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大堅固婆羅門緣起經

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Text ID
KR6a0008
Date
982–1017
Dynasty
宋

Dà Jiāngù póluómén yuánqǐ jīng 大堅固婆羅門緣起經

Sūtra on the Origin Story of the Great Brahmin Govinda (parallel to the Pāli Mahāgovinda-sutta, DN 19) by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 等譯) et al.

About the work

The Dà Jiāngù póluómén yuánqǐ jīng is a two-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Mahāgovinda legend — the well-known story, preserved in the Pāli Dīghanikāya as the Mahāgovinda-sutta (DN 19), of the brahmin court-priest Govinda 堅固 (Skt. Mahāgovinda) who, having seen the impermanence of royal favour, renounced and was reborn in the Brahmā-world. The Taishō head-note marks T8 explicitly as a parallel to the third sūtra of the Cháng Āhán (T1[3] = the Diǎnzūn jīng 典尊經), which is the older Chinese rendering of the same narrative. T8 thus functions, like T2 and T3 in the saptatathāgata group, as a self-contained Sòng-period reissue of one of the Cháng Āhán’s constituent suttas.

The text opens at Vulture Peak (鷲峯山, Gṛdhrakūṭa) outside Rājagṛha, where the gandharva-prince Pañcaśikha 五髻 (“Five-tufts”) descends in the small hours of the morning, suffuses the mountain with light, and reports to the Buddha a debate he has overheard among the Trāyastriṃśa gods on whether two, three, or four Tathāgatas may appear simultaneously in the world. The Buddha, in answer, propounds the doctrine of the singularity of Buddhas in any one kalpa and the “eight rare-and-wonderful qualities” (八希有法) of a Tathāgata, then narrates — at Pañcaśikha’s request — the origin story (緣起, yuánqǐ) of the Buddha’s previous existence as the brahmin court-priest Mahāgovinda. The narrative covers Govinda’s service under the seven kings, his renunciation, his teaching of the path to Brahmā-rebirth, and his identification with the bodhisattva (= the Buddha himself in a past life).

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the standard Sòng-court translator’s signature at the head: 「西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試光祿卿傳法大師賜紫臣施護等奉詔譯」 — “Translated by imperial command by your servant Shīhù, śramaṇa, Tripiṭaka-master of the Translation [Bureau] of the Western Lands, Court Gentleman for Court Service (朝奉大夫), Acting Chamberlain for the Imperial Stud (試光祿卿), bearing the bestowed title Master Who Transmits the Dharma (傳法大師), recipient of the purple robe — and others (等).” The 等 (“and others”) flags the standard Sòng Institute committee-translation procedure.

Abstract

施護 Shīhù (Skt. Dānapāla; d. 1017/1018), the principal translator named in the byline, was a North-Indian monk from Uḍyāna (烏填曩, 烏萇), a fellow of the Indra-palace Monastery (帝釋宮寺), who in Tàipíng-Xīngguó 太平興國 5 (980) accompanied 法賢 Tiānxīzāi 天息災 to the Sòng capital and was given the purple robe and the title 傳法大師 (“Master Who Transmits the Dharma”). With Tiānxīzāi (later Fǎxián 法賢) and 法天 Fǎtiān, Shīhù was one of the three principal translators at the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras (譯經院) from its inauguration in Tàipíng-Xīngguó 7 (982) onward. He is credited with 115 translations in 244 fascicles, and died in Tiānxǐ 天禧 1 / 12 (= late 1017 / early 1018), receiving the posthumous name Míngwù 明悟. T8 is registered in the Dà-zhōng-xiángfú fǎbǎo lù 大中祥符法寶錄 (KR6s0100, juan 3–12), but the surviving witnesses do not pin its translation to a specific year within his career; the defensible bracket is 982–1017 (the Institute period of his activity), and that bracket is recorded here.

The Indic source-text is presumed lost; its school affiliation is unclear. Comparison with T1[3] (Diǎnzūn jīng) shows that T8 is a fresh translation rather than a revision: the proper-name transcriptions are entirely modernised (Pañcaśikha as 五髻, the Trāyastriṃśa heaven as 三十三天, etc.), the verse passages are differently arranged, and the doctrinal framing of the “eight wonderful qualities of a Tathāgata” appears in T8 as an expanded didactic frame that is absent from T1[3]. Whether T8’s Vorlage is itself a later Indic redaction of the same narrative or a parallel Indic recension is an open question.

The text is a useful source for the Sòng court’s continuing preference for the Āgama-style narrative sūtras even into the eleventh century: while contemporaneous translation activity at the Institute was dominated by tantric and prajñāpāramitā literature, T8 demonstrates that the canonical-narrative repertoire (the “eight discourses” of the Dīgha / Cháng Āhán tradition) continued to be reissued in fresh Chinese renderings.

Translations and research

  • No dedicated study of T8 specifically has been located. For the Pāli parallel and its history see:
  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 19 is rendered there with comparative notes.
  • Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 / 2nd ed. 2016. — Background to the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras under which T8 was produced.
  • Jan, Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6.1 (1966): 24–42 and 6.2 (1966): 135–168. — Classic study of the Sòng-period India-China translation enterprise.

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