Candra and Caṇḍa

Extract

In a brief article entitled Kaṇaiska in the Journal for 1942, pp. 14–28, was published for the first time a Central Asian text touching Kaniṣka, a repetition of the well-known story of Kaniṣka's stūpa. The fragmentary text began with three lines in the Buddhist Sanskrit of Khotan. These lines were then translated and the story continued in Khotanese. In the text the epithet of Kaṇaiska was pointed out in the form cadrra, that is, a Khotanese spelling of Indian candra. The epithet could be recognized as the equivalent of the epithet *tśiän-d'an (later ṭṣant'an) in Chinese references to Kaniṣka, and implied, as it seems, also in the Tibetan play upon the word zla-ba ‘moon’. The Khotanese and Buddhist Sanskrit cadrra (for candra) seemed to decide the problem in favour of candra- ‘moon’.