མད་ཆན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་མཆག་ཅས་བྱ་བ intro.2

intro.2

The inclusion of The Crest Insignia (1) (hereafter Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1]) among the Mahāsūtras (literally “Great Sūtras”)¹ reflects its status in early Buddhism as a “protective text” (known as a rakṣā by the Sarvāstivādins and Mūlasarvāstivādins and a paritta by the Theravādins). It shares the same Sanskrit title with a with a closely related Mahāsūtra that immediately follows it in the Degé Kangyur (The Crest Insignia (2), Toh 293,² hereafter Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2]). In Tibetan the titles of these two Mahāsūtras are differentiated by alternative translations of the word agra (as mchog in the present text, Toh 292, and dam pa in Toh 293), but we have translated the title in the same way in both texts based on the identical Sanskrit title Dhvajāgra. The term dhvajāgra refers to a symbol or insignia that was mounted at the end of a long pole, which was employed as a martial ensign on the battlefield in ancient India.³