Монгол Ганжуурын ариутган зассан тухай асуудалд

On the issues of revising the Mongol Ganjur

Abstract

The Űliger-űn dalai is a Mongolian version of the sutra known in Sanskrit as Damamūkonāma-sūtra and in Tibetan as Mdzangs blun zhes bya ba'i mdo (Sutra of the Wise Man and the Fool), translated by Širegetű gűsi čorji. There are several other known Mongolian translations of this particular sutra, including those produced by Čűltimlodoi, Toyin gűsi, and Zaya Pandita Namqayijamču. This translation of Širegetű gűsi čorji is renowned as the Űliger-űn dalai /Ocean of Tales/ and copies are widespread amongst Mongolians. It is recorded that Űliger-űn dalai was translated by Širegetű gűsi čorji at the end of the text which is preserved at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of St. Petersburg in Russia. There is no information about the translator at the colophons of other manuscripts, also in printed texts of 1714 and 1728 or the one that is included in the 90th Volume of Mongolian Printed Kanjur. According to Mongolian source named Čakravarti Altan Qaγan-u tuγuji, translators under the leadership of Širegetű gűsi čorji and Manjusiri Ayuši Ananda translated the Tibetan Kanjur into Mongolian in 1602-1607. Thus, it is evident that Širegetű gűsi čorji played an important role in the Kanjur translation. According to some Tibetan and Mongolian source materials, Širegetű gűsi čorji translated all sutras from the division of the 'bum of Tibetan Kanjur.
Nevertheless, there are only two indications of his name as a translator at the colophons of 'bum sutras. Širegetű gűsi čorji is identified as the translator of the Biligűn činadu kűrűgsen jaγun mingγan toγatu sutra, but there is no indication about the edition. Mdzangs blun's translation of Širegetű gűsi čorji is unique and different from other versions of translations. For instance, there are structural differences because Mongolian translators worked from different Tibetan versions of the same sutra. Thus the Mdzangs blun printed in Mongolia has 52 chapters while it has 51 chapters in all versions contained in the Tibetan Kanjurs. These versions even differ in the number of tales contained in the first chapters. The Tale of Susadi Prince is in the Űliger-űn dalai while it is not in Tibetan Kanjur, for example. This chapter appears to have been translated back into Tibetan and added as a 52nd chapter when printed at the monastery Gungachoiling in Mongolia. Širegetű gűsi čorji translated Űliger-űn dalai at the beginning of the 17th century, and the translated text was edited and included in Mongolian Kanjur almost 100 years later. Today we still are not aware of any Tibetan text that exactly matches Širegetű gűsi čorji's Mongolian translation in terms of structure, style and content. Editors of Mongolian Kanjur have noted the differences between his translation and Tibetan texts, and hence, they have edited its vocabulary and content in accordance with Tibetan version, while retaining its general structure. In other words, they maintained the order and number of chapters as they were in the translation. The Tale of Susadi Prince is hardly edited since there is no existing Tibetan text to use in comparison. A question that arises in this connection that whether we can regard the most recently edited translation of Širegetű gűsi čorji as a version of Űliger-űn dalai sutra or not.
There are noticeable differences of structure and content between a Tibetan text that was used by Űliger-űn dalai for his translation and other Tibetan texts that are available to us today. This shows that there were several different versions of the Tibetan Mdzangs blun text. Studies on Mongolian translations of Mdzangs blun as well as later edition of Širegetű gűsi čorji’s translation suggest to us that it would be fruitful to undertake a comparative study of both Mongolian and Tibetan texts since studies of the Tibetan text are related to our research on Mongolian translation.