Indian Kavya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himalayas - Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality - Dan Martin

8/3/2019 Indian Kavya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himalayas - Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality - Dan Martin

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Indian Kvya Poetry on the Far Side of

the Himlayas Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality

Dan MartinVersion: Dec. 21, 2004

The lake filled with Jinendra's liquid knowledgethe skillful workers churned, and born of their churning, the sun;

the sun a blazing hood-ornament of a cobra from whichthe sign of killing the benighted ones' darkness,the swaying tendrils entwining the sword of insight, came,the sword that will and must protect us.1

Introduction

The opening homage verse, borrowed and translated fromBod Mkhas-pa's 1678 CE commentary on Dain's Kvya

Mirror, is offered here for the same reason it was offeredthere, as a homage to the sources of inspiration and a hopefor insight. At the same time it supplies a relatively simplesampling of the types of problems commonly confronted inattempts to transmit Tibetan poetry of the Indian kind inEnglish medium. For the time being, I will not attempt toexplain every facet of this culturally complex verse by anauthor who is widely considered to be the most lucid and

1 Because the page is missing in Bod Mkhas-pa (1972), I have used anotherversion of the same text in Kvya Texts from Bhutan (1976: 282). Tibetanreaders may judge whether I have rendered this originally four-line verseaccurately enough. The 's' alliterations in my rather free translation arepartially justified in the 's' sounds in three of the verbs in the original (theverbs for 'churning,' 'killing' and 'protecting'), but they also seemed to gonicely with the image of the snake. rgyal dbang mkhyen pa'i chu mtsho legsbyas kyis // bsrubs skyes nyi ma 'bar ba'i gdengs ka nas // rmongs pa'i munpa gsod rtags shes rab kyi // ral gri'i khri shing g.yo ba des srungs shig. Inmy footnotes I have attempted to balance the needs of Tibetologists,Indologists and non-specialists who might want to follow up on, criticize, or

develop upon these research efforts, but with no pretense of completebibliographical coverage.

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eloquent Tibetan interpreter of Dain, except to supply themost basic keys to understanding it. Having no way ofknowing how much of it made sense to you already, Iassume that many English readers will not recognize that,

as so often in homage verses, the divine object ofinvocation is indicated through metonymy. The sword (wemight think of this as an 'emblem') wielded in the right handof Majur ('Gentle [Voiced] Lord') stands in the place ofthe whole divine form of this compassionate, andregardless of the sword by no means militant, Bodhisattva.Majur is a focus of human aspirations in the realm oforal and literary arts generally, with more specific links tothe insight (praj) and memory (smti) that figure

iconographically in the sword and book to His right and left.Bod Mkhas-pa's homage prayer in fact continues for a fewpages, with most of it devoted not to Majur, but rather toSarasvat, His feminine counterpart in the inspiration oflanguage arts. Sarasvat is often more specificallyconnected to musicality and poetics (symbolized by thev held in Her lap), and sometimes grammar, too.Although the first line makes reference to the Buddha's(here called Jinendra, 'Lord of Victors') knowledge, most ofthe imagery is drawn from a relatively well known (toTibetans) non-Buddhist account of the creation, or rathercosmic renewal, of the universe in the myth of the churningof the ocean of milk gods on one side, demons onanother, playing tug of war with a snake wrapped aroundthe churning stick formed by the cosmic mountain. Thisscene is most impressively displayed in statues outside theeastern gate of Bayon Temple near Angkor Wat, as well ason reliefs on the walls of the circumambulatory of the maintemple of Angkor Wat itself.2 The snake wrapped around

the churning stick (the cosmic mountain) is poeticallyequated with the tendrils entwining the sword. Images ofworld-creation, Buddhist enlightenment, and literarycreativity are thus intertwined and condensed in a culturallyrich and creative way. This tendency to engage imagesfrom non-Buddhist mythology, or to refer to things known in

2 I speak from personal experience, based on my recent visit to Cambodia,although those who require a published source may see Bhattacharyya

(1959), or any one of a large number of illustrated guides to the ruins thathave been published in recent years.

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India but absent in Tibet Well, how many home-boundTibetans could have ever seen a live cobra? is aconstant in Tibetan traditions ofkvya. These types of alienyet somehow and in some degree naturalized Indian

cultural images, which seemingly fill the repertoires of somany Tibetan poets, make it difficult to present literaryrenditions of their poetry without weighting down each linewith one or more superscribed footnote numbers. Over-explanation, as is only too well known, may spell death toliterary appreciation.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle in making Tibetan literatureknown to a larger academic audience is precisely this use

of Indic literary conventions. Tibetologists are sometimesforced to think their way through two cultures, and scholarswho are truly and equally conversant with Indian andTibetan cultures and their languages are rare, the potentialpitfalls many, the amount of unfinished work daunting. Itwould perhaps be foolhardy to expect non-specialists, oreven specialists on one side or the other, to follow all theconvoluted calculations and attendant complications thattake place when translators from Tibetan look backward toIndia before going forward to the modern target language.This demands proficiency in three literary culturesembedded in at least three difficult languages.

In literary as well as other aspects of Tibetan culturalhistory, we are often compelled to take sides. We eitherkeep our feet rooted in Tibetan soil, looking down on India,perhaps even trying to ignore India altogether, or standsquarely in India, looking up at Tibet, with an interest to findthere only what is relevant to India, perhaps ignoring the

rest of Tibet altogether. The Himlayas would seem to befar too high a barrier for us to 'straddle the fence.' Tibet iseither a conservative storehouse of Indian literature, aculture of calque translators and cultural copycats, or, quitethe contrary, Tibet is a self-contained studio filled withcreative artists, crafting their own language in their ownspecial styles. All I can suggest for now is that the truesituation is to be located somewhere in between or aroundthese alternative, and for myself at least, bewilderingly

alternating, points of view. We stand anxiously on the sideof the road, looking one way and then the other, hoping to

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emerge unscathed from the cultural traffic bearing down onus from both sides of the text. We should learn to live withit. Perhaps then something creative could come out of it.Tibetan literature, whatever the influences on it, still ought

to be judged as something Tibetan, produced for thesatisfaction of Tibetan tastes (however elitist and however'Indian' those tastes might be) and while tracing Indianpatterns and influences, we should resist collapsing it allback on India as if those influences had never left home.

While not counting myself among those adequate to thetask, I would like to venture to say something, from aperspective that is primarily historical even when not strictly

regimented along chronological lines, about the culturaltransfer of Indian literature, its impact on Tibet, and usesTibetans made of it in their own literary creations. Therebeing a need to simplify without compromising, withoutoverstating or overcompensating, the writer, if not entirelyblocked, keeps wondering how best to put things, how far tosteer the mode of presentation toward one or another kindof imagined reader. Perhaps we should just get started andsee what happens, but first a few words about the Tibetanlanguage and its degrees of representation.

The idea that Tibetologists adopted their transcriptionsystems from Welsh, given that both have a large numberof unpronounced letters, expresses a popular perception aswell as a widespread lack of knowledge of how the Tibetansystem of writing works.3 But rather than give grosslyphonetic approximations of pronunciation, as done in many

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My knowledge of this popular idea about the transliteration of Tibetanbeing based on Welsh is based primarily on oral information, although for aprinted source I could mention a paperback journalistic account of TibetanBuddhism in the United States entitled Open Secrets by Walt Anderson (Iseem to have mislaid my copy). It is especially surprising to see thestatement that Tibetan transcription systems are "derived from thecustomary spelling of Old Irish" in the late Marianne Winder's introduction toRechung Rinpoche's (1976: 5) book on Tibetan medicine. We could justlaugh this off, if only it had been intended as a joke. Just fifty years ago,paper presenters in Asian studies conferences would simply do their best topronounce every letter, saying for instance "s-p-r-u-l s-k-u," which nowadaysthey would pronounce ulku (a slight trill of an 'r' following the initial 't' sound

and with the 'l' very softly articulated), approximating Central Tibetanpronunciation.

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popularizing accounts, which at the same time all toofrequently renders the names unrecognizable to those whodo know Tibetan, I will give Tibetan proper names in theirshortest possible forms (but using phonetic versions for

proper names that are quite well known, like Milarepa orTsongkhapa), relegating the more technical Tibetologicaldiscussions of nomenclature, terminology and bibliographyto the footnotes (I do want other researchers to follow up onmy sources and criticize my use of them where necessary).Wherever possible and appropriate, we will at least employterms and names more familiar to Indologists, but eventhen with a general preference for English-languageformulations.

While we will focus first of all on Indian kvya-styleliterature that found a home in Tibet, I approach the task asa Tibetologist, imagining what might be more interestingfrom an Indologist's point of view. Although interesting in itsown right as well as relevant to many of our concerns, I willlimit discussion about Tibetan compositions, whether inkvya style or not. I simply cannot cover all this scatteredmaterial, some of it rare or entirely unavailable. 4 Amongother related topics of interest, I will say only a little aboutIndian-language manuscripts that were preserved in Tibet(there were many), and nothing about why it was India, notChina, that supplied the outside models for Tibetan learningand literature (evidently due primarily to a desire to receiveBuddhist teachings directly from their sources, both humanand textual, in India). I will be as plain-spoken as possible,not quoting nearly enough of the poetry, while avoiding themore arcane tidbits of Tibetology; well, as far as that'spossible. If I do not entirely succeed in this, I hope my

effort will be appreciated.

