འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅ་གཉས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

There are no available Sanskrit versions of this text. The first Chinese translation of this text was completed by Jñānagupta in 587 ce (Taishō 1348)¹ and the second was produced by Yijing in 711 ce (Taishō 1349).² The translator’s colophon to the Tibetan translation tells us that The Twelve Buddhas was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla along with the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé (c. eighth century). The text is listed as a sūtra in both the Denkarma³ and Phangthangma⁴ royal Tibetan catalogues of translated works, which tells us that the Tibetan translation was completed prior to the compilation and publication of the Denkarma catalogue in 812 ce.