འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའ་གྲང་ཁྱར་ད་འཇག་པའ་མད་ཆན་པ intro.10

intro.10

The presence of mantras in this text is noteworthy, particularly as the Vinaya version of the text includes them too. The mantras are designated in the text itself using the term gsang sngags kyi gzhi (mantrapada in parallel Sanskrit texts); the long mantra is not described as a dhāraṇī and does not seem to have the function of encapsulating or epitomizing a longer teaching, as a dhāraṇī normally would. The mahāsūtra version of this text has consequently presented problems of classification to the scholars who compiled the different Kangyurs, and in most it is placed in both sūtra and tantra sections. In the Degé Kangyur it is present as three copies: one in the General Sūtra section (Toh 312), one in the Collection of Tantras as an Action (Kriyā) tantra related to the Tathāgata family (Toh 628), and one in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Toh 1093).⁸ If the Chapter on Medicines passage is included, the text has the unusual distinction of being classified in all four of the main divisions of the Kangyur.⁹ Not only does it exist in no less than four different places in Kangyurs that include a compendium of dhāraṇīs, but in addition, an extract comprising the nineteen stanzas of the verse section is found as a standalone text among the prayers of dedication at the end of the Tantra Collection, Toh 816, with the title The Verses for Well-Being Extracted from the Noble Sūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī” ¹⁰ and which is also duplicated toward the end of the Tengyur (Toh 4406).