Musings on a hat (+update)
A ms. now at the British Library (formerly of India Office Library, Thomas 7740) Mss Eur Hodgson vol. 26 (formerly 31/3h) is a comprehensive description of a thang ka (Skt. paṭa, N. paubāhā) from gZhis ka rtse (Shigatse for you and I, Jikhāche for the author). It was compiled by Amṛtānanda for Brian Hodgson, and it lists no less than 95 deities (plus consorts where applicable). This is the pratijñā as it were: uttarāpaṃthe jikhāche nāma pradeśe likhitāyāṃ paṭapratimāyāṃ nepālabhāṣayā paubāhā iti prakhyātāyāṃ likhitānāṃ devadevīgaṇānāṃ mūrtidhyānanāmāni likhyaṃte||
Aside from the intrinsic interest of this work (and indeed, the entire collection of Hodgson's papers) and aside from the fact that this painting seems to have disappeared, there is one small problem I wish to address here. A few of these `deities' are actually lamas (Tib. bla ma, lāmājū for the author) sporting something called an `ūrdhvajñāna...topikā' (p. 4, l. 1: ... ūrddhvajñānābhidhatopikābhṛt ...; l. 34: ... ūrddhvajñānākhyatoṣikayā ... [sic for topikayā, probably just a smudge]). I may be terribly ignorant here, but I'm still puzzled by this word.
Topi - if you learned Hindi or some similar language - is obviously `hat'. Lamas - or at least some of them - wear paṇ zhwas. Hazy memories from my undergraduate days somehow reminded me that Sum pa mkhan po has a story on how these hats came into fashion: de dus Bhaṃ ga la'i Tsa ti gha bo'i grong khyer gyi paṇ ṭi ta Pi ha ra zhes pa'i gtsug lag khang du mu stegs pa'i rgol ba zhig byung ba'i tshe rgan mo zhig gi kha la nyan nas tsher ma lta bu'i rtse can gyi zhwa gyon nas rtsod pas rgyal ba las paṇ zhwa rtse ring dar ro|| (Dpag bsam ljon bzang, p. 109). Das seem to identify Tsa ti gha bo with Cittagong.
Now what if Amṛtānanda somehow knew about this and produced a fake Skt. ūrdhva-jñāna from taking `gong' to be a Tibetan word for `ūrdhva', and `sems' or `tsi tta' a synonym for `jñāna'? For the time being this is the only way around this problem, but it seems almost too funny to be true.
UPDATE: It seems that I was (almost) entirely mislead. In light of MS Eur Hodgson vol. 26, pp. 89-91, another description of a paṭa from Tibet we find more about the puzzling ūrdhvajñāna hat. In this text we have an ūrdhvajñāna-rumuci, which is probably a re-Sanskritization of ye shes bla ma rin po che. For those versed in things rNying ma pa, here is an appetizer: there is a story here which Amṛtānanda claims to be a 'popular myth'. Ūrdhvajñāna-rumuci (who looks like Padmasambhava from the description, except that he is holding a vajra and a kīla) was an incarnation of Gorakṣa, disciple of Matsyendra. He appeared in this form on his master's command in order to defeat Śaṅkara (son of a widow and Viśveśvara-Rudra of Benares), who was rather miffed about losing a debate with Nāgārjuna and started persecuting Buddhism by disposing of their books. Rumuci defeats him repeatedly in debate and magical contests, the final battle taking place in a place called Guru-bharu. Yet another beautiful 'Himalayan encounter'!
Labels: Amṛtānanda, Hodgson, paṇ zhwa, Sanskrit, Shigatse, tantric studies, yoginītantra
posted by PDSz | 5:27 pm
8 Comments:
Intrinsically interesting, or laughing stock? The answer -- depending on who it's coming from -- may be a foregone conclusion.
These seem to me the `great-granddads' of all buddhological texts, and hence deserve great respect.
Have you ever heard of this ūrdhvajñāna-hat before? Do you think that the rather roundabout solution is plausible?
Hi PSz,
I think Das is right about the identification of Cittagong, although it was his own birthplace, and he would have had a vested interest in such identifications, so we should toss the whole idea out. No, seriously (ignoring that joke on contemporary historicist thinking, but taking seriously anyway the fact about where S.C. Das was born...), I have a note on the usage of a form Tsā-ṭi-gra-ma, as a name of a town in Bengal, in the late Khetsun Sangpo's Biographical Dictionary of Tibet & Tibetan Buddhism, vol. 1, p. 459. Perhaps you have a copy handy you could check.
Wasn't Cittagong also the birthplace of Naropa or Tilopa? I forgot momentarily.
Yours, D
Hmm. Actually Das did have a big interest in his home town. He even wrote this rarely cited century-old article: A Note on the Antiquity of Chittagong, Compiled from the Tibetan Works Pagsam Jon-Zan of Sunpa Khonpo and Kâhbab Dun-dan of Lama Târâ Nâtha. JRASB 67 (1898) 20-28.
So this proves something, doesn't it?
Your D.
Sorry about glutting your inbox with my junk mail. A little Googling turned up this one, which anyway I had on my laptop. You must have seen it. It's an article on the Pandita hat by Ettienne Bock in Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, issue 13 of the year 2008. At p. 16, etc. you will find passages about the hat in question, including a quote by Târanâtha, too. We should all wear funny hats with thorny tips on top, then we would win all our debates no matter how funny. Get the point?
This tinyurl should take you directly to the PDF:
http://tinyurl.com/ycs9heu
Cheers,
D.
Thanks D.! Read the update when you find the time. Does this ring a bell?
Both Hodgson and Amṛtānanda knew who Padmasambhava was; although I am unsure whether Hodgson's drawing of Padmasambhava was the first, or just among the first, published in the West. Hodgson also referred to the story you mention in print, over 170 years ago. Respectable? Total nobody -- at least among respected Buddhist studies circles -- would be closer to the mark.
Isn't Marpa remembered at Itum Bahal? I seem to remember something like that.
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