བསད་ནམས་ཀྱ་སྟབས་ཀྱ་རྟགས་པ་བརྗད་པ intro.18

intro.18

The colophon of the text states that it was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the imperial-era translators Jinamitra, the Kashmiri scholar, and the Tibetan Devacandra (eighth to ninth centuries). Jinamitra was active in Tibet at the end of the eighth century or during the first decades of the ninth.⁹ The Puṇya­balāvadāna’s inclusion in the Denkarma Catalog shows that it was translated prior to that catalog’s compilation in 812. In this catalog, the text is grouped within the category of Hīnayāna sūtras (Tib. theg pa chung ngu’i sde).¹⁰ Indeed, its cast of characters includes only the Buddha Śākyamuni and his śrāvaka disciples (in their present and former lives), and none of the bodhisattvas who often appear in the Mahāyāna sūtras.