Three Seals of Khan Ayuka

Introduction. Recent years have witnessed some publications of letters signed by Kalmyk Khans, nobility, and containing samples of Kalmyk sphragistics. The seals are of great interest for Kalmyk historical political studies and have never been explored before. It has skipped the attention of researchers that Kalmyk Khan Ayuka used a total of three different seals to ratify his correspondence — in different periods of his reign. Goals. The study aims to introduce sphragistic details of the royal seals and draw parallels to similar items of the same period, articulate hypotheses as to origins and essentials thereof. Materials. The work explores Khan Ayuka’s official correspondence dated to the 18th century and published imprints of seals owned by his contemporary Tibetan and Oirat rulers and executives. Results. The paper identifies the precise number of seals used by Khan Ayuka in official correspondence, reveals semantics of engraved texts and supposed origins of the seals proper.