འཕགས་པ་ད་བཞན་གཤགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱ་གཙག་ཏར་ནས་བྱང་བ་གདགས་དཀར་པ་ཅན་ཞས་བྱ་བ་གཞན་གྱས་མ་ཐབ་མ་ཕྱར་ཟླག་པའ་རག་སྔགས་ཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མ་ཆན་མའ intro.11

intro.11

The four Sitātapatrā texts preserved in the Degé Kangyur are classified as kriyātantras, and they are further categorized among texts associated with the tathāgata family and listed alongside texts associated with other uṣṇīṣa deities such as Uṣṇīṣavijayā.¹¹ As is often the case with spells and dhāraṇīs, the Sitātapatrā spell is also included in the Dhāraṇī Collection (gzungs ’dus) of the Degé Kangyur as Toh 985 and 986, which correspond to Toh 590 and 592.¹² The four canonical texts (Toh 590–593) represent four distinct versions of the same spell that are largely equivalent in terms of content, translation style, and terminology. Two of the four lack a colophon describing the context of their translation, but it is nonetheless apparent that the later versions of the text are in fact revisions of earlier Tibetan translations based on newly-available Sanskrit sources rather than distinct translations. Though many ambiguities remain, the four works offer us an important view into the long textual history of both the Indic source material and its Tibetan translations.