Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā/Full text
This is Kamalaśīla's commentary on the Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra (the "Diamond Cutter" Perfection of Wisdom sūtra), preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur. Notably, its own colophon gives a fuller title than the standard catalog heading—'phags pa rdo rje gcod pa dbu ma'i tshul du rgya cher 'grel pa, "An Extensive Commentary on the Diamond Cutter in the Manner of Madhyamaka"—explicitly signaling its Madhyamaka interpretive framework from within the text itself. Kamalaśīla (d. 795 CE) was a major Indian Madhyamaka scholar and student of Śāntarakṣita, renowned above all for his role in the Samye debate against the Chinese Chan teacher Moheyan and for his three-part Bhāvanākrama ("Stages of Meditation"), composed at the request of the Tibetan emperor. His engagement with the Vajracchedikā fits within this broader context: the sūtra was a text of real importance in the doctrinal controversies of late eighth-century Tibet, cited by both Kamalaśīla and Moheyan in support of their respective positions, alongside works like the Laṅkāvatārasūtra. This commentary stands alongside the commentary by Vasubandhu as one of the major Indian exegetical treatments of the sūtra to survive in Tibetan translation. The Tibetan translation is credited to the Indian preceptors Mañjuśrī and Jinamitra, together with the editor-translator Yeshe De.
| Reference | Kamalaśīla (slob dpon ka ma la shI la). Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā [आर्यप्रज्ञापारमितावज्रच्छेदिकाटीका]. 'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa'i rgya cher 'grel pa [འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ།]. [An Extensive Commentary on "The Perfection of Wisdom, ‘The Diamond Cutter’ (Sūtra)" (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3162 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3162&typ=2. |
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| People | Kamalaśīla, Jinamitra, Yeshe De |
