A Note on a Newly Identified Palm-Leaf Manuscript of the Samādhirājasūtra
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A Note on a Newly Identified Palm-Leaf Manuscript of the Samādhirājasūtra
Journal Article
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Description
Hartmann re-examines a 108-folio palm-leaf manuscript photographed by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana at Sa skya Monastery in 1936, previously catalogued as an Arthaviniścaya-dharmaparyāya. Close analysis of the foliation and punch-hole pattern shows that only the final leaf (numbered "10," with a single dividing punch-hole) actually belongs to an Arthaviniścayasūtra manuscript, preserving text from mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa 29 to the sūtra's end. All 107 preceding folios instead belong to a separate manuscript of the Samādhirājasūtra (confirmed by faint traces of its alternate title, "Candrapradīpa"), datable on paleographic grounds to around the 11th century—making it, after the 6th-century Gilgit manuscript, the second-oldest known witness to this sūtra, predating other Nepalese exemplars. Though incomplete (breaking off partway through chapter 37, with no final colophon), the manuscript is well written and largely follows the Nepalese recension, while sharing certain features—such as the division of chapter 22 into two chapters—with the version underlying the Tibetan translation. The article lists chapter colophons with folio references and, via comparison with Christoph Cüppers's synoptic edition of chapter 9, catalogues numerous textual variants and scribal errors, along with several proposed corrections to Cüppers's edition.
Citation
Hartmann, Jens-Uwe. "A Note on a Newly Identified Palm-Leaf Manuscript of the Samādhirājasūtra." Indo-Iranian Journal 39, no. 2 (1996): 105-9.
Interconnections
1 Scholarship on
This sūtra, much quoted in later Buddhist writings for its profound statements especially on the nature of emptiness, relates a long teaching given by the Buddha mainly in response to questions put by a young layman, Candraprabha. The samādhi that is the subject of the sūtra, in spite of its name, primarily consists of various aspects of conduct, motivation, and the understanding of emptiness; it is also a way of referring to the sūtra itself. The teaching given in the sūtra is the instruction to be dedicated to the possession and promulgation of the samādhi, and to the necessary conduct of a bodhisattva, which is exemplified by a number of accounts from the Buddha's previous lives. Most of the teaching takes place on Vulture Peak Mountain, with an interlude recounting the Buddha's invitation and visit to Candraprabha's home in Rājagṛha, where he continues to teach Candraprabha before returning to Vulture Peak Mountain. In one subsequent chapter the Buddha responds to a request by Ānanda, and the text concludes with a commitment by Ānanda to maintain this teaching in the future. (Source: 84000)
