rMa Rad na ya kra

00215 

Other names / Alternative spellings 

Social groups (status, family, lineage...) 

rMa family 

Period of activity 

VIIIth century 

Reign of Khri Srong lde brtsan 

Biographical data 

sKa ba’ dPal rtsags, Cog ro Klu'i rgyal mtshan, rMa Rad na ya kra and others were translators in the time of the btsan po Khri Srong lde brtsan (ms. PT 149 l. r6). 

Titles 

Notes 

S. Van Schaik and L. Doney proposed to identifie "rMa Rad na ya kra" to the rMa Rin chen mchog mentioned by later Tibetan historians, arguing that "rin chen" translates the sanskrit "ratna" (Van Schaik, Doney 2007 (2009) p. 198-199). This seems very likely and one can add that the tibetan "mchog" seems to translate the sanskrit word "agraḥ" (= ya kra ?) in the Mahavyutpatti (see the "Thesaurus Literaturae Buddhicae" of the University of Oslo). 

Whether rMa Rin chen [mchog] and rMa Rad na ya kra have to be identified to the "dBa' Ratna son of dBa' rMa gzig" mentioned in dBa' bzhed is another matter (see Van Schaik, Doney 2007 (2009) p. 198-199, and Wangdu, Diemberger, Sørensen 2000 p. 70). The family name of this latter character is often spelled "rBa" by later historians (i. e. "rBa Ratna" in mKhas pa lde'u 2010 ed. p. 286, "Rad na son of rBa rMang gzigs" Ne'u Pandita 2005 ed. p. 21). 

According to the bKa' thang sde lnga, rMa Rin chen mchog knew the language and script of India (i.e. rgya gar, distinguished from Sanskrit which is given as Bee ro tsa na's speciality, bKa' thang sde lnga 2011 ed. p. 327).