A term qut in the monuments of old turkic runic writing revisited

Abstract

The article proposed is devoted to the revision of the view on related to the interpretation of the word qut in the monuments of Old Turkic runic writing as a kind of substance that given to the nomadic ruler by the Heaven (divine charisma) and associated with the concept of supreme power. The paper examines the fragments contained the word qut in Old Turkic monuments to show that it's such interpretation prevailing in the scientific tradition can be acceptable for selected contexts, but unreasonable in general. The author of the article proposes to interpret them without a dependence imposed by theories. It is possible to analyze same contexts based on the ethnographic data. As a result, it looks quite adequate the understanding of qut in the monuments of Old Turkic runic writing as "vital force" or a kind of "vital energy", maybe "health indicator", that is a characteristic which all living things possess. It should not at all affect the interpretation of the word analyzed the use of it both in the same context with mentions of Tanri ('Heaven') and in combinations with the word qaghan. At least, following the contexts of the monuments in general, a qaghan, with the exception of his functions implied by his position, is otherwise no different from other representatives of the societies of Early Turks.