Harvard-Yenching Institute

Avalokita and Apalokita

Author(s): Baron A. Von Stael-Holstein
Source: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3/4 (Nov., 1936), pp. 350-362
Published by: Harvard-Yenching Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2717789
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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA

BARON A. VON STAftHIOLSTEIN

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
SINO-INDIAN INSTITUTE, PEIPING

Avalokitaand Tdrd are two of the most popular savioursadored by

the followersof MahdyanaBuddhism. The name of the goddess har-
monizesperfectly with her rescuingactivities,and thereis a consensus
omnium as to the fact that Tdrd means "the rescuer." The name
Avalokita,'on the otherhand,has beenthe subjectof the mostdivergent
interpretations.
The Indian lexicographical works (Medinikosa, Trikadagesa and HEMA-
CANDRA'S Anekirthasarngraha, all three missing in the Peiping libraries) quoted
by the larger St. Petersburg dictionary in connectionwith the Bodhisattva's name
give Avalokita as such. This significant fact has evidently escaped the attention
of most modern writers on the subject, who regard Avalokitesvara as the nomen
proprium of the saint. In purely religious works too the Bodhisattva is fre-
quently designated as Avalokita. SANTIDEVA (seventh century A. D.) uses Avalo-
kita (Avalokitesvara) as the Bodhisattva's name in the second chapter (verse
51) of his Bodhicaryavatara. See Prajnfikaramati's commentary to the Bodhi-
caryavatara edited by L. de la Vallee Poussin (Bibl. Ind.), p. 66. See also
BURNOUF, Introduction2 200, and RiJENDRALXLAMITRA, The Buddhist Sanskrit
Literature of Nepal 259. Professor de la Vallee Poussin thinks that beforebecom-
ing Aiva, Avalokitesvara was a Bodhisattva, and, as such, was named " Avalokita"
(ERE 2.257).
In Tibet the equivalent of Avalokitesvara (Spyan-ras-gzigs-dbafi-phyug)is not
unknown, but by far the most popular form of the name is Spyan-ras-gzigs (a
translation of Avalokita). It seems to me that the various additions to the word
Avalokita, like lokesvara (see note 4 below) i~vara, natha (see YCHP 17. 4) etc.
should have been regarded as mere titles. In many documents the name of the
Bodhisattva is entirely omitted and he is designated by one of his titles only.
See FINOT's article "Lokegvara en Indochine" (?tudes Asiatiques I, published
by the t. F. E. 0. in 1925). In the Tanjur we find a work entitled: Spyan-ras-
gzigs-bcu-geig-pahi-shal-can-gyi-sgrub-thabs.CoRDIm (Fonds TTb. 2. 308) gives
the following as the Sanskrit title of this work: Ekadagdnandvalokitasadhana.
On page 316 of the same volume we find the titles: Dpal-spyan-ras-gzigs-kyi[s]
nad-bsruwf-bahi-cho-ga,Spyan-ras gzigs-kyi[s] -nad-bsal-bahi-cho-gaand Hphags-pa-
spyan-ras-gzigs-kyi[s]-klu-gso-bahi-cho-ga,which Cordier renders as follows:
?rf-avalokitarogaraksavidhi, Avalokitaroganirbarhanavidhi and Aryavalokitand-
gadosacikitsavidhi. In the index volume of the Chibetto Daizdkyd f?6mokuroku
N'" g A, Sendai 1934, altogether ten titles beginning with the
Tibetan equivalent of Avalokita and merely eight titles beginning with the
Tibetan equivalent of Avalokitehvara are enumerated.
350

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 351

The name Avalokitais not confinedto the strictlyreligioussphere.

What are possiblythe oldestexistinguses occurin medicalworks. Those
whoagreewithDr. Kunte'sdatingof VIGBHATA II (MIIIM 3. 796) will
have to believe2 that the word Avalokitawas knownas the name of a
medical authorityat least as early as the second centuryB. C. The
Astaitgasamngrahareportsthat its author, VIGBHATA I, receivedhis
[medical] educationfromhis guru Avalokita (guror avalolcitat) and
fromhis own fatherSimhagupta. VYgbhataI describesSimhaguptaas
morevenerable(gurutara) than Avalokita,and the Sanskritcommentary
(Indu's Rasilekhd)explainsthewordsguroravalokitatby avalokitakhyad
ddiguroh. VIGBIIATA I, the author of the AstdAgasarmgraha, was a
famousphysician,and his teacher (MIIM 3. 788) Avalokita too was
evidentlya humanmemberof the medicalprofession.
The wordAvalokitamusthave been knownin India as the name of a
heavenlybeingbeforeA. D. 253. We arriveat this terminusante quem
by consideringthe fact that the larger Suqkhavativyaha (NANJIONo.
27) was translatedinto Chineseby Safghavarmanin A. D. 252. In the
editionof the Sanskrittext,whichwe owe to MULLER and NANJIO, the
Bodhisattvais called Avalokitesvara(Avalolcitaplus isvara), and SaA-
ghavarmangives Kuan-shih-yinAdz as his name.3 Kuan-shih-yinis

