248 wilkens
via Tocharian (Toch. A/B saṅkästere), yielding Old Uyghur saŋgist(e)re,287
saŋastere,288 saŋast(e)re289 or saŋgastere.290 Closer to the Sanskrit form
is saŋast(a)vre attested in the Old Uyghur translation of the Biography of
Xuanzang.291 As this foreign title is not translated in these texts, readers were
clearly familiar with it. Below the abbot ranked the iš aygučı, a Uyghur title
corresponding to Skt. karmadāna, and referring to a person who assigns labour
in the monasteries.292 Interestingly, this title was used in the administration of
Manichaean monasteries as well.293 Other titles such as nomčı bilgä are related
to Buddhism but it is uncertain whether it is a clerical title or whether lay peo-
ple held the post.294
Two monastic titles, “[.. .] of the discipline, the venerable one possessing
moral behaviour, the teacher2”295 and “venerable and excellent teacher2”, 296
contain the Tocharian element käṣṣi ‘teacher’, which appears in colophons of
Old Uyghur Buddhist texts translated from Tocharian. The title is only rarely
mentioned in later texts,297 when the influence of Tocharian Buddhism on
Uyghur Buddhism had long come to an end. The element šilavanti in the first
title derives from Skt. śīlavat, possessing moral behaviour,298 but the word
final shows that the term was borrowed via Tocharian.299 The element ačari in
the second title ultimately derives from Skt. ācārya. The title also appears as
a loan from Chinese in the form šäli (< Chin. (a)sheli (阿)舍梨< Skt. ācārya).300
287 Manuscript Berlin Turfan Collection Mainz 95 + U 1800 + U 1697 /v/20/.
288 Manuscript Berlin Turfan Collection U 1961 /A/3/.
289 Manuscript Berlin Turfan Collection U 1096 /v/8/.
290 Manuscript Berlin Turfan Collection U 1961 /B/2/.
291 Ed. Röhrborn, Xuanzang-Biographie VII, line 1845.
292 See Röhrborn, Uigurisches Wörterbuch, 299 s.v. aygučı with further references. Cf.
Moriyasu, “Stake Inscriptions,” 179: “This is a person of rather lower rank who simply
arranges work in the daily life or in a ceremony.. .”.
293 See Moriyasu, Geschichte des uigurischen Manichäismus, 71–72.
294 Moriyasu, “Chronology,” 201–203 with further attestations of the title.
295 (OU šazin ////l// t(ä)ŋri šilavanti keši ačari). Ed. Moriyasu, “Stake Inscriptions,” 187
(line 17).
296 (OU t(ä)ŋri k(a)lan(a)baḍre k(e)ši ačari). Ed. Moriyasu, “Stake Inscriptions,” 187 (line 18).
297 One example from Yuan times is Zieme, Buddhistische Stabreimdichtungen, text no. 50.15:
ačari k(e)ši karunadaz sidu.
298 Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 56.
299 Cf. Tocharian B śilavānde. In Adams, Dictionary, 691, where the word is quoted as an
adjective and as a personal name, another Sanskrit etymology is proposed: “śīla- + vanda-”
(“extolling moral behavior”).
300 Hamilton, James Russell, “Les titres Šäli et Tutung en ouïgour,” Journal Asiatique 272
(1984): 425–437.