Suvarṇaprabhāsottamarājasūtra

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सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमराजसूत्र

འཕགས་པ་གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མཆོག་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba'i mdo sde'i rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo

The Sūtra, The Supremely Victorious Golden Light (84000)

Text

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rKTs catalogue

Number

550

Canon

Sūtra

Alternate titles

'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba'i mdo sde'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo (A);'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba'i mdo sde'i rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo (C Cz D Dd Dk Gt Gt J L N Np Pj Pz Q R S Ty Ty U V);'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba mdo sde'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo (F);'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba'i mdo sde'i rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo (H);'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba mdo sde'i rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo (Z);'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal po mdo sde'i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo (Z)

Relationships

Text	Relationship
T0665	translation-taisho

Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs and thus has been significant for rulers—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations through such purification. Reciting and internalizing this sūtra is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and also for the welfare of a state and the world.

In this sūtra, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu has a dream in which a prayer of confession emanates from a shining golden drum. He relates the prayer to the Buddha, and a number of deities then vow to protect it and its adherents. The ruler’s devotion to the sūtra is emphasized as important if the nation is to benefit. Toward the end of the sūtra are two well-known narratives of the Buddha’s previous lives: the account of the physician Jalavāhana, who saves and blesses numerous fish, and that of Prince Mahāsattva, who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs.

This is the longest version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light preserved in the Kangyur. It comprises thirty-one chapters and was translated into Tibetan primarily from Yijing’s Chinese translation in the early ninth century. (Source: 84000)

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suvarṇaprabhāsottamarājasūtra [सुवर्णप्रभासोत्तमराजसूत्र]. 'phags pa gser 'od dam pa mchog tu rnam par rgyal ba'i mdo sde'i rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་གསེར་འོད་དམ་པ་མཆོག་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sūtra, The Supremely Victorious Golden Light (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 550 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=550&typ=1.

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Recensions

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)

1 Full translations

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)

1 Member 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.)