[INDOLOGY] hiṅgula and cīnapiṣṭa

[Arlo Griffiths]

Thanks Jonathan.

But this only answers my question 3, and I don't know if translations by the 84 000 Project are on the whole reliable. In this case, the translation, made from the Tibetan, matches well enough with Konow's reconstruction of the Sanskrit, though the word cinnabar is not used where I expect it.

<https://84000.co/translation/toh11#UT22084-031-002-402/%5Bdata-glossary-id%3D%22UT22084-031-002-4022%22%5D<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://84000.co/translation/toh11%23UT22084-031-002-402/%255Bdata-glossary-id%253D%2522UT22084-031-002-4022%2522%255D&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1737457578679165&usg=AOvVaw0jqiOgDs7IGGlmtfhyf9pX>>
(78) The lord buddhas are endowed with markings, as if they were drawn in the colors of vermilion, realgar, minium, indigo bark, and verdigris.

In my understanding, vermillion is a derivative of cinnabar, but not the same as cinnabar. I will be happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

Best,

Arlo


________________________________
From: Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 7:15 AM
To: Arlo Griffiths <arlogriffiths at hotmail.com>
Cc: INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] hiṅgula and cīnapiṣṭa

My my Arlo, the wonders of one minute with google: https://84000.co/translation/toh11

On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 7:43 AM Arlo Griffiths via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
Colleagues,

In Hemacandra's Abhidhānacintāmaṇi, we read:

sindūraṃ nāgajaṃ nāgaṃ raktaṃ śṛṅgārabhūṣaṇam |
cīnapiṣṭaṃ haṃsapādakuruvinde tu hiṅgulaḥ || 1061 ||

According to Böhtlingk <https://archive.org/details/hemaandrasabhid00hemagoog/page/n219/mode/2up>, who was apparently relying on a commentary, the words up to and including cīnapiṣṭa mean Mennig, i.e. "read lead", while the other words mean Zinnober, i.e. cinnabar.


In the GRETIL e-text for "Dasasahasrika Prajnaparamita, chapter 1 and 2 translated from the Tibetan" <https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.281348/page/n109/mode/2up>, §57, I find some of the terms listed by Hemacandra combined:

buddhānāṃ bhagavatāṃ hiṅgula-manaḥśilā-cīnapiṣṭa-vaiḍūrya-tāmrakiṭṭa-varṇair likhitānīva lakṣaṇāni


  1.
Can anyone tell me more about this Sanskrit text apparently not preserved as such in Sanskrit?
  2.
Is Konow's reconstruction reliable?
  3.
Has the text been translated into a Western language?

I would like to know especially

  1.
whether there is any reason to believe that in some contexts cīnapiṣṭa and hiṅgula could refer to the same substance
  2.
whether there is any other, perhaps more solid, Indian textual evidence for the use of cinnabar in worship of Buddha images

Thanks in advance for your learned comments.

Arlo Griffiths



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