གླང་པའ་རྩལ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.16

intro.16

The Tibetan title (glang po’i rtsal) features as an entry in the early ninth century Sanskrit-Tibetan glossary known as the Mahāvyutpatti (Hastikakṣyam, Mvyut 1339 in section LIX on dam pa’i chos kyi ming). Csoma de Körös’ textual edition of the Mahāvyutpatti, which comes with an accompanying English translation, translates the title as “The Elephant’s Dexterity (or Girth).”¹⁴ However, note that in the Mahāvyutpatti, the Denkarma, and the Phangthangma this is the only instance where kakṣya corresponds to rtsal and ākrama and vikrama are given as its more usual correspondents, which would yield Sanskrit forms such as *Hastyākrama or *Hastivikrama. Liu and Chen thus argue that the sūtra itself may actually be the source for this entry in the Mahāvyutpatti. They indeed note that glang po’i rtsal “should not be regarded as a correct interpretation of the Sanskrit word Hastikakṣya.”¹⁵