Texts

“It expresses in the first person singular the devotee’s faith in the Buddha Amitāyus and the vow to be reborn in Sukhāvatī. The text also mentions the confession of sin.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra of the teaching of Vimalakīrti. “The Bodhisattva Vimalakīrti, a rich merchant, pretends to be ill and preaches to all who come to visit him: he shows that the Bodhisattva path can be followed not only by monks but also by laymen, illustrates the doctrine of emptiness of existence and the Buddhist way toward liberation, and explains the transcendental nature of the Buddha.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra of the concentration of the heroic march. “The Śgs is concerned with the power of concentration (Sanskrit samādhi), and particularly with the concentration called Śūraṅgama, as a means for both monks and laymen to attain to enlightenment, and exposes the methods of meditation on emptiness.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra about circumambulating. “The text [...] is presented as an exposition by the Buddha to the Elder Śāriputra about the advantages deriving from circumambulating and worshipping caityas.” (Maggi 2009)

The classification of acts. “[It] deals with the consequences of good and evil deeds in future births.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra on the formula of the production of infinite entries [into the doctrine].

Sūtra on the formula called Immaculate and pure beaming splendour.

Formula of Amr̥taprabha. “Like other similar texts, Amr̥ta is concerned with the protection from diseases and various evils.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] deals with the duties of Bodhisattvas.” (Maggi 2009)

Text on the links [in the chain] of existence.

Text on the Jewel Island.

deśanā texts (Maggi 2009)

[It] deals with “the coming of spring, various flowers and birds, songs of the bards (māgadha), and homage to the amorous sports of young lovers”. (Maggi 2009)

“[It] celebrates the King’s funding, to crown his 16th regnal year (806), of religious activity for the sake of welfare in his reign, then under Tibetan sway.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] is followed by way of comparison by the Kaniṣkāvadāna [and it] praises the King, on the occasion of the ceremony performed by monks at the end of the rainy season, for his religious merits imparting spiritual and material well-being to the land of Khotan and for erecting a monastery. Another eulogy of King Viśa Saṃgrāma is found at the beginning of a verse letter.” (Maggi 2009)

Three refuges [the Buddha, the Law, the Community].

“The Invocatory formulae [are] for asking Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Buddhist saints and various deities for well-being and protection against disease, famine and other evils.” (Maggi 2009)

“The word-list is a Turkish-Khotanese bilingual, which arranges systematically, and partially glosses in Khotanese, Old Turkish words for parts of the body and technical terms concerned with archery and horse equipment, presumably to be used in military instruction.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] contains Sanskrit words and sentences, partly arranged in groups of related items, that are followed by a Khotanese rendering. It appears as a veritable conversation manual.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra which cuts like diamond. “[It is] a summary of the prajñāpāramitā teachings in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the Elder Subhūti.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra of [the Buddha] Aparimitāyus. “The sūtra, which contains an often repeated dhāraṇī (§§12 etc.), is attributed to the preaching of the Buddha Śākyamuni for the lengthening of the lifespan of beings by veneration of the Buddha Aparimitāyus, short form of Aparimitāyurjñānasuviniścitatejorāja (Brilliant king firm in unlimited life and wisdom, another name of the Buddha Amitābha) and of the sūtra itself.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra [of the Buddhas] of the [present] good aeon. “In this text, which belongs to the genre of buddhanāmasūtras (sūtras on the names of the Buddhas), the Buddha Śākyamuni proclaims the advantages that may be expected by “whichever believing noble lad or maiden there may be who may learn, or read, or speak, or write or cause to be written, or who will keep, or hear, or once may do homage to the names of those thousand and five divine Lords” of the good aeon [Bk 209, Konow’s translation].” (Maggi 2009)

