Mó hē mó yē jīng 摩訶摩耶經
The Mahāmāyā Sūtra by 曇景 (Tánjǐng, 譯)
About the work
This 2-fascicle text by 曇景 Tánjǐng is the Mahāmāyā-sūtra — the Mahāyāna sūtra concerning the Buddha’s mother Mahāmāyā 摩訶摩耶, narrating the events surrounding the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa from Mahāmāyā’s perspective in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven and including a famous prophecy of the decline of the Dharma (the standard mò fǎ 末法 doctrine).
Abstract
The translation belongs to Tánjǐng’s Xiāo-Qí period (479–502 CE).
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. Once Upon a Future Time (1991) — for the mò fǎ doctrine.
- Radich, Michael. “A Triad of Texts from Fifth-Century Southern China: The Mahāmāyā-sūtra, the Guoqu xianzai yinguo jing, and a Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra ascribed to Faxian.” Journal of Chinese Religions 46.1 (2018): 1–41.