234 wilkens
other deities.211 So there is a remarkable degree of continuity in this field over
the centuries.212 One well-known example comes from a colophon to a confes-
sion text, where the naivāsikas are mentioned first:213
This merit2 (Skt. puṇya), its share2, I humbly transfer to the female and
male naivāsika gods in heaven above and on earth below, who feed on
dharma (Skt. dharmāhārika)214 and to the gods (residing) nearby such
as Taihan Han, Kümsä Hatun T(ä)ŋrim, Mišan Han and Čaisi Wang Bäg.
By virtue of this merit2 (Skt. puṇya) may their heavenly powers2 and
their hosts2 (Skt. parivāra) increase and may they protect2 inwardly the
(Buddhist) teaching2 (Skt. śāsana) and outwardly the realm2.215
211 Cf. Kasai, Kolophone, 224 (text no. 122.5–9). See also ibid., 179 (text no. 81.47–61), 99 (text
no. 35.3–7, fragmentary) and 229 (no. 124.6–11, partly restored). Klimkeit has correctly
stated that an old idea of sacrifice lives on in the strengthening of the protective deities.
See Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim, “Der Stifter im Lande der Seidenstraßen: Bemerkungen zur
buddhistischen Laienfrömmigkeit,” Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 35.4
(1983): 304. We may add that the concept of the share (OU ülüš, ülüg, öŋ ülüg, öŋ ülüš)
allotted to the deities derives from the practice of nomadic societies. In modern Kyrgyz
ülüš means ‘banquet’. In the “Memoirs of Bābur” (Chagatay/Persian Bāburnāme, fol. 31a),
the memoirs of the first Moghul ruler in India written in Chagatay Turkic, we find the
following important statement:
“The ülüsh, the champion’s portion, is an old custom among the Mughuls: at every
banquet and feast, whoever has distinguished himself with the sword receives the
ülüsh”
(bahādurluq ülüši Muğulda qadīmī rasm dur. Har toy va aš bolğanda harkim ki eldin
uzup qılıč yetkürgän bolsa ol ülüšni ol alur).
Transcription and translation are taken from Thackston, W[heeler] M., Jr., Zahiruddin
Muhammad Babur Mirza: Baburnama. Chaghatay Turkish Text with Abdul-Rahim
Khankhanan’s Persian Translation, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Near Eastern
Languages and Civilizations, 1993), 61.
212 On protective deities in Uyghur Manichaeism and Buddhism see Zieme, Peter,
“Manichäische Kolophone und Könige,” in Studia Manichaica. II. Internationaler Kongreß
zum Manichäismus, 6.-10. August 1989, St. Augustin/Bonn, ed. Gernot Wießner and Hans-
Joachim Klimkeit (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992), 321–322.
213 In a text known under the title “The glorification of gurus” (shelf mark: U 5678, line 25)
different kinds of deities are enumerated as follows: pıntsun burhan ḍakini naivasikelar
“devatās (< Chin. benzun 本尊), Buddhas, ḍākinīs and naivāsikas ”.
214 This term is also attested in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, as Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 65,
remarks.
215 Müller, F[riedrich] W[ilhelm] K[arl], Uigurica II (Berlin: Verlag der Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1911), 80 (lines 63–67): OU: bo buyan ädgü kılınčıg öŋ ülüg ʾävirä ötü
täginär m(ä)n üstün kökdäki altın yagıztakı tiši erkäk nom ašlıg naivazike t(ä)ŋrilärkä