mKhan-po bKra-rdo (NNRC) asked me if I could help identity a Tibetan teacher mentioned by Mi-pham in the colophon of his Ketaka. See Mi-pham rNam-rgyal-rgyal-mtsho, Shes rab kyi le’u’i tshig don go sla bar rnam par bshad pa nor bu ke ta ka, edited by mKhan-po Chos-’phel-nor-bu et al. Jeerango via Chadragiri, Gajapati (Odisha): Ārya-pa-lo’i-rtsom-sgrig-khang, Rigon Thubten Mindrolling Monastery, 2022, p. 103.9–10: dge ba’i bshes gnyen su ka ma nas yang nas yang du bskul bar mdzad pa’i rkyen byas na |. The editors make no attempt to identify the person. See also Karma Phuntsho, Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not To Be or Neither. Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005, p. 213, where it states “requested by one Sukama.” Such a name in Sanskrit seems not possible. At one point, I wondered if the name should be Sukamala, but then we do not seem to know a teacher of Mi-pham bearing the name Padma-bzang-po. One option is to read Sukāma. But whose name could it be? One candidate that comes to one’s mind is the third Mu-ra-sprul-sku Padma-bde-chen-bzang-po (BDRC: P8693). He is listed as one of the teachers of Mi-pham. He is also said to be a master of mKhan-chen Thub-bstan-chos-’phel from rDza-stod-lcang ma. The prefix su in the name can be said to be for bzang po. But the question is can kāma be rendered into Tibetan bde ba? The standard rendering seems to be ’dod pa (occasionally as an honorific bzhed pa). In English at least, it has also been rendered as “love, affection, pleasure, enjoyment” (MW, s.v. kāma). These, one would say, come quite close to Tibetan bde ba. This speculation is, however, for the want of a better explanation. I remain ready to be corrected at any time.
Pratisaṃvid 