YÜPAYAI- (DIVY. 244,11)

AbstractIn Studia Indologica (Festschr. W. Kilfel), p. 9 ff., Alsdorf gives a convincing new interpretation of the well-known passage in Divy. 244,7 ff., where the enlargement of a stūpa is described. The sentence tathāvidha ca bhūpasyāa kta yatra sā yūpayair abhyantare pratipāditā he renders as follows: “Und die Kuppel des Stūpas [read: stūpasya] wurde so gemacht, dass darin die Yūpayai ins Innere eingelassen war” (p. 15), which must mean that a hole was made for the later erection of the yai-, referred to in the words yayāna&#x1E41 k;ta. Incidentally, tatrāviddham would make better sense but is too hazardous a guess. Alsdorf's inference that the yūpayai- is identical with the yai- is obviously correct, but one wonders what a yūpa- may have to do with it. Besides, the use of sā in s¯ yūpair (vv.ll. sāyūpair, sāpayair) remains unexplained (cf. Alsdorf, p. 14). Now, the final sentence of this passage, viz. varasthāle mahāmairatnāni tāny āropitāni (1. 13), suggests a comparison with Avad. 370,4 tan mairatna vipaścina stūpavarasthālyām upari nibaddham and 383,6… caitye varasthālyām [caitya-?] samāropitam. It is tempting, therefore, also to equate sā yūpayair to the stūpayai- mentioned in Avad. 387, 11 (cf. abo,:e stūpa-va,.asthāti-). As for the possible implications of the statement anupūrvea yayāropaa ktam (see Alsdorf, p. 15), attention may be drawn to the extra-ordinary religious importance attached to the erection of a stūpikīla-, the ceremonies of which are described at length in Mānasāra 18.340 ff., and analogies to which might be sought in the erection of Indra's banner at the Indramahotsava and on the stage before a dramatic performance.