བརྗེད་བྱང་། / brjed byang

The term brjed byang (“memorandum”) is defined by the Tshig mdzod chen mo (s.v.) as “notes written for the sake of not forgetting” (mi brjed pa’i phyir bris pa’i tho yig). A brjed byang may be seen as a sub-genre of ’grel pa (“commentary”). Although Negi, relying on the catalogue of the Tibetan canon, gives ṭippaṇī as the Sanskrit word for brjed byang, it would require further verification. The question is whether ṭippaṇī and brjed byang refer to the same referent. Some of the synonyms of brjed byang are said to be bsnyel byang, reg zig, zin thun, and zin bris. The word brjed byang occurs already in the two oldest catalogues, namely, the ’Phang thang ma and lDan dkar ma. The brjed byang type of commentaries seem to be the some of the oldest types of commentaries that the autochthonous Tibetan scholars composed.