Kingship and almsgiving: on the Khotanese ‘Dharma-preaching text on the Pravāraṇa day’ from Dunhuang

Abstract The Dunhuang Khotanese manuscript Pelliot chinois 2787, erroneously described as a ‘panegyric of King Viśa’ Saṃgrāma’, is in fact a dharma-preaching text used by Khotanese Buddhist monks during the dharma assembly on the Pravāraṇa day (or Pravāraṇā day), so it should be entitled ‘Dharma-preaching text by Khotanese Buddhist monks at the dharma assembly on the night of the Pravāraṇa day’, or simply ‘Dharma-preaching text on the Pravāraṇa day’. This article demonstrates that there is another Khotanese fragment, Pelliot chinois 2834, belonging to the same manuscript. Both the dharma-preaching text and the dharma assembly are associated with the construction of a Buddhist monastery named Viṣṇavakrrārma by the Khotanese king Viśa’ Saṃgrāma. The dharma-preaching text foregrounding the four kinds of brahma-merit ( brāhmapuṇya ) accumulated by Viśa’ Saṃgrāma finds resonance with the incorporation of the Kaniṣkāvadāna (The tale of Kaniṣka). The concept of brāhmapuṇya is widely attested in Indian epigraphic sources and plays a significant role in the institution of Buddhist kingship. In sum, this article argues that, in the tenth century, the Khotanese attempted to legitimise the Khotanese kings as dharma-protecting cakravartin kings (sovereigns of the world) when the Buddhist kingdom was plagued by various crises from both within and without.