For our first written reflection, we began by making note of our initial impressions of the manuscript, as well as any questions about it that we felt were important to investigate moving forward. We also considered in our reflections the relationship between our focus manuscript and the study of Buddhist magic and magical manuscripts more broadly.

Carolyn

One of the first things I noticed was the Hindu-Arabic numerals going down each row on the second page of the handout. Since Arabic numbers originated in the sixth or seventh century in India, and Buddhism arose in northeastern India about a decade before, my initial interpretation is that the manuscript might have originated in India sometime after the sixth century. There are a few reasons why I believe this might be true. At the very top of the second page, the rows seem to end at 31. Doing some research, Julius Caesar modified the Roman calendar in 46 B.C. to either have 30 or 31 days, except for February. So the manuscript could have been created at a time where Europe and India started influencing each other in their works. One thing that makes me doubt the fact that the rows ending in 31 have significance is when I look at the page of the manuscript below on the second page. It seems like they used the month/day system Americans are familiar with for their record keeping. The month/day system starts with 8/9 and continues until 12/15 and then restarts at 1/1. This leads me to observe two things. The first is that they might be using a calendar system that has 12 months in a year, which again is consistent with Julius Caesar's Roman calendar. The second is that none of the dates seem to have a day that goes past day 15. It then rather moves onto the next month, so I am curious what that means. Furthermore, if it is month/day rather than day/month, that is even more perplexing to me. In the United States, the standard format today is month/day. In Europe, the standard is day/month. So, I went onto Wikipedia and it seems that most Southeast Asian countries follow the format of day/month.

One question that would be helpful to understand the manuscript better would be to know which language is used in the writing of the manuscript. Hopefully, this would provide insight into the area it originated from and if there are any linguistic idiosyncrasies that could reveal any outside influence onto the region.

Looking at its condition, it seems to be relatively in great condition [fragile condition and could use some degree of conservation] with the exception of possible water damage to the front of the manuscript. Since most of the writing is legible and intact, it may be plausible that the manuscript was held in a manuscript storage cabinet like we discussed in class. It seems that these cabinets were gifts to monasteries and the Buddhist texts inside typically included narratives of Phra Malai. When I wanted to see how the monk Phra Malai was depicted, I saw that the figure looked very similar to the figure on the front page of the class handout, which I included below. I believe they look similar for a few reasons. First would be the crown. It seems like the crowns cover both of their heads and have an arrow in the middle pointing upwards. They both also have a neck scarf or necklace that sticks outwards. Finally, their sitting position with the knees below them might be similar to the typical Buddhist stance of praying but both pictures do have one of their feet sticking out. If they are the same picture, then the manuscript could have originated in Thailand and the writing could be a combination of Pali and Thai. Looking at one source, it says that Prah Malai was able to obtain supernatural powers through his accumulated merit, and this could be connected to magic. I assume that powers were typically seen as something no one could really explain. One question I had was what magic meant to Southeast Asian societies outside of its tie to religion, mainly Buddhism.

One other thing that might confirm my assumption that it is a Thai manuscript is the multi-headed elephants, which were similar to the graphic that stood out to me in class on Friday. Doing research online, it might be Erawan, which is a huge elephant that is typically depicted with either three or 33 heads. This would be considered magical because we don’t see three-headed targets out in the wild today. What is the significance of the number 3 in Thai culture?

Hau

Furthermore, the first page includes a rat, several nagas, and a goat. The animals are facing each other, so they seem to be in conflict. This conflict may result from goats consuming plants down to their roots, and as a result, destroying the inhabitants of rats. Nagas, generally symbolizing mortality and rebirth, appear in the middle between the rat and the goat. The interaction between these three animals most likely illustrate the view that, despite the conflicts in life, the cycle of death and rebirth allows one to eventually escape the current state of suffering. This portion of the object is illustrating fundamental Buddhist principles, implying that the civilization followed Buddhist traditions.

The second page has a grid of numbers. Interestingly, these lines are straight, so they were made with the use of either a ruler or flat surface. This may imply that the civilization was advanced enough to have tools to study basic arithmetic. Furthermore, the first column of the grid has numbers from 1-31. Initially, I assumed these numbers were arbitrary and were used to count the number of rows. However, the number “one” did not begin until a few rows down from the top of the page, so these numbers hold significance and that the content from columns two and onwards were purposefully written to their respective row numbers. Considering that there are 30-31 days in a month, I believe this was a calendar. If this is the case, it confirms that the civilization not only has basic arithmetic down, but an understanding of astronomy similar to that of the modern world.

