Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan
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Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts Translations and Notes
Book
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Description
Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts, Translations and Notes, Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916), edited by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle (1841–1918) "in conjunction with other scholars," presents facsimiles, transcriptions, translations, and scholarly notes for Buddhist manuscript fragments recovered from Central Asian sites—chiefly through Sir Aurel Stein's expeditions, alongside material from Hoernle's own and George Macartney's collections—in Sanskrit, Khotanese, Kuchean, Tibetan, and Chinese. Compiled as a genuinely international collaboration, its contributors included Lionel D. Barnett, Édouard Chavannes, Sten Konow, Sylvain Lévi, Heinrich Lüders, F. E. Pargiter, and F. W. Thomas, each responsible for the material in their specialty. Hoernle's lengthy General Introduction argues, based on the newly recovered Khotanese material, that the Tibetan alphabet derived not directly from India but specifically from the script of Khotan. Though conceived as the first volume of an ongoing series, no further volumes were published. The Sanskrit material includes newly discovered fragments of hymns by the celebrated poet Mātṛceṭa, among other canonical and noncanonical texts.
Citation
Hoernle, A. F. Rudolf, ed. Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts Translations and Notes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916. https://archive.org/details/cu31924023185584/page/n5/mode/2up.
Table of contents
- PART I
- List of Contributorsv
- General Introductionix
- List of Manuscript Remains in Volume Ixxxiii
- Method of Transcriptionxxxv
- Abbreviationsxxxvi
- Sanskrit Texts1
- Vocabulary to Sanskrit Texts196
- PART II
- Khotanese Texts214
- Vocabulary to Khotanese Texts330
- Kuchean Texts357
- Vocabulary to Kuchean Texts377
- Bilingual Fragment, Chinese-Khotanese387
- Bilingual Fragment, Tibetan-Khotanese400
- Vocabulary to the Khotanese of Bilingual Texts405
- Addenda410
- Errata412
Interconnections
All 12Articles 5Classical Works 7
5 Contains chapter or part
This is a translation of a Sanskrit folio of the Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī by Frederick William Thomas. Published in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, 1916.
An edited edition and English translation of two folios of the same manuscript of the Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra (Hoernle MSS., No. 143 a, SB. 9, and No. 143, SA. 16) by Frederick William Thomas in the book Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, edited by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle et al.
Sten Konow's translation of the Diamond Sūtra in the Old Khotanese version of Eastern Turkestan. Contains an introduction, the text, and an English translation.
A manuscript of the Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra edited by F. E. Pargiter, in A. F. Hoernle's Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan.
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No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
This is a part, between one-half and two-thirds of a folio, imperfect on the left, and therefore lacking a number. But for one small gap near the right lower corner, the existing part, measuring 258 x 121 mm. (or 10 x 4 4/5 inches), is undamaged. The writing, eight lines on either side, in Upright Gupta characters, is fine, bold, formal, black, and clear: a little rubbed at the left lower corner of the obverse and corresponding upper corner of the reverse; but the reverse lines 6-8, with continuation 8 a, are in a different, smaller, thinner, distinctly cursive hand, and probably by another scribe (footnote 13, p. 127), and contain a different text.
The text is the conclusion of a Śūraṁgama-samādhi Sūtra, followed by a Dhāraṇī, or charm (in the cursive hand). A Tibetan version, with, however, an amplified ending, may be seen in the Bkah-hgyur, Mdo. vol. 5 (ix), foll. 407 b–510 a of the India Office edition. It was translated into Chinese in A.D. 384-417 (Nanjio, No. 399, col. 98). For some passages, cited in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, see the Index I to the edition by the late
7 Scholarship on
The Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī (also called The Incantation for Achieving the Boundless Gate) is an important Buddhist dhāraṇī text from the Mahāyāna tradition. It belongs to the early dhāraṇī literature that eventually developed into full tantric practices.
The text likely dates to around the 3rd-4th century CE, originating during the later development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India. Like many dhāraṇī texts, its specific author is unknown, as these works were typically attributed to the Buddha himself or were considered to have emerged from collective spiritual practice rather than individual authorship.
The text contains mantras and incantations believed to possess spiritual power. It focuses on the concept of "unimpeded" or "infinite entrances" (anantamukha) to dharma realization. The dhāraṇī is recited to remove obstacles to spiritual practice and to gain insight into the nature of reality.
The Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī was influential in several ways:
- It was translated into Chinese multiple times, including versions by Zhiyan in the 5th century and later by Xuanzang.
- It contributed to the development of esoteric Buddhist practices in East Asia
- It served as an important text in the transition from earlier Mahāyāna Buddhism to later tantric forms.
- Elements of its practices were incorporated into various Buddhist rituals across Asia. (Generated by Claude.ai Apr 4, 2025)
There are three translations in the Tibetan canon under this name:
- Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 119)
- Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 120)
- Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 121)
The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self.
The very title Ratnarāśi means "a heap or hoard of treasure or gems."[1] For the authors of the sutra, the reference is clearly to the life of strict observance of discipline, a life structured by Buddhist ascetic practice: this is the gem, and the text is a collection of advice on how to properly conduct oneself in order to realize for oneself and in oneself this jewelled goal. The monastic, ascetic, renunciant life is a treasure because it is the key to liberation from the suffering of the round of samsāra, not only for the ascetic but for those who materially support him. (Silk, "The Origins and Early History of the Mahāratnakūṭa Tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism," 29)
There are three translations of this text included in the Tibetan canon:
- Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra (RKTSK 550) translated from the Chinese by Gö Chödrub.
- Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra (RKTSK 551) translated from the Sanskrit by Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, and Ye shes sde.
- Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra (RKTSK 552). Translator not listed.
One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.
Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Skt. Śata-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā; Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བརྒྱ་པ།, Wyl. sher phyin stong phrag brgya pa) is the largest of the Prajnaparamita sutras. In Tibetan it is referred to simply as 'The Hundred Thousand' (Tib. འབུམ་, bum, Wyl. 'bum). (Source: Rigpawiki)
Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra [or Śūraṅgamasamādhisūtra]. (T. Dpa' bar 'gro ba'i ting nge 'dzin gyi mdo; C. Shoulengyan sanmei jing; J. Shuryōgon zanmaikyō; K. Sunǔngǒm sammae kyǒng). In Sanskrit, "Sūtra on the Heroic-March Concentration," an early Mahāyāna sūtra that explains how the mind becomes free and unimpeded like the "march" (gama) of a "hero" (śūra), who "walks alone, fearlessly, like a lion." (This translated sūtra should be distinguished from the *Śūraṃgamasūtra, a Chinese apocryphal scripture of similar name, which dates from the early eighth century.) The Śūraṃgamasamādhi as taught in this sūtra not only enables bodhisattvas quickly to attain complete, perfect enlightenment (anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi), but also ensures that even śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and arhats are put on the right path leading to buddhahood. In addition, the Śūraṃgamasamādhi also permits enlightened beings to manifest themselves in any variety of forms in order to teach sentient beings. The sūtra also includes descriptions of the world systems of many other buddhas (buddhakṣetra), including Abhirati, the buddha-land of Akṣobhya. Although some fragments of the Sanskrit recension of the Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra have survived, the full sūtra is extant only in an early-fifth-century translation attributed to the eminent Kuchean translator Kumārajīva, in two rolls, and in an early-ninth-century Tibetan translation. (Source: "Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 873. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27)
