འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཀྱ་ཕང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.2

intro.2

The Sections of Dharma has a long history as part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. It was among the first texts brought from India to Tibet during the Imperial period (seventh to ninth century ce) where it was translated by the prolific Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé alongside the Indian preceptor Prajñāvarman. Since it appears in both of the available Imperial catalogs, which are the earliest records of Tibetan scriptural translations,¹ its existence in Tibetan translation can be posited as no later than 824 ce.² Unfortunately, to our knowledge no version of the text is extant in Sanskrit or any other language besides Tibetan (and Mongolian, into which it was translated from the Tibetan), nor are there any known commentaries. This greatly limits our knowledge of its precise origins and context.