13 April 2011

Arapacana Alphabet in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā in Sanskrit and Chinese

A comparative table of Arapacana Alphabets in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in Conze's English Translation; the new Sanskrit edition by Takayasu; Kumārajīva's 404 CE Chinese translation (Taisho 223); and Xuán Zàng's 663 CE Chinese translation which collates a number of PP sūtras (Taisho 220).

There's quite broad agreement up to about letter 26. Note that Conze also uses the Chinese translation by Mokṣa of Khotan (Taisho 221), but so far I haven't identified the arapacana alphabet in this text. All the lists except Conze include repetitions. Conze's solutions to this problem look likely and involve Prakrit spellings of Sanksrit words, i.e. ṣaṃga for saṅga at no.10. (Note that the Chinese transliterations support this sustitution by using an aspirated sibilant sound.) The number of syllables in the various alphabets various from 41-43 (Dutt has 44!) but we know that later in the Pañcaviṃśati the text is expecting 42 (dvācatvāriṃśad akṣarāṇi PSP_6-8:67-8).



ConzeTakayasuKumārajīvaXuán Zàng
1 a a

Ā [褒-保+可] [Bāo-bǎo +kě]
2 ra ra

Luó Luò
3 pa pa

4 ca ca

Zhē Zhě
5 na na

Nuó
6
la la

Luó Luǒ
7 da da

Tuó Duò
8 ba ba

9 ḍa ḍa

10 ṣa sa

Shā Shā
11 va va

12 ta ta

Duō [多*頁] [Duō*yè]
13 ya ya

14 ṣṭa sta

zhà 瑟吒 (Sè zhà)
15 ka ka

Jiā Jiā
16 sa sa

Suō Suō
17 ma ma

18 ga ga

Jiā Jiā
19 stha stha

20 ja ja

21 śva śva

濕縛 (Shī fù)
22 dha dha

Tuó
23 śa śa

Shē Shě
24 kha kha

25 kṣa kṣa

Cha Chàn
26 sta sta

Duō 薩[多*頁] (Sà [duō*yè])
27 jña jña

Ruò Ruò
28 rta ha

Tuō 剌他 (Là tā)
29 ha ccha

Ā
30 bha sma

Chē Báo
31 ccha hva

Chuò
32 sma sa

Huǒ 颯磨 (Sà mó)
33 hva gha

Jiē 嗑縛 (Kè fù)
34 tsa ṭha

Jiā Cuō
35 gha ṇa

Jiàn
36 ṭha pha

Chǐ
37 ṇa ska

38 pha ja

39 ska ca

Cuó 塞迦 (Sāi jiā)
40 ysa ṭa

Zhē 逸娑 (Yì suō)
41 śca ḍa

zhà Zhuó
42 ṭa


Zhà
43 ḍha




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