Pútíchǎng zhuāngyán tuóluóní jīng 菩提場莊嚴陀羅尼經
Bodhimaṇḍala-lakṣa-alaṅkāra-dhāraṇī Sūtra by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang-period dhāraṇī sūtra translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774) at Chángān during his mature translation period (746–774). The text presents the Bodhimaṇḍala-lakṣālaṁkāra-dhāraṇī, an ornamental dhāraṇī said to be efficacious for the consecration of the bodhimaṇḍa — the seat of awakening — and as such occupies a key position in Esoteric ritual literature on the topic of consecrating sacred space. Sanskrit reconstruction Bodhimaṇḍalalakṣālaṁkāradhāraṇī(sūtra); in CANWWW also given the alt-title Pútíchǎng zhuāngyán jīng 菩提場莊嚴經.
Abstract
The text is one of the corpus of dhāraṇī-translations Amoghavajra produced during his most active translation period at Dàxìngshànsì 大興善寺 (746–774). The dhāraṇī claims to confer the miraculous powers (lakṣa- / “characteristic-marks”) that ornament a bodhimaṇḍa (place of awakening); in liturgical use it is recited at sites destined for ritual consecration as a Tantric maṇḍala. The Sanskrit underlying-text is no longer extant, but the dhāraṇī itself preserves substantial Indic transliteration. Catalogued in the Zhēnyuán xīndìng shìjiào mùlù 貞元新定釋教目錄 (Yuánzhào, 800) under Amoghavajra’s translation programme. Listed at Nanjio 1025; survives in the Korean (高麗) and Jīnzàng (金臧) editions and was widely transmitted in Japan as part of the Tángmì → Shingon esoteric corpus.
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
- Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1998. — context for Amoghavajra’s translation programme.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
Links
- CBETA T19n1008
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (750) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.