[INDOLOGY] Ms colopon from Nepal, need help

[Justin Fifield]

Dear list,

Many thanks to Michael Witzel, Alessandro Battistini, Manu Francis, 
Balogh Dániel, and Jean Michel Delire for their speedy and informed 
replies to my query.

As I suspected, the phrase is a string of numbers (bhūtasaṃkhyā).

One can find more details in Salomon, 1998, Indian Epigraphy (p173) and 
Kielhorn, "The Epoch of the Newar Era", /Indian Antiquary/ 17.  For the 
specific words used in bhūtasaṃkhyā-s, see Bühler's Indian Paleography 
(pp.84-86) or Kale's History of Dharmaśāstra vol. 5.1 (pp. 701-703).  
See also a blog by Péter Szántó 
(http://tibetica.blogspot.hu/2008/02/bhtasakhy.html).

There were a few different suggestions on how to resolve the reading and 
the digits, but 952 is the consensus vote:

khacara = nine planets = 9
śara = kāma's five arrows = 5
yaṇa = ??

khacara = 9
śara = 5
yaṇa = yama = 2
Therefore -- 952 NS = 1831-2

khacara = 9
śara = 5
yaṇa = ayana = 2 (sun has two courses)
Therefore -- 952 NS

cara = 1 (an educated guess)
kha = 0
śara = 5
yaṇa = ayana = 2
Therefore -- 1052 NS = 1931-2

I have not seen this manuscript in person.  The contents are a portion 
of the Mahāvastu, Senart 2.397.8-3.90.10.  I have no expertise in 
Nepalese manuscripts and am a novice Newari script reader, but I would 
lean towards the earlier date of 952.  That one seems more likely purely 
from a philological standpoint.  And even if the yaṇa digit ends up 
changing, it would not change the date very much as the last digit.  If 
anyone has any thoughts on the reading or handwriting, please do let us 
know.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Justin Fifield

fifield at fas.harvard.edu

On 8/1/2016 5:10 PM, Justin Fifield wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> In manuscript E 1160/3 of the National Archives of Nepal (Nepal German 
> Manuscript Project)--also cataloged by the Asha Saphu Kuti as 
> 5229--the following colophon is given at the end of the text:
>
> nepālavarṣe yaṇaśarakhacare vidyānandena likhitaṃ hi śubhaṃ bhūyāt ||
>
> Does anyone know what "yaṇaśarakhacare" designates?
>
> Attached is a photo of the folio (if it goes through).
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> - Justin Fifield
>
> fifield at fas.harvard.edu
>



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20160802/610e52fe/attachment.htm>