Bodhisattva Vadana Kalpalata And The Saddantavadana

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 6

32
The Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā and the Saddantāvadāna
tents. However, the numbering of the manuscripts agrees entirely with that of the Tibetan translation of the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā in which Tale 42 is the Paņditāvadāną. In Das's edition this is Tale 41, wrongly called Kapilāvadāna. The table of contents also gives the name Paņdita. If we keep the numbering of the tales as found in Add. 1306, Tale 49 (Hastakāvadāna) ends on f. 1986. Tale 50 (Daśakarmaplutyavadāna) begins on f. 199b: namo buddhāya / ye helocchita
However, this manuscript contains seven extra leaves numbered 199-205. Bendall has given them the numbers 199*-205*. The Şaddantāvadāna begins on the last line of f. 198b and occupies the leaves 199*-205*. It is obvious that the scribe completed the first part of the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (Tales 1-49) on f. 198b and continued with the second part on f. 1996. According to Bendall the scribe had by accident omitted this tale and copied it in afterwards. Bendall's conclusion was certainly justified because the table of contents lists the Saddantāvadāna as the Tale 49. However, with the publication of Das's edition it has become evident that the Șaļdantāvadāna was missing in the Sanskrit text translated in Tibet. It must also have been missing in the manuscript used by the scribe of Add. 1306, Mañjuśrībhadrasudhi. When copying the table of contents Mañjuśrībhadrasudhi must have made the same discovery as Bendall, i.e., that the Saddantāvadāna is listed as Tale 49.
In order to supply this missing tale the scribe made use of another collection of tales which contains a recension of the Șaờdantāvadāna: the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā. Both the Paris and Cambridge manuscripts contain the text of the Saddantāvadāna. 18 In the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā the tale is comprised of 198 verses. They are followed by several additional verses of a moralistic nature which do not belong to the story itself, and which need not be considered. The scribe of the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā did not use all 198 verses. He reproduced 110 verses without any alteration and added eight others, most of which were made from pādas of verses of the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā recension of the story.
Feer19 has studied the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā recension of the Șaddanta story together with other recensions. However, in