[Buddha-l] Lankavatara sutra

[Stephen Hodge]

Dear Kate,

> Any idea how the differences came about?  Were there two Sanskrit versions
> of the Lankavatara sutra?  Thanks.

The enormous value of the Chinese canon for us boring old scholars is that 
many sutras, especially Mahayana ones, have multiple translations of a 
single text done over a several centuries, based on Sanskrit originals at 
the different stages of textual elaboration -- originals which have almost 
never survived.  This contrasts with the Tibetan canon which has very, very 
few multiple translations, though they make up for this by the generally 
superior quality of the translation itself.

With the Chinese sources, we are able to track the developments of texts as 
they evolved and were modified or enlarged.  A comparative study of these 
translations reveal much useful data concerning the evolution of Mahayana 
doctrines and social conditions.  I have been doing something like this with 
the various versions of the Mahaparinirvana-sutra -- the earliest Faxian 
version is much shorter and differs in many important points from the later 
Dharmaksema or Tibetan versions.  In the case of these texts, combined with 
a study of their obvious internal evolution, important deductions and 
inferences may be made, for example, about the origins and evolution of some 
strands of Mahayana.

Hence, the reason why there are three Chinese versions of the LS is because 
the text started life in India as a much shorter text than the current 
Sanskrit version.  At some stage in the evololution of the LS, the first 
Chinese translation was made.  Meanwhile, back in India, the text evolved 
still further and then yet another Chinese translation was produced.

It should be noted that the traditional explanation for this phenomenon 
ignores the obvious evolutionary expansion of these texts since pre-modern 
scholar-monks believed that these texts were first taught in full by the 
Buddha and truncated subsequently for various reasons -- completely 
inverting the actual state of affairs.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge