The Viśeṣa-stava is a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

stotra ''Stotra'' (Sanskrit: स्तोत्र) is a Sanskrit word that means "ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise."Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'Stotra'' It is a literary genre of In ...

'' by the author Udbhaṭa-sidhi-svāmin and has pride of place as the text that opens the Tibetan bstan 'gyur. Originally written in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, it was extensively propagated and sung. It was written to demonstrate the superiority of Buddhism over ''

tirthika Tīrthika ( sa, tīrthika, pi, titthiya, "ford-maker," meaning one who is attempting to cross the stream of saṃsāra) in Indian philosophy is a general term referring to non-Buddhists in general. In the Tipitaka, the term ''titthiya'' may r ...

s''. It is now only known from its Tibetan translation (in the 9th century by the efforts of Sarvajñadeva and the Tibetans Rin-chen-mchog (d. 840) and Dpal-brtseg Rakṣita).Schneider, Johannes (1993). ''Der Lobpreis der Vorzüglichkeit des Buddha.'' Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag. p. 21 At the time of its translation into

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

Prajñāvarman Prajñāvarman (Tibetan: ''shes rab go cha'') within early medieval literature, was an 8th-century Buddhist writer. He lived during the reigns of the Pala king, Gopala I and the Tibetan emperor Trisong Detsen, under whose auspices he came to Tib ...

wrote a commentary on it which immediately follows it in the Bstan 'gyur.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Visesastava Buddhist texts