འཕགས་པ་ཀླའ་རྒྱལ་པ་མ་དྲས་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.15

intro.15

No extant Sanskrit or other Indic versions of The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta have as yet been identified. However, its textual history can be traced back to at least 308 ce, when it was translated into Chinese (Taishō 635)⁷ by Dharmarakṣa, among the most prolific of the early translators of Mahāyāna Buddhist texts into Chinese. The tradition whereby the Buddha gave teachings at Lake Anavatapta is also attested in what is known as the Anavatapta­gāthā (Verses of Anavatapta), iterations of which are found in a number of Gāndhārī manuscripts⁸ and a version of which is found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya included in the Tibetan Kangyur.⁹ Another narrative version, different but with clear correspondences to the Mūlasarvāstivādin rendering, is found in a Mahāyāna sūtra, The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty.¹⁰ However, aside from its setting at Lake Anavatapta and the presentation of its teachings in verse, The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta does not appear to have any further overlap in content with these versions related to the Anavatapta­gāthā tradition.