Notes

n.1Most Kangyurs, including those among both the Tshalpa and Themphangma lines, as well as the Denkarma catalog, give the sūtra’s Tibetan title as khams mang po’i mdo, while the Degé and Lithang Kangyurs give it as khams mang po pa’i mdo, which is also how it is given in the Tibetan translation of Śamathadeva’s Abhidharma­kośaṭīkopāyikā (Toh 4094). It seems likely that the variant Sanskrit title of the discourse found in the Degé and Lithang Kangyurs, Dhātubahutaka­sūtra, is a back-translation from this Tibetan form, Multitude of Constituents.

n.2In the Mahāvyutpatti, the imperial-era Sanskrit-Tibetan lexicon, the term dhātu, as found in many compounds, is rendered consistently in Tibetan as khams, a term that also carries the senses of “field,” “province,” or “realm.” In specific cases, however, in particular dharmadhātu and its related compounds (which do not feature in this discourse), dhātu is translated with dbyings, which also means “space.”

n.3For an English translation from Pali, as well as the Pali source text and listings of translations into other modern languages, see Many Elements (MN 115).

n.4Dhātubahutakasūtra, to make grammatically possible (though still unlikely) Sanskrit, would need to be corrected to Dhātubahutākasūtra (i.e., a long ā in bahutā). It seems likely this title was created as a back-translation from the Tibetan khams mang po pa, with the nominalized bahutā included to account for the pa nominalizer in the Tibetan. The Dodedrak Kangyur gives the Sanskrit title as Dhātubahukasūtra, which is also how it is listed in the Tohoku catalog (Ui et al. 1934, p. 57).

n.5See note 1 and note 4. Skilling (2009) has noted that in this case the title given in the Themphamga Kangyurs is preferrable.

n.6Duo jie jing 多界經 (Bahudhātuka­sūtra), Taishō 26-181 (CBETA; SAT).

n.7Fo shuo si pin famen jing 佛說四品法門經 (Bahudhātuka­sūtra), Taishō 776 (CBETA; SAT).

n.8The sūtra is found in the General Sūtra (Tib. mdo sde) section in the Degé, Narthang, Choné, Lhasa (Zhol), Urga, and Stok Palace Kangyurs; in the Various Sūtras (Tib. mdo sna tshogs) section in the Qianlong Kangyur; and in the Sūtra (Tib. mdo) section in the Shey Palace Kangyur. For the details of these variations see the University of Vienna’s Resources for Kanjur and Tenjur Studies. In the Mongolian Kangyur it is entitled Olan iǰaγur-un sudur (The Sūtra “Many Foundations”); see also Ligeti (1942), p. 286.

n.9Colophon: khams mang po zhes bya ba’i mdo rdzogs so / rgya gar gyi mkhan po su lenḍa bo[d] de dang / zhu chen gyi lo tstsha ba ban de ye shes sdes bsgyur cing gtan la phab pa (“This sūtra was translated and finalized by the Indian abbot Sulenḍabod and the principal editor-translator Bandé Yeshé Dé”). Accessed through Resources for Kanjur and Tenjur Studies.

n.10Denkarma, folio 301.a; Herrmann-Pfandt (2008), p. 157.

n.11According to the colophon of Toh 4094, Śamathadeva’s Abhidharma­kośaṭīkopāyikā was translated by “the Tibetan translator, the Khampa monk Sherab Öser” and Jayaśrījñāna. The dates of these figures remain uncertain, but Peter Skilling (2020, p. 713) has suggested the eleventh or twelfth century.

n.12Śamathadeva, Toh 4094, folios 28.b–33.b.

n.13The Tibetan term yams kyi nad often refers to an epidemic or contagious disease. Here it is likely used to translate the Sanskrit upadrava, which can refer to any accident or sudden onset of disease, distress, famine, or misfortune, hence “calamity.”

n.14While here and passim the Kangyur versions of the discourse have the construction byis pa las skye’i mkhas las ni ma yin no, i.e., that all dangers and all kinds of disasters arise “from the foolish, not from the learned,” the Abhidharma­kośaṭīkopāyikā translation has the alternative construction byis pa rnams la skye ’ i/_mkhas pa rnams la ni ma yin no (Śamathadeva, Toh 4094, folio 28.b), i.e., that all these factors of distress occur “to/for the foolish and not to/for the learned,” which seems a preferable reading. However, in Bhikkhu Sujato’s translation from the Pali version of the discourse, like the Kangyur versions, we also find “from,” so here we have retained the Kangyur reading.

n.15This sentence is absent from the Stok Palace version.

n.16Here the analogy seems incomplete. In the Pali version (MN 115) the analogy is clearer. As translated by Bhikkhu Sujato (2018), “It’s like a fire that spreads from a hut made of reeds or grass, and burns down even a bungalow, plastered inside and out, draft-free, with latches fastened and windows shuttered.”

n.17Bhikkhu Sujato’s translation (2018) of the parallel Pali discourse here reads, “There are these six elements: the elements of sensuality and renunciation, malice and good will, and cruelty and harmlessness. When a mendicant knows and sees these six elements, they’re qualified to be called ‘skilled in the elements’.”

n.18More commonly translated as “three realms” (Tib. khams gsum, Skt. tridhātu). The “three realms,” like the other dhātus, are here constituents of the experienced world.

n.19Neither this, nor the following five paragraphs, have parallel content in the Pali version, which here skips directly to the constituents of the conditioned and unconditioned.

n.20Neither this, nor the following three paragraphs, have parallel content in the Pali version.

n.21dge mtshan dang bkra shis, probably rendering the Sanskrit kautuka­maṅgala.

n.22srid pa brgyad pa. “A person who perfectly sees [the truth]” (lta ba phun sum tshogs pa’i gang zag) refers to a stream-enterer (srota­āpanna, rgyun du zhugs pa), and such a person can only have seven further rebirths.