ཟླ་བའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

In the Kangyur there are two texts with the title The Sūtra of the Moon, both of which have the same basic content. There is the text translated here, designated The Sūtra of the Moon (2) (Toh 331), which was translated from Sanskrit in the time of the “early diffusion,” and The Sūtra of the Moon (1) (Toh 42),¹ which was probably translated from Pali in the fourteenth century. An almost identical narrative is also found in The Sūtra of the Sun (Toh 41)² concerning a solar eclipse. The Sūtra of the Moon (1) and The Sūtra of the Sun remain popular among Tibetans today,³ appearing in recent Tibetan collections of mantras and incantations for recitation. Six of seven verses from The Sūtra of the Moon (2) are also quoted verbatim in Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra, Toh 563, , one of the Tibetan Pañcarakṣā texts.