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央掘魔羅經

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Text ID
KR6a0120
Date
435–468
Dynasty
劉宋

Yāngjuémóluó jīng 央掘魔羅經

Sūtra of Aṅgulimāla (the Mahāyāna expansion; parallel to T118 / T119) by 求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra, 譯)

About the work

The Yāngjuémóluó jīng (T120), in four fascicles, is a Mahāyāna expansion of the Aṅgulimāla narrative — distinguishing it sharply from the brief Āgama-style versions T118 and T119. T120 retains the basic narrative-frame of the conversion of the brigand Aṅgulimāla, but uses it as the structural pretext for an extended doctrinal exposition on the tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature) doctrine — making it one of the principal tathāgatagarbha sūtras alongside the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (T374) and the Śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda-sūtra (T353), all three translated by Guṇabhadra in the same period.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the LiúSòng translator’s signature at the head: 「宋天竺三藏求那跋陀羅譯」.

Abstract

T120 was produced during Guṇabhadra’s Liú-Sòng career (435–468 CE), recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The text is one of the most important Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha sūtras and underwrote much of the subsequent East Asian doctrinal development of the Buddha-nature theory.

Translations and research

  • Wayman, Alex, and Hideko Wayman. The Lion’s Roar of Queen Śrīmālā. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974. — Background on Guṇabhadra’s tathāgatagarbha corpus.
  • Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009. — Treats the tathāgatagarbha sūtras including T120.

Other points of interest

  • T120 stands in sharp contrast to T118 / T119: although nominally rendering the same Indic narrative, it is in fact a substantially different work — a Mahāyāna doctrinal expansion that uses the Aṅgulimāla legend as a frame. The text is foundational for the East Asian tathāgatagarbha tradition and was extensively studied in Tang and post-Tang Chinese Buddhism.

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