མད་ཆན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་མཆག་ཅས་བྱ་བ notes: Notes
The Mahāsūtra “The Crest Insignia” (1) notes
- Language
- English
Notes
notes.1
1. See the 84000 Knowledge Base article, “Mahāsūtras.”
notes.2
2. The Crest Insignia (2) (translated 2024).
notes.3
3. Peter Skilling discusses the term dhvajāgra/dhajagga at length in his introduction to the Dhvajāgrasūtra [2] in Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 444–52. He observes that in a range of other canonical translations into Tibetan, the term was also translated as rgyal mtshan gyi rtse mo (“crest of the insignia”).
notes.4
4. As discussed by Skilling, there are in total seven versions of the Dhvajāgrasūtra in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan, plus two partial citations (in the Chinese Dai zhidu lun 大智度論 [Taishō 1509], and in Sthiramati’s Pañcaskandaprakaraṇavaibhāṣā [phung po lnga’i rab tu byed pa bye brag tu bshad pa, Toh 4066], which survives only in Tibetan). The Central Asian Sanskrit witness of the Dhvajāgrasūtra corresponds to Dhvajāgrasūtra [2] (Toh 293). For more on the correspondences and overlaps between the versions, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 404–5.
notes.5
5. The Pali versions do not include “tathāgata” among the epithets, and some commentators count “unsurpassed” (see ) as an epithet on its own. See Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 413 and 433–4, and also the Buddhānusmṛtivṛtti (attributed to Asaṅga, Toh 3982), F.12.a. See also Zhao 2018, and Harrison 1992, pp. 215–38.
notes.6
6. For more on the trope of wars between the devas and asuras in Buddhist literature in general and in the Dhvajāgrasūtras in particular, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 423–26.
notes.7
7. Despite the difficulties in capturing the broad semantic range of saṃpad or phun sum tshogs in a single word, our translation has attempted to reflect the repetition of the source text by translating this term consistently throughout as “perfect” and “perfection” (except for one instance in which we have used “replete,” see ).
notes.8
8. Verses 1–2 have no parallels and appear to be unique to this sūtra. Versions of verses 3–4, on blessing those with two legs and four legs, are also found in the Mahāsūtra on Entering the City of Vaiśālī (Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra, Toh 312, –), The Great Peahen (Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī, Toh 559, 1.79), and the extracanonical Mahāvastu, where they are found as the first two verses of the blessing pronounced by the Buddha to the merchants Trapusa and Bhallika. The last two lines of verse 3 also appear as the first two lines of a verse in The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, ), where they are spoken to the same merchants. The Pali Khettasutta contains versions of verses 5–8, 10, and 12. For more details, see Skilling 2024, p. 326. See also Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 426–28.
notes.9
9. For information on these important early translators, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 111–42, especially pp. 115–30.
notes.10
10. In the Denkarma catalog, the Dhvajāgra [1] is the eighth of the nine Mahāsūtras listed. Denkarma, folio 300.a.4; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 131, no. 247.
notes.11
11. Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 10–11.
notes.12
12. This alliterative turn of phrase comes from Skilling 2024, p. 167.
notes.13
13. While some commentators understand “unsurpassed” (anuttaraḥ, bla na med pa) to be an additional epithet independent of “leader of those to be trained” (puruṣadamyasārathī, skyes bu gdul bya’i kha lo sgyur ba), it seems more likely from other instances of the phrase that the former is a qualifier of the latter. See Skilling 1994–7, vol. 2, p. 413.
notes.14
14. Following H, J, K, Y, N, and S: nye bar gtod pa. D reads nye bar gtong ba.
notes.15
15. Following C, H, J, K, Y, N, and S: las (“through”). D reads lngas (“five”).
notes.16
16. The term translated here as “replete” is phun sum tshogs pa, the same term used repeatedly in the verses of benediction that follow, where it has been translated as “perfect” and “perfection.”
notes.17
17. Provisional translation of rab tu shes nas gtong ba yi// blo ldan ’phags pa gang byed bzhin.
notes.18
18. The term translated here as “goodness” is bde legs, which in turn translates the Sanskrit svasti. Other possible translations would include “good fortune,” “happiness,” and “wellness.” For iterations of this and the following verse of blessing (3–4), particularly for travelers and merchants, see above.
notes.19
19. As mentioned above in , the term repeated throughout the remaining verses that is translated here as “perfect/perfection” is phun sum tshogs / phun sum tshogs pa, which in turn translates the Sanskrit saṃpad. Other possible renderings could instead use the idiom of “abundance” or, as Skilling uses in his translation, the idiom of “blessing.” See Skilling 2024, pp. 172–73.
notes.20
20. Tib. phun sum tshogs pa. See . The use of “perfection” in these verses does not relate to the “six perfections.”