________________
DHAMMAPADA.
Chinese translation of Dharmatrâta's work, has not been rendered into English by Mr. Beal, but he assures us that it is a faithful reproduction of the original. The book which he has chosen for translation is the Fa-kheu-pi-ü, i.e. parables connected with the Dhammapada, and translated into Chinese by two Shamans of the western Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-313). These parables are meant to illustrate the teaching of the verses, like the parables of Buddhaghosa, but they are not the same parables, nor do they illustrate all the verses.
A third Chinese version is called Kuh-yan-king, i.e. the Sutra of the Dawn (avadana?), consisting of seven volumes. Its author was Dharmatrâta, its translator Ku-fo-nien (Buddhasmriti), about 410 A. D. The MS. of the work is said to have been brought from India by a Shaman Sanghabhadanga of Kipin (Cabul), about 345 A. D. It is a much more extensive work in 33 chapters, the last being, as in the Pâli text, on the Brâhmana.
A fourth translation dates from the Sung dynasty (800 or 900 A. D.), and in it, too, the authorship of the text is ascribed to Arya-Dharmatråta.
A Tibetan translation of a Dhammapada was discovered by Schiefner in the 28th volume of the Satras, in the collection called Udânavarga. It contains 33 chapters, and more than 1000 verses, of which about onefourth only can be traced in the Pâli text. The same collection is found also in the Tangur, vol. 71 of the Satras, foll. 1–53, followed by a commentary, the Udânavargavivarana by the Akârya Pragñâvarman. Unfortunately Schiefner's intention of publishing a translation of it (Mélanges Asiatiques, tom. viii. p. 560) has been frustrated by his death. All that he gives us in his last paper is the Tibetan text with translation of another shorter collection, the Gâthâsangraha by Vasubandhu, equally published in the 72nd volume of the Sûtras in the Tangur, and accompanied by a commentary.
Digitized by Google
