‘Impermanence’
A Translation of the First Chapter of the Tibetan Udanavarga
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.18494Keywords:
Udānavarga, Tibetan translation, Buddhist verse, impermanence and deathAbstract
The Udanavarga is a grand compendium of Buddhist verse, compiled by a Dharmatrata about whom we know next to nothing. In Sarvastivadin and Mulasarvastivadin circles the Udanavarga was as popular as is the Dhammapada in Theravadin circles, and it circulated widely in South and Central Asia. Here I give an English translation from the Tibetan of the first chapter, ‘Impermanence’.
References
Appleton, Naomi and Sarah Shaw, trans. 2015. Ten Great Birth Stories of the Buddha: The Mahanipata of the Jatakatthavannana. 2 vols. Chiang Mai and Bangkok: Silkworm Books and Chulalongkorn University Press.
Balk, Michael. 1984. Prajnavarman's Udanavargavivaranna: Transliteration of its Tibetan version (based on the xylographs of Chone/Derge and Peking). Indica et Tibetica, Arbeitsmaterialien A. 2 vols. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag.
Bernhard, Franz. 1988 (1965). Udanavarga. 2 vols. Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden X. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Chakravarti, Niranjan Prasad. L'Udanavarga Sanskrit, Text sanscrit en transcription, avec traduction et annotations, suivi d'une etude critique et de planches. Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale, Serie Petit in-Octavo, Tome IV. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1930. [Tome premier (Chapitres I a XXI) - the only tome published].
Cordier, P. 1915. Catalogue du fonds tibetain de la Bibliotheque nationale, troisieme partie : Index du Bstan-hgyur (Tibetain 180-332). Paris: Imprimerie nationale.
Dietz, Siglinde and Champa Thupten Zongtse. 1990. Udanavarga, Band III (Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden X, 3). Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Francis, H. T., trans. 1981 [1895]. The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Translated from the Pali by various hands under the editorship of Professor E.B. Cowell. Vol. VI. London: The Pali Text Society, .
Guenther, Herbert V., trans. 1959. The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. London: Rider and Company.
Hahn, Michael, trans. 2007. Vom rechten Leben: Buddhistische Lehren aus Indien und Tibet. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig: Verlag der Weltreligion.
Lamotte, Etienne. 1970. Le Traite de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitasastra), III. Louvain: Universite de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste (Bibliotheque de Museon Volume 18).
Naudou, Jean. 1968. Les bouddhistes Kasmiriens au Moyen Age. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Rockhill, W[illiam] Woodville, trans. 1883. Udanavarga: a Collection of Verses from the Buddhist Canon Compiled by Dharmatrata being the Northern Buddhist Version of Dhammapada. Translated from the Tibetan of the Bkah-hgyur, with notes and extracts from the Commentary of Pradjnavarman. London: Trubner.
Schmithausen, Lambert. 1970. 'Zu den Rezensionen des Udanavargah'. Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sudasiens 14: 47-124.
Schneider, Johannes, ed., trans. 1993. Der Lobpreis der Vorzuglichkeit des Buddha: Udbhatasiddhasvamins Visesastava mit Prajnavarmans Kommentar. Indica et Tibetica, 23. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag.
---. ed., trans. 2014. Eine buddhistische Kritik der indischen Gotter: Samkarasvamins Devatisayastotra mit Prajnavarmans Kommentar (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, Heft 81). Wien: Universitat Wien, Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.
Shaw, Sarah. 2006. Buddhist Meditation: An anthology of texts from the Pali canon. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203007310
Sparham, Gareth with guidance from Lobsang Gyatso and Ngawang Thekchok. 1986. The Tibetan Dhammapada: Sayings of the Buddha, a translation of the Tibetan version of Udanavarga compiled by Dharmatrata, edited by Beth Lee Simon. London: Wisdom Publications.
Webb, Sara (Boin), trans. 1981-1982. 'Udanavarga I'. Pali Buddhist Review 6(1): 1-4.
Willemen, Charles, trans. 2013. A Collection of Important Odes of the Law: The Chinese Udanavarga, Fa Chi Yao Sung Ching (Taisho 213). Berkeley: Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America.
