About This Edition

The Swayambhu Purana (स्वयम्भू पुराण) is a Sanskrit Buddhist text of the Kathmandu Valley, surviving in manuscripts of the 18th century and drawing on considerably older material. It belongs to the Newar Buddhist tradition, and it is the source for much of what the valley tells about its own origins: the lake, the self-arisen flame, the draining of the water by Mañjuśrī, and the founding of the shrines that remain in use today.

The Five Layers

Every one of the 1,749 verses in this edition is given five ways:

• Sanskrit: the verse in Devanagari.
• Transliteration: a Roman transliteration (IAST) you can read aloud without knowing the script.
• English: a literal translation, kept close to the Sanskrit rather than smoothed into paraphrase.
• नेपाली: a Nepali translation.
• Purport: a short explanation of what is happening in the verse and why it matters, including the names, places and references a reader today is unlikely to recognise.

The reading controls on each chapter page let you switch any of these off. If you want the story on its own, keep the purport and turn the rest off; if you are studying the Sanskrit, keep the first two. Your choice is remembered as you move between chapters.

The Text

The work is arranged in ten chapters, complete here, running from the appearance of the flame in the age of Vipaśyī Buddha to the closing scene at Bodhimaṇḍa. Each chapter is a single page, and each verse has its own link; click a verse number to link directly to it.