Table Of ContentS E R I E O R I E N T A L E R O M A
LXXII
GIACOMELLA OROFINO
SEKODDESA
A CRITICAL EDITION
OF THE TIBETAN TRANSLATIONS
With an Appendix by Raniero Gnoli
ON THE SANSKRIT TEXT
ROMA
ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER IL MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTE
1 994
ISTITUTO ITALIANO
PER IL MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTE
SERIE ORIENT ALE ROMA
FONDATA DA GIUSEPPE TUCCI
DIRETTA DA
GHERARDO GNOLI
Vol. LXXII
ROMA
Is. M. E. O.
1 994
S E R I E O R I E N T A L E R O M A
LXXII
GIACOMELLA OROFINO
SEKODDESA
A CRITICAL EDITION
OF THE TIBETAN TRANSLATIONS
With an Appendix by Ranikro Gnoli
ON THE SANSKRIT TEXT
ROMA
ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER II. MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTE
I 994
Distributed by Herder, International Book Centre,
120, Piazza Montecitorio, 00186 Rome, Italy.
In Italy by Libreria Distributricc Degrassi,
61a, Via Fonteiana, 00152 Roma.
In India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka by Munshiram Manoharlal,
Post Box 5715, 54 Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi 110055.
TUTTI I DIRITTI RISERVATI
In memory of Giuseppe Tucci
on the centenary of his birth
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ............................................................................................................... Pag. 9
Introduction
I. The SekoddeSa in the Early History of the KAlacakra
Tradition.................................................................................................. » 11
II. The Textual Transmission of the Tibetan
Translations......................................................................................... » 25
1. The 'Bro Tradition.................................................................................. » 25
a. The Tibetan Canon............................................................................ » 25
b. The Eastern Tradition of the Kanjur........................................... » 26
c. The Western Tradition of the Kanjur......................................... » 27
d. Methodological Considerations ................................................... » 28
e. The Sources......................................................................................... » 29
f. Stemmatic Relationships ................................................................. » 30
2. The Rwa Tradition ................................................................................. » 35
a. The Sources......................................................................................... » 36
III. Notes on the Criteria Adopted in the Textual
Analysis ............................................................................................... » 38
IV. Analysis of the Two Translations......................................... » 39
Bibliography .............................................................................................. » 45
Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translations................................. » 53
Single readings
Text A ............................................................................................................ » 117
TextB ............................................................................................................ >> 119
Appendix by Raniero Gnoli ....................................................................... » 123
Introduction .................................................................................................. » 127
List of the Sources ..................................................................................... » 129
The Sanskrit Text ....................................................................................... » 131
PREFACE
In Buddhist Tantric literature the Sekoddesa holds a position of
considerable interest. Infact it is the first text of the Kalacakra tradition to have
come down to us and contains the nucleus of the doctrine of this religious
movement which represents the culmination of medieval Indian Buddhism
before its decline.
The original Sanskrit version, consisting in 174 stanzas in the anustubh
metre, is lost apart from the first folio, extant in two distinct manuscripts both
preserved in the National Archives of Kathmandu. However, as the reader will
see below in the edition by Professor Raniero Gnoli, the reconstruction of the
entire Sanskrit text has been made possible because in the exegetical literature
more than seventy stanzas are found integrally and the others have been
restored on the basis of the extant commentaries in Sanskrit and of the
numerous quotations occurring in other Sanskrit texts.
The Sekoddesa was translated into Tibetan in the second half of the
eleventh century, the first time by the Kashmiri Pandit Somanatha and the
Tibetan Lo tsa ba ’Bro Dge slong Shes rab grags. This translation (Text A) is
preserved in all the Tibetan Bka’ ’gyur (henceforth Kanjur) collections
deriving from the old Snar thang prototype. At the end of the eleventh century
it was drastically revised, so much so as to represent a second, different
translation, by the Nepalese Pandit Samantasri and the Tibetan Lo tsa ba Rwa
Chos rab. This second version (Text B) is preserved in the independent
tradition of the Phug brag Kanjur recently found in the east of Western Tibet.
This study forms part of a larger research project under the auspices of the
Italian CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche) started in 1991 under the
direction of Prof. Raniero Gnoli on the first period of the Kalacakratantra
literature. Together we read and translated large part of the early literature on
the Kalacakra, including various commentaries on the Sekoddesa: the Tikd by
Naropa, the anonymous Pahjika translated by Bu ston and the Tippani by
Sadhuputi a Sridharananda, all due for publication soon both in critical editions
in Sanskrit and Tibetan and in Italian and English translation.
Those who know Prof. Raniero Gnoli either personally or through his
