The Prajñāpāramitā Literature

The book begins with a Chronological Survey, first examining “The Developments in India,” including the earliest Prajñāpāramitā texts, the expansion of the large sūtras, the shorter sūtras, versified summaries, tantric influences, and the later Pāla-period developments. The next section, “The Developments outside India,” surveys the transmission of Prajñāpāramitā literature to China, Nepal, Siam, Cambodia, Tibet, Japan, and Europe, showing how the corpus was preserved, translated, ritualized, and interpreted across Buddhist cultures. The Annotated Bibliography forms the core of the volume and is divided into ordinary Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, including the long, medium, and abbreviated sūtras; special texts, such as ritual, protective, and doctrinal works connected with Prajñāpāramitā; and tantric texts, which show later esoteric developments of the perfect wisdom tradition. The final section presents commentarial literature, including Nāgārjuna, Yogācāra-related materials, Madhyamaka-related works, and sub-commentaries, followed by indices of Sanskrit titles, Indian commentators, Tibetan commentators, Chinese commentators, abbreviations, and a list of Edward Conze’s publications on Prajñāpāramitā literature. Through this structure, the book provides a disciplined map of the textual universe of Prajñāpāramitā and its long scholarly, ritual, and philosophical transmission.