The Bhadramayakaravyakarana

The Bhadra-Mayakara-Vyakarana, ‘The Prophecy of the Magician Bhadrai’, is part of the great collection entitled Ratnakuta, ‘Multitude of Jewels’, a collection much revered in the Buddhist Mahayana traditions of Tibet and China. While it is not one of the more important of the 49 sutras included in the Ratnakuta, it is in itself, an apologue full of charm and irony which has its value in its literary qualities, merits which are, as Regamey himself mentioned, rare in this type of literature Regameyis plan was that the Bhadra-mayakaravyakarana should inaugurate a series entitled, Minor Ratnakuta Sutras. The series was unable to publish more than the first volume. In 1973, Pierre Python, a student of Konstanty Resgamey at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, published an edition and translation of Upali-pariprccha. It was in this same university that Regamey consecrated a seminar to reading another eminor Ratnakuta Sutrai, the Drdhadhyasaya-Samcodana-Sutra, but, to our knowledge, nothing was ever published. Regameyis work is one of extreme rarity as the 1938 Bhadravyakarana stock was destroyed by the Second World War. Motilal Banarsidass’s present reprint is therefore all the more welcome.