Liu, On the Sanskrit Version of Dharmadhātustava (2012)

Zhen Liu (刘震). ‘On the Sanskrit Version of Dharmadhātustava‘. Paper presented at Buddhajayanti: The Celebration of 2600 Years of Buddha’s Enlightenment, Mahachulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 2012. [PDF]

Dr. Zhen Liu tracks down the earliest dateable source for the Dharmadhātustava — a Chinese translation of preaching attributed to Kṣitigarbha, surviving in a unique Dunhuang manuscript — and concludes: “it is obvious that before the middle of the eighth century it was not thought that Nāgārjuna authored the text” (p.10).

% Dharmadhātustava fragments (vv.2, 50-51, 55, 83-86ac)
% Source: Liu (2012)
% Date: 2013/1/21 (rev. 2013/2/28)

ya eva dhātuḥ saṃsāre śodhyamānaḥ sa eva tu |
śuddhaḥ sa eva nirvāṇe dharmakāyaḥ sa eva hi || 2
[...]

uktaṃ ca sūtravargeṣu viharety ātmacintakaḥ |
prajñādīpavihāreṇa paramāṃ śāntim āgataḥ || 50

na bodher dūraṃ saṃjñī syān na sāsannaṃ ca saṃjñinaḥ |
ṣaṇṇāṃ hi viṣayābhāso yathābhūtaṃ parijñayā || 51
[...]

buddho hi pariṇirvāti śucir nityaśubhālayaḥ |
kalpayanti dvayaṃ bālā advayaṃ yogināṃ padaṃ || 55

[...]
anekaratnapattrābhaṃ lakṣaṇaṃ jvalakalpikaṃ |
anekaiḥ padmakoṭībhiḥ samantāt parivāritaḥ || 83

daśabhiś ca balair bālas tiṣṭhate bālacandravat |
kleśair malinasattvānāṃ na paśyati tathāgatam || 84

yadā pretāḥ samantāt tu śuṣkaṃ paśyanti sāgaram |
tathaivājñānadagdhānāṃ buddho nāstīti kalpanā || 85

sattvānām alpapuṇyānāṃ bhagavān kiṃ kariṣyati |
jātya xx --x xxxx - x || 86