千手千眼觀世音菩薩大身呪本

Qiānshǒu qiānyǎn Guānshìyīn púsà dàshēn zhòuběn 千手千眼觀世音菩薩大身呪本

Great-Body Spell-Text of the Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle dàshēn zhòuběn 大身呪本 — “great-body” spell-text — of the Sahasrabhuja dhāraṇī, the second of the Vajrabodhi zhòuběn recensions in the Taishō (No. 1062A; cf. T20n1061 = KR6j0262). The colophon names Vajrabodhi (金剛智) using the formula 大唐贈開府儀同三司諡大弘教三藏沙門金剛智奉詔譯 — i.e. with the posthumous honours and titles, indicating final canonical recension after Vajrabodhi’s death (741). The note “出大悲經中卷” again identifies the source as the middle fascicle of the Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī-sūtra.

Abstract

The “great-body” zhòuběn gives the long version of the Sahasrabhuja dhāraṇī — the mahākāya (大身) spell — as distinct from the shorter xīnzhòu / gēnběn versions. Vajrabodhi seems to have produced two recensions of the Sahasrabhuja dhāraṇī, a shorter “root-spell” (KR6j0262 / T20n1061; KR6j0263 / F24n761) and the present longer “great-body spell” (KR6j0265 / T20n1062A). T20n1062B (KR6j0266) preserves an anonymous variant that is closely related but probably from a slightly different Sanskrit source. The differentiation between the xīnzhòu (heart-spell) and the dàshēnzhòu (body-spell) corresponds to the well-attested distinction in the Indic dhāraṇī tradition between the hṛdayī (the short core) and the full kāya (the elaborated long form) of a deity-mantra. Together these recensions form the Tang-dynasty textual basis for the various devotional expansions of the Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī in subsequent East-Asian liturgy.

CANWWW (T20N1062 = T20N1062A/B) cross-references the broader Sahasrabhuja corpus, including KR6j0255 (T20N1056), KR6j0256/KR6j0257 (T20N1057a/b), KR6j0258 (T20N1058), KR6j0260 (T20N1060), KR6j0262 (T20N1061), KR6j0267 (T20N1063), and KR6j0269 (T20N1064).

Translations and research

• Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.

Links

• CBETA T20n1062A
• Kanseki DB
• 金剛智 DILA
• Dazangthings date evidence (730) — 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.