Maitreyasamitināṭaka is aBuddhist drama in the language known asTocharian A. It dates to the eighth century and survives only in fragments. The drama revolves around theBuddhaMaitreya, the future saviour of the world.[1] This story was popular among Buddhists and parallel versions can be found inChinese,Tibetan,Khotanese,Sogdian,Pali andSanskrit.[2] According toFriedrich W. K. Müller and Emil Sieg, the apparent meaning of the title is "Encounter with Maitreya".[3]
There is anOld Uyghur translation of the Tocharian text, calledMaitrisimit nom bitig. It is a much more complete text and has been dated to between the eighth and eleventh centuries.[4][5][6] The fragments of the Tocharian text come from six different manuscripts, five from theShikshin Temple and one fromQocho.[1]Albert Grünwedel andAlbert von Le Coq discovered the Tocharian text during the thirdGerman Turfan expedition in 1906, when the Tocharian languages had been extinct for more than a millennium and were unknown to modern linguists.[7] The Uyghur text is represented by four manuscripts, two fromTurfan, one fromQomul dated 1067 and one of uncertain provenance in the collection ofŌtani Kōzui.[8]
Acolophon to the Uyghur text notes that it was translated from a language calledtoxrï. Under the assumption that this name was connected to a Central Asian people known as theTocharoi in ancient Greek texts, and since theMaitrisimit nom bitig shows a "clear dependence" on theMaitreyasamitināṭaka, scholars began to refer to the unidentified language of the latter as "Tocharian".[9] According to the colophon, the Tocharian version was "compiled" or "put together" by Āryacandra from source texts in Indian languages, while the Uyghur translation was the work of Prajñārakṣita.[8]
TheMaitreyasamitināṭaka was originally a long text consisting of twenty-seven acts of ten to fifteen leaves (twenty to thirty pages) each. The Tocharian fragments come from manuscripts of high aesthetic value, indicating a text that was meant to be read. There are stage directions, however, such aslcär poñś ("all have left [the scene]") at the end of each act, which suggests that it was also performed. It is in thechampu style with sections of prose mixed with sections of verse. TheMaitrisimit translation is all prose.[1]
Kumamoto, Hiroshi. 2009."The Maitreya-samiti and Khotanese". Academia.edu. [Based on a paper read at theSymposium franco-japonais : «Interactions et translations culturelles en Eurasie» («Dynamic Interactions of Cultures in Eurasia»), jointly held by the University of Tokyo and École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris on 12–13 December 2002.]
Moerloose, Eddy. 1979. "The Way of Vision (Darśanamārga) in the Tocharian and Old Turkish Versions of theMaitreyasamitināṭaka".Central Asiatic Journal, 23(3): 240–249.JSTOR41927265
Peyrot, Michaël; Semet, Ablet. 2016. "A Comparative Study of the Beginning of the 11th Act of the Tocharian AMaitreyasamitināṭaka and the Old UyghurMaitrisimit".Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 69(4): 355–378.doi:10.1556/062.2016.69.4.1
Ji Xianlin (ed.). 1998.Fragments of the Tocharian A Maitreyasamiti-Nätaka of the Xinjiang Museum, China. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, 113. Berlin–New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Zieme, Peter. 2000. "The Search for Knowledge Through Translation: Translations of Manichaean, Christian and Buddhist Literature into Chinese, Turkic, Mongolian, Tibetan and Other Languages".C. E. Bosworth and M. S. Asimov (eds.),History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Part II: The Achievements. UNESCO Publishing. pp. 43–51.
