The Khotanese Bhadracaryādeśanā

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The Khotanese Bhadracaryādeśanā: Text, Translation, and Glossary, Together with the Buddhist Sanskrit Original

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Sutras (Sanskrit)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The Buddhist Sanskrit Bhadracarīpraṇidhānagāthāḥ[1], composed in the so-called Dodhaka metre . . . [2], has already from the 4th century A.D. enjoyed great favour in all areas, where Mahāyāna Buddhism was preponderant. For centuries parts of the poem have played a significant liturgical role, and certain verses (especially the confession of sin, verse VIII) are still used in the daily cult of several sects in Japan. It has thus early been considered an independent text, although in the Sanskrit manuscripts and in the Chinese and Tibetan translations it only forms the concluding part of the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra which in turn is part of the Avataṃsakasūtra.
      The Bhadracarīpraṇidhānagāthāḥ is in its present form a genuine expression of Mahāyāna piety, which without embarking upon detailed questions of theology emphasizes the veneration and worship of the Buddhas (the anuttarapūjā 's)[3], in the main part points out the importance of the vows (praṇidhāna), and at last forms the sincere hope of rebirth in the Sukhāvatī-kṣetra (sūhāva kṣitträ ) of Amitābha[4].
      The text exists in a northern and a southern edition, represented respectively by the Nepalese and the Japanese manuscripts. Seen apart from a divergent order of certain verses the agreement between the two editions is almost complete[5].
      Already in the beginning of the fifth century the text was translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra under the title of Mañjuśrīpraṇidhānasūtra (Wên she shih Ii fa yüan ching). The translation, which was based on a BSkrt. MS from Khotan, comprises only 44 verses. In the 8th century two complete translations were brought forth, one by Amoghavajra, the teacher of Hui kuo, in the reign of Tai tsung of the T'ang dynasty (P'u hsien p'u sa hin yüan tsan), and one by Prājña in the 12th year of Chên yüan (796 A.D.) as the concluding part of his Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra translation[6]. To Japan the poem was first brought by Kukai, the disciple of Hui kuo, in 806 A.D. During the following 40 years three additional copies were imported (by Engyō, Kukai's disciple, and by Eun). Although Kukai's original copy is lost, several copies of it have been preserved, the oldest one dating· back as far as 966 A.D. [7]
      The Khotanese Bhadracaryādeśanā[8] is a rather free rendering of the BSkrt. original, in some cases more a paraphrase than a translation, but its existence is another testimony to the favourable reception and wide propagation of this small text among the communities of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It is a text of Later Khotanese, the language of the majority of the existing Khotanese literature. A detailed description of its grammar has been given by M. J. Dresden[9]. (Asmussen, introductory remarks, 5–6)

Citation

Asmussen, Jes Peter, trans. The Khotanese Bhadracaryādeśanā: Text, Translation, and Glossary, Together with the Buddhist Sanskrit Original. Historisk-filosofiske meddelelser 39, no 2. København: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1961.

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Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja [आर्यभद्रचर्याप्रणिधानराज]. 'phags pa bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam gyi rgyal po [འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།]. [The Prayer of Good Action (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 1095 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1095&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཞུགས།

The King of Aspiration Prayers: Samantabhadra’s “Aspiration to Good Actions” (Zangchö Mönlam) from the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Many translations of this text exist as it is regularly chanted around the world in many different traditions. For an example, see Lotsawa House.

Bhadracarīpranidhāna. (T. Bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam; C. Puxian pusa xingyuan zan; J. Fugen bosatsu gyōgansan; K. Pohyǒn posal haengwǒn ch'an 普賢菩薩行願讚). In Sanskrit, "Vows of Good Conduct," the last section of the Gaṇḍavyūha in the Avataṃsakasūtra and one of the most beloved texts in all of Mahāyāna Buddhism; also known as the Samantabhadracarīpraṇidhānarāja. The Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna focuses on the ten great vows (praṇidhāna) taken by Samantabhadra to realize and gain access to the dharmadhātu, which thereby enable him to benefit sentient beings. The ten vows are: (1) to pay homage to all the buddhas, (2) to praise the tathāgatas, (3) to make unlimited offerings, (4) to repent from one's transgressions in order to remove karmic hindrances (cf. karmāvaraṇa), (5) to take delight in others' merit, (6) to request the buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma (dharmacakrapravartana), (7) to request the buddhas to continue living in the world, (8) always to follow the teachings of the Buddha, (9) always to comply with the needs of sentient beings, and (10) to transfer all merit to sentient beings for their spiritual edification. The text ends with a stanza wishing that sentient beings still immersed in evil be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitābha. The text was translated into Chinese in 754 by Amoghavajra (705–774). Other Chinese recensions appear in the Wenshushili fayuan jing ("Scripture on the Vows made by Mañjuśrī"), translated in 420 by Buddhabhadra (359–429), which corresponds to the verse section from Ru busiyi jietuo jingjie Puxian xingyuan pin, the last roll of the forty-roll recension of the Huayan jing translated by Prajña in 798. (There is no corresponding version in either the sixty- or the eighty-roll translations of the

Huajan jing.) The verses are also called the "Précis of the Huayan jing (Lüe Huayan jing), because they are believed to constitute the core teachings of the Avataṃsakasūtra. In the main Chinese recension by Amoghavajra, the text consists of sixty-two stanzas, each consisting of quatrains with lines seven Sinographs in length, thus giving a total number of 1,736 Sinographs. In addition to the sixty-two core stanzas, Amoghavajra's version adds ten more stanzas of the Bada pusa zan ("Eulogy to the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") from the Badapusa mantuluo jing ("Scripture of the Maṇḍalas of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") . . . Buddhabhadra's version consists of forty-four stanzas with 880 Sinographs, each stanza consisting of a quatrain with lines five Sinographs in length. Prajña's version contains fifty-two stanzas with each quatrain consisting of lines seven Sinographs in length. There are five commentaries on the text attributed to eminent Indian exegetes, including Nāgārjuna, Dignāga, and Vasubandhu, which are extant only in Tibetan translation. In the Tibetan tradition, the prayer is called the "king of prayers" (smon lam gyi rgyal po). It is incorporated into many liturgies; the opening verses of the prayer are commonly incorporated into a Tibetan's daily recitation. (Source: "Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 106. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)