Early sutras of the Tibetan Canon
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The early sutras of the Tibetan Canon refers to the sutras within the Tibetan Canon that correspond to the agamas of the Chinese Canon and the nikayas of the Pali Canon.
These are texts from the early Buddhist schools of India that were translated into the Tibetan language.
Within the Tibetan tradition, these texts are referred to as Sravakayana or Hinayana sutras. The terms Sravakayana and Hinayana are used to distinguish these texts from the Mahayana sutras, which are from a later period of the Buddhist tradition in India.
The Sravakayana sutras are found within two different sections of the Kangyur collection within the Tibetan Canon:
- General Sutra Section - includes both Mahayana (later) sutras and Sravakayana (early) sutras, translated from Sanskrit.[1]
- Thirteen late translated sutras - Theravāda sūtras translated into Tibetan in the 14th century[2]
Sravaka texts in the General Sutra section
Regarding the General Sutra Section of the Kangyur:
- "According to the Degé Kangyur catalogue, the works in this section are arranged with Mahāyāna sūtras (Toh 94-286) first, followed by Śrāvakayāna works (Toh 287-359)—although not all Kangyurs and commentators agree on which texts should be assigned to these two broad groups."[1]
Based on the above statement, the General Sutra Section should contain about 72 Sravakanaya texts (texts from the early schools).
The first two texts in this category are:
Toh 287
The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (T. dam chos dran pa nyer bzhag དམ་ཆོས་དྲན་པ་ཉེར་བཞག་; Skt. saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna)
Toh 288
The Great Sūtra of Illusion's Net མདོ་ཆེན་སྒྱུ་མའི་དྲ་བ། · mdo chen sgyu ma'i dra ba/ māyājālasūtra
Toh 289
The Great Sūtra of Bimbisāra’s Going Out to Meet [the Buddha] མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོས་བསུ་བ། · mdo chen po gzugs can snying pos bsu ba/ bimbisārapratyudgamananāmamahāsūtra
The Sravaka texts in this category are said to be translations of Sarvastivādin texts that were originally written in Sanskrit. Specifically, this collection of texts "most likely" includes:[3]
- Portions of the Sarvastidan recension of the Dirgha Agama
- Portions of the Sarvastidan recension of the Madhyama Agama
- Note that a complete translation of the Sarvastidada Madhyama Āgama is included in the Chinese Canon.
Thirteen late translated sutras
The Dege Kangyur includes a section named "thirteen late translated sutras," which consists of Theravāda sūtras translated into Tibetan in the 14th century.[2]
- The thirteen sūtras all have closely matching equivalents in the Pāli Canon, and—although they have at times been thought to be translations of Sarvastivādin texts in Sanskrit, as are many other Śrāvakayāna works in the Kangyur—it is almost certain that they were translated from Pāli, and are Theravāda texts, i.e. from the literature of the Theravāda school.[2]
The thirteen texts are:
Toh 31
The Sūtra of Turning the Wheel of Dharma ཆོས་འཁོར་རབ་ཏུ་བསྐོར་བའི་མདོ། · chos 'khor rab tu bskor ba'i mdo/ (See: Dhammacakkappavattana_Sutta#Translations_from_the_Tibetan_Canon)
Toh 32
Account of the Previous Lives of the Buddha སྐྱེས་པ་རབས་ཀྱི་གླེང་གཞི། · skyes pa rabs kyi gleng gzhi/ jātakanidāna
Toh 33
Sūtra of Āṭānāṭīya ལྕང་ལོ་ཅན་གྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་གི་མདོ། · lcang lo can gyi pho brang gi mdo/ āṭānāṭiyasūtra
Toh 34
Sūtra of the Great Assembly འདུས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · 'dus pa chen po'i mdo/ mahāsamayasūtra
Toh 35
Sūtra on Loving Kindness བྱམས་པའི་མདོ། · byams pa'i mdo/ maitrisūtra
Toh 36
Sūtra on the Meditation on Loving Kindness བྱམས་པ་བསྒོམ་པའི་མདོ། · byams pa bsgom pa'i mdo/ maitribhāvanāsūtra
Toh 37
Sūtra on the Benefits of the Five Precepts བསླབ་པ་ལྔའི་ཕན་ཡོན་གྱི་མདོ། · bslab pa lnga'i phan yon gyi mdo/ pañcaśikṣānusaṃsasūtra
Toh 38
The Sūtra of Giriyānanda རིའི་ཀུན་དགའ་བོའི་མདོ། · ri'i kun dga' bo'i mdo/ giryānandasūtra
Toh 39
Sūtra of the Taming of the Nāga King Nandopananda ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དགའ་བོ་ཉེར་དགའ་འདུལ་བའི་མདོ། · klu'i rgyal po dga' bo nyer dga' 'dul ba'i mdo/ nandopanandanāgarājadamanasūtra
Toh 40
The Mahākāśyapa Sūtra འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · 'od srung chen po'i mdo/ mahākāśyapasūtra
Toh 41
The Sūtra of the Sun
ཉི་མའི་མདོ། · nyi ma'i mdo/
sūryasūtra,
trans. - 
The Sūtra of the Sun
Toh 42
The Sūtra of the Moon
ཟླ་བའི་མདོ། · zla ba'i mdo/
candrasūtra,
trans. - The Sūtra of the Moon
Toh 43
The Sūtra of Great Fortune བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · bkra shis chen po'i mdo/ mahāmaṅgala-sūtra
Garbhāvakrānti-sūtra
The Ratnakuta section of the Kangyur includes two versions of the Garbhāvakrānti-sūtra (Derge: Toh 57 and Toh 58). This text is typcially classified as a Mahayana sutra; however, some scholars have classified this text as a Śrāvakayāna text because it does not include Mahayana topics. Contemporary scholar Robert Kritzer suggests that it might be best to classify this text as neither Mahayana nor non-Mahayana, since the content neither asserts nor contradicts Mahayana theories.[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
General Sutra Section
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Thirteen late translated sūtras
- ↑ Details need to be clarified
- ↑ Kritzer, Robert (2013), "Garbhāvakrāntau ('In the Garbhāvakrānti')", in Kragh, Ulrich Timme, The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners, Harvard University, Department of South Asian Studies
External links
- General Sutra Section - select the "About" tab for background information
- Thirteen late translated sūtras - select the "About" tab for background information