History of the Rhinoceros 117 



Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary Mahavyutpatti 1 renders the Tibetan 

 word bse by the Sanskrit word ganda which refers to the rhinoceros. 2 

 Wherever this word appears in the works of Sanskrit Buddhist litera- 

 ture, it is faithfully reproduced in the Tibetan translations by the word 

 bse. An interesting example of its application appears in a Tibetan 

 work from the first part of the ninth century. 3 It is well known that in 

 India the Pratyeka-Buddha was styled Single-Horn Hermit and com- 

 pared with the solitary rhinoceros; 4 and this simile is explained in that 

 Tibetan book in the words that the Pratyeka-Buddha, who in the 

 course of a hundred eons (kalpa), through the accumulation of merit, is 

 no longer like ordinary beings, resembles the rhinoceros in his habit of 

 living in the same solitary abode. It is interesting to note that in this 

 early Tibetan text the word bse-ru is used for the designation of the 

 rhinoceros. This comparison has passed into Tibetan poetry, and is 

 frequently employed by the mystic and poet Milaraspa, who speaks of 

 himself as being "lonely like a rhinoceros." 5 This meaning of bse is 

 confirmed by two Chinese lexicographical sources, — the Hua i yi yii, 

 which in its Tibetan-Chinese vocabulary 6 renders bse-ru by Chinese 

 si niu; and the Polyglot Dictionary of the Emperor K'ien-lung (Ch. 31, 

 p. 4 a), where bse is explained by Chinese si ("rhinoceros"). The 

 national Tibetan word bse, akin to Lepcha sa and Chinese se, naturally 

 bears out the fact that the ancient Tibetans were familiar with the 



1 Tanjur (Palace edition), Sutra, Vol. 123, fol. 265 a. This work was written in 

 the first part of the ninth century. 



2 Al-Beruni (Sachau, Alberuni's India, Vol. I, p. 203) knew this word, and cor- 

 rectly described under it the rhinoceros of India (p. 95). It is likewise mentioned by 

 Garcia Ab Horto (/: c.) and other early European travellers enumerated by Yule 

 and Burnell (Hobson-Jobson, p. 363). The rhinoceros brought to Portugal in 1515 

 (mentioned above, p. 83) was labelled "rhinocero, called in Indian gomda." 



3 Entitled Sgra sbyor bam-po gnis-pa (Tanjur, Sutra, Vol. 124, fol. 14 a, 4), cor- 

 rectly dated by G. Huth {Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akade.mie, 1895, P- 2 77) 

 in the first part of the ninth century. Compare also the application of the word in 

 Taranatha (Schiefner's translation, p. 245) : the sorcerer Ri-ri-pa summoned the 

 fierce beasts of the forest, the rhinoceros and others, and mounted on their backs. 



i Eitel, Hand-book of Chinese Buddhism (pp. 76, 123, 197); F. W. K. Muller, 

 Ikkaku sennin (/. c, p. 530); and H. Kern, Manual of Indian Buddhism (pp. 61 and 

 62, note 1). 



5 G. Sandberg (Tibet and the Tibetans, p. 297), who is ignorant of the fact that 

 bse or bse-ru means "rhinoceros," and who merely carries the modern popular meaning 

 of the word, "antelope," into the sphere of literature, makes Milaraspa say that he is 

 "lonely as a seru" (antelope). The antelope, however, is not a lonely, but a highly 

 social animal living in herds. Nowhere in Buddhist literature has bse-ru the signifi- 

 cance of ' 'antelope," but only that of "rhinoceros." The Tibetan poet, who in every line 

 is imbued with the language and spirit of India, most obviously intends with this 

 simile a literary allusion to the Buddhist comparison of the Pratyeka-Buddha with 

 the rhinoceros. 



6 Copied by me from the manuscript deposited by Hirth in the Royal Library of 

 Berlin. Regarding the work see Hirth (J. China Branch R. As. Soc, Vol. XXII, 

 1888, pp. 207 et seq.), and Bull. Ecole francaise, iqi2, p. 199. 



