佛說大護明大陀羅尼經

Fóshuō dàhùmíng dà tuóluóní jīng 佛說大護明大陀羅尼經

Sūtra of the Great Protective-Vidyā Great Dhāraṇī (Mahā-pratisarā-mahā-vidyā-dhāraṇī) by 法天 (Fǎtiān, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation by Fǎtiān (法天 / Dharmadeva, fl. 973–1001) of one of the rakṣā dhāraṇī-texts within the Pañcarakṣā corpus tradition. The title Dàhùmíng 大護明 = Skt. Mahā-pratisarā-mahā-vidyā — “great protective vidyā”. The text is one of the major Sòng-period dhāraṇī translations in the Pañcarakṣā family.

Abstract

The Pañcarakṣā (五大護) is a corpus of five protective dhāraṇīs that gained currency in late-Indic Mahāyāna Buddhism: the Mahā-pratisarā, Mahāmāyūrī, Mahā-sāhasra-pramardanī, Mahā-mantrānusāriṇī, and Mahā-śīta-vatī. Each is associated with a female deity (sometimes presented as a vidyā personification) and provides apotropaic protection against various afflictions. The present text is one of the more elaborated Sòng versions of the Mahā-pratisarā tradition. Fǎtiān worked alongside Tiānxīzāi (later 法賢) and Dānapāla 施護 at the Sòng Yìjīng yuàn — together the three constitute the principal Northern-Sòng translation programme. The Pañcarakṣā corpus is one of the most-studied dhāraṇī-collections in modern scholarship; Hidas (2012) provides a critical edition of the Mahā-pratisarā in particular.

Translations and research

• Hidas, Gergely. Mahāpratisarā-Mahāvidyārājñī: The Great Amulet, Great Queen of Spells. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2012. — critical edition of the Mahā-pratisarā.
• Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
• Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — for Fǎtiān’s biographical context.

Links

• CBETA T20n1048
• Kanseki DB
• 法天 DILA
• Dazangthings date evidence (980) — 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.