among which are the three important treatises
about Amitabha's paradise and many dialogues called Paripriccha, that
is, questions put by some personage, human or superhuman, and
furnished with appropriate replies.[146] The Chinese Ratnakuta is
said to have been compiled by Bodhiruchi (693-713 A.D.) but of course
he is responsible only for the selection not for the composition of
the works included. Section 14 of this Ratnakuta is said to be
identical with chapters 11 and 12 of the Mulasarvastivadin
Vinaya.[147]

12. The Guna-karanda-vyuha and Karanda-vyuha are said to be two
recensions of the same work, the first in verse the second in prose.
Both are devoted to the praise of Avalokita who is represented as the
presiding deity of the universe. He has refused to enter Buddhahood
himself until all living creatures attain to true knowledge and is
specially occupied in procuring the release of those who suffer in
hell. The Guna-karanda-vyuha contains a remarkable account of the
origin of the world which is said to be absent from the prose version.
The primeval Buddha spirit, Adi-Buddha or Svayambhu, produces
Avalokita by meditation, and Avalokita produces the material world and
the gods of Hinduism from his body, Siva from his forehead, Narayana
from his heart and so on. As such doctrines are not known to have
appeared in Indian Buddhism before the tenth century it seems probable
that the versified edition is late. But a work with the title
Ratna-karandaka-vyuha-sutra was translated into Chinese in 270 and
the Karanda-vyuha is said to have been the first work translated
into Tibetan.[148]

13. The Karunaa-pundarika[149] or Lotus of Compassion is mainly
occupied with the description of an imaginary continent called
Padmadhatu, its Buddha and its many splendours. It exists in Sanskrit
and was translated into Chinese about 400 A.D. (Nanjio, No. 142).

14. The Mahavairocanabhisambhodhi called in Chinese Ta-jih-ching or
Great Sun sutra should perhaps be mentioned as it is the principal
scripture of the Chen-yen (Japanese Shingon) school. It is a late work
of unknown origin. It was translated into Chinese in 724 A.D. but the
Sanskrit text has not been found.

There are a great number of other sutras which are important for the
history of literature, although little attention is paid to them by
Buddhists at the present day. Such are the Mahayanist version of the
Mahaparinirvana recounting the death and burial of the Buddha a