Who Is Byan Chub Rdzu Phrul

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner

Page 5

E. Steinkellner
Samdhinirmocanasūtra
alogue quoted in Bu ston's Chos bsgyur dkar chag, that part which lists works of Tibetan authors (bod kyi sdud pa po).13 The name of the author given there is not Ye ses sñin po but Ses rab sñin po.14 Although I previously thought that a confusion in the usage of the terms ye ses and ses rab in their difference as translations for the terms jñāna and prajña respectively is hardly conceivable, I have meanwhile come across more than one case where this is the case, especially with names.15 It must have been possible to refer to a Tibetan lotsāva under his Sanskrit monk's name Jñanagarbha as well as under the two Tibetan translations of this Sanskrit name, the more regular one, Ye ses snin po, and the unusual one, Ses rab snin po. Thus I would evaluate the different name of the 'Phan than catalogue as a corroboration of the Tibetan origin of the author, rather than as an argument for his being yet another totally different person.
Finally it is to be noted that in none of the catalogues listing this work a translator is mentioned.
Of interest for the later fate of this text is that Bu ston mentions it in his Chos bsgyur dkar chag (NISHIOKA 660) among the titles to be looked for, his "search-list" (de rnams btsal bar bya'o). And in his Tanjur catalogue it is indeed missing at the appropriate place (TK[Bu) 602,3). When the sGra tshad pa however composed his list of the Tanjur it must have already been found again (cf. TK (sGra) 534,3).
3. *Aryagambhirasamdhinirmocanasūtraţikā of Wen tshig (P 5517, D
4016).
Wen tshig (P) or Wen tshegs (D) is Chinese Yuan-ts'ê ( 1 ), a pupil of Hsüan-tsang, whose dates are 613-696 (cf. jap. Enjiki in the Hõbõgirin).16 The
13 ChK III 114ff. 14 This form also appears in dPa' bo gtsug lag's list which evidently derives from
the 'Phan thar catalogue (cf. KLGT, Ja, 124b7f.). 15 Cf. JPG II, introduction, n. 19.
Some notes on Yüan-ts'ê's life and work can be found in a recent study (in Chinese) by KIM DONG JU: A Study of Yüan-Tsé's Point of View in the Vijñānamātra theory. With the "Commentary on the Prajñāpāramitāhrdaya Sutra" as the central text, Taipei: Hui Wen Tang Publ. Comp., 1987.
233