Shèng Hèyěhélǐfú dà wēinù wáng lìchéng dà shényàn gòngyǎng niànsòng yíguǐ fǎpǐn 聖賀野紇哩縛大威怒王立成大神驗供養念誦儀軌法品
Ritual Manual Chapter on the Worship and Recitation of the Noble Hayagrīva, Great Wrathful King, of Quickly-Effected Great Spirit-Power by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A two-fascicle Tángmì yíguǐ on Hayagrīva (Skt. Hayagrīva, transcribed 賀野紇哩縛 Hèyěhélǐfú — “horse-necked one”), the wrathful (大威怒) emanation of Avalokiteśvara, translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The senior-court titles at the colophon (特進試鴻臚卿大興善寺三藏沙門大廣智不空) place the rendering in the late Tiānbǎo 天寶 / 肅宗 Sùzōng period. The text is the principal Tangmí Hayagrīva manual.
Abstract
Hayagrīva is the wrathful horse-headed manifestation of Avalokiteśvara, occupying the Padma section of the Vajra-śekhara maṇḍala in the role of the section’s krodha-rāja (大威怒王). The text opens with the standard guīmìng refuge “歸命金剛手密主大菩薩” — taking refuge in Vajrapāṇi, the Lord of Mysteries. The two fascicles set out the full Esoteric ritual cycle: visualisation of the deity (a wrathful figure with red body, horse-head crown, blazing flame-aureole), the mūla-mantra and hṛdaya-mantra, the maṇḍala arrangement, the abhiṣeka and homa procedures, the abhicāra (hostile-magic) and śānti (peace) operations, and the closing dedication. The work is the locus classicus for the Hayagrīva cult in Tang China and for its subsequent Japanese Shingon transmission as Batō-Kannon (馬頭觀音). CANWWW (T20N1072) cross-references the Atikūṭa compendium (KR6c0098, T901, fasc. 6) which contains an early Hayagrīva kalpa.
Translations and research
- Iyanaga Nobumi. “Récits de la soumission de Maheśvara par Trailokyavijaya — d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises.” In Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 3 (Brussels: IBHE, 1985) — context for the wrathful-emanation tradition.
- Linrothe, Rob. Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art. Boston: Shambhala, 1999 — Hayagrīva iconography.
- Orzech, Charles D., et al., eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
Links
- CBETA T20n1072A
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- CBETA online
- 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.