These short notices, which I owe chiefly to Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, make it quite clear that we have every right to expect Sanskrit MSS., or, at all events, Sanskrit texts, in Japan, and the specimen which I have received encourages me to hope that some of these Sanskrit texts may be older than any which exist at present in any part of India.
The Sukhavatî-vyûha.
The text which was sent to me bears the title of Sukhâvatî-vyûha-mahâyâna-sûtra.[127] [pg 215] This is a title well known to all students of Buddhist literature. Burnouf, in his “Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme” (pp. 99-102),[128] gave a short account of this Sûtra, which enables us to see that the scene of the dialogue was laid at Râgagriha, and that the two speakers were Bhagavat and Ânanda.
We saw before, in the historical account of Buddhism in Japan, that no less than twelve Chinese translations of a work bearing the same title were mentioned. The Chinese tell us at least of five translations which are still in existence.[129]
Those of the Han and Wu dynasties (25-280 A. D.), we are told, were too diffuse, and those of the later periods, the T'ang and Sung dynasties, too literal. The best is said to be that by Kô-sô-gai, a priest of Tibetan descent, which was made during the early Wei dynasty, about 252 A. D. This may be the same which was read in Japan in 640 A. D.
The same Sûtra exists also in a Tibetan translation, for there can be little doubt that the Sûtra quoted by Csoma Körösi (“As. Res.” vol. xx. p. 408) under the name of Amitâbha-vyûha is the same work. It occupies, as M. Léon Feer informs me, fifty-four leaves, places the scene of the dialogue at Râgagriha, on the mountain Gridhra-kûta, and introduces Bhagavat and Ânanda as the principal speakers.
There are Sanskrit MSS. of the Sukhavatî-vyûha in your own Library, in Paris, at Cambridge, and at Oxford.
The following is a list of the MSS. of the Sukhavatî-vyûha, hitherto known:—
1. MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society, London (Hodgson Collection), No. 20. Sukhavatîvyûha-mahâyânasûtra, sixty-five leaves. Dated Samvat 934 = A. D. 1814. It begins: Namo dasadiganantâparyantalokadhâtupratishtitebhyah, etc. Evam mayâ srutam ekasmim samaye Bhagavân Râgagrihe viharati sma. It ends: Sukhâvatîvyûha-mahâyânasûtram samâptam. Samvat 934, kârttikasudi 4, sampûrnam abhût. Srîsuvarnapanârimabânagare Maitrîpûrimahâvihâre Srîvâkvagradâsa vagrâkâryasya Gayânandasya ka sarvârthasiddheh. (Nepalese alphabet.)
2. MS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Collection Burnouf), No. 85; sixty-four leaves. It begins, after a preamble of five lines, Evam mayâ srutammekasmi samaya Bhagavân Râgagrihe viharati sma Gridhrakute parvvate mahatâ Bhikshusanghena sârddham. Dvâtrimsratâ Bhikshusahasraih. It ends: Bhagavato mitâbhasya gunaparikîrttanam Bodhisattvâmavaivartyabhûmipravesah. Amitâbhavyuhaparivarttah. Sukhâvatîvyûhah sampurnah. Iti Srî Amitâbhasya Sukhâvatîvyuha nâma mahâyânastûram samâptam.[130] (Devanâgarî alphabet.)