| Specifications |
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Publisher: Tibet House, New Delhi |
| Language: English | |
| Pages: 93 | |
| Cover: PAPERBACK | |
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11x9 inch |
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Weight 330 gm |
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HBV036 |
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Ships in 1-3 days |
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Ksemendra the celebrated polymath was born in Kashmir, the vale of wisdom. He sings of the glory of his Kashmir, as the prime of blessed places, adorned by galaxies of scholars, and a land which humbles even Indra's domain:
अस्ति स्वस्तिषतामा मण्डितं धमण्डलैः।
खण्डितखण्डलास-दर्प कश्मीर-मण्डलम् ||
In the Subhäsitavali of Vallabhadeva (ed. Peterson p.125) verses are ascribed to Ksemendra in which he praises the Vitasta river, rolling across Kashmir, the repository of prosperity and a land endowed with eminent poets blessed by the grace of Sarasvati:
सूक्तार्पिता रणत्-तार-हार नूपुर मेखला।
नृत्यतीष कवीन्द्राणां यत्र वक्त्रे सरस्वती ||
Ksemendra was born around AD 990 as the son of Prakäšendra. His grandfather was Sindhu and great-grandfather Bhogindra, and a distant forbear Narendra was minister to king Jayapida of Kashmir. Prakaśendra, the father of Ksemendra, was a munificent philanthropist, a patron of learning and a scholar in his own right. Brought up in material prosperity, Ksemendra had the best education under the most famous teachers, like the eminent thetorician Abhinavagupta. Ksemendra's indefatigable energy, keen intellect and poetic eloquence has rendered him a pearl of Sanskrit literateurs. His literary oeuvre is as vast and varied as outstanding and inimitable. His epitomes of the epics, didactic verses, works on poetics, metrics and other disciplines number about forty, many of them now lost. His monumental condensation of the Rämäyana, Mahabharata, and the lost Brhatkathä are of a high order. Among the poetic epitomes of Ksemendra, the Avadana-kalpalată occupies a special place as it has been a source of inspiration to Tibetan and Mongolian literary masters and it has moulded their kävya diction. Ksemendra wrote the Avadana-kalpalată in AD 1052 at the instance of his Buddhist friend Nakka, and with the cooperation of scholar Viryabhadra. When the light of Buddhism and its artistic glories were flickering out in Kashmir. Ksemendra set himself to capture the moral purity. enlightenment and beauty of the fading cloister walls in the varied flow of metres in the Avadana-kalpalatä, as his son Somendra says in the 108th chapter येषां सुवर्ण-प्रतिमा-प्रतान- जितावदानान्यभवन् गुहासु।
संसका नेत्रामृत -चित्र-चित्राः कालेन ते तेऽपि गता विहाराः ॥
सरस्वती तूलिकया विचित्र-वर्ण-क्रमैः संकलितावदानः ।
तातेन योऽयं विहिती महार्थः सन्नन्दनः पुण्यमयो विहारः ॥
न तस्य नाशोऽस्ति युगक्षयेऽपि
Gone are the monasteries in the flow of time whose cloisters were painted with charming murals of Buddhist avadanas in golden hues and which held the eyes in rapture. My father has collected these edifying tales, painted them in variegated hues of the poetic art, and it has verily become a magnificent and sanctifying vihara which transcends oblivion even by time.
The Avadana-kalpalata soon earned distinction as an outstanding collection of avadana stories illustrating the päramitä vows, since it was written in the current style of kävya by an outstanding author famed in the literary circles of Kashmir and beyond. When Säkyaśri-or Kha-che pan-chen ""the great pandita of Kashmir"" as the Tibetans called him-visited Tibet in AD 1204 he carried with him a copy of the Avadana-kalpalatä. He presented it to the Sa-skya pandita Kun-dgah-rgyal-mtshan the same year, when the latter met him at Chu-mig. Seven decades later, in AD 1272, it was translated into Tibetan by Son-ston Rdo-rje-rgyal-mtshan (Rdor-rgyal) with the help of the Indian teacher Laksmikara, at the command of Hphags-pa Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshan of the Sa-skya monastery and mihi-dban-po dpon-chen Sakya-bzan-po, during the heyday of the Sa-skya sect. The translation was executed with the cooperation of acarya Ni-mahi-dpal in the vihära of Dge-hdun-bzhi-sde in the Man-yul area, under the title of Byan-chub-sems-dpahi rtogs-pa-brjod-pahi dpag-bsam-gyi hkhri-fin. According to the Derge edition of the Tanjur, it was revised by Chos-skyon-bzań-po Son-ston the translator of the Avadana-kalpalata had approached Hphags-pa to send him to India to learn the work of a translator. Hphags-pa said ""It is a good idea. But it is difficult to acquire the ability of translating new texts. Study well and interrogate panditas. Therefore, you should at any rate master [the treatises on prosody, grammar, etc.]"". Saying so, he (Hphags-pa) gave him the above-mentioned books, five golden sran, and ten pieces of silk. Having reached Nepal, he attended for five years on the pandita Mahendrabhadra, and mastered the five lesser sciences..... Son(-ston) translated for the first time the Dpag-bsam-hkhri-sin (Avadana-kalpalata).
This kävya soon became a Tibetan classic, an inspiration and model for literary style and masters were initiated into it. When G.yag-sde pan-chen (born AD 1299) had received his final monastic ordination he was introduced to the Avadana-kalpalata by Blo-gros-mtshuns-med. The Imperial Preceptor Karma-pa Rol-pahi-rdo-rje (1340-1383) recited the Avadana-kalpalata to Chos-kyi-rgyal-po of Hbri-khun, on his way from China to Tibet.
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