Translation, Authority, and the Risk of Meaning: From Mahāvyutpatti to the AI Era The formation of the Mahāvyutpatti was not merely a lexical project but an institutional response to a perceived risk: that the Dharma, once transferred across languages, could be altered not by loss but by misinterpretation. Indian paṇḍitas and Tibetan translators alike understood that translation was not a neutral act. It was a site at which meaning could either be preserved or quietly transformed. A foundational principle preserved in Tibetan scholastic culture states: ཚིག་མ་འཁྲུལ་ན་དོན་མི་འཁྲུལ། དོན་མ་འཁྲུལ་ན་ལྟ་བ་མི་འཁྲུལ། ¹ If the words are not mistaken, the meaning is not mistaken; if the meaning is not mistaken, the view is not mistaken. This formulation reflects a concern inherited from Indian epistemological traditions: that linguistic precision is not merely technical, but doctrinal. A shift at the level of terminology propagates upward into philosophical error. Translation, ...