宋高僧傳 3.21

3.21

Śramaṇa Lianhua (Padma) was originally a native of Central India. In the first year of Xingyuan, leaning on his monk's staff, he had an audience with Emperor Dezong, begging for a bell to return to India to ring. An imperial decree ordered Li Fu, the Military Commissioner of Guangzhou, to repair and cast it, and directed that it be sent to Jindui Temple in South India. Lianhua then installed this bell at the Vairocana Stūpa in the kingdom of Baojun. Later, the Sanskrit bundles of the latter section of the Avataṃsaka were sent by ship; the faithful Tripiṭaka master Prajñā translated them into forty scrolls at Chongfu Temple. Another account says that the Sanskrit bundle was originally presented in a letter by the king of the kingdom of Oḍra in South India to the Son of Heaven of Cina. The letter stated: "Having copied with my own hand the chapter 'Entering the Inconceivable Realm of Liberation: The Conduct and Vows of Samantabhadra', expounded by Sudhana and the fifty-five holy spiritual friends from among the hundred thousand verses of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, I respectfully present it, wishing to behold you in the assembly of the Dragon Flower Tree"; this was in the eleventh year of Zhenyuan. In the sixth month of the twelfth year, an imperial decree ordered its translation at Chongfu Temple: Prajñā, a śramaṇa of Kapiśa, proclaimed the Sanskrit text; Guangji of Tiangong Temple in the eastern capital translated the language; Yuanchao of Ximing Temple took it down with the brush; Zhirou and Zhitong composed the prose; Daoheng of Zhengjue Temple in Chengdu-fu and Jianxu polished the phrasing; Datong of Qianfu Temple certified the meaning; Chengguan and Lingsui determined the readings; and Huo Xianming, Army-Inspecting Commissioner of the Shence Army, and Dou Wenchang, Commissioner of Meritorious Virtues of the Left Street, copied and submitted it; the translation sessions concluded in the second month of the fourteenth year.