Introduction

i.1The Questions of Brahmadatta begins with the Buddha residing in Jeta’s Grove, a park that had been offered to the Buddha and his monks by the wealthy lay disciple Anāthapiṇḍada. This park was located in Śrāvastī, one of the major cities in the ancient northern Indian kingdom of Kośala and a common setting for many Buddhist sūtras. Śrāvastī is said to be where the Buddha spent the majority of his rainy-season retreats, and many of his teachings were expounded there. While the Buddha is there with his disciples, the bodhisattva Amoghadarśin departs from Jeta’s Grove together with a large retinue. Monks at this time were encouraged not only to stay in retreat but also to travel from town to town in order to educate communities about the Dharma. Amoghadarśin and his retinue eventually arrive at the ancient kingdom of Pañcāla. Pañcāla is listed among the sixteen great states of India during the time of the Buddha and is situated in the northwestern region between Kurū and Kośala, two other well-known Indian kingdoms. According to The Questions of Brahmadatta, during the time of the Buddha, Pañcāla was ruled by a king named Brahmadatta. In early Buddhist canonical sources, Brahmadatta is a common name for kings and princes of various Indian kingdoms and capitals including Benares (present-day Varanasi) and Northern Pañcāla (Uttara Pañcāla).

i.2When King Brahmadatta hears of Amoghadarśin’s arrival in Pañcāla, he decides to meet him to pay his respects. The bodhisattva imparts teachings on the five attributes of an anointed king of royal descent who is on the path to awakening. These five qualities are (1) possessing faith, (2) longing for the Dharma, (3) believing in the Dharma’s profundity, (4) fully upholding the teachings, and (5) making an effort to completely uphold the supreme Dharma. Amoghadarśin goes on to clarify in verse a king’s essential role as a protector of the Dharma. The king expresses humility by replying that he has all the shortcomings and none of the good qualities mentioned, confessing that he has harmed and killed others. The king and his subjects then vow to generate the mind of awakening by following the bodhisattva path, and they ask the bodhisattva to remain in Pañcāla during the rainy season retreat.

i.3Amoghadarśin and his retinue agree to stay, and King Brahmadatta acts as their patron by providing all their material needs. However, sixty degenerate monks are already residing there. They possess negative attributes such as jealousy, pride, and resentment and do not follow the rules of the Vinaya, the Buddhist monastic code. Since they do not like the presence of Amoghadarśin and his monks, they make rude remarks and spread rumors about Amoghadarśin. Additionally, a minister of King Brahmadatta causes a rift between Amoghadarśin and the wicked monks and between the bodhisattva and King Brahmadatta. Although there is only brief mention of the minister, the sūtra repeatedly refers to the negative effect that wicked monks can have on a lay community, stating that the monks “spread such remarks by visiting the homes of brahmins and householders with little faith, who, as a result of listening, would be born and live as denizens of the great hells for eight hundred million eons.”

i.4After three months, Amoghadarśin leaves Pañcāla and returns to Jeta’s Grove, where the Buddha is residing. King Brahmadatta, hearing that Amoghadarśin had gone to the Buddha because the sixty degenerate monks had mistreated him, goes to see the Buddha. He tells the Buddha that he feels the bodhisattva had left too soon, whereupon the Buddha explains how the monks there had behaved. The Buddha then describes the causes for lacking effort, the characteristics of jealous people, and how to recognize those who have strayed from the path to awakening. The Buddha explains how to recognize degenerate monks and how other ordained individuals should treat such monks. He warns that the consequences of the increased number of wicked monks‍—that is, monks who do not follow the Vinaya correctly and do not have faith in the Dharma‍—could lead to the destruction of the Dharma. Throughout this sūtra, the Buddha encourages monks and those who wish to attain awakening to refrain from such negative behavior; he also alludes to a king’s responsibility to expel degenerate monks for the sake of the Dharma and the future lives of his own subjects. In accord with this advice, King Brahmadatta expels the sixty degenerate monks from his kingdom, and by doing so he becomes irreversibly set on the path to awakening. Finally, King Brahmadatta apologizes to Amoghadarśin and is forgiven.

i.5There is to our knowledge no extant Sanskrit version of this sūtra, nor are there any translations into Chinese. According to the colophon to the Tibetan translation it was translated into Tibetan by the Indian preceptors Surendrabodhi and Prajñāvarman, along with the editor and translator Yeshé Dé. The text is also recorded in the Denkarma inventory of the Tibetan imperial translations, so it would have been translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century, as the Denkarma is thought to have been compiled in 812 ᴄᴇ. Previously, this sūtra has received little attention in modern publications, and this is to our knowledge the first English translation of the text. This translation has been prepared based on the Tibetan translation in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma).