Fóshuō bǎorúlái sānmèi jīng 佛說寶如來三昧經
Sūtra on the Treasure-Tathāgata Samādhi as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 祇多蜜 (Qíduōmì / Gītamitra, 譯)
About the work
T637 (two fascicles, alt. title 無極寶三昧經) is the Eastern Jin parallel of T636, translated by Gītamitra. The two texts are independent Chinese versions of the same Indic samādhi-sūtra concerning the bǎorúlái / wújíbǎo “treasure” samādhi.
Abstract
祇多蜜 (Gītamitra) was an Eastern Jin translator of obscure dates; the [[KR6s0084|Chū sānzàng jì jí]] (T2145) lists him among the translators active in Jiànkāng. He is credited with around 25 short Mahāyāna translations, mostly samādhi and dhāraṇī texts. T637 is unanimously attributed to him in the canonical bibliographies. Date bracket follows the Eastern Jin span (317–420), the only horizon to which his activity can be confidently assigned; it is not possible to refine further. The text is closely paralleled by T636 (Dharmarakṣa’s Wújí bǎo sānmèi jīng); both render the same Indic sūtra through different Chinese hands. Comparative study of the two has been a standard exercise in early Chinese Buddhist philology.
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118 (1998): 471–506. — comparative method applicable to T636/T637 pair.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0637
- Kanseki DB
- 祇多蜜 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (420) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.