The Buddhist Alteration of History

The pious redaction of religious history is diplayed in the invitation of Santaraksita, quoted above from the Dunhuang fragments and dBa’ bzhed. In this episode, the sBa bzhed G redactors not only add to the dBa’ bzhed, but rewrite it in their narrative to reflect an increasingly religious reading of History. Van Schaik and Iwao also draw attention to the sBa bzhed's alteration of this episode. They note that the dBa’ bzhed appears to alter the passage found in the Dunhuang fragments, so that the Indian abbot is not ‘placed' in the Jo khang but instead ‘asked to reside' there. They note that ‘this passage is further weakened in the sBa bzhed, where the order to investigate Santaraksita comes not from the king, but from his ministers instead.' The dBa’ bzhed reads:

Then [the btsan po] ordered Zhang blon chen po sBrang rGya sbra (sgra) legs gzigs, Seng 'go lHa lung gzigs and 'Ba' Sang shi, ‘You three ministers, go to Ra sa Vihdra to meet Acdrya Bodhisattva and prostrate in front of him. Then investigate whether I need to suspect the presence of black magic and evil spirits from lHo bal or not.' The three arrived at Ra sa Vihdra. There was no translator.99

sBa bzhed G replaces the btsan po's direct order to examine Santaraksita with the ministers' requests. It reads:

After Abbot [[[Santaraksita]]] and the royal attendant, Lang gro sNang ba, were ensconced in Lha sa dPe dkar (i.e. Ra sa 'Phrul snang), he was brought forth to prostrate in the presence of the btsan po. Furthermore, it was uncertain (btol=gtol) whether the Dharma practitioner (chos pa)

[[[Santaraksita]]] was good or bad, he was asked to stay in Ra sa dPe dkar; and gSal snang had to go to the palace and pay his respects. The great Zhang blon ministers asked: ‘Is the southern¬barbarian monk attracted to (bag bgyid) heresy and black magic divination or not?' Because [they] asked (gsol) that [someone] be sent to personally examine [[[Santaraksita]]], the three, mChims mes lHas kyang zer,100 sBa Legs gzigs, Seng mgo lHa lung gzigs and sBa Sang shi, were sent. But when [they] examined [him they] did not understand the acarya 's language.101

99 dBa' bzhed 7b2-4 reads: zhang blon chen po sbrang rgyal sbra legs gzigs dang / seng 'go lha lung gzigs dang 'ba' sang shi dang gsum la bka' stsal pa / blon po khyed gsum ra sa pe har du song la / a tsarya bo dhi sa twa'i zhal sngar phyag 'tshal zhing mjal nas / lho bal gyi ngan sngags dang phra men lta bu yod daM med thugs phrig bzhes dgos sam mi dgos khyed kyis rtogs shig ces bka' stsal nas / de gsuM gyis ra sa pe har du mchis te / lo tsa ba ma mchis te .

100 This name is not in the dBa' bzhed, and stands out anyway, since the three names from the dBa' bzhed are correctly appended with dang...dang...gsi.im in sBa bhed G. sBa bzhed P makes this phrase into a name, mChims me lha, and omits sBa Legs gzigs to keep the number at three; sBa bzhed S follows suit (see below). If we did not have the dBa' bzhed to hand, this would have been a rather more intractable problem. 101 sBa bzhed G 20.7-15 reads: mkhan po dang nang 'khor lang gro snang ba ni lha sa dpe dkar du bzhag nas / btsan po'i zhal sngar phyag 'tshal du btsas bar ni da rung chos pa bzang ngan ci lags btol ma mchis nas / ra sa dpe dkar du bzhugs su gsol te / gsal snang ni pho brang du mchis te bsnyen bkur bcug pa dang / zhang

dam mi bgyid / dngos la rtogs su btang par gsol pa las / mchims mes lhas kyang zer / sba legs gzigs dang / seng mgo lha lung gzigs dang / sba sang shi gsum btang pas brtag na a tsa ra'i skad ma go /

sBa bzhed P follows G:

The abbot and Lang gro [sNang ra] were asked to stay in Ra sa Monastery (bi har). gSal snang went to the palace and asked to hear the temple minder (sku gnyer < bsnyen bkur). Being sent by the great Zhang blon ministers to examine the nine states of mind (dag = bag) and three tutelary deities of the southern-barbarian, heretical and black magic divinatory monk, mChims me lha, Seng mgo lHa lung gzigs and [sBa] Sang shi, these three, since they were sent to examine [the abbot], when [they] examined [him they] did not understand [his] language.

Although sBa bzhed P omits some of the beginning and becomes repetitious towards the end, it resembles sBa bzhed G more closely than sBa bzhed S. Once again, sBa bzhed S omits some of the content of sBa bzhed G and P. It reads:

After Lang ’gro sNang ra and the Acarya were ensconced in that [[[monastery]]], although they offered homage to Lord [[[Khri Srong lde brtsan]]] at the palace, worried that it was uncertain whether to prostrate [to the Lord]. The great Zhang blon ministers said: ‘Is the southern-barbarian man attracted to (bag bgyid) black magic and divination or not?’ After examiners were sent there, since the three [sBa] Sang shi, Seng ’go lHa lung gzigs and mChims me lha were sent, [they] did not understand the acarya’s language.

Several elements that sBa bzhed S omits also feature in the dBa' bzhed, for instance the name of the monastery. This invites the conclusion that sBa bzhed S omitted parts of sBa bzhed G and P’s ancestor, rather than that sBa bzed G and P's ancestor added elements to sBa bzhed S. The redactors of sBa bzhed S also alter the narrative by transposing the btsan po's doubt to his ministers. It is as if the redactors believed that these doubts were

misattributed to the Tibetan dharma king in the earlier historical tradition. This is just one example of the ways in which the redactors rewrite some of the dBa’ bzhed's more secular descriptions of Khri Srong lde brtsan for inclusion in the sBa bzhed. This process of religiously focused redaction suggests the arrival of a new Tibetan hermeneutics of History. This historiography appears to expect Tibet's heroes to possess religious rather than mundane motivations.

Conclusion

Below is a stemma of the relationship between the sBa bzhed recensions. Based on the evidence above, I speculate that an eleventh-century sBa bzhed 1, perhaps based on a ninth or tenth-century source, forms the main part of the dBa’ bzhed. Later redactors then added an opening and closing section and interlinear notes to create the dBa’ bzhed as it exists today. Other redactors added interpolations into sBa bzhed 1 to form sBa bzhed 2. sBa bzhed G is an edited version of 2, as are the quotations in KGT that constitute sBa bzhed P. Since these versions reflect ninth to twelfth-century representations of Khri Srong lde brtsan, I include them in my discussion in Chapters Four to Six.

Finally, sBa bzhed 3 is a thirteenth or fourteenth-century condensed version of sBa bzhed 2. It omits much of the content of sBa bzhed 1 in the process. Either the zhabs btags end section was already present in sBa bzhed 3 or the redactors of sBa bzhed S added it to their version. This remains to be investigated. I shall exclude sBa bzhed S from my discusion of Khri Srong lde brtsan, since it is evidently younger than the twelfth century. As Chapter Three demonstrates, the Mes dbon rnam thar (MBNT) also follows sBa bhed 3. Therefore I include it in this stemma here to show its relation to the sBa bzhed tradition.