“МОНГОЛЫН НУУЦ ТОВЧООН” ДАХЬ “ШАРГА АГТ ТАН” ХЭМЭЭХ ХЭЛЛЭГИЙН УТГА УЧИР

Abstract

Horses are loved by Mongolians in their culture and nomadic lifestyle. Mongolian horses made a great contribution to Mongolian history.
The art work of ‘The Eight Steed of Genghis’ is well known by us. While Chinese artist Xu Beihong (1895-1953) great work ‘Eight Chun map’ has its root in West Zhou Dynasty’s (B.C. 1046-B.C. 661) art work which was drawn by fifth king Zhou Muwang (B.C. 1054-B.C. 949). Similarly there maybe a connection between the ‘Lucky Eight Horses’ in art works even sculptures with the Mongolian art called ‘The Eight Steed of Genghis’.
This article aims to explain the meaning of the word ‘Sharga agt tan’ as used in “The Secret History of Mongolia” which was written in the 13th century, is considered to have no outside influences and believed to be an accurate account of Mongolian history. It especially aims to explain the meaning of the suffix tan that is used in the phrase ‘Sharga agt tan’ in “The Secret History of Mongolia”. The suffix tan was used in the middle aged Mongolian language and in our study you can see the comparison of the suffix tan and its similar meaning in contemporary Mongolian language.  This article also aims to determine the actual number of  horses in the phrase such as ‘Sharga agt tan 9 morid’ (meaning of  nine yellowish/ light bay horses), ‘Sharga agt tan 8 morid’ (meaning of eight yellowish/ light bay horses), as well it attempts to explain that in the mongolian language the word sharga means yellowish/light bay colour in cognitive linguistic understanding. This study also explores the meaning of the expression ‘The Eight Sharga Steed of Genghis’.