Notes

n.1Pema Yeshe De (2023), trans., The Sūtra of the Moon (1) , Toh 42 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha).

n.2Pema Yeshe De (2023), trans., The Sūtra of the Sun , Toh 41 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha).

n.3See Skilling 1993, p. 133.

n.4The colophon of the Sūtra of the Moon (1) mentions the translators Ānandaśrī and Tharpa Lotsāwa Nyima Gyaltsen (thar pa lo tsa ba nyi ma rgyal mtshan). Skilling dates the translation of The Sūtra of the Moon (1) to the first decade of the fourteenth century. See Skilling 1993, p. 97.

n.5See Wille 2008, p. 339, n. 4.

n.6Waldschmidt (1970) edited four fragments found in Xinjiang in the Turfan expeditions; they are currently housed in Berlin.

n.7Wille (2008) adds five new fragments to the ones edited by Waldschmidt, two from the Turfan collection and three from the Pelliot collection. His edition is also available at http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/candras_tr.txt.

n.8Sūtra no. 583 of the Saṃyuktāgama (雜阿含經, Taishō 99), translated by Guṇabhadra in the Song state (宋) between 435–43 ᴄᴇ in Jiankang (today’s Nanjing), and sūtra no. 167 of the Alternative Translation of the Saṃyuktāgama (別譯雜阿含經, Taishō 100), from an unknown translator in the Three Qin (三秦) period. The latter was probably translated between 385–431 ᴄᴇ in the Gansu corridor (Bingenheimer 2011, p. 6).

n.9Taishō 1509. For an English translation of this quotation and from sūtra no. 583 of Taishō 99, see Lamotte 2001, pp. 475–77.

n.10See Candimasutta and Grimblot and Feer’s edition and translation (1871) from the Paritta collection in the bibliography.

n.11Feer’s French translation of Toh 331 (1865) is the only translation into Western languages that we know of. However, there are many translations of other versions, such as Feer’s translation of the Candimasutta from Pali into French (1871), Geiger’s translation from Pali into German (1930), Rhys Davids’ translation from Pali to English (1950), Lamotte’s translation from Taishō 99 (sūtra no. 583) into French, and Peter Zieme’s translation from the verses of an Uyghur version into German (2000). There are many translations from Pali into modern languages available on the internet.

n.12Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra , Toh 563 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).

n.13The Sanskrit edition, the Chinese versions, and the Theravāda parallels are set in Śrāvastī. It seems that the Sanskrit fragment 8 (Wille 2008, p. 345) had the same setting as the Tibetan translation of this sūtra, since the few akṣaras left read tīre (“on the shore”). Wille identifies this pond as Gargā Pond, known also from many Pali suttas as Gaggarā Pond, but we could not confirm it in the lexical resources we consulted.

n.14Read with the Sanskrit. The Tibetan reads de’i tshe lha ma yin gyi dbang po sgra gcan gyis zla ba’i dkyil ’khor thams cad ’od kyis bkab par gyur to.

n.15The Sanskrit adds āhṛṣṭaromakūpā (“with his hair standing on end”). Note that this term has a feminine ending in this context because it is in apposition to the feminine noun devatā.

n.16After this verse the Sanskrit adds atha rāhuṇā asurendreṇa tvaritatvaritaṃ candramaṇḍalam utsṛṣṭam (“Then the disk of the moon was very swiftly released by Rāhu, lord of the asuras”).

n.17Read with the Sanskrit saṃbhr(ānta āturo ya)thā and with Go, which reads nad pa bzhin du rtabs pa yis. The quotation from The Sūtra of the Moon in the Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra in Hi also supports this reading. D reads nad pa bzhin du brtad pa yis: “like a sick person, he released with haste the moon.”

n.18The Sanskrit reads adrākṣīd baḍir vairocano (“Bali Vairocana saw that…”). The Chinese translations also mention Bali by his name; Taishō 100 (sūtra no. 167) uses Bali’s epithet exactly as the Sanskrit. In the Theravāda parallels, it is Vemacitra who is Rāhu’s interlocutor. These asuras are often associated, and also accredited with the role of leaders. See The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, Toh 113 (1.8) and The Play in Full, Toh 95 (16.15).

n.19Read with Sanskrit saṃ(bhrānta āturo yathā) and Go nad pa bzhin du brtabs pa’i. The quotation from The Sūtra of the Moon in Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra in Hi also supports this reading. D reads nad pa bzhin du brtad pa yis “like a sick person, he hastily and hurriedly released the moon.”

n.20This topos is found elsewhere in the Kangyur. See The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, Toh 113 (21.20), The Hundred Deeds, Toh 340 (6.196), The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī, Toh 543 (15.107) and Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm, Toh 558 (1.286).

n.21Read with He: kye ma bde ba gzigs pa’i/ /sangs rgyas rnams ni ’byung ba rmad. The Sanskrit fragment 8 reads madarśi(nāṃ). Wille’s speculation that the akṣara ma is possibly from kṣema = bde ba (Mahāvyutpatti entry 6415) finds support not only in He but also in Go, in the corresponding sūtra in Taishō 100, and in the quotation from the The Sūtra of the Moon in the commentary on the Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra in D. See Wille 2008, p. 349, n. 67. D: kye ma bden pa gzigs pa yi/ /sangs rgyas rnams ni ’byung ba rmad (“Oh wonder! Amazing is the emergence of buddhas, who see the truth!”).