1hEpybB

The Two Conquests of Zhang zhung and the Many Lig-Kings of Bon 35
In any case, on evidence of sPa btsun’s reference, we may safely conclude
that the extant Gab ’grel redaction is earlier. The logical conclusion would
then be that the redaction of the Ma nub, one way or the other, has to be
dated to after the 12 th c. AD, or late 11 th c. AD at the earliest. Earlier references
in the Ma nub to mNga’ ris (obviously located in relevant western
quarters), as consisting of three parts and as a part of Tibet (bod kyi mnga’ ris
kyi sum gnyis ster ba), and later ones to the sil bu’i dus (bod sil bur song ba’i
dus, in part III)—both briefly mentioned before—incidentally also point to
phyi dar origins or later. 35 But there are other indications too, of still later
redaction of the Ma nub.
rGyal rabs bon gyi ’byung gnas and Gling bzhi bstan pa’i ’byung khungs
The Bodhisattva narrative (II) also appears in the 15 th c. AD rGyal rabs bon
gyi ’byung gnas (and in the Gling bzhi bstan pa’i ’byung khungs), starting on p.
48. But Khyung po Blo gros rgyal mtshan here simply paraphrases the bsTan
pa’i rnam bshad (see the appended tables). 36
dBa’ bzhed
The Bodhisattva narrative seems to have been included in the master narrative
of the Ma nub (and in Bru) for polemical reasons and for the special
purposes of offering a grander karmic framing. Its Bon po identity narratives
seem to put a conveniently different spin on known clusters of Buddhist
narratives, involving key players, such as Khri Srong lde btsan, the Bodhisattva
Śāntarakṣita, and Padmasambhava, which are all familiar from phyi
dar Buddhist religious historical discourse. 37
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35
These markers of phyi dar identity are some of the things that Reynolds loses in his
translation.
36
The paraphrase also includes, in a barely recognisable manner, what seems to be a
brief, rephrased and adjusted version of a quote from the bsGrags byang in the bsTan pa’i
rnam bshad: it resonates with that in phrasing and general content, but is not identified
as a quote from the bsGrags byang. Incidentally, this may also help establish a more precise
date for the rGyal rabs bon gyi ’byung gnas or Gling bzhi bstan pa’i ’byung khungs:
Khyung po Blo gros rgyal mtshan wrote later than the sPa teacher.
37
sBa bzhed (Stein 1961 = 14 th c. AD MS), 20.8ff.: gsal snang gi mang yul du phyin tsa na
bho dhi sa tvas/ ’dzam bu gling na mthu’ che ba’i dge long padma sambha va dang / lha
khang rtsig pa’i phya [phyva] mkhan dang! gsum rtogs nas ’dug- /der mang yul nas rdzing
bcas nas chu klung la spyan drangs te/ (snye mo thod dkar du byon pa dang / ...). But cf.
dBa’ bzhed, Pasang Wangdu & Diemberger 2000 (>11 th c. AD), 11r.1: bo dhi sa tvas pad
ma sa bha ba bod yul du spyan drangs nas bzhes pa dang / bsam yas rmang rtsig pa dang lce
ti sgo mangs rtsig pa’i phya [phyva] mkhan gsas snang gis rlungs la drangs nas gshegs par gsol
ba dang / (nye mo thod kar du gshegs te! ...). Gonpo Gyaltsen’s eclectic version: bo dhi