Khotanese birre

Abstract

In the Khotanese Sudhana story it is related that Sudhana will come upon a rākṣasī and must slay her with his sword. The Khotanese text reads at this point kāḍara jse vara ṣṭau raysga vīra jsanauña (Ch 00266.178–9 KBT 28) = kāḍąrinai vara ṣṭāṃ raysgi vī jsanñä (P 2957.118 KBT 37), which Sir Harold Bailey rendered “There he must promptly slay her with his sword” (BSOAS XXIX, no. 3, 1966, 512). MS. P. 4089a presents a variant reading for this line: kāḍara-birre raysaga vīra jsanauña (P 4089a.2–3 KBT 20). In his Dict. p. 287 Bailey renders it “with cut of sword, she must swiftly be slain”. In birre he sees a word attested only here and meaning “with cut”.