འཕགས་པ་མ་སྐྱས་དགྲའ་འགྱད་པ་བསལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.6

intro.6

Unfortunately, a complete Sanskrit version of this text is no longer extant. Nevertheless, the recent discovery in the Schøyen Collection of a number of fragments recovered from Afghanistan provides an important resource for the study of this sūtra.³ Regardless of their brevity, these fragments provide testimony to the Sanskrit terminology and names employed in the sūtra, something that in turn can shed light on deeper philosophical and linguistic features, not only pertaining to this scripture but also having wider implications.⁴ The sūtra is also cited and mentioned in a number of Indian works (most of which are extant only in Tibetan translation) attributed to such authors as Nāgārjuna (second century ce) as well as Haribhadra, Kamalaśīla, and Vimalamitra (all eighth century).⁵