འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའ་གྲང་ཁྱར་ད་འཇག་པའ་མད་ཆན་པ notes.28

notes.28

28. In the Tibetan of this mahāsūtra version, the setting is rendered as ’dam bu’i khrod na gzings pa’i ’dug gnas, something of a conundrum for the translator. In the Bhaiṣajyavastu version this opening is absent, but according to its narrative the dialog that follows can be surmised to have taken place at the Giñjakāvasatha at Nādikā, a village near Pāṭaliputra (present-day Patna, in Bihar). To summarize personal communications with Peter Skilling: The Sanskrit Nādikā is attested in passages of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra that parallel parts of the Bhaiṣajyavastu, but in the Tibetan of the latter Nādikā is rendered as sgra can, perhaps meaning “a place with noise,” and in other texts sgra sgrogs (similar in meaning) and chu bo can (“having a river”); these renderings are all based on Skt. √nad (“roar”) and its derivative nadī (“river”). Given that Nādikā has several variant spellings in the Pali texts, it is plausible—given the weight of the evidence from these other texts—that ’dam bu’i khrod could be a Tibetan rendering of the same place name, based instead on Skt. naḍa (“reed,” Tib. ’dam bu), sometimes spelt nala or nada; this is also supported by the fact (Yao, personal communication) that the rendering of Nādikā as 販葦聚落 in the Chinese translation of the Kṣudrakavastu (Taishō 1451) is also based on reference to reeds. As for the building or dwelling (gzings pa’i ’dug gnas), this Tibetan rendering may or may not correspond to the Giñjakāvasatha of other texts, a name sometimes interpreted from Pali sources as meaning a “brick building,” but with inconclusive evidence. The Tibetan here, gzings pa, according to Negi, may translate the Sanskrit gahana (“impenetrable,” “thicket”) but does not allow the name to be matched with any certainty to the Giñjakāvasatha or any other known place name. The whole phrase is found as a setting in only one other Kangyur text, a dhāraṇī called lcags mthu nag po (Toh 763). In Karmavajra’s commentary (see Introduction i.10), the place is given instead as ’dam bu’i khrod na gzigs pa’i ’dug gnas, i.e., the same primary locality but “the Dwelling Place of Seeing” as the secondary one. The commentary provides no explanation of the name but goes on to describe it, in tantra style, as a measureless palace at the center of Vaiśālī made by the gods, asuras, and other nonhuman beings.