Following this logic, it is unlikely that the ratios from columns two and onwards represent some figure of time (i.e., hours, minutes, dates, etc.) if this figure has the concept of 30 or 31 days in a month. However, these numbers are not arbitrary because of their systematic presence. Furthermore, several symbols of the same kind show up frequently (I have highlighted some distinct symbols that appear frequently). I have also noticed that, when looking at rows five and six and rows seven and eight, the symbols colored orange and pink appear to be in the same pattern (shown in the image below). Although I am not sure what the ratios represent, I believe this manuscript is a time manuscript that recorded events that appeared frequently. It may be a time manuscript that recorded events pertaining to astronomy or the weather in general. For instance, the pattern with the orange and pink in rows five and six and rows seven and eight may be recorded after the sight of a shooting star or rain for four days in a row.

Parth

As of now, I have very few “interpretations” of this manuscript, but lots of questions – and some observations.

Let’s start with the physical condition of the artifact. There’s definitely evidence of aging and poor preservation. At some point in its life, it was better preserved, but it’s unclear to me whether that was in the artifact’s original religious context or whether it was after the artifact was no longer actively used in religious rituals.

It seems like there’s some water damage to the cover and the writing, but the writing doesn’t seem smudged or that it’s seeping through the pages of the manuscript. I’m not sure what that says about the way that the artifact was damaged. Someone, in class, suggested that it could have been poorly preserved and that damage could come from moisture. It likely wasn’t submerged for an extended period of time – so maybe, when the artifact was used in practice, it was somewhat venerated or better preserved. At least, it doesn’t seem like it sat around in someone’s backpack during its life.

Many venerated religious artifacts which are also ritual implements are ornate. Relics are often a good example of this. Some religious books also fit this description. So, I’m curious why this particular manuscript doesn’t appear very ornate.

• On the one hand, maybe it is ornate for the time and it just doesn’t appear very ornate to me. Depends on the time period, which I don’t have too many guesses about.

• Perhaps there is some Buddhist or geographic tradition that I’m not aware about.

• Maybe it’s because of the materials that were available when this was made.

• Van Schaik writes that magical artifacts provide a lens into more everyday religious practice since magical ritual often concerned things that matter to everyday people (childbirth, healing, etc.). It’s possible, then, that the usual connections between religion and power/money don’t apply here.

Many pages have circled writing, marginal comments, and the writing on those pages appears especially swoop-y and loose. It almost seems like something you’d see in a book for children to practice their handwriting. I’m curious what’s going on there.

And then there’s the imagery on the title page, which is fascinating. The multi-headed elephant, the rat, the cow, and the crowned figure holding a flag. I’m sure all of these are significant in Buddhism, but I don’t know quite what they signify.

And then there’s the relative positioning of these figures on the title page. The rat and cow seem to be facing each other, flanking the title. They’re in different physical environments, but both seem natural. The crowned figure sits below the title, and – the page is cut off, but – from the positioning of their hand, it seems like they might be sitting atop some animal.

Finally, I’m curious about the little bit of patterning we see on the cover. It’s symmetric, and there are two red stripes, with a green stripe in between, on either half of the page. Is that significant or just ornamental?

Sean

I started by trying to think of a list of questions about the focus object that I’d like to be able to answer, and it turned out to be a rather long list, so I organized it into the categories below:

General Questions (obvious but important):

• How old is this object?

  • When was it written, was it written at the same time that the object was created, or was the writing added later?

  • Was it written all at once or over time?

  • Was it noticeably edited or supplemented?

• Who wrote it?

  • Was it written by one author or many?

    • The text seems to exhibit a variety of handwritings – does this point to multiple authors, one author using multiple languages, etc.?

  • What language(s) and script(s) is it written in?

    • What does the range of language(s), vocabulary, etc. tell us about its authorship?

  • How did the author fit into society? What can we learn about their social, economic, political status etc.?

    • How can the language used, the materials of production, and other details about the object’s creation and preservation inform our understanding of this?

  • Is this a unique manuscript, or is it one copy of a more widely distributed text?

• Where was the object produced?

  • Can the mix of languages tell us the place of origin for the object?

  • Can we tell from the materials used in its production where it is from?

  • Does the writing itself attest to a place or places? Are these places geographic or cosmological?

• How did we come to have it?

  • How did it get to the Netherlands?

  • Who set its price?

  • Who benefits from selling it, and why do they benefit?

  • What happens to the object when we’ve finished working with it?

  • How do the object’s creators and users relate to the globalized world?

    • There appears to be a blend of Arabic numerals among the other scripts – what can this tell us about the connection of the object’s creator(s) to the global world.

The Object’s Use:

• What is this manuscript for?

• Is this an explicitly Buddhist object, if so, how can we tell?

• Does this object relate to magic?

• Is this a standalone object, or might it be a part of a larger collection? Might other objects typically be used alongside it?

• Do we have the whole manuscript? Are there significant parts missing, or is this perhaps a volume of a larger text?

