Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra
The Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra (Sanskrit; , Tib. "dam-chos dkon-mchog-brtsegs-pa") is an ancient collection of Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras. It is also known simply as Ratnakūṭa Sūtra (), literally the "Sutra of the Heap of Jewels" in Sanskrit ("kūṭa" means ‘accumulation’ or ‘heap’). Overview. The "Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra" contains 49 texts of varying length, which are termed "assemblies" by tradition. This collection includes the "Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra", the "Longer Sukhāvatī-vyūha Sutra", the "Akṣobhya-vyūha Sūtra", a long text called the "Bodhisattvapiṭaka", and others. Part of this texts was brought to China and translated by Bodhiruci in the 8th century . Bodhiruci translated some of the texts, and included others which had been previously translated. This later Bodhiruci should not be confused with another Bodhiruci who was the translator of the commentary on Ten Stages Sutra. The "Ratnakūṭa" collection totals 49 Mahāyāna sūtras, divided into 120 fascicles in the Chinese translation. Garma Chang, who has translated a number of sūtras from the "Mahāratnakūṭa" from Chinese into English, summarizes the breadth and variety of texts contained in this collection: In the Taishō Tripiṭaka in volumes 11 and 12a, the Mahāratnakūṭa is the text numbered 310, and texts numbered 311 through 373 are  various other translations of some of the sutras contained in the Mahāratnakūṭa. List of sutras. The 49 sutras found in this collection are as follows: History. According to the "Nikāyasaṅgraha" (a Theravādin text), the "Ratnakūṭa Sūtra" was composed by the "Andhakas", meaning the Mahāsāṃghika Caitika schools of the Āndhra region. The texts of the sutra seem to have been collected over a number of centuries, and their varying subject matter is suggestive of historical transitions between major eras of Buddhist thought. The collection may have developed from a "Bodhisattva pitaka" attributed to some of the early Mahayana schools. External links