The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī
Toh 551
Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud ’bum, pa), folios 15.a–15.b
Imprint
Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
Current version v 1.0.5 (2023)
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Translated by David Mellins, Kaia Fischer, and Geshé Lobsang Dawa, with Phakyab Rinpoche (Geshé Ngawang Sungrab), under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. Introduction by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer. Special thanks to Paul Hackett for generously sharing his bibliographic expertise and resources, and to Artemus B. Engle for his assistance in deciphering the syntax of descriptive passages. This translation would not have been possible without the kind and dedicated tutelage of Gen Lozang Jamspal, Executive Director, Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī is the first of two short Mañjuśrī praise texts1 in the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that immediately follow a group of six concise Mañjuśrī dhāraṇī scriptures. The text describes in detail the physiognomy, ornamentation, vestments, and general splendor of Mañjuśrī while skillfully maintaining a tension between two frames of reference: the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī of the sūtras and the tathāgata Mañjuśrī who appears in various manifestations in tantric literature. The verses also employ tropes that integrate features characteristic of the devotional and philosophical genres of Sanskrit literature, in a manner reminiscent of Buddhist belle-lettres such as Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacārita and Kṣemendra’s Avadānakalpalatā.
A Sanskrit version of the text is to our knowledge no longer extant, and no record of its Sanskrit title has yet been identified. It also appears that the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon, so we have no information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. The text’s absence from the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs suggests that it was translated into Tibetan later than the beginning of the ninth century2 but before the flourishing of the scholar Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), who listed its title in his History of Buddhism.3
Text Body
The Translation
Homage to the Omniscient One!
This concludes “The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī.”
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
bcom ldan ’das kyis ’jam dpal rnon po la bstod pa. Toh 551, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud, pa), folios 15.a.4–15.b.6.
bcom ldan ’das kyis ’jam dpal rnon po la bstod pa. 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. 89, pp. 61–62.
’jam dpal ngag gi dbang phyug la bu mo brgyad kyis bstod. Toh 552, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud, pa), folios 15.b–16.a. English translation in Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York 2023
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.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ʼphang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). chos ’byung (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i gter mdzod). In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 24 (ya), pp. 633–1055. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106.
Sanskrit Sources
Kṣemendra. Avadāna-kalpalatā. Edited by P. L. Vaidya and Śridhara Tripāṭhī. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1989.
Western Language Sources
Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York, trans. The Eight Maidens’ Praise of Mañjuśrī, Lord of Speech (Toh 552). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. Life of the Buddha by Ashvaghosha. Clay Sanskrit Library. New York: New York University Press, 2008.
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.
Aśvaghoṣa
- —
- —
- aśvaghoṣa
blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
cat’s-eye gem
- rin chen spug
- རིན་ཆེན་སྤུག
- musāragalva
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
dharmadhātu
- chos kyi dbyings
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- dharmadhātu
dharmarāja
- chos kyi rgyal po
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- dharmarāja
dharmatā
- chos nyid
- ཆོས་ཉིད།
- dharmatā
eon
- bskal pa
- བསྐལ་པ།
- kalpa
Gentle Voice
- ’jam dbyangs
- འཇམ་དབྱངས།
- mañjughoṣa
kalaviṅka bird
- ka la ping ka
- ཀ་ལ་པིང་ཀ
- kalaviṅka
Kṣemendra
- —
- —
- kṣemendra
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
omniscient one
- thams cad mkhyen pa
- ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ།
- —
tathāgata
- de bzhin gshegs pa
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
- tathāgata
uṣṇīṣa
- gtsug tor
- གཙུག་ཏོར།
- uṣṇīṣa
vajra
- rdo rje
- རྡོ་རྗེ།
- vajra