Notes
n.1Skilling 2021, pp. 279–80 and note 600. He also points to a stone relief from Gandhāra that is said to depict King Kaniṣka making an offering of sand. Skilling also notes that The Prediction for Brahmaśrī was translated into French in the nineteenth century by the scholar Léon Feer and published, first in Feer 1865 and then again in Feer 1883.
n.2The White Lotus of the Good Dharma , (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Toh 113), translated by Peter Alan Roberts (2018).
n.3The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, 2.109.
n.4For an English translation, see Goodman 2016, pp. 95–96.
n.5The verses in the Lotus Sūtra preserved in Sanskrit contain words for both sand and dirt, sikatā and pāṃsu (or pāṃśu), respectively. The former term for sand is typically translated into Tibetan with bye ma, as it is in the case of the Lotus Sūtra, whereas the Tibetan translation of pāṃsu, dirt or dust, is typically sa rdul, and it is this latter term that is used throughout The Prediction for Brahmaśrī. In any case, the city of Śrāvastī is said to have been situated on the banks of the river Aciravatī, which ran dry during the hot season, making it easy to imagine the children in this sūtra playing in the sandy ground outside the city.
n.6For a translation of one such story and on the theme of the Buddha’s smile, see Fiordalis 2021. For more translations from the same collection of stories, see Appleton 2020.
n.7The Phukdrak Kangyur version carries a variant colophon, which states that it was translated by Viśuddhasiṃha and Gélo (dge blo) and revised by Lhayi Dawa (lha’i zla ba). The name Lhayi Dawa is the Tibetan equivalent of Devacandra, so as Skilling has observed, “There is some degree of agreement among the records.” Skilling 2021, p. 278.
n.8Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 121.
n.9This verse has parallels or close variants in other canonical texts, such as The Chapter on Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu, Toh 1-6), 9.67; The Threefold Ritual (rgyud gsum pa, Toh 846a), 1.2; and The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines (Caityapradakṣiṇagāthā, Toh 321), 1.58.