2The Asta asamgraha (MHIM 3. 809) also mentions Avalokita as a [medical]

author. By MHIM I designate Dr. MUKHOPADHYAYA's History of Indian Medicine,
the third volume of which was published at Calcutta in 1929. Neither the
Astdigasarmgraha (ascribed to Vdgbhata I), nor the AstanlahrdayasaMUM
(attributed to VIGBHATA II and edited by Dr. Kunte), nor the writings of
HOERNLEon Indian medicine are available in Peking. Therefore I am not in a
position to form anything like an independent judgment as to the much disputed
dates of Vdgbhatas. According to Julius JOLLY'S "Medicin," Strassburg 1901,
page 8, Huth asserts that Vagbhata II cannot have lived after the eighth century
A. D.
3 There is at least one Chinese translation of the larger Sukhavatfvyflhastill in
existence (NANJIoNo. 25), which must be considerably older than Saighavarman's
version. Lo-chia-ch'an God, who is responsible for that translation, did,
according NANJIO (Column 381), all his translation work before A.D. 187. In
the translation ascribed to Lo-chia-ch'an a Bodhisattva named K'o-lou-hsUan
W f is mentioned (Taishd Tip. 12. 290A). According to ROSENBERG'SIntro-
duction to the study of Buddhism, Part I (Tokyo 1916), 170, the Tetsugaku
Daijivsho $sy<X$@ states that K'o-ko-lou-hsan Wit E] = Avalokitesvara.
The character X seems out of place in the passage quoted by Rosenberg from
the dictionary. It has probably found its way into the dictionary by a mistake.
Mr. L. K. Lin tells me that in the Fo Prh-ya -6fa (Yang Chou edition, vol.
1. 3b) its author (CHaou Ch'un GoJJ)quotes the expressionK'o-lou-hsfianand adds

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352 BARON A. VON STAEL-HOLSTEIN

evidentlya translationof Skt. Avaloleitalolcasvarar,

a compoundwhich,
as far as I know,does not occurin the existingdocumentswrittenwith
Indian characters.4It has been suggestedthatKuan-yinA-, the most
popular Chinesename of the Bodhisattva,is an abbreviationof t!tU?
entirelydue to the Chinese. This viewwill probablynot be encouraged
by thosewho knowthat Avalokitasvaraoccursin an ancientmanuscript
writtenwithIndian characters,whichhas been foundin Eastern Turke-
stan (MIRONOV, p. 243). Dr. Mironovis evidentlyrightin believingthat
theformAvalokitasvara(whichoccursfivetimeson one incompleteleaf)
cannotbe due to clericalerrors. It has neverbeen foundin documents
doubtlesslywrittenin India, but it must have been regardedas correct
by some at least of the Sanskritscholarslivingnorthof the Himdlaya.

the three characters A%*X3 to it (between X and fW) in small type. In the
Fan-i Ming-i Chi Hsin-pien in ;&V:i (Shanghai 1921, page 62b) we
find the statement that the Wu-Liang Ch'ing-chingP'ing-t'ng Chiieh Ching AI
g+$Qg gives ,~ ( jJ ) t as the Bodhisattva's name. Those
who regard K'o-lou-hstian as a translation of Avalokitesvara or of Avalokitasvara,
will have to admit that it is rather incomplete, but they may possibly be right
in their contention. The character A, according to JULIEN (Me'thode page 132),
represents the a- in apramanabha (read: apramapnabha). ; frequently stands
for Skt. lo (see, for instance, JULIEN, page 137), and 1 for sva in lokesvara
(JULIEN, page 185). According to ODA's Bukkyd Daijiten P page
1028a, the characters t representthe Skt. word lokesvara-rajd (the nom.
propr. of a Buddha). K'o-hung 4Afjl, who worked about A. D. 940, declares that
)Adz:* (Avalokitalokasvara) was the Chinese translation of the transliterated
name K'o-lou-hsiian. See the To5kyoMeiji Trip. vol. A fasc. 1, page 25b. In his
article Kwan-Yin (ERE 7) Professor TAKAKUSU asserts that the name
AU *
was introduced by Kumarajiva. This assertion does not agree with the fact that
this same name occurs in the version of the Sukhavativyfiha (Taishd Trip. 12.
273A) ascribed to Sahghavarman, who flourished more than a century earlier
than Kumdrajiva. In the same article of the ERE we findthe following words:
we can furtheridentifyAvalokita or Apalokita (in Pali) of Potalaka with Apollo
Patareus, both being in this case patron deities of mariners.
4The compounds Avalokitalokesvara and Avalokitasvara both occur in docu-
ments written with Indian characters (See BEATTACHARYYA'S Indian Buddhist
Iconography, Oxford University Press 1924, page 182, and MIRONOV's Buddhist
Miscellanea, JRAS for 1927, pages 241-279). In view of these facts, the hypothesis
that the compoundAvalokitalokasvara, which is an exact counterpart of
01w7
occurred in documentswritten with Indian characters becomes a moral certainty.
According to CoRDmna(Fonds tib. 2. 154), the compound Avalokitalokesvara
(Spyab-ras-gzigs-_jig-rten-dbari-phyug) also occurs in the title of a work forming
part of the Tanjur. A Chinese equivalent of Avalokitaloke'vara (JlffiJE7) is
found in the Hsi-yui Chi (Taish6 Trip. 51. 883B) and in EITEL'S Handbook 25.

