Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā

Prajñāpāramitā personified. From an Indian manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.

Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā. (T. yon tan rin po che sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa; C. Fomu baodezang bore boluomi jing 佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經), or “Verses on the Collection of Precious Qualities,” is an early Prajnaparamita sutra that is considered to be a summary of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines).

In the Tibetan tradition, this text is counted among the so-called 'six mother scriptures' of the Prajnaparamita.

Title variants

Variations of the title include:

• Prajñāpāramitāsaṃcayagāthā

  Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྡུད་པ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། · shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa/

  Eng. "The Verses that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom"

  Alternate Eng. "Condensed Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra"

• Prajñāpāramitāratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā

  Tib. འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྡུད་པ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་ · 'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa

  Eng. "Verses on the Collection of the Precious Qualities of the Perfection of Wisdom"

• མདོ་བསྡུད་པ་ mdo bsdud pa

  Eng. "The Summarized Sūtra"

  Alternate Eng. "The Condensed Sutra"

Text and canonical translations

The Princeton Dictionary states:

The Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā epitomizes the early Mahāyāna in its emphasis on the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the aggregates (skandha) and its praise of the path of the bodhisattva over that of the arhat. The text is considered to be of particular importance in the history of the Mahāyāna because many of its verses, particularly those that appear early in the text, may represent some of the earliest expressions of Mahāyāna philosophy and may date as far back as 100 BCE. Another indication of the text’s antiquity is that it was translated into Chinese as early as the second century CE.

In the Chinese translation, the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā appears as a verse summary of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā.

In the Tibetan translation, the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā appears as the eighty-fourth chapter of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā.

English translation

• Conze, Edward, The Ratnaguna-samcayagatha (From The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Summary, trans. Edward Conze, Four Seasons Foundation, San Francisco 1983, pp.9-14), A Buddhist Library
• Conze, Edward, The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Summary, San Francisco 1973 (Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and Ratnaguṇasaṁcayagāthā)

Commentaries

Tibetan

• Mipham Rinpoche, ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་སྡུད་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཡུམ་གྱི་དགོངས་དོན་ལ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པར་འཇུག་པའི་ལེགས་བཤད་, yon tan rin chen sdud pa'i 'grel pa rgyal ba'i yum gyi dgongs don la phyin ci ma log par 'jug pa'i legs bshad

Further reading

• Akira Yuyama, Prajñā-pāramitā-ratna-guṇa-saṃcaya-gāthā: Sanskrit recension A, Cambridge University Press, 1976
• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)