Vilāsavajra's Jñānapāda quotation traced

This has been giving me headaches for a while. As already noted by Anthony Tribe in his thesis (The Names of Wisdom. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of Chapters 1-5 of Vilāsavajra's Commentary on the Nāmasaṃgīti, with Introduction and Textual Notes, Oxford 1994), Vilāsavajra quotes Jñānapāda in his Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī, but the verse - to the best of my knowledge (but I'm woefully behind with secondary literature) - remains untraced. Here is the śloka in question (given by Tribe on p. 16 from his Ms. B = NGMPP E 360/16, f. 58r):

tathā coktaṃ Jñānapādaiḥ | 

sambodhicittam utpādya mahāmaitrīprayogataḥ | 
sarvadharmā nirātmāna iti jñātvā vimucyata iti ||

A slight correction based on the Cambridge ms. (Add. 1708, f. 81v): mahāmaitrī- rather than mahāmaitrīṃ . 

I have browsed through most of Jñānapāda's works, but could not find this verse. Well, it turns out I was looking in the wrong place. This is not from Jñānapāda's Tantric works, but from one placed among the Madhyamaka texts in the Tibetan Canon, the Mahāyānalakṣaṇasamuccaya (Tōh. 3905). This is actually the opening verse:

byang chub yang dag sems bskyed pa'i |

byams pa chen po'i sbyor ba ste |

chos rnams thams cad bdag med pa'i |

zhes bya ye shes mngon par brjod || 

Something has gone terribly wrong with the fourth quarter, but on the whole I would call this a good match.


UPDATE: a fragment of the Mahāyānalakṣaṇasamuccaya is extant in Sanskrit, see Yoshiyasu Yonezawa, "Sanskrit Fragment of the Mahāyānalakṣaṇasamuccaya". In: Journal of Research Society of Buddhism and Cultural Heritage No.7, 1998, 36-65. The Japanese scholar notes that the verse was already noted and transcribed by Sāṅkṛtyāyana (1937:40, n. 4). The reading adopted in these publications is iti jñātvā 'dhimucyate. (Thanks to Harunaga Isaacson and Ryugen Tanemura for the article.)

Did Vajrapāṇi pass gas?

The short answer is: he did not. So why do we think he did?

"Even more dramatic is the Bhūtaḍamara [sic!], which begins with the sly Śiva requesting that Vajrapāṇi kill all the evil ones in the world, a category that normally includes Śiva himself. However, Vajrapāṇi agrees that this is a good idea and instantly slaughters all the other gods (Indra, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and other available deities), whom he immediately revives with an enormous passing of gas from his anus, a hilarious transformation of the gods into an object of farce." [Ronald Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, p. 333] 

Let us look at the incriminating passage in the Derge Kanjur (vol. Dza, 238a3-7, but I quote only the end):

de nas gsungs pa tsam gyis dpal Rdo rje 'chang gi shangs kyi bu ga nas rlung chen po ro 'tsho bar byed pa byung bar gyur te | [...]

A 'b' seems to make quite a lot of difference here. The reading is shangs, which of course means nostril, as opposed to bshangs, excrement. This is a small emendation then, but the note to the sentence (ibid. p. 416) does not tell us so (incidentally, the note again has Bhūtaḍamara).

Let us look at the Sanskrit then, before accusing Vajrapāṇi of uncouth behaviour:

athāsmin bhāṣita{|}mātre śrīvajradhara [=dharo] nāsikāt {||} mahāpavana[ṃ] mṛtasaṃji[¯]vani[ṃ] nisṛ[jati] sma || (Kaiser Library 244 = NGMPP C 27/3, 2r)

athāsmin bhāṣitamātre śrīvajradharanāsikātaḥ mahāpavana [=pavano] mṛtasaṃjīvanī niścarati | (Göttingen Xc 14/50 [1], 1v)

We could of course argue what emendations to propose. These are ad hoc, I have not studied the grammatical peculiarities of the Bhūtaḍāmara. The important bit is 'nāsikāt' and 'nāsikātaḥ', which both mean 'from the nostril'. Emitting 'wind' from the nostril to revive the dead is well-attested elsewhere (e.g. the Catuṣpīṭha 1.2.), but we do not have to go into that here. Vajrapāṇi can therefore be exonerated.

Yes, those are flames. Image borrowed from here.

Avacūrikā

A new and highly recommended blog described as: Glosses on classical Indian literature and the history of premodern South Asia.

