Tocharian A ārkiśoṣi ‘world with radiance’ and Chinese suo po shi jie ‘world of sabhā’

Abstract

This article provides an explanation for the single and puzzling Tocharian B gloss śaiṣṣe ‘world’ (instead of Tocharian A ārkiśoṣi) for Sanskrit jagat- ‘world’ on a Sanskrit fragment SHT 4438 with all the other glosses in Tocharian A. Based on a detailed study of the Sanskrit and Chinese texts, Tocharian A ārkiśoṣi is very likely the loan translation of Sanskrit sā̆bhāloka(dhātu)- ‘a world with radiance’, which is preserved in the Chinese translations by Kumārajīva and other translators connected with Kucha. In the Kucha area, the first part sā̆bhā- was understood as containing -(ā)bhā- ‘radiance’. Buddhist Sanskrit sa(b)hāloka(dhātu)- is built from sa(b)hāpati- ‘master of sa(b)hā world’, epithet of the highest divinity Brahmā in the sahāloka-, which derives via Middle Indic from the older epithet sabhāpati- ‘owner of the assembly hall’ in Atharvaveda. The excursus at the end offers a glimpse into the complicated transmission process of Chinese Buddhist terminology based on the analysis of Chinese sha men ‘monk’ and he shang ‘teacher, monk’.