Manuscript Record

Lalitavistara

Lalita-vistara-sūtra [fragment]' (Matsunami)

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Description

"The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha." (84000) The manuscript is incomplete. The marginal page numbers are inconsistent and difficult to follow. Several missing folios have been replaced with paper insertions, but their numbering does not correspond to the original marginal pagination. Matsunami mentions numbering is not constant and the large page numbers on the mss are incorrect.

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