• Are the people who wrote the object the same people who used the object – how might we tell?

  • How would the object have changed hands, if it was used by different groups of people?

  • How does this object likely fit into its social environment given that it requires literacy in order to engage with it? What might it tell us about the literacy rates among the people who used and produced it?

• Was this object of special importance, or was it a mundane object for the people who used it?

Ties to Buddhism and Magic:

• Is this a book of magic or a book about magic?

  • Given the presence of Arabic numerals, can we observe an influence of globalization on the magical contents of the object in other forms?

• Does it contain spells, if so, how many, and what are their functions?

  • What do the functions, components, and presentation of the spells tell us about the people who produced and used the object?

  • Is there a way to determine whether some spells have been used more than others – again, what might this tell us?

• Does the object appear to relate to a particular school of Buddhist thought, or to a particular Buddhist tradition (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, etc.)

• Does the object have connections to religions other than Buddhism, if so, what can we tell about the way these interact?

• What similarities or differences might we observe in this object with regards to other finds of Buddhist magical texts like those described by Van Schaik?

• Does the object require a specially trained practitioner to use it (e.g. the dedicated magic users described by Van Schaik), or is it usable by anyone?

• Does the text feature mantras? If so, what script are these rendered in (building off the noteworthy debate around Sanskrit or Brahmi scripts for mantras in Van Schaik)?

• Does the text have a focus on medicinal issues? What can the nature of the issues dealt with tell us about the daily lives of the people using the text? How could such medicinal practices relate to modern forms of medicine?

• Does the object reference other Buddhist texts – e.g. some of the sutras, tantras that Van Schaik describes?

• Does the object describe the process of creation for other magical objects (e.g. amulets)?

• Does the object describe any magical practices that feature violence or other forms of transgression?

  • Does the object make any moves to reconcile these with an ethical framework, particularly a Buddhist one?

• Does the object involve chanting or other forms of musicality? How are these recorded, conveyed, and how might they be practiced?

• Was the object used for a regular practice or reserved for particular occasions?

• Can we deduce whether the users and producers of the object were lay people or monastics?

Questions about the details of the object itself:

• Who is depicted on the front page?

  • What can we tell from the humanoid figure’s dress, body, and posture?

  • What do the animals represent, and what is the significance of the flag(?) and the circular encapsulated speech?

  • What else can we tell from the artistic details on the front page about the contents of the manuscript?

• What informs the artistic style and use (or lack) of color?

• What function does the large table of digits and other symbols serve?

  • It appears to feature regular patterns of numbers that could be dates – is this a calendar of some sort?

  • More broadly, what is this recording and why is it included in this manuscript? Does the table have a functional relation to the rest of the text?

• What are we to make of the annotations? Are they corrections, if so by whom and for what purpose? Was the object used as a learning tool, or were the alterations or corrections signs of a change in ownership?

This list is by no means exhaustive (although it may well be exhausting) – but I hope it casts a wide enough net at the outset of trying to study this object.

Sisely

Upon first impression of the manuscript, I make sure to take a step back. I remind myself to clear my mind of expectation and be wary of my westernized academically framed lens within which I sit - taking myself out of the bias of the familiar thought patterns that usually arise within a classroom environment. I look through the pages expecting to find coded love potions and rain spells, things of which I know might be common in a Buddhist manuscript. However, there is no reason these should be found in the one I look at today. Buddhist magic - magic in generality - is a wide and inclusive description and I should not impose my bias on interpretation as I risk a confirmation bias effect.

I don’t recognize the language, so I immediately notice my mind jumping to a class I took on the invention of Greek mathematics in an effort to make a connection between the known and the unknown. Driven by an underlying self-imposed pressure to uncover meaning rather than simply observe, I think about the decoding process of mathematical symbols and language of ancient tablets from ancient Mesopotamia and Greece. I think about the progression of thought as it has historically been translated into shape and relations (or ratios) in Euclid's elements, then to symbolic numbers. About thought as it is represented by images, then symbolic letters, and finally words.

I wonder how much is lost in translation. On one level, you have the translation of words or ideas represented in one language into our own language to be understood. Then, there is a higher level of understanding, or interpreting these units of representation. Meaning is lost between each level as units of representation might not definitionally overlap precisely and further, one’s understanding of something like a word goes far beyond the word’s definition. There is far more nuance to the understanding that is reliant on a lived experience within the culture, time, space, etc., in which the words originally existed.

