h6 Tibetan Texts > Specific Tibetan Text Studies > rgyud bcu bdun > Detailed Notes on rgyud bcu bdun

Detailed Notes on Chris H Work on 17 Tantras

General Issues

David: here are some general things to think about when looking at the marked-up tantras. These are broad issues that apply to the markup of the tantras as a whole.

• See if the wording of the chapter titles is ok. I formated them to read like subheads (le'u dang po/ gzhi bstan pa/), rather than wording them like colophons (gzhi bstan pa'i le'u ste dang po/)
• Chapter colophons are called "le'u'i mtshan"; this is based on the commentary to the sgron ma 'bar ba, which consistently calls the chapter colophons this.
• Where chapters have no internal divisions, this creates a situation where there is only one subhead in the chapter, i.e. the colophon. Based on the rule of outlining that "one level of outline is not an outline" I made a section for (1) the main body of the chapter, and (2) the colophon. I worded the "main part of the chapter" heading "le'u'i gzhung don." Probably there is a better way to say this; if so, it will be easy to do a group replace.
• I didn't see this in any of our documentation, but in the closing colophon, I am putting "rgya rgya rgya" in a section titled "bka' rgya"; this wording is based on the 6 lamps commentary I was reading, but I'm not sure if it is the most common word.
• I probably haven't styled the opening titles (rgya gar skad du / bod skad du) correctly. Do these get styles other than just "text title"?
• I am marking deity names and epithets, but limiting my markup to the main characters of the tantra (i.e. teacher/student). Marking otherwise would require detailed reading of all the tantras.
• nyi zla kha sbyor is an example of a tantra that does not have a separate chapter for the gleng gzhi (i.e. they are included in part 1). See what you think of the markup here. I put the gleng gzhi in their own category (gleng gzhi) with two divisions for the common/uncommon. Then I put all the chapters under a single division, with a division for all the chapters. So, the chapters are on the same level as the common / uncommon gleng gzhi. The reason I did this was to make the enumeration of chaper 1 end in a "1". (If the gleng gzhi are broken out and become the first chapter-level division, then the actual chapter 1 will be numbered "2", as it is preceded by the gleng gzhi chapter)

Issues with Individual Tantras

These are notes on unusual issues pertaining to individual tantras. (Note that all 17 of the tantras have some questions for David in the endnotes.)

1. SGRA THAL 'GYUR

Notes on What I Did:

• In the sections of the tantra that list the questions for each chapter, there are often less questions that are actually answered in the tantra (i.e. the body of the chapters often answer more questions than were originally asked). Where this happens, I added subheads based on the commentary (previously the heads were listed as "mtshan med pa," though some of them contained a brief description. In some parts, I reorganized the subheads to follow the commentary (i.e. on these "unnamed" sections I followed the commentary to decide which verses belong with which subhead). All of this is noted in the endnotes.
• Each chapter has a section where the questions are asked, and then has the main section where the questions are answered. I named the first "zhu ba mdor bstan pa" based on commentary 2.2.3.3; the latter I called "zhus lan rgyas par bstan pa" based partially on the commentary 2.2.3.3.2. The heading "zhu pa'i don" also appears in the commentary for the first section, if that sounds better.
• Most of the sections had verse breaks already made. Some sections did not, so I made verse breaks based on the commentary (this clearly identifies topic changes). I added an endnote wherever I made verse breaks.
• I reversed the labels of ordinary/extraordinary introductions (they were misidentified)
• I combined questions 5.5 and 5.6 from the original file (due to a typo question 5.5 was accidentally split into two, creating two separate questions where there were only one). I re-did the subheads in chapter 5 to take care of the wrong enumeration this created.

Outstanding Issues for David

• Some issues are marked in the endnotes; this is mostly just notes alerting you to changes I made, but there are some questions there.
• I did nothing to your endnotes (the variant readings)
• Eventually the subheads could be made to match the commentary, and all the verse breaks could be made based on the commentary, to make a really definitive edition

2. BKRA SHIS MDZES LDAN

Notes on What I Did:

• followed normal workplan, put the non-verse sections of the tantra in prose styles.

Outstanding Issues for David

• there are no paragraph breaks in some of the prose sections of the tantra. I left it as is, so these might be added at some point in the future.
• there are a few questions in the endnotes

3. THUGS KYI ME LONG

Notes on What I Did:

• nothing unusual here, just followed workplan

Outstanding Issues for David

• there are several endnotes for David to read, most of the issues are simply with the gleng gzhi
• the tantra appears to be in a mixed verse style, where the number of syllables-per-line shifts within a section. I left most of this as verse, and put notes where it looked unusual to me.

