6.  Ganda-vyuha[138] or the Structure of the World, which is compared to a bubble.  The name is not found in the catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka but the work is said to be the same as the Avatamsaka sutra which is popular in the Far East under the name of Hua-yen in China or Ke-gon in Japan.  The identity of the two books could not have been guessed from the extracts and analyses which have been published but is guaranteed by high authorities.[139] It is possible however that the Ganda-vyuha is only a portion of the larger work called Avatamsaka.  So far as can be judged from the extracts, this text preaches in a fully developed form, the doctrines of Sunyata, Dharma-kaya, the omnipresence of the Buddha and the redemption of the world by the exertions of Bodhisattvas.  Yet it seems to be early, for a portion of it was translated into Chinese about 170 A.D. (Nanjio, 102) and about 405 Kumarajiva translated a commentary on it ascribed to Nagarjuna (Nanjio, 1180).

7.  Tathagata-guhyaka.  This work is known by the analysis of Rajendralala Mitra from which it appears to be a Tantra of the worst class and probably late.  Its proper title is said to be Sriguhyasamaja.  Watanabe states that the work catalogued by Nanjio under No. 1027 and translated into Chinese about 1000 A.D. is an expurgated version of it.  The Sikshasamuccaya cites the Tathagata-guhya-sutra several times.  The relations of these works to one another are not quite clear.

8.  Samadhiraja[140] is a Vyakarana or narrative describing different forms of meditation of which the Samadhiraja is the greatest and best.  The scene is laid on the Vulture’s Peak and the principal interlocutors are Sakyamuni and Candraprabha, a rich man of Rajagriha.  It appears to be the same as the Candrapradipa-sutra and is a complete and copious treatise, which not only expounds the topic from which it takes its name but incidentally enumerates the chief principles of Mahayanism.  Watanabe[141] states that it is the Yueeh-teng-san-mei-ching (Nanjio, 191) translated about 450 and again in 557 A.D.

9.  Dasabhumisvara.[142] An account of the ten stages in the career of a Bodhisattva before he can attain to Buddhahood.  The scene is laid in the paradise of Indra where Sakyamuni was temporarily sojourning and the principal interlocutor is a Bodhisattva named Vajragarbha.  It is said to be the same as the Dasabhumika-sutra first translated into Chinese about 300 A.D. (Nanjio, 105 and 110) but this work appears to be merely a portion of the Ganda-vyuha or Avatamsaka mentioned above.

These nine works are all extant in Sanskrit and are known in Nepal as the nine Dharmas, the word Dharma being an abbreviation for Dharmaparyaya, revolution or exposition of the law, a term frequently used in the works themselves to describe a comprehensive discourse delivered by the Buddha.  They are all quoted in the Sikshasamuccaya, supposed to have been written about 650 A.D.  No similar collection of nine seems to be known in Tibet or the Far East and the origin of the selection is obscure.  As however the list does not include the Svayambhu Purana, the principal indigenous scripture of Nepal, it may go back to an Indian source and represent an old tradition.