298 pol vanden broucke and sem vermeersch
Nammu 154 mangguk 155 ch’allinaje 156 p’anni p’anni
sop’anni 157 uusamagan 158 pui 159
sap’aga.^160
Someone explained the [dhra], saying, “Ch’allinaje refers to the queen.
P’anni p’anni sop’anni corresponds with two sop’an. Sop’an is a degree of
nobility. Uusamakan [represents] three or four favourite ministers.^161 Pui
is [Lady] Puho.^162The spell imitates the often meaningless, foreign-sounding utterances as
well as the repetition of words characteristic of dhras, and moreover
frames them between two genuine Sanskrit words, namas and svh,
both invocations used when addressing a god. Despite this formal
resemblance, it is actually a pastiche of a dhra, using Sino-Korean
titles and perhaps native Korean words transcribed in Chinese charac-
ters to lampoon Queen Chinsöng, who ruined the state by entrusting
her cronies with government affairs. The choice of a pseudo-dhra
as a vehicle for this criticism is signi cant, in that it may have been
intended to poke fun at the over-reliance of the court on Buddhist
ritual in general and dhra in particular.^163 Introduced by Milbon,
(^154) Sanskrit namas.
(^155) “To ruin the nation.”
(^156) The characters , , , and are used to transcribe Indian sounds in dh ra
and mantra. E.g., ke, ka; ni; na; te. This set of characters, however, does
not appear to correspond to any Indian term. The meaning of the character is
“emperor, empress.”
(^157) Sop’an is the third rank in the seventeen Silla of ce ranks. See KYIK, p. 262.
(^158) is perhaps to be read as “kan’gansamagan”. =
ach’ögan. Achögan is the sixth rank in the seventeen Silla of ce ranks. Also called
Ach’an. See Han’guk hanja-ö sajön, vol. 4, p. 724 s.v. agan. KYIK, p. 262.
(^159) See infra, note 162.
(^160) Sanskrit svh. “Hail! Hail to! May a blessing rest on.. .!”, in classical Sanskrit
used in making oblations to the gods, is very common at the end of Buddhist dhras
and mantras. The words before svh are often untranslatable or names of gods and
goddesses (Siglinde Dietz, e-mail communication). 161
Compare with at the beginning of this story:
“Within a few years of gaining the throne, her wet-nurse Lady Puho, together with
her husband Wi Hong chapkan (= chapch’an, third of the seventeen Silla govern-
ment ranks?) and three or four sycophantic ministers, usurped power and meddled in
politics.” see HPC, vol. 6, p. 296 a14–15.
(^162) The wet-nurse of Queen Chinsöng mentioned in the beginning of this story,
see HPC, vol. 6, p. 296 a 14.
(^163) This is chie y attested in the royal ancestor cult; more than ten stpas dating
to the Uni ed Silla period have been found to contain the Wugou jingguang da tuoluoni
jing ( Dhra of Unde led Pure Light, T.1024.19.717–721, Skt.
Ra mivimalavi uddhaprabh-dhra), evidently used to pray for the wellbeing of deceased
kings and create merit on their behalf. This dhra was only introduced in 706, so