འཕགས་པ་བད་སའ་རྒྱལ་པ་འཆར་བྱད་ཀྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ལའ intro.4

intro.4

This text has received attention throughout the centuries for its descriptions of the dangers of sexual desire toward women and of the impure nature of the human body. Several passages from King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions, comprising about two to three pages in all, are quoted in Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya. Śāntideva uses this work, among others, as a scriptural basis for a discussion of the harms of desire. King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is also quoted extensively by the yogi Shabkar (zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol, 1781–1851) in his work The Wondrous Emanated Scriptures (rmad byung sprul pa’i glegs bam). In this case, as well, King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is used as scriptural evidence for the dangers of desiring women. The sections quoted by Shabkar appear to match those in the Degé Kangyur. In modern scholarship, Diana Paul has translated a version of this work from Chinese and discussed it in her book Women in Buddhism.²