According to the promise in BSOS., X, 365, I give translation of and brief commentary on the Khotanese Rāma text. Considerable progress has been made since the lecture published in the Journ. Amer. Or. Soc., 59, 460 ff., and also since the printing of the text. Superseded views expressed in the lecture are ignored here. Certain introductory matter can be added.
1. References to the Rama story in Khotanese.
(a) E 6, 4–5.
rāmä daśagrīvi sīysau nāte laṃggä kīnthai bāste
ttye käḍäna jīvätu rruste rāmāyanä ttandī arthi
valmīki räṣayī haṃbaste haṃtsa drūgyau hāḍe
cvī lovi mānya pyūṣḍe samu haṃdara-ysaṃthva karma
“From Rāma Daśagrīva took Sīta, he carried her to Lankā, city. For that he lost his life. Such is the content of the Rāmāyaṇa. Vālmīki the sage composed it, but with lies. For the person who listens to him with honour, surely there is karma leading to other births.”
(b) E 6, 90.
rāmä päte karjunä karṇä ṣṣai ttä ysaṃthīgya samudru
“Rama's father Karjuna and Karṇa these too are in the ocean of birth.”
page 561 note 1 Khotanese in transcription requires so many diacritical marks that errors are impossible to avoid. I have noted the following errata in the printed text.
Read ṃ for m in P 2801.21, 61, 62, 65, P 2781.16, P 2783.3, 16, 48, 61, p. 375, footnote; ą, for P 2801.64, P 2781.58; for ị P 2783.46 į for P 2781.66; ś in nvāśāṃdä P 2781.21; tti for tit P 2801.54; r dropped out in the printing from 'erkañai P 2781.58.Google Scholar
P 2801.22 caṃda … pa'tte is interlinear.
Abbreviations used are JātS. = Jātakastava = Ch 00274 (facsimile in Codices Khotanenses), and the signatures of unpublished texts as used in the Libraries where they exist
page 583 note 1 Cf. E 21.12 kho huṣka banhyä handarna sūśtaä phuva “as a dry hollow tree burns within”. How are phuva and phuḍa connected ?
page 583 note 1 kaidari, P 2957.65a kidara, ibid. 96 kaidara, Ch 00266.119 kidarrvā loc. pl., Ch c 001, 1052 kinarna gen. pl., P 2782.57 kiṃnara, P 2026.119 kedhara (in a Skt. dhāraṇī), P 2957.149 kaidharä re “Kinnara king”. Skt. -n- and -nn- were replaced by nd, md, d, asalso Ch 00266.141 dada name of a king = Divyāvadāna Dhana = 2957.28 dhana rrūṃda. E sandävata “sannipāta” = Ch ii 002, 17 r 3 saṃdvęna āchai. E vavanna-, P 2022.38 vavaṃda – Skt. upapanna.
page 583 note 2 naule “drama”, E 5.98 nālaa-, Skt. nātaka- in Tib. no-le, see BS0S., VIII, 935.
page 592 note 1 Incomplete copies of the story of Aśoka and Yaśas (Divyāvadāna, p. 382 f.) and of Aśoka and Kunāla are contained in P 2798 and P 2958. The name of Aśoka is written aśū' and iśū' This is near to the Chinese Karlgren a-ü < â-uk (1, 1130), where is for a foreign ž. In Tibetan a queen's name occurs 'a-źu-ka-su-ma “Aśoka flower”, see Thomas, F. W., Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents, i, 131Google Scholar.
page 597 note 1 The Turkish text, No. 3, not identified by Rachmati is the Siddhasara of Ravigupta, of which large parts are known in Khotanese and the whole in Tibetan and SanskritGoogle Scholar.
page 592 note 2 These are the asuras Sunda and Upasunda of the Mahābhārata.