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 353

This suppositionis confirmedby the Fan-i Ming-i Chi $

(Taish5 Trip. 54.1062A), whichseemsto consider l 3

(Avalokitesvara)correct,but admits that [instead of Avara]the siitra

texts [writtenin Sanskrit?] northof the llimdlayamountains( T LbIE
gig)~ haveV-% (svara) meaning" sound."5 TheTa FangKuang
Fo Hua-yenChingSu *k (NANJIO No. 1589) discusses
IVfj;Wfand APEX in a similarway6and says: "In
the compounds

6 In this statement the fact that the two formsof the compound (Avalokitesvara
and Avalokitasvara) differnot only as to the sibilant used is ignored. Fa-yiin
g@, author of the Fan-i Ming-i Chi, should have said that the cis-HimAlayan
(from the Chinese point of view) form was 'tasvara, not 'tesvara). Most
authorities seem to be sure that the root lok, from which they derive the name
Avalokita, must mean " to see " in this connection. However, whether we choose
the most popular explanation of avalokita or adopt one of the other interpretations
of the expression, we shall have to admit that a word meaning " sound " (which
certainly cannot be seen) is no appropriate companion for avalokita. Therefore
I believe that the translation of svara (in the compounds Avalokitalokasvara and
Avalokitasvara) by " sound " was probably not accepted by all the cis-Himalayan
Sanskrit scholars, who regarded Avalokitalokasvara or Avalokitasvara as correct.
May not svara have been considered a more or less exact equivalent of isvara?
Is it altogether impossible to connect svara with svar meaning "heaven " ?
According to the smaller St. Petersburg dictionary svara is a " Beiname " of
the god Visnu, and svara the nomen proprium of the chief consort of the god
Brahman. According to SCHMIDT'S Nachtrdge zum Sanskrit-Wbrterbuch,svara-
bald = svargastri. I am not in a position to consult the authorities referredto
by the St. Petersburg dictionary and by the Nachtrdge, because neither the
Visnusitra nor the Srikanthacarita can be found in Peiping. I agree with Pro-
fessor Tachibana It in believing that the translation Avalokitasvara,
J w, belongs, to the same category of mechanical renderings as Asura, Em
(without wine, Skt. sura), and Abhasvara, m:&(Aibhdplus svara, sound). See
the Journal of the Taish3 University 6, 7, part 1, pp. 167-176. According to
MONIER-WILLIAMS' dictionary mbhasura,abhasvara, bhasura and bhasvara all
mean " shining" etc. One of the Chinese translations of the word Abhasvarah,
which we find in the Mahavyutpatti (SAKAKI edition, No. 3092), is
The Abhasvarah are regarded as gods, but it does not seem to be certain whether
they live in the third or in the ninth heaven. See HEbogirin 9. On page 41 of
the fibdgirin the translation Asura, zj (sans alcool), and four other Chinese
translations of the term are mentioned. In the Tanjur (Choni ed., Mdo, vol. DI,
page 196b) we find the following statement: [the Asuras] are [a-suras or] non-
gods (lha-ma-yin) on account of their numerous acts of deceit and treachery
(gyo-dan-sgyus-spyod-pa-mani-bas).The title of the work, in which this state-
mentoccurs, is: Dam-pahi-chos-p darikahi-hgrel-pa. See CORDIER, Fonds tibe'tainr
3. 372.
8 Both the Fan-i Ming-i Chi and the Ta Fang Kuang Fo Hua-yen Ching Su (Taishd

Trip. 35. 940A) regard I 4 1j, (Avalokitalokasvara) as an exact equivalent of

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354 BARON A. VON STAEL-HOLSTEIN

the Sanskritoriginalsthemselvestwo different namesof the Bodhisattva

occur. It is due to this difference in the Sanskrit originalsthat the
Chinesetranslatorsof thesesame originalsdifferas to the names of the
Bodhisattva."7
Both Fa-yiin Add, the authorof the Fan-i Ming-i Chi and Ch'eng-
kuan Ax, the authorof the Ta Fang Kuang Fo Huca-yenChing Su,
lived long after Hsiian-tsang3M, who, in the third chapter of his
Hsi-yiiChi HYP (Tatishi Trip. 51. 883B), discussesthe name of the
Bodhisattva. The famoustravelleraffirms thatthe old Chineseformsof
thename: 4Vk Adz
R and WJ1It
[Avalokitalokasvara] [Ava-
lokitalokesvara]are all wrong.The correctformofthenameis according
to Hsiian-tsang:ftfiV [Avalokitesvara]. 5ti:t is the onlyChinese
formof the name knownto me in whichthe firstelementof the com-
pound (Avalokita) is translatedby a character() ) meaning"light,
splendour,to illuminate" etc. It seems to me that the character Jt
is as unsatisfactory 8 a renderingof avalokitain this connectionas ft
(" to see " etc.) and M,9 whichmeans" to look" etc.
Most Indian and westerninterpreters agree withthe majorityof the
Chinesetranslatorsin believingthat Mek plus ava can mean nothingbut
"to see, observe,etc." in this connectionand theytranslatethe name
Avalokita accordingly. BURNOUF (Introduction%201) reportsthat,
accordingto the Kdrandavy'fha, the Sanskrittext of which cannot be

