Description

The Tibetan text of the "sKyes pa rabs kyi gleṅ gźi (Jātakanidāna)" provides an example of the translation work of the later period in the history of transmission of Indian texts into the Tibetan by i ma rgyal mtshan, a teacher of Bu ston, and one of the renowned Tibetan translators of his era. It is unique in being the longest single Pāli work translated into Tibetan, consisting of canonical verses and later commentarial prose. The work is of interest on a number of levels, historical, philological and doctrinal. The critical edition of the "sKyes pa rabs kyi gleṅ gźi" is based on six Tibetan editions and divides the text into its constituent parts. The primary purpose of this work is to provide a full description of the Tibetan translations of the text with all variant readings given in the critical apparatus. In addition to this the critical apparatus records various omissions, additions, variations and variant orthographies encountered in the Tibetan, as well as giving the Pāli forms of proper names occurring in the Tibetan translation of the text. There are also eight appendices providing information on the many verses contained in the text, a list of omissions and additions from the Pāli text, and a list of other works by the Tibetan translator.