The Transmission Of Sanskrit Manuscripts 91
(3) After leaving Western Tibet, Atiśa visited Samye (Tib. bSam yas) mon-
astery in Central Tibet in 1047 and stayed in a small room located North of
the monastery’s Pekarling (Tib. dPe dkar gling). He was surprised when he saw
rare Indic manuscripts stored there, which included ones no longer available
in India. They were said to have been brought by Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla
during Tibet’s imperial period in the 8th century. Atiśa copied them and sent
the copies to India (i.e. Vikramaśīla?).19 According to Chim’s biography of
Atiśa, they include Kamalaśīla’s Madhyamakāloka,20 the Avataṃsaka (rNam
thar rgyas pa §319), and Tantric works which Atiśa had never heard of before
(ibid §76).21
Later, it is said, Śākyaśrībhadra (1127–1225), with the permission of the local
ruler (Tib. jo bo lha), accessed Sanskrit manuscripts of the Guhyagarbhatantra
and the Extensive Commentary on the Mūlāpatti (Tib. rTsa ltung gi rgya cher ’grel
pa) preserved in the Samye library. Still later Comden reldri (Tib. bCom ldan
ral gri, 1227–1305), too, would consult the *Guhyagarbhatantra manuscript.22
19 Las chen Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, bKa’ gdams chos ’byung, 96–97: de nas bsam yas su phebs
nas pe dkar gling du bzhugs / rgya dpe mang po ’dug pa gzigs pas / shin tu dgyes te sngon
bod du bstan pa byung ba ’dra ba / rgya gar du yang byung ba dka’ gsungs / byang chub chen
po gzigs pas ma hā bo dhi dang khyad mi snang gsungs nas / gnas dang gtsug lag khang la
dgyes te /
Ibid., 172–173: nged kyi [= kyis?] lha sa bsam yas la sogs pa’i gtsug lag khang dang / slob
dpon bo dhi sa twa dang / ka ma la shī la la sogs pas gdan drangs pa’i rgya dpe mang po
dang / dge ’dun stong phrag ’di tsam bzhugs pa sogs kyi lo rgyus mang po snyan du gsol / de
thams cad kyang jo bo bod du byon pa la dgyes pa lags zhus pas /
See Kawagoe, “Nag tsho Lo tsā ba,” 303–304.
20 Abhayākaragupta (d. 1125) embeds a number of passages of Kamalaśīla’s Madhyamakāloka
in his Munimatālaṃkāra. As Keira, Ryūsei, Mādhyamika and Epistemology: A Study
of Kamalaśīla’s Method for Proving the Voidness of All Dharmas: Introduction, Anno-
tated Translations and Tibetan Texts of Selected Sections of the Second Chapter of the
Madhyamakāloka (Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, 2004),
8–9, points out, Abhayākaragupta could have utilised the copy sent by Atiśa from Tibet.
21 Cf. Bya/Zul phu ’Dul ba ’dzin pa, “Jo bo chen po lha cig gi rnam par thar pa [Hagiography of
the Sole Great Lord],” in Bod kyi lo rgyus rnam thar phyogs bsgribs [Collection of Tibetan
Historical Works and Hagiographies] set 1 (Ca), ed. dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib
’jug khang (Xining: mTsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2010), 380.7–381.1: phyis bod du
byon nas bsam yas dpe dkar gling gi skor mdzod gcig sgo phye nas rgya dpe gzigs pas jo bos
de gong du ye gsan ma myong gzigs ma myong pa’i rgyud sde mang po bzhugs gda’ bas /;
interlinear note: slob dpon pad mas rdzu ’phrul gyis byin nas lha dang klu’i yul nas kyang
dpal shi len tra nas rgyud sde thams cad spyan drangs pas rgya gar bas bsam yas mang ba
yin gsung. ’Dul ba ’dzin pa’s (1100–1174) biography of Atiśa is one of the sources of Chim’s.
Cf. Hadano, Chibetto indogaku shūsei, 233–234.
22 See van der Kuijp, Leonard, W. J., “Review: On the Lives of Śākyaśrībhadra (?–?1225),”
Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.4 (1994): 612. See also ’Gos lo tsā ba gZhon