Avalokitasvara, which is of course wrong. The character e (1okal) is not

represented in their transliterations, which transcribe merely the forms Avalo-
kitesvara and Avalokitasvara.
X See the Taish5 Trip. 35. 940A, where the following passage occurs: AM*

8In the Mahavyutpatti (SAKAKI ed. No. 645) and in EITEL's Handbook (page
25) we even findthe monstrouscompoundIVe j f [Avalokitalokasvaresvara] .
Eitel ignores e and translates this expression by " the sovereign who looks on
or regardsthe soundsof prayers." 3jr the same authorrendersas follows:
"the sound of the world of light." BEAL (Catena, p. 383) quotes Sir J. Davis,
who translates Kuan-shih-yin by " she who hears the cries of men," and renders
the same Chinese expression by " the universally manifested voice " on page 384.
I am very much obliged to Professor Y. K. Tschen for drawing my attention to
the passage of the Hsi-yii Chi quoted above, and for several other valuable indica-
tions.
In a translation of the Vimalakirtinirdega, which is ascribed to Chih Ch'ien
Hi (third century A. D.), the name of the Bodhisattva is represented by the
characters H See the Taishd Trip. 14. 519B. In the corresponding passage
of Kumarajiva's (about A. D. 400) translation of the Vimalakirtinirdesa the
Bodhisattva is referredto as Kuan-shih-yin. See the Taisho Trip. 14. 537B.

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 355

foundin Peiping,Asoka asks Upagupta forthe reason" pour laquelle le

Bodhisattva.. . se nommeAvalokitesvara."Upagupta answersthisques-
tion as follows: "c'est parce qu'il regarde avec compassionles etres
souffrant des maux de l'existence." To this passage Burnoufadds the
followingnote: On voit par la que les Buddhistesdu Nord considerent
le nom d'Avalokitesvaracommeform6e de deux mots,un participeet un
substantif, savoir,vtsara," le seigneur,"et avalolcitac,
" qui a regardeen
bas." Il est evidentqu'ils donnentau participenon le sens passif (re-
garde), mais le sens actif (qui a regarde). Je ne crois pas que cet
emploi du participeen ta, lequel est positivementautorisepar Panini,
quand il s'agit d'une action commencante(1. III, c. IV, p. 71 et 72),
puisse etreadmis dans le sanscritclassiquepour le radical loc. Mais ce
ne seraitpas la premierefoisque la languedeslivresbuddhiquess'eloigner-
ait de celle des compositions brahmaniques.Il n'est pas douteuxque les
peuples orientaux,qui ont connule nom d'Avalokitegvara et qui ont eu
a le traduiredans leursidiomes,n'aientassignea la premieredes parties
dontil se composele sens actifque je signaleici. Klaprotha, dans une
dissertationspeciale,mis le faithorsde douterelativement aux Tibetains
et aux Mongols (Nouv. Journ.Asitat.,t. VII, p. 190), et M. Re'musatl'a
egalementetabli plus d'une fois en ce qui toucheles Chinois (Foe koue
ki, p. 56, 117 et 119).
ProfessorGrunwedel(Mythol.des Buddhismuws 128) says: Das San-
skritwort[Avalokitesvara]kann aber,wennseine Form korrektist, nur
iubersetztwerden" der Herr, welcherangesehenwird oder wurde,"und
man k6nnteauf den Gedankenkommen,dass der uiberseinem Scheitel
sitzendekleineAmitabhaetwasmit der Bezeichnung,dereneigentlicher
Sinn spaternichtmehrverstandenwordenware,zu thun haben k6nnte.
In his article "Avalokitesvara" (ERE 2) Professorde la Vallee
Poussin statesthat " the meaningof the compoundAvalokitesvarais not
at all clear. Scholars do not agree as to its significance."Among the
translations(suggestedby various authorities) of Avalokita or Ava-
lokitesvarawhichProfessorde la Vallee Poussin mentionsin his article,
we findthefollowing:the lord of whatwe see, i. e. of the presentworld,
the lord of the view,le souverainqui voit tout,the beholdinglord, the
lord whomwe see, the lord revealed,the masterwho is or was seen,the
lord who looks,the lord who looks downfromon high,the lord of com-
passionate glances,the lord of special mercies,the lord with compas-
sionateglances,the lord of the view or of that whichis seen, a person
to whomgood-byehas been said, the lord who is seen, and the revealed
god.

