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Indian Makara or Chinese Dragon-Fish? Textual Translation and Visual Transformation of Makara in China

Abstract Translation serves as a starting point for a blend of elements from sources of different origins. This paper examines the complex relations between translation and art forms by looking at a specific image type, namely Makara (dragon-fish). Translation between text and image is central to iconographic analysis in the study of art history. While transliterating the Sanskrit Makara into Chinese mo-jie-lo or mo-jie does not transmit any visual elements, the translation of Makara into jing (originally meaning giant fish in Chinese) or yu-long (literally fish-dragon) opened up the possibilities for exchange of iconographies grown independently in the target and the source-language cultures.