Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2: Terms - Concepts

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2

Language: English

Terms - Concepts

Shabdavidya

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Shabdavidya was an ancient Indian subject dealing with the study and knowledge of Sanskrit linguistics that include research on pronunciation, grammar and rhetoric and was reckoned as one of the five sciences. According to free translation, the English term, Sound is equivalent of the Sanskrit word *Shabda*, and the whole term of *shabda-vidya* may be rendered into English as “knowledge of sounds”. Its corresponding transliteration forms in Chinese language are 'She-tuo-bi-tuo'('摄拖苾驮' and '摄佗苾驮'),' etc. There is an entry titled 'Learning Dharma in the West' in the fourth volume of Yi Jing's *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea*

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[Figure: A Collection of Terms in Translation (Fanyi mingyiji), Ming Period edition]

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[Figure: Selected Papers on the Languages of Ancient India, Ji Xianlin (front cover)]

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including director of translation along with other officials in-charge of other tasks like 'checking the doctrine' (Zheng Fanyi), 'check the Sanskrit terms and words' (Zheng Fanwen), 'recording' (Bi Shou), arrange the text (Zhui Wen), take part in discussion (Can Xiang). Until the fifth year of Tian-sheng Period (1027 CE), they translated over 500 volumes. Later, the translation work was intermittent due to lack of new Buddhist scriptures. This period lasted till the early Zhenghe Period (1111 CE). Famous translators of Buddhist scriptures included Fa Tian from India (refer to Fa Tian’s entry) Tian Xizai (refer to Tian Xizai’s entry), Danapala (refer to Danapala's entry), Dhararaksa (refer to Dhararaksa’s entry), Jin Zongchi (refer to Jin Zongchi’s entry), and Buddhist Wei Jing (refer to Buddhist Wei Jing’s entry) of the Chuanfa School. All these scholars translated about 284 books and 758 chapters.

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During the period of Renaissance of Tibetan Buddhism, people translated a large number of Buddhist scriptures. Those who were famous in the translation of Buddhist scripture in this period included Buddhist Atisha (982-1054 CE) from India, Buddhist Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 CE) from Tibet, Zhuomi Shijia Yixi (993-1074 CE) and E. Luodan Xirao (1059-1109 CE). The translation of Buddhist scriptures was basically suspended in Song Dynasty

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which says that the term 'sheng-ming' was derived from the Sanskrit word *shabdavidya*, in which the meaning of the term *shabda* was sound and that of *Vidya* was science. It was one of the five sciences. In the second volume of the *Travelling Notes of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty* (da-tang xi-you-ji), Xuanzang remarked that the term *Shabdavidya* meant 'explaining the meaning of words and their differences'. According to some Indian myth, the earliest *Shabdavidya* work was created by heavenly god. As per the information available in Volume 21 of the *Records of the Yogacharya by Monk* Dun Lun's titled *Accounts of the Western Countries*, the *Shabdavidya Shastra* with one million *slokas* was prepared by Brahman in the beginning of *kalpa* (a period of time) and Sakra (Indra) reduced its size to 1,00,000 *slokas*. Thereafter, Fairy Gunabhadra again simplified it to 12,000 *slokas*. Fairy Panini created Panini Sutra with 8,000 *slokas* afterwards. Master Dharmapāla created 3,000 *slokas*, and named them as Miscellaneous Treasure of *Shabdavidya*, which was popular in the world. All the major linguistics works on Sanskrit such as those of the one million *slokas* made by Brahman, one lakh made by Sakra, 8,000 *slokas* of Fairy Panini (*Panini Sutra*) and 2,500 *slokas* written by the Brahmins of South India have been listed in the third volume of *A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang* authored by two monks named Hui Li and Yan Cong. These were reported to be the basic works dealing with the 'sounds of the language of the Western Regions' and were popular in India and its surrounding areas and 'people desirous to attain scholarship in classical studies had to go through them'. Later, all these works motivated other scholars to produce works like *Brief Shabdavidya Shastra* with 1,000 *slokas*, *Munduk* scripts of 300 *slokas*, and *Anudhatu* with 800 *slokas* and they dealt with the *dhatu* of the Sanskrit word, the basis of the combination of the words and their ultimate meaning etc. The valuable work titled *A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci' En Monastery of the Great Tang* used the noun *Purusha* as an example listed different forms of 18 rhymes and 24 rhymes which were related to eight case endings, ie, 'explaining actors' (nominative case), 'explaining actions' (accusative case), 'explaining instruments' (instrumental case), 'explaining objectives' (dative case) 'explaining reasons' (ablative case), 'explaining genitive affairs' (genitive case), 'explaining location' (locative case) and 'explaining vocative affairs' (vocative case) as well as three different forms including the male sound (masculine), the female sound (feminine) and the non-male and non-female sound (neutral).