4 There is one very useful three-volume anthology of close to two hundredkvya-style Tibetan compositions (Blo-bzang-chos-grags 1988), all the moreuseful for being chronologically arranged. Although not comprehensive, itdoes allow an overview of many or even most of the main texts that ought tobe considered in a more ambitious study than I can offer here. It oftenhelpfully supplies footnote explanations of the words and images least likely

to be understood by modern-day Tibetans. For further comments on thispublication, see Kapstein (2003: 789).

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So, to start by spouting a few tentative generalities aboutIndian kvya in India: Indian kvya could be characterizedin a number of related phrases, which might include, 'artisticliterature,' 'fine literature,' and 'court literature.' It is usually

thought to grow out of, and certainly is, in its content, ofteninspired by, the epic literature. It often, but surely notalways, corresponds to what we would call poetry, since italso includes poetic prose, mixed prose-and-verse genres(camp), and dramas. We find kvya in literary epistlesand even in donative inscriptions. At the same time, thereis a great deal of Indian literature which, while in verse, isfar too prosaic to be called kvya, including such things asastronomical and medical treatises (although these, too,

may on occasion contain kvya in a strict sense of theword). For simplicity, and to avoid misconceptions, we willjust call it by its proper Sanskrit word kvya.

It is arguable, historically, that the very earliest availablekvya (of course, ignoring for now the kvya elements inthe epic literature) was produced by Buddhists, meaningprimarily the two mahkvya works by Avaghoa,5 inabout the first or second century, and hymns by Mtceacomposed soon after. As a general rule in India, kvya wasproduced for royal patrons, or at least with hopes ofbenefiting from royal largesse. The authors wereoverwhelmingly Brahmins. Even Buddhist kvya writerswere, with some exceptions, Brahmins who had converted.In the Buddhist case, some of these works might not havebeen supported by royal patrons, but rather had the aim ofbeing consumed by the royal court, perhaps with the idea ofinfluencing them to convert to Buddhism. We will note nowand then, in passing, that much of the kvya-style literature

in Tibet, whether translated from Indian sources or freshly

5 The first work is the Buddhacarita Mahkvya (Sangs-rgyas-kyi spyod-pazhes bya-ba'i snyan-dngags chen-po), Thoku no. 4156 (Derge Tanjur, vol.GE [172], fols. 1v.1-103v.2), translated by Sa-dbang-bzang-po[Mahndrabhadra] & Blo-gros-rgyal-po [i.e., Mdo-smad-pa Blo-gros-rgyal-po]. The Tibetan translation, made in around 1270 CE, has 28 chapters,while the available Sanskrit text ends in the middle of chapter 14. Therehave been numerous studies and translations of this text which will not belisted here, since ample bibliographical references may be found in Jackson

(1997). The second work is the Saundarananda Mahkvya, which wastranslated into Tibetan only in recent years (Avaghoa 1999).

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composed in Tibet, was in some degree likewise sponsoredby ruling powers.

There have been precious few publications about literary

aspects of Tibetan studies, and what little there is will befound scattered here and there.6 Literature as such doesnot fill the cultural niche that the academy reserves forTibet. In the United States in particular, positions in TibetanStudies are usually located in Religious Studiesdepartments. Only two general surveys of Tibet's kvya-style literary culture have been published in English or anyEuropean language, and these only recently. Quite apartfrom, and in contrast to, these exemplary works by theprofessors Matthew Kapstein and Leonard van der Kuijp,7we might quote from the late Rolf Stein's chapter in hisbook Tibetan Civilization, where he said something rathercharacteristic of the attitudes of many other Tibetanists,then and now, especially those who are not particularlyIndologically inclined. Stein writes here about the morethan three hundred volumes of the Buddhist scriptures (theKanjur) and scripture-based treatises (the Tanjur) that were with only a very few significant exceptions from Chineseand Khotanese translated from Indic languages:

6 The main problem with this statement is the existence of the admirablyexceptional school that has formed around Michael Hahn and associates,centered at Marburg, Germany. But even in this case, while many relevantworks may be found in Hahn's series published by Tibetica et Indica Verlag,much of the other material is scattered here and there, in Indian journalsthat may not be widely available or in not yet published dissertations. 7 Van der Kuijp (1996) and Kapstein (2003), to which we might add theunpublished seminar paper by E. Gene Smith, quite difficult to obtain, to bementioned presently. Of the two published surveys, Kapstein's is the moreaccessible and extensive in its coverage, even while van der Kuijp's is still

indispensable. Also quite relevant, although only in small part on kvya, isJackson (1996). There have been some very significant early studies by E.Gene Smith, including both Smith (2001, a collection of his studies done inthe 1960's-80's) and a still-unpublished seminar paper (Smith 1964).Further sources of information relevant to the influence of Dain on Tibetanliterature will be given later on. I cannot claim to displace the importance ofany of these previous works; I have a somewhat different emphasis (oftenignoring things that are after all important How can one possibly covereverything?), bring forward a few under- or un-utilized sources, state thingsin my own way, and draw my own conclusions, even if not especially orentirely original. I am aware that in very recent years some fairly largehistories of Tibetan literature have been published in Tibetan language byTibetan authors, but I have not made use of them since I do not have copiesof them yet.

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These texts are nearly all translated from Sanskrit andcouched in an artificial language closely modeled on theSanskrit original, not only as regards vocabulary but even in itssyntax... We need not, therefore, concern ourselves with

literature which has nothing specifically Tibetan about it.

This statement shows clearly Stein's unwillingness (and asa Sinologist, his apparent inability) to go back to the Indiansources. Later on he says, only this time not abouttranslation literature but about works composed byTibetans:

Numerous works, on the other hand even chronicles andbiographies are written in an ornate, flowery style, modeledon the Indian alakra. Although this style certainly strikes usas turgid, and its ponderous tone and lengthy sentences arethe translator's despair, it possesses a stylistic refinementwhich is undoubtedly much appreciated by the Tibetans.8

These are just the same stylistic complaints that foreignscholars have so often made about Indian kvya. Ofcourse, if the Tibetan product really is all that derivative, itcannot be so very original and interesting, and we are left

clueless why (any, let alone 'the') Tibetans would soundoubtedly appreciate it. And if it is so much appreciatedby Tibetans, surely this fact ought to be appreciated byTibetologists. Not only Stein, who besides beingSinologically oriented always had a special and ratherunusually strong and commendable interest in 'popular' andnon-elitist aspects of Tibetan culture, but among Tibetans,too, some have held conflicting or ambivalent views aboutthe value ofkvya in and of itself.

First, some positive evaluations, although in these contextsthe author, Bod Mkhas-pa, is apparently anticipating someobjections to kvya that had already been voiced in thepast. In the early pages of Bod Mkhas-pa's commentary onDain, he cites Chos-rje Rgya-ras-pa's Teaching Cycle on

8 Please note that these comments (Stein 1972: 250-252) are part of whatwas probably the best discussion of Tibetan poetry at the time it was written,

and remains significant today for its examples and discussions of OldTibetan and folk poetry (pp. 196-197, 248-281).

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Interdependent Origination (Rten-'brel-gyi Chos-skor),which says,

Although meditating hermits may not have the opportunity toaccomplish extensive learning, still they must respect all theknowable objects and the ones who make them known. Theyshould rejoice in their successes. Starting with the [lowliest]blacksmiths, they should borrow the hammer, hold it in theirhands, and make a prayer of aspiration, 'May I become skillfuleven in such things.'

Note, too, Bod Mkhas-pa's own comment:

All the scriptures related to inner science (Buddhism) areexisting exclusively in the form of poetry (snyan-ngag, kvya).

All the other sciences make use of it, so that it is like the iris ofthe eye for seeing all knowables.9

We might contrast this to Rten-ne's comments on kvya inhis lengthy commentary contained in the mid-thirteenth-century manuscript of the Zhi-byed Collection. Here kvyatreatises are one of a number of types of treatises (stra)deemed useless from a spiritual perspective:

'In the hands of the pundits are many unhelpful teachings,' it

says. Among these are human, horse, and elephant judging,stras on stances, judging debates and so forth. Also, judging crows' teeth, physical exercise, kvya of worldlypeople and many other things which are unnecessary, even ifthere are many who make as if there were some need forthem.10

9 Bod Mkhas-pa (1972: folios 7 and 11). The first quote Bod Mkhas-pa tookfrom a text by Gtsang-pa Rgya-ras-pa Ye-shes-rdo-rje (1161-1211 CE) onthe spiritual and esoteric dimensions of the universally Buddhist idea ofinterdependent origination (Skt. prattyasamutpda). Several volumes oftexts belonging to this general cycle, important to the early 'Brug-pa Bka'-brgyud-pa school, have been published, but I have so far been unable totrace this particular citation in them.10Zhi-byed Collection (1979: V 423). This collection continued to developthroughout the 12th and the first decade of the 13th century, expandingaround a core of Indian texts brought to (or [re-]produced in?) Tibet byPhadampa (d. 1117). I have argued for the dating of the manuscript as awhole, and Rten-ne's authorship of this particular commentary, in anotherplace (these conclusions are, admittedly, far from obvious). For an

explanation of the still-current phrase "judging crows' teeth," evidently ofIndic origin (kkadanta) see Gyatso (1997: 161, 169).

