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The Varṇārhavarṇa Stotra of Māṭreeṭa (I)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

While I preparing an edition of Matrceta's Hymn of 150 Verses (Satapañcāśatka) I learnt of the existence in the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin of a quantity of unpublished manuscript fragments of poetry identified as Mātrceta's, included among the material brought back by four successive German expeditions to Central Asia. Through the good offices of Professors H. W. Bailey and F. W. Thomas, photographed copies of these pieces eventually reached me. They proved to consist of about 120 leaves or portions of leaves, practically without exception in “Slanting Gupta” script, from at least seventeen separate MSS., ranging from almost complete folios to fragments containing only two or three legible syllables.

The collection was placed unconditionally at my disposal by the authorities of the Academy, to whom are due my most grateful acknowledgments of their generosity, the more so because a complete transcription by Dr. W. Siegling accompanied the texts. It is hardly necessary to add that this transcription is a work of the highest care and competence which could only have been carried out by an expert in the deciphering of Central Asian documents. In doubtful cases I have compared his readings with the originals and have checked several lengthy passages systematically, but additions or corrections thus introduced could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The text which follows can, therefore, be presented with a confidence which I could not have felt in a decipherment of my own; for apart from the normal difficulties of this script, blurred and mutilated characters abound.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1950

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References

page 671 note 1 Now in the press.

page 672 note 1 I-tsing. His enthusiastic account of Mātrceta and that of Tāranātha have often been cited.

page 672 note 2 These will be dealt with at length in my forthcoming edition of the Śatapañcāśatka. I here merely record the opinion that Mātrceta is certainly to be distinguished from Aśvaghosa; that he was probably junior not only to Aśvaghosa but also to Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva, as Buston and Tāranātha assert; and that the Kaniska to whom he addressed the Mahārājakanikalekha in his old age is more likely to have been Kaniska II than, as generally assumed, Kaniska I. Concerning the title of the poem and related matters see my article in JRAS, 1948, pp. 55–60.

page 672 note 3 Indian Antiquary, vol. 34, pp. 145–163: “The Varnanārhavarnana (sic) of Matrceta.”

page 674 note 1 ka B.

page 674 note 2 so S: pratibambayet B.

page 675 note 1 So in Śat. 99 Buddha is called satksetram phalasampadā; cf. id. 133, naivamvidham, ksetram, trisu lokesu vidyate, and v. P.T.S. Dictionary, s.v. khetta.

page 675 note 2 An echo of the title of the Hymn: v. my article in JRAS., 1948, pp. 57 and 59.

page 675 note 3 i.e. the Buddhas. mchog in T. cannot stand for dkon mchog as Dr. Thomas's reconstruction triratnarāśisu would imply.

page 675 note 4 i.e. adherence to the Buddha's teaching.

page 675 note 5 For ha cf. Śat. l, yasya dosā na santi ha.

page 675 note 6 Read gal te for gante in T.(a).

page 675 note 7 i.e. the balas, vaiśāradyas, etc.

page 675 note 8 Lit. “they are” (bhavanti). This I believe to be the correct interpretation of the couplet which is misconstrued in T.

page 675 note 9 i.e. Arhats.

page 676 note 1 so S: samkhyāsaty B.

page 676 note 2 -yām B.

page 676 note 3 mte B.

page 676 note 4 smā B.

page 676 note 5 sa B.

page 676 note 6 tvarum B.

page 676 note 7 svasukumair B.

page 677 note 1 Cf. Śat. 8, yasya sarnkhyāprabhāvabhyām, na gunesu asti niścayah.

page 677 note 2 Dr. Thomas was mistaken in supposing that these two verses allude to anything in Mātrceta's own past. The reference is certainly to Sāriputra, as the title chos kyi sde dpon po (cf. Pāli dham masenāpati) makes clear. For this disciple's inability to answer questions outside the range of any but a Buddha, cf. Dhammapadatthakathā iii, pp. 228 f. (I take the reference from Malalasekara). One may recall the neti neti of the Brhadāranyaka Upanisad. In v. 16 T. renders wrongly “When questioned by the Bhagavat because of his omniscience”.