Musings on a hat (+update)

A ms. now at the British Library (formerly of India Office Library, Thomas 7740) Mss Eur Hodgson vol. 26 (formerly 31/3h) is a comprehensive description of a thang ka (Skt. paṭa, N. paubāhā) from gZhis ka rtse (Shigatse for you and I, Jikhāche for the author). It was compiled by Amṛtānanda for Brian Hodgson, and it lists no less than 95 deities (plus consorts where applicable). This is the pratijñā as it were: uttarāpaṃthe jikhāche nāma pradeśe likhitāyāṃ paṭapratimāyāṃ nepālabhāṣayā paubāhā iti prakhyātāyāṃ likhitānāṃ devadevīgaṇānāṃ mūrtidhyānanāmāni likhyaṃte||

Aside from the intrinsic interest of this work (and indeed, the entire collection of Hodgson's papers) and aside from the fact that this painting seems to have disappeared, there is one small problem I wish to address here. A few of these `deities' are actually lamas (Tib. bla ma, lāmājū for the author) sporting something called an `ūrdhvajñāna...topikā' (p. 4, l. 1: ... ūrddhvajñānābhidhatopikābhṛt ...; l. 34: ... ūrddhvajñānākhyatoṣikayā ... [sic for topikayā, probably just a smudge]). I may be terribly ignorant here, but I'm still puzzled by this word.

Topi - if you learned Hindi or some similar language - is obviously `hat'. Lamas - or at least some of them - wear paṇ zhwas. Hazy memories from my undergraduate days somehow reminded me that Sum pa mkhan po has a story on how these hats came into fashion: de dus Bhaṃ ga la'i Tsa ti gha bo'i grong khyer gyi paṇ ṭi ta Pi ha ra zhes pa'i gtsug lag khang du mu stegs pa'i rgol ba zhig byung ba'i tshe rgan mo zhig gi kha la nyan nas tsher ma lta bu'i rtse can gyi zhwa gyon nas rtsod pas rgyal ba las paṇ zhwa rtse ring dar ro|| (Dpag bsam ljon bzang, p. 109). Das seem to identify Tsa ti gha bo with Cittagong.

Now what if Amṛtānanda somehow knew about this and produced a fake Skt. ūrdhva-jñāna from taking `gong' to be a Tibetan word for `ūrdhva', and `sems' or `tsi tta' a synonym for `jñāna'? For the time being this is the only way around this problem, but it seems almost too funny to be true.

UPDATE: It seems that I was (almost) entirely mislead. In light of MS Eur Hodgson vol. 26, pp. 89-91, another description of a paṭa from Tibet we find more about the puzzling ūrdhvajñāna hat. In this text we have an ūrdhvajñāna-rumuci, which is probably a re-Sanskritization of ye shes bla ma rin po che. For those versed in things rNying ma pa, here is an appetizer: there is a story here which Amṛtānanda claims to be a 'popular myth'. Ūrdhvajñāna-rumuci (who looks like Padmasambhava from the description, except that he is holding a vajra and a kīla) was an incarnation of Gorakṣa, disciple of Matsyendra. He appeared in this form on his master's command in order to defeat Śaṅkara (son of a widow and Viśveśvara-Rudra of Benares), who was rather miffed about losing a debate with Nāgārjuna and started persecuting Buddhism by disposing of their books. Rumuci defeats him repeatedly in debate and magical contests, the final battle taking place in a place called Guru-bharu. Yet another beautiful 'Himalayan encounter'!

A fragment from Vanaratna's Acalābhisamaya

Perhaps some of you will be interested that this work, the ``Acalābhisamayaḥ hṛṣṭābhidhāna'' (obviously not the original title but a Tibetan reconstruction, see Tōh. 1783), survives for the most part (ff. 2-9 out of probably not more than 10) as Göttingen Xc14/40b. Unfortunately the pictures are not very clear.

This completes the identification of works contained in Xc14/40 (40a has long been known as perhaps the oldest ms. of the Kriyāsamuccaya), since Kazuo Kano in 2004 and 2005 has established that 40c is a fragment from the *Suvarṇavarṇāvadāna. You can read about that in the following articles:

• Kazuo Kano, ``Göttingen shozō no Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana satsuei bonbun shahon Xc14/1, Xc14/57 ni tsuite'' (The Photocopies of Sanskrit Manuscripts Photographed by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana preserved in Göttingen, Xc14/1 and Xc14/57). Mikkyō Bunka 212 (2004) 35-54.

• Kazuo Kano, ``Two folios from Sthiramati's Triṃśikābhāṣya in Sanskrit Photographed by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana: Diplomatic and Critical Editions of Göttingen Xc14/1e''. WZKS XLIX (2005) 113-149.

For a magnificent painting of the `last pundit in Tibet', see here.