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This was probably written around the year 1200, by Rten-ne, a holder of a lineage of the Andhra-born Buddhistteacher known as Phadampa (d. 1117 CE). 11 Phadampahimself never spoke without employing poetic metaphors or

other types of enigmatic or symbolic language. An earlierperson in Rten-ne's lineage even composed a workdisentangling the upmas used by Phadampa (many ofthese poetic images are also found in the preservedcollections of 'free-standing' [muktaka] verses byPhadampa's 54 Indian teachers, which may be among theearliest multi-authored anthologies of this kind12). But hereRten-ne is not objecting to poetic expression (orcompositions) per se, only to kvya of the secular kind,

which would not, in itself, be conducive to religious goals. Itis perhaps good to keep in mind that not only moderncosmopolitan Tibetologists, but some early Tibetans as well,have had ambivalent attitudes about kvya. I wouldventure to say that in the past in Tibet, perhaps even muchmore so than in India, kvya was roughly as popular asItalian opera is in the U.S. to the proverbial 'man-in-the-street.' There seems to have been an intermittent tensionbetween those ready to admit kvya's choreography ofsigns in the service of beauty and charm as potentially self-sufficient, in need of no external justification, and those whocould only appreciate this kind of verbal display as onepossible means to further some higher, almost inevitablyBuddhist, idea or aim.

Since Dain for many centuries was the source (directlyand indirectly) for theories about kvya and composition ingeneral,13 Dain himself came to form a contested figure

11 The name by which he is best known to Tibetans of the last five or morecenturies is Pha-dam-pa Sangs-rgyas, which could be translated 'FatherHoly Buddha.' Clearly, this is an epithet, and not a proper name.Kamalar is his most usual Indian name (a monastic ordination name),although there are still others. His immediate disciples in Ding-ri mostcommonly addressed him simply as Dam-pa ('Holy One').12 Schaeffer (n.d.) offers arguments for this. One ought to consider otherpossibly still earlier anthologies, such as those listed in Bhattacharji (1995:139-140).13 From one perspective, Tibet would seem to have missed out on the rich

developments of poetic theory that occurred in India after Dain. Someother Alakra treatises were known and referred to in Tibetan literature, andsome manuscripts were preserved in Tibetan monasteries, but it is

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for Tibetans. Many longed to see in him and his work sometrace, however small, of Buddhist identity. If it were onlypossible to see him as a Buddhist, his literary advice couldmeet with easier acceptance in a society so deeply

immersed in Buddhism. Every Tibetan commentary onDain's Kvya Mirror deals in its own way with thisproblem. Bod Mkhas-pa, after discussing briefly theproblem of Dain's religious affiliation, concludes that hedrew inspiration from both Buddhist and non-Buddhistsources, and therefore it is not really possible to be sureabout his religion. He cites a work by rdharasena on theways to draw portraits of the one hundred [and eightMah]siddhas. This text says, "Dain, yellow color, with

female attendant."

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The yellow color might suggest he wasa wearer of Buddhist robes. He notes how some peoplesay things like, 'Slob-dpon Dpa'-bo [i.e., crya ra, orryara] was known by this name [Dain] before heentered the Buddhist way.' The opinion of Bod Mkhas-pa'sown teacher was that in reality Dain was a non-Buddhist(a Trthika), that he belonged to the particular group thatcarried the trident. The name Dain could not possiblyhave been used by a monk, a bhiku, even if he were aconvert. Bod Mkhas-pa expresses his disagreement withthe practice of placing drawings of Dain in monastic garbon the title pages of commentaries. Clearly, even amongkvya students in Tibet, there was a great deal ofdiscussion about Dain's usefulness to Buddhists,

nevertheless true that Dain was the single poetics textbook for Tibetans,and further developments in Tibetan literary theory, until quite recently, grewout of discussions on it. Bhmaha seems to have been known to Tibetansonly via Dain's arguments with him. A manuscript of Mammaa'sKvyapraka (composed in Kashmir in ca. 1050), complete in 73 wide foliopages, was found in Tibet, at Zha-lu Monastery, by Rahula Sa ktyyanaand Dge-'dun-chos-'phel (Dge-'dun-chos-'phel 1990: I 23). However, I knowof no indication that Mamaa's work, destined to become perhaps themost widely used poetics textbook in India, had even the slightest influencein Tibet. Dge-'dun-chos-'phel comments "This is nowadays in India thetextbook everyone studies."14 Bod Mkhas-pa (1972: folio 12). The quote would have to be fromrsena's Caturatisiddhbhisamaya (Grub-thob brgyad-bcu'i mngon-parrtogs-pa), Thoku no. 4317 (Derge Tanjur, vol. NGO, folios 15v.6-17r.7).One doesn't really expect to find a figure named Dain numbered amongthe Mahsiddhas, but in this particular work, we do find the line about

Dbyug-pa-ba (Dain, although in Tibetan the name is usually simplytransliterated, and when translated, Dbyug-pa-can), at folio 16 verso, line 6.

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especially if he was, as seems to us today quite certain, nothimself Buddhist.15

Early Kvya in Tibet: The Evidence of the Stotras.

To state briefly the history that we will go on to deal with ingreater detail, Dain's work,16 written in around the lateseventh century, was partially translated and paraphrasedin the early thirteenth century by Sa-skya Paita17 andcompletely translated for the first time in around 1270 byShong-ston. It may be argued (although not entirely true,not true without some qualification) that Tibetans only

began composing poetry in the full kvya mode in the earlyfourteenth century (these early examples are all byfollowers of Shong-ston that have not yet been published,although they exist in manuscript form). However, it is notthe case that Tibetan involvement with kvya starts onlywith the translation of Dain. As Kapstein and others havealready pointed out, Tibetan words had been coined forkavi(snyan-ngag-mkhan) and kvya (snyan-dngags, often inmore recent times spelled snyan-ngag) by the early ninth

15 One essential phase in the Buddhicization of Dain took place, no doubt,when the 10th-century Sinhalese Buddhist monk Ratnarjna composedhis commentary on the Kvya Mirror. This commentary, even though notranslation was ever released to the public, was known to a few Tibetans,employed by the translators of Dain's text and by its Tibetancommentators. Ratnarjna, after Dain himself, was very likely thesecond most important source of Tibetan knowledge ofkvya and its history.The content of his commentary was largely incorporated into the Tibetancommentarial tradition, and the Buddhist identity of the author surelyfacilitated this. Note in this connection how the colophon of the 1586 workof Rin-spungs-pa (1983: 525) suggests that among the many Indian

commentaries, two were influential in Tibet those of Ratnar andVgvara.16 For a general study of Dain's Kvya Mirror, including its translation intoTibetan, studies by Tibetan scholars, text editions paralleling the Sanskritand Tibetan, together with German translation of its chapter one and soforth, see Dmitrov (2002). Chapter two has been studied in an unpublisheddoctoral dissertation (Eppling 1989) which I haven't yet been able to study inany detail. Chapter three of the Tibetan translation remains basicallyunstudied so far as I know.17 For a major study of section three of this work by Sa-skya Paita, theMkhas-pa-la 'jug-pa'i sgo, see Jackson (1987). I have only recently learned

of a study of the first two sections, the ones on literary composition andexposition, for which see Gold (2003).

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century,18 and at the same time scholars translated someexamples ofkvya literature, primarily but not exclusively inthe form of stotras and letters, among them works ofMtceta and Candragomin, as well as the Jtakaml of

ryara. A catalog of translations made in the early ninthcentury includes a section of translated stotras numbering17 titles.19 Of course, some of these stotra translationshave since been replaced by translations done later on.For the time being we will restrict ourselves to stotras.Ignoring the epistles, for which there is a fine publication,20we will also ignore eighth- to ninth-century inscriptions, foreven though there may be some moderately poetic imagesin them, I think there is no good reason to think they are

written under kvya inspiration.

21

Tibet had its ownindigenous poetry, which continued even as Indian kvyawas going through a naturalization process, about whichmore presently.

Although Dain was among the earliest of the literarytheorists, he was preceded by others, and some of thebest-known exemplars of kvya literature, noting in

18 It is probably significant, too, that this same text, the Mahvyutpatti, has

no section particularly devoted to poetic terminology, although it does havespecial sections for music, Sanskrit grammar and so forth. It is true thatsome terms of composition are included in a more general listing of wordsconcerning expressions both spoken and written (nos. 1430-1477), andamong these terms are the basic forms of composition, words for 'meter'(including only one term for a specific meter, the one known as daaka in Tibetan, rgyun-chags on which see van der Kuijp 1986a). Still, welook in vain for any specific names of alakras. Even some of the basicvocabulary items of alakrastra, like rasa, anubhva or vibhva, areeither missing or, when found, listed among non-literary terms.19 For complete editions of this text, see Yoshimuri (1950) and Lalou (1953),

besides which there have been a number of studies.20 Dietz (1984). Partially for reasons of economy, I have also excluded the'good sayings' or 'fine expressions' (subhita or, in Tibetan, legs-bshad)literature from consideration in this paper, although it is certainly an Indicliterary genre and one to which Tibetans had their own original contributionsto make (see especially Sternbach 1981: 105; Hahn 1984; van der Kuijp1986, and references therein supplied).21 For the epistles in Tibetan with German translations, see the justmentioned work by Siglinde Dietz (1984), and for the largely prosaicinscriptions, in both Tibetan and English translation, see Richardson (1985).Another place to look for early Indic kvya-like influence might be in Tibetan

knowledge of Indian epic literature (see Kapstein 2003: 758-762), althoughthis, too, will not receive much attention here.

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particular the fourth-century works of Klidsa, had alreadybeen composed well before his time. I would argue that theinfluence of Indian kvya was starting to be felt in Tibet longbefore the translation of Dain, and now I would like to say

more on this issue. This might seem too obvious toconstitute an issue. After all, prescriptive texts would nothave been truly necessary if there had been sufficientexemplars of actual kvya at hand. Well, that is my pointexactly.

