Sanskrit sutras on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Yongle Bell were for the first time deciphered on Monday in the Big Bell Temple. Distinguished scholar Ji Xianlin, accompanied by eight professors on Sanskrit studies from Beijing University, delivered a lecture on the Sanskrit Sutras of the bell on a visit to the temple.
Ji, a famed orientalist in China, is one of the few scholars in the world who can read Sanskrit. Professor Zhang Baosheng, one of Ji’s earliest students in the study of Sanskrit, presided over the lecture and decoded the Sanskrit sutras on the bell on the spot.
There are more than 1 hundred Han and Sanskrit sutras and incantations cast on the Yongle Bell, totaling more than 230,000 characters. According to Zhang, the Sanskrit sutras on the bell belong to Lantsha Sanskrit in letterform, and are Buddhist tenets in the phoneticized ancient Indian language. The Lantsha Sanskrit originated in the 11th century in south India, and spread to China in the 13th century from Nepal. It prevailed in Tibetan Buddhism and was highly esteemed as a divine language.
“The decoding research on the Yongle Bell Sanskrit sutras is of great significance in the study not only of the Sanskrit language, but of religious policy in Chinese history,” remarked Zhang, “since the bell was cast under the order of Emperor Yongle in 1420 with the aim of enhancing the solidarity of religious groups.”
(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2001)
