| Summary: | The <i>Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā</i> is a Mahāyāna <i>dharmaparyāya</i> and is the eighth chapter of the great canonical collection of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the <i>Mahāsaṃnipāta</i>. The text is lost in the original Indic, but survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations, with several passages of the Sanskrit version preserved as quotations in later commentaries. It has been regarded as an authoritative canonical source throughout the intellectual history of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but scant scholarly attention has been paid to this important text. Thus, this paper aims to provide a concise yet comprehensive introduction of the <i>Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā</i>, including its textual history, its basic structure, and its reception in Indian, Tibetan, and East Asian Buddhist traditions. It also examines how the fundamental concepts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, such as emptiness, endlessness, and imperishability, are signified in the <i>Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā</i> by the image of the sky (Skt. <i>gagana</i>), the central metaphor of the text.
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