A Tengriist prayer

[Ardavarz]

There is a Tengriist prayer given in the text of the Volga Bulgarian epic "Chulman Tolgau" (²V; 53: 114 – 125). Part of the Russian translation is made in verse, so it may be a little diverse from the original. Still, I think it contains interesting material particularly the different forms of addressing the deity.

This is a prayer of the hero Sandugach ("Nightingale"), sung by the protagonists of the fourth cycle of the epic (Madji yry or "Poem about Madyes") in order to bring back to life their friend Radji. The English translation would go roughly this way:



Let's praise, oh people, Bir-Tangra
whose great right-hand
has extended benevolently
upon the broad Shatyr-Bulgar.

The sight of the Supreme Tayra
sees all things at once;
the look of Tangra embraces
the whole blooming Boy-Terek:

faster than fleet wolf
runs on the field of life;
stronger than deft squirrel
grasps the tree of essence;

deeper than Qara-Balyk
dives in the Great Sea;
higher than mighty eagle
rises in the Blue Sky.

No one would hide oneself from him...
Let everybody who wants to be saved
express frankly
one's devotion to Tangra.

Without you, oh, Tangra,
nobody could in the night
illuminate for the people the true Path
toward the predestined end!

Without addressing you,
we wouldn't venture on the road;
without saying the name of Tangra,
we wouldn't taste cheese and gobe.

Without bowing to Tangra
we couldn't make our way;
only after praising Tangra
we could fall asleep peacefully.

We thought: "We are near the end";
Tayra revealed us the way
and it turned out that
all of us still have a long way to go.

Oh, Kan-Tangra, Baga-Tangra -
glorious are all deeds of Tayra!
Our fathers when dying
say thus: "Bir-Tangra!".

Oh, Kan-Tangra, Baga-Tangra,
do not abandon us on the way!
Give us both knowledge and strength
in order to get to the end!

Oh, Bay-Tangra, help us
to wake up our friend Radji:
only Bir-Tangra has the power
to break up the enchantments of death!



Unfortunately the original text is unavailable, but it would be an interesting experiment to try to translate it back to Tatar (Turkic Bulgarian) language. Here are also those quatrains from the Russian translations which are versified - 121-125 from the 53th hay (song):


Íå ïîêëîíèâøèñü Òàíãðå,
Íå ñìîæåì ïðîáèòü ñåáå ïóòü;
Òîëüêî âîññëàâèâ Òàíãðó,
Ñìîæåì ñïîêîéíî óñíóòü.

Äóìàëè ìû: “Ìû – ó öåëè”;
Òàéðà ÿâèë íàì ïóòè –
È îêàçàëîñü, ÷òî ê öåëè
Âñåì íàì äàëåêî èäòè.

Î, Êàí-Òàíãðà, Áàãà-Òàíãðà,
Ñëàâíû Òàéðû âñå äåëà!
Íàøè îòöû, óìèðàÿ
Òàê ãîâîðÿò: “Áèð-Òàíãðà!”.

Î, Êàí-Òàíãðà, Áàãà-Òàíãðà,
Íå îñòàâëÿé íàñ â ïóòè!
Äàé íàì è çíàíüÿ, è ñèëó,
×òîáû äî öåëè äîéòè!

Î, Áàé-Òàíãðà – ïîìîãè íàì
Äðóãà – Ðàäæè – ðàçáóäèòü:
Òîëüêî Áèð-Òàíãðå ïîä ñèëó
Ñìåðòíûå ÷àðû ðàçáèòü!

Glossary:
Shatyr-Bulgar - "Bulgarian Kingdom" (from Old Iranian xšathra - "kingdom") - actually the Scythian kingdom described in the epic as broad empire embracing almost all the Steppe.
Boy-Terek - "Great Tree" - the world tree, one of the boughs of which supports with its seven branches the cup of the earth.
Qara-Balyk - "Black Fish" - is one of the incarnations of Chulman, the god of waters and the Underworld.
Kan - king.
Tangra, Tayra - "god".
Baga, Bay - seems to mean "lord".
Bir-Tangra - "One God"; in "Jagfar Tarihy" is told that this means also the Universe.

