Who Is Byan Chub Rdzu Phrul

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner

Page 8

E. Steinkellner
Samdhinirmocanasūtra
3a. dGons 'grel gyi 'grel chen of the Chinese teacher rDzogs gsal
(NISHIOKA 676).
In his "search-list" Bu ston presents this additional Chinese commentary by an author with the translated Tibetan name rDzogs gsal. This commentary is said to be 75 bam po long and Bu ston, evidently because of the strikingly similar size, considers it as possibly identical with the commentary of Wen tshig that he had listed above (NISHIOKA 655).23 That means that Bu ston did not recognize the name rDzogs gsal as a Tibetan translation of Yüan-ts'e24, and that this commentary was also known under the Tibetan name of its author. Bu ston's commentary NISHIOKA 676 is therefore no other than NISHIOKA 655.
4. Aryasamdhinirmocanasūtrasya vyākhyāna of Byan chub rdzu
'phrul (P 5845, D 4358).
The author Byan chub rdzu 'phrul is only mentioned in the Derge edition and the work is transmitted within those volumes of the Tanjur that contain works composed by Tibetan authors of the late eighth and early ninth century.25 The text is an extensive commentary on the whole Sūtra, but above all on its tenth chapter, to which approximately one third of the text is devoted. Several questions have to be answered in connection with this text. We shall start with the question I put at the beginning of this paper and which may serve as its leitmotif: who is Byan chub rdzu 'phrul?
This question has in fact already been answered by DAVID SEYFORT RIEGG who refers to essentially the same sources we shall adduce in identifying this person with the king Khri Sron Ide btsan.26 In order to substantiate this identification some elaboration is nevertheless useful.
23 ... 'di Wen tsheg gis mdzad pa dan gcig mi gcig dpyad 7 24 Yüan (1) means "round, complete" and is translated by rdzogs, while ts'é.
seems only to be represented phonetically by Tibetan gsal. 25 Peking: "No tshar bstan bcos", Vols. No, Co, Cho; Derge: "Na tshogs", Vols. Co.
Cho, Jo. 26 SEYFORT RUEGG 1981, n. 57.
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