Malaya 5th. cent corrected

[Petr Mares]

> Dear Mr. Mares,
>
> Greetings from S. Madhuresan.
>
> Does lankavatara sUtra mention Avalokitezvara?
>
> Thanks,
> S. Madhuresan
>

Dear Mr. Madhuresan

Scripture probably started as a collection of gathas that are today
appended to the main text (Sanskrit) as the tenth chapter and they
are called "sagAthakam" (The SagAthakam contains many names
such as:
VyAsa
kAnada
Kapila
PAndavAh
KauravAh
RAma
MauryAh
NandAhGuptAh
.  Then the dialogues were probably formed to explain the matter of
the gathas and the scripture was created as a discussuin between
Bhagavat and Mahamati (the only Bodhisatva playing a part in the
Gunabhadras translation from 420 A.D. The persons mentioned
there are for example:
/ShrImAlA DevI (Nanjio Sanskrit ed. p. 222.19 - 223.5 )
Vajragarbha (p.100.16 - 101.3)
VajrapANi (p. 240.10)
AmitAbha (p.283.4-7)
NAgAhvaya (p. 286.12-15)

Could these names possible tell something about the date or
location of the original compilers?

In one of the verse of Sagathakam the author states:
mAtA ca me Vasumatih pitA viprah prajApatih
kAtyAya (na) -sagotro ham nAmnA vai vijito Jinah
CampAyAham samutpannah pitApi sapitAmahah
Soma-gupteti nAmnAsan Soma-vam/Sa-samudbhavah

Do you know what kAtyAyana and what palce called CampA he
may mean?

He also says:
KAtyAyana-sagotro ham /SuddhAvAsAd vinihrsrtah
de/Semi dharmasatvAnAm nirvAna puragAminam

So from what I said it seems the sutra has probaly never been
touched by people idolatrizing Avalokiteshvara neither in India nor
in China or Khotan. I have not seen that name in any version I have
seen.

Sincerely

Petr Mares

I





Petr Mares
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