Notes

n.1The second is Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York, trans. The Eight Maidens’ Praise of Mañjuśrī , Toh 552 (2023).

n.2The Denkarma catalog is usually dated to ca. 812 ᴄᴇ.

n.3Butön listed the Tibetan title of this text together with those of other Mañjuśrī-associated dhāraṇī scriptures and The Eight Maidens’ Praise of Mañjuśrī . Butön Rinchen Drup, chos ’byung, folio 172.a/p. 975.

n.4The text is not included in the Kangyur collections of the Thempangma line.

n.5The use of the third person as a polite form of second-person address is common in Sanskrit literature. Since such usage is comparatively rare in contemporary English, we have chosen to translate the scripture’s third-person praises in the second person to emphasize their directness and devotional context.

n.6Tib. dge ba’i spyi gtsug mtshan mchog g.yas su ’khyil/ gtsug tor ’phags pas skye bos bltar mi mthong. Translation tentative.

n.7“A conqueror’s excellence” is presumably a reference to the uṣṇīṣa.

n.8Tib. mtshan rab.

n.9Also known as red lotus or Indian madder.

n.10“Quelling deluded thought” for yid gzhungs [sic] sel ba, which we have elected to read as yid gzhung sel ba (giving precedence to the verb). The Comparative Edition records the variant yid gzhungs ’phel (“increasing intelligence/perspicacity”) in a number of other Kangyurs. Alternatively, a Tibetan reader has suggested that perhaps the text should read yid zhum sel ba (“dispelling timidity”).

n.11Tib. mtsho lo bzhin. Translation tentative. The Comparative Edition notes no variants. One wonders whether this might be an extremely rarely seen two-syllable version of the common mtsho, similar to ’khor lo, ’phang lo, tshe lo, and cho lo. To our knowledge mtsho lo does not appear elsewhere in the Kangyur.

n.12The Degé Kangyur version here reads rgam par [sic]. We have translated the variant reading found in the Lhasa Kangyur version: sgom par.

n.13Tib. cha lugs bzhin ’chang gzi brjid ’phags pa’i sku. Translation tentative.

n.14Tib. pad ma lha yi na bza’ sil ma bsnams. Translation tentative.