s work, thereby introducing the narratives into scientific
circulation. Materials. The article describes two Oirat manuscripts bound in the form of a notebook
and contained in different bundles/collections of Buddhist religious texts stored at Ketchenery
Museum of Local History and Lore. As is known, the collection is largely compiled from texts that
belonged to the famous Kalmyk Buddhist monk Namka (N. D. Kichikov). Results. The analysis of
the two Oirat texts with identical titles — Precepts of the Omniscient [Manjushri] — shows that their
contents coincide generally but both the texts contain fragmented omissions (separate words, one or
several sentences) that are present in the other. At the same time, when omitting fragments of the
text addressed to the monastic community, the scribe was obviously guided by that those would be
superfluous for the laity. Thus, our comparative analysis of the two manuscript copies demonstrates
the sometimes dramatic role of the scribe in transmitting Buddhist teachings.