[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Mahāyāna sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra) › [Sūtras of the Great Collection](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata) › [Sūryagarbha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha) › [འཕགས་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྡེ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo) › [The Quintessence of the Sun](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000) › intro.6 # འཕགས་པ་ཤན་ཏ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆན་པའ་སྡ་ཉ་མའ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད intro.6 The Quintessence of the Sun intro.6 - **Language:** English ### [intro.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro.6) In the Chinese canon, The Quintessence of the Sun is included in the Mahāsannipāta (Tib. ’dus pa chen po), also called the Mahāvaipulya (Tib. shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i sde), a massive collection of seventeen Mahāyāna sūtras. According to Jens Braarvig, who presents a detailed textual history of this collection in his doctoral thesis on the Akṣayamati­nirdeśa­sūtra,¹¹ the term mahāsannipāta can be understood to refer to both this great collection of sūtras and the great assembly of monks and bodhisattvas present around the Buddha when those teachings were given.¹² The Mahāsannipāta, preserved in its entirety in the Chinese canon, is a group of rather loosely related texts. Although these texts vary in terms of doctrine and form, they do show greater homogeneity than other scriptural collections such as the Ratnakūṭa. Braarvig argues that the first twelve sūtras in this collection must have been part of an Indic version of the collection,¹³ and that this collection probably predates the versions of texts from the collection that circulated as independent Sanskrit manuscripts or were translated into Tibetan and added to the Tibetan canon as independent texts. A few sūtras of the Mahāsannipāta are indeed available in Sanskrit (mostly in fragmentary forms) and in Tibetan, but only as independent texts. It appears that this collection did not receive the same level of attention in India as other large collections like the Ratnakūṭa and the Buddhāvataṃsaka. On the other hand, it is obvious that the Mahāsannipāta played an important role in some of the Chinese and Central Asian kingdoms along the Silk Road. It is, for example, praised in The Book of Zambasta, an important Khotanese Buddhist poem from the eighth century, along with the Prajñāpāramitā and the Buddhāvataṃsaka. According to Braarvig, the Chinese translation of the Mahāsannipāta was initially compiled during the second or third century, at the earliest during the first. The collection that is extant today (Taishō 397) was compiled in 586 ce by the Khotanese monk Sengjiu. This collection is based on the manuscript of the translation of the first sūtras by Dharmarakṣema (414–21 ce) and was enlarged by new texts translated by Narendrayaśas, including The Quintessence of the Sun.¹⁴ - [Previous: intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro.5) - [Next: intro.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro.7) - [Up: intro](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.mahasamnipata.suryagarbha*bo~en-84000.intro.6) · Pramāṇa