Fóshuō Tiānwáng tàizǐ Bìluó jīng 佛說天王太子辟羅經

Sūtra of the Heavenly King’s Heir Apparent Bìluó (translator unknown)

About the work

The Fóshuō Tiānwáng tàizǐ Bìluó jīng (T596) is a one-fascicle anonymous short sūtra. Bìluó 辟羅 transcribes Sanskrit *Vipula or *Pīla — the prince of a heavenly king, who serves as the protagonist of a brief conversion-narrative.

Prefaces

The text opens with the canonical formula. No translator attribution survives.

Abstract

A short Mahāyāna avadāna in the devaputra-prince genre. Catalogue assignment is to the post-Han / pre-Tang anonymous corpus. The conservative bracket 317–600 follows the standard shīyì horizon. Contents are typical for the genre: a divine prince approaches the Buddha, asks doctrinal questions, takes refuge.

Translations and research

  • No substantial secondary literature located.
  • CBETA T15n0596
  • Kanseki DB
  • Dazangthings date evidence (417) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.