Vol. I, No. 6.] An Analysis of the Lankavatara Sutra. 159 
NESS. || 
19, An Analysis of the Lankavatara Sutra.—By Prov, Saris 
CHANDRA VipyABHtsana, M.A. 
The Lankavatara Siitra is an ancient Buddhist Sanskrit work, 
a manuscript of which was brought from Nepal by Mr. Hodgson 
nearly eighty years ago. It gives an account of a miraculous 
visit which Buddha paid to Ravana, the King of Lanka. Though 
the visit was altogether an imaginary one, the book is very valu- 
able as it gives a copious explanation of the Buddhistic meta- 
physical doctrines as well as an account of several non-Buddhistic 
sects such as the Lokayata, Sankhya, Vaisesika, Pasupata, and 
others. It is one of the nine most sacred books of the Nepalese 
Buddhists called their Nava-dhamma.! 
A Tibetan version of the Lankavatara Siitra is found in the 
Kangyur, Sect. Mdo, Volume V. In Tibetan it is called Hphags- 
pa-lan-kar-gsegs-pa-theg-pa-chen-pohi-mdo, in which it is stated 
that the Sutra was translated into Tibetan by order of the Tibetan 
King Ral-pa-can in the 9th Century A.D. lo-tsa-wa Ge-long 
(Hegos-chos-grub), who translated the Sitra in Tibetan, also added 
to the translation a commentary of a Chinese professor named 
Wen-hi.? 
There are extant three Chinese translations’ of the Lankava- 
tara Sitra. The first translation, which is incomplete, was made 
by Gunabhadra, 443 A.D., the second by Bodhiruci A.D, 513, and 
the third by Siksananda A.D. 700-704. 
Hwen-thsang, who travelled in Ceylon early in the 7th 
Century A.D., points out the Malaya mountain as the place where- 
in Buddha, in olden days, sat to deliver the Lankavatara Sitra.* 
The Sitra was merely known by name to the Pandits of our 
country from a reference to it in the Sarvadarsanasanhgraha® of 
Madhavacaryya in the 14th Century A.D. 
1 The nine most sacred books of the Nepalese Buddhists are :— 
1. Astasahasrika Prajiiaparamita; 2. Gandavytha; 3. Dasabhumisvara; 
4, Samadhiraja Sutra; 5. Lankavatara Sitra; 6. Saddharmapundarika ; 
7. Tathagataguhyaka; 8. Lalitavistara and 9. Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra. 
Divine worship is offered to these nine works by the Buddhists of Nepal. 
Cf. Hodgson’s Ilustrations of the Literatare and Religion of the Buddhists, 
rep, LR) 
2 Vide Csoma de Koros’s Analysis of the Kangyur, p. 432 (Asiatic Resear- 
ches, Volume XX). 
Chee Bunyin Nanjio’s Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, Nos. 175, 
176, ; 
The first Chinese translation consisting of 4 fasciculi, 1 chapter, bears 
two prefaces by Tsiang C’-chi and Su-shi, of the later Sun dynasty, A.D. 
960-1127. The date of the latter preface corresponds to A.D. 1085, The 
second Chinese translation consists of 10 fasciculi, 18 chapters. The third 
Chinese translation consisting of 7 fasciculi, 10 chapters, bears a preface by 
the Empress Wu-tsd-thien, A.D. 684-705, of the Than dynasty. 
*Vide Si-ya-ki, Book XI; Beal’s Buddhistic Records of the Western 
World, p. 251. 
6 Madhavacaryya quotes a passage from the Lankavatara Sitra saying :— 
