འཕགས་པ་གང་གའ་མཆག་གས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.7

intro.7

There are no known extant Sanskrit witnesses to this sūtra, but translations of it, ostensibly made from Sanskrit manuscripts, are preserved in the Tibetan Kangyur and the Chinese Tripiṭaka. In both the Tibetan and Chinese canons, the sūtra is classified as part of the collection of sūtras known as The Great Heap of Jewels (Mahāratnakūṭa). ⁴ The Chinese translation has been attributed to Bodhiruci, who was active in the early eighth century and who may have been responsible for compiling the Ratnakūṭa collection as we know it today.⁵ A translation of the Chinese is also available in English.⁶ The colophon to the canonical Tibetan translation states that the sūtra was translated by Dānaśīla and Jinamitra, along with Yeshé Dé, all of whom flourished in the late eighth or early ninth century. Its relatively early date of translation into Tibetan is also supported by its inclusion in the Denkarma (lhan kar ma), the catalog of Tibetan translations compiled in the ninth century.⁷ It is not mentioned in the Phangthangma (’phang thang ma).