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356 BARON A. VON STARL-HOLSTEIN

In his excellentarticle entitled" Der Name Avalokitesvara,"which

appearedin thefirstvolumeoftheZeitschrift furIndologieund Iranistik
(Leipzig,1922), ProfessorZimmerseverelycriticizesthe explanationsof
thename Avalokite'vara,whichwe findin comparatively recentBuddhist
works. He is undoubtedlyrightin regardingthe explanationquotedby
Burnouffromthe Karandavyfzha as unacceptable,and says (page 75):
Der wichtigste BegriffdieserErkidrung,derihrePointeausmacht," mit-
leidsvoll" wohntdem Bestandteilavalokitavon Haus aus garnichtinne,
sein Begriffist von keinerleigeffihlsniiance gefiirbt.Vielleichtdarfman
umgekehrtsagen, dass dem avalokita sich allmahlichdie Nuance des
Mitleids angeheftethat, weil Mitleid ein lauptzug des Wesens Ava-
lokitesvarasist, der auch Mahakarun. a " voll grossenMitleids" heisst.
ProfessorZimmeralso objectsto Professorde la Vallee Poussin'strans-
lation of the compoundAvalokitesvara:"le seigneurqui regarde,"and
says (on page 77) : tUberhaupt ist es nicht sehr wahrscheinlich,dass
Avalokitesvaraurspruinglich nach der Tatigkeitdes Schauens im allge-
meinenWartsinnebenanntsein soll.
On pages 78-79 ProfessorZimmer deals with the translation"the
masterwho is or was seen" (de geopenbaardeHerr) and arrivesat the
conclusionthatit does not do justiceto thepersonality oftheBodhisattva:
Denn sichtbarsind in irgend einer Weise alle Bodhisattvas,und wer
Avalokitesvaranach dieserEigenschaftbenannthaben will, lasst damit
etwasan ihm furwesentlichgelten,was jedem Bodhisattvaeigentimlich
ist, keinerHervorhebung bedarfund ungeeignetist, einengegeniiberden
anderen zu charakterisieren. . . . Da aber Avalokitesvaranoch ein
Bodhisattvaist,hat es keinenSinn, Sichtbarkeitan ihm als bezeichnend
hervorzuheben.
ProfessorZimmeralso disagreeswiththetranslation" thelord ofwhat
we see " i. e. " of the presentworld" and pointsout thatthe Bodhisattva
as such does not yetown a Buddhaksetra. He thinksthat,if in spite of
that fact, the Buddhists had wanted to designatehim as "Herr der
sichtbarenWelt,"theywould have chosena less ambiguousexpression.
While highly appreciatingProfessorZimmer's treatmentof these
renderingsof the Bodhisattva'sname, I cannot accept his own inter-
pretationof it: " der bodhi [avalokita] fahig [!svara,"] mainlybecause
this explanationmust fall to the ground as soon as we realize that
Avalokita(not Avalokitesvara)is the name to be explained.10
10We have seen above (note 4) that the Bodhisattva was occasionally designated
as Avalokitalokesvara in India, in Tibet (Spyan-ras-gzigs-_jig-rten-dbafn-phyug)
and in China (Ifrtfi %). This fact certainly militates against the translation
of isvara by " fahig zu " in this connection.

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 357

Dr. Har Dayal (The BodhisattvaDoctrine,London 1932, pp. 47-48)

mentionssome of the translationsof the name Avalokitesvaragiven in
Professorde la Vallee Poussin's articleand, entirelyignoringProfessor
Zimmer'simportantpaper,adds a few othersto theirnumber. Among
theseadditionswe findthefollowingone: lord of wisdom. Of thisinter-
pretationDr. Dayal says that it " is neitherbetternor worsethan those
mentionedabove,all of whichare unsatisfactory." 11
What is probablythe oldestIndian explanationof the name Avalokita
in existenceformspart of the 24th chapterof the Saddharmapundarika-
suftra(whichI generallycall " theLotus sfitra" forshort). In the prose
part of that chapterin additionto Abhayaipdada,one of the less known
appellationsof Avalokita,the name Avalokitaitselfis explained. The
logic of the explanationwhich the Lotus sfitragives for the name
Abhayamdada (bhitanam sattvanarm abhayam dadati anena karanena-
bhayamdadaiti samrjnayata iha etc.) is flawless,and we mustexpectthat
the justificationof the name Avalokitais equally freefromabsurdities.
The followingtranslationof the Sanskrittextof theLotus sfitrapassage,
Bibl. Buddh. 10. 438-439,whichexplainsthe name Avalokita,is almost
entirelyidentical with Kern's English version (S. B. E. 21. 406-407)
Thereafterthe BodhisattvaMahdsattvaAksayamatirose fromhis seat,
put his upper robe upon one shoulder,placed his rightknee upon the
earth,stretchedhis rightkneeupon the earth,stretchedhis joined hands
towardsthe Bhagavat and said: For what reason, 0 Bhagavat is the
BodhisattvaMahasattvathe Lord Avalokitacalled the Lord Avalokita?
So he asked,and the Bhagavat answeredto the BodhisattvaMahdsattva
Aksayamati:All the hundredthousandsof myriadsof kotisof creatures,
youngman of good family,who in this worldare suffering troubleswill,
if theyhearthe name of the BodhisattvaMahdsattvathe Lord Avalokita,
be releasedfromthat mass of troubles. Those who shall keep the name
of this BodhisattvaMahdsattvathe Lord Avalokita,youngman of good
family,will,if theyfall into a greatmass of fire,be deliveredtherefrom
by virtueof the powerof the BodhisattvaMahdsattva. In case, young

