86 Kano
The passage makes three points: (a) the manuscripts once believed to be in
Atiśa’s possession were seen by Tāranātha, a great historian/master of the
Jonang (Tib. jo nang) school of Tibetan Buddhism, (b) these manuscripts were
supposedly sent back to India after Atiśa’s passing, (c) the size of the manu-
script collection was small. The first two points were obviously based on scrip-
tural sources, and the last on oral information.
Point (a) is confirmed in Tāranātha’s autobiography (composed ca. 1634),
which details his visit to Retreng in ca. 1601:
I saw religious supports (Tib. rten) [in the form] of Indic manuscripts
which endured fire [i.e. survived a fire]. Since there was the phrase bhaṅ-
galapaṇḍitabhikṣu-dīpaṃkaraśrījñānasya pustakaṃ [‘a book of the
scholar monk Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna from Bengal’] below many Indic man-
uscripts [i.e. in the lower margins of folios?] including Śāntipa’s com-
mentary on the Dvikalpa, they must be manuscripts that belonged to
Joboje himself. Therefore, I shed tears of great respect, offered cloth and
fragrant aromas together with jewels and the like, and uttered many
prayers. I quickly read a few words in Sanskrit from two folios of the Indic
manuscript of the Kṛṣṇayamāritantra, and expounded them, while trans-
lating them into Tibetan, one by one.8
gsham du bris pa mang po gzigs / mgo nas shog bu gnyis tsham tshom med par shar gyi [= gyis]
bton sogs gsungs pas bden na rgya dpe de la sogs pa yin ’dug / ’on kyang jo bo grongs nas phyag
dpe rnams ’brom gyis rgya gar du brdzangs zhes rnam thar las ’byung bas / mang po rang ni
med nges / khong tshos rgya dpe dril ba mi khur chung ngu tsam longs pa yod zer / gzhan gsung
rab kyi glegs bam khri phrag ’ga’ tsam brgal ba lha khang du bzhugs pa de kun blun po mang
pos rgya dpe yin par bsgom mod / bod dpe kha rkyang las med /
8 Tāranātha, Kun dga’ snying po, rGyal khams pa tā ra nā thas bdag nyid kyi rnam thar nges par
brjod pa’i deb gter shin tu zhib mo ma bcos lhug pa’i rtogs brjod [Auto-biography as Narrated by
Tāranātha, Extremely Meticulous Annals, i.e, Unfanciful Straightforward Account]. Jo nang
rje btsun tā ra nā tha’i gsung ’bum dpe bsdur ma. [Collated Edition of the Collected Works of
Tāranātha, the Venerable of Jonang Tradition], vols. 1–2 (Beijing: dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rny-
ing zhib ’jug khang, 2008), 164: rgya dpe me thub ma rnams kyi rten mjal byas pas / shān ti bas
mdzad pa’i brtag gnyis kyi ’grel pa sogs rgya dpe mang po’i gsham na / bhaṅgala paṇḍita bhikṣi
[= bhikṣu] dīpaṃkaraśrījñānasya pustakaṃ / zhes pa ’dug pas jo bo rje nyid kyi phyag dper nges
pa’i [= pas] mos gus chen pos mchi ma ’khrug cing na bza’ dang dri bzang la rin po che bsres
pa sogs phul zhing smon lam mang du btab / gshin rje gshed dgra nag gi rgyud kyi rgya dpe
nas shog bu gnyis tsam rgya skad du mgyogs par klogs shing / de rjes so sor phral nas bod skad
bsgyur gyin bshad pas / This is followed by the next passage: rwa sgreng pa thams (p. 165) cad
sngar mi che dgu thams cad la rten mjal phul shing / sgra ba dang lo tsā bar btags pa mang po
zhig rang byung na’ang / ’bru re ’bru gnyis klog pa tsam las mi ’dug pa [= par] ngo mtshar che