Buddhist stylistics in Central Asia

Georges-Jean Pinault (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

The Buddhist literature of Central Asia offers different versions of texts in different languages. The paper evaluates the devices of Buddhist stylistics which are shared by texts in Sanskrit, Old Turkic and Tocharian. The enquiry is focussed on the translation of the Maitreyasamiti-nāṭaka in Tocharian A into Old Turkic, under the title Maitrisimit nom bitig. The Tocharian Buddhist texts show the use of phraseology and stylistic devices which have been transposed from Sanskrit texts, some of them going even back to the Pāli phraseology.

Mots clés: Buddhist literature; Tocharian literature; Tocharian Buddhism; Tocharian language; Old Turkic; Buddhist Sanskrit texts; Stylistics; Uygur Buddhist literature

Domaines: Linguistique

Georges-Jean Pinault. Buddhist stylistics in Central Asia. Linguarum varietas, 2015, Strategies of translation: language contact and poetic language. Proceedings of the international workshop (Cologne, 17-18 December 2010), 4, pp.89-107. ⟨halshs-01446413⟩