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From the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties to the early Song Dynasty, all those Chinese monks who went to India to seek *dharma* had to learn *Shabdavidya* works. Master Xuanzang learnt the same twice at Nalanda Monastery. The *Shabdavidya* science of India had its influence on the study and analysis of ancient Chinese language through the translation of the Buddhist *sutras* into Chinese. In order to translate and read *sutras*, eminent foreign and local monks used works such as the *Miscellaneous names in Sanskrit*, *thousand Sanskrit Words*, *Collections of Sanskrit Words in Tang*, *Collection of Terms in Translation*, *Sound and Meaning of All Sutras* and *Supplement to Sound and Meaning of All Sutras*, etc., edited by many eminent Chinese scholars. The nature and content of these works showed that they were very much influenced by Indian *Shabdavidya* science. It is worthwhile to make an in-depth study on how much influence the Indian linguistic works had on the history of Chinese linguistic works. For instance, the *Standardisation of Transliteration of the Western Regions* compiled by the Imperial Order during the Reign of Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty had many chapters such as Indian Alphabet Genealogy, Supplement to Indian Alphabet Genealogy, Indian Transliterated Word Genealogy, Supplement to Indian Transliterated Word Genealogy and Chinese and Sanskrit Genealogy, etc, is proof of Chinese interest in Sanskrit. Some more works such the Sanskrit Dictionary translated by Su Manshu and *Preface to Fundamental Sanskrit Dictionary* by Zhang Taiyan in late Qing Dynasty reflected that Indian Sanskrit knowledge had been quite popular in some section of Chinese intelligentsia for a long time.

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*(Chen Ming)*

Siksa

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Siksa/ Shiksha (式叉论) was ancient Indian phonetics and one of the six Vedas. This term can be found in ancient Chinese literature, especially in Buddhist *sutras* translated into Chinese. The fourth volume of the Lalitavistara *Sutra* translated by Indian monk, Dharmaraksa, in the Tang Dynasty described multiple subjects and techniques that Bodhisattva learned including *Veda*, *Nirukta*, *Siksa*, *Vaisheshika*, *Atharvaveda*, *Ambhiri* and *Hetuvidya*, etc. During the Southern Dynasty, volume I of the *Samkhya* classic *Hiranyasaptati* translated by Master Paramārtha in the Chen Dynasty listed two kinds of wisdom: external and internal, and the six branches of the Vedas were the subjects (disciplines) to

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[Figure: *Books on Sanskrit-Chinese Comparative Studies of Buddhist literature*]

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external wisdom. The six *Vedangas* included *Siksa*, *Vyakarana*, *Kalpa*, *Jyotisa*, *Chhanda* and *Nirukta*. The first article titled Abandoning of Sins and Blessings included in the first volume of Ji Zang's *Commentary* on *One-Hundred-Verse* of the Sui Dynasty quoted the same statement, and explained the six shastras (liulun). The statement was that 'the first was Siksa in which one has to learn 64 different techniques and rules of grammar. The second was Vyakarana, which explained sounds and their etymology'. Further, the 10ᵗʰ volume of *Explanations of Annotations on Dharmagupta-vinaya*, authored by Master Ding Bin of the Tang Dynasty offers an account on six Vedangas. It says that that the discipline of Shiksha meant 'science' here. Actually, *shiksha* was an ancient Indian discipline of phonetics. The task of translation of *sutra* into Chinese by all those Chinese monks seeking Dharma (fa) necessarily required some knowledge on Sanskrit phonology and thus the influence of Sanskrit phonetics on identifying and discovering the four tones of Chinese is perceptible. The study of Sanskrit-Chinese transliteration and the comparison of both Sanskrit and Chinese sounds thus became an important means to study and learn ancient Chinese phonetics.

