Déguāng tàizǐ jīng 德光太子經
Sūtra of Prince Glorious-Virtue by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
A short single-fascicle jātaka recounting the previous life of the Buddha as Prince Déguāng 德光 (“Glorious-Virtue”, *Guṇaprabha-like name), framed by the encounter at Vulture-Peak between the Buddha and the elder Làizhāhéluó 賴吒和羅 (= Rāṣṭrapāla, the eponymous protagonist of the Rāṣṭrapāla-paripṛcchā-sūtra) returning from a three-month vassa retreat at Śrāvastī. Translated by 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa. Signature: 「西晉月氏國三藏竺法護譯」.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T170 is one of Dharmarakṣa’s documented late-third-century jātaka-translations. Boucher (2008) treats the framing-device — the appearance of the elder Rāṣṭrapāla — as evidence that T170 is an extracted jātaka-narrative from a larger Rāṣṭrapāla-cycle Indic source, very possibly an alternative recension of the same Mahāyāna text-cluster from which the Rāṣṭrapāla-paripṛcchā (which Dharmarakṣa also translated) derives. The translation falls within his Cháng’ān-period (c. 285–311) productive activity.
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna: A Study and Translation of the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. (Sustained discussion of Dharmarakṣa’s Rāṣṭrapāla-cluster translations including T170.)
Links
- CBETA online text
- Dharmarakṣa (竺法護) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (270, 300): “Liu Song” Zhongjing bie lu 劉宋眾經別錄, S.2872, P.3747. Dating complex and unclear — dazangthings.nz