":'In an incomplete commentary to the Lotus suftra,which forms part of the

Tanjur (See CORDIER,Fonds tibetain 3. 372) and is said to have been translated
from the Chinese, we find the following passage: byafl chub sems dpah spyan
ras gzigs ni gzigs pa la mftahbrnes pa / sems can la gzigs giftsdug bshal gyi sa
nas hdon pa la mflahbriies paho (see the Choni Tanjur, Mdo, vol. DI, pages 195a-
196b): the Bodhisattva Avalokita is powerful in observing; he has the power
of rescuing the living beings from misfortune after having observed [their
distress]. Sapienti sat!

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358 BARON A. VON STAEL-HOLSTEIN

man of good family,creatures,carriedoffbythe currentof rivers,should

implorethe BodhisattvaMahdsattvathe Lord Avalokita,all riverswill
affordthema ford. In case, youngman of good family,manyhundred
thousandmyriadsof kotis of creatures,sailing in a ship on the ocean,
should see their bullion, gold, gems, pearls, lapis lazuli, conch shells,
stones(?), corals,emeralds,Musdragalvas,red pearls( ?), and othergoods
lost, and the ship by a vehement,untimelygale cast on the island of
Giantesses,and if in that ship a singlebeing imploresthe Bodhisattva
Mahdsattvathe Lord Avalokita,all will be saved fromthat island of
Giantesses. For that reason,youngman of good family,the Bodhisattva
Mahdsattvais namedthe Lord Avalokita.
Unless we supposethatthe wordAvalokitameans" saviour,"thispas-
sage loses everyclaim to logic.12 ThereforeI assume that its author
attachedthe meaning" saviour' to the name Avalokita.13
In this connectionI maybe allowedto referto the factthat the word
loka means" freedom" in manyVedic passages. Accordingto the large
St. Petersburgdictionarylokavinduand lokasani occur in the Veda
meaning " Freiheit schaffend,"lokya meaning " freie Stellung," and
lokcakrtmeaning" befreiend."14
In the vol. OM of the A. D. 1700Kanjur (vol. 1 accordingto SAKTU-
RABE's Chibetto Daiziky5 Kanjuru Kand3 Molcurolcu#qA *0K
2wM11 , SKyoto,1930-1932) we find a dhdraniwhich contains
(page 175Yb) the followingwords: taraya man (read: taraya main,
" rescueme ") avalokcaya.Even if we had no knowledgeof the passage
of the Lotus sultraquotedabove and of the statementsof the St. Peters-
12The disagreement between the general meaning of the passage and the
translation of Avalokita by IV (Kumdrajiva adopts the compound Kuan-shih-yin
as the Bodhisattva's name in his translation of this passage) has evidently not
escaped Kumarajiva's attention. He adds a few words, no equivalents of which
are found in the Sanskrit text or in the older Chinese translation by Dharmaraksa
or in the Tibetan translation, to his rendering of the passage in a rather vain
attempt to make it appear plausible. See my article " The Emperor Ch'ien-lung
and the Larger giiranigamasfitra," WJAS 1. 141.
13 The 24th chapter of the Lotus sfitra explains the name Avalokita in two

differentpassages. In this article I discuss only the explanation which we find

in the prose part of the chapter. It is a well known fact that the verses found
in the 24th chapter belong to a much later epoch. See NANJIO'S catalogue
column 45.
'4"I am, unfortunately,not in a position to examine the passage mentioned in
the sixth volume of the larger St. Petersburg dictionary in connection with these
statements,because the books referredto cannot be found in Peiping.

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 359

burg dictionaryjust mentionedwe would be inclinedto translateava-

lokayaby somethinglike " save [me] " or " deliver[me]." 15
Accordingto Cowelland Neil's indexto theireditionoftheDivydvadana,
avalokayatimeans" takesleave of (or getsleave to go)." But thisstate-
mentis incomplete.The verbavalokayatioccursin the Divyav. at least
twicein the moregeneralsense of " askingsomebodyfor permissionor
freedomto do something."In the Sudhanaklumaravadana the storyof
the youngNaga Janmacitrawhowas underobligationto a certainhunter
is told. In orderto showhis gratitudeto the benefactorJanmacitrade-