Who's your daddy?

aiśvaryamadamatto 'si mām avajñāya vartase| 

upasthiteṣu bauddheṣu madadhīnā tava sthitiḥ||

(Udayana, Nyāyakusumāñjali)

evam āryamiśrān vijñāpayāmi

The moment we have all been waiting for is here: the hilarious, the scandalous, the outrageous... Quartet of Causeries is here. Read some of the excerpts. Here is what our critics say:

"I knew these guys, but I thought they were just joking around at the pub. It's actually not bad poetry." [Kālidāsa, notoriously elusive poet]

"The Caturbhāṇī taught me everything I know. Never leave home without it." [Dāmodaragupta, award winning author of A Courtesan's Confession]

"When I'm down and need a good kick I read the Pādatāḍitaka." [Kṣemendra, acclaimed author of The Idiot's Guide to Making Fun of Bengalis]

"The Dhūrtaviṭasaṃvāda brings back into public awareness the topic of the pimping subaltern other. It is ruthless against Sanskritic society and the greatest thing about it is that it's done with the enemy's weapon: brilliant Sanskrit. Not as if I could read Sanskrit, only colonialists can and do." [very famous post-colonialist, name withheld]

"The Dhūrtaviṭasaṃvāda coaxes from out of the shadows the subject of the subaltern as the "Pimp". It is excoriating in its critique against Sanskritic society while at the same time formulating its diatribe with the favored weapon of the oppressive literary minority: erudite Sanskrit. As Foucault points out: "Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society." (What's with all the gibberish that is printed on the left side? Surely this is a colonialist expropriation of the Other's voice. Hold on... the Other here is the oppressive literary minority! I'm confused.) [very famous post-colonialist's student, name withheld]

Angry archaeologist

I must apologize in advance, some of you may find this post a bit vulgar. Nevertheless, I'm sure that many more will actually enjoy this fine piece of Hungarian cultural history.

It so happenned that during the hot summer of 1903 in an obscure corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire some good people found a spur. Since in the legendary bureaucracy of the aforementioned empire nothing went undocumented, the find (who knows, it could have been the spur of king Attila!) was referred to the local archaelogical authorities. They were puzzled. Shunning responsability in good bureaucratical fashion the matter was forwarded to the capital. Dr Réthy (pictured on the right), eminent linguist (i.a. learned Sanskrit in Vienna!) etc., in charge at that time, gave them this kind answer:

506/1903.
Tekintetes kultúrmérnöki hivatal
Pécsett.

Tegnapi póstával érkezett 1090/1903 sz. hivatalos okiratukra,
melyben azt kérdik, hogy a Nagy-Berki község
határában lelt régi sarkantyúval mi történjék?
hivatalos tisztelettel azt válaszolom, hogy
basszák meg az urak a sarkanytyújukat, mert
35 Reaumur höségben ilyen szarságokkal
nem foglalkozhatunk.

Budapest 1903 aug 18.
Teljes tisztelettel
lófasz a seggükbe
Dr. Réthy László

m. n. muz. érem és régiségosztályi
igazg.-helyettes.

A XIV. ker. m. kir. Kulturmérnöki hivatalnak
Pécsett.


506/1903.
[To] the honourable department of cultural engineering
[In] the city of Pécs

With reference to the official document no. 1090/1903 which I received in today's mail and in which you enquire about what is to be done with the old spur found in the outskirts of Nagy-Berek, I answer with due official respect that the good gentlemen should f**k their spur, since in this heat of 35 Reaumur [= 43.75 Celsius = 110.75 Fahrenheit!] we cannot be bothered with such s**t.

Budapest 1903 August 18.
With the utmost respect,
[and wishing] a horse's c**k up your a*s
Dr. László Réthy
vice-princ[ipal]
Department of Coins and Antiquities, H[ungarian] N[ational] Mus[eum]

[To] the department of cultural engineering of the King[dom] of H[ungary], district XIV
[In] the city of Pécs

If you have ever tried working your way through Hungarian official documents the question you must be asking is: gosh, whatever went wrong?

Sanskrit, guv

[fragment from a prahasana performed at Luton Airport, today]

- (cockney accent) Do you live in this country Mr erm?
- (undefinable accent, hence social status, place of birth, supported football club, and favoured newspaper uncertain) Sorry?
- Do you live in this country?
- Yes.
- Working? Student?
- Student.
- What are you studying?
- Sanskrit.
- Sorry?
- Sanskrit.
- Sanskit?
- Sanskrit?
- Sanskirt as in ...
- Sanskrit as in ancient Indian language Sanskrit.
- I'm sorry, can you spell that?
- S-A-N-S-K-R-I-T!
- Hm, perhaps if you could write this on this piece of paper here.
- ...
- Cheers.
- ...
- S-a-n-s-k-r-i-t, hah! Next please!