The Viśeṣastava is a Buddhist stotra by the author Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin and has pride of place as the text that opens the Tibetan bsTan 'gyur. Originally written in Sanskrit, it was extensively propagated and sung. It was written to demonstrate the superiority of Buddhism over tirthikas. It has long been only known from its Tibetan translation (in the 9th century by the efforts of Sarvajñadeva and the Tibetans Rin-chen-mchog (d. 840) and Dpal-brtseg Rakṣita). Now, it is also known in a Sanskrit version thanks to Johannes Schneider and Liu Zhen's study. At the time of its translation into Tibetan, the Indian paṇḍita Prajñāvarman wrote a commentary on it which immediately follows it in the bsTan 'gyur. (Source Accessed Oct 21, 2025)
| Citation | Udbhaṭasiddhisvāmin (slob dpon mtho btsun grub rje). viśeṣastava. khyad par du 'phags pa'i bstod pa [ཁྱད་པར་དུ་འཕགས་པའི་བསྟོད་པ]. [Praise of Exaltation (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 1 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1&typ=2. |
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| Author | Zhu chen gyi lo tsA ba ban de rin chen |