Another Translation of the Related Discourses

(S. Saṃyukta Āgama; C. 別譯雜阿含經)

This partial translation of a Saṃyukta Āgama (SĀ) from an unknown school of early Buddhism is Taisho No. 100 (T100). It’s thought to date to the late Qin Dynasty (385-431 CE) in northern China. Very little was known about it when it came to the attention of Chinese bibliographers during the sixth century CE.

While it only includes 364 sūtras, they closely match 18 saṃyuktas found in Guṇabhadra’s complete translation of SĀ (T99). Like T99, this edition appears to have become disordered because of the lack of headings. The surviving material covers the Eight Assemblies section and part of the Teachings by the Tathāgata section of Yinshun’s edition.

I have arranged the sūtras of T100 along the lines of Yinshun’s edition in the table below, reordering them in a few cases as needed. The numbers in () after each group’s title lists the sūtra numbers that make up that group of texts. These numbers are then followed by the saṃyukta they correspond to in Yinshun’s edition of T99.

This arrangement turns out to be a nearly identical to Bucknell’s reordering of T100 based on the uddāna verses in contains. The only difference is that his order places part of SĀ 19 after SĀ 21.

The titles are also the same as Yinshun’s titles. There are no saṃyukta titles in T99 or T100, but there are uddāna verses that provide us with keyword titles for individual sūtras throughout T100.

A portion of this text was translated to English by Marcus Bingenheimer between 2005-2008. His translation of sūtras 1-52 and 214-223 are available at SuttaCentral and the original digital project.

A couple of these sūtras have been translated as parallels for the Dharma Pearls project and are listed below under their saṃyukta.

• Part I: The Eight Assemblies
  1. The Monks (1-22; SĀ 17)
  2. Māra (23-32; SĀ 18)
  3. Indra (33-52, 258-68; SĀ 19)
  46. The Eighth Day
  4. The Warriors (53-73; SĀ 20)
  5. The Brahmins (74-100; SĀ 21)
  6. Brahmā (101-10; SĀ 22)
  7. The Nuns (214-223; SĀ 23)
  8. Vaṇgīsa (224-230, 250-7; SĀ 24)
  9. The Gods (132-42, 231-49, 161-189, 269-317; SĀ 25)
  180. Crossing the Flood
  10. The Yakṣas (318-29; SĀ 26)
  11. The Forests (351-364; SĀ 27)
• Part II: The Teachings by the Tathāgata
  12. Mahākāśyapa (111-21; SĀ 41)
  13. Village Leaders (122-31; SĀ 42)
  14. Horses (143-151; SĀ 43)
  15. Mahānāman (152-160; SĀ 44)
  16. Beginningless (330-350; SĀ 45)
  17. Vatsagotra (190-8; SĀ 46)
  18. Heretics and Wanderers (199-213; SĀ 47)