Earlier in the year I translated a section of the Apadāna relating Why the Buddha Suffered. While doing research on that project I also came across the first translation that was ever made into English from the Apadāna.
I prepared the file for publication as long ago as February, but I was thinking at that time of making a retranslation of the text, but many other works have intervened, and I have not started on it.
Now I decided to go ahead and publish the original translation by the Indian scholar, Mr. Dwijendralal Barua, M.A. It originally appeared in an obscure Volume in Honour of B.C. Law that was published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Poona, India in 1946.
The work in useful as Barua also made a very good study of the section he translated, which forms the first section of the Apadāna, and concerns a grand, but imaginary, offering made to all the Buddhas throughout the world systems, and its result.
I have also recorded the translation, which can be found embedded in the page. As there are very few translations from the Apadāna, it should be worth your time to have a look at this unusual piece.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Publication of Old Javanese Metres
- New Album: Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on Level 1 at Borobudur
- Update of the Gaṇḍavyūha Reliefs at Borobudur
- Text and Translation of the Bhadra-cari-praṇidhānam
- Publication of Romesh Dutt’s Condensed Translations of the Indian Epics
