The Sutrasamuccaya

Summary

In this article, Anukulchandra Banerjee examines the Sutrasamuccaya, a Buddhist compendium preserved in Tibetan translation. Scholars have debated its authorship, some attributing it to Santideva, the 7th‑century author of Siksasamuccaya and Bodhicaryavatara, while others propose Nagarjuna. The author notes that the text survives only in Tibetan, comprising twenty-six sections and eighty-nine folios, and opens with a conventional salutation to the Buddhas. It quotes extensively from a wide range of sutras, whose titles are listed in Sanskrit and Tibetan in the article. After examining the contents and philosophical discussions, Banerjee argues that the work is doctrinally aligned with the Madhyamika school, suggesting Nagarjuna’s authorship. He supports this view by citing verses from Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara that refer to two different works named Sutrasamuccaya, one of which is by “Arya Nagarjuna”; the commentator Prajnakaramati explains that the word dvitiya (second) indicates two texts. Banerjee concludes that there were indeed two Sutrasamuccaya: an abridged version by Santideva and a more extensive compilation by Nagarjuna, the latter being the one preserved in Tibetan. He notes that Tibetan scholars often attribute both the Siksasamuccaya and the Sutrasamuccaya to Santideva, but the linguistic and doctrinal evidence favours a split authorship. The article calls for further textual study and suggests that a critical edition based on the Tibetan text and Chinese fragments could illuminate the development of Madhyamika exegesis.