The book of Jīvaka. ͤ“[It is] a teaching of the Buddha to the physician Jīvaka. [...] The work is an otherwise unknown collection of prescriptions taken from various texts and organised by type of preparation in complementary chapters introduced by the Sanskrit augural formula siddham ‘success’ as most of the chapters of the Book of Zambasta. Chapter one (§§ 1–3) contains an antidote (Khotanese agada- from Sanskrit agada-); chapter two (§§ 4–46) deals with drugs mixed with clarified butter (Khotanese gvīha’- rūna- lit. ‘cow oil’, Sanskrit ghr̥ta-); chapter three (§§ 47–73) with drugs mixed with sesame oil (Khotanese kūṃjsavīnaa- rūna-, Sanskrit taila-); and chapter four, that is only partly preserved (§§ 74–93; of § 93 only part of the Sanskrit is extant), with powders (Khotanese cāṇa- from Sanskrit cūrṇa-). [...] For each prescription, the instructions for the preparations are followed by indications on its use.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra on the [formula called] Sumukha [Good-faced]. “It is a collection of spells: the Buddha Śākyamuni, requested by the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, preaches the Sumukhadhāraṇī, a series of spells against all kinds of evil and for long life; all Buddhas from all Buddha-fields of the whole world approve of his teaching and announce twenty benefits for anyone who should learn or recite the Sumukhadhāraṇī; the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi and other Bodhisattvas and deities then promise to protect anyone who should learn or recite it, and each of them adds a new spell.” (Maggi 2009)

“[The two partly identical Deśanā] represent a different tradition contemplating the existence of billions of Buddhas in crores of good aeons. These texts were given the title Deśanā by Shūyo Takubo on account of the promise that “For anyone who orders to write or recites the names of those Lord Buddhas there will be atonement for his acts deserving immediate retribution” [Deśanā I 828–29]” (Maggi 2009)

“[The two partly identical Deśanā] represent a different tradition contemplating the existence of billions of Buddhas in crores of good aeons.186 These texts were given the title Deśanā by Shūyo Takubo on account of the promise that “For anyone who orders to write or recites the names of those Lord Buddhas there will be atonement for his acts deserving immediate retribution” [Deśanā I 828–29]” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra of the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabharāja [Master of Healing, the King of Beryl Light]. “[It is] an early Mahāyāna text devoted to one of the Buddhas who were the object of special cult. [...] Bhaiṣajyaguru is the Buddha of medicine in all its aspects up to enlightenment as a healing of existence. The sūtra’s four main themes are the twelve vows of Bhaiṣajyaguru as a Bodhisattva—most of which are concerned with cure and assistance to beings afflicted by diseases and worldly sufferings—and a description of his Buddha-field, the benefits for those who hear and invoke his name, the rituals for worshipping him, and the twelve yakṣa generals who offer protection from disease etc. to those who worship the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguru and his sūtra.” (Maggi 2009)

The avadāna of Aśoka. “It is a rather free recasting of episodes belonging to the narrative complex of Aśoka. [...] All the narrative elements derive actually from the Kunālavadāna but are arranged differently from the Sanskrit and other known versions and present contaminations with episodes from other parts of the narrative complex of Aśoka.” (Maggi 2009)

Avadāna of Nanda. “[This text] exemplifies the compensation for liberality and the retribution for avarice and is known in Sanskrit. It tells the touching story of the wealthy but exceedingly stingy merchant Nanda and of the liberality of one of his servants. The generous servant is reborn as Nanda’s rich son Candana, whereas Nanda is in time reborn as the blind and misshapen son of a blind beggar-woman. The manuscript breaks off when the boy, at the age of twelve, is sent by his mother to the village to beg alms. (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra on the perfection of wisdom in 150 stanzas. “[The text] alternates sections in Sanskrit, characterised by an abundance of esoteric terms, with sections in late Old Khotanese that extol the esoteric sections and urge that they be studied and honoured.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra of the lotus of the good Law. “[It is] a complete Late Khotanese metrical summary [of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra].” (Maggi 2009)

