འདྲོབ་སྐྱོང་།

On November 18, 2012, I commented on the problem of Tibetan translations of Kāśyapa. We have better access to electronic texts now (May 22, 2021) than then. But the problem still lingers. I wish to summarize the state of affairs. First, a common translation of Kāśyapa is ’Od srung, also spelled as ’Od srung, ’Od bsrung, ’Od bsrungs, and ’Od srungs. Second, we have numerous attestations also for ’Drob skong gyi bu (also spelled as ’Drobs skyong gi bu). Third, we also find several instances of ’Dro ba skyong gi bu. We might be tempted to dismiss the variant ’dro ba simply as a misreading of ’drob. But we may, for now, resist the temptation and take it seriously. This is what Claus Vogel has done already in 1970 (i.e. Vogel 1970: 20, n. 4). He took ’dro ba to be “a secondary or antiquated spelling of ’gro ba” associated with the Sanskrit root kaś “to go.” For a want of a better explanation, we may consider this a possibility, although its probability is still questionable. Fourth, although we have no evidence, one wonders if ’drob, ’drobs, ’dro ba, and ’dros is connected with dro ba, drod, and dros. In other words, could it be that the Tibetan translators had “warmth” or “heat” in mind? Or could it be that sgrob was once spelled ’drob and hence meant “splendor/brilliance” (as in pho sgrob)?