Notes

n.1See also the 84000 Knowledge Base article, “Mahāsūtras.”

n.2Skilling’s (1994–97) exhaustive two-volume study comprises critical editions of the Tibetan texts compiled from the many versions of the ten Mahāsūtras, which are also compared with equivalent works in Sanskrit and Pali where they exist, accompanied by detailed introductions and other material, tables, and extensive notes, for the set in general and for each individual text. It is the source of much of the information in this introduction.

n.3Skilling (1994–97), vol. 2, p. 12.

n.4Most of this literature is preserved in Tibetan because it was to the Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition that the early paṇḍitas who came to Tibet belonged, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya corpus that they brought with them happens to be the most extensive of all the different vinaya collections, almost a canon in itself, containing a huge range of material.

n.5See Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team (2021), 3.272–324.

n.6Pali accounts of the Vaiśālī epidemic, as well as the Sanskrit Mahāvastu (see below), place the incident much earlier in the Buddha’s life, during the reign of Ajātaśatru’s father, Bimbisāra.

n.7Other texts place it after the quelling of the epidemic, which seems more likely given the account of the young Licchavi men appearing in all their finery in Āmrapālī’s Grove.

n.8Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1093 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1093 note 7 for details.

n.9There are also mantras in two other mahāsūtras, the Mahā­samāja­sūtra and the Āṭānāṭīyasūtra. In the Degé Kangyur, both are placed in the Tantra section (Toh 653 and 656, respectively) with duplicates in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Toh 1062 and 1061).

n.10’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo las ’byung pa’i bde legs kyi tshigs su bcad pa.

n.11See Denkarma, folios 302.a.5 and 304.b.2; and Hermann-Pfandt (2008), pp. 202 [353] and 277 [483].

n.12The translators’ colophon is found only in the duplicates of the text in the Tantra and Dhāraṇīs sections, not in the General Sūtra version.

n.13See n.­28.

n.14An edition based on eight manuscripts is included in Skilling (1994–97), vol. 1, pp. 608–622. There are five Pañcarakṣa texts in the Kangyur representing the five protector goddesses, but this particular text does not seem to have been translated into Tibetan. It seems to be the only one with such a direct relationship to the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya.

n.15See Yao (2013) and (2015).

n.16See Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra , Toh 563.

n.17根本說一切有部毘奈耶藥事 (Taishō 1448).

n.18佛說大護明大陀羅尼經 (Taishō 1048).

n.19See Feer (1883), pp. 423–429.

n.20Especially chapters 25 and 29. See bibliography for Sanskrit text. For translation see Jones (1949), vol. 1, p. 208 et seq. and p. 242 et seq.

n.21The Ratana-sutta is found in the Canon as Khuddakapāṭha 6 and Suttanipāta 2.1. It is also found in a large number of liturgical collections of paritta texts, such as the Catubhāṇavārapāli (“Text of the Four Recitals”), along with some of the Pali counterparts of other mahāsūtras. See Pemaloka (2018), pp. xv and 54–63.

n.22Especially the Khuddakapāṭha-aṭṭhakathā; see Skilling (1994–97), vol. 2, p. 605, n. 83.

n.23See Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2016a). The epidemic is introduced at 1.4, the Buddha quells it at 1.243, and the verses in question start at 1.249.

n.24佛說守護大千國土經 (Fo shuo shouhu da qian guotu jing, Taishō 999), translated by Dānapāla in the late tenth or early eleventh century.

n.25stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa las gsungs pa’i smon lam, Toh 813 in the Tantra section, duplicated as Toh 1098 in the Dhāraṇīs. See Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2020), trans. The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm” .

n.26See Pemaloka (2018), p. ix.

n.27A ritual framework for reciting the mahāsūtra was composed (date unknown) by a Losang Jampal Gyatso (blo bzang ’jam dpal rgya mtsho, possibly the eighth Dalai Lama, although there are many other authors of the same name), with the title yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo’i ’don thabs; see pp. 264–5 in u rgyan slob dpon pad+ma ’byung gnas kyis mdzad pa rdzu ’phrul gyi ’phur lto brgya rtsa ba rgya nag nas ’byung pa’i tshul sogs (W1NLM624) recently scanned by BDRC and ACIP in the National Library of Mongolia.

n.28In the Tibetan of this mahāsūtra version, the setting is rendered as ’dam bu’i khrod na gzings pa’i ’dug gnas, something of a conundrum for the translator. In the Bhaiṣajyavastu version this opening is absent, but according to its narrative the dialog that follows can be surmised to have taken place at the Giñjakāvasatha at Nādikā, a village near Pāṭaliputra (present-day Patna, in Bihar). To summarize personal communications with Peter Skilling: The Sanskrit Nādikā is attested in passages of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra that parallel parts of the Bhaiṣajyavastu, but in the Tibetan of the latter Nādikā is rendered as sgra can, perhaps meaning “a place with noise,” and in other texts sgra sgrogs (similar in meaning) and chu bo can (“having a river”); these renderings are all based on Skt. √nad (“roar”) and its derivative nadī (“river”). Given that Nādikā has several variant spellings in the Pali texts, it is plausible‍—given the weight of the evidence from these other texts‍—that ’dam bu’i khrod could be a Tibetan rendering of the same place name, based instead on Skt. naḍa (“reed,” Tib. ’dam bu), sometimes spelt nala or nada; this is also supported by the fact (Yao, personal communication) that the rendering of Nādikā as 販葦聚落 in the Chinese translation of the Kṣudrakavastu (Taishō 1451) is also based on reference to reeds. As for the building or dwelling (gzings pa’i ’dug gnas), this Tibetan rendering may or may not correspond to the Giñjakāvasatha of other texts, a name sometimes interpreted from Pali sources as meaning a “brick building,” but with inconclusive evidence. The Tibetan here, gzings pa, according to Negi, may translate the Sanskrit gahana (“impenetrable,” “thicket”) but does not allow the name to be matched with any certainty to the Giñjakāvasatha or any other known place name. The whole phrase is found as a setting in only one other Kangyur text, a dhāraṇī called lcags mthu nag po (Toh 763). In Karmavajra’s commentary (see Introduction i.10), the place is given instead as ’dam bu’i khrod na gzigs pa’i ’dug gnas, i.e., the same primary locality but “the Dwelling Place of Seeing” as the secondary one. The commentary provides no explanation of the name but goes on to describe it, in tantra style, as a measureless palace at the center of Vaiśālī made by the gods, asuras, and other nonhuman beings.

