Tuóluóní jí jīng 陀羅尼集經
Sūtra-Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Skt. Dhāraṇī-saṃgraha-sūtra) by 阿地瞿多 (Atikūṭa, 譯)
About the work
A 12-fascicle compendium of dhāraṇī materials translated by Atikūṭa 阿地瞿多 (阿地瞿多) at the Huìrìsì 慧日寺 in Chángān during Yǒnghuī 永徽 3–5 (652–654 CE) under imperial patronage of Emperor Gāozōng. The text is the earliest substantial collection of Esoteric dhāraṇī materials in Chinese — predating the major Tang Esoteric translation programmes of Śubhakarasiṃha (716–735), Vajrabodhi (720–741), and Amoghavajra (746–774) by approximately 65 to 120 years.
Abstract
The Dhāraṇī-saṃgraha organises the available 7th-century corpus of Buddhist dhāraṇī materials into a comprehensive 12-fascicle compendium. The text is structured by deity-category: it presents the dhāraṇīs of the Buddha-family (Mahāvairocana, the cosmic Buddhas), the Vajra-family (Vajrapāṇi and his retinue), the Lotus-family (Avalokiteśvara, Tārā, and the Lotus-family female deities), the Jewel-family, and various subsidiary deities. For each deity, the text gives: (i) the principal dhāraṇī; (ii) the associated mudrā; (iii) the visualisation prescriptions; (iv) the karman applications.
As an early-Tang witness, T901 documents the state of Esoteric ritual literature in 7th-century China before the systematic transmission of the foundational Mahāvairocana- and Vajraśekhara-tantra traditions. It thus represents an important historical witness to the proto-Tantric phase of Chinese Buddhism — the dhāraṇī-collection literature that preceded the mature Esoteric tradition. The text was widely consulted in the Tang and Sòng periods as the comprehensive dhāraṇī reference.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. — Discusses the proto-Tantric dhāraṇī-collection literature.
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2014. — Treats the early-Tang dhāraṇī tradition.
- Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens des Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.
Other points of interest
T901’s pre-Esoteric date (mid-7th c.) makes it a valuable witness to the historical development of Chinese Buddhist Esoteric literature. The compendium documents the corpus available to Chinese Buddhist practitioners before the Esoteric transmission of the 8th century, and thereby illuminates the continuity between earlier Mahāyāna dhāraṇī practice and the later mature Esoteric tradition.