A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s7.16

c33.s7.16

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteçvara, the subject of chapter xxiv of the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka*, is also the hero of the *Avalo-kiteçvaraguṇakāraṇḍavyūha*, which exists in a prose version and a version in verse, which is, doubtless, the younger and which recognizes an Ādi Buddha or creator god. One form of the Sūtra was rendered into Chinese in A. D. 270, but the date of either of the extant texts is uncertain. It contains the story of the visit of Avalokiteçvara to the abode of the dead, which has been compared with the legend of Nikodemos whence it could, doubtless, have been derived. The paradise of Amitābha and himself are glorified in the *Sukhāvatīvyūha*,¹ which exists in a longer version and in a shorter, apparently derived from the longer text. The *Amitāyurdhyānasūtra*,² extant in a Chinese version, explains how by meditation on the god to attain this paradise; versions of the *Sukhāvatīvyūha* were made in China before A. D. 170 and the three texts are the foundation of two Japanese sects, the Jō-do-shū and Shin-shū. Another heaven, that of Padmottara, is described in the *Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka*,³ rendered into Chinese before A. D. 600. The worship of Mañjuçrī is recorded in the *Avataṁsakasūtra*⁴ or *Gaṇḍavyūha*, rendered into Chinese by A. D. 420, and the chief work of the Ke-gon sect of Japan.