| In 1969 Antoine Mostaert published, together with a detailed introduction, the facsimile of a manuscript from Ordos, Inner Mongolia. For the richness of its language and the fullness of its content, this manuscript is one of the best specimens of its genre known to date. The genre, described inclusively by Mostaert as "astrology and divination" for the Mongolian term togamma-a "mathematics," is anomalous, obsolete for modern English speakers, yet one of the most pervasive among the collections of Mongolian writing, and a sticking point for Western scholars, many of whom, as Cicero in De Divinatione, wonder at its reason for being. Hence, the aim of this dissertation is to elaborate on Mostaert's earlier study by offering a transcription and translation of the text, a critical introduction that sheds light on the function of this kind of literature in Mongolian Buddhist culture, and a glossary, word and subject indices.; The thesis of the introduction argues that in order to understand the genre's reason for being, one must understand its empirical basis in nature, which is seen in the problem of time, common to calendar makers everywhere. Logic allows two possible interpretations for the remainders to calendrical computations: one, they exist because the means for measuring are not suitably refined, implying an optimistic assumption in a logical universe; two, computation fails because nature itself lacks uniformity, the apparent reality. History shows that Greek astrology, guided by faith in absolute time, set off on a deterministic course that came to fruition in the Enlightenment. History shows too that Buddhist dharma is based on the opposing point of view, that the distinction between instant and duration is the one true thing in nature. These two antagonistic (not arbitrary) perceptions led to divergent, complementary ideas about the nature of the universe. Found in this mathematical text is a true or apparent representation of occasions in nature, beyond the scope of physics, irrational, infinite, and so on. The purpose of this kind of literature was foremost to provide the rhetorical parameters or matrix that the community of believers share. This constitutional role melded with the age old function of divination, to provide an option when the course of action seems arbitrary or uncertain. |