For economy of words, we will focus on a single stotra toSarasvat, then go on to mention a few others briefly.Sarasvat is well known as the divine patron of all theverbal arts, so it is only fitting that She should be the centralfigure in some of the first kvya translations. Bod Mkhas-pa,in his commentary on Dain's opening verse in praise ofSarasvat, quotes from the Praise of Sarasvat by theBrahmin Bhaspati, among other sources. A completetranslation will be offered presently,22 but first a briefexplanation of the first verse, which must seem rather un-poetic and odd to most readers. After quoting theKaraavyha Stra for the story of the Hindu gods (thegods of the 'other side') emerging from various parts of

Avalokitevara's body, Bod Mkhas-pa makes theremarkably liberal comment:

It is true that the tantra scriptures call Her a consort ofMajur, while in Her deeper aspect She is identical with theMother of All Buddhas Prajpramit. Still, since bothinsiders and outsiders take Her as the divine focus of their highaspirations, Her compassion doesn't take sides with one or theother, and so Her blessings are all the greater, and She isespecially sublime.23

In the passage from the Karaavyha Stra that BodMkhas-pa quotes, Avalokitevara foresees that in a futuretime there will be people who will not be tamed by the forms

22 The translation is based solely on Brahmin Bhaspati (Bram-ze Phur-bu),Brahmaputrsarasvatstotrasiddhivkyaprabh (Tshangs-pa'i bu-moDbyangs-can-ma-la bstod-pas grub-pa ngag-gi 'od-zer), Thoku no. 3698(Derge Tanjur, vol. MU, folios 329r.6-330v.4), translated by Sum-pa Lo-ts-ba Dar-ma-yon-tan (who would most likely have been the translator of no.

3697 as well).

23 Bod Mkhas-pa (1972: fol. 20).

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with Buddha and Bodhisattva appearances, but ratherthrough the forms of the non-Buddhist gods. So Brahma,Viu, iva, sun, moon, etc. emerge from various parts ofHis body.24 Note while reading the following verses that use

is made of certain technical terms of kvya poetics. TheSanskrit terms are placed in square brackets, so thatSanskritists will immediately recognize them.

SPEECH RAYAttainment through the Praise of the Daughter of Brahma,

Sarasvat.

Homage to Majughoa.

1Manifestly emanated from the tip of a canine toothin the mouth of Avalokitevara, youwished to take into your care the other sidewith multiple forms of your compassion.

2So you, beautiful daughter of Brahma,your form conspicuously filled with emotional expression [vibhva],with Viu's shape, you hold the viwith a style that's delightful.

3

Your playful acting [kr or ll] arouses love [anurga].You seem to be just sixteen years old.You love to play with the garlands of frothon the shores of the watery treasury.

4Whoever mentally recollects the accomplishmentsin your truly praiseworthy life story,Daughter of Gandharvas, will be grantedrichness and power in speech.

5I think of you and my two hands,

their hairs exceedingly trembling,like a newly opening blossomI join at the top of my head

6with earnest veneration from my heart.Your qualities cannot be comprehended.

24 See Studholme (2002: 40), for the source in the Stra together with atranslation. While Bod Mkhas-pa might seem to be especially open toHindu religion, in fact he like the stra passage he quotes is rather, withwhat could be called an 'aggressive tolerance,' placing Buddhist deities in a

position of priority to the Hindu ones (ergo whatever is good about Hinduismcomes from Buddhas).

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Still, what little I know I offer in worshipwith this compositional rosary.

7Your body is like an ocean of milk,like kunda, like the kumudbathed in moonlight

with a splendor that entirely surrounds youin a rosary of pure white light.8

The gods lose their minds;with shouts of joy they keep praising you.This being so, it goes without saying your clear-mindeddevotee who believes in them will, too.

9On a pure white lotus you sit.On the tip of its waving anthers where there restsa cushion made of the hare-bearing (moon),

your pose is one of upright alertness, a look of pride. 10One face, two hands, and the melodious soundsof the gandharva's v when [its strings] are stretched,when you sing to its accompanimentthe three worlds and their myriad beings find satisfaction.

11It's soft and supple, long and winding,its color black as bees, your hair,hanging down the back and down both sides,slightly oiled and twisted up in a bun,

12

with a white flower garland to tie it withand a moon ornament on top...gold earrings dangling, pretty cheekbones,a smiling face.

13Your lower sari made of cloth from Kucalindawith a bouquet pattern has the taste [rasa] of attractiveness.You have garlands ofpuarika flowers,pendants, necklaces and chatelaines.

14Your hands and feet have precious rosariesthreaded with the tinkling sounds (of tiny bells).Your body any society of gods,girls orvidydharas would find astounding.

15Young goddess, with the attractiveness of youth,you rob all beings of their senses.Beautifully smiling eyes you have,their corners long and curved,

16eyebrows with a fluttering dance.In return for my constant remembrance of your body,

take me in your care and lookupon me with the flavor [rasa] of delight.

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17Slowly and carefully you go about your businessand speak in the truthful way you do.Meanwhile your child who always praises youis needing to drink the milk of your breasts

18which has the scent ofmlisarpa.With a touch the milk of happiness begins to flowand you console the weeper who is almostentirely worn out from the heart.

19You flatter your child's mindwhile you make all sorts of incoherent sounds,words of ridicule mixed in.In your own mind it may be over,

20but in my mind it's nothing but the badnessof your child that its mother must bepatient with and once again take very goodcare of her child with her love.

21From the rosary of stamens inthe white eight-petalled lotus of the heart,from the spaces in between their lovely reds andyellows, a latticework of light rises up.

22On the soft tip of the pistilthe cool rayed moon is consecratedand in its center, with the color of water crystal,a circle ofhr-s vanquishes the two obscurations.

23On each of its petals, two by two,sit the letters for the vowels: a, , and so on.Slowly it starts revolving to the rightand becomes like a burning rosary of lamps.

24It takes on the shape of a (mountain) peakwith ornaments that emanate rays all around.May it clear away the dark defilements of my mindand grant the supreme intelligence.

25With a bit of the tiniest measurement,the size of a hair, of a light ray of my life force,may my [so small] effort be quickly repaidby touching the goddess's heart.

26When the second wheel revolvesit has a cloud of offerings of the seven kinds.My thoughts, riding on the wind that enters in,(she) makes grow into Full Knowledge. To her I bow.

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27Then the garland ofhr syllables,like a necklace of pearls,only revolving like a whirling firebrand,is expelled through the mouth

28and then injected into the maala of the navel.Once more the seed (syllables) blaze at the tipsof the heating (solar) rays and I take your feet,Sarasvat the speech-granter, on the top of my head.

29If someone who likes to keep things in good order,who avoids lies, has given up the food ofbhta spirits,keeps celibacy and the special practice vowswere to each day recollect the Goddess, invoke the Mother,

30then with a laugh that says, 'Well, which mastery of speechdo you desire?' she will pass out the accomplishmentsas if it were a festival of foodsmade from the three whites: milk, yoghurt and butter.

31Whoever takes such praise of you seriouslywill have all kinds of talents offered to them,they will quickly understand the true meaningsof all the systems of knowledge and reasoning.

32The lamps of the treatises will clear away the darkignorance of beings of the three worlds.May they have attainments likethe Lord of Victors Amityus.

33This is what the hosts of eminent persons,both saints and scholars, teach.Those like myself who have shrunken, keepblabbering nonsense, and just don't know how?

34They must follow you. This echo-like emphasison composition, for getting used to the meanings ofwords, not just once, but many times,is appropriate for a praise.

35Whoever may see these words or learn or constantlyremember, read, recite, contemplate andpenetrate, write out, or even explainthem in detail to others,

May Glorious Sarasvat quickly enter their thought and speech.

This work entitled "SPEECH RAY: Attainment through the Praise

of the Daughter of Brahma, Sarasvat," was written by the

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Brahmin Bhaspati with the personal blessing of the GoddessHerself.

If on first reading, this did not make very much sense, Irecommend re-reading it while bearing in mind its mainparts. The first part (verses 1-16), quite characteristic ofstotra-praises in general, describes the body of Sarasvatin loving detail, intended to evoke a clear mental image andarouse veneration. The following verses (17-20) force atransition from the attractive young goddess to the veryintensely personal, and I would say touchingly imaginative,image of one's own mother before entering into (in verses21-28) a guided visualization practice, a sdhana, endingwith an account of the benefits to be derived from such a

practice (verses 29-35). The sdhana sequence inparticular is somewhat unusual, but it can largely beexplained as a brief form of the already brief sdhanapractice that appears in the text by the same author thatimmediately precedes this one in the Tanjur.25 Except forthe mention of Amityus, Buddha of Unending Light, inverse 32, and of course the borrowing from the Stra inverse 1 (and perhaps the 'two obscurations' in verse 22),one might wonder what is especially Buddhist about it. Yet

we may view the author as a great supporter of Buddhistmonasteries in eastern India, since his name surfaces assuch a number of times in Trantha's celebrated history ofIndian Buddhism.26 I am unable to feel certain about a datefor this Bhaspati, but his association with Buddhapaka, aking based in Vras during the period of the Candrakings would appear to place him in the 3rd or 4thcenturies.27 Assuming our author Brahmin Bhaspati is the

25

Bhaspati, Sarasvatsdhana (Dbyangs-can-ma'i sgrub-thabs), Thokuno. 3697 (Derge Tanjur, vol. MU, folios 329r.2-329r.6).26 For four mentions of a Brahmin Bhaspati, see Chimpa (1990), p. 17(included in a list of great Brahmins who worked for Buddhism), p. 142(active in the reconstruction, after a major fire, of Nalendra Monastery underKing Buddhapaka), p. 144 (King Buddhapaka's minister built a templenamed Devagiri on a hill near the ocean in Bengal; Brahmin Bhaspatiequipped it with all the articles of worship), and pp. 147-148 (he built manyBuddhist temples in the city of *Kaaka in Oivia [Cuttack in Orissa] andarranged for the entertainment of a large number of monks).27 A passage in Chimpa (1990: 155) also suggests that Buddhapaka was a

slightly senior contemporary of Asaga, who is usually placed in the 4th or5th centuries.