page 677 note 3 Arhats.

page 677 note 4 khu s rta = khug (r)ta = cātaka (no connection with horses!).

page 677 note 5 htshal naba “though it desire”. Perhaps read lubhyamanopi?

page 677 note 6 Gagā, Sindhu, Vāksu, and Sītā.

page 677 note 7 The meaning of T. is in some respects doubtful and I have failed to construct a plausible Sanskrit text.

page 677 note 8 The missing Sanskrit word is represented in T. by bsgribs nas (“having covered”); but a noun meaning “tree” seems to be required. My conjecture presupposes a confusion between pātala and patala “veil”, for the latter of which the Mahāvyutpatti has sgrib pa as Tibetan equivalent.

page 678 note 1 hamnevai B.

page 678 note 2 manīm B.

page 678 note 3 Vamśasthā.

page 678 note 4 Sālinī.

page 678 note 5 Read vyāprtānām?

page 678 note 6 Added metri gratia.

page 678 note 7 -yam B.

page 679 note 1 skye bahi zo brin. Perhaps we should read zo rin. Dr. Thomas rendered “brisk with the market of lives” (referring to lam), I do not know on what grounds.

page 679 note 2 ser rme (“red spot” Thomas) I take to be the same as ser smre ba which appears to translate madhuramrttikā in Divyāvadāna, p. 71, 1.4. The verse is, however, decidedly obscure in its Tibetan dress, the apparent mixture of metaphors (“root” and “high road”) being especially suspicious.

page 679 note 3 Lit. “flow, being inclined towards”.

page 679 note 4 T. shin tu dkah ba “most difficult”. For dal hbyor read rnal hbyor.

page 679 note 5 Of praising the Buddha.

page 679 note 6 tisthatā. For te… tisthatā cf. Divyāvadāna, p. 120, 1. 22, nimīlitāksena te stheyam, Bodhicaryāvatāra, ii, 61, me ‘bhivistena, etc.

page 679 note 7 This, as Dr. Thomas remarked, probably refers to a story told by I-tsing (A Record of the Buddhist Religion, etc., trans. Takakusu, p. 157).

page 679 note 8 The numbers in brackets refer to the verses of Dr. Thomas’ Tibetan text.

page 681 note 1 T. mi s o; v. Jäschke, Tibetan Dict., s.v. Perhaps, however, Dr. Thomas’ translation ‘not venturing” is correct, in which case we must read mi sdo.

page 681 note 2 Cf. Śat. 151, svayam evātmanatmānam tvam eva jnātwm arhasi.

page 681 note 3 In T. (c) read m on for mnos.

page 681 note 4 For dpe (v.l. da ) in T. (a) read de .

page 681 note 5 The syllables of this śloka might be grouped in a variety of ways.

page 681 note 6 ātmabhāra.

page 681 note 7 antarātman.

page 681 note 8 Or perhaps “to thee, jewel of form”, etc. (so T.).

page 681 note 9 sacute;ramanamaryādāya. T. = “who has reached the limit of śramana(hood)”.

page 682 note 1 tvat Toch.: s. B.

page 682 note 2 vrata Toch.: vrta B 2

page 682 note 3 su B 1: tvadhanyena B 1.

page 682 note 4 goravam B.

page 683 note 1 My conjecture akrśāaya involves reading mi rid pa in T. (b). mi rin ba (“not long”) makes very poor sense even if translated with Dr. Thomas “not far” and the printed Tibetan forms of and b are often indistinguishable from d and p.

page 683 note 2 bzhed dgur has nothing to do with “nine desires” (Thomas). Like hdod dgur, of which it is the “honorific” equivalent, it corresponds to svairam (so infra, iii, 12) or some such word.

page 683 note 3 prasrdbahi an untranslatable word meaning the calm and well-being, both of mind and body, derived from the practice of yoga.

page 683 note 4 shyid par bsgrun pahi in T. is difficult: literally “compared (emulated) in happiness”. The point of the couplet lies in the suggestion that as an ascetic (śramana) the Buddha actually enjoyed pleasures superior to those he might have had as a luxurious prince (cf. sukumāraya).

