Introduction

i.1The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines concerns the benefits of performing the practice known in Sanskrit as pradakṣiṇa (Pali: padakkhiṇa). This term means “on the right-hand side,” and refers to the practice of paying homage to or venerating something (or someone) through circumambulation. This usually entails walking around the sacred object or person in a clockwise direction so that one keeps whatever is being circumambulated on one’s right-hand side as a gesture of respect. This ancient Indian practice remains prevalent throughout contemporary South Asia and its cultural diasporas, and among Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Translated into Tibetan as bskor ba (“circumambulate” or “circle”), pradakṣiṇa continues to be one of the main devotional practices for Buddhists in Tibet and around the world. Such a practice may involve walking around a holy site, a sacred mountain or lake, a sacred tree, a holy person, or the shrine that houses such a person’s remains. The practice can also be accompanied by prayer, song, or the recitation of mantras. As such, it is possible to imagine reciting a text like The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines translated here as part of the practice, even though it reads more like a hymn or encomium to such a practice than a liturgy for one.

i.2The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines focuses specifically on the benefits of ritual circumambulation of a stūpa or caitya of a buddha. The word stūpa refers to the mounds or domed reliquary monuments that are among the most visible features of Buddhist material culture and appear to date from at least the time of King Aśoka in the third century ʙᴄᴇ. The word caitya can be understood as almost synonymous with stūpa. However, it can also have a somewhat broader designation in reference to a holy place or natural object, such as a cave or tree, as well as the shrine or construction that marks the site as holy. The latter may even be something as simple as a pile of rocks. Both caitya and stūpa are translated with the same Tibetan term, mchod rten, meaning a “support” or “basis” (rten) for an “offering” or “veneration” (mchod), and so we have chosen to translate this term as “shrine.”

i.3While stūpas or caityas may have been simple constructions at first, and they still may be, they also came to feature ornate designs rich in layers of story and symbolism, such as at the great stūpas in India at Bhārhut, Sāñcī, and Amaravati, and the stūpa complex at Borobodur in Indonesia. While many stūpas are said to contain physical relics of a buddha, they may also contain ritually empowered representations of a buddha or of the awakened state in the form of statues, texts, mantras, and so forth, which represent the body, speech, and mind of an awakened buddha. Some Buddhist texts also speak of the value of making even small mounds of dirt or clay and treating them as stūpas or caityas, which may be related to the practice of making small clay votive offerings (Tib. tsa tsa). In any case, the practice of making stūpas or caityas and venerating them goes back to the first millennium of Buddhism in India.

i.4The benefits of sponsoring, making, ornamenting, cleaning, and otherwise venerating stūpas or caityas are mentioned in numerous Buddhist texts found in the Kangyur and elsewhere. For instance, one that bears a particularly close relationship to The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines is The Verses for Prasenajit, Toh 322, the very next work in the Degé Kangyur. Also, The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (Pratītya­samutpāda­sūtra, Toh 212/520/980) describes the merit earned by making a stūpa where one did not exist before, even if it is only the size of a fruit “with a central pillar the size of a needle and a parasol the size of a flower” (Toh 212, 1.6). The White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Toh 113, 2.­105–2.­123) mentions the rewards of worshiping stūpas and images of the buddhas, while Describing the Benefits of Producing Representations of the Thus-Gone One (Toh 320) focuses exclusively on the benefits of producing images of them.

i.5The Avalokinī Sūtra (Toh 195), another text that discusses the benefits of worshiping stūpas, has a number of stanzas containing lines that are quite close or identical to some found in The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines translated here. The Avalokinī Sūtra has a close relationship with the Avalokitasūtra of the Mahāvastu, a Vinaya work said to belong to the Lokottaravāda strand of the Mahāsāṅghika monastic lineage, and some of its stanzas are also quoted in Śāntideva’s compendium, The Training Anthology (Śikṣāsamuccaya). Additionally, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, which was translated into Tibetan and formed the basis for the Tibetan monastic lineages, contains further stanzas, in sections detailed later in the introduction, that are nearly identical to some found in The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines.

i.6In addition to these parallel stanzas found in other texts, previous scholarship has identified a number of Sanskrit witnesses to different versions of this work, with the title The Verses on Circumambulation (Pradakṣiṇa­gāthā) given when a colophon is extant. These witnesses include some fragments found at Bamiyan (in present day Afghanistan), Kucha (in present day Xinjiang Autonomous Region), and Gilgit (in present day northern Pakistan). The Gilgit manuscripts, which date approximately to the sixth or seventh century ᴄᴇ, include two separate fragments of several stanzas each and a complete version of the text that corresponds to the first forty-four verses of the Tibetan translation.

i.7In addition to the above Sanskrit witnesses, there is another, somewhat later Sanskrit manuscript‍—likely of northern Indian origin, although purchased in Nepal‍—containing another complete version of the work. This version is slightly longer than the fifty-eight verses found in the canonical Tibetan translation of the work, but seems to correspond quite closely to what has been preserved in Tibetan. The colophon to the work in this manuscript refers to it by the title Pradakṣiṇā­gāthā (The Verses on Circumambulation), and in the manuscript it directly precedes another version of the aforementioned Verses for Prasenajit, Toh 322.

i.8Given the many and various Buddhist works that discuss themes related to constructing and worshiping stūpas and caityas, and the evidence from the different versions of The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines preserved in Sanskrit, it is possible to take a text-critical approach to analyzing the content of this work. The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines can be analyzed in several parts. The first part corresponds to the first forty-five stanzas, which can be seen as a complete work in itself. These verses are framed by a narrator’s voice telling the audience that Śāriputra asked the Buddha a question about the benefits of circumambulating shrines. It quotes Śāriputra’s question in direct speech, and then gives the Buddha’s response in forty-two verses detailing the many future benefits of such a practice. This part of the work is further linked thematically and poetically by the refrain, “Those who circumambulate a shrine…” (Tib. mchod rten bskor ba byas pas ni, Skt. stūpaṃ kṛtvā pradakṣiṇaṃ), which is found in most of these stanzas.

