འཕགས་པ་མ་ཏག་ག་ཚགས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.16

intro.16

According to the colophon of its Tibetan translation, Bouquet of Flowers was edited and finalized by a translation team consisting of the Indian preceptor Jñānasiddhi, the chief editor-translator Dharmatāśīla, and others. Although the term translation is conspicuously missing from the colophon, Jñānasiddhi and Dharmatāśīla were both active in Tibet in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and also collaborated on the translation of the Aṣṭa­sāha­srikā­prajñā­pāramitā. ⁸ In the Denkarma (ldan/lhan dkar ma) imperial translation record, compiled in the late eighth century, Bouquet of Flowers is listed as entry 129⁹ and classified in the Assorted Sūtras (mdo sde sna tshogs) section among works numbering “ten or fewer bam po” (bam po bcu man chad la). In the Kangyurs belonging to the so-called Tshalpa (tshal pa) recension, the sūtra appears among similar-themed sūtras, grouped near the end of the Great Vehicle section of the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section, whose main focus is the merit of knowing and reciting the names of numerous buddhas and prostrating to them. These sūtras include The Sūtra on Liberation (mthar mdo, Toh 264), much recited in Tibetan Buddhism, and its extra chapter (Toh 265), as well as (Toh 267), famous for having been one of the first Buddhist texts to appear in Tibet according to traditional histories. The purification of negative karma is also an important aspect of these sūtras, and some of them are used in confession rituals.¹⁰ This grouping appears to have been based on the Old Narthang catalogue, which was followed by Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) for the arrangement of sūtras recorded in his History of Buddhism.¹¹ Moreover, Butön also notes in his History that several sūtras preceding Bouquet of Flowers were likewise translated by Dharmatāśīla, suggesting that another organizing rubric may have also been operative.¹² In the Kangyurs belonging to the so-called Thempangma (them spangs ma) recension, such as the Stok Palace manuscript version, along with other independent Kangyurs, such as the Shelkar (shel dkar) version, the Bouquet of Flowers appears with an entirely different set of sūtras. Moreover, neither grouping represents the logic of the imperial catalogues, where length seems to have been the organizing rubric.