The profession of good course of conduct. “In this devotional text, one of the highest expressions of Mahāyāna piety, the believer, using the first person singular, worships all Buddhas, makes pious vows, undertakes to attain enlightenment and expresses the hope to see the Buddha Amitābha and to be reborn in his pure land Sukhāvatī. The text also contains a confession of sin (st. 12 of the Khotanese version).” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra being a heap of jewels. “[It is an] Old Khotanese translation of the Kāśyapaparivarta (The chapter for Kāsyapa). [...] The text, that deals with the ideal of the Bodhisattva and contains a number of parables, is one of the earliest Mahāyānist texts and was regarded as one of their basic texts by the Madhyamaka and Yocagāra philosophical schools.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra being a description of the Land of Bliss [Sukhāvatī]. “[It] contains the homage and the first lines of the song of Dharmākara, who was to become the Buddha Amitābha, in praise of the Buddha Lokeśvararāja.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra being a pair [of questionings]. “The text, that contains many interesting stories and comparisons, is an instance of the cult of the sacred texts that characterises Mahāyāna Buddhism. It extols the Buddhist Law and particularly the Sgh itself: this is presented as a sūtra that can wipe out sins and bring to enlightenment anybody who hears, writes, learns by heart, recites, understands, honours and worships it. In an episode, the Sgh even takes the form of a seer (Sanskrit ṣi) who rescues a sinner who wants to commit suicide. The second part of the text, where Baiṣajyasena becomes the interlocutor of the Buddha, magnifies the saving virtues of the Law and the Sgh with reference to the beings who are “old” and “young” (“ancient” and “new”) in the cycle of existences and in the teaching of the Buddha.” (Maggi 2009)

The excellent sūtra of golden light. “It is a composite work with devotional, philosophical, ethical and legendary contents, that, as shown by Johannes Nobel, has its original core in the Deśanāparivarta (Sanskrit chap. 3), where the confession is expounded by an “excellent drum of golden light” and to which the title Suvarṇabhāsottama must have originally applied.201 It deals, among other things, with the infinity of the life of the Buddha (chap. 2), the doctrine of emptiness (chap. 5), the role of kingship (chap. 12) and the art of medicine (chap. 16), and contains dhāraṇīs (chaps. 7 and 8) and several stories of the Buddha’s former births (Sanskrit jātaka), among which is the story of the Bodhisattva killing himself to serve as food for a hungry tigress (chap. 18).” (Maggi 2009)

Formula of [the Buddha] Jñānolka. “[It contains] two dhāraṇīs aimed at protection and deliverance of beings.” (Maggi 2009)

The great destroyer of the infinite [band of demons]. “Six of the fifteen demons causing children’s diseases are depicted and described.” (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra being the skeleton of the [Buddhist] Law. “The text consists in a list of categories of the Mahāyānist doctrine arranged by number. [...] It is noteworthy in that it contains a reference to various Mahāyāna sūtras that is not found in any of the other versions.” (Maggi 2009)

The perfect selection. “Of the original thirty-one chapters, the still extant ones are those on the theoretical foundations (1), on drugs (2), on food (3: up to § 3.26.12), on piles and genital fistulae (13: from § 13.27), on yellow disease (14), on hiccoughs and uncomfortable breathing (15: §§ 15.1 and 15.15–23), on swollen testicles (18: from § 18.53), on dry excrement and heart diseases (19), on madness and epilepsy (20), on diseases due to wind (one of the three humours of Indian medicine together with bile and phlegm) and on rheumatism (21), on liquor disease (22), on erysipelas (23), on swellings (24), on healing wounds (25), and on diseases of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth and throat (26: §§ 26.0–68 and 26.75–90).” (Maggi 2009)

Treatise on the rosary (Maggi 2009)

Sūtra for Mañjuśrī on the realisation of [the doctrine of] selflessness. 'It is a compilation on the Mahāyānist doctrine that there is no inherently existent self [...], which draws on varioussources including earlier Khotanese literature.' (Maggi 2009)

The avadāna of Sudhana. “The avadāna is presented as the Buddha's narration of one of his earlier lives told to his former wife Yaśodharā, who could not tolerate living separated from him. It tells in verse the love of prince Sudhana and of the kinnarī (fairy) princess Manoharā, their separation due to the plot of a wicked brahmin, Sudhana’s adventurous journey to the land of the kinnaras in search of his wife, and their final reunion (Sudhana was the Buddha, Manoharā was Yaśodharā).” (Maggi 2009)

