The Skill in Means (Upayakausalya) Sutra.

• Author: McDermott, James

Translated by MARK TATZ. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1994. Pp. 128. Rs 150.

The Skill in Means Sutra is an early Mahayana Buddhist text dating from perhaps the first century B.C.E. The text is extant in three Chinese and two Tibetan translations. In addition, eight passages from the first part of the text are quoted in Sanskrit by Santideva in the Siksasamuccaya, his eighth-century compendium of early Mahayana doctrine. The core of the present volume is a translation of the briefer of the two Tibetan versions, the Upayakausalyanamamahayanasutra, itself translated from the Chinese by Wou Fa-ch'eng at Tun-huang during the first half of the ninth century. This is supplemented by inclusion of the extensive additions and variations from the Tibetan translation by Danasila, Karmavarman, and Ye-shes-sde, which constitutes a chapter of the Ratnakuta collection. Tatz's work is further enhanced by the inclusion of the Sanskrit passages from the text, derived from P. L. Vaidya's edition of the Siksasamuccaya. Although Tatz does not read Chinese, he has consulted an English translation by Garma Chang et al. of the Chinese translation of the Ratnakuta redaction of the text.

The three sections of the Skill in Means Sutra focus upon two major themes: (i) elaboration of the role of "skill in means" in the ethical life of Bodhisattvas, and (ii) "dispelling misinterpretations of the nature of the historical Buddha" (p. 1). The text aims to show that the life of the...