Great Perfection.pdf

the legend of vairocana 31
and his missionary work in Tsha-ba-rong. The ’Dra ’bag is then presented
as Vairocana’s oral response to the request of his seven disciples who wrote
it down. It then explains the significance of the title: “as the reading of
this work resembles to the seeing of the actual countenance of Vairocana,
it is entitled the mask that resembles” (f. 125a3–125b6). Several other titles
are also given, but the title ’Dra ’bag is the one with which the work is
usually known.
The summary which I have made is based on the xylographic edition of
the work. Dharma seng-ge, the editor, has given in his editorial colophon,
some interesting information with regard to the condition of the text and
the circumstances in which he edited it. He specifies two different versions
of the work. One was first hidden by a Zhang-gnas gsar-pa and later rediscovered
by Jo-sman. This version according to the rNying ma pa tradition
is gter ma, i.e. the transmission of the authorisation to use the text is
interrupted by the process of concealment and recovery. The other version
came to a ’Bro-ban bKra-shis ’byung-gnas who revised the text and
this is according to the tradition is bka’ ma, i.e. the authorisation has been
transmitted from one person to another without having been interrupted.
The editor has, however, not bothered to give any hint concerning the
dates and identification of the persons mentioned above. The name Josman,
as I have suggested elsewhere, is identical to Jo-mo sman-mo
(1248–1283), one of the wives of Guru Chos-dbang (1212–1270). According
to Dharma seng-ge, the bka’ ma version has been revised supplementing
(kha bkang ba) it with passages from PK. The revision of ’Bro-ban
of the bka’ ma version is therefore posterior to O-rgyan gling-pa (1323–
1374). He further states that the revision has caused disorder in the
sequence of the story and many other defects. The gter ma version, he
writes, is genuine (shin tu yid ches pa’i gnas) and moreover, contains a number
of precepts (zhal gdams), but it is a version that the ordinary reader
would find difficult to believe. The bka’ ma version was therefore chosen
to be engraved. 43 He also indicates the existence of the latter in three
separate sections with titles, such as rGya ’bag for Vairocana’s work in
India, Bod ’bag, for his life in Tibet and Tsha ’bag for his sojourn in Tshaba-rong.
The present edition, Dharma seng-ge says, is based on an
earlier xylographic edition, but this old edition was not only written in a
bad script, but also full of mis-spellings which obliged him to compare it
43 The blocks were kept in bsTan-rgyas-gling in Lhasa where those of Dharma senge’s
own works in one volume were also kept (sPar tho phyogs tsam bkod pa phan bde’i pad tshal
’byed pa’i nyin byed, Three Karchaks, Gedan sungrab minyam gyunphel series, Vol. 13, Delhi 1970,
p. 236). This edition was reproduced and published by Khochen Trulku, Dehra Dun, 1977.