The Gandi Sutra

The Gandi Sutra (Skt. Gaṇḍīsūtra; Tib གཎ་ཌཱིའི་མདོ།, Wyl. gaN DI’i mdo) tells of when the Buddha is dwelling in the Bamboo Grove monastery near Rajagriha, together with a thousand monks and a host of bodhisattvas, and King Prasenajit arises from his seat, bows at the Buddha’s feet, and asks him how to uphold the Dharma in his kingdom during times of conflict. In reply the Buddha instructs the king about the gandi, a wooden ritual instrument, and tells him how the sound of this instrument, used for Dharma practice in a temple or monastery, quells conflict and strife for all who hear it. He describes how to make, consecrate, and sound the gandi. He explains that the gandi symbolizes the Perfection of Insight and describes in detail the many benefits it confers.

Text

There seems to be no extant Sanskrit or Chinese version of The Gandi Sutra.

Tibetan Translation

The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 298. It was translated into Tibetan by Dharma­shribhadra and Tsültrim Yönten and subsequently edited by Rinchen Zangpo, which dates the Tibetan translation to the early eleventh century ᴄᴇ. The text is, however, also recorded in the Denkarma catalog of the Tibetan imperial translations, so it appears that it was first translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by an unknown translator no later than the early ninth century, as the Denkarma is dated to 812 ᴄᴇ.

• English translation: The Gandi Sutra