page 683 note 5 Read dge sbyo in T. (d).

page 683 note 6 Read gyur pa for gyur pas in T. (a).

page 683 note 7 satsamākhyāpratijnāya. T.'s dam pa supports the reading of B. The point lies, of course, in the derivation of śramana from śrama.

page 683 note 8 Here as often elsewhere the Sanskrit lacks any indication of tense.

page 683 note 9 puraskārāryakarmane, T. hphags pahi hphrin las phul tu byuii.

page 683 note 10 snātaka.

page 683 note 11 Read bla s in T. (b).

page 683 note 12 mahāpadāvadānāya. As applied to an elephant the compound may mean “the section (even) of whose footprint is large”. rjen shut in T. (a) should probably be emended to rjes shul.

page 683 note 13 utkrstagauravām must also be understood as “exalted in dignity”, applied to the Buddha.

page 683 note 14 Also “by reason of its quality of (being) the Dharma”. Buddha is the ox, the Dharma his yoke. T.'s version of the whole couplet is quite erroneous.

page 684 note 1 mūrttaye B.

page 684 note 2 -pūrnnatvā B.

page 684 note 3 This syllable in B looks more like pu or su.

page 685 note 1 ājāneya (T. can mkhyen). The word is used καγ’ ༐ξóχην of horses, but may also be applied to men.

page 685 note 2 varna as applied to the Buddha may also mean “renown”.

page 685 note 3 But as applied to the Buddha tīrtha = “bathing ghat” and gocara = “range of action ”.

page 685 note 4 ārsabham sthānam lit. “the position of bull”.

page 685 note 5 purusadamyasārathi is well-known as a title of the Buddha.

page 685 note 6 My conjecture akusīdine. for le lo mi m ah, ba of T. seems almost unavoidable, although I can quote no authority for akusīdin = akusīda. One may, however, compare the common matsarin = matsara. kusīda seems to be a substantive in the phrase kusītavatthu “occasion of indolence” (v.P.T.S. Dict., s.v.).

page 685 note 7 vidyā.

page 685 note 8 I.e. nirvāna.

page 685 note 9 yogaksema, often applied to nirvāna.

page 685 note 10 This is certainly the sense of shin tu bzhe s pa (“at the Zenith”, Thomas); more literally “very much on bis feet” (suvyutthita). In view of the indications of the MS. my conjecture suprabuddhāya must be reckoned as no more than a stop-gap.

page 686 note 1 Siegling read as k, but the characters are somewhat similar.

page 686 note 2 Siegling read t, n and t being often hardly distinguishable in this script.

page 687 note 1 sto pa nid kyi (?s) bsgos pahi bdag = śunyatā(pari)bhāvitūtman.

page 687 note 2 bag chags = vāsanā.

page 687 note 3 sgrib pa = āvarana.

page 687 note 4 skyes bu chen pohi mtshan rnams = mahāpurusalaksanūni.

page 687 note 5 dpe byad = (ann)vyanjana—eighty, as usually reckoned.

page 687 note 6 Restoration would be simpler if we read sogs for tshogs in T. (b):vaiśāradyabalādibhih.

page 687 note 7 I.e. dharmakāya (in the Hinayānist sense) and rūpakāya: cf. Śat., 145.

page 687 note 8 śukladharmaih = kuśaladharmaih.

page 687 note 9 bhavyatākarakair. If my restoration is correct (as I think almost certain) T. misunderstood the phrase.

page 687 note 10 Or, perhaps, “mention of impurities (kleśas).”

page 687 note 11 T. = “thinking of peaceful acts”.

page 687 note 12 I.e. Buddhas, one of whom is actually called Sarvābhibhū.

page 687 note 13 asammosadharmaka. Metre seems to require this variant of the usual asammosadharman.

page 687 note 14 āmisa (za zi ).

page 688 note 1 -yāstu B 1: -yastu B 1.

page 688 note 2 sarwabhijñāya B.

page 688 note 3 -akrta B.

page 688 note 4 va *śaya B 1: *ntāśā*B 1.

