Fànběn dàbēi shénzhòu 梵本大悲神咒
Sanskrit-Recension Great-Compassion Spirit-Spell (translator unknown; preserved in the Zhonghua Canon)
About the work
A one-fascicle parallel recension of the Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī preserved in the Zhōnghuá dàzàngjīng 中華大藏經 (vol. 71, no. 1666) under the title Fànběn dàbēi shénzhòu — “Sanskrit-base Great-Compassion Spirit-Spell.” The text is anonymous; the rubric fànběn 梵本 advertises that the recension claims to derive directly from a Sanskrit original rather than from a previous Chinese rendering.
Abstract
The Fànběn dàbēi shénzhòu is closely parallel to the Yuán Fān dàbēi shénzhòu (KR6j0267, T20n1063): both employ the dense 二合 transcription apparatus characteristic of Yuán-period Tibetan-Sanskrit rendering, both are anonymous, and the spell-text content is the same Nīlakaṇṭhaka-Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī known from the Tang transmissions, but transcribed under a different phonological system. The two are most plausibly understood as variant copies of the same Yuán recensional enterprise — possibly the same translator’s work preserved in two manuscript lineages — that travelled separately into the Taishō (T20n1063 = KR6j0267) and the Zhōnghuá (C071n1666 = KR6j0268) canons. As an independent witness, the recension is valuable for reconstructing the Sanskrit Vorlage of the Mahā-karuṇā-dhāraṇī outside the Tang transmission. Cross-reference: KR6j0260, KR6j0267.
Translations and research
- Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.
Links
- CBETA C071n1666
- Kanseki DB
- (no stable CBETA URL — Zhōnghuá canon witness)