Indian Antiquary Vol 31

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 43

JANUARY, 1902.] THE SPRING-MYTH OF THE KESAR SAGA.
Animism in the gLing-Chos.
Here I should like to mention the following personifications: skyeser, the wind; sbang-char-zilbu. the rain; sengge-dkarmo-yyuralcan, the glacier; bya-khyung-dkrung-nyima, the sun; byamoakarmo, the moon. With ynyan, living in rocks and trees, I have met only in the wedding songs of Tagmacig.
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It is remarkable that several of these personifications are mentioned together with the representatives of the animal world. Compare Additions No. 3; Winter Myth No. I. 39-44.
The Pre-Buddhist Origin of the Kesar Saga in Ladakh.
In my German edition of the Kesar Saga I tried to make it probable that the Kesar Saga was in existence in Ladakh at the time of the introduction of Buddhism into Ladakh. Dr. Lanfer tells me that I had better fix the culture-historical epoch of the Kesar Saga. He makes the following suggestion: In Spring Myth No. I. 5-12 the us of the sling as a weapon is mentioned, and in No. IV. 14, the use of a stone vessel. To this I may add that according to Winter Myth No. III. 25, a stone sword is mentioned side by side with rifles and other weapons. This suggestion of the stone age may be very useful under European conditions, but is not of any use for fixing the age of a Tibetan tale. The reason is that the stone age has lasted in Ladakh up to the present day. I wonder. how many stone vessels there are in use in my own private household! The sling of Agu dPalle is no more a weapon than that of David, because dogs are not used here for tending goats. Goats and sheep are called back with the help of stones thrown at them. I myself have seen a stone axe in use, and in side valleys near Lamayuru a stone hatchet, called kalam, is still in general use, so I am told. Pottery and iron ware are well known in Ladakh, however, want of wood makes both these articles extremely expensive, and side by side with pottery and iron ware, stone ware cannot be dispensed with.
I therefore stick to what I said before: that apparently the Kesar Saga was existent in Ladakh at the time of the introduction of Buddhism into Ladakh. The lines in Spring Myth No. III. 5 and 12, sangs rgyasla btangbai gri, a knife to stab Buddha, were probably inserted at the time, when enmity against Buddhism became general. The passage in Winter Myth No. III. 26 and other researches have shown me plainly, that the passage in Spring Myth No. III, 5 and 12 can only be translated as I did.
In my German paper I had also mentioned the fact that Kesar is not at all scrupulous as regards the killing of animals. Dr. Lanfer tells me that this fact does not in the least prove the non-Buddhistic character of the Kesar Saga, because animals have been kid and are still killed all over Tibet. I can only repeat what I said some time ago, that although the Ladakhis are very fond of eating meat, it is very difficult to find persons who are ready to kill animals. Most of the meat eaten by Ladakhis is taken from animals which have died a natural death. The fact that everybody is simply swarming with lice is due to the fact that nobody wishes to kill these animals.
I hope the publication of the different gLing-glu, the Marriage Ritual, the Winter Myth and Prelude to the Kesar Saga, will justify my attempt to draw the outlines of the mythology of the gLing-chos. Whether the material of the Kesar Saga is originally Ladakhi, or whether it was introduced into Ladakh from some other part of Asia, 12 whether the materials contained in the folklore of Ladakh are the original, or whether they are borrowed from the epic; all this does not alter the
1 In one of my former papers on the Kesar Saga (Globus, Vol. LXXVI. No. 20) I made a mistake in saying that the Ladakhi versions of the Kesar Saga were entirely different from the Mongolian epic. This mistake was caused by a misunderstanding. As I had no means of comparing my Ladakhi MSS. with the Mongolian epic, I asked a friend to look up the latter in the Strassburg University Library. He apparently got hold of the wrong book; for what he told me of woodmen and other mythological beings could not well be reconciled with what I knew from the Ladakhi version. Dr. Lanfer, starting from my mistaks, proves in a long domonstration of about 10 pages, that the subject in both is the same.