362 paul copptime knew little Chinese and a Persian Nestorian who could not read
Sanskrit, was something of a fiasco.”^7
A new translation was commissioned by the Tang emperor Dezong
ᓼ (r. 780–805), with Prajña now aided by Yuanzhao, the eminent
scholar-monk and prominent disciple of the then recently deceased
esoteric master Amoghavajra. Dezong honored Prajña by person-
ally composing a preface for the scripture and named him “Master
of the Tripitaka.” This act, as Weinstein notes, recognized Prajña as ̣
“the leading translator at the court of Dezong.”^8 As Amoghavajra had
done before him, Prajña returned to India in search of texts, returning
to Chang’an in 792 with, as Weinstein notes, “a sizable collection of
Tantric scriptures, many of which he subsequently translated.”^9
Aside from the two abovementioned works, extant translations
attributed to Prajña include the Dasheng bensheng xindi guanjing
T. 159), the Bore boluomiduo xinjing
( T. 253), the Da huayan zhangzhe wen fo naluoyan li jing
T. 547) the Zhu fo jingjie she zhenshi
jing T. 868), the Shouhu guo jie zhu tuoluoni jing
T. 997), and the Foshuo zaota yanming gongde
jing T. 1026).
(^7) Weinstein 1987b, 98.
(^8) Weinstein 1987b, 98.
(^9) Weinstein 1987b, 98. See above for the need for caution in characterizing these
texts as “tantric.”