This paper is a study of the relationship between the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra, especially the Da Amituo jing 大阿彌陀經 (T. 362), the earliest version of this sūtra, and the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra. Although some scholars presented their ideas on the relationship between these two sūtras, a significant issue, the internal relationship between the earliest two versions, the Da Amituo jing and the Wuliang qingjing pingdengjue jing 無量清淨平等覺經 (T.361, below Pingdengjue jing), and the extant Sanskrit version has been overlooked. According to my recent research, a great amount of evidence suggests that the Da Amituo jing is a version largely compiled by its Chinese translator based on his Mahāyāna views, and the original Indian text of the Pingdengjue jing, which was translated in the 3rd century, is probably quite similar to the extant Sanskrit version, whose earliest extant manuscript is known to have been written in the middle of the 12th century. This paper presents new approaches to this issue.
First, I discuss the formation of the fourth vow in the Da Amituo jing, and the relationship between this vow and the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra. I pointed out that the items in the fourth vow, Praising the Merits of Amitābha and His Land and Rebirth by Hearing Amitābha’s Name, might have been derived from references to the contents of the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra.
Second, I discuss the relationship between the eight short paragraphs before the Tōhō-ge 東方偈 in the Pingdengjue jing and their counterparts in the Da Amituo jing and the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra. I concluded that even though there might have been a Tōhō-ge in the original Indian text of the Da Amituo jing, instead of translating all the stanzas, the translator of the Da Amituo jing only translated the first four stanzas (1–4) in prose, which the translator of the Pingdeng jue jing might have expanded to those lines using the syntax of the part of Praising of Amitābha’s Virtue by the Buddhas of the Six Quarters found in the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra.
In sum, there is no evidence verifying that the Da Amituo jing was formed earlier than the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha. By contrast, the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha was extant at the time when the Da Amituo jing and the Pingdengjue jing had been translated into Chinese, and the translators of these two versions respectively referred to the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha.
