This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
In comparing Senchu Murano’s English translation of the story of Devadatta and the Dragon King’s Daughter with H. Kern’s English translation from the Sanskrit, we need to start with the fact that this chapter wasn’t translated by Kumārajīva. According to the explanation in Murano’s Introduction, Chapter 12 was translated by Fa-i in 490 CE and inserted into Kumārajīva’s version at the beginning of the sixth century. In Kern’s translation, the material doesn’t appear as a separate chapter but is instead spliced onto the end of Chapter 11, Apparition of a Stūpa.
The two translations appear even closer than the chapters translated by Kumārajīva. Take for instance the opening scene.
Kern offers:
Thereupon the Lord addressed the whole company of Bodhisattvas and the world, including gods and demons, and said: Of yore, monks, in times past I have, unwearied and without repose, sought after the Sūtra of the Lotus of the True Law, during immense, immeasurable Æons; many Æons before I have been a king, during many thousands of Æons. Having once taken the strong resolution to arrive at supreme, perfect enlightenment, my mind did not swerve from its aim. I exerted myself to fulfil the six Perfections (Pāramitās), bestowing immense alms: gold, money, gems, pearls, lapis lazuli, conch-shells, stones (?), coral, gold and silver, emerald, Musāragalva, red pearls; villages, towns, boroughs, provinces, kingdoms, royal capitals; wives, sons, daughters, slaves, male and female; elephants, horses, cars, up to the sacrifice of life and body, of limbs and members, hands, feet, head.
Murano offers:
Thereupon the Buddha said to the Bodhisattvas, gods, men and the four kinds of devotees:
“When I was a Bodhisattva] in my previous existence, I sought the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma for innumerable kalpas without indolence. I became a king [and continued to be so] for many kalpas. [Although I was a king,] I made a vow to attain unsurpassed Bodhi. I never faltered in seeking it. I practiced alms-giving in order to complete the six pāramitās. I never grudged elephants, horses, the seven treasures, countries, cities, wives, children, menservants, maidservants or attendants. I did not spare my head, eyes, marrow, brain, flesh, hands or feet. I did not spare even my life.”
The principal difference is that Murano’s translation inserts material within square brackets that he felt necessary for clarity.
Another telling similarity is the “error” concerning the direction from which the Stūpa of Treasures arrived.
At the beginning of Chapter 11, Murano has the Buddha explain that:
“The perfect body of a Tathāgata is in this stūpa of treasures. A long time ago there was a world called Treasure-Purity at the distance of many thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds to the east [of this world]. In that world lived a Buddha called Many-Treasures.”
Kern, however, says:
Thus asked, the Lord spake to Mahāpratibhāna, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, as follows: In this great Stūpa of precious substances, Mahāpratibhāna, the proper body of the Tathāgata is contained condensed; his is the Stūpa; it is he who causes this sound to go out. In the point of space below, Mahāpratibhāna, there are innumerable thousands of worlds. Further on is the world called Ratnaviṣuddha, there is the Tathāgata named Prabhūtaratna, the Arhat, &c.
While Many Treasures lived in the east in Chapter 11, both Murano and Kern agree that the stūpa arrived from the nadir in the story of the Dragon King’s Daughter.
Murano has:
At that time Many-Treasures, the World-Honored One, who had come from the nadir,’ was accompanied by a Bodhisattva called Accumulated-Wisdom. The Bodhisattva said to Many-Treasures Buddha, “Shall we go back to our home world?”
Kern has:
At that moment a Bodhisattva of the name of Pragñākūṭa, having come from beneath the Buddha field of the Tathāgata Prabhūtaratna, said to the Tathāgata Prabhūtaratna: Lord, let us resort to our own Buddha-field.
Next: Encouragement