About the bilingual Tibetan-Oirat manuscript of “Subkhashita” from the archive of the KalmSC of the RAS

The article describes the bilingual Tibetan-Oirat list “Subhashita” or “Treasury of Good (Edifying) Sayings” stored in the archive of the KalmSC RAS (F-8, item I, item 155). The composition of the famous Indian Buddhist preacher of the 13th century, Sakya Pandits Kunga Jaltsan, is an example of the ancient Indian shastra, it is a didactic composition. It absorbed the depth of thought of the previous generations of writers. It gained particular popularity among the Mongol peoples thanks to translations authored by such famous writers as Sonom-Gara, Mergen-gegen Dambidzhaltsan, Chahar gebshi Lobsan-Tsultim, Zaya-pandita Namkai Jamtso. The article provides ex amples of quatrains in the Tibetan and Oirat languages. The manuscript under consideration contains a translation made by a Kalmyk Buddhist priest in the 20th century, that is, at the later stages of the spread of “todo bichig” (“clear writing”) amongst the Kalmyks. Although his name is not indicated in the text, according to a number of archaeographic, paleographic, handwriting, graphic, and grammatical features, it can be assumed that its author could be E.B. Ubushiev (Aghvan Tabdan).