Śraddhākaravarman

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श्रद्धाकरवर्मन्
Śraddhākaravarman(b. ca. 10th/11th century - )

Śraddhākaravarman was a Kashmiri paṇḍita who was a student of Ratnakaraśānti (late 10th century – early 11th century) and teacher of Rinchen Zangpo. According to Jean Naudou, Śraddhākaravarman, with Padmākaravarman, was "one of the most productive Indian translators of his generation." Furthermore, describing his collaborations with Rinchen Zangpo, he writes, "The Kaśmīri origin of one of the two most fruitful collaborators of the Lo-chen [i.e. Rinchen Zangpo] is specified on several occasions: Śraddhākaravarman, introduced to the system of Buddhajñāna by Śāntipāda, taught it to Rin-chen bzaṅ-po at the same time as Padmākaravarman. He had also received from Vāgīśvara instructions about the propitiation of Tārā according to the method of Ravigupta, and he transmitted it to Tathāgatarakṣita. He is the author of a certain number of very short texts, of which the longest is Yogānattaratantrārthāvatārasaṃgraha (Rg. LXXII, 9) (24 p.)." (Jean Naudou, Buddhists of Kaśmīr [Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1980], 191–92). The most important of Śraddhākaravarman's translations, according to Naudou, were carried out in cooperation with Rinchen Zangpo.

Library Items

Text
Candrakīrti: pradīpodyotananāmaṭīkā
A commentary on the Guhyasamāja Tantra attributed to Candrakīrti. This extensive commentary on Guhyasamāja Tantra discusses the six hermeneutic strategies of provisional and ultimate meaning, literal and non-literal reading, and interpretable or non-interpretable meaning. It also highlights the natural state of all phenomena such as five aggregates and five elements as enlightened buddhas, and described the innate mind as luminous and endowed with qualities of enlightenment. The commentary is said to have been written relying on instructions passed down from Nāgārjuna who is said to have been prophesied in the Descent to Laṅka Sūtra to be a promoter of the higher yoga tantras. If one accepts the author of this text to be Candrakīrti, who is the Mādhyamika author of the Madhyamakāvatāra, as tradition has it, then it is evident he adopted here a position on buddha-nature which is different from the one in Madhyamakāvatāra, where his focus is on establishing all things as emptiness, and he argues the sūtras advocating buddha-nature are provisional teachings to lead those beings scared of non-self. In this text, the author accepts the nature of all things to be enlightened, and he argues that 'sentient beings are the base of all buddhas because they possess buddha-nature'(རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་གནས་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་དེ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །). Traditional scholars would generally explain such a shift in philosophical stance as context-based and not see it as a contradiction or inconsistency. In the context of Guhyasamāja tantra, Candrakīrti could be said to have accepted the concept of buddha-nature as innate enlightenment.
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