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same as the monastic patron Brahmin Bhaspati, whichmay be just that, an assumption, this would be aremarkably early sdhana text (although its very earlinesscould explain its anomalous features). Since the Tibetan

translator of our text, Sum-pa Lo-ts-ba, was active in thelast decades of the twelfth century, for present we can onlysay with great certainty that the text was written sometimebefore that. Indeed, the relative simplicity of the poeticdevices, belied somewhat by the poet's use of some basictechnical terms like rasa28 and vibhva, could in itself be asign of its age. No doubt future research, which will have toinclude the Sanskrit text29 of this intriguing literary piece, willbring some answers to the questions that must remain for

the time being.I will refrain from giving more lengthy examples intranslation, but I would still like to mention a few literaryworks that could help demonstrate early Tibetan knowledgeof kvya quite apart from the reading of Dain. IfBhaspati's poem is relatively simple, in terms of kvyapoetics, the opposite is true of a work by Vajradeva (akaVajradatta). This was translated by the same team thattranslated Dain's Kvya Mirror, and therefore in thevicinity of 1270.30 An edition (which by now could beupdated with still more manuscript witnesses) has long agobeen published, including Sanskrit and Tibetan texts with a

28 Notice that at least five Tibetan words have been used to translateSanskrit rasa in its various contexts: [1] ro, meaning 'taste' or 'flavor,' [2]dngul-chu, meaning 'quicksilver,' [3] bcud, 'nutritive essence,' [4] ngang,'continuing state,' and [5] nyams, 'experience' (and still other meanings; seethe excellent discussion in Gyatso 1999: 117-121, where the use ofnyams

as a technical term in poetics is, however, not mentioned). In poeticscontexts, rasa is generally translated with nyams.29 I have noticed, in an on-line catalogue of the collection of the Asha SaphuKuthi (Kathmandu), the following entry: "Hind tuta [no.] 0662: Pt. 1,Sarasvat stotra, Bhaspati kta," and it would seem there is yet anothercopy with the number 0844. The 'Hind' classification may well bemistaken, since from the author's name and the title alone it would beimpossible to know. It is possible that this text has been published in someanthology of Buddhist (or Hindu) stotras, although to the best of my currentknowledge it has not been.30 Lokevaraatakastotra ('Jig-rten dbang-phyug-gi bstod-pa brgya-pa),

Thoku no. 2728 (Derge Tanjur, vol. NU, folios 96v.4-107r.7), translated byLakmkara and Shong-ston.

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French translation.31 However, only the original Sanskritcan fully display its high degree of literary art, with its veryintensive use of alliteration and yamakas, and itsemployment throughout of the classic sragdhar meter.

Since Vajradeva was a contemporary of King Devapla, hemust date to the first half of the ninth century. Everythingthat is known about his life is contained in one passagefrom Trantha's history:

Now about Vajradeva. He was a householder and byprofession a highly successful bard. He went to Nepal andcame across a degraded trthika yoginwith many perversepractices. He wrote a poem deriding her. By her curse, hewas afflicted with leprosy. He prayed to rya Avalokitevara

and composed each day a verse of praise in sragdhar meter.Thus in about three months he received the vision of ryaAvalokitevara, got cured of the disease and his poem whichconsisted of about a hundred verses remained everywhere inryadea as a model of excellent poetry.32

If I might attempt a tentative translation of verse number 57,relying now on the Sanskrit and now on the Tibetan, itwould seem, although it is difficult to be sure, that this verseamong others might lie behind the biographical account

(meaning that the 'biography' might have evolved as a wayof explaining the poetry). I have tried to give a sense of thebold alliteration, although reproducing the yamaka-typesound-echoes and the meter proves beyond mycapabilities:

Trembling with torment, close to collapse, its courage grown weakthrough the wrath of the wicked,

31 Karpeles (1919). At least nine Sanskrit manuscripts are available now.Even more interestingly, there exists a commentary by one namedDharmarja, listed in the form of a 61-folio Nepalese manuscript long ago inHara Prasad Shstri (1917: 58, no. 55). Two further manuscripts, both in 25folios, are listed in Moriguchi (1989: 110).32 Chimpa (1990: 271). The story has been retold several times, includingWinternitz (1999: II 364, 377) and Krishnamachariar (1970: 330-331); thelatter obviously read Chimpa's translation for himself rather than repeatingwhat had already been said in earlier summaries. The Chimpa translation isa fine one, although I personally consider the translation 'perverse' to be toostrong ('wrong' would have been sufficient). Trthika is used in Buddhistworks to refer to non-Buddhist Indian religions in general. ryadea

('Phags-yul in Tibetan, 'Country of Saints' or 'Holy, Sublime Country') meansIndia as a whole.

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[my] body is bound up with diseases of many different sorts, firmlybesieged by sharp pains difficult to endure.

You give rise to exceptional joy by holding the nourishing nectar, indeep contemplation commanding abundant care.

Wise ones, may He defend your thoughts that they not be subject

to mental agony for the sake of awakening, He who hasBuddha atop His head.

Among the other early translations ofkvya, perhaps mostremarkable is another praise of Sarasvat attributed to anative of South India named Paita Klidsa. There doesnot seem to be any Sanskrit text available for this quitebeautiful set of fifteen verses, more beautiful I would saythan that of Bhaspati, available in an English translation,not especially bad even if not done very well. 33 The Indiantranslator Jnala seems to be otherwise unknown,although the Tibetan translator Chos-'bar is fairly surelyRma-ban Chos-'bar, a very active translator who was bornin 1044 and died in 1089 CE.34

We also have a very nicely done work of praise entitledWith Blessings: A Praise of the Blessed and SublimeMajur by Candragomin, probably written sometimebetween the fifth and seventh centuries.35 It was probably

translated in the decades surrounding 1100 CE.

We should not end without mentioning one work which isstill much admired by Tibetans, in one or another of itstranslations. This is the Sragdhar Praise to Tr by

33 See Thomas (1903), which includes the Tibetan text in transliteration,based on a single textual witness. Sarasvatstotra (Lha-mo dbyangs-can-gyi bstod-pa), Thoku no. 3704 (Derge Tanjur, vol. MU, folios 344v.3-

345v.7), translated by Jnala and Chos-'bar. It seems possible thathere Jnala is a mistake for Jnar, a pundit invited to western Tibetby the King named 'Od-'bar in the 11th century.34 Rma-ban means bande of the Rma clan (in Tibet, bande is frequentlyused to refer to lay religious teachers; it may derive from Sanskrit vandya).Rma-ban was probably not a monk, and it is said that he formed atemporary relationship with Ma-cig Lab-sgron, the most famous womanspiritual leader Tibet ever produced.35 Bhagavadryamajursdhihnastuti (Bcom-ldan-'das 'phags-pa'jam-dpal-gyi bstod-pa byin-rlabs dang bcas-pa), Thoku no. 2710 (DergeTanjur, vol. NU, folios 77r.5-78v.4), translated by Sumatikrti, Blo-ldan-shes-

rab & Mar-pa Chos-kyi-dbang-phyug. Candragomin is of course a well-known figure in Indian literary history.

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Sarvajmitra.36 A very fine and full English translationexists, and to it the interested reader is referred.37

In short, given these examples of kvya in Tibetan

translation (whether or not Sanskrit originals have beenfound for them), and for still other reasons to be givenshortly, we cannot draw the line at 1270 or still earlier in thethirteenth century and say that before that time kvya couldhave had no effect on Tibetan literature just because Dainhad not been entirely translated yet. But for the moment,we should briefly consider what that Tibetan literature thatmight have been effected by Indian kvya might have been.

Local Tibetan Poetry.

I hope no one will entertain the impression that Tibet had nopoetry of its own. It surely did, perhaps even from thebeginnings of writing.38 Poetry during the early Tibetanempire may be characterized either as 1. robust andmilitant, even if not entirely lacking in the tender emotions,or as 2. didactic and/or moralistic. A similar heroic style

36 Three versions are contained in the Tanjur. The first, Thoku no. 1690,has the Tibetan title Phreng-ba 'dzin-pa'i bstod-pa. The second, Thoku no.1691, Me-tog phreng-'dzin-gyi bstod-pa, was translated by Kanakavarma &Pa-tshab Nyi-ma-grags, and revised by Maikarjna & Chos-rje-dpal.The third, Thoku no. 1692, 'Phags-ma sgrol-ma'i me-tog phreng-ba 'dzin- pa'i bstod-pa, was translated by Zla-ba-gzhon-nu. Only the secondtranslation is roughly datable to the decades surrounding 1100 CE.37 Willson (1996: 251-270).38 The usual belief is that writing was introduced from India by the ministerThon-mi Sambhoa in the first half of the 7th century, during the reign of

Emperor Srong-btsan-sgam-po (see the brief discussion in Beyer 1992: 40-41). However, there are quite a number of Tibetan-born scholars nowadayswho lend their support to the claim of the Bon religion that the originalTibetan script was invented in Zhang-zhung, an ancient kingdom in westernTibet, long before Thon-mi. In the beginning it would seem that writing wasdone on woodslips (khram or khram-shing, sometimes translated as 'tallysticks'; many of these woodslips from imperial times have been preserved),although at some point paper (shogorshog-ser) also began to be used forofficial documents (as argued in a forthcoming paper by Helga Uebach,Munich, not yet available to me). The use of birch-bark, once a commonwriting material in Kashmir, was also known in early times. It is usually saidthat the oldest forms of record keeping in Tibet, before writing, made use of

knotted cords and notched woodslips (see Laufer 1918 for furtherdiscussions).

