Introduction

i.1The inclusion of The Crest Insignia (1) (hereafter Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1]) among the Mahāsūtras (literally “Great Sūtras”) reflects its status in early Buddhism as a “protective text” (known as a rakṣā by the Sarvāstivādins and Mūlasarvāstivādins and a paritta by the Theravādins). It shares the same Sanskrit title with a with a closely related Mahāsūtra that immediately follows it in the Degé Kangyur (The Crest Insignia (2), Toh 293, hereafter Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2]). In Tibetan the titles of these two Mahāsūtras are differentiated by alternative translations of the word agra (as mchog in the present text, Toh 292, and dam pa in Toh 293), but we have translated the title in the same way in both texts based on the identical Sanskrit title Dhvajāgra. The term dhvajāgra refers to a symbol or insignia that was mounted at the end of a long pole, which was employed as a martial ensign on the battlefield in ancient India.

i.2Although these two Mahāsūtras describe teachings given to different audiences at different locations, they both include recensions of the same core teaching on “recollecting the Buddha” (Skt. buddhānu­smṛti, Tib. sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa) as a method for dispelling fear in times of crisis. In the many iterations of the Dhvajāgra­sūtra found in Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese, the formula by which the Buddha is to be recollected is composed of a set of epithets that describe his qualities, traditionally said to be nine in number but with some differences between versions of the text. Recollecting the Buddha in this way is presented as the primary means of protecting oneself from fear and insecurity and is likened to how Śakra emboldens his army of devas with the sight of Vaijayanta, his celestial crest insignia, which fills the devas with courage as they wage war against the asuras. It is from this analogy that the texts take their title.

i.3The present text, the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1], differs from the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] in being located at Vaiśālī (rather than the Jeta Grove in Śrāvastī) and in being addressed to a group of merchants (rather than the community of monks). The Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] additionally differs in prescribing the recollection of all Three Jewels (Skt. triratna, Tib. dkon mchog gsum), rather than just of the Buddha, the other two being compared to the crest insignia of Īśāna and Varuṇa. Like the formula for recollecting the Buddha, the formulae set out here for recollecting the Dharma and the Saṅgha have been a core feature of Buddhist liturgies since the earliest times. Indeed these three formulae are also found in the Kangyur as standalone scriptures called, respectively, Buddhānu­smṛti (Toh 279), Dharmānu­smṛti (Toh 280), and Saṅghānu­smṛti (Toh 281). The three short texts (which are often recited in a form that fuses them into a single Triratnānu­smṛti text) are of unknown origin and may possibly be derived partly from the present sūtra or its parallels.

i.4The sūtra begins with the merchants preparing to embark on the journey to Takṣaśilā‍—the capital of Gandhāra and a historic center for Indian Buddhism and transcontinental trade‍—when they learn that the Buddha has taken up residence nearby at the Kūṭāgāraśālā on the banks of the Monkey Pond. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they invite the Buddha and his saṅgha of monks to come to their lodgings for a midday meal. It is at this occasion that the Buddha delivers his teaching on recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha as a way of dispelling fear at times of need. Following the prose narrative is a section in verse in which the Buddha offers the merchants some verses of benediction (Skt. svastigāthā), celebrating their generosity and blessing them for a safe journey. Several of these verses, which employ a poetic repetition of the word “perfect” (Skt. saṃpad, Tib. phun sum tshogs), are also found in various iterations in other canonical works.

i.5There is no surviving Sanskrit text for the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1], although there are extant Sanskrit fragments and a Pali version corresponding to the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] that overlap with sections of the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] (see the introduction to Toh 293). The Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] was translated into Chinese by the Indian monk Guṇabhadra (394–468 ᴄᴇ) between 435 and 443 and is found as no. 980 of his translation of the Saṃyuktāgama (Taishō 99, 雜阿含經).

i.6The seven Mahāsūtras that are found together in the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section of most Kangyurs (Toh 288–94), as well as the two found in the Action Tantra (bya ba’i rgyud) section (and in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) section in those Kangyurs that include such a compendium) (Toh 653/1062 and Toh 656/1061), were transmitted to Tibet as a collection and translated together by Jinamitra, Prajñāvarman, and Yeshé Dé, and the fact that the nine texts are listed together in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma catalogs also dates the translations to the early ninth century. Peter Skilling suggests that Jinamitra, who was an accomplished Vinaya master, may have specifically transmitted the Mahāsūtras for use as rakṣā protective texts for the fledging monastic community, only to be eclipsed by tantra in postimperial Tibetan Buddhism. Although it may have enjoyed popularity during the early period, the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] does not appear to have been quoted or studied widely in Tibet.

i.7The foremost study of the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] is Peter Skilling’s two-volume The Mahāsūtras: Great Discourses of the Buddha, which has greatly informed this introduction and translation. The first mention of the ­sūtra in Western scholarship came in the early nineteenth century from Alexander Csoma de Kőrös in his “Analysis of the Mdo,” in which he briefly surveyed the contents of the Mahāsūtras. The Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] was only very recently translated into English, when it appeared alongside the Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] and the Pali Dhajagga­sutta in Skilling 2024.

i.8The present translation was produced based on the Degé Kangyur edition and checked against the variant readings in the Comparative Edition Kangyur and the Stok Palace Manuscript Kangyur.