반야심주(般若心呪) 소릿값[音價]에 관한 연구

Abstract

The Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra (『般若波羅蜜多心經』) is the chief sutra of Korean Buddhism. At the end of this sūtra the Prajñāpāramitā Mantra (般若心呪) is found. The Korean transliteration of this Mantra causes it to be recited in a way that is quite distinct from the original Sanskrit. Thus, this essay is an examination of the cause of the phonetic difference between the Korean and Sanskrit versions of the Mantra. The Prajñapāramitā Mantra is transliterated into Korean in accordance with the principles of The Chapters of Siddam (「悉曇章」) found in The Collection of Mantras (『眞言集』). Tones (平聲) including both falling tones (去声), and rising tones (入聲), are almost the same when comparing the Chinese and Korean versions of the Mantra although tones which both fall and rise (上声) are different. In this essay, the transliteration of twenty-five syllables from various sutras including the Siddam-ziji (『悉曇字記』) have been analyzed. Based on this it seems the sound of some Chinese characters from the 5th- 7th centuries have changed compared to corresponding sounds in the 8th century. Furthermore, when transliterated into Korean the Mantra is based on the phonetic sounds of the Dong-kuk-jong-um (『東國正音』), which reflect the 7th century interpretations. Currently in Korea the Prajñāpāramitā Mantra is recited based on the translation of Amoghavajra (不空, 705-774). Amoghavajra and other translaters in the 8th century utilized letters that were new at the time to more accurately convey certain nasal sounds, which are distinct from the work of such 7th century translaters as Xuanjiang (玄奘). For example, in the 7th century the ‘a’ (誐) sound became a ‘ga’ (誐) sound in the 8th century and the ‘mo’ (冒) sound became voiced as ‘bo’ (冒). However, the Dong-kuk-jong-um, which the Korean’s used did not reflect this change in sound. This paper concludes that it is for this reason that the Mantra recited in Korean is so different from its Sanskrit counterpart.