Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra 5.9 and its Khotanese translation

Because the Sanskrit adjective ātmaka‑ does not mean ‘peculiar’, nor does it function as a reflexive pronoun, but means ‘having the nature of’, the last pāda of Suvarṇa­bhāsotta­masūtra 5.9 should not be read na cendriyaṃ kurvati jānam ātmakaṃ and translated ‘it [i.e. the mind] gives that sense its peculiar knowledge (*jñānam)’, but na cendriyaṃ kurvatu jāna-m-ātmakaṃ ‘it is as if it (i.e. the mind) makes that sense have the nature of that which perceives’. The Khotanese translator did not recognise the compound at the end of the pāda but understood jāna‑ properly as an active present participle and, reading jānam ātmakaṃ, translated the pāda ad sensum in line with doctrine: ttu indriyu haysānando padīmäte uysānye ‘(the mind) makes that sense that which perceives on behalf of (the mind) itself’.