BUDDHABHADRA AND HIS TRANSLATION TEAM. A Draft (original) (raw)

The proto-history and history of the Avataṃsaka sūtra and its related texts is notoriously complex. We have very little knowledge about the cultural and intellectual milieu in which the “complete” Avataṃsaka, currently available only in two Chinese and one Tibetan translation, was compiled. Equally obscure is the cultural environment, or environments, in which its related texts were composed.The earliest available version of the Avataṃsaka is the Chinese translation produced in the Eastern Jìn by Buddhabhadra, then Śikṣānanada's translation in Táng China, and the latest is the Tibetan translation. The Buddhist intellectual environment of the earlier Eastern Jìn translation was the opposite of that of the Táng, there was essentially no preceding Chinese Buddhist scholarly establishment through which to interpret the scripture. In addition, the background of the chief member of the translation team, Buddhabhadra, suggests that he was familiar with certain practices related to the Avataṃsaka back in Central Asia or Northern India. The investigation of historical Buddhist environment in China around the time of the early translation of the “complete” Avataṃsaka, and the doctrinal and practical concerns of the members of translation team and the Chinese Buddhist clergy of the time will be the main focus of the current section. A preliminary study of the history of the Avataṃsaka translation in Eastern Jìn was addressed in Shigeo Kamata’s History of Chinese Buddhism. However, the fragmentary approach of the study the author employed, investigating individual biographies of each particular team member, conceals the dynamic of their collaboration, and also distances the translation activity from the Chinese Buddhist environment of the time. In the current work, heavily relying on the Chinese Buddhist traditional historical records and Shigeo Kamata’s investigation, we shall try to draw an integral picture of the events within Chinese Buddhism in the late 4th and early 5th century which led to the formation of exceptional translation team, and the significant impact it had on the Chinese Buddhism of the time. Understanding of the Chinese Buddhist environment of the time and the spiritual background of the chief members of the translation team might shed light at the process by means of which a particular interpretation was arrived at, which is of great importance for interpretation of some difficult passages in the text.