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characterizes the Tibetan national epic of Gesar, recited bybards from memory (or from direct inspiration) until thepresent day. Although metaphors and similes certainlyoccur in Old Tibetan poetry, they do not recall stock Indian

figures. I will only refer interested readers to a fewpublications in a footnote.39 The absence of much oranything that is specifically kvya continues to characterizemuch Buddhist poetry through the end of the twelfthcentury, as for instance, the poems of Zhang G.yu-brag-pa(1123-1193), which range from the secular to the mostsublimely spiritual, often, especially in his declining years,with a daringly avant-garde 'beat' edge.40 The followingsample, by no means typical, reflects one side of this many-

sided poet. Its colloquial and manifestly boastful epic style,with parallel syntax in each and every verse, I think to beeither a self-conscious homage to Old Tibetan poetry fromthe imperial period or a legitimate heritage of the same. Itis entitled Zhal-pho-ma, after the name of the place where itwas written, Zhal-pho.

Prostrations to the Holy Lamas.

If you haven't trained a dog in its puppy years,don't oppress it in later life with thatched fence and tether.

Known by the name Blue Mountain Dog,he is floating today on the mountain meadows.

If you haven't trained a horse in its colt years,don't oppress it in later life with saddles and bits.Known by the name Little Kyang White Fur,41he is floating today on the Pho-ma plateau.

If you haven't trained a yak in its calf years,don't oppress it in later life with the yoke.Known by the name Little 'Brong42 Blue Horn,

39 Fedotoff (1998), Beyer (1992: 276-277, with a sample from the OldTibetan Chronicles), and Snellgrove & Richardson (1980: 59-63).40 Martin (1996 and 2001).41Kyang (Rkyang), sometimes spelled Kiang, is the name for the breed ofsmall wild asses that wander freely in the Northern Plateau (Byang-thang)and other parts of Tibet (Schaller 1998: 163-177, with illustrations).42 'Brong is the wild yak bull that roams the Northern Plateau of Tibet. The"heart of the 'brong" is proverbial for the ultimate in courage. The very ideathat the 'brong might be yoked is preposterous. Even domesticated yaks

would more likely serve as pack animals than draught animals. "Themassive wild yak bull ('brong) is legendary for its immense power, and thehuman ability to capture or kill one has always been the measure of a hero"

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he is floating today in the direction of Byang-kha.

If you haven't trained a bird in its fledgling years,don't oppress it in later life with the feeder.The name is Eagle King of Birds.He floats today along the sides of Red Rock (Brag-dmar).

If you haven't trained a person in its childhood years,don't oppress it in later life with the cheek-whip.The name is Beggar Monk Zhang the Meditator.He floats these days wandering the kingdoms of the world.He's a siddha, not that anyone has noticed.43

Note that with each verse we move from the more to theless domesticated animal, with the author placing himself atthe very peak of wildness, mobility and freedom from social

restraints. There is nothing here that recalls Indian poetry and several markers of 'Tibetanness' including the wildass, wild yak, the cheek-whip and the geographic locations even if Indian Buddhism does surface in the initial line ofhomage and in the last verse with the words 'meditator' and'siddha', siddha meaning a class of renunciates who find aparadoxical liberation by means of their worldly and oftenmenial jobs. These verses of Zhang are offered here just togive an example of Tibetan poetry of the more non-kvya

kind. Perhaps it is true (I am not entirely sure about it) thatthis kind of poetry was more common before Dain'spoetics started making inroads in the following century.

Kvya's Tibetan Naturalization

I remember, over 25 years ago, hearing a professor explainto his class that the songs of Milarepa (1040-1123 CE), wellknown for their richly poetic descriptions of naturalphenomena and so forth, were completely Tibetan in their

(Huber 2003: 36). The average weight of the wild yak bull is about 400 kgs(see Schaller 1998: 125-142, with illustrations).43 I've used four different versions of this text, although the only publishedversion of which I am now aware is in Zhang (1972: 696). The word literallytranslated as 'cheek whip' is 'gram-lcag. As far as I know, this particularinstrument of discipline and punishment is Tibetan, and not Indian. In morerecent texts it is known by a several similar words variously spelled: skor-lcag(orskor-'chag), mkhur-lcag, ko-shag(once misspelled ko-sha), ko-lcag,

and one variety made apparently of bamboo called gnyug-lcab (correctspelling smyug-lcag).

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inspiration. This had to be true, he argued, because Dainhad not yet been translated. At the same time, he did admitthe possibility that the songs of Milarepa's teacher Marpacould have been slightly tinged by kvya since he traveled

to India several times.

A lot has changed in Tibetan studies since then. We nowknow that the biography and songs of Milarepa, as well asthe biography (including songs) of Marpa, are best knownto us from works compiled and composed in the sixteenthcentury. The main earlier collection for Milarepa's songs,done in around 1300, was made available in 1978 only tobe widely but unjustly ignored.44 Sources about him from

before 1300 are quite laconic with very scant poetry. Infact, we can only with great difficulty come up with (andpiece together) pre-fourteenth-century evidence as far asMilarepa is concerned.45 In any case, Milarepa's songs arenever called kvya. They're called songs. So even thoughthe question whether these songs were influenced by kvyamight be an interesting one, we will just leave it inabeyance for now.

Instead, we may look at evidence forkvya in Tibet startingin the beginning of the ninth century. This was a time whenwhat may have been the most ambitious, single, continuousstate-sponsored translation project in human history tookplace. Although relatively few Indian treatises weretranslated during this time, by the middle of the ninthcentury, a very large percentage of the (overwhelminglyIndian) Buddhist scriptures that would come to composethe 100 or so volumes of the Kanjur had already beentranslated. It was in this time, too, that we may be sure that

a Tibetan equivalent had been coined for the Sanskrit wordkvya. The Tibetan word snyan-dngags, which of coursemeans very much what kvya means, might be

44 And this earlier collection, called the Mdzod-nag-ma (Karma-pa III 1978),was made by Karma-pa Rang-byung-rdo-rje (1284-1339), who is importantfor Tibetan kvya history primarily for his camp-style retellings ofjtakastories. For the biography of Marpa, see Nlanda Translation Committee(1982).45 Some of this early evidence will appear in a forthcoming book by Francis

V. Tiso; for the time being one may consult his dissertation (Tiso 1989,chapter 7 dealing with literary aspects).

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etymologically interpreted to mean 'fine soundingexpression.'

Buddhist scriptures certainly were translated in the early

eighth,46

if not already as tradition would have it, before themid-seventh, century. However, as far as kvya isconcerned, we can start in the early ninth. That is when thetranslation project took place under the orders andpatronage of two Tibetan emperors. Most of these texts arelisted in a catalogue, compiled under imperial decree, calledthe Ldan-dkar-ma, which has been preserved.47 Among thesignificant kvya works found there are some hymns ofpraise by such significant literary figures as Mtcea,

Vararuci and Triratnadsa. There are poetic epistles byMtcea, Candragomin and others. But most significantof all is an over-all excellent translation of the collection of34 stories about Buddha's former rebirths, the Jtakamlby ryara.48 This was written mainly in poetic prosewhich often slides in and out of verse in various meters.These early translations are all very Buddhist works. Theyeven include praises to the Buddha by two converts fromShaivite Hinduism.49 It is not at all clear, however, how

46 A Tibetan version of the listambhaka Stra found by Aurel Stein at hasbeen fairly dated on archeological and other grounds to the early 8thcentury. See Scherrer-Schaub & Bonani (2002: 187, 190-191).47 See Lalou (1953).48 Jtakaml (Skyes-pa'i rabs-kyi rgyud), Thoku no. 4150 (Derge Tanjur,vol. HU, fols. 1-135), translated by Vidykarasiha & Majurvarma.There have been countless studies and translations, which will not be listedhere, although we must mention the English translation by Peter Khoroche(1989).49 The first two of the following three works were translated during the early9th century, while the third was translated in about 1000 CE. [1]akarasvmin, Devtiyastotra (Lha-las phul-du byung-bar bstod-pa),Thoku no. 1112 [and also no. 4563] (Derge Tanjur, vol. KA, fols. 43-45),translated by Sarvajdeva and Rin-chen-mchog. [2]Udbhaasiddhasvmin, Vieastava (Khyad-par-du 'phags-pa'i bstod-pa),Thoku no. 1109 [& 4562] (Derge Tanjur, vol. KA, fols. 1-4), translated bySarvajdeva and Rin-chen-mchog, revised by Dpal-brtsegs-rakita. [3]Udbhaasiddhasvmin, Sarvajmahevarastotra (Thams-cad mkhyen-padbang-phyug chen-po'i bstod-pa), Thoku no. 1111 (Derge Tanjur, vol. KA,folios 42v.5-43v.3), translated by Jrandana [Jnardhana?] and Rin-chen-bzang-po. The first text by akarasvmin (in Tibetan translation of his

name, Bde-byed-bdag-po) been studied and translated in Shastri (1990)and Hahn (2000). The second text by Udbhaasiddhasvmin (in Tibetan,Mtho-btsun-grub-rje) has been studied and translated in Jamspal (1966),

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much impact these kvya works had on Tibetans. Inimperial times there is hardly any indication that localTibetan compositions were even slightly influenced bykvya, but then again, Tibetan compositions with

identifiable authors of that time are brief and few.

