Exalting Verses from the Avadānakalpalatā (06.1) of Kṣemendra, an eleventh Century Kashmiri poet

dānodyatānām pṛthuvīryabhājāṃ

śuddhātmanāṃ sattvamahodadhīnām /

aho mahotsāhavatām parārthe

bhavantyacintyāni samīhitāni // KAvk_6.1 //

~Avadānakalpalatā 06.1

སྦྱིན་པ་ལ་བརྩོན་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྒྱ་ཆེའི་གནས།

དག་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་སྙིང་སྟོབས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་།

སྤྲོ་བ་ཆེ་ལྡན་རྣམས་ནི་གཞན་དོན་ལ།

ཀྱེ་མ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་བཞེད་པ་ཡིན།

~ བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་པའི་རྟོག་བརྗོད། (༠༦.༡)

Those who are (always) ardent on giving, intent upon great diligence, having a pure personality, endowed with an ocean of goodness and with great enthusiasm, their intentions for benefitting others are indeed inconceivable.

(From Chapter 6, The story of the Badaradvīpa from Kṣemendra’s Avadānakalpalatā. ṣaṣṭaḥ pallavaḥ/ badaradvīpayātrāvadānam/ ཡལ་འདབ་དྲུག་པ་/ བ་ད་རའི་གླིང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ།་ནི།)

Words and Comments

ཀྱེ་མ་ – aho – alas! Indeed! (emphatic particle)

གཞན་དོན་ལ། – parārthe (para-arthe)- altruistic benefit, benefit for others

དག་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་ – śuddhātmanāṃ (śuddha-ātmanāṃ) – having a pure personality. (Sanskrit śuddha means pure. Saratchandra Das’s edition of the the Tibetan version དགེ་བ་ (dge ba) literally means ‘virtuous’. ātman or bdag nyid literally means ‘Self’. I understand it as meaning ‘personality’ in this context.)

བཞེད་པ་ཡིན། – samīhitāni (Saratchandra Das’s one edition of the text has samāhita and another edition has samīhita) – wishes, desires, intentions, assertions…. I am doubtful if bzhed pa (meaning orientation, accepted position; assertion etc.) is the exact translation of  samīhita or samāhita (which among many possibilities also mean ‘composed, collected, concentrated, great attention or intentness’ according to Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary.) I have used the most approximate translation but I think understanding this verse properly requires looking at other versions of this text to determine if there are textual variations.

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྒྱ་ཆེའི་གནས – pṛthuvīryabhājāṃ (pṛthu-vīrya-bhājāṃ) – intent upon great diligence,

སྙིང་སྟོབས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་ – sattvamahodadhīnām  (sattva-mahā-udadhīnām) – endowed with an ocean of goodness,

སྤྲོ་བ་ཆེ་ལྡན་རྣམས་ – mahotsāhavatām  (mahā-utsāha-vatām) – having great enthusiasm

སྦྱིན་པ་ བརྩོན་ – dānodyatānām (dāna-udyatānām) – prepared for giving, generosity, offering.

Tibetan expression བརྩོན། (brtson) is also used for diligence, endeavour etc.

Exalting Verses from the Avadānakalpalatā (3.1) of Kṣemendra, an eleventh Century Kashmiri poet

asminnadbhutasarge makarākarajāyamānamaṇivarte,

ko’pi prakaṭitasugatiḥ puruṣamaṇirjāyate.

(Avadānakalpaltā 3.1)

འགྲོ་འདིར་སྤྲོས་པ་རྨད་བྱུང་རིན་ཅེན་ཚོགས།

ཆུ་སྲིན་འབྱུང་གནས་དག་ལས་སྐྱེ་བར་ལྡན།

སུ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བ་རུ།

བདེ་བར་འགྲོ་བ་སྐྱེས་བུ་རིན་ཅེན་སྐྱེས།

(བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་པའི་རྟོག་བརྗོད།༣.༡)

Translation: 

Here, in this marvellous creation, while varieties of precious gems are found (lit. born) in the ocean, anyone with manifest auspicious destiny, can also become a human gem.

(From Chapter 3, The story of the Maṇicūḍa of Kṣemendra’s Avadānakalpalatā. tṛtīyaḥ pallavaḥ/ maṇcūḍavadānam/ཡལ་འདབ་གསུམ་པ་/གཙུག་ན་ནོར་བུའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་ནི།)

Words and comments

འགྲོ་འདིར་སྤྲོས་པ་རྨད་བྱུང་ – asminn-adbhuta-sarge – in this marvellous creation, course, journey, birth… (I am not completely certain about this expression. The Sanskrit term sarga seems to be translated into Tibetan as འགྲོ་ which literally means ‘wandering’, ‘moving’ etc. … ‘transmigration’ as a noun. But the use of སྤྲོས་པ་ perhaps as a qualification for འགྲོ་ (or sarga) is not clear to me. Sarga from the verbal root sṛj (to create) literally means creation. The Tibetan translation སྤྲོས་པ is generally translated as ‘mental fabrication or proliferation’ Sanskrit equivalent of which is ‘prapañca’, a loaded term in Buddhist philosophy. It is possible that while Kṣemendra might have intended to use the term sarga to refer to ‘creation’ in general, the Tibetan translator might have understood it in its philosophical sense of mental fabrication. Another possibility is to say that སྤྲོས་པ is also used in relation to sarga (creation, or nature…) and hence does not only mean ‘mental fabrication or proliferation’ (prapañca).)

རིན་ཅེན་ཚོགས། – maṇi-varte – varieties of precious gems. The Sanskrit seems to mean ‘existing (varte<vṛt – to turn, exist…) as gems’ while the Tibetan translation understands it as varieties or accumulations of precious gems.

ཆུ་སྲིན་འབྱུང་གནས་དག་ལས་ – makar-ākara – ocean, (literally crocodile, water dragons, sea-monster, mythological marine monster)

སྐྱེ་བར་ལྡན – jāyamāna– production, being born. (The Sanskrit is a present participle form. The use of ལྡན་, generally a possessive particle, in Tibetan is interesting.)

སུ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ནི་ – ko’pi – anyone…also

རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བ་རུ – prakaṭita – very or supremely luminous, radiant

བདེ་བར་འགྲོ་བ་ – sugatiḥ – (beings) with good or auspicious destiny (generally leading towards higher realms of existence)

སྐྱེས་བུ་རིན་ཅེན་ – puruṣamaṇiḥ – gem of a person or human gem.

སྐྱེས། – jāyate – is born.