Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra (Nobel 1937)

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Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra - ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus - nach den handschriften und mit hilfe der tibetischen und chinesischen übertragungen

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

A critical Sanskrit edition of the Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra, edited by Johannes Nobel. In Sanskrit (Roman), Tibetan (Roman), and Chinese; introductory matter and critical apparatus in German.

Citation

Nobel, Johannes, ed. Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra; ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus; nach den handschriften und mit hilfe der tibetischen und chinesischen übertragungen. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1937.

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Works related to this item

1 Recension of

Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra [आर्यसुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराजनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mdo sde'i dbang po'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མདོ་སྡེའི་དབང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sovereign Lord of Sūtras, The Golden Light]. Translated by Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Dharmakṣema, Baogui, Yijing. Kangyur, D556. http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=550&typ=1; http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=551&typ=1; http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=552&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

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.

Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra. (T. Gser ’od dam pai mdo; C. Jinguangming zuishengwang jing; J. Konkōmyō saishōōkyō; K. Kǔmgwangmyǒng ch’oesǔngwang kyǒng). In Sanskrit, "Sūtra of Supreme Golden Light," an influential Mahāyāna sūtra, especially in East Asia. Scholars speculate that the text originated in India in the fourth century and was gradually augmented. It was translated into Chinese by Yijing in 703. The sūtra contains many dhāraṇī and is considered by some to be a proto-tantric text; in some editions of the Tibetan canon it is classified as a tantra. It is important in East Asian Buddhism for two main reasons. First was the role the sūtra played in conceptualizing state-protection Buddhism (huguo fojiao). The sūtra declares that deities will protect the lands of rulers who worship and uphold the sūtra, bringing peace and prosperity, but will abandon the lands of rulers who do not, such that all manner of catastrophe will befall their kingdoms. The sūtra was thus central to "state protection" practices in East Asia, together with the Saddharmapuṇḍarikasūtra and the Renwang jing. Second, the sūtra provides the locus classicus for the "water and land ceremony" (shuilu hui), a ritual intended for universal salvation, but especially of living creatures who inhabit the most painful domains of saṃsāra; the ceremony was also performed for a variety of this-worldly purposes, including state protection and rain-making. According to the sūtra, in a previous life, the Buddha was a merchant s son named Jalavāhana, who one day encountered a dried-up pond in the forest, filled with thousands of dying fish. Summoning twenty elephants, he carried bags of water from a river into the forest and replenished the pond, saving the fish. He then sent for food with which to feed them. Finally, recalling that anyone who hears the name of the buddha Ratnaśikhin will be reborn in the heavens, he waded into the pond and pronounced the Buddha's name, followed by an exposition of dependent origination. When the fish died, they were reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. Recalling the reason for their happy fate, they visited the world of humans, where each offered a pearl necklace to Jalavāhana's head, foot, right side, and left side. The sūtra also tells the story of Prince Mahāsattva who sees a starving tigress and her cubs. He throws himself off a cliff to commit suicide so that the tiger might eat his body (see Namo Buddha). This is one of the most famous cases of dehadāna, or gift of the body. (Source: "Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 877. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

1 Scholarship on

Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājasūtra [आर्यसुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमसूत्रेन्द्रराजनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mdo sde'i dbang po'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མདོ་སྡེའི་དབང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sovereign Lord of Sūtras, The Golden Light]. Translated by Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Dharmakṣema, Baogui, Yijing. Kangyur, D556. http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=550&typ=1; http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=551&typ=1; http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=552&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

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.

Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra. (T. Gser ’od dam pai mdo; C. Jinguangming zuishengwang jing; J. Konkōmyō saishōōkyō; K. Kǔmgwangmyǒng ch’oesǔngwang kyǒng). In Sanskrit, "Sūtra of Supreme Golden Light," an influential Mahāyāna sūtra, especially in East Asia. Scholars speculate that the text originated in India in the fourth century and was gradually augmented. It was translated into Chinese by Yijing in 703. The sūtra contains many dhāraṇī and is considered by some to be a proto-tantric text; in some editions of the Tibetan canon it is classified as a tantra. It is important in East Asian Buddhism for two main reasons. First was the role the sūtra played in conceptualizing state-protection Buddhism (huguo fojiao). The sūtra declares that deities will protect the lands of rulers who worship and uphold the sūtra, bringing peace and prosperity, but will abandon the lands of rulers who do not, such that all manner of catastrophe will befall their kingdoms. The sūtra was thus central to "state protection" practices in East Asia, together with the Saddharmapuṇḍarikasūtra and the Renwang jing. Second, the sūtra provides the locus classicus for the "water and land ceremony" (shuilu hui), a ritual intended for universal salvation, but especially of living creatures who inhabit the most painful domains of saṃsāra; the ceremony was also performed for a variety of this-worldly purposes, including state protection and rain-making. According to the sūtra, in a previous life, the Buddha was a merchant s son named Jalavāhana, who one day encountered a dried-up pond in the forest, filled with thousands of dying fish. Summoning twenty elephants, he carried bags of water from a river into the forest and replenished the pond, saving the fish. He then sent for food with which to feed them. Finally, recalling that anyone who hears the name of the buddha Ratnaśikhin will be reborn in the heavens, he waded into the pond and pronounced the Buddha's name, followed by an exposition of dependent origination. When the fish died, they were reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. Recalling the reason for their happy fate, they visited the world of humans, where each offered a pearl necklace to Jalavāhana's head, foot, right side, and left side. The sūtra also tells the story of Prince Mahāsattva who sees a starving tigress and her cubs. He throws himself off a cliff to commit suicide so that the tiger might eat his body (see Namo Buddha). This is one of the most famous cases of dehadāna, or gift of the body. (Source: "Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 877. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Books1944About this item

Suvarṇaprabhāsottama-Sūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra—Erster Band: Die tibetischen Übersetzungen mit einem Wörterbuch (Leiden: E. J. Brill / Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1944) is Volume 1 of Johannes Nobel's critical edition of the Tibetan translations of the Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra, presented alongside a dictionary (with the companion Tibetan-German-Sanskrit glossary following as Volume 2 in 1950). It forms the second phase of Nobel's larger three-part edition of the sūtra, preceded by his 1937 edition of the Sanskrit text (Leipzig: Harrassowitz) and followed by his 1958 edition of I-tsing's Chinese version with its Tibetan translation (Leiden: Brill). Together these volumes became the standard modern critical basis for the text, underlying R. E. Emmerick's widely used English translation, The Sutra of Golden Light.

Nobel, Johannes, trans. Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra; ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus. I-Tsing's Chinesische version und ihre Tibetische übersetzung. Erster Band, I-Tsing's Chinesische version übersetzung, eingeleitet, erläutert und mit einem photomechanischen nachdruck des Chinesische textes versehen. Leiden: Brill, 1958.

Books1958About this item

This is work represents vol. 1 (of 2). The first volume contains Yijing's Chinese version, transl., introduced, annotated and provided with a photomechanical reprint of the Chinese text by J. Nobel. The second volume contains the Tibetan translation edited with critical notes. (Source Accessed Aug 24, 2023)

Nobel, Johannes. Suvarṇaprabhāsottama-sūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sutra; ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus. Wörterbuch Tibetisch-Deutsch-Sanskrit. Die Tibetischen Übersetzungen Mit Einem Wörterbuch. Zweiter Band, Wörterbuch Tibetisch-Deutsch-Sanskrit. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1950.

Books1950About this item

This is Volume 2 of Johannes Nobel's landmark critical edition of the Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra ("Sūtra of Golden Light" / Gser 'od dam pa), one of the most influential Mahāyāna sūtras, especially in East Asian state-protection Buddhism. It comprises a Tibetan–German–Sanskrit dictionary/glossary, serving as the companion reference volume to Nobel's edition of the Tibetan translation of the sūtra published as Volume 1 in 1944.

This pairing (1944 Tibetan text + 1950 dictionary) formed the second phase of Nobel's larger three-part critical edition project on the sūtra:

1937 — critical edition of the Sanskrit text (Leipzig: Harrassowitz)
1944/1950 — the Tibetan translation with accompanying dictionary (this volume)

1958 — I-tsing's Chinese version alongside its Tibetan translation (Leiden: Brill)