Zuìshèng fódǐng tuóluóní jīng 最勝佛頂陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Most Victorious Buddha-Crown Dhāraṇī by 法天 (Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Sòng-period retranslation of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī by Dharmadeva (法天) of the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn 譯經院 at Kāifēng. Where the five Tang versions (KR6j0144–KR6j0148) frame the dhāraṇī within the standard Devaputra Susthitamati narrative, T974A presents a more compact recension focused on the dhāraṇī itself with elaborate Sanskrit transliteration and the standardised Sòng phonetic gloss-apparatus. The text marks the early phase of the Yìjīngyuàn programme to retranslate the principal Tang Esoteric scriptures using the new transliteration conventions developed by Dānapāla, Tiānxīzāi 天息災, and Fǎtiān himself.
Abstract
T974A is one of four supplementary recensions of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī preserved in Taishō vol. 19 (T974A–F) alongside the canonical Tang translations. The Sòng colophon attributes it to Sìtiān zhōng-Yìndù Móqiétuóguó Nálántuósì sānzàng shāmén cìzǐ 西天中印度摩伽陀國那爛陀寺三藏沙門賜紫法天 — Dharmadeva, the trepiṭaka monk from Nālandā in central India who arrived at the Sòng court in 973 and was granted the purple robe (賜紫). His translation activity is documented in the Sòng huìyào jígǎo 宋會要輯稿 (宋會要輯稿) and the Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀 (KR6r0012), with most translations dated 980–1001. The dhāraṇī itself is the standard Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya with Dharmadeva’s characteristic phonetic gloss conventions (二合, 引, 反) marking compounds, long vowels, and fǎnqiè-style readings.
Translations and research
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2014.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — for Dharmadeva’s biographical context and the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn.