The City Beggar Woman
Toh 205
Degé Kangyur, vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 92.a–93.b
- Jñānagarbha
- Bandé Lui Wangpo
- Vidyākarasiṃha
- Bandé Devacandra
Imprint
First published 2024
Current version v 1.0.6 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
This short Mahāyāna sūtra tells of a beggar woman from the city of Śrāvastī whose modest offering of a lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, is contrasted with the lavish offering of lamps being made at the same time by Prasenajit, who was the king of Kośala and a major benefactor of the Buddha Śākyamuni and his community. While King Prasenajit’s extravagant donations fill a thousand large lamps with oil and burn so bright that a wide area around the monastery is illuminated, the beggar woman has only a tiny amount of oil with which to make her modest offering. As she lights the lamp, she does so with the sincere prayer that she too may one day achieve enlightenment and become a teacher of the Dharma, just like the Buddha. Her small lamp burns bright through the night and cannot be extinguished, no matter what Maudgalyāyana does as he tries to douse it. When the beggar woman returns the next day and sees her lamp still burning, she is filled with joy, whereupon the Buddha gives one of his magnificent smiles that lights up the cosmos. Asked by Ānanda to divulge the reason for his smile, the Buddha prophesies the almswoman’s fortuitous future rebirths and her eventual awakening as a buddha. He then reprises the whole tale in a series of verses.
Acknowledgements
Translated and introduced by George FitzHerbert, in consultation with a draft translation by Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen and Chodrungma Kunga Chodron of the Sakya Pandita Translation Group.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. David Fiordalis edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Celso Wilkinson was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
The City Beggar Woman is a short Mahāyāna sūtra that tells of a poor woman in Śrāvastī who lights an oil lamp in veneration of the Buddha Śākyamuni, makes a vow to become a buddha in the future, and then receives a prophecy of her future buddhahood from the Buddha. As Peter Skilling notes in the introduction to his translation of this sūtra, there are at least two other iterations of this story found elsewhere in the Tibetan Kangyur.1 One is in The Chapter on Medicines in the Vinayavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya,2 and the other is chapter 37 of The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish.3 The version in the Tibetan Vinaya also has a close parallel preserved in Sanskrit in the Divyāvadāna.4 Skilling also notes that the story was among those selected for illustration in Ming dynasty woodcuts of events from the Buddha’s life and in other Chinese artworks.5
The different versions of the story all tell of a pauper woman who is “dependent on the city for her livelihood” (Skt. nagarāvalambikā).6 In all versions, this woman lights an oil lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove that cannot be extinguished due to her great determination of mind in vowing to become a buddha. While sharing this basic plot and some other narrative details, such as a disciple trying to douse the lamp with the edge of his robe, the different versions diverge in various ways. For instance, in the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions, it is Ānanda who tries to extinguish the lamp, while in this sūtra, and the version found in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, it is Maudgalyāyana.
The framing of the story is also diverse across the different iterations. While the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions present it as the last of several episodes in a series, in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish it is followed by a past life story.7 The patterns of convergence and divergence between the different iterations, in these and other ways,8 are therefore somewhat complicated.
Here the story is presented as a standalone Mahāyāna sūtra in which (like the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions) the beggar woman’s humble but sincere offering is contrasted with the extravagant and ostentatious offerings of King Prasenajit.
The standalone sūtra does not appear to have been translated into Chinese, and no extant Sanskrit for it has been identified. It was translated into Tibetan during the height of the Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism (snga dar) in the late eighth or early ninth century and is listed in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs.9 Its colophon states that it was translated by Jñānagarbha10 and Lui Wangpo, and edited by Vidyākarasiṃha and Devacandra, all of whom were active in Tibet in the early ninth century. It is one of four texts in the Kangyur credited to this particular translation and editorial team, the other three all being dhāraṇī texts (Toh 545/892, Toh 546/893, and Toh 718/1037).11
This English translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, with reference to the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and the Stok Palace Kangyur. Peter Skilling’s English translation was also consulted.
Text Body
The City Beggar Woman
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. While staying in Śrāvastī, in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, the Blessed One was served, honored, venerated, and revered [F.92.b] by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas; by Śakra, Brahmā, and the world protectors; by kings and ministers; and by bodhisattvas, monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Yet he remained like a lotus unsullied by water.12
At that time, in order to venerate the Thus-Gone One, on the full moon day of the last month of autumn, King Prasenajit had a thousand large copper cauldrons filled with grain oil and set them out so that the entire area for four leagues around was illuminated by their flames.
