The Future Buddha’s Past Lives – On the Maitreyapariprccha

As has become clear to Buddhologists, it is difficult to apply methods of Classical textual criticism to Mahayana sutras due to their fluidity and variability. New methods in Buddhist textual studies have thus been advanced, including critical editing that develops a historical apparatus (Hinüber 1980), or that does not attempt to recreate an Ur-text (Silk 2021). In this new framework, a historically meaningful study of a Mahayana sutra should entail preserving the autonomy of its multiple versions and highlighting the manifold strata of its textual tradition. This projects study of the Maitreyapariprccha, the Inquiry of Maitreya (abbr. Mp), follows these newer approaches: while recognizing the intertextual relationships between the four translations of the Mp, each translation will be treated as a text in its own right. The project will involve the first in-depth study of the Mp, a Mahayana sutra preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. The goal is to offer critical editions and English translations of its four historical translations in Chinese and Tibetan. With this, we expect to be able to better position this sutra within the Mahayana doctrinal development as well as within Buddhist translation history. On one hand, the content of Mp as a composite of diverse modules represents a possible model for the textual formation of Mahayana sutras in general, and reflects, more specifically, various doctrinal stances in the development of the Future-Buddha Maitreya cult. On the other hand, the Mps transmission history will contribute to a more complete picture of Indo-Sino-Tibetan cultural interactions during the 8th to 11th centuries, especially their impact on scriptural transmission and translation practices. The project combines philology with historical-religious analysis: Establishing reliable editions of the text in question will enable hypotheses about certain historical structures of the Maitreya cult. The editing process will attempt to establish a historical apparatus of this text, paying due attention to the texts different versions in multilingual environments. It will also record the range of textual variation in the works multivalent tradition. This project will provide new philological and historical knowledge about an as yet unstudied scripture unique in the development of the Maitreya cult. The project draws attention to Sino-Tibetan interaction as a significant factor in the production of scriptural translations, offering a hypothesis of the hybrid translation model and challenging some records as found in traditional colophons. It will also shed light on the nature of cultural interactions in the Tibetan imperial period, interactions that were played down in subsequent Tibetan history. Until now these aspects have not received due scholarly attention.