The Treatise on Parts — Aryadeva · Tianmu Anglican Church

Hastavālaprakaraṇa — by Āryadeva

The Hastavālaprakaraṇa — "The Treatise on Parts" — is a short Madhyamaka philosophical treatise preserved in the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku 3844). In seven stanzas, Āryadeva — Nāgārjuna's chief disciple and the second great master of the Madhyamaka — constructs a complete argument from perception to liberation.

The text begins with the famous rope-snake analogy: you see a rope in dim light and think it is a snake. Seeing it as a rope dispels the fear. But then — the crucial Madhyamaka move — when you analyze the rope into its parts, even "rope" dissolves as a designation. What you took to be the correction was itself a construction. From this, Āryadeva generalizes: all entities, when their own-nature is examined, are found to be mere imputations. Since what is partless cannot be further analyzed, even the most fundamental constituent is non-existent. The practical conclusion follows: the wise abandon attachment as easily as one drops the fear of a rope-snake. In the world, act conventionally; for liberation, seek the ultimate.

The Sanskrit title "Hastavāla" means "strand in the hand" — that which dissolves under close examination. The Sanskrit original is lost; the text was translated into Tibetan by the Indian paṇḍita Śraddhākaravarman and the great Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055 CE), the foremost lotsāwa of the Later Diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet. A companion commentary (Toh 3845, Hastavālaprakaraṇavṛtti) follows in the same volume — see Commentary on the Treatise on Parts. An academic English translation by Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti was published in 1995, but no freely available English translation exists. This is the first.

Homage to the Blessed Lord of Speech!

I

When you hold a rope and think, "A snake!" —
seeing it as a rope, the thought is pointless.
But when you see its parts:
that knowing, too, was delusion — like the snake.

II

When the own-nature of all entities
subject to analysis is examined —
through another's conventional awareness,
every object of experience is merely imputed.

III

Since what is partless cannot be further analyzed,
even the most fundamental is likewise non-existent.
Therefore the wise should recognize: mere delusion —
in the ultimate sense, not real.

IV

If deluded, then since that too is impure,
things do not exist as they appear.
Appearances that lack a real object —
how could they possess self-nature?

V

One who through subtle intelligence
knows all things as nothing but construction —
that wise one easily abandons attachment and the rest,
as one drops the fear of a rope-snake.

VI

Understanding worldly meaning,
one should act in the world as the world does.
But those who wish to abandon all afflictions
should seek through the ultimate meaning.

VII

Thus the yogin who fully understands own-nature,
engaging closely with form and the rest,
swiftly accomplishes
the fruit of the Sage's discipline.

The Treatise on Parts, composed by Master Āryadeva, is complete.

Colophon

Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan. Translated from the Degé Tengyur, Toh 3844, དབུ་མ (Madhyamaka / Middle Way) section, Volume 96 (ཙ), folios 282b.3–282b.7. Sanskrit title: Hastavālanāmaprakaraṇa. Tibetan title: ཆ་ཤས་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ (cha shas kyi yan lag ces bya ba'i rab tu byed pa).

Composed by Āryadeva (འཕགས་པ་ལྷ, ʼPhags pa lha), 3rd century CE — the foremost disciple of Nāgārjuna and the second patriarch of the Madhyamaka school. The Tibetan tradition attributes this text to Āryadeva; the Chinese Buddhist tradition and some modern scholars (Frauwallner, Hattori) attribute it to Dignāga (5th century CE). The text opens with homage to Vāgīśvara ("Lord of Speech"), an epithet of Mañjuśrī, placing it within the wisdom tradition. A companion commentary (Toh 3845, Hastavālaprakaraṇavṛtti) follows immediately in the same volume and remains untranslated.

Translated into Tibetan by the Indian paṇḍita Śraddhākaravarman (ཤྲདྡྷ་ཀ་ར་ཝརྨ) and the Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo (རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ, 958–1055 CE), the Great Translator (lotsāwa chen po) of the Later Diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet. Rinchen Zangpo is credited with translating over 150 texts from Sanskrit to Tibetan and is regarded as one of the most important figures in the transmission of Indian Buddhism to Tibet.

First freely available English translation. An academic translation by Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti was published in On Voidness: A Study on Buddhist Nihilism (Motilal Banarsidass, 1995) but is not freely accessible. 84000.co lists the entire Madhyamaka section of the Tengyur as untranslated.

