[INDOLOGY] hiṅgula and cīnapiṣṭa

[Matthew Kapstein]

Dear Arlo,

My recent book on Tibetan Manuscripts, vol. 1, ch. 4, has a section on rubrication that describes the fabrication of vermilion from cinnabar and, although not directly on your topic, offers some hints about the sacral quality of vermilion. It may be worth noting, too, that this is ubiquitous in tantric contexts.

all best,
Matthew

Matthew T. Kapstein
Professor emeritus
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, Paris

Associate
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein

https://vajrabookshop.com/product/the-life-and-work-of-auleshi/

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716218/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-i/#bookTabs=1

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501771255/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-ii/#bookTabs=1

https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/60949

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On Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 at 7:42 AM, Arlo Griffiths via INDOLOGY <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
>
> -  Can anyone tell me more about this Sanskrit text apparently not preserved as such in Sanskrit?
> -  Is Konow's reconstruction reliable?
> -  Has the text been translated into a Western language?
>
> I would like to know especially
>
> -  whether there is any reason to believe that in some contexts cīnapiṣṭa and hiṅgula could refer to the same substance
> -  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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