Shìzūn shèngzhě qiānyǎn qiānshǒu qiānzú qiānshé qiānbì Guānzìzài pútísàduǒdáfú guǎngdà yuánmǎn wúài dàbēi xīn tuóluóní 世尊聖者千眼千首千足千舌千臂觀自在菩提薩埵怛嚩廣大圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼
Vast, Perfect, Unobstructed Great-Compassion-Heart Dhāraṇī of the Blessed Noble Thousand-Eye, Thousand-Head, Thousand-Foot, Thousand-Tongue, Thousand-Arm Avalokiteśvara-Bodhisattva-Sattva-tva (translator unknown)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous Sahasrabhuja-Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī preserved as Taishō No. 1062B alongside Vajrabodhi’s recension at T20n1062A (KR6j0265). The title — preserving the Sanskrit Bodhisattva-sattva-tva in transliteration as 菩提薩埵怛嚩 — and the elaborated thousand-eye / thousand-head / thousand-foot / thousand-tongue / thousand-arm iconography of the deity (extending the canonical Sahasrabhuja schema) point to a relatively learned Indic original, possibly from the late-Tang or early-Sòng period when the Sahasrabhuja iconography was being elaborated in Tantric kalpa-literature.
Abstract
The text is a stand-alone dhāraṇī, anonymous and undated. The title’s preservation of the awkward Sanskrit gloss bodhisattva-sattva-tva (菩提薩埵怛嚩) — i.e. an attempt to render bodhisattvatva, “bodhisattvahood,” literally — and the unusual five-fold thousandfold iconography (eyes, heads, feet, tongues, arms) suggest a relatively late Indic compilation deriving from a developed Sahasrabhuja iconographic tradition. The Taishō editors retained the work as a separate witness adjacent to T20n1062A, which is Vajrabodhi’s recension of the more conventional Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī. The actual spell-text is closely related to the eighty-four-pada dhāraṇī of KR6j0260 and its companion recensions but exhibits transcription idiosyncrasies (the heavy reliance on 二合 compound graphs is characteristic of late Tang or post-Tang phonological recension). The work circulates in the Taishō and Korean canons as an anonymous filler in the Sahasrabhuja dhāraṇī cluster.
CANWWW (T20N1062 = T20N1062A/B) cross-references the 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 — collation of the Sahasrabhuja recensions including the anonymous T20n1062B.