16 It is a well-knownfact that in the dharanis the imperatives addressed to the

divinity are often repeated or followed by imperatives containing approximately

the same request. Cf., e. g., the series of imperatives, which we find on page 39a,
line 8 of the vol. OM: hana hana [for jahi] daha daha ghdtaya ghataya. In the
dharani quoted above the imperative taraya (read: tdraya) is not repeated but
followed by the imperative avalokaya. The compound sarvabuddhavalokita which
we find almost as often in the dharantisas the compound sarvabuddhddhisthita
(blessed by all the Buddhas) should also be mentioned in this connection. I do
not agree with Amoghavajra's translation of sarvabuddhdvalokita by " perceived
by all the Buddhas" (-AtnpF~i~ffi Taishd Trip. 19.523A), but I think that
he is right in regarding the word avalokita, when it forms part of the compound,
as a true participium perfecti passive. The name Avalokita, on the other hand,
I consider a substitute for correct Avalokitr (nominative Avalokitd). The nomi-
native Avalokitah (from avalokati), instead of correct Avalokita, finds an
analogy in the well-knownBuddhist Sanskrit name Jetah (Jeta from jayati) in-
stead of correct JetU (Jetr) the victor. Skt. galyakartr becomes Pali sallakatta
(nominative sallakatto). See GEIGER'S Pd1i Literatur und Sprache, Strassburg
1916, page 86. I believe that Professor Wogihara too regards Avalokitah as a
substitute for Avalokita. I have not succeeded in obtaining a copy of Professor
Wogihara's (gJff*) article, entitledSejizai6 to Kanzeon -k IE ?0
which appeared in the firstnumberof the firstvolume of the Bukky6gaku
zasshi {ffiT Ve. In connection with the compound sarvabuddhavalokita the
following phrase, which occurs in the Markandeyapurana (16, 65, quoted after
the larger St. Petersburg dictionary) may be considered: dhanyasmyanugrhittsmi
devaig capy avalokitd. B6htlingk and Roth translate devais . . . avalokit& by
"von den G6tten (gnddig) angeblickt." I do not consider this translation very
convincing. We should expect something more definite than a word meaning
"angeblickt" after dhanya (fortunate) and anugrhitt (favoured). "Blessed or
saved by the gods " would certainly better suit the context. The nomen proprium
Avalokita, which, according to MONIER-WILLIAMS' dictionary, occurs as the name
of a woman in the Malatimadhava, may be a counterpart to the Latin name
Beata (p. p. p. of beare, to bless). A word meaning " die Angeblickte" would
hardly be chosen by any parents as a name for their daughter. The Mdrkandeya-
purana and the Malatimadhava are, as far as I know, the only non-Buddhistic
works, in which words possibly belonging to avalok I are found.

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360 BARON A. VON STAEL-HOLSTEIN

cides to presentthehunterwitha miraculousnoose (amoghapasa) after

havingobtainedhisparents'permissionto do so: mamanenabahiipakrtam
mdtapitarav avalokyadadamiti/tenamdtdpitardv avalokyasa plasodattah
(Divydv.439).
Cowell and Neil translatethe wordavalokanaka,whichalso occursin
the Divyavadana,as followsin their index: "with a fineview." They
add a questionmark to their renderingof the word,but I thinkthat
avalokanakais certainlyconnectedwiththesecondgroupof avalok-forms.
The Divyavadana,the Mahavyutpatti, the Avadanas'atakaand the Dasa-
bhiimikasfitra show that the avalok-forms found in Buddhist Sanskrit
literaturefall intotwodistinctgroups(avalok I and avalokII). Avalok
I is undoubtedlyconnectedwith" grantingfreedometc." and avalok II
with" to see etc." 16 In Pali apalok generallycorrespondsto Buddh. Skt.
avalok I, and olok generallycorrespondsto Buddh. Skt. avalok I.
Accordingto CHILDERS'dictionaryPali apaloketimeans to give notice
of, to obtainconsentor permission[i. e. freedomof action], and is de-
rivedfromapa plus lok. Accordingto the same dictionaryPali oboketi,
olokatiand avaloketimeanto look,seeetc.,and are all derivedfromavalok.
The factthatthereare twodistinctgroupsof avalok-forms in Buddhist
Sanskrit and that avalok I generallycorrespondsto Pali apalok has
evidentlyescaped the attentionof ProfessorZimmer. If he had con-
sideredthese factshe would probablyhave comparedBuddh. Skt. avca-
lokitamwithPali apalokitam. Both termsare used as epithetaor even
as synonymaof words undoubtedlydesignatingthe great event of
Buddhagayd(samyaksambodhi or nibbana). Afteranalyzingtwo works
whichare bothdesignatedas avalokitamy nema siatramyby the Mahavastu,
ProfessorZimmer (op. cit. 81-84) arrives at the conclusionthat the
Mahavastu uses the Buddh. Skt. wordavalokUa[rm] as an equivalentof
samyaksarnbodhi. Accordingto the Pali Dictionarypublishedby the
Royal Danish Academy(PDDA), the adjectiveapalokitagami(n) means:
leading to nibbdna.17

"6The words anavalokya (Mahavyutp. ed. SAKAKI, No. 8595) and avalokaya
(Avaddnasataka 2. 4) belong to avalok I. The word anavalokyam (Dagabhiimika-
&fltraed. RAHDER, page 4) belongs' to avalok II.
17 The PDDA quotes the words apalokitagamiica maggam from the Samyutta

