Materials Toward the Study of Vasubandhus Viik (I): Sanskrit and Tibetan Critical Editions of the Verses and Autocommentary; An English Translation and Annotations

The Twenty Verses on Manifestation-Only of the Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (c. 350430?), his Viík, is one of the most important treatises of the Yogcra school. Accompanied by the authors own commentary, the text lays out a vision of a Buddhist Idealism in which even ones experience of the sufferings of hell is revealed to be nothing other than the results of working out ones karma. Later scholars commented on the work a number of times, in its original Sanskrit, in Tibetan translation, and in three Chinese versions.

This book presents an edition and translation of the Sanskrit text of the core verses, alongside the original authors commentary, based directly on the manuscript evidence. This is accompanied by an edition of the canonical translations of these texts found in the Tibetan Tanjurs, as well as a draft translation of the verses in Tibetan, found in a manuscript from Dunhuang. This publication therefore provides the most reliable and comprehensive philological accounting to date for this fundamental work.