Drawing on my background in cognitive/neuro sciences, I think about the shared human experience of consciousness as it relates to human psychology and language development. My brain longs to make connections between ideas where there might be none. I notice a general discomfort with the unknown, finding myself instinctively searching my own consciousness for theories explaining the why behind the pages. I want to intertwine this piece of the unknown within my knowledge of the human condition in order to trick myself into thinking it can at this point be known. I think back to a quote that stuck out to me in “Buddhist Magic” by Sam Van Shaik where he states that “magical practices are not based on any explicit theory, and the need to develop a theory to explain them is a peculiarly modern Western impulse” (page 8). I catch myself being pulled into this trap, but upon trying to pull myself out, wonder where to go instead. I am skeptical that we can totally escape this type of academic western thinking in what is fundamentally an academic class at Stanford, but I think acknowledgment is a step in the right direction.

Sylvia

At first glance in the classroom, the circular nature of a lot of the letters on most of the pages appeared like Burmese writing to me, but when you look at the page with the illustration and some larger writing, different characteristics emerge. Based on this page, my best guess as to the script would be either Lao or Khmer, but leaning towards Lao. The letters don’t take on the same bubbly shape as Burmese, but they also don’t appear to be as jagged as Khmer, although handwriting can potentially obscure such details. Even just considering the third and fourth page of the handout, there is a significant stylistic difference in the handwriting. The last page is almost aggressive in its long tails and swirls around otherwise modest letters. It appears simply to be an exaggeration of sorts of the same writing found on the other pages. Alongside these flourishes are also what appear to be someone’s notes: they’ve circled certain blocks of text and potentially written additional thoughts in the margins, which they’ve also subsequently circled.

The page filled with a chart of numbers is also striking. Mostly numbers, but also some letters fill each entry on this busy table. These “letters” could theoretically also be numbers written in this script, although that would not be my first guess as there isn’t an apparent reason to mix two numeral systems in the same table. As was pointed out in class, some columns of numbers appear to reach 12 before repeating back to one, and many numbers are in a typical month/day format. This leads to the impression that the entire table is somehow calendrical, or at least keeping track of certain dates. The addition of letters within the table would then also make sense as these could represent the first letters of different months or days of the week.

The major lingering question remains: What is this manuscript? And what is its relationship to Buddhism and Buddhist magic? This is certainly a much more complex problem given our inability to simply read the title or contents and thus make an inference. It feels a bit like searching in the dark, as the only apparent clues accessible to us give more hints as to its age, location of creation, and other practical concerns. Actually establishing its conceptual tie with Buddhism seems more or less unfeasible. The path forward that I would then turn to is establishing what other known texts on Buddhism and Buddhist magic tend to look like. How do physical copies of translations of sutras look in comparison to the spell books of everyday people referred to in Van Schaik? By establishing these goalposts, perhaps we can compare the style, texture, and layout of our manuscript to see which category of text it most easily falls into.

Victor

Upon seeing the worn but genuine manuscript, I was both intrigued and in awe. Naturally, I questioned the intent and origins of the mysterious work.

One of the first pages consisted mainly of drawings, chiefly of animals like what appears to be some species of wild cat, an ox, and a multi-headed elephant. From a quick lookup, it seems that elephants are significant in Buddhism, though whether the one drawn in the manuscript is a specific deity is unclear. The front page also features a drawing of what I think is a Bodhisattva. Finally, some phrases in an unknown language are also written on this page of drawings. The rest of the page, as are several of the other pages in the manuscript, is missing due to what appears to be water damage. Overall, it’s difficult to determine what the manuscript’s content and purpose is through just this page. Is it a collection of Buddhist magic spells, or simply just a monk’s journal?

Another one of the first pages appears to be a ledger or log of sorts, with a grid-like structure and numbers and symbols in each cell. Could this be a table of contents, or perhaps short daily journal entries? One column of numbers appears to be dates, but these dates strangely end in the middle of the month before moving on to the next month, so they might not be calendar dates at all. Deciphering this page, I believe, could be very telling about the purpose and content of the rest of the pages and the manuscript overall, so we might want to start solving this puzzle with this page.

The rest of the pages seem to consist of just standard sentences and paragraphs in the unknown language. One observation is that some pages have phrases circled and diagonal lines (which were perhaps the equivalent of underlining during the manuscript’s time period) under several letters, while other pages don’t have any such annotations. What could these annotations mean, and were they added by the same person who wrote the manuscript’s original content? Also, does the entire manuscript use the same language, or are there several languages across different parts of the manuscript? And was it written by one or by several authors?

From a glance, I think we can tackle the deciphering of this manuscript in a few strategic steps. First, we could attempt to identify if the script is written in a known language; if so, that could help us determine important information about the manuscript such as its geographic origins as well as the potential organizations the author or authors were affiliated with. Also, we could look into whether the manuscript’s style—from its binding and type of parchment to its writing structure—are known to have been prevalent within a certain time period, civilization, or geographic location. Then, we can proceed to decipher the page full of drawings and the ledger-like page, which can shed light on the rest of the manuscript.

We might end up with even more questions than answers, but I’m excited to start this puzzle-solving journey together!