འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའ་གྲང་ཁྱར་ད་འཇག་པའ་མད་ཆན་པ intro.12

intro.12

Nevertheless, no separate text in Sanskrit with this title has come to light, and no such title is mentioned in any Sanskrit work. However, one of the Nepalese Pañcarakṣa texts, the Mahā­mantrānu­sāriṇī, preserved in a number of Sanskrit manuscripts (but not in Tibetan),¹⁴ is very close in content to the present text, the chief differences being the title, the setting, and the absence in the Sanskrit text of two of the verses present in the Tibetan. The title of the Sanskrit work is interesting in that mahā­mantrānu­sāriṇī is also the name used by the Buddha within the text to refer to the mantra. The initial setting mentioned in this version of the text varies across the different manuscripts: some have it as the Veṇuvana in Rājagṛha, some as the Markaṭahrada (the “monkey pond” near Vaiśālī), and in some no setting is mentioned. These comparatively recent Nepalese Mahā­mantrānu­sāriṇī manuscripts are the only available witnesses in Sanskrit apart from a few newly identified fragments of The Chapter on Medicines.¹⁵ Unfortunately, the incomplete Gilgit Vinayavastu manuscript includes only some parts of The Chapter on Medicines, and the passage in question is missing.