Jīngāng guāngyàn zhǐ fēngyǔ tuóluóní jīng 金剛光焰止風雨陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Vajra-Flame Dhāraṇī for Quelling Wind and Rain (Recension A) by 菩提流志 (Bodhiruci II, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang-period dhāraṇī text translated by Bodhiruci II (菩提流志, ca. 562–727) for the apotropaic purpose of quelling damaging weather (typhoons, hail, storms). The text is one of the early-Tang witnesses to the vajra-jvāla (金剛光焰, “vajra-flame”) family of weather-control dhāraṇīs that became widespread in agrarian East Asia. The Taishō prints two recensions (T1027A and T1027B = KR6j0222); the present T1027A is the longer / orig recension preserved separately within Bodhiruci’s translation programme.
Abstract
Weather-control dhāraṇīs for the protection of crops, the quelling of typhoons and hail, and the prevention of agricultural disaster constitute one of the most pragmatic and socially important strands of the Esoteric tradition. The vajra-jvāla dhāraṇī presents itself as a means by which a properly empowered ritualist can cause damaging winds and rains to subside. Bodhiruci II’s translation, made during his late Chángān period (706–727), preceded Amoghavajra’s later activity in the same domain by some thirty years and shows the thread of meteorological-magical Buddhism running continuously from early-Tang into mid-Tang Esoteric practice. The texts in this family typically include detailed mudrā and maṇḍala prescriptions; the present recension preserves these instructions in a somewhat archaic form characteristic of the early-eighth-century. For the parallel recension see KR6j0222.
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. — Strickmann’s classic treatment of weather-control and demon-quelling dhāraṇī-magic in Tang Buddhism.