Fó shuō Dìshì bōrě bōluómìduō xīn jīng 佛說帝釋般若波羅蜜多心經
Sūtra of Indra’s Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, Spoken by the Buddha by 施護 Shīhù (譯, Skt. Dānapāla)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Sòng-period Prajñāpāramitā sūtra translation by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla), preserved in the Taishō as T249. The Sanskrit title is reconstructable as Indra-Prajñā-pāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra (or similar) — the Heart of Prajñāpāramitā for Indra — a short Prajñāpāramitā discourse framed as a teaching to the Vedic-Buddhist god Indra (Dìshì 帝釋, Skt. Śakra Devānām Indra). One fascicle.
Despite the xīnjīng (heart-sūtra) element in the title, this work is not the canonical Heart Sūtra (the Hṛdaya short or long recension) but a separate short Prajñāpāramitā discourse in the same family of late-Indian compact Prajñā texts.
Abstract
T249 is part of the cluster of late-Indian short Prajñāpāramitā sūtras transmitted through Shīhù’s Sòng Yìjīngyuàn, here framed specifically as a teaching to Indra (the king of the Vedic-Buddhist gods, frequently invoked in Mahāyāna sūtras as a representative cosmic ruler). The text is brief and presents the Prajñā doctrine in a compact form suitable for ritual recitation in royal-protective and other state-Buddhist contexts.
The Indra-frame is significant: in late-Indian Buddhism, Indra / Śakra was associated with state-protective ritual and with imperial-Buddhist political theology, paralleling the Chinese association of the Rénwáng jīng with state protection. T249 may have served similar state-Buddhist devotional functions in late-Sòng court ritual.
Composition date: same bracket as Shīhù’s other Sòng Yìjīngyuàn translations (982–1017).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located of T249 specifically.
- For Shīhù and the late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā tradition, Edward Conze (1960; rev. 1978).
- For the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn, Tansen Sen (2003).
- For the Indra-Buddhist political theology context, Charles D. Orzech (1998).
Links
- 施護 DILA
- CBETA T08n0249
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000) — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō dating.
- Kanseki DB