Fó shuō móhēshàtóu jīng 佛說摩訶剎頭經
The Buddha’s Sūtra of the Mahāmūrdhan (alternate title: 灌佛形像經 Sūtra on the Bathing of the Buddha-Image) translated by 聖堅 (Shèngjiān, Āryasthira, 譯)
About the work
T696 in one fascicle is the parallel rendering of the same Indian original as [[KR6i0385|Guànxǐ fóxíngxiàng jīng 灌洗佛形像經]] (T695). The Taishō witness gives the sūtra-title under both forms — the Sanskritic transliteration Móhēshàtóu jīng (Mahāmūrdhansūtra) at the head and the gloss-title 灌佛形像經 (“Sūtra on the Bathing of the Buddha-Image”) in parentheses. The translator colophon “西秦沙門釋聖堅譯” attributes the rendering to 聖堅 / Āryasthira of Western Qín 西秦 (385–431). Catalog vs. source discrepancy: the catalog meta data/catalogs/meta/KR6i.yaml records the dynasty as 西晉, but the Taishō source-witness colophon and modern scholarship (Tang Yongtong, Mizuno; cf. DILA A002174) all locate 聖堅 in the Western Qín; the latter is followed here.
Abstract
The narrative is essentially identical to T695: the Buddha addresses an assembly of Mahāmūrdhan (摩訶剎頭) — a category of devas — gods, humans, and elders on the events of his birth, the seven steps, the bathing by the Four Heavenly Kings and the gods, and the closing instructions on the Buddha’s-Birthday image-bathing ritual on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. Comparison of the two parallel translations (Western-Jìn 法炬 T695 vs. Western-Qín 聖堅 T696) shows minor variation in vocabulary and order — characteristic of two independent renderings of the same Indian original by neighbouring translation centres in the late fourth century.
The text together with its parallel KR6i0385 is the canonical scriptural ground for the East-Asian Buddhist Yùfó 浴佛 / Kanbutsu-e 灌仏会 ritual on the eighth of the fourth month — celebrating the Buddha’s birth.
Related canonical texts: parallel KR6i0385 (T695); image-cult cluster KR6i0382–KR6i0388.
Translations and research
- Hamada Yoshie 浜田吉江. Yokubutsu shiki no shisō to bunka 浴仏式の思想と文化. Tokyo: Hōzōkan, 2009.
- Soper, Alexander C. Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China. Ascona, 1959.
No standalone English translation located.