Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara in Translation: A Century of Interpretation of a Sanskrit Mahayana Text

Many translations of ??ntideva's Bodhicary?vat?ra, a Sanskrit Mah?y?na Buddhist text of seventh/eighth-century India, have been published since 1892. ??ntideva's Bodhicary?vat?ra is one of the few Indian Mah?y?na Buddhist texts available in Sanskrit and it was influential in Tibetan Buddhist schools. This article explores how translation of the Bodhicary?vat?ra is no longer the preserve of scholars but has moved to being carried out by Buddhist practitioners influenced by Tibetan schools of Buddhism. It shows how translators' motives for translating the text have reflected changing attitudes to Buddhism and its texts. ??ntideva's Bodhicary?vat?ra has been translated as a source of information, a literary work, an inspirational work and, with the rise of Western interest in Tibetan Buddhism in the late twentieth century, as a vehicle for the transmission of Buddhist teachings. Nevertheless, further scholarly investigation of the Sanskrit text of the Bodhicary?vat?ra remains to be done.