Jīnsè wáng jīng 金色王經
Sūtra of King Golden-Colour (Suvarṇavarṇa-rāja) by 瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci, 譯)
About the work
A short single-fascicle jātaka recounting the previous life of the Buddha as King Suvarṇavarṇa 金色王 (“Golden-Colour King”) — a cakravartin monarch whose Bodhisattva-grade generosity is the narrative core. Translated under the Eastern Wèi 東魏 by the Indian brāhmaṇa translator Gautama Prajñāruci 瞿曇般若流支. Signature: 「東魏天竺優婆塞瞿曇般若流支譯」.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface in the source file; the only paratext is the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T162 is one of the jātaka sūtras in Prajñāruci’s Eastern-Wèi corpus. The Indic source corresponds to the Suvarṇavarṇāvadāna of the Avadānaśataka tradition, of which a Sanskrit version survives. The translation can be dated to Prajñāruci’s documented active period at Yè 鄴 from 538 to the fall of the Eastern Wèi, c. 543 — the Bureau effectively closed when the Eastern Wèi was absorbed by the Northern Qí. The Chinese translation is straightforward and idiomatically less archaic than the early translation idiom; it represents the mature mid-sixth-century Chinese Buddhist translation register characteristic of the Yè translation circle.
Translations and research
- Vaidya, P. L. (ed.). Avadāna-śataka. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 19. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1958. (Sanskrit Suvarṇavarṇāvadāna.)
- Feer, Léon, trans. Avadâna-Çataka: cent légendes bouddhiques. Paris: Leroux, 1891. (Includes the Suvarṇavarṇa narrative.)
Links
- CBETA online text
- Gautama Prajñāruci (瞿曇般若流支) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (543): Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經 (CBETA reference index) — dazangthings.nz