阿唎多羅陀羅尼阿嚕力經

Ālìduōluó tuóluóní ālūlì jīng 阿唎多羅陀羅尼阿嚕力經

Ārya-Tārā Aroḷika Dhāraṇī Sūtra by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Esoteric sūtra translated by Amoghavajra (不空) presenting the dhāraṇī of Tārā (阿唎多羅 = Ārya-Tārā, “Noble Tārā”, the female bodhisattva associated with Avalokiteśvara) together with the Aroḷika (阿嚕力 = Aroḷika / Hayagrīva, the horse-headed wrathful deity associated with Avalokiteśvara). The text is one of the earliest Chinese-language documents witnessing the Tārā cult that would become so important in later Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism.

Abstract

Tārā (阿唎多羅 / Ālìduōluó) is the female bodhisattva consort-emanation of Avalokiteśvara, central to the later Tibetan tradition (where she remains one of the most popular meditation deities) and present in early Indic Mahāyāna and Esoteric Buddhism from the seventh century onwards. Amoghavajra’s translation is one of the earliest substantial Tang Chinese translations of a Tārā dhāraṇī text. The pairing with Aroḷika / Hayagrīva (阿嚕力) — the horse-headed wrathful protector of the Lotus-family — within a single sūtra reflects the yoga-tantra maṇḍala configuration in which Tārā and Hayagrīva are ranged alongside Avalokiteśvara at the central position of the Lotus-family. The text is a key early witness to the integrated Avalokiteśvara-Tārā-Hayagrīva cluster that would persist throughout subsequent East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism.

Translations and research

• Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. — classic work on the Tārā cult.
• Wilson, Martin. In Praise of Tārā: Songs to the Saviouress. London: Wisdom, 1986.
• Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.

Links

• CBETA T20n1039
• 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.