Nirukta

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Nirukta (尼卢致论) is an ancient Indian etymological work dealing with one of the six kinds of supplementary knowledge of *Vedanga* and a compulsory subject to be studied by all the students of the Brahmin community in the early stage of their education. The first volume of *Hiranyasaptati* which was the Samkhya classic translated by Indian

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A Collection on Buddhism: Nirukta and Liu Xi's 'Explanation of Names' (Fanxue ji: Niluzhilun yu Liu Xi de 'Shiming'), Rao Zongyi

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Tripitaka Paramārtha during the Chen Dynasty, had the earliest reference of 'ni-lu-duo'( 尼禄多) for Nirukta in Chinese translation. The first volume of Ji Zang's *Commentary on One-Hundred-Verse* completed during the Sui Dynasty had another Chinese name ni-lu-duo (尼鹿多) for the same Indian term of Nirukta. The fourth volume of the *Lalitavistara Sutra* translated by Divakara in the Tang Dynasty listed many ancient Indian subjects such as *Nirukta* and *Siksa* etc. According to certain available sources, the most important work of Indian etymology in the early period was *Nirukta* written by Yaska which was finished in the 5ᵗʰ century BCE (or 7ᵗʰ century BCE), and is believed to have been prepared before the *Panini-sutra*. It was similar to the earliest ancient Chinese exegesis of Er-ya (尔雅). The concerned work of Nirukta has been divided into 12 chapters and it mainly annotated large collection of words. According to a highly valued opinion of Yaska, the root of all the words can be traced in this book with etymological meanings of nouns and verbs. It has been further remarked that 'Nirukta can explain the causes of the names of all the objects'. However, it doesn't have much more obvious influence in China and Rao Zongyi's Nirukta and Liu Xi's 'Explanations on Names' are the only important research papers for Chinese scholars to study and understand *Nirukta*.

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(Chen Ming)

Vyakarana

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Vyakarana (毗伽罗论) was the generic term of an ancient Indian grammar book and was one of six auxiliary disciplines of the *Veda*. Its Sanskrit name was *Vyakarana* which had the meanings such as 'grammatical method, grammar and treatise on grammar etc'. The first volume of *Hiranyasaptati*, the *Samkhya* classic translated by Indian Tripitaka Paramārtha in the Chen Dynasty says that the second category of the six *Vedangas* was Vyakarana. The 21ˢᵗ volume of Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra translated by Indian Tripitaka Dharmaksema in Northern Liang Dynasty listed the heretical *sutras* that include the Four Vedas, *Vyakarana*, *Vaisesika*, *Samkhya* and some works dealing with medical science, etc. The 25ᵗʰ volume of the *Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom* written by Nagarjuna and translated by Kumarajiva mentioned that Buddha didn't preach heretical *sutras* 'including the 18 great sutras such as *Vyakarana*, *Samkhya* and the *Vedas* etc'. It has been recorded in the 13ᵗʰ volume of the *Other Translation of Samyuktagama Sutra* that a young Brahmin would be found to be proficient in the Four Vedas, *Paragandha Shastra*, *Treatise on Sound*, *Vyakarana*, *Natya Shastra*, *Vaisesika* and was good at explaining grammar and the meanings of various texts. It can be seen that *Vyakarana* was one of the basic classics for Brahmins to learn. The transliteration of Vyakarana's in Chinese was 'bi-jia-lan-na' (弊迦兰那). But the old Chinese transliteration of the term *Vyakarana* is reported to have been 'pi jia luo lun' (毗伽罗论). Master Xuanzang thought the transliteration was not accurate and should have been transliterated as 'pi ye jie la nan' (毗耶羯剌湳)

