Two Biographies of Sakyasribhadra, The Eulogy of Khro phu Lo-tsa-ba and its "Commentary" by bSod-nams-dpal-bzang-po: Texts and Variants from Two Rare Exemplars Preserved in the Bihar Research Society, Patna.

• Author: Van der Kuijp, Leonard W.J.

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 to 13 March 1212.(6) It is this work that is cited in part by Bsod nams dpal bzang po and almost in full by Dpa' bo, albeit via yet to be determined [intermediaries.(7) The colophon on fol. 279a of this sizable cluster of texts appears to entitle KHRO1 as Byang chub sems dpa' rnams kyi yongs su bsngo ba'i man ngag : rin po che'i za ma tog. The compendium itself most likely postdates Khro phu Lo tsa ba by maybe as much as one generation. For example, the colophon of one of its texts, the Man dal rgyas par dbul ba'i man ngag,(8) elicits the following line of transmission: Sakyasri - Khro phu Lo tsa ba - Bla ma Bsod [nams] dbang [phyug] the was Khro phu Lo tsa ba's nephew and his successor to the abbatial throne of Khro phu monastery) - Mkhan chen Bde bar gshegs pa.

1. THE AUTHORS OF THE BIOGRAPHIES

Basic to Khro phu Lo tsa ba's life is a work that, although untitled in KHRO1, both manuscripts of the * Khro phu Lo tsa ba man ngag brgya rtsa rgyas pa entitle Chos rje khro los pan grub gdan drangs pa'i rnam thar bsdus pa. Owing to its importance, it is reproduced below in the appendix. The year of Khro phu Lo tsa ba's death is sometimes given as 1225,(9) but this is incorrect. The colophon to the Sil snyan bdun pa'i lo rgyus, a text contained in KHRO1, and with different tides in BRGYA and BRGYA1, and otherwise also known as the Sil snyan bdun pa'i tshig lhug, states quite plainly that he translated it in 1228.(10) Aside from the numerous treatises in KHRO1, BRGYA and BRGYA1 that have quasi-autobiographical and biographical content, the same library also contains a slightly damaged, seventy-eight folio blockprint of the much more fundamental Pan grub gsum gyi rnam thar dpag bsam 'khril shing, under C.P.N. catalogue no. 002853(2) It is more or less identical to a handwritten, slightly incomplete ninety-folio dba med manuscript of this text under C.P.N. catalogue no. 002786(4), the title page of which gives as its title, Khro lo chen pos mdzad pa'i dpag bsam 'khri shing.(11) This suggests that it is an autobiography, which, in fact, is substantiated by the first colophon, wherein is mentioned that it was written at the behest of a certain Bzad rings. It deals with the events of his life up to the age of sixty-three, one year before his death. However, the latter text (and probably also the blockprint) includes an afterword which gives some details about Khro phu Lo tsa ba's last years and the exact date of his passing. The second colophon states that it was compiled by a Bsod nams rgyal ba in the course of a convocation held shortly after his [passing..sup.12] Structured around his apprenticeships with Mitrayogin, Buddhasri and Sakyasri, and therefore either the basis for the Chos rje khro los pan grub gdan drangs pa'i rnam thar bsdus pa, or, perhaps less likely, an expanded version of the latter, it provides many hitherto unknown details of his life, including the fact that he passed away towards the very end of 1236 at the age of sixty-four. The contents of the lengthy section on Sakyasri make it quite transparent that it served as the major source for all the later biographies of the Kashmirian master. Sporadically referred to in the later biographical literature, we find it cited in, for instance, Lha'i rgyal mtshan's (1319-1401) biography of Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1291-1362).(13) The first reference titles it identically to the one found in the blockprint and in the second we learn that when Dol po pa, as a senior scholar, read and lectured on it before Khro phu monastery's grand statue of Maitreya he was so moved by it that he wept for a long time.

The Tibetan library also has a manuscript in thirteen folios of an undated and anonymous versified biography of Khro phu Lo tsa ba, in conjunction with his invitation of and meeting with Mitrayogin(14) in the year 1197, under C.P.N. catalogue no. 002790(7); the indigenous catalogue number is phyi ra 150. The title page gives two titles, the Yab sras mjal ba and the Chos tie lo tstsha ba'i rnam thar grub thob mitra dzo ki dang mjal ba'i? tshigs su bcad pa; fol. 13a appears to entitle it the Yab sras mjal ba'i gtam rgyud.

There are serious problems with the identity and floruit of Bsod nams dpal bzang po. Jackson was clearly on the right track when he indicated that the individual by the name of "Bsod nams dpal" kpp. (pp. 4, 19-20, n. 9 - of course "dpal" is a frequent short form for "dpal bzang po," sribhadra), noted as the sixth abbot of the Tsha mig or Tshogs chen community that issued from Sakyasri's vinaya transmission, might be the author of BSOD; the fifth abbot of the Chos lung community, named "Bsod nams bzang po," would not qualify. He also pointed out on pp. 5-6 that 'Gos Lo tsa ba knows of an individual by the name of "Bsod nams dpal" (1216-77) who "fits the profile to some degree" of what can be deduced from the biography of the great Kashmirian master. However, owing to the fact that this "Bsod nams dpal" had three sons and that in Sakyasri's biography the author styles himself a monk (shakya'i btsun pa), he rightly concludes that this "Bsod nams dpal ... remains a possible candidate as the author of the biography, but further confirmation is not yet possible." It may of course be the case that he had sired his three sons prior to having taken his monk's vows. Whatever the case may have been, Jackson is inclined to date this work to "perhaps the late 13th or 14th century" (p. 4). It...