vasudhaiva ku.tumbakam revisited

[Roland Steiner]

The stanza occurs also as no. 75 in the anthology
Praj~naada.n.da ascribed to a Naagaarjuna. The work is
available only in a Tibetan translation which according to
Michael Hahn was prepared at the end of the 8th or beginning
of the 9th century AD. (see his paper "Studies in Original
Buddhism and Mahaayaana Buddhism in Commemoration of
late Professor Fumimaro Watanabe, ed. by Egaku Mayeda, vol.
1, Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo 1993, pp. 32-3; also, ``Prakrit
Stanzas in an Early Anthology of Sanskrit Verses", in Bulletin
d`Études Indiennes 11-12 [1993-94], pp. 355-368). The Tibetan
text runs as follows:

 | snying du sdug pa`am gzhan gang zhes |
 | sems yang ba dag rtsi bar byed |
 | spyod pa rgya chen ldan pa dag |
 | da yi dkyil `khor thams cad gnyer |

To quote the relevant passages from M. Hahn`s article
mentioned above:
``The P[raj~na]D[anda], which is obviously a compilation from
anonymous as well as literary works, quotes from the following
texts composed by individual authors: a) Naagaarjuna`s
Ratnaavalii 4.8 = PD 196, b) Aarya"suura`s Jaatakamaalaa 5.10
= PD 116, c) Bhart.rhari`s "Satakatrayii 157 = PD 101, d)
Maagha`s "Si"supaalavadha 16.26 = PD 67, e) Gopadatta`s
Matsaranandaavadaana 60 = PD 103. Since it is very unlikely
that the five authors mentioned above quoted from the PD, we
can safely assume that the unknown compiler of the PD
borrowed from their works. [... The compiler of the PD] must
have lived in the seventh or eighth century AD."

Neither the character of the anthology nor the context of the
stanza gives a hint of any cynical or ironical intention.

Best regards,
Roland Steiner