On the lives of Sakyasribhadra (?-?1225).

• Author: Van der Kuijp, Leonard W.J.
• Position: Kashmirian scholar

PREAMBLE

In the handsome booklet under review, David P. Jackson's versatile and prolific pen has offered us yet another treat, this time with a fine study and editions of the Tibetan texts of two biographies of the great twelfth-and early thirteenth-century Kashmirian scholar Sakyasribhadra or, more simply, Sakyasri. The first is the versified biography-cum-eulogy in thirty-eight verses by Khro phu Lo tsa ba Byams pa[`i] dpal (1172-1236), entitled Pan chen shakya shri'i rnam thar [bsdus pa], or, alternatively, Dpal chos kyi rje sa'i steng na 'gran zla dang bral ba'i bsod snyoms pa chen po / pandi ta chen po shakya shri'i rnam thar bsdus pa, hereafter abbreviated as KHRO, whereas the second is Bsod nams dpal bzang po's Sa'i steng na 'gran zla dang bral ba kha che pandi ta shakya shri bhadra'i rnam thar, hereafter abbreviated as BSOD. These fairly colorless and rather sober tides stem from both a "short-page" xylograph in eight plus sixty-five folios in five lines per folio (pp. 8-9) - hereafter x - and a "long-page" handwritten manuscript in cursive dbu med in twenty-three folios with eight lines per folio - hereafter M (p.19) - which Jackson recovered from the substantial holdings of the library of the Bihar Research Library, Patna, for which he has compiled a superb catalogue.(1) Text BSOD-X, catalogued by him under nos. 1511-1 and 1511-2, is based at least in part on the blocks that were prepared in Grwa phyi Tshong 'dus tshogs pa in Lho kha, with the financial support of a certain Sde pa Dpal Idan (p. 37, line 5), not "Dpal 'dzin" as on pp. 8, 88, an indication we only find at the end of Khro phu Lo tsa ba's work on fol. 8a(2) A copy of these blocks is apparently also to be found in the G. Tucci collection in Rome, to which it is still quite difficult to obtain access; a translation of it was published by Tucci in 1949.(3) Jackson suggests that it may date from "the 17th century or later." Text BSOD-M was catalogued by him under nos. 981-1 and 982-2; it is but slightly incomplete, with fols. 5 and 22-23 missing, and it omits the tide given to Bsod nams dpal bzang po's text in BSOD-X. All the texts reproduced here were painstakingly and laboriously copied out by him by hand while working in the library of the Bihar Research Society in Patna.

Jackson begins his book with brief descriptions of the importance of the subject of these biographies for Tibet's cultural and intellectual history, and provides some basic particulars about their authors (pp. 1-6). Although Khro phu Lo tsa ba is fairly well known, only a few aspects of his life have been discussed - by such writers as 'Gos Lo tsa ba Gzhon nu dpal (1392-1481) and Dpa' bo Gtsug lag phreng ba (1504-66).(4) A rather crucial source for his life and scholarly activities is a very large collection of his writings and translations in one volume, which the tide page calls the Ma byon pa'i sangs rgyas kha che'i pandi ta chen po shakya shri dang / sin gha gling gi / dgra bcom pa'i lo rgyus, hereafter abbreviated as KHRO1, which I located in the Tibetan library of the C.P.N. under catalogue no. 002454. It consists of 279 folios, with seven lines per folio, excluding the interlinear notes. It has the marginal notation "KHA" and the upper center of the title page bears the notadon 'bras spungs nang 139 which indicates that it may have been part of the Dga' ldan pho brang library of 'Bras spungs monastery and that it was intended for "internal (nang) circulation" only. However, the title that appears on the title page is but the title of the first text in KHRO1 fols. 1b-4b, which is a record (lo rgyus) of a meeting between Buddhacandra, Sakyasri's brother, and a Singhalese arhat who gave the former a number of precious items, including relics of the Buddha and flowers. A tradition current among the followers of Sakyasri and the 'Bri khung/gung pa holds that Buddhacandra had given these to Sakyasri in 1201 and that the Singhalese arhat had stipulated that some ought to be given to 'Bri khung pa Rin chen dpal (1143-1217), alias 'Jig rten mgon po, whom he (and Tara and a small brook, as we shall see below) held to be a second Nagarjuna.(5) It remains something of a mystery why, according to the vast majority of sources, Sakyasri apparently never succeeded in meeting 'Jig rten mgon po directly, in spite of the several attempts the latter had made to this effect. Ultimately, some of these relics and flowers were deposited within the grand statue of Maitreya which Sakyasri consecrated at Khro phu monastery from 7...