Some reflections on an early Mahayana text Hastikak yasutra *

This paper attempts both to transliterate and translate a newly published Sanskrit fragment of the Hastikak yasutra and compare it to its corresponding Chinese and Tibetan translations. This fragment is part of the Hoernle Collection housed in the British Library. Through a comparison of all extant titles of this text found in both the Chinese and Tibetan versions and their reconstruction in Sanskrit, this work further deciphers why some titles use the metaphor of the effort or power of an elephant. In analysing the Chinese and Tibetan versions, this paper suggests that the content and structure of this text shed some light on the early development of Mahayana sutras.