[sarmat]

This forum is dedicated to real history and not nonsense and fantazy stories. The one you're citing is a part of a broad nonsense campaign produced by a fake "historian" Mr. Nurutdinov in 1990th. Other claims of Mr. Nurtdinov include the "facts" that the city of Bulgar was build 15000 BC , that Bulgars invented metallurgy in the ice age and stay behind the creation of Egyptian pyramids.

There are no any "originals" of everything he cites because such don't exist and come out of his sick but yet very creative imagination.

This crap is not worth of the attention of our dear forumers.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Interestingly, according to Ibn Fadhlan, the Oghuz in the early 10th century adressed their god as Bir Täŋri.

However, seriously, what is this thing with Chulman Tolgau? Is it fake?

[sarmat]

Of course, it is, and there is no a piece of evidence to prove otherwise. The guy who invented this knows of Ibn Fadlan, and he tries to put something from the verified historical sources into his fantazies to make it more credible.

[Ardavarz]

I believe it was concocted in late 19th century. But this doesn't mean that it doesn't contain authentic peaces in it. The author is obviously very well acquainted with Herodotus and also with the current theories at that time (particularly those relating the newly-discovered Sumerian culture with Scythians and "Turanians" as was written then). But the text of the epic also includes a big deal of folklor (for instance there are numerable parallels with the Nartic epic) and I think this makes it interesting material. It can be compared to the "Poems of Ossian" - we know that they were concocted by James Macpherson, still he based it on a real Irish folk tradition (the bard Ossian did exist, as well as the hero Cuchulainn etc.).

Here we don't know the name of the author/s of "Chulman Tolgau", but of course it isn't from 2nd century B.C.E. as it is stated. He most likely belonged to the Bulgarian revival movement in Volga region which emerged in 19th century. It is told that the text was translated in Russian in 1920s. I have a copy of this tranlation - it consists of 7 cycles (yr) and 86 songs (hay) or totally 11 562 quatrains in my evaluation (the system of referrence is my invention - in the manuscript the quatrains are not numbered). Most of them are in prose, but here and there are versified too and it is clear that they were made by different persons with different quality and metric used. Only in several cases there are given prose and versified versions of the same quatrains. That is one of the reasons I believe that there was indeed an original Turkic manuscript (even though not older than last quarter of 19th century perhaps). Another peculiarity is that the text is strewn with many untranslated words and names some of them archaic and foreign (mostly Persian and Arabian loanwords) that were not understood by the translators. The anonymous author obviously wanted to create an impression of antiquity with these, but the result was rather the opposite. When I first translated it around 8 - 9 years ago I remember that I stumbled upon such a word which I thought was mistranslated because it has an homograph when written with Arabic script, but unfortunately I didn't take a notice then and now I don't remember where it was, so I may be well mistaken here, but this conviced me then that the text was originally written with Arabian script and later translated in Russian.

Of course, I may be wrong, but still this epic has some value even if only as a literature - as I mentioned it includes a vast amount of folk tales, so many plots, stories and characters covering a timespan of more than six thousand years, that I think it is much better than Tolkien's epic.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

I see. Same case with the "History of Jaghfar" I guess too.

[sarmat]

Well. I don't think it has any historical value at all. Unless one thinks that Ossian can serve as a source for the history of ancient Ireland. Of course, those fairy tales are sweet and exciting but that is not history!

[Ardavarz]

It depends of what kind of history. I am mainly concerned with the cultural history which is how the processes are reflected in human consciousness. I study myths, legends, folklor and languages, how they grow and spread amongst the people and how they interact to form different semiotic systems, worldviews, reality models etc. In this regard all ths information is extremely valuable, even if it is second (or maybe even ninth) hand, especially when its primary sources (folk traditions and old Volga Bullgarian literature) are irretrievably destroyed. In such research the "external" history of events (wars, battles etc.) serves only as provider of a useful time-frame.

In many cases what is tought to have been is more influential than what really was if it was at all. After all there exist whole cultures based on texts we know to be fake (like the New Testament or the works of Aristotle).