An Inquiry into the Relationship between the Śikṣāsamuccaya and the Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra
Articles/An Inquiry into the Relationship between the Śikṣāsamuccaya and the Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra
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Description
It has traditionally been accepted that Śāntideva wrote both the Śikṣāsamuccaya and the Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra. As regards the relationship between these two works, the following three significant facts have so far been clarified by a number of contemporary studies:
- (1) The Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra (BCA), Chapter V.105 refers to the Śikṣāsamuccaya (ŚS) and emphasizes the importance of its repeated reading since correct conduct is, it says, therein explained at length.
- (2) The BCA and the ŚS share almost the same introductory verses composed of three successive stanzas in which the author(s) make vows at the outset of writing.
- (3) Vibhūticandra (fl.ca.1200), Bu-ston (1290–1364), Tāranātha (1575–1608), and Sum-pa mkhan-po (1704–1776?) unanimously ascribe three works, the ŚS, the Sūtrasamuccaya (SūtraS) and the BCA, to Śāntideva.
However, the recent discovery of an early recension of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra (BSA), which has so far been identified only in the Tibetan manuscripts from Dūn-huáng, has rather dramatically changed the situation.[1] Having discussed the above first and third points in several earlier articles,[2] I would like to confine myself here to dealing with the second point and the related interaction between the ŚS and the BSA/BCA, while referring also to the probable chronological order of the BSA,the ŚS, and the BCA. (Saito, preliminary remarks, 17)
Notes
- For a list of references on the early recension of BSA, see Saito [2000] pp.107–108.
- Saito [2001][2004].