Translated by Lotsāwa (ལོ་ཙཱ་བ), Tibetan Translator, New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (CC0 public domain dedication, github.com/Esukhia/derge-tengyur).

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: ཆ་ཤས་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ། (Hastavālaprakaraṇa)

Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (CC0). Toh 3844, Volume 96 (དབུ་མ, ཙ), folios 282b.3–282b.7. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཧསྟ་བཱ་ས་ནཱ་མ་པྲ་ཀ་ར་ཎ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཆ་ཤས་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ།

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ངག་གི་དབང་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

ཐག་པ་ལ་ནི་སྦྲུལ་སྙམ་འཛིན། །ཐག་པར་མཐོང་ན་དོན་མེད་དོ། །དེ་ཡི་ཆ་མཐོང་དེ་ལ་ནི། །སྦྲུལ་བཞིན་ཤེས་པ་འཁྲུལ་པ་ཡིན། །

བརྟག་པའི་དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། །རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་བརྟགས་པ་ན། །གཞན་གྱི་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཤེས་པ་ཡིས། །སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཇི་སྙེད་བརྟགས་པ་ཡིན། །

ཆ་མེད་བརྟག་པར་བྱ་མིན་ཕྱིར། །ཐ་མ་ཡང་ནི་མེད་པར་མཚུངས། །དེ་ཕྱིར་མཁས་པས་འཁྲུལ་པ་ཙམ། །ཡང་དག་དོན་དུ་མིན་པར་བརྟག །

འཁྲུལ་ན་དེ་ཡང་མ་དག་ཕྱིར། །ཇི་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་དེ་ལྟར་མེད། །དོན་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན་སྣང་བ་ནི། །ཇི་ལྟར་དེ་ཡི་བདག་ཉིད་འགྱུར། །

གང་ཞིག་ཞིབ་མོའི་བློ་ཡིས་ནི། །ཐམས་ཅད་བརྟགས་པ་ཁོ་ནར་ཤེས། །བློ་ལྡན་དེས་ནི་ཆགས་ལ་སོགས། །བདེ་བར་སྦྲུལ་གྱིས་སྐྲག་བཞིན་སྤངས། །

འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་ཡི་དོན་རྟོགས་པས། །འཇིག་རྟེན་བཞིན་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ། །ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་སྤང་འདོད་པས། །དམ་པའི་དོན་གྱིས་བཙལ་བར་བྱ། །

དེ་ལྟར་རང་བཞིན་ཡོངས་ཤེས་པའི། །རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས་ནི་གཟུགས་སོགས་ལ། །ཉེ་བར་སྤྱོད་པས་ཐུབ་པ་ཡི། །བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་མྱུར་དུ་འགྲུབ། །

ཆ་ཤས་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་འཕགས་པ་ལྷས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་ཤྲདྡྷ་ཀ་ར་ཝརྨ་དང་། བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ།།

Source Colophon

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition, hosted on GitHub (github.com/Esukhia/derge-tengyur). File: 096_དབུ་མ།_ཙ.txt, lines 4483–4487. Licensed under CC0 (public domain dedication).

The Esukhia project provides Unicode Tibetan etexts of the Degé (སྡེ་དགེ) woodblock prints of the Kangyur and Tengyur, the standard scholarly editions of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. Folio markers, Tohoku catalogue markers ({D3844}), and line-break markers (#) from the Esukhia encoding have been removed from the source text above for readability. Tsheg (intersyllabic dots) and shad (sentence-ending marks) are preserved as in the original.

See also in the Good Work Library: Commentary on the Treatise on Parts — Aryadeva — Āryadeva's own prose autocommentary (Toh 3845), expanding the seven root stanzas with the mereological argument from ropes to atoms to sky-flowers. Translated by the same lotsāwa team (Śraddhākaravarman and Rinchen Zangpo). · Commentary on the Measure of the Hand — Aryadeva — a parallel autocommentary (Toh 3849) on the closely related verse text D3848, translated by a different Tibetan team (Dānaśīla and Paljor Nyingpo). · One Hundred Letters — Nāgārjuna's epistemological primer, the root text by Āryadeva's teacher. · Commentary on the One Hundred Letters — Jetāri's commentary on the same text. · Awakening the Unawakened — Nagarjuna — attributed to Nāgārjuna, uses the same rope-snake analogy to demonstrate the selflessness of persons.

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