raajaku.tii

[Arlo Griffiths]

Thanks to George Cardona, Artur Karp, John William Nemec, Asko Parpola, Judit Törzsök and Vincent Eltschinger for their responses.
I should have made it clear that it was not so much the element ku.tii which bothered me, as I tacitly assumed there to be a connection with the Buddhist gandhaku.tii 'Perfume Chamber' (the chamber for the principal Buddha resident in a monastery) --- at least the monumental context of the Sumatran ku.ti haji is certainly Buddhist.
Vincent Eltschinger's reference to Schopen's article "The Buddha as an Owner of Property ..." has now provided me with an extensive collection of epigraphical and other textual references to the gandhaku.tii, and some of these allow me to formulate a working hypothesis concerning the 'royal chamber'. From these three sealings cited by Schopen (p. 269 and 284 of the reprint),
- "sriinaalandaayaa.m "sriibaalaadityagandhaku.diivaarikabhik.suu.naa.m,- "sriinaa[landaayaa.m "srii?]dharmapaaladevagandhaku.tiivaarikabhik.suu.naa.m,- "sriidevapaalagandhaku.tyaa.m,
I infer that gandhaku.tiis were among those parts of vihaaras that could become the object of personal donations/foundations by kings (in these cases Baalaaditya and Devapaaladeva). And on this basis one might hypothesize that raajaku.tii = ku.ti haji may have meant raajagandhaku.tii. At least for ku.ti haji in the North Sumatran inscription I see no immediate objections to this hypothesis, and it is at least a funny coincidence that two of these sealings mention Devapaaladeva, about whose diplomatic associations with Mahaaraaja Baalaputradeva of Suvar.nadviipa (which probably corresponded to Southern Sumatra) we know from one of his copper-plates. The idea that raajaku.tii had a specifically Buddhist connotation may not work well in the context of the Khmer inscriptions, which seem rather to deal with brahmanical foundations. I'll have to keep pondering the problem.
By the way, in the light of some of Schopen's other articles in the same volume of Collected Papers, esp. the one on Burial as sanctos, all of this reminds me of the thread opened by Petra Kieffer-Pülz last year, about the word ku.tikaa (in a Pali text) in the context of the deposition of bones and ashes. 

Thanks again.

Arlo Griffiths (EFEO/Jakarta)




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> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:12:30 +0100
> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] raajaku.tii
> From: veltsch at oeaw.ac.at
> To: arlogriffiths at HOTMAIL.COM
>
> Dear Arlo,
> There might well be no connection at all, but your ku.tii reminds me of
> the Buddhist monasteries' (gandha)ku.tii. The term and what it refers to
> have been discussed quite extensively by Gregory Schopen in an article
> entitled "The Buddha as an Owner of Property and Permanent Resident in
> Medieval Indian Monasteries" (JIP 18 1990, pp. 181-217 = Schopen: Bones,
> Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Collected Papers on the Archaeology,
> Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, Honolulu, HUP, pp
> 258-289).
> Sorry for the probably misleading information!
> Hope you're fine,
> Best,
> Vincent
>
>
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>> Having failed to obtain any leads by consulting some individual
>> colleagues, I now wish to consult you collectively about the term
>> raajaku.tii, which I find in a few Cambodian inscriptions:
>> K. 95, st. XXXIX.= K. 309, st. XXXIX = K.362, st. XXXVI [all three
>> inscriptions date to 811 "saka] raajaku.tyantare
>> raajadvijaatin.rpasuunava.hvi"seyur atra nirddo.san ta
>> evaabhara.naanvitaa.h //
>>
>> K. 279 XCVIII = K. 290, st. XCVI = K. 701, st. XCVIII [all three
>> inscriptions date to the 10th c. CE]dvau lekhakau raajaku.tiipaalau
>> pustakarak.si.nautaambuulikau ca paaniiyahaarau .sa.t pattrakaarakaa.h //
>>
>> This raajaku.tii may correspond to the vra.h ku.ti seen in some
>> contemporary khmer-language inscriptions, although the term vra.h is
>> ambiguous (it can mean both 'king' and 'god'). I also find the expression
>> ku.ti haji, which literally means 'king's ku.ti', in an Old Malay
>> inscription of Northern Sumatra (date ca. 10-11th c. CE). Can anyone
>> furnish comparative data from South Asia, or elsewhere, which may throw
>> light on what these ancient Khmers and ancient Malays had in mind when
>> speaking about a 'king's ku.ti/ii'?
>> Many thanks in advance. Best wishes,
>> Arlo Griffiths (EFEO/Jakarta)
>>
>
>