Dàshèng bǎoyún jīng 大乘寶雲經
Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Jewel-Cloud translated by 曼陀羅仙 (Mandrasena, 譯) and 僧伽婆羅 (Saṅghabhara, 譯)
About the work
T659 (seven fascicles; Sanskrit Ratnameghasūtra) is the slightly later joint translation by 曼陀羅仙 (Mandrasena) and 僧伽婆羅 (Saṅghabhara, 460–524) of the same Indic Ratnamegha underlying T658. The two Funanese monks worked together at Jiànkāng under the Liáng, and the present text is the more polished of their two collaborative renderings — Saṅghabhara’s longer Chinese residence having given him better command of literary Chinese.
Abstract
僧伽婆羅 (Saṅghabhara, Sēngjiāpóluó; 460–524; Skt. Saṅghapāla or Saṃghabhara) was the senior Funanese monk in the Liáng court and the longer-resident of the pair; he was active as a translator under both 梁武帝 Liáng emperor Wǔ and earlier patrons. His Chinese was significantly more polished than Mandrasena’s. Date bracket: 503 (joint activity with Mandrasena begins) to 524 (Saṅghabhara’s death); the [[KR6r0011|Lìdài sānbǎo jì]] (T2034) places the joint translation within this window. The text differs from T658 in finer points of Chinese diction and chapter division but is essentially the same Indic source. The “Mahāyāna” prefix in the title (Dàshèng 大乘) reflects a later editorial decision to mark the doctrinal content rather than a different Indic source.
The Tang re-translation by Dharmaruci, T660, is the most expanded of the three Chinese versions and reflects a different (later) Indic recension.
Translations and research
- Cousins, L. S. “Aspects of Esoteric Southern Buddhism.” In Indian Insights, 1997. — context on Funanese Buddhism and the Mandrasena–Saṅghabhara workshop.
- Cleary, Thomas. The Flower Ornament Scripture. Boulder: Shambhala, 1993. — context for the paripṛcchā genre.
No book-length English translation located.
Links
- CBETA T16n0659
- Kanseki DB
- 曼陀羅仙 DILA
- 僧伽婆羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (503, 515) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.