Avadāna of Kaniṣka. “The preserved part, in prose, contains two episodes: that of the four lokapālas (the guardian deities of the cardinal points of the world) disguised as boys building a stūpa (Buddhist monument usually meant to contain relics) of mud and of King Kaniṣka who has a stūpa and a monastery built; and the fragmentary episode of Kaniṣka’s spiritual adviser Aśvaghoṣa casting a lump of clay on the newly built stūpa and of the subsequent appearing of an image of the Buddha confirming Aśvaghoṣa’s enlightenment within the present aeon.” (Maggi 2009)

“It tells about the love of a householder’s son and a minister’s daughter.” (Maggi 2009)

“The Khotanese text opens by contrasting the short, seven-year duration of the teaching of the three first Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa (good aeon)—Krakasunda, Kanakamuni and Kāśyapa—with the long duration of the teaching of Śākyamuni Buddha, which resulted from the long exertion endured by him as a Bodhisattva. Among his achievements was his life as Rāma, as we are told in the final identification of Rāma with Śākyamuni and of his brother and companion Lakṣmaṇa with the future Buddha Maitreya, the fifth and last Buddha of the Bhadrakalpa. The story is as follows: in the opening episode, not found in the Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, Paraśurāma revenges his father by killing King Daśaratha, Rāma’s father, and then goes on killing kings and setting up brahmans; he is in turn killed by Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa; the rākṣasa Daśagrīva has his daughter exposed because it was predicted that she would cause the downfall of his city; after she has been brought up by a hermit, Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa fall in love with her, but she is abducted by Daśagrīva; then the two brothers, with the help of the monkeys led by Naṇḍa, cross the ocean, conquer Laṅkā and defeat Daśagrīva; but Sītā, in order to prove she had remained pure, descends into the earth, so they go back to Jambudvīpa.” (Maggi 2009)

Praise of the [Buddh'as former] births. “Aim of the work is to extol the virtues of the Bodhisattva by means of extremely concise summaries of fifty-two stories from fifty-one jātakas (two episodes are taken from the story of Prince Viśvantara), most of which have been traced elsewhere. The jātakas are preceded by a prologue ( JS 1–10) and followed by an epilogue ( JS 164–69).” (Maggi 2009)

The heart sūtra. “[It is] a highly condensed summary of the philosophical teachings of the prajñāpāramitā.” (Maggi 2009)

Large sūtra on the perfection of wisdom. ”[It is] a complete commentary on the shorter recension of the Hr̥dayasūtra [...]. Some of the doctrinal statements contained in this Khotanese text indicate that its author belonged to the Vijñānavāda school.” (Maggi 2009)

Formula of Avalokiteśvara. “The conventional title was invented by Harold W. Bailey on account of the central position of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in the text and of a dhāraṇī that occurs towards the end of the text and opens with a homage to him as the foremost of Bodhisattvas.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] opens with a lengthy Vajrayānist invocation mentioning the Buddha Vairocana, [and] was written on the occasion of an embassy the King sent to Dunhuang in his 5th regnal year (982) to ask for the hand of a Chinese princess.” (Maggi 2009)

“It is the description of a southward journey through Gilgit and Chilās to Kashmir, which at that time was under the rule of King Abhimanyugupta (958–72 CE)” (Maggi 2009)

The confession of acts. “[It] deals with the confession of acts from a Mahāyānistic point of view: only by recognising the unsubstantiality of all things and, thus, also of one’s acts (Sanskrit karman) and their fruition (Sanskrit vipāka), does one obtain removal of one’s karmas and enlightenment.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] foretell[s] the consequences of pains in various parts of the body.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] predict[s] the outcome of twitches of various parts of the body.” (Maggi 2009)

“[It] forecast[s] people’s fate on the basis of the year of the duodecimal animal cycle in which they are born.” (Maggi 2009)