The Sanskrit Udanavarga and the Tocharian B Udanastotra: a window on the relationship between religious and popular language on the northern Silk Road

The majority of the Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts from the northern part of the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang (China) were found in an area where the local languages Tocharian A and B were spoken. In this article, the interplay of Sanskrit, the religious language, and Tocharian, the popular language, is investigated based on the example of the relationship between the Sanskrit Udanavarga and the Tocharian B Udanastotra. To this end, a reconstruction of the text of the introduction to the Udanastotra is attempted, which forms the transition from the Udanavarga to the Udanastotra proper. It is argued that this Tocharian B text was found in otherwise Sanskrit manuscripts, which suggests that speakers of Tocharian preferred certain doctrinal texts in Sanskrit.