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Saraha's Spontaneous Songs
With the Commentaries by Advayavajra and Moksakaragupta
Published by Wisdom Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
The first volume in over six decades to bring to light new original material on Saraha’s Treasury of Spontaneous Songs (Dohakosa).
“Completely abandon thought and no-thought,
and abide in the natural way of a small child.” —Saraha
To find liberation and realize the true nature of reality, the Indian Buddhist master Saraha says we must leave behind any conceptual assessment of reality, since no model of it has ever been known to withstand critical analysis. Saraha’s spontaneous songs, or dohas, represent the Buddhist art of expressing the inexpressible. The most important collection of Saraha’s songs is the Dohakosagiti, better known in Tibet as the Songs for the People, and the Tibetan mahamudra tradition, especially within the Kagyü school, has done the most to preserve the lineage of Saraha’s instructions to the present day.
But Saraha was also widely cited in Indian sources starting around the eleventh century, and one Indic commentary, by the Newar scholar Advayavajra, still exists in Sanskrit. In addition, we have independent root texts of Saraha’s songs in the vernacular Apabhramsa in which they were recorded. These Indian texts, together with their Tibetan translations, are here presented in masterful new critical editions along with the Tibetan translation of the commentary no longer extant in Sanskrit by Moksakaragupta. Finally, both commentaries are rendered in elegant English, and the authors offer a brisk, comprehensive introduction.
Saraha’s Spontaneous Songs provides the reader with everything needed for a serious study of one of the most important works in the Indian Buddhist canon.
“Completely abandon thought and no-thought,
and abide in the natural way of a small child.” —Saraha
To find liberation and realize the true nature of reality, the Indian Buddhist master Saraha says we must leave behind any conceptual assessment of reality, since no model of it has ever been known to withstand critical analysis. Saraha’s spontaneous songs, or dohas, represent the Buddhist art of expressing the inexpressible. The most important collection of Saraha’s songs is the Dohakosagiti, better known in Tibet as the Songs for the People, and the Tibetan mahamudra tradition, especially within the Kagyü school, has done the most to preserve the lineage of Saraha’s instructions to the present day.
But Saraha was also widely cited in Indian sources starting around the eleventh century, and one Indic commentary, by the Newar scholar Advayavajra, still exists in Sanskrit. In addition, we have independent root texts of Saraha’s songs in the vernacular Apabhramsa in which they were recorded. These Indian texts, together with their Tibetan translations, are here presented in masterful new critical editions along with the Tibetan translation of the commentary no longer extant in Sanskrit by Moksakaragupta. Finally, both commentaries are rendered in elegant English, and the authors offer a brisk, comprehensive introduction.
Saraha’s Spontaneous Songs provides the reader with everything needed for a serious study of one of the most important works in the Indian Buddhist canon.
About The Authors
Klaus-Dieter Mathes is a professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Hong Kong and was previously the head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. His current research deals with exclusivism, inclusivism, and tolerance in Mahayana Buddhism. He obtained a Ph.D. from Marburg University and completed his habilitation at Hamburg University. His major publications include a study of the Yogacara text Dharmadharmatavibhaga (published in 1996 in the Indica et Tibetica series), A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsawa’s Mahamudra Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga, and Maitripa: India’s Yogi of Nondual Bliss.
Péter-Dániel Szántó started his studies at ELTE Budapest (Tibetology, Indology). He read for a DPhil in Oxford, where he also held two junior research fellowships (Merton College, All Souls College). He also worked as a postdoc in Hamburg and Leiden and was visiting professor at Leiden and Vienna. He is currently associate professor at ELTE Budapest, where he is also head of the Department of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. His main research areas include esoteric Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Sanskrit belles-lettres, and medieval South Asian history.
Product Details
- Publisher: Wisdom Publications (April 9, 2024)
- Length: 592 pages
- ISBN13: 9781614297284
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Raves and Reviews
"For the first time the most important work of spiritual poetry from late Buddhist India is now available together with its only existing Sanskrit commentary as well as the defining commentary for the reception of Saraha’s poetry in Tibet. Together these three major works illuminate a rich and dynamic period of Buddhist thought and practice. A magnificent achievement.”
– Kurtis Schaeffer, author of Dreaming the Great Brahmin
“This is the most important book on Saraha in a generation—and arguably in the past eighty years. Saraha's Spontaneous Songs will be the foundation for any serious study of Saraha and his Treasury of Dohas for many decades to come, and all students of South Asian and Tibetan Buddhism shud be profoundly grateful to Mathes and Szántó for having collaborated on this landmark work.”
– Roger R. Jackson, John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion, Emeritus, Carleton College
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