i.9While verse 45 can be seen as a concluding verse to those preceding it, it can also serve as a kind of bridge to the verses that follow. The identity of the speaker of the latter verses is not made clear in the work itself, but almost identical parallels to verses 46–48 are found in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1, of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya‍—located both in The Chapter on Shelter (Śayanāsana­vastu, Toh 1-15) and in The Chapter on Schisms in the Saṅgha (Saṅghabheda­vastu, Toh 1-17)‍—in the context of a narration describing Anāthapiṇḍada’s approach as he first encounters the Buddha. Although the extant Sanskrit for these verses does not mention either shrines or circumambulation explicitly, the stanzas are linked thematically and poetically to what comes before them in The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines by the idea that “taking a single step” has a value that cannot be measured by vast quantities of gold. In the Vinaya it is a step taken toward the Buddha, while in The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines, the implication‍—as made explicit in the Tibetan translation‍—is that it is a step taken along the route of circumambulation.

i.10The remaining verses, 49–58, have an almost identical parallel in a series of verses found in The Chapter on Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu, Toh 1-6, 9.­51–9.­67) in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Here, they are spoken by the Buddha Śākyamuni to King Prasenajit and others in relation to the veneration of the former Buddha Kāśyapa’s relics, which the Buddha Śākyamuni had just made visible. It is also worth mentioning that this same episode is also found twice in the Divyāvadāna. Such parallels aside, these verses are linked thematically and poetically to what comes before them in The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines by the fact that in them the Buddha Śākyamuni extols the tremendous value‍—described as exceeding vast quantities of gold from the Jambu River‍—of various acts of worship “at shrines of a buddha” (Skt. buddhacaityeṣu, Tib. sangs rgyas mchod rten la). The first of these acts is “taking a step” at shrines of a buddha, and subsequent verses mention other acts of worship “at shrines of a buddha,” such as offering a lump of clay, flower petals, a garland, scented water, and so forth.

i.11The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines concludes with two significant claims. The first is that the merit earned from venerating a living buddha is the same as one earns by venerating a buddha who has entered nirvāṇa, so long as one does so with the same quality of mind. In the Sanskrit, this quality is described as one of serene confidence or faith (prasannacitta), which the Tibetan translation appears to interpret slightly more along the lines of a joyful mind (dga’ ba sems pa). The second claim is that, since buddhas and their qualities are both inconceivable (or inconceivably great (Skt. acintya, Tib. bsam mi khyab)), those who have faith (Skt. prasannānām, Tib. dad rnams) in what is inconceivable will receive karmic results that are also inconceivable; that is, they will become inconceivably great.

i.12Apart from the various Sanskrit witnesses mentioned above and the canonical Tibetan translation in the Kangyur, a Chinese translation of the work was made by Śikṣānanda 實叉難陀 between 695 and 704 ᴄᴇ, entitled You rao fo ta gong de jing (右繞佛塔功德經 Taishō 700). It is located in the Chinese canon immediately after The Sūtra on the Merit of Building a Stūpa (造塔功德經 Taishō 699), a text which corresponds closely to the aforementioned Sūtra on Dependent Arising , Toh 212/520/980, in the Tibetan canon.

i.13There is also a Khotanese version of the work in the Saka language, which survives in a manuscript from the cave library at Dunhuang. This version has been tentatively dated to around 995 ᴄᴇ, and a transliteration and English translation of it were published by Harold W. Bailey. Unlike the extant Sanskrit and Tibetan versions, however, it refers to itself as a sūtra and begins in a style typical of a sūtra in that it is set at Prince Jeta’s Grove in Śrāvasti. Although it shares a general theme with other versions of the work, as well as being an encomium on the benefits of circumambulation, its wording and details are different from those preserved in Sanskrit and Tibetan.

i.14Finally, there is another Tibetan version of the work that is worthy of mention here. It is inscribed in the southern niche of the mchod rten opposite the entrance of the Sumtsek (Tib. gsum brtsegs) temple at Alchi in Ladakh. This inscription, now fragmentary, has been tentatively dated to the thirteenth century, and was the focus of a detailed philological study by Kurt Tropper (2010).

i.15Not only does all this evidence add to the complexity of the textual history of The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines, but it would also seem to point to the widespread popularity of the practices of creating and worshiping shrines and representations of the buddhas. It is indicative of the depth and breadth of support for such practices in Buddhist literature.

i.16The identity of the translator(s) of the canonical version of The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines into Tibetan is unknown. The work bears no colophon in any version of the Kangyur. However, the title is found in both the Denkarma and the Phanthangma imperial catalogs, where it is listed among translated sūtras of the “Lesser Vehicle” (Tib. theg pa chung ngu) and preceded by the aforementioned Verses for Prasenajit (Toh 322). Its inclusion therein thus suggests a translation no later than the early ninth century.

i.17We are aware of two prior translations of The Verses on Circumambulating Shrines from Tibetan into English by Warner Belanger (2000) and Elizabeth Cook (1977). In addition, Tropper (2010) includes an English translation of the verses found on the inscription in Alchi.

i.18Our translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the alternative readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), the Stok Palace Kangyur, and in certain instances other versions of the Kangyur. We also consulted the Sanskrit manuscript held at the Cambridge University Library and its readings informed our work.