buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 235
One gets the impression that in Central Asian Buddhism and especially in
Uyghur Buddhism the role the naivāsikas are entrusted with—i.e. the protec-
tion of the realm and the royal lineage—is much more pronounced than in
other Buddhist hubs.216 There are also hints in narrative literature that the
naivāsikas are guardians of the royal palace. They have to be asked for permis-
sion before a prince can become a monk.217 But there are colophons where
the protective deities of the realm are enumerated without mentioning the
naivāsikas. 218
yaguta taihan han kümsä hatun t(ä)ŋrim mišan han čaisi wang bäg ulatı t(ä)ŋrilärkä bo
buyan ädgü kılınč küčintä t(ä)ŋridäm küčläri küsünläri parivar kuvragları asılıp üstälip
ičtin sıŋar nomug šažinıg taštın sıŋar elig ulušug küyü küzädü tutmakları bolzun.
A similar translation into German is found in Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 69.
He has convincingly shown that Taihan Han (or: Taišan Han), Kümsä Hatun T(ä)ŋrim,
Mišan Han and Čaisi Wang Bäg are minor protective deities. See Zieme, Religion und
Gesellschaft, 66–69.
216 The naivāsikas are only rarely dealt with in the Sanskrit dictionaries. See Schopen, Gregory,
“Counting the Buddha and the Local Spirits: A Monastic Ritual of Inclusion for the Rain
Retreat,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 30.4: 373. It is remarkable that in Tocharian B, which
is so important for the formation of a literary language of Uyghur Buddhism, the word is
not attested yet. There is no entry in Adams, Douglas Q[uentin], A Dictionary of Tocharian
B. Revised and Greatly Enlarged, vols. I–II (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2013). In stake
inscription III (line 19), the proper name transcribed navašingi (in Hamilton, “Remarks,”
122a) is probably that very word. See Hamilton, “Remarks,” 122b: “Navašingi probably
represents a form borrowed from Tocharian meaning ‘a good spirit’.” Even in the Book of
Oguz (OU Oguzname) in Uyghur script, which otherwise shows little Buddhist colouring,
the term is attested. See Clauson, Sir Gerard, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-
Century Turkish (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 775a s. v. névaşigi.
217 Cf. manuscript Kr II 1/2 /v/16–29/, ed. Shōgaito, Masahiro 庄垣内 正弘, Lilia Tuguševa
and Setsu Fujishiro 節蕂代, Uigurubun Daśakarmapathāvadānamālā no kenkyū. Sankuto
Peteruburugu shōzō ‘Jūgōdō monogatari’ ウイグル文 Daśakarmapathāvadānamālā の
研究サﾝクトペテルブルグ所藏『十業道物語』[English title: The Daśakarma-
pathāvadānamālā in Uighur from the Collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute
of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences] (Shokado: Nakanishi Press, 1998), lines
632–645.
218 E.g. in a colophon to the Meeting with Maitreya (Maitrisimit): “Brahmā, Indra, the four
mahārāja gods, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, Skandakumāra, the protective deity2 of the holy realm
of Kočo, Asiloman, Śrīloman and [the other gods]” (äzrua hormuzta tört m(a)harač t(ä)
ŋrilär višnu mahašv(a)re sakanḍakumare kutlug kočo uluš kutı [wahš]iki asilome širilomeda
[ulatı t(ä)ŋrilär]) (ed. Kasai, Kolophone, 182 [text no. 82.31–34]). It can be surmised that
the Uyghurs knew very well the function of the “Hindu” gods. As the god of war, Skanda
or Skandakumāra is of course highly suited as a protector of the realm. In a colophon to
an Avalokiteśvarastava (reedited in Kasai, Kolophone, text No. 124) we find Skandakumāra