QUERY> Identifying Pandita Manaviharala (Kragh)

[Elliot M. Stern]

I apologize that I am stepping beyond my expertise. The little Tibetan  
I had is now almost gone. However, I googled manavihara and came up  
with a number of hits. One is a pdf file of several pages from Sylvain  
Levi's Le Népal in Ted Riccardi's translation (http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ancientnepal/pdf/ancient_nepal_105_02.pd 
f). According to this document, Manavihara is another name for  
Cakravihara in Patan.


Elliot M. Stern
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On 25 Aug  2009, at 3:13 PM, Christian K. Wedemeyer wrote:

> Hej, Ulrich! Går det godt med dej?
>
> This is unscientific--and perhaps entirely anachronistic--but since  
> you are urgently in need, I figured I'd give it a go:
>
> The end of the name, I would suggest, is more than likely  
> Bihāralāla. Nowadays, it would be pronounced Bihār Lāl.  "Lāl"  
> is a pretty common name, to this day. (Consider the early 17th  
> century Hindi poet Bihārī Lāl.)
>
> The beginning is more difficult, perhaps. It could refer to a  
> particular vihāra (bāhāḥ), but I don't know of one by that name.  
> It is possible that it could be a vihāra founded by (a) Mānadeva,  
> which was known as "Mānavihāra." But, my hunch is that it is in  
> fact māna, but for another reason. Māna ("Mān" today) is also a  
> commonly occurring name in that region (e.g the contemporary Nepali  
> politician Gopal Man Shrestha [gopālamāna śreṣṭha]).
>
> I'm not at all confident these names were current in the period  
> you're talking about (I don't see anything like it in the few  
> inscriptions I have to hand), but anyway, that's my hypothesis:  
> Mānavihāralāla (or, in a contemporary idiom, Mān Bihār Lāl).
>
> Sorry to say I have no idea who he was.
>
> Med venlig hilsen,
>
> Christian
>
>
> On Aug 21, 2009, at 7:47 PM, H-Buddhism wrote:
>
>> Subject: Identifying Pandita Manaviharala
>> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:15:45 +0200
>> From: Ulrich T. Kragh <utkragh at hum.ku.dk>
>>
>> Dear List-members,
>>
>> I would like help with deciphering an Indian name and possibly  
>> obtain any information on the person behind this name.
>>
>> I am currently studying the history of the Tibetan translation of  
>> lakSmIMkarA's Sahajasiddhipaddhati (Derge 2261, Peking 3108; no  
>> Sanskrit text extant). The Tibetan translator 'Bro LotsA ba Shes  
>> rab Grags (11th century) made this translation in collaboration  
>> with an Indian scholar (Tib. rgya gar gyi mkhan po), and it is this  
>> Indian scholar that I am trying to identify.
>>
>> The first problem I have is to identify the proper form of the name  
>> of the Indian/Nepalese scholar, who probably was a Buddhist monk.  
>> The syntax of the sentence clearly only allows for this name to be  
>> interpreted as a personal name. Here is the Tibetan colophon of the  
>> text in which the name occurs:
>>
>> rgya gar gyi mkhan po chen po ma na bi ha ra la dang/ bod kyi  
>> lotstsha ba dge slong pradzny'a k'irtis legs par mnyan nas bsgyur  
>> pa lags so//
>>
>> The name I wish to understand is the Tibetan word "ma na bi ha ra  
>> la."
>>
>
> --
> Christian K. Wedemeyer
> Assistant Professor of the History of Religions
> University of Chicago Divinity School
> 1025 E 58th Street
> Chicago, IL 60637
> P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail