Notes

n.1The alternative title of the sūtra, as found in Kangyurs of the Thempangma line such as the Stok Palace Kangyur, is (following the Tibetan) The Mahāyāna Sūtra “Dharmaketu’s Question” (’phag pa chos kyi rgyal mtshan gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo) or (following the Sanskrit) The Mahāyāna Sūtra “Dharmaketu­dhvaja’s Question” (Ārya­dharma­ketu­dhvaja­paripṛcchā­nāma­mahā­yāna­sūtra). These titles are also found, with only minor orthographic variation, in the Narthang and Lhasa Kangyurs. Peter Skilling notes that dhvaja in the Sanskrit title is a “pleonastic” insertion (Skilling 2021, p. 208).

n.2The nineteenth century scholar Henri Léon Feer cited this sūtra in his refutation of an assertion by Andre Vassilivič Vassilieff that the early Buddhist sūtras found in the Pali Canon were distinguished by their brevity and simplicity in contrast to the Mahāyāna sūtras. See Feer 1866, p. 277.

n.3Skilling 2021, p. 209.

n.4Butön, chos ’byung, fol. 152.a.

n.5See note 1 above.

n.6Notably, in The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Toh 176), The Stem Array (Toh 44–45), and Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions (Toh 68). In the present sūtra, the bodhisattva’s name Dharmaketu (or Dharmaketudhvaja) is translated into Tibetan as chos kyi rgyal mtshan, “Victory Banner of the Dharma,” while in these other canonical translations it was translated as chos kyi tog, “Apex of the Dharma,” or chos kyi dpal, “Glory of the Dharma.”

n.7This follows the Stok Palace Kangyur reading bla ma dang mkhan po’i gdams ngag yongs su btsal ba. The Degé and other Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line read differently as “bestow the oral instructions of teachers and preceptors” (bla ma dang mkhan po’i gdams ngag yongs su stsal ba). The difference hinges on the spelling of two homophonous verbs in Tibetan. While btsal ba (as found in the Stok version) means “seek out” or “look for,” stsal ba (as found in the Degé) means “give” or “bestow.” Peter Skilling likewise favors “seek out.” In a note, he offers a reconstruction of the Sanskrit that this could potentially translate, *guru-upādhyāya-upadeśa-paryeṣti / paryeṣana. See Skilling 2021, p. 538, n. 436. It is also notable that this is the only text in the Kangyur to use the phrase bla ma dang mkhan po.

n.8The Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné Kangyur witnesses here have the epithet “compassionate” (Tib. snying rje dang) before the bodhisattva’s name.