05. RDO RJE SEMS DPA' SNYING ME LONG

Notes on What I Did:

• followed basic workplan
• the whole tantra had a hard return after every shad, so I broke up into verses and paragraphs. I did not add verse breaks to lengthy verse sections.
• verse breaks are from the original file
• Markup of teacher's name: the teacher is rdo rje 'chang; when he is called anything else (e.g. bcom ldan 'das; rdo rje 'dzin pa; byams dgon thugs rje can; stobs kyi bdag po; stobs kyi rgyal po; khro ba'i rgyal po) I marked that as an epithet.
• Markup of student's name: the student is also rdo rje chang; most often he is distinguished by being called "gsang ba'i bdag po"; I marked that as a "name," and everything else (e.g. rdo rje 'dzin pa) as an epithet

Outstanding Issues for David

• The tantra is not so long, but there are quite a few tricky issues here. As usual many of them are in the introductory scene. Everything is marked in endnotes.

06. RIG PA RANG SHAR

Notes on what I did:

• followed normal work plan
• applied prose styles where appropriate; the tantra was all in verse style
• given the length of the tantra, I didn't skim the whole thing looking for names; I just marked the names of the participants in the dialogue: the teacher said, the student said, etc.

name of the teacher: I marked his main names as "name": (rdo rje 'chang, gzhon nu dpa' bo stobs ldan); other epithets I marked as "epithet" name of the audience: I marked his main names as "name": (phyag na rdo rje; gsang ba'i bdag po); other epithets I marked as "epithet"

Outstanding issues for David:

• not all the chapters have verse breaks; I left them as-is, and did not enter any breaks
• chapters are divided into sections called "le'u'i gzhung don" and "le'u'i mtshan"; if the first name isn't correct, it will be easy to do a global replace
• other issues are marked in the endnotes. most are just small judgement calls. there aren't too many, given the length of the tantra.

Notes from Zach that were in the original text

(these are all taken care of, just including them here for info, CH)

-All of the shads have been fixed so that they accord with the printed text. -It appears that some chapters were left unfinished in terms of being marked with styles. David, you will need to go through the text to check over these and apply the appropriate styles. -Around page 486, there are a number of stacks which can not be rendered by unicode. Otherwise, I have attempted to fix all the Sanskrit and other ligatures that the original inputter missed. The text will have to be proofed again with an eye for abbreviated words and Sanskrit. For example, the original inputter typically wrote “???” as “???” and “????” and as “?????” I fixed some of these when I saw them, but likely did not catch all of them. -Odd looking “Indian language” that marks the transition between chapters has either been noted as “not renderable” or “unclear.” Examples of this script have been shown to Than for review. I will also attempt to ask about it to scholars here in Tagong. -Previously, every Tibetan phrase/sentence seems to have been separated by a carriage return. It seems like this may be unnecessary in some places where full paragraphs can be formed from several phrases/sentences. I have not attempted to form paragraphs, but rather have left the original formatting as it is.

9. KLONG DRUG PA

This tantra had not been converted from Wylie, so required some extra work:

• converted from wylie using wylie word
• the electronic wylie text did not have single vs double shads indicated; I went through the whole paper text and placed single/double shads in the electronic text, based on the paper.
• the wylie electronic text did not have page numbers in precisely the correct places; I went through the whole tantra and put page numbers in the correct places, based on the paper edition.
• the original file had some of David's analysis in English before the sections (in the first chapters of the text). I did not include any of this in the unicode edition.

17. RDZOGS PA RANG SHAR

• This tantra is not as straightforward as the others. The line-length is often irregular, and knowing what is speech/non-speech is often difficult. Where these issues were unclear, I marked it with an endnote. Speech vs non-speech was already marked in the electronic edition, but I had some questions about the existing markup.

• The format of this tantra is also slightly different than the others. Each chapter is formatted almost like an independent text: the chapter name is stated at the first (in Indian language and in Tibetan). This is followed by an homage, then the body of the chapter, then the colophon. I created headings for each of thes chapter-level divisions, calling them: mtshan / phyag 'tshal / gzhung don / mtshan byang.

• the full chapter title is listed (in tib/skt) at the beginning of each chapter. I marked these "colophon chapter title" even though it is not really a colophon

• The tantra has many verse-breaks already made. There are some sections that do not appear to have verse breaks. I left all breaks as-is.

NO UNUSUAL ISSUES

The following tantras all have questions for David in the endnotes. However, there are no exceptional issues, and work on them consisted of following the basic workplan.

• 04. sgron ma 'bar ba'i rgyud
• 07. nor bu phra bkod
• 08. ngo sprod rin po che
• 10. yi ge med pa
• 11. sen ge rtsal rdzogs
• 12. mu tik phreng ba
• 13. rig pa rang grol
• 14. rin chen spungs ba
• 15. sku gdung 'bar ba
• 16. nyi zla kha sbyor