Oirat translation of “The precious decoration” explaining “ A drop of nectar, feeding living beings” as a sample commentary literature

Compositions categorized as commentaries on prominent Buddhist works of Indian origin were widely recognized in Tibet and Mongolia. Among them I tell the commentaries on the sutras (Sanskrit sutra) preached by the Buddha and the shastras (Sanskrit sastra), which explain the fundamental dogmatic Buddhist texts. I take into account different systems for classifying commentaries. J.B. Wilson proposed to characterize them as commentaries as: 1) explaining the meaning of one sacred text; 2) systematically clarifying what is scattered, and 3) annotating the meaning of many sacred texts. In this article, I give a description of the Oirat manuscript “A precious adornment explaining The Drop of nectar that feeds living beings'" (Oir. Torolkitoni asurxui dusul teyin numluxui erdeni cimeq kemeku), which is an example of a commentary on the ancient Indian sastra. The authorship of the commented text is traditionally attributed to the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna (II-III centuries). This text was an integral part of a manuscript collection D 22 from the collection of A.M. Pozdneev deposed at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the RAS. The commentaries in the analyzed Oirat text of “Precious Ornaments" were grounded on Indian fairy tales, parables, stories from well-known collections of Jatakas and Avadans, among which I can name “Panchatantra”, “Sea of Parables" (“Damamukonamasutra”), etc. Such compositions are of great scientific interest for comparative studies of commentary literature in the diachronic way.