Dàyúnlún qǐngyǔ jīng 大雲輪請雨經
Sūtra of the Great Cloud-Wheel Rain-Petitioning by 那連提耶舍 (Narendrayaśas, 譯)
About the work
A two-fascicle Suí-period (cataloged as 隋 in the metadata) translation of the Mahā-megha-sūtra’s rain-petitioning chapter by Narendrayaśas (那連提耶舍) — the Northern-Indian (Oḍḍiyāna) translator who served the Northern Qí, Northern Zhōu, and early Suí courts. The text gives the pre-Tang canonical recension of the qǐngyǔ sūtra, parallel to but distinct from Amoghavajra’s later T989 (KR6j0176).
Abstract
Narendrayaśas (那連提耶舍, 517–589) was an Oḍḍiyāna trepiṭaka who arrived in northern China in the late Northern-Wèi / early Northern-Qí period and remained active as an imperial translator across multiple dynastic transitions. He retired to Mt. Tài during the Northern-Zhōu Buddhist persecution and resumed translation activity at Cháng’ān under the Suí emperor 隋文帝 Wéndì in 582. The present Dàyúnlún qǐngyǔ translation belongs to his late Suí period (585–589, ending with his death). The text records the Buddha’s pronouncement at the Nanda-Upananda Nāga-king assembly of the rain-summoning vidyā and the procedure for invoking the four classes of Nāga-rulers. It is the principal pre-Tang Chinese witness to the Mahāmegha-qǐngyǔ tradition and was the textual base from which Amoghavajra developed his Tang Esoteric T989 retranslation.
Translations and research
- Forte, Antonino. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976.
- Bagchi, P. C. Le canon bouddhique en Chine. Paris: Geuthner, 1927–1938.