Fódǐng zūnshèng tuóluóní zhēnyán 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼真言
Mantra of the Buddha-Crown Victorious Dhāraṇī [anonymous]
About the work
A one-fascicle bare-mantra recension of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī preserved in Taishō vol. 19 as T974E without translator attribution. The text gives the dhāraṇī in transliterated form together with Siddhaṃ-script equivalents — a zhēnyán fànběn 真言梵本 (“mantra in the original Sanskrit”) format that became the standard liturgical reference for the Tang–Sòng Esoteric mantra-recitation practice and especially for the Japanese Shingon Siddhaṃ tradition.
Abstract
T974E supplements the standard sūtra translations of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī by providing the bare mantra in liturgical-reference format. The Siddhaṃ-Chinese parallel layout reflects the Tang Esoteric pedagogy of mantra-instruction in which the bīja-syllables and phrases were memorised through both their Sanskrit-script and their Chinese-transliterated forms. The format became the template for the entire fànběn 梵本 (“Sanskrit-original”) genre that proliferated in late-Tang and Sòng-period Esoteric ritual collections (compare T983B, KR6j0170; T1005B, KR6j0198; T1022A’s Siddhaṃ register). The translator-anonymous attribution and the late inclusion in the Taishō corpus suggest a transmission line through the Tang–Sòng ritual collections rather than direct translation activity.
Translations and research
- Lin Guangming 林光明 (ed.), Xīnbiān Dàzàng quánzhòu 新編大藏全咒. Taipei: 嘉豐出版社, 2001. — comprehensive Sanskrit reconstruction of the dhāraṇī.
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory. New York: Columbia UP, 2014.