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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
The Candimā-sutta or ‘discourse on the moon’ in the Samyuttanikāya of the Pali canon based on the Indian myth according to which eclipses of the moon as well as of the sun are caused by a demon named Rāhu ‘the Seizer’, who is supposed to try to lay hold of one or the other of the two planets at certain times. The Sutta reports that on such an occasion the god dwelling in the moon takes his refuge in the Buddha who successfully shows his power and pity by directing Rāhu emphatically to set the moon at once at liberty.
1 Ed. PTS, i, p. 50.
2 cf. Feer's, Leon French translation of Csoma de Körös's analysis of the Kanjur (Annales du Musée Guimet, II, 1881, 131–577)Google Scholar. Under the heading ‘Textes traduits du pali’, pp. 288–90, Feer gives a list of 13 texts (Nos. 13–25) which according to a note in the Tibetan text have been translated from the Pali. The translation of the Candimā-sutta is No. 24: Zla-bahi mdo = Candrasūtra. In the Peking edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka Research Institute, Tokyo and Kyoto, the 13 texts are xxi, Nos. 747–59; the Candrasūtra is xxi, No. 758, p. 306.2.2–3.3Google Scholar.
3 In Revue de l'Orient, reproduced by Feer with slight modifications in ‘Fragments extraits du Kandjour’, Annales du Musée Guimet, v, 1883, 411–13Google Scholar.
4 Ed. by E. Waldschmidt in co-operation with W. Clawiter and L. Sander-Holzmann. In the catalogue, the Sūtra has been designated Candramaridalasūtra. This title appears in a list of Sūtra titles from Central Asia which I published in ‘Kleine Brāhmī-Schriftrolle’; see Waldschmidt, E., Von Ceylon bis Turfan, Göttingen 1967, 371Google Scholar.
6 MS c O 1.
7 MS a R 3.
8 MS b 0 2.
9 MS a R 4.
10 Pali: tena kho pana samayena candimā devaputto rāhunā asurindena gahito hoti.
11 Instead of bkab-par.
12 MS a R 5.
13 MS a has the plural yā devatās, also found in the Tsa-a-han-ching, Sutra 583.
11 MS b O 3.
15 MS c O 3.
16 To judge from the space available, the phrase bhagavatpādau śirasā vanditvā seems to have been left out in MS b.
17 Corresponding to paragraph 3 the Pali simply has: atha hho candimā devaputto bhagavantam anussaramāno tāyam velāyam imam, gātham abhāsi.
18 MS b 0 4.
18 MS c 0 4.
20 Pali: namo te buddha vīratthu vippamutto si sabbadhi
sambādhapaṭtipanno smi tassa me saraṇaὃ bhavāti
21 Feer: ‘O toi qui es parfaitement délivré de tous (maux).
Buddha, héros, adoration à toi!
Des maux sont venus fondre sur moi;
accorde-moi un refuge, je te prie’.
22 MS b O 5.
23 Pali: tathāgatam arahantant candimā saranam gato
rāhu candam pamuñcassu buddhā lokānukampalcāti
This verse is introduced hi Pali as spoken by the Buddha. It is preceded by atha hho bhagava candimam devaputtam arabbhā rāhum asurindam gāthaya ajjhabhāsi.
24 Feer: ‘La lune est venue se réfugier
près de l'Arhat du monde, du Sugata.
Ainsi, Buddha, qui as compassion du monde,
délivre la lune (de 1’ étreinte) de Rāhu!’.
25 MS c O 5.
26 In the corresponding verse of Sūtra 583 of the Tsa-a-han-ching the word vairocana is phonetically represented.
27 MS b R 1.
28 In the Pali, , a corresponding verse is found in the Suriya-sutta, Samyuttanikāya i, p. 51Google Scholar . It reads:
yo andhakāre tamasi pabhamkaro
verocano mazujalī uggatejo
mā rāhu gilī caram antalikkhe
pajam mama rāhu pamuñca suriyan ti
29 Feer: ‘Rāhu, la lune dissipe les ténèbres,
elle donne aux cīeux la clarté
Ne t'empare pas d'elle dans cette atmosphère,
où elle siège majestueusement,
douée d'une lumière blanche parfaitement pure.
Lâche bien vite cette lampe des créatures’.
30 The space available between 11. R 1 an d R 2 in fragment b hints at two more pāda s in this verse. Of the two Chinese translations of the Samyuktāgama, th e first is likewise more abundant in words at this place than the Tibetan and hints at six pādas whereas the second translation with only four pādas corresponds to the Tibetan.
31 Taken from the corresponding wording below, § 9.
32 MS b R 2.
33 MS c 0 6.
34 Feer: ‘Alors, en toute hâte, ce Rāhu,
le corps couvert de sueur, épouvanté
et comme malade, (s'enfuyant) avec précipitation,
lâcha complètement la lune’.
35 MS d R 1.
36 MS b R 3.
37 MS c R 1.
38 Pali: atha kho rāhu asurindo candimam devaputtam muñcitvā taramāir, arūpo yena vepacitti asurindo ten'upasankami upasankamitvā samviggo lomahatthajāto ekam antam atthāsi ekam antam thitam kho rāhum asurindam vepacitti asurindo gāthāya ajjhabhāsi.
39 MS d R 2.
40 MS b R 4.
41 The wording of this restoration is quite doubtful; the sense ‘Like a sick person ’is, however, confirmed by the Chinese translation as well as by the Tibetan.
42 Pali: kinnu santaramāno va rāhu candam pamuñcasi
samviggarūpo āgamma kinnu bhīto va titthasīti
43 Feer: ‘Par quel motif, toi, Rāhu,
le corps couvert de sueur, ōpouvanté,
et comme malade, as-tu lâché prise,
as-tu lâché complètement la lune?’.
44 MS c R 2.
45 M S d R 3. “ MSb R 5.
47 Pali: sattadhā me phale muddhā
jivanto na sulcham labhe
buddhagāthābhihīto' mhi
no ce muñceyya candiman ti
48 Feer: ‘Le Buddha, dans une stance, m'a dit
que si je ne lachais pas la lune
ma tête se fendrait en sept,
et que, quoique vivant, je n'éprouverais aucun bien-ê tre’.
49 MS c R 3.
50 § 11 of the Sanskrit text has no correspondence in the Pali.
51 Instead of sgra.
52 Feer: ‘Oh! ils voient la vérité,
les Buddhas, ils sont des êtres merveilleux!
Ils n'ont qu'à dire une stance,
et Rāhu lâche la lune!’.