So, not to be slaves to strict chronology (so far we havetried to evade capture), let us speedily rush up to the yearssurrounding 1270 when kvya, in both theory and practice,arguably began a slow but steady blossoming in Tibet.Meanwhile, the Tibetan royal line split up in 842, after whichthe empire gradually fell apart. There ensued a period ofdisunity, politically speaking, and Tibet as we know it was

only put completely back together again between 1240,when Sa-skya Paita involuntarily yet wisely offered Tibet'ssubmission to the Mongols,50 and 1260 when his nephew'Phags-pa was said to have been granted temporal powerover the thirteen myriarchies of Tibet.

But before talking about the literary watershed event inaround 1270, first we must take a short detour into therealms of knowledge in traditional Buddhist pedagogy, the'arts and sciences.'51 There are five major and five minorsciences. To list them, they are: 1. craft, fine arts andindustry. 2. medicine. 3. language science (sound, wordand letter); this primarily includes matters that we wouldlocate within grammar and linguistics, but also several

Zwilling (1979), Negi (1985), and Schneider (1993 and 1997). The third textis the subject of Schneider (1995).50 One may find an English translation of the letter Sa-skya Paita wrote toTibetans to convince them that submission was the right course to take inTucci (1999: I 10-12). Although this letter was a 16th-century addition to thecorpus of Sa-skya Paita's works (Jackson 1986), its authenticity is nottherefore in especially extreme doubt.51 The sciences, often ordered differently by different authors, have beendiscussed a number of times. For a brief and more accessible example,see van der Kuijp (1996: 393). Some Buddhist works translated into Tibetanemploy an 18-fold classification of sciences which was sometimes noticed,but not much used, by Tibetan authors. Regardless of how old the schemeof five sciences might be, it is certainly to be found in the 4th-century worksof Asaga (Yogcrabhmi in Derge Tanjur, vol. TSHI, fol. 161), althoughthe five minor sciences appear to be absent there, and the poetry of poets is

compared, to its disadvantage, with the Word of the Buddha (Derge Tanjur,vol. ZHI, fols. 227, 244).

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subsidiary language arts. 4. logic and epistemology. 5.inner science (meaning Buddhism, and of course Buddhistmeditation and psychology). The third major science,language science, covers four, all but the first, of the five

minor sciences, which are: 1. astro-sciences (includingmathematics, astrology and astronomy). 2. kvya poetics.3. metrics.52 4. abhidhna, which means glossaries or'lexicography.' 5. drama. Number 3 among the majorsciences, and numbers 2 through 5 of the minor sciences,are the ones that concern us here.

If we could put the accomplishments of Shong-ston in anutshell, it was that, for the first time, the entire complex of

language sciences perhaps we could call it 'philology' inone of its more richly pregnant and truly laudable senses(and not, as is often done, restricting its meaning tohistorical or comparative linguistics or critical text editing) were brought together. We might need to qualify this a bitso as not to diminish Sa-skya Paita's prioraccomplishments, but if we look at the list of translationswhich Shong-ston did in association with the punditLakmkara,53 we may see that he translated not onlySanskrit grammatical works,54 but also an important work oflexicography the Amara Treasury55 by the BuddhistAmarasiha; a work of metrics the Garland of Meters

52 For studies of Tibetan metrics (including Indian metrics as known toTibetan tradition), aside from the work of Michael Hahn mentioned below,and a relatively accessible summary in Hahn (1988), we might point toBeyer (1992: 408-423) and Poucha (1950, 1954).53 On the problem of distinguishing this particular pundit from other (earlier)figures with identical or similar names, see Dimitrov (2000).54 For a summary discussion of these grammatical works, see Smith (2001:193-199), and for the full treatment, Verhagen (1994, 2001). As Smithpoints out, the only direct translation of a Sanskrit grammar into Tibetanprior to Shong-ston was that done by the western Tibetan king Zhi-ba-'od, inabout the mid-to-late 11th century the commentary by Trevara,student of Samdhibhadra, on the Kalpa (Ktantra) grammatical system.55 Amarakoa ('Chi-ba med-pa'i mdzod), Thoku no. 4299 (Derge Tanjur,vol. SE, fols. 126-243), translated by Krticandra and Yar-lungs-pa Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan and revised by [the Tibetan] Dharmaplabhadra. Shong-ston's translation as such is no longer extant. There have been a very largenumber of editions of the Sanskrit. A technical point: according to the

author's own rules, the correct spelling for the title of his work must beAmarakoa, and not Amarakoa.

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Praise56 by Jnarmitra; a drama the Ngnanda57 byHara; and of course Dain's Kvya Mirror.58 He alsotranslated some important works in kvya style, the

Avadnakalpalat59 by Kemendra and the Hundred

Verses of Praise to Lokevara by Vajradeva that wasalready mentioned. In effect, he brought together the wholecomplex of language sciences necessary for producing andappreciating Indian kvya, and these very works wouldremain paradigmatic throughout the later history of Tibetanphilology. How did this interest come about?

One of the most famous Tibetan histories, the Blue Annals,has a short account of Shong-ston's life.60 It tells how,

during the ruler 'Phags-pa's earlier trip to Tibet, probably in1265, Shong-ston composed verses in his praise andoffered them to him while expressing his intention to studythe art of translation. 'Phags-pa replied,

It is good that you have this idea. It is difficult to develop theability to translate new texts. While studying with the Indianpundits, you must question them thoroughly. As for me, mytime with [my uncle Sa-skya Paita] was short, and I wasunable to comprehend properly the works he composed,including the Flower Bouquet of Poetic Meters, and the Mine of

56 Vttamlstuti (Sdeb-sbyor-gyi phreng-ba'i bstod-pa), Thoku no. 4305(Derge Tanjur, vol. SE, fols. 379-389), partly translated by Shong-ston Rdo-rje-rgyal-mtshan and completed by Dpang Lo Blo-gros-brtan-pa. For astudy, see Hahn (1971).57 Ngnanda (Klu kun-tu dga'-ba zhes bya-ba'i zlos-gar), Thoku no. 4154(Derge Tanjur, vol. U, fols. 225-252), translation completed at Sa-skya byShong-ston Rdo-rje-rgyal-mtshan and Lakmkara, at the behest of Dpon-chen Shkya-bzang-po. Note that the last-mentioned served as politicalleader (dpon-chen) of Tibet at the time. There have been many text editionsand translations.58 Dain's Kvydara (Snyan-ngag-gi me-long), Thoku no. 4301 (DergeTanjur, vol. SE, fols. 318-341), translated by Lakmkara and Shong-ston.59 Bodhisattvvadnakalpalat (Byang-chub-sems-dpa'i rtogs-pa brjod-padpag-bsam-gyi 'khri-shing), Thoku no. 4155 (Derge Tanjur, vol. KE, fols. 1-366, continued in vol. KHE, fols. 1-329), translated by Lakmkara andShong-ston and revised by Chos-skyong-bzang-po. It is said thatKemendra completed the composition in 1052 CE (Winternitz 1999: II282). The colophon to the Tibetan translation, which is quite lengthy andinformative, has been studied in Mejor (1992: 52-85).60 See 'Gos Lo-ts-ba (1976: 784-785), although my translation of the

passage which follows differs somewhat. Even more significant, given itsdate, is the parallel account in Anonymous (1360: fols. 47-49).

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Words. You should by all means gain a knowledge of theseworks.

After saying this, he gave Shong-ston those same books byhis uncle together with five ounces of gold and ten bolts ofsilk. Thus equipped financially, Shong-ston went to theNepal valley and studied five years with the Newar punditnamed Mahndrabhadra. Incidentally, Shong-ston's travelcompanion, a monk native to Eastern Tibet, wouldeventually translate together with Mahndrabhadra thefamous kvya masterpiece by Avaghoa on the life of theBuddha, the Buddhacarita.61 And 'Phags-pa's financialsupport surely continued. He later sent letters to bothShong-ston and the Brahmin Pundit Lakmkara who

worked together with him on most of his translations.62'Phags-pa's letter to the Pundit, dated 1270, in which heapologized that Tibet could not offer a climate and a dietmore suitable for him, was accompanied with a nugget offine gold weighing an ounce. In sum, Shong-ston masteredthe five minor sciences, translating at least one completework devoted to each of them. The Blue Annals sayssimply, "He fully instituted the traditions of grammar, kvyaand lexicography," or, as Giuseppe Tucci put it, he was "the

founder of Tibetan rhetorics."63

Now, seeing how 'Phags-pa passed on the torch of Indianliterary studies from his uncle to Shong-ston, before turningto Shong-ston's later legacy, we should turn backward and

61 Jackson (1997) supplies historical details surrounding the Tibetantranslation and arguments for the patronage and dating of the translation.The Tibetan translator, named Mdo-smad-pa Blo-gros-rgyal-po, should not

be identified with the physician Zur-mkhar Blo-gros-rgyal-po (d. 1509) as isdone in Lozang Jamspal's introduction to Avaghoa (1999: xxi).62 Shong-ston met Lakmkara and invited him to Tibet while on apilgrimage to the site of Buddha's Enlightenment at Bodhgya.Lakmkara composed some verses in Sanskrit in honor of 'Phags-pa:Paramagurudharmarjastotra (Bla-ma dam-pa chos-kyi rgyal-po-la bstod-pa), Thoku no. 1172 (Derge Tanjur, vol. KA, fols. 250r.3-250v.2), translatedby the author together with Shong-ston (transcribed in Meior 1992: 93-94).The Tibetan texts of 'Phags-pa's letters to Lakmkara and to Shong-stonhave been transcribed in Meior (1992: 91-92, with summary of content on p.53) and summarized by Dimitrov (2002: 43-44).