page 688 note 5 acodyāyanāvadyāya B.

page 688 note 6 ahitavodaksāya B 1:a**pohadaksāya B 1.

page 688 note 7 hitadhāna B.

page 688 note 8 tā apparently B.

page 688 note 9 varah B.

page 688 note 10 tvam B omits.

page 688 note 11 śresthatam B.

page 688 note 12 sarvvapad B.

page 688 note 13 -upadāya B.

page 688 note 14 -āśrāya acc. Siegling. ām B.

page 688 note 15 tatvām B

page 688 note 16 caksubhūtaya B.

page 688 note 17 āgnau B.

page 688 note 18 Read -tarāsv?

page 688 note 19 -āndhūkāro B.

page 688 note 20 jyotir*taya B.

page 688 note 21 so B 1 (omitting visarga): naivanārthamanārthatah B 1.

page 688 note 22 vyutpatiś B 1.

page 688 note 23 āśrtā B 2: *śra[yā] B 1.

page 689 note 1 tāyin.

page 689 note 2 m on shes chen po m ah, of T., if not a slip, implies a reading mahābhijnāya “great in supernatural science”.

page 689 note 3 krtajña also, of course = “grateful”.

page 689 note 4 Cf. Śat. 63, vāntecchopavicarasya.

page 689 note 5 I follow T.'s interpretation of avakāśa.

page 689 note 6 Or “words”.

page 689 note 7 I.e. samyaksambodhi. Cf. Śat. 26, prāptam padam anuttaram.

page 689 note 8 apada. ma chags should presumably be substituted for ma chogs in T. (c).

page 689 note 9 Cf. Śat. 108, tamobhūtesu lokesu prajñālokah krtas tvayā.

page 689 note 10 artha… anartha.

page 690 note 1 -krtvād B 1.

page 690 note 2 The verse is found in two MSS. It is absent from a third (which, however, reveals the omission by numbering v. 62 as 63), and from the Tibetan.

page 690 note 3 rupatvā[t] B.

page 690 note 4 praśa[m]sati B.

page 690 note 5 tasām B1: tasm[ām] B1.

page 690 note 6 Vamśasthā.

page 690 note 7 Rucirā.

page 691 note 1 V. critical note.

page 691 note 2 āptarūpatvāt. yid ches o bo, however, = “trustworthy nature”.

page 691 note 3 Vide supra, v. 1.

page 691 note 4 sadā sadācāravidhāyineyine. neya here presumably does duty for the more usual vineya or vaineya; at least I can extract no better meaning from the compound. T.'s translation dam pabi spyod pa lam da Idan ignores vidhāyi and confuses neya with naya.

page 691 note 5 pratisamvid/.

page 691 note 6 mahāmahāya. The great festival is, I suppose, the saddharmamahotsava of Śat. 5.; cf. infra, iii, 2. Possibly, also, the Vedic sense “great great one” is to be understood. I do not understand chod pa mi m ah of T.

page 692 note 1 Upajāti.

page 692 note 2 vratāni B l: vrtāni B 2

page 692 note 3 tīrthāni B 1: tīrthyāni B 1.

page 692 note 4 bhāvitā B.

page 692 note 5 Harirī.

page 692 note 6 pranāmām B.

page 692 note 7 Vasantatilaka.

page 692 note 8 Syllable ta omitted in B.

page 693 note 1 samtati = samtāna = series of momentary mental states constituting personality.

page 693 note 2 sugati, i.e. rebirth among gods or men.

page 693 note 3 I.e. nirvāna.

page 693 note 4 Cf. Śat. 88, śāsanena tavākrāntam antakasyāpi śāsanam.

page 693 note 5 I take vrte as impersonal; but it could be construed with śāsanam.

page 693 note 6 T. = “shooting the great arrow in battle”. isvāsa (“arrow-thrower”) may have caused some confusion.

page 693 note 7 Cf. supra, ch. ii, śl. 70.

page 693 note 8 Or “suitable reverence”. T. = “who hast gained attainment by honour and knowledge”.

page 694 note 1 dharmānām B 2: dharmana B 1.

