Thor bu - Curiosia Indo-Tibetica

Textual and visual odds and ends from India, Tibet, and around.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Kolozsvár/Cluj, Budapest, Oxford, ibi ubi

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Prajñāpāramitā from the reign of Vigrahapāla III

I have just browsed through the manuscript images made available online at himalayanart.org and came across this very attractive Aṣṭasāhasrikā (what else!). Though lacking pretty pictures, fortunately the last page with a fairly long colophon (actually, two colophons) is also displayed. 




Here is the very first attempt of trying to crack it/them:

ye dharmā [etc.] deyadharmo [']yaṃ pravaramahāyānayāyinaḥ paramopāsaka-bhoesataṣo(?) Hāsillasya(?) (I'm in trouble here) yad atra puṇyaṃ [etc.] mahārājādhirāja-parameśvara-paramasaugata-śrīNayapāladeva-pādānudhyāta-śrīmadVigrahapāladeva-pravardhamāna-kalyāṇavijayarājye samvat 15 phālguna-kṛṣṇa-dvitīyāyāṃ niṣpāditam iti ||   || śrī[ma]n-Nālandāvasthita-dharmabhāṇaka-Ānandena likhitam iti ||   || 

Well, one always likes to see Nālandā smiling at the reader from a Sanskrit manuscript. It's also good to know that dharmabhāṇakas sometimes did copy manuscripts. As for the rest, nothing really new. We already know that Nayapāla was Vigrahapāla (III)'s precursor on the throne, and we know that Vigrahapāla ruled for at least 15 years - actually, much beyond that: the last figure I've seen was 26 years. However, the rest is rather interesting:

āryaprajñāprāmitāyai namaḥ|| 
āsīt sāttvikajāniko (hm...) guṇagaṇaiḥ prakhyātakīrtiḥ purā 
nāmnā Boddharaṇaḥ samāhitayaśā sūnus tato [']bhūt priyaḥ| 
yo 'sau nūtanakarmabhiḥ pratinavāṃ lokārthasaṃpādikāṃ 
prajñāpāramitām akārayad imām Ūlūkanāmāhvayaḥ|| 
śrīmadGopāladevasya rājyasamvatsare 'ṣṭame| 
niṣpādya saṃpratiṣṭhāpya prāptaṃ puṇyam anuttaram|| 
sādhu(?) yat tena puṇyena lokāḥ syur api bhāginaḥ| 
prajñāpāramitopāyabodhimārgaparāyaṇāḥ ||   ||

So there was a man called Boddharaṇa, whose son, Ūlūka (rather unfortunate name nowadays), renovated (?) the manuscript during the reign of Gopāla, year 8, i.e. roughly 60 years later. We probably cannot see the restored pages (if this is what is talked about here), but it is rather strange that three generations later the scribe's hand is virtually the same as above.

UPDATE: note the two readings suggested by HI in the comments. I think the Tibetan scribble at the bottom says: dpal nā lan dar gnas pa'i chos smra [ba?] kun dga' zhes bya bas bris pa'o, a translation of the scribe identifying himself.

UPDATE 2 (Jun 19, 2011): This colophon has already been studied in Huntington & Huntington 1990 'Leaves from the Bodhi Tree' as item 58. Their readings differ somewhat.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tsongkhapa vs. Nepalese vajrācāryas

This rather catty remark comes from the fifth chapter of the Sngags rim chen mo (p. 192)*:

phyag dang sems bskyed pa'i yul gyi sems can so so ba rnams dang nga rgyal gzung ba dang bka' bsgo ba'i yul la sogs pa la so so'i nyams bton pa'i gar mang po byed pa Phreng ba'i lugs su 'dod pa ni| Phreng ba dang Man snye dang Kha sbyor gyi 'grel pa gzhan gnyis dang Sgyu dra'i 'grel pa gnyis la sogs pa'i gzhung khungs thub sus kyang ma bshad pas| spros pa la dga' ba'i bod [pa] 'ga' zhig gis bal po'i sngags pa mi mkhas pa kha cig la brten nas rang gi blos btags pa tsam du zad do|| 

*Rgyal ba khyab bdag rdo rje 'chang chen po'i lam gyi rim pa gsang ba kun gyi gnad rnam par phye ba, Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang 1995, based on the Sku 'bum Byams pa gling blocks.

Labels: , ,