Nikaya, ed. FEER, vol. 4, page 370. The PTS Pali-English Dictionary states that
apalokita[m] is an epitheton of the nibbana[m]. In the Nitti-Pakarana, ed.
HARDY, page 55, we findthe followingepitheta of the nibbanam: ajajjaram dhuvam
apalokitani ca. One of the "names" of the nibbanam (imehi pona ndmehi,
nibbdnan tu kathiyati) is, according to the Abhidhammavatdra, apalokitam. See

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 AVALOKITA AND APALOKITA 361

What the Buddha experiencedunderthe Bodhi tree (samyaksarmbodhi

or nibbana) can evidentlybe describedas the supremeliberation. The
fact that the termapalokitam-avalokitamr(cf. apavarga, "salvation ")

the PTS ed. of Buddhadatta's Manuals, London 1915, page 82. The PDDA seems
to derive the word apalokit (apalokina) when it appears in this connection from
palujjati (to crumble, to fall down) plus alpha privativum, while it derives
apalokita meaning " asked for leave " from apaloketi. In CHILDERS' dict. we find
the following entry: Apalokita*, the Unseen, Nirvan.a. The compiler of this
dictionary had evidentlythe root lok, to see, plus pa (pra) and alpha privativum
in mind. Neither Palokati nor pralokati can be found in the dictionaries. This
fact makes the derivation of apalokitam, which we find in Childers' dictionary,
extremely improbable. The ancient commentators, who must be responsible for
the explanations which we find in the dictionaries, evidently thought that the
word apalokitam, when applied to the nibbanam, had to be regarded as implying
a negation (a-pralokitam> a-ppalokitam> a-palokitam). Consequently they dif-
ferentiated apalokitam, when applied, to the nibbdnam, from all the other Pali
apalok-forms,which are analyzed as follows: apa-lok. The fact that the two deri-
vations mentioned above (from palujjati plus alpha privativum and from the
non-existingpalokati > pralokati plus alpha privativum) exclude one another does
not add to the plausibility of the differentiation. See the PDDA 280 and
CHILDERS' dict. page 47. The Abhidhanappadipika quoted by Childers is not
obtainable in Peiping. The Buddh. Skt. word avalokitam (meaning samyaksam-
bodh) can hardly be derived from a-valokitam. Professor WINDISCH (Mara
and Buddha 333) explains avalokita[m] as follows: avalokita[m] ist " das
Erschaute "; gemeint ist die h6chste Erkenntniss [samyaksanmbodhi],die der
Bodhisattva unter dem Bodhibaume erschaut hat. Professors Windisch and
Zimmer agree in regarding avalokita[m] as a designation of the great event of
Buddha-Gaya. Those who realize that apalokitam (not olokitam) is the corre-
sponding Pali term, will feel inclined to connect Buddh. Skt. avalokitam with
avalok I rather than with avalok II. They may also remember that both Pali
apalokitam and Skt. apavarga are synonyma of nirvanam (nibbanam). Accord-
ing to the larger St. Petersburg dict. apavarga means: die letzte Befreiung der
Seele. According to CHIMDERs' dict., apavaggo [apavarga] means: final de-
liverance, Nirvana. Many Pali words beginning with apa correspond to words
beginning with ava in Buddh. Skt. The best-knownword of this group is Pali
apaddna, which generally appears as avadana in Buddh. Skt. Those who accept
Dr. SPEYER's (pref. to his ed. of the Avaddnasataka, page iv) explanation of the
term apaddna-avadanaD (something cut off), will have to admit, that apadana is
the older form of the word. Apa certainly meant "off " long before ava did.
According to Dr. Speyer's index Buddh. Skt. avaniya (Avadanas. I, 315) has
found its way into the text owing to a "wrong sanskritization," and apanlya
would be correct. Dr. Speyer's index explains avavada (II, 59, 1), instead of
correct apavada, in a similar way. It seems to me that apalokitam (= nibbanam)
and avalokitam (= samyakasambodhi) are but two slightly differentforms of
the same term. The PDDA translates this term by "not liable to decay,"

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362 BARON A. VON STAEL-HOLSTEIN

the positionof the

is applied to that liberationconsiderablystrengthens
ancientIndian author18 who believedthat the name Avalokitasignified
"the Saviour."

Childers by " the unseen," THOMAS (History of Buddhist Thought, London 1933,
189) by "survey " and Windisch by " das Erschaute." Loka certainly means
" freedom" in many Vedic passages and apaloketi as well as avalokayati un-
doubtedly means " to get permission or freedom of action." In view of these
facts and considering a number of other circumstances mentioned in this article,
I suggest that apalokitam-avalokitam originally meant " deliverance." This
interpretation and the translation of Avalokita (= Avalokitr) by " saviour "
evidentlysupport one another.
18 The author of the Lotus sfitra passage translated in this article must have

lived beforeA. D. 317. Cf. NANJIO'S catalogue No. 138, according to which a still
existing translation of the Lotus sfitrawas made by Dharmaraksa of the Western
Chin dynasty (A.D. 265-316).
We do not know under what circumstances the physician Avalokita, mentioned
at the beginning of this article, received his name, but the possibility that he was
firstcalled Avalokita by a patient whom he had saved, is not to be excluded. " The
Saviour" would certainly be a most appropriate name for a successful physician.

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