Móulí màntúluó zhòu jīng 牟梨曼陀羅呪經
Sūtra of the Mūla-Maṇḍala Spell [anonymous translator, attributed to the Liáng era]
About the work
A one-fascicle early-medieval anonymous translation of the Mūla-maṇḍala spell-sūtra, conventionally cataloged under the shīyì 失譯 (“translator-lost”) rubric and assigned to the Liáng period (502–557) on internal-evidence grounds. The text is a remarkable early Chinese witness to the maṇḍala-concept in the dhāraṇī-genre — preceding the Tang-period systematic yoga-tantra mandala tradition by over two centuries — and constitutes important evidence for the proto-Esoteric maṇḍala-cult in pre-Tang Chinese Buddhism.
Abstract
The Mūla-maṇḍala (Skt. “root-maṇḍala”) zhòu (spell) sūtra is one of the earliest Chinese-translated dhāraṇī-sūtras to use the term màntúluó 曼陀羅 (= Skt. maṇḍala) in its title, predating the systematic Tang-period mandala tradition by over two centuries. The text presents a generalised protective maṇḍala-spell suitable for invocation against demonic afflictions, ill-fortune, and obstacle-classes. Its early-Chinese transliteration conventions (e.g. simple disyllabic transliterations without elaborated fǎnqiè phonetic apparatus) and the abbreviated narrative-frame syntax place it broadly in the Liáng or earlier Six-Dynasties period. The text was widely cited in Sui-Tang dhāraṇī-collection compendia (such as Atikūṭa’s Dhāraṇī-saṃgraha T901, KR6j0117) as a representative early maṇḍala-spell. The Liáng dating is conventional and should be understood as a defensible bracket; the text may be slightly earlier (Northern Qí or Liáng) or later (Chén).
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
- Davidson, Ronald M. “Some Observations on an Uṣṇīṣa Abhiṣeka Rite in Atikūṭa’s Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha.” In Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation, ed. D. Gray and R. Overbey (Oxford: OUP, 2016).