འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་མ་སྤང་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

To our knowledge, no Sanskrit version of this sūtra exists. In addition to the Tibetan translation the sūtra was translated twice into Chinese. The first of these translations (Taishō 811) was produced sometime near the end of the third century ce by the Indo-Scythian monk Dharmarakṣa (ca. 233–310 ce). With this Chinese translation, we thus have a terminus ante quem for the composition of this sūtra, which places it relatively early in the formative period of the literature of the Great Vehicle in India. The second Chinese translation (Taishō 831) was produced in the early sixth century (ca. 508–535 ce) by the prolific Indian translator Bodhiruci.²