The Samvarodaya-tantra : selected chapters

Abstract

This work contains nineteen chapters selected from the total thirty-three chapters of the Samvarodaya-tantra; some chapters have been omitted because it was impossible to arrive at an adequate reconstruction of the Sanskrit text; other chapters have been omitted because I was not interested in their contents. Since it is our aim to prepare a Sanskrit text to serve as basic material for the future study of tantric Buddhism, it is preferable to present all the chapters of this tantra; but the limitation of time and my own lack of ability made this impossible at present; I hope to complete the task in the future. This present work does not contain a chronological study of this tantra. The one and only item of internal evidence for the. date of this tantra that we have acquired so far is found in chapter six. This chapter contains several verses which also occur in the vajrajipa-krama of the Pancakrama of Nagarjuna; if we compare chapter six of our text with the vajrajapa-krama, it becomes immediately evident that these verses are borrowed from the Pancakrama but not otherwise. This evidence alone shows already that this tantra cannot be earlier than the late eighth century. We plan to accumulate further evidence and to establish the mutual relationship and chronological sequence of the tantras of the Samvara literature. I chose this Samvarodaya-tantra as the subject of my Ph.D. thesis when I was awarded a scholarship from the Australian National University. For a number of reasons I thought that the task of editing this tantra would provide basic training in Sanskrit philology, since enough manuscripts were available; I could have chosen almost any other tantra, since there are as yet few critical editions. At that time, I knew little about the Samvara literature; I simply imagined the Samvarodaya-tantra to be an important text; now I am convinced that this surmise was not wrong Having come to the end ·of my Ph. D. course, I wish to acknowledge my great debt of gratitude to Professor J.W. de Jong of the Department of South Asian and Buddhist Studies, School of General Studies, to Professor A,L, Basham of the Department of Asian Civilizations, School of General Studies, and to Mrs. L.A. Hercus, Senior Lecturer in the Department of South Asian and Buddhist Studies. It was only through the kindness and the tenacious efforts of Professor de Jong that a Ph. D. scholarship was awarded to me, since I was not competent in the English language. As a supervisor, he very patiently guided me, as I was insufficiently trained in the Sanskrit language; every detail of my thesis has received his supervision. Professor Basham very kindly supervised me during the sabbatical leave of Professor de Jong; he corrected every line of my translation of chapter thirteen of the Samvarodaya and rendered it in his own excellent style; he thus provided me with a model translation which I attempted to imitate in other chapters. Without the guidance and assistance that I have received I would not have been able to complete this present work. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the School of General Studies in the Australian National University, to the Library of the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Australian National University, and to the National Library of Australia.