Fóshuō chūshēng wúliàngmén chí jīng 佛說出生無量門持經
Sūtra on the Origination of the Boundless-Gate Retention (Anantamukha-sādhaka-dhāraṇī) by 佛陀跋陀羅 (Buddhabhadra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Eastern-Jìn translation by Buddhabhadra (佛陀跋陀羅, 359–429) of the Anantamukha-sādhaka-dhāraṇī. CANWWW also lists this text under the alt-title Xīn wéimì chí jīng 新微密持經 (“New Subtle-Secret Retention Sūtra”) — i.e. the “new” rendering relative to Zhī Qiān’s earlier T1011 (KR6j0204). The text was translated at Dàochǎngsì 道場寺 in Jiànkāng during Buddhabhadra’s productive late-period work, in close temporal proximity to his great translation of the Avataṃsaka (KR6c0001).
Abstract
Buddhabhadra of Kapilavastu (Kapilavastu lineage; co-translator with Faxian of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra short recension; principal translator of the 60-fascicle Avataṃsaka) produced this Anantamukha translation as one of several short dhāraṇī-texts during the period 419–421, alongside the major Avataṃsaka programme. The text retains close vocabulary contact with Zhī Qiān’s third-century rendering KR6j0204 (T1011) but updates the orthography of the dhāraṇī itself to the early-fifth-century Indic phonology then becoming standard via the Kuchean and Khotanese transmission lines. Catalogued in Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 under Buddhabhadra’s translations. Listed at Nanjio 355. For the full Anantamukha translation cycle, see KR6j0202.
Translations and research
- Inagaki, Hisao. The Anantamukha-nirhāra-dhāraṇī Sūtra and Jñānagarbha’s Commentary. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshōdō, 1987.
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
Links
- CBETA T19n1012
- Kanseki DB
- 佛陀跋陀羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (415) — 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.