At the same time, in the great city of Śrāvastī, there was a city beggar woman called Maker of Joy.13 She had bought a tiny amount of oil, as a result of which she had gone without food for four days and had grown weak.14 She took the oil to Prince Jeta’s Grove and, using it to light a lamp at the edge of the courtyard, she made this wish:
“Blessed One, with this root of virtue, may I too become a teacher in the future. May I teach the Dharma and gather a community, just as the thus-gone, worthy, perfect, and complete Buddha does now. If I am to become a buddha in the future, may this oil lamp continue to burn until I return.” Whereupon she lit the lamp, and returned to the city.
The light of that oil lamp illuminated all of Jambudvīpa and the following day the lamp was still burning. Then Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana tried to put it out with the edge of his robe, but he could not. Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana then tried to extinguish it with gales of wind, but still he could not put it out. Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana then went to the Brahmā realms and caused sheets of rain the size of chariot axles15 to fall upon this whole trichiliocosm. However, even though he directed the deluge right over the lamp, still he could not douse it.
Then the Blessed One said, “Let it be, Maudgalyāyana! This lamp has been lit with a mind set on awakening, and a mind set on awakening cannot be overcome by a śrāvaka. [F.93.a] How so? Because no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha can ever overcome a mind set on omniscience.”
A while later, as the sun was rising, the woman returned from the city. When she saw that the lamp was still burning brightly, she was filled with tremendous joy.
At that moment, the Blessed One smiled.16 It is the nature of things that whenever a blessed buddha smiles, rays of light of many colors—blue, yellow, red, white, crimson, and the colors of crystal and silver—stream forth from the blessed buddha’s mouth. These illuminate and pervade worlds without end, reaching as far as the Brahmā realms where they outshine even the sun and the moon. They then return once again, and, after circling the blessed one thrice, descend into the uṣṇīṣa at the crown of that blessed one’s head. So, indeed, did such rays of light, having circled the Blessed One thrice, disappear into the uṣṇīṣa of the Blessed One’s head.
The Blessed One replied, “Ānanda, this city beggar woman will not fall into a lower rebirth for twenty-eight eons. She will experience only the abundance of the human and god realms, and then will become a thus-gone, worthy, perfect, and complete buddha called All-Illuminating.”
Then the Blessed One spoke these verses:
Thus spoke the Blessed One, and Venerable Ānanda, the city beggar woman, the bodhisattvas and monks, along with the gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas of the world, rejoiced and thoroughly praised what the Blessed One had said.
This concludes The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The City Beggar Woman.”
Colophon
Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and Lotsawa Bandé Lui Wangpo. Edited and finalized by the Indian preceptor Vidyākarasiṃha and senior editor Lotsawa Bandé Devacandra.
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Language
’phags pa grong khyer gyis ’tsho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryanagarāvalambikānāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 205, Degé Kangyur vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 92.a–93.b.
grong khyer gyis ’tsho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 62, pp. 241–47.
’phags pa grong khyer gyis ’tsho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 69 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 29.a–31.b.
mdzangs blun zhes bya ba’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 74, pp. 299–995.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Western Languages
84000. The Chapter on Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu, sman gyi gzhi, Toh 1-6). Translated by the Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
———. The Hundred Deeds (Karmaśataka, las brgya tham pa, Toh 340). Translated by Lozang Jamspal and Kaia Tara Fischer. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
———. The Questions of Ratnajālin (Ratnajāliparipṛcchā, rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa, Toh 163). Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
———. The Questions of Sāgaramati (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā, blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa, Toh 152). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
———. The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance (Acintyaprabhāsanirdeśa, khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa, Toh 103). Translated by the Blazing Wisdom Translation Group. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Rotman, Andy, trans. Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna Part 1. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008.
Skilling, Peter. Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
chiliocosm
- stong chen
- སྟོང་ཆེན།
- —
city beggar woman
- grong khyer gyis ’tsho ba
- གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་འཚོ་བ།
- nagarāvalambikā AD
gales of wind
- rnam par ’thor ba’i rlung
- རྣམ་པར་འཐོར་བའི་རླུང་།
- vairambhavātā AD
Lui Wangpo
- klu’i dbang po
- ཀླུའི་དབང་པོ།
- —
mind set on omniscience
- thams cad mkhyen pa nyid kyi sems
- ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སེམས།
- —
Prince Jeta’s Grove
- rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal
- རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ།
- jetavana AD
Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park
- rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
- རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ AD
trichiliocosm
- stong gsum
- stong gsum gyi ’jig rten gyi khams
- སྟོང་གསུམ།
- སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།
- trisāhasralokadhātu AD