page 694 note 2 *rmatā B 1: dharmasadbhāvadharmasadbhāvaśaktaya B 1.

page 694 note 3 -sthānā B 1: -sthānāt B 1.

page 694 note 4 tentike B.

page 694 note 5 niścitam B 1: niścatam B 1.

page 695 note 1 I.e. aequo et iniquo, friend (or neutral) and foe.

page 695 note 2 ārya.

page 695 note 3 varna.

page 695 note 4 Read zhugs for bzhugs in T. (114d).

page 695 note 5 Cf. Divyāvadāna, p. 75, dvātrimśata mahāpuruṣalakṣaiḥ, samala krtam asītyā cānuvyañjanair nirājitagātram uyāmaprabhālamkrtam.

page 695 note 6 Read rgyas for rgyal in T. (114a).

page 695 note 7 Elements of existence.

page 695 note 8 I.e. sa skrtāsa sk ta.

page 695 note 9 dharmadhātu, here simply the sum of the elements.

page 695 note 10 krta , gen. sing.

page 695 note 11 yatrakāmāvasāyitā v. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit Dict., s.v.

page 695 note 12 pratyavasthāna; translation doubtful.

page 695 note 13 The eighteen dhātus.

page 696 note 1 śunyatā B.

page 696 note 2 vrtam B 1: [v]rtim B 1.

page 696 note 3 karmadharma-B 1: karmasamādāna B l.

page 697 note 1 dharmata.

page 697 note 2 niryāna. The precise application here of this and some of the forms which follow is not clear to me.

page 697 note 3 sthānāsthānajñānabalam, sthānam as in the common Buddhist Sanskrit phrase sthānam etad vidyate yat…

page 697 note 4 karmavipākajñānabalam.

page 697 note 5 vyavasthāna I take to denote a remaining in status quo, neither samlcleśa nor vyavadāna.

page 697 note 6 sagahvarāh. The bala of this verse must be the sarvajnānavimoksasamādhisamāpattikleśavyavadānavyutthānajñānabalam.

page 698 note 1 Sic.

page 698 note 2 sarvān B.

page 698 note 3 so B 1: niryasyatīti B 1.

page 698 note 4B 1: mā B 1.

page 698 note 5 so B 1: tadbhatam B 1.

page 699 note 1 varāvarendriyajñānabalam.

page 699 note 2 nānādhimuktijnānabalam.

page 699 note 3 nānādhätujñānabalam.

page 699 note 4 abhisa v tti.

page 699 note 5 sarvatragāminīpratipajjñānabatam. *6 jñānadarśanam.

page 699 note 7 pūrvanivāsānusmrtijñānabalam.

page 699 note 8 ni (so read for nid) mtshams sbyor = pratisa dhi.

page 699 note 9 cyutyupapattijñānabalam

page 699 note 10 sgrib pa = āvara a.

page 699 note 11 bag chags = vāsanā.

page 699 note 12 āsravakṣayajñānabalam.

page 699 note 13 Lit. “Not knowing”.

page 699 note 14 I.e. through such knowledge.

page 699 note 15 Buddhahood.

page 699 note 16 vv. 13–15 are concerned with the Vaiśāradyas; cf. Śatasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā, pp. 1440 f.

page 701 note 1 Vinaya.

page 701 note 2 I.e. Buddha is not to be considered arrogant because he humbled the pride of such as Supriya or Mānastabdha.

page 701 note 3 catvārah śīlaskandhāh?

page 701 note 4 antaram. Cf. Śat, 4, saha dharmena (na) labhate kaścid bhagavato ‘ntaram.

page 701 note 5 Allusion to sm tyupasthāna. The entire half verse occurs in Śat. 80.

page 701 note 6 vāsanā.

page 701 note 7 Or “conversion” (vinaya).

page 701 note 8 The Tibetan seems to have omitted an equivalent for sarvatra or some such word.

page 701 note 9 For sna tshogs = vicitra (substantive), cf. Kaśyapaparivarta, ch. 25, hjig rten gyi ana tshogs rnams la = sarvalokavicitre u.