140128 UE Discovering the Sanskrit Madhyamakavatarabhasya (2017W)

The Madhyamakāvatāra, together with its bhāṣya, an auto-commentary, appears to have been Candrakīrti’s (600-650?) first work on Madhyamaka. The work is extremely important for understanding Candrakīrti’s interpretation of the school’s ethical, philosophical and soteriological stances, and informative as regards the Buddhist and non-Buddhist groups Candrakīrti regarded as its opponents. Although the extent of the Madhyamakāvatāra’s renown in India remains unknown, its Tibetan translation, made at the end of the 11th century, achieved great fame in Tibet, and served as a foundational Madhyamaka work that was widely commented on by Tibetan scholars.

The Madhyamakāvatāra and its bhāṣya were accessible for centuries only in Tibetan translation. One Sanskrit manuscript of the Madhyakamāvatārabhāṣya (the Madhyamakāvatāra’s verses are embedded in it) has, however, been discovered. It is being investigated under the “General Agreement” of cooperation between the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) in Vienna and the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing.

The Madhyamakāvatāra and its commentary’s chapters are structured to accord with the “grounds” or “levels” (bhūmi) of awakening as presented in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. The class will focus on the third chapter, Prabhākarī (the “Luminous”), named after the third level, whose main topic is the perfection of patience. The focus and goal of the class will be the editing and translation of the Sanskrit text of this third chapter in the new Madhyakamāvatārabhāṣya manuscript. Participants will become acquainted with philological-historical methods and editorial techniques and are encouraged to participate in discussions led by the main editors at the IKGA concerning both the chapter’s content and the editorial challenges the manuscript presents.