Composition & History
The Mahāvairocana Tantra is the first true Buddhist tantra, the earliest comprehensive manual of tantric Buddhism. It was probably composed in the middle of the 7th century, in all probability in north-eastern India at Nālandā. The Sanskrit text of the Mahāvairocana Tantra is lost, but it survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations. The Chinese translation has preserved the original Sanskrit mantras in the Siddhaṃ script. There are translations from both into English. (see below).
The text was translated into Chinese in 724 by Śubhakarasiṃha who had travelled to China from Nālandā. It is possible that the Sanskrit text was taken to China circa 674 by the Chinese pilgrim Wu-xing. It was translated into Tibetan sometime before 812 by Śīlendrabodhi and dPal brTsegs.
A major commentary by Buddhaguhya was written in about 760 and is preserved in Tibetan. Hodge translates it into English alongside the text itself.
Kūkai discovered the Mahāvairocana Tantra in 796, and travelled to China in 804 to receive instruction in it.
Read more about this topic: Mahavairocana Tantra
Famous quotes containing the words composition and/or history:
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)