Kalmyk-Tibetan Relations, 17th–18th Centuries: Seals on Kalmyk Official Documents as a Research Source

Introduction. The matrices of Kalmyk seals, which are drawings and texts engraved on hard material (as well as their imprints on paper, sealing wax or other harder substances), have never been object of a special study. Kalmyk sphragistics, an auxiliary scholarly discipline that studies Kalmyk seals, takes its first steps with this article. At the same time, this historical discipline draws its materials from monuments of 17th–18th century Kalmyk official writing and is closely connected with Kalmyk linguistic culture. Official texts certified by seals are valuable sources to explore origins and history of use of some addressee’s personal signs, most often in epistolary documents. The study is relevant enough due to the lack of works examining personal seals of Kalmyk Khans and noyons on their official letters. In particular, until now there have been no attempt to read texts on such seals, conduct semantic analyses of drawings, determine places of manufacture. Materials. The article explores 17th–18th century official Kalmyk-language letters and impressions of seals owned by Kalmyk Khan Ayuka and Noyon Yandyk. The former were discovered at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (Moscow) and National Archive of Kalmykia (Elista). Goals. The study aims at determining origins of the seals, identifying semantics of included monograms, and reading their texts. Results. The analysis of letters by the Khan and noyon reveals that both the seals contain a monogram represented by syllables of the Kalachakra mantra. One of the texts is written in Lanza Sanskrit and be translated as ‘happiness, prosperity’. Conclusions. The examined Kalmyk seals are clearly of Tibetan origin for seals with Kalachakra monograms were as popular among Tibetan and Ladakhi rulers at that time. The Buddhist sign was to protect against unfavorable conditions and obstacles, and make everything good and auspicious. The use of Tibetan seals attests to that despite having left their ancestral lands of Central Asia for Europe the Kalmyk people never interrupted ties with their spiritual teachers in Tibet.