Kǒngquè jīng zhēnyán děng fànběn 孔雀經真言等梵本
Sanskrit-Original Mantras and Other Materials of the Peacock Sūtra [anonymous compilation]
About the work
A one-fascicle Siddhaṃ-Chinese parallel reference text giving the principal mantras and bīja of the Mahāmāyūrī-vidyārājñī in their original Sanskrit script alongside the Chinese transliterations. Like the parallel T974E (KR6j0156) for the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya, the text functions as a fànběn 梵本 (“Sanskrit-original”) liturgical-reference companion to the canonical Amoghavajra translation T982 (KR6j0167) and ritual manual T983A (KR6j0169).
Abstract
The fànběn genre — comprising the Siddhaṃ-script Sanskrit mantras paired with Chinese transliterations — was central to the Tang Esoteric pedagogy of zhēnyán 真言 (mantra) instruction, in which practitioners were trained to recognise and recite the bīja-syllables and complete mantras in both Sanskrit and Chinese forms. The text is anonymous and was likely compiled in the late-Tang or early-Sòng period as a study-aid extracted from the canonical Amoghavajra Peacock corpus. The Siddhaṃ recension preserved here became one of the principal sources for the Japanese Shingon Siddhaṃ tradition and is referenced extensively in the Shittan-zō 悉曇藏 and related Japanese Sanskrit-script studies of the Heian and Kamakura periods.
Translations and research
- DesJardins, J. F. Marc. Le Sūtra de Mahāmāyūrī. Paris: Cerf, 2017.
- van Gulik, Robert H. Siddham: An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan. Nagpur: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1956.