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[Figure: 'Account of Buddhism Dispatched from the South Seas (Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan)', Dunhuang Remnants P2001]

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according to accurate Indian sounds and further commented that the name in free translation should be *Lucid Treatise on Sounds* as this book has an extensive record of all things that could be explained. Master Ding Bin of Tang dynasty, in his 10^th volume of *Annotations on Dharmagupta-vinaya* explained the six *Vedangas* and said that Vyakarana meant *A Treatise on Grammar* here. At the beginning of the *kalpa* (a period of time), Brahma instructed Vyakarana to heavenly people and because it was preached by Brahma, it was also called Brahmana. It is said that Vyakarana which was preached by Brahma was really long and had over 10,00,000 gathas (*sloka*). It has been further recorded in a chapter entitled *Learning Dharma in the West* in fourth volume of Yi Jing's *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea* that the general term used in India in reference to ancient secular books was Vyakarana-'pi he jie la nu' (毗何羯喇拏). This included five books, ie, *Siddharastu*, *Sutra* (*Panini-sutra*), *Dhatu*, *Khila* and *Vrttisutra* which may be considered to be equivalent to the five ancient Chinese Confucian classics.

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(*Chen Ming*)

Brahmi Script

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Brāhmī lipi (梵寐书) was one of the earliest scripts of ancient India to be found in Ashokan Pillar inscriptions of 3^rd century BCE. It had several varieties that evolved into other scripts such as Siddham, Nagari and Devanagari which were then widely in use. The Arabian scholar Al-Biruni recorded in his book of India that multiple scripts were used in different areas of India in the 11^th century CE. According to him, Brāhmī script was then in use to write many languages and was popular on the Silk Road. The so-called Tocharian and Khotan Saka language were written in Brāhmī script of the middle Asian italic type.

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It has been recorded in the 10^th chapter titled *Displaying of Books* of the fourth volume of *Lalitavistara Sutra* that as per the knowledge of Bodhisattvas there were then 64 scripts of different forms. The concerned book has been translated by an Indian monk, Divakara, in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. The Brāhmī (fan-mei) *lipi* in Sanskrit was reckoned as the first form of the script. Its transliteration in Chinese was 'fan-mei' (梵寐). Another Indian monk, Dharmaraksa, translated another version of *Lalitavistara Sutra* during the western Jin dynasty. The seventh chapter titled *Appearing Books* was to be found in the third volume of the same *Lalitavistara Sutra*, that recorded the names of 64 scripts and the first kind of the 'Brahmana script' corresponded with 'Brāhmī script'. There are two important

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Brahmi script on the Ashokan stone pillar

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sources that have reference to the names of Indian speech sounds which must be mentioned. First, the concerned chapter titled *Learning of Techniques* in the 11^th volume of *Abhiniskramanasūtra* translated by Indian Tripitaka master in the Sui Dynasty, listed the names of the 64 scripts and the book of annotations titled the *Present Brahmana preached by Brahma* covered all the sounds (pronunciation) of all the scripts in 14 words. Second, the biography of Zhu Shihang found in *Biographies of Eminent Monks* authored by Hui Jiao of the Liang dynasty records that Zhu Shihang arrived in Khotan (Yutian) in the 5ᵗʰ year of Gan-lu of the Wei Dynasty (260 CE).

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Another monk, Shi Sengyou, pointed out in the fourth chapter titled *Records on Sound and Meaning of Sutras with similarities and difference* that there were three makers of scripts in ancient China and India. They were Brahma, Kharosthi and Cang Jie. Brahma and Kharosthi lived in India and the scripts created by them 'explained *dharma* in the Pure Land', and were called Brahmi and Kharosthi script.

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[Figure: Dunhuang Brahmi script, fragment of *‘Pratītya-samutpāda-sūtra (Yuan qi jing/Sutra on Conditioned Arising)’*]

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Brahmi script meant Brāhmī *lipi* here and it was written from left to right, while Kharosthi script was from right to left. The two differed from Chinese which was written from top to bottom. Further, the volume numbering 51, *Abhidharma-mahavibhasa-sastra* which was written by Kātyāyani-putra, interpreted by 500 Arhats and translated by Indian monk Buddhavarman and Dao Tai in the Northern Liang Dynasty recorded that the Brāhmī script was made by Govindara Brahman. *The Book of the Sui Dynasty: Records of Sutras* gives reference about 'One Volume of Brahmi Script' which was the basic teaching material to learn Sanskrit. Many relics written in Brāhmī script have been transmitted to the areas of north-west China. In 1943, Xiang Da found a piece of broken stone of sutra pillar of India in Dunhuang area. The Indian scholar Professor V V Gokhale thought that it was the fragment of Pratītyasamutpādasūtra written in Brāhmī script in the middle of the 5ᵗʰ century. Similar relics or literature related to the Brāhmī script had played a great role in the propagation of Indian language and culture beyond the borders of the Western Region.

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(*Chen Ming*)

Kharosthi Script

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Kharosthi *lipi* was a common script of ancient India which came from the Aramaic script (alphabet) of West Asia. This was widely used in Gandhara of northwest of India and it occurred in the similar period of the Brāhmī script. This is now found to have been engraved in stone inscriptions of Asoka in the middle of the 3ʳᵈ century BCE. In ancient Chinese literature, the script was variously called – ‘Qu lou (佉楼)’, ‘Qu-lu-se-zha-shu-zi (佉卢瑟吒书字)’, ‘Qu-lu-shi-di (佉卢虱底)’ and ‘Qu-lu-shi-zha (佉卢虱吒)’ etc, all of which were transliterated names of the Sanskrit word, Kharosthi. According to free translation, their equivalent Chinese terms were: ‘lu-chun-shu’ or ‘lu-chun wen’ which means ‘donkey lip script’. It has been recorded on the basis of certain legends and myths of ancient India in Volume 101 of *Abhidharma-Jnanaprasthana-mahavibhasa-sastra* authored by 500 Arhats that the Kharosthi script was made by one celestial being, Kharosthi. This book has been translated by Xuanzang and is available in China.

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Another book titled *Sutra on Causes and Effects of the Past and Present* translated by Indian Tripitaka Gumarabhatha of the Song Dynasty mentions that there were 64 scripts in ‘Jambu-dipa’ and the two forefront scripts recorded there were the Brāhmī *lipi* and Kharoùñhī *lipi*. Another scholar Shi Sengyou of Liang Dynasty pointed out in chapter four titled *Records on Similarities and Differences in Sounds and Meanings of Sutras* to be found in the first volume of the *A Collection of Records on the Tripitaka* that

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[Figure: Fragment of Kharosthi Script found at Tarim Basin encampments, preserved in Xinjiang Museum]

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Brahma and Kharosthi were two innovators of these two scripts of India. The concerned work has been translated from Sanskrit into Chinese. These two kinds of scripts, ie, Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts were regarded by Indian kingdoms as "heavenly scripts" (tian-shu). The Brahmi script is written from left to right whereas Kharosthi is written from right to left. Further, the seventh chapter titled *Appearing Books* found in the third volume of the *Lalitavistara Sutra* in the beginning mentions the names of 64 scripts and the second kind was Kharosthi script. This too has been translated by the Indian scholar monk, Dharmaraksa. Again, in Tang dynasty, chapter 10 titled the *Displaying* Tocharian, fragments of *Maitri Simit* (*Mile huijian ji*), found in Xinjiang, China in 1957

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Gandhari literature unearthed in Afghanistan region in the late 1990s have great academic significance for studies on important issues. Some of the issues were the history of the growth of Buddhist classics in the early period, gradual propagation of Indian Buddhism in the eastern region and the history of the exchange of Buddhism between India and China during its early phase.

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