236 wilkens
2.6 Similarities between Epigraphic and Manuscript Sources
If we compare the inscriptions from the Gansu corridor with manuscripts
from Turfan or Hami, we can detect more similarities or parallels, especially as
regards the presentation of Uyghur rulers and their families in connection with
Buddhism.219 Many literary and epigraphic sources reflect the intimate links
of the Uyghur ruling family with Buddhism.220 Epithets of Uyghur or Mongol
rulers and members of their family are instructive in this respect.221 Before
going into details a short remark can be made: In the symbolic representation
of the political sphere the Uyghurs were rather conservative. One example is
the designation ‘realm of the ten Uyghurs’ (OU on uygur eli) which occurs in
inscriptional222 and manuscript sources.223 This reflects the old division into
ten Uyghur tribes at the time when the Uyghurs were part of the Tokuz Oguz
mentioned next to the two yakṣas Kapila and Maṇibhadra (line 7). The remark by
Zieme (Religion und Gesellschaft, 67–68), that these deities appear in a bilingual text in
Sanskrit and Tocharian A from Šorčuk (T III S 78.4), is highly important. We may add
that Maṇibhadra, a yakṣa associated with Kubera, was the patron of merchants. See
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K[entish], Yakṣas, vol. I (Washington: Smithsonian Institution,
1928–1931), 7. This must have had a special appeal to the Uyghurs who were active in
overland trade. The Buyan Ävirmäk (“Transfer of merit”) in the Old Uyghur Sūtra of
Golden Light is cited in translation in Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 69–70. Here, it is
mentioned, that even the planets and stars protect Buddha’s teaching.
219 See in this respect Zieme, Peter, “Titulaturen und Elogen uigurischer Könige,” in Religious
and Lay Symbolism in the Altaic World and Other Papers, ed. Klaus Sagaster and Helmut
Eimer (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1989), 443–450.
220 A Buddhist hymn dedicated to the ruler of the West Uyghur Kingdom and to the Uyghur
realm was written in strophic alliteration in Mongol times. Cf. the edition in Zieme,
Buddhistische Stabreimdichtungen, 154–155 (text no. 39).
221 On epithets of the rulers in colophons see Zieme, Peter, “Bemerkungen zur Datierung
uigurischer Blockdrucke,” Journal Asiatique 269 (1981): 394–396 [reprint: Fragmenta
Buddhica Uigurica: Ausgewählte Schriften von Peter Zieme, ed. Simone-Christiane
Raschmann and Jens Wilkens (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2009), 521–523].
222 Cf. the expression on uygur han “king (of ) the Ten Uyghurs” in stake inscription III, line 2,
as read in Hamilton, “Remarks,” 122a.
223 Inscription: CI III, 47 (ed. Geng, Hamilton, “Stèle commémorative,” 20); manuscript: e.g.,
Kasai, Kolophone, 198. See the adjective on uygur elilig (Kr II 2/39 /r/15/ = ed. Shōgaito,
Tuguševa and Fujishiro, Daśakarmapathāvadānamālā, line 15) as well. In the “Uyghur
hymn” we find the expression “O our realm, which is (divided) into ten (tribes)” (OU
onlar uygur elim(i)z-a). See Zieme, Buddhistische Stabreimdichtungen, text no. 39.11. In
a manuscript in Uyghur script, we even find on uygur transferred into Sanskrit as daśa-
haihura in Brāhmī script. See Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 77.