n.29There are many variants between the extant Tibetan texts in the mantras transliterated from Sanskrit, and in particular between the present Mahāsūtra version and the Bhaiṣajyavastu version. Here, the spelling and number of word repetitions reproduces the Degé Kangyur version in the Tantra section. Variants are fully documented in Skilling (1994–97), vol. 1, pp. 564–607 and 696–738.

n.30Here the Chinese translation of the Bhaiṣajyavastu transliterates the entire passage down to “Muñcata muñcata,” whereas the Tibetan translates it.

n.31Plural (chos rnams) in the Bhaiṣajyavastu version.

n.32“Disperse! Disperse! Disperse! Disperse!”

n.33“Move! Move!”

n.34“Depart! Depart! Depart! Depart!”

n.35The Bhaiṣajyavastu version here, instead of lus la yang ’jug par gyis shig, has dgongs pa la yang ’jug par gyur cig (“engage in the intention”).

n.36See preceding note; the divisions in the long mantra have been introduced to facilitate recitation rather than to reproduce the “word” breaks and punctuation in the source text.

n.37“Depart quickly!”

n.38The full set of verses that follows is also found as a separate, standalone text, The Verses of Well-Wishing in the Sūtra on Entering the City of Vaiśālī (Toh 816 in the Kangyur and Toh 4406 in the Tengyur).

n.39Tib. don grub (“accomplished goals”) could also be taken as the Buddha’s name at birth, Siddhārtha.

n.40In the Bhaiṣajyavastu version, it is the Dharma that is described as “alluring” (yid ’phrog) rather than the Buddha.

n.41Tib. tshogs kun. Although the words could be interpreted in a more general sense, according to Skilling this stanza refers to the Buddha’s resolution of the schism in the saṅgha in Śrāvastī (see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 595).

n.42This stanza and the preceding one are also found as the third and fourth stanzas of the verse passage in the Dhvajāgra-mahāsūtra (Toh 292), in the Pañcarakṣa text Mahā­māyūrī­vidyā­rājñi (Toh 559), and in the Mahāvastu (see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 426).

n.43The Chinese Bhaiṣajyavastu and the Mahā­mantrānu­sāriṇī lack these two verses (“Surrounded by … Should be gone from this city”). The newly identified Sanskrit Bhaiṣajyavastu fragments tally with the line “Those who have thoughts of anger … should stay.”

n.44This six-line stanza is also found in the Pañcarakṣa text Mahā­māyūrī­vidyā­rājñi (Toh 559), in the Bhadrakarātrī­sūtra (Toh 313, at 1.13), and in the version of the Upasenasūtra found in the Vinaya­vibhaṅgha (Toh 3). Some of the lines, in Sanskrit and Pali, are found in inscriptions and in other forms all over Asia. For details see Skilling (1994–97), vol. 2, p. 596.

n.45This stanza is also found in the Mahāsamāja-mahāsūtra (Toh 653) and, in the Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya, in the Vinaya­kṣudraka­vastu (Toh 6) and in the Chapter on Going Forth (Pravrajyāvastu, Toh 1-1, at 4.258), as well as in the version of the present text in the Chapter on Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu, Toh 1-6, 3.297).

n.46The Chinese Bhaiṣajyavastu does not repeat the mantras and verses as the Tibetan versions do, but only states 咸依上法 (“everything accords with the above method”). Here the newly discovered Sanskrit Bhaiṣajyavastu fragments (Yao, 2013 and 2015) tally with the Chinese concerning this lack of repetition.

n.47See n.­29.

n.48See n.­30.

n.49Here chos thams cad, a difference compared to the initial passage, 1.3 which simply reads chos, and to the Bhaiṣajyavastu version (see n.­31).

n.50As before (see n.­35), the Bhaiṣajyavastu version here, instead of lus la yang ’jug par gyis shig, has dgongs pa la yang ’jug par gyur cig (“engage in the intention”).

n.51There are some minor differences, reproduced here, in the exact spelling of some elements of this second version of the mantra compared to the first. See also n.­36.

n.52See n.­39.

n.53See n.­41.

n.54The Chinese Bhaiṣajyavastu and Mahā­mantrānu­sāriṇī lack these two verses (“Surrounded by … Should be gone from this city”). The newly identified Sanskrit Bhaiṣajyavastu fragments tally with the line “Those who have thoughts of anger … should stay.”

n.55See n.­44.

n.56See n.­45. In the Bhaiṣajyavastu, this verse is followed by the statement: “When Ānanda had spoken these words, there by the blessed buddhas’ power of buddhahood, and the gods’ power of the gods, the epidemic was quelled.”

n.57This translators’ colophon is not present in the versions of the text in the General Sūtra section of the Tshalpa Kangyurs. It is, however, found in the versions of the text found in the Tantra sections of all Kangyurs and in the versions in the Dhāraṇīs section in the Degé and Qianlong Peking, but not in the Berlin, Choné, or Lithang Kangyurs.