63 'Gos Lo-ts-ba (1976: 785), although my translation differs slightly, andTucci (1999: 135).

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ask, What are these works by Sa-skya Paita, and whatinspired him to go into the language sciences?

Sa-skya Paita (1182-1251), in his Mine of Words,

translated approximately one fourth of the lexicon byAmarasiha called theAmarakoa. In what is perhaps hismost famous composition, the 'Entrance Gate toScholarship,' he translated and paraphrased large parts ofDain's Kvya Mirror. He composed his own separatework on poetic meter, which was of course entirely basedon his understanding of Indian works on the subject.64

Tibetan hagiographies like to say that Sa-skya Paita

spoke Sanskrit immediately after he was born. They alsotell how a Vedantist named Harinanda heard of his fameand came all the way from India to debate with him. This,they say, was the one and only time that a Tibetan defeatedan Indian in debate. When Sa-skya Paita is depicted inpaintings, it is almost invariably this scene. He is shownmaking a characteristic debating gesture towards adiminutive Indian figure crouched and humbled nearby. Aspart of the pre-debate negotiations, of course, Harinandahad promised that in the event of his defeat he wouldconvert to Buddhism. I do not know if any of thisconstitutes verifiable history.

What we can say with greater historical certainty (especiallysince we have evidence from his own words, and abiographical account written in around 1240 while he wasstill alive) is that, regardless of the fact that Sa-skya Paitanever visited India or even Nepal, as a young man in his20's he inhabited a very Indian atmosphere, and learned

Sanskrit quite well, hence earning his sobriquet Paita.This is because of the arrival of the Kashmiri punditkyar in Tibet in 1204.65 Sa-skya Paita and kyar

64 For more about works on language arts studied or composed by Sa-skyaPaita, see Kapstein (2003: 778-782). For his arguments justifyingphilological disciplines (in particular, grammar) in the context of Buddhistthought, see Gold (forthcoming). Since for Sa-skya Paita the mainconcern was to understand the contextual clues for the speech acts of theBuddha, and the Buddha's context was an Indian one, his Indianism would

naturally follow.65 His full name is kyarbhadra, but Tibetans generally prefer the shorter

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first met in that year and, in 1208, kyar presided at hisfull monastic ordination. kyar did not arrive in Tibetalone. He came with a group of nine learned pundits fromvarious parts of north India and Nepal, perhaps the only

South Asian group of comparable size to visit Tibet in thosetimes.66 Most commonly they were invited one at a time.So Sa-skya Paita had quite a number of Indian teacherswho could influence and nourish his special interests inSanskrit and related philological studies. We know inparticular that he spent three years, between about 1205and early in 1208, studying Sanskrit language arts with thepundit Sugatar, who had the title 'Great Grammarian.'After 1208, he spent a further six or so years studying with

kyar himself, and with a pundit from Nepal, Saghar,among still others.67 So, we may make two basic

form. He has been the subject of two rather recent studies: Jackson (1990)and van der Kuijp (1994).66 While it is true that Atia arrived in Tibet in 1042 CE with a fairly largeentourage of Indians, they mostly acted as his servants and attendants, withthe main exception being his nephew Dnar, who remained in Tibetworking on translation projects. He called this group his sattra. TheSanskrit word sattra refers to all the various functionaries needed to performthe Vedic fire ritual known as homa or agnicayana. Obviously Atia was

using the term in a metaphorical sense.67 See Jackson (1987: I 26-27) and Stearns (2001: 158-169) for more onSa-skya Paita's Sanskrit studies. In a letter in answer to questions fromChag Lo-ts-ba, Sa-skya Paita himself stated that he studied withSugatar the main texts on metrics, while with Saghar he studied theKvya Mirror and the Sarasvatkahbharaa [attributed to Bhoja], whilesome commentaries on the last-named work he studied with Dnala (seeRhoton 2002: 220). It is not impossible that this Saghar might be theperson by the same name mentioned in Kosambi & Gokhale (1957: ciii).We might think he could be the same Sa ghar, a Buddhist, who wasdefeated in debate by the Jaina scholar Akalaka (Granoff 1985: 461-462),

but the story occurs in a late 11th-century work. Active in around 1400, atranslator of Snar-thang Monastery, one of the several revisers of the KvyaMirrortranslation, was called Dge-'dun-dpal, which is but the Tibetan versionof the name Saghar, yet another instance of a Tibetan Sanskritistadopting a name of an earlier Indian or Tibetan member of the literarytradition sometimes a source of confusion for us now, as it was in thepast. Tibetan authors in general, but the members of the literary traditionsin particular, felt free to sign their names in either Sanskritic forms (inTibetan transliteration, of course) or in Tibetan. This, also, has createdsome confusion. Our assumption is that Tibetan names should be given intheir Tibetan-language forms, names of Indian in their Indian-languageforms. Tibetans did not share this assumption. The 'Tibetan' version of

Trantha's name is T-ra-n-tha, and the Tibetan-language translation ofthe name of this Tibet native is hardly ever encountered.

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conclusions. One is that Sa-skya Paita, althoughresponsible for very few and only partial translations, bycomposing works devoted to the main literary subjects laidthe groundwork for the complete translations by Shong-

ston. Another is that Sa-skya Paita was certainly inspiredto take up Sanskrit language and literary study by his Indianteachers, especially Sugatar and kyar. If we move alittle further back in history, there is rather little to say aboutkvya studies in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, exceptthat, as we have seen, quite a few praises (etc.) in kvyastyle were translated during those times.

Quite apart from those rather brief works of praise, we

might especially mention the twelfth-century translation ofHaribhaa's version of the Jtakaml, written in awonderfully descriptive style with careful and convincingcharacterizations. Its 35 stories, in mixed prose and verse,are fully preserved only in this Tibetan translation, althoughten of the stories have been recently identified in Sanskritmanuscripts.68 We know that the Tibetan translation wasdone in the twelfth century, since the Tibetan translator,Steng-pa Lo-ts-ba Tshul-khrims-'byung-gnas, lived from1107-1190, about 15 years of those years in India.Alakadeva (aka Alakradeva) had the Kashmirigrammarian Trilocana,69 as an ancestor. The two

68 Haribhaajtakaml (Seng-ge-zhabs-'bring-pa'i skyes-pa rabs-kyiphreng-ba), Thoku no. 4152 (Derge Tanjur, vol. U [169], fols. 1-197),translated in Tibet by Alakadeva & Steng-pa Lo-ts-ba Tshul-khrims-'byung-gnas-sbas-pa (although the latter had already worked on the translation inIndia with his teacher Alakakalaa). Hahn (1980) argues for date ofcomposition earlier than 445 CE. Some of Haribhaa's stories have beenedited, studied and translated into German in a series of publications byMichael Hahn which will not be listed here. The informative preface andcolophon of this text have long ago been translated into English, althoughnot especially well (Thomas 1904). There are reports of at least oneSanskrit manuscript surviving until today in Tibet, which raises the hope ofone day achieving a complete edition of the Sanskrit.69 In Tibetan, Spyan-gsum-pa. I am assuming he is identical toTrilocanadsa; in Tibetan, Spyan-gsum-'bangs. One Trilocana is known toIndian kvya history as author of a no longer extant drama namedPrthavijaya, and Sternbach (1978: I 385) dates him to the end of the 9th orthe beginning of the 10th century. The grammarian and the dramatist areprobably two separate persons. The poet who appears in the anthology

may be the same as the grammarian, but less likely the same as thedramatist.

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translators brought with them to Tibet many man-loads ofIndian books and Alakadeva lived out his remaining yearsin Tibet. It is interesting to note that some of the Sanskritmanuscripts that were preserved in Tibet bear, in Sanskrit,

the ownership mark lkara,70

and we might note, too, thatsome Sanskrit manuscripts of Trilocana's works werepreserved in Tibet, even if perhaps never translated.71 To

judge from verses by Trilocana in Vidykara's verseanthology, he must have been a Buddhist, 72 even thoughhis name could suggest he was a devotee of the 'ThreeEyed' vara (generally meaning iva).

A question that would seem worthy of further research, it is

at least plausible that this Alakadeva might be identical to afigure known in Indian sources as Alakra (aka Lakaka),

active in around 1140, older brother of Maka the student ofRuyyaka. This Alakra was himself known to be a poet,and during the first half of the twelfth century he served as aminister to the king of Kashmir. 73 Their names are similarenough, they were both from Kashmir, and the datingagrees, although these facts alone should not be deemedsufficient to securely establish their identity. More study isneeded. If they did turn out to be the very same person,this would place him in the august company of some of theluminaries of Indian kvya in those days.

Somewhat beside the point here, since it was nevertransl

Documents

Indian Kavya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himalayas - Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality - Dan Martin