Wylie:Do ha mdzod kyi glu
Saraha is regarded as the grandfather of the mahāmudrā tradition. There are various tales of his colorful life, attested to in the songs attributed to him.2
These songs, also called dohās (after the name of the
meter of verse), are spicy, inspiring, and instructive though at times cryptic. Among the twenty-six texts in the Tengyur attributed to Saraha, eighteen are songs, and within those the most famous are the Dohā Trilogy: Dohā for the King, Dohā for the Queen,and Dohā for the People. These are said to have been sung to King Mahāpāla, his queens, and his people. The one chosen for this anthology is the longest, traditionally said to be 160 verses, whose purpose was to set the common people on the true path.3 Karma Tinle, a fifteenth-century Kagyu master and author of commentaries on the Dohā Trilogy, relates the circumstances leading up to these songs as follows. Saraha, born into a brahman family in south India, took monastic vows from Rāhulabhadra and became a great paṇḍita, learned in all areas of knowledge and known as Brahman Rāhula. He was greatly honored at that time by King Mahāpāla. At one point, in order to train those of the instantaneous type, Hayagrīva took the form of the bodhisattva Ratnamati, who manifested as a female arrowsmith specifically to benefit the great Brahman Rāhula. Saraha encountered her making arrows in a marketplace and, intrigued by the focused way she worked, asked her if she was a female arrowsmith. She replied that the intent of the Buddha is only recognized through symbols and methods, not through words and letters, at which point the meaning of the ḍākinī’s symbols arose in his mind. Since he was liberated instantly by the symbols of the arrow, he became known as
16 B the shared mahāmudrā cycle Saraha.*
Recognizing her skill as a teacher of symbols, Saraha stayed with
her as a fellow practitioner of yoga. Saying such things as, “Until yesterday I was not a brahman, but from today on I am a brahman,” he departed for charnel grounds, where they conducted gaṇacakras and sang vajra songs. When the local people of the kingdom heard that the one formally known as Brahman Rāhula was singing vajra songs, keeping company with the female arrowsmith, and living in charnel grounds, they were shocked and outraged, saying he had not only fallen from his pure monastic conduct, but he was also wandering about in the company of a woman of a bad caste, engaging in depraved conduct. When King Mahāpāla heard this, he issued an edict that his subjects should supplicate the great Brahman to renounce his inferior conduct and return to his pure conduct for the sake of the people of the kingdom. In response, Saraha sang the words that have become known as the Dohā for the King, Dohā for the Queen, and Dohā for the People. 4 Since this was originally sung, at some point it was written down in an eastern dialect of Apabhraṃśa, a Middle Indic language.5
The Tibetan
accounts of the formation of the trilogy and its scribes vary. Karma Tinle reports that some say that when Saraha sang of his experiences, the song was not divided into shorter and longer sets of verses (that is, it was one long song) and that later, when Saraha’s student Nāgārjuna wrote down the verses, he divided it into three songs. Karma Tinle also relates that others believe that it was Śavari who, having heard the songs from Nāgārjuna, wrote them down for the benefit of his student Maitrīpa. However, Karma Tinle says the first explanation is to be regarded as authoritative.6
On the other
hand, Chomden Raldri, a thirteenth-century Kadampa teacher and author of a commentary on the Dohā for the People, relates that Saraha taught the Dohā for the People to Padmavajra, Nāgārjuna, and Śavari, and that it was composed at Padmavajra’s request.7 Some time later it was translated into Tibetan. Karma Tinle states that the edition of the Dohā for the People he used for his commentary was translated into Tibetan by the Nepali master Balpo Asu based on an Indic manuscript belonging to his teacher Vajrapāṇi.8
The Sakya scholar Drakpa
In Mirror (4), Karma Tinle explains that in the language of southern India, sapara means “arrow” (mda’) and hahata means “shoot” (bsnun pa). Since he shot the arrow of nonduality into the heart of percepts and perceivers, he became known as Saraha (mDa’ bsnun, “Arrow Shooter”).
Dohā for the People B 17 Dorje reports there were three translations of the Dohā for the People into Tibetan: one by Atiśa and Naktso, one by Ma Lotsāwa Chöbar, and one by Balpo Asu. Chomden Raldri says that it was translated by Nyal Tengpa Lotsāwa.9
Since neither the edition of the Dohā for the People in The Treasury of Precious Instructions nor the edition in the Tengyur contain the name
of the translator, we do not know if they should be considered editions of the same text by one translator or represent different translations. There are, as would be expected, a number of other paracanonical editions, the oldest datable one being a xylograph edition printed by Lhatsun Rinchen Namgyal in 1543, whose colophon says it was translated by Balpo Asu.10 Karma Tinle in his commentary on the Dohā for the People says that there were three traditions of explaining Saraha’s Dohā Trilogy: The Bal tradition coming from what Balpo Asu received from Vajrapāṇi, the Rechung tradition based on what Rechungpa heard from Balpo Asu and Tipupa, and the Par tradition derived from what Ngari Joden transmitted to Drushulwa. The Rechung tradition also developed into the Kar tradition (named after Karmapa Rangjung Dorje) and the Ling tradition (so-called because of Ling Repa’s commentary, who studied with Rechungpa’s students).11 This translation is based on the commentaries listed in chapter 2, note 1, with the primary reliance being on Karma Tinle’s commentary, Mirror That Reveals the Liberation of Mind (which closely follows Parpuwa Lodrö Senge’s Illuminating the Connate), and Ling Repa’s Clarifying Suchness. Reliance on the Apabhraṃśa edition or other commentators would obviously produce a different translation. Transmission lineage received by Jamgön Kongtrul. Saraha to Śavaripa, Ngulchu Bairo, the exalted Dusum Khyenpa, Rechen Sönam Drakpa, Pomdrakpa Sönam Dorje, Karma Pakshi, Nyenre Gendun Bum, the exalted Rangjung Dorje, Yung Tönpa, Lama Sönam Zangpo, Lama Tsultrim Gönpo, Jangsem Sönam Gyaltsen, Khenchen Sönam Zangpo, Gośrī Paljor Döndrup, the seventh Gyalwang Karmapa, Chödrak Gyatso, the mahāsiddha Sangye Nyenpa, the eighth lord Mikyö Dorje, Karma Lekshe Drayang, Gelong Dorje Chö, Chetsang Karma Tenkyong, the exalted Könchok Tenzin, Jamgön Sungrap Gyatso, the omniscient Tenpai Nyinje, Gyalwang Dudul Dorje, the glorious Pawo Tsuklak Chökyi Gyatso, and Jamgön Kongtrul.12
- Other notes
- Genre from Richard Barron's Catalog
- Instruction manual
- Genre from dkar chag
- gzhung rtsa 'grel
- BDRC Link
- VolumeI1CZ3969
- BDRC Content Information
- No note on contents
- Other Translations
- Guenther, Herbert V. Ecstatic Spontaneity: Saraha’s Three Cycles of Dohā. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press. 1993. Jackson, Roger. Tantric Treasures: Three Collections of Mystical Verse from Buddhist India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004. Schaeffer, Kurtis R. Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Snellgrove, David. “Saraha’s Treasury of Songs.” In Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, edited by Edward Conze, 224–39. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1964.
- Commentary(s) of this Text in the DNZ
- Dpal sa ra ha'i gdams pa do ha'i bsdus don
Information about Unicode Tibetan and the digitization of this text
As the only available unicode Tibetan text at the time, Nitartha International's version of the Gdams ngag mdzod Paro Edition of the gdams ngag mdzod is provided here. However, note that it has not been thoroughly edited and that there may also be mistakes introduced through the conversion process. Eventually we will provide a fully edited version of the entire Shechen Edition, entered and edited multiple times by Pulahari Monastery in Nepal, but as of fall 2017 that project has not been finished. Note that the folio numbers that appear throughout were added by Nitartha Input Center at the time of input.
Provided by Nitartha International Document Input Center. Many thanks to Person:Namdak, Tenzin and Person:Wiener, G. for help with fonts and conversion.
