Taranatha

[N. Ganesan]

D. H. H. Ingalls, An anthology of Sanskrit court
poetry, Harvard up,1965
p. 63
"One verse pictures Lokesvara seated on his mountain
Potalaka which Hsuan Tsang and Taranatha placed in
South India, though in the course of time other
Potalakas were added".

  Keenly interested to know where and what the Tibetan
  Lama Taranatha in 1608 AD says about
  Potalaka being situated in South India?

  Can someone please check Taranatha's History
  of Buddhism in India?

Thanks in advance,
N. Ganesan


Ingalls, p. 65

   May Lokesvara protect you as he sits,
   surrounded by his mass of rays,
   on Mount Potalaka, which echoes
   with the roar of its deep caves;
   who thus is like the moon within the mass of waves
   churned in the Sea of Milk by the mountain Mandara,
   whirling with heavy roar
   and unwavering because of its great speed - J~nAnazrImitra



-----------------------------------------------------------

The following is what I read on location of Potalaka.
In addition we have GaNDavyUha.

Marilyn M. Rhie, The Bodhisattva and the Goddess, 1980
p. 25:
"This version of the compassionate bodhisattva may have
evolved from the GaNDavyuuha (added to the Hua yan suutra in
China in the T'ang dynasty), which describes in one
episode the visit of the pilgrim Sudhana to Avalokitezvara
on Mt. Potalaka in South India. He finds the Bodhisattva
expounding the Sutra of Great Compassion to a host of other
bodhisattvas on "western slope of the mountain, where
water flows from many springs and rivulets and where
soft and tender grass grows" (J. Fontein, The pilgrimage
of Sudhana, p. 10)."

T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang's travels in India, 1905
2.229 says:
"In the south of the mo-lo-kuta (malakUTa)
country near the sea  was mo-lo-ya (malaya) mountain, lofty cliffs and
ridges and deep valleys and gullies, on which were sandal, camphor
 and other trees. To the east of this was the pu-ta-lo-ka (potalaka)
mountain with steep narrow paths over its cliffs and gorges in
irregular confusion; on the top was a lake of clear water, whence
 issues a river which on its wayto the sea, flowed twenty times round
 the mountain. By the side of the lake was a deva place frequented by
 kuan-tzu-tsai-p’usa (avalokitezvara). Devotees, risking life,
brave water and mountain to see the p’usa, but only a few succeed in
reaching the shrine. To the people at the foot of the mountain who pray
 for a sight of the P’usa, he appears sometimes as a pazupata tIrthika,
or mahezvara, and consoles the suppliant with his answer."

S. Beal, Si-yu-ki, Buddhist records of the Western world, 1884
2.233  says:
"To the east of the Malaya mountains is Mount Po-ta-la-ka (Potalaka)."

L. M. Joshi, Studies in the Buddhist culture of India, 1967
 "This Potalaka is located by Hsuan Tsang in MalakuuTa, identified by
 Cunningham with a tract between Madura, Tanjore and Travancore.
Nandolal De suggested that Potalaka lay in Western Ghats.
Nalinaksha Dutt  suggests that modern Potiyam may represent Potalaka
[203]"




______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com