By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)
The first section of the Tengyur is entitled Collected Hymns (བསྟོད་ཚོགས་, bstod tshogs, stotra-gaṇa). Comprising the first volume of the Tengyur, the section holds 170 short poems of praise to the Buddha, his disciples, Buddhist deities, and the famous author-saints of the classical Buddhist past. As Zhuchen’s catalog notes, these are also “ordinary” (ཐུན་མོང་, thun mong) praises, meaning that they are not tantric in nature (tantric praises are cataloged later, in the various subdivisions of the Tantra section).
The brief epideictic pieces found here are arranged first by author chronology, then by translator chronology. As in other sections, very late translations such as those of Zhalu Lotsawa (ཞྭ་ལུ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་, zhwa lu lo tsA ba) conclude the section. Zhuchen’s catalog does not attempt to classify the Collected Hymns into a detailed topical outline, but within the larger collection of praises, it does call our attention to two important groups.
The first is a group of twenty praises (D.1128–D.1147) attributed to Nāgārjuna, the Buddhist thinker revered by the Mahāyāna tradition. Nāgārjuna’s works are often organized in three “collections”: a collection of speeches (གཏམ་ཚོགས་, gtam tshogs), a collection of reasonings (རིགས་ཚོགས་, rigs tshogs), and a collection of praises (བསྟོད་ཚོགས་, bstod tshogs). The texts in this section of the Tengyur are among those included in the latter. These works offer conventional praises to the Buddha, his three bodies (D.1133, D.1134), his twelve deeds (D.1145), his eight reliquary stūpas (D.1143-D.1144), his powers to save beings from hell (D.1147), and so forth. However, Tibetans also remember these praises for their philosophical dimensions, in which praise is offered to emptiness, dependent arising, and the Buddha’s formless dimensions. In particular, the Praise of the Dharmadhātu (ཆོས་དབྱིངས་བསྟོད་པ་, chos dbyings bstod pa, dharmadhātu-stava, D.1128) is known for its passages that speak in positive terms about the Buddhist ultimate, celebrating it as a type of fullness rather than a mere emptiness.
The second group that Zhuchen’s catalog points out is a collection of five short verse works (D.1148–D.1152) composed by Mātṛceṭa, a once popular Buddhist writer about whom little is currently known. The identity of Mātṛceṭa is complicated by the variety of names used to refer to him; Zhuchen’s catalog calls him Maticiṭa (མ་ཏི་ཙི་ཊ་, ma ti tsi Ta), but he also appears under the names Makhol (མ་ཁོལ་, ma khol), Śūra, and Aśvaghoṣa (རྟ་དབྱངས་, rta dbyangs). Tibetan historians like Butön and Tāranātha identify Mātṛceṭa as a follower of Śiva who lost a debate with Āryadeva, and then converted to Buddhism and became Āryadeva’s disciple.
Literature: A discussion of Nāgārjuna’s praises, along with a translation and commentary on the Dharmadhātustotra, can be found in Karl Brunnhölzl (translator), In Praise of Dharmadhātu: Nāgārjuna and the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2008). Martin Willson’s In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress (London: Wisdom Publications, 1986) discusses Buddhist canonical praises, and contains some discussion of Mātṛceṭa.
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