ལྷའ་མད intro.5

intro.5

The Tibetan translation of The Devatā Sūtra has no colophon, making its translation history uncertain. However, in both the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma)⁶ and Phangthangma (’phang thang ma)⁷ imperial catalogs, it is listed among translated “Hīnayāna” (Tib. theg pa chung ngu) sūtras, so its translation into Tibetan was no later than the early ninth century ce. An attribution to the great translator Yeshé Dé has been suggested, based on the listing in Butön’s History of Buddhism. However, that citation may just refers to The Shorter Devatā Sūtra (Toh 330),⁸ which immediately follows it in Kangyur collections.⁹ Jonathan Silk has listed The Devatā Sūtra among “questionable cases” that may have been translated into Tibetan from Chinese.¹⁰ There is a close correspondence between the Tibetan and Chinese in the opening narrative, and in the first seven exchanges (or fourteen verses) in the latter part of the sūtra. However, the Tibetan and Chinese also diverge, and the Tibetan contains two exchanges (exchanges 8 and 10 below) that are not found in the Chinese at all but are found in the extant Sanskrit witnesses. This indicates that a translation from Sanskrit (or perhaps from both languages) is more likely. In Sanskrit, each verse consists of two sixteen-syllable lines. The Tibetan is presented in four-line verses (each consisting of two couplets) of seven-syllable lines.