Heart Sutra

About the Author

Reflecting on who wrote the Heart Sutra and assessing its authenticity raises a number of concerns with respect to the dating of particular Heart Sutra texts; additionally, different Buddhist traditions use varying criteria to determine the authenticity of scriptures. Mahayana Buddhists understand all Perfection of Wisdom texts to be the words of the Buddha. By contrast, non-Mahayana Buddhists consider the Heart Sutra and other Mahayana scriptures as the work of poets.

Putting aside devotional notions about the origin of this text, scholars also have many questions concerning where the Heart Sutra was first written as well as who wrote it. Chinese Heart Sutra texts purport to have been translated from earlier Indian Sanskrit originals. However, scholars have been unable to verify the authenticity of the supposed earlier texts. In particular, the Buddhist scholar Jan Nattierhas raised important questions regarding the nature of the oldest-known Sanskrit copy of the Heart Sutra. Using sophisticated linguistic analysis, Nattier has proposed that this early Sanskrit version was first written in Chinese and then translated into Sanskrit.

Most scholars accept Nattier’s argument. However, it is still possible that there was a Sanskrit original that was destroyed when Buddhism was suppressed in India in the thirteenth century. In support of this theory, scholars have noted that a commentary on the Heart Sutra written by the Korean scholar-monk and translator Wonch’uk (613–696) intimates that he had access to a Sanskrit original that may have been written even earlier than the Chinese translation attributed to the Indian Buddhist scholar-monk Kumarajiva. This is an important counterargument. Tibetan scholars, in particular, have long admired the exegetical work of Wonch’uk, and his work continues to be respected by modern-day scholars. Unfortunately, the text to which Wonch’uk refers is no longer extant. Nevertheless, it is possible that such a text may have existed and that someday it, or another earlier Sanskrit text, may be found.