Fóshuō qījùzhī fómǔ xīn dà Zhǔntí tuóluóní jīng 佛說七俱胝佛母心大准提陀羅尼經
Buddha-Spoken Sūtra of the Heart-Dhāraṇī of the Great Cundī, Mother of Seven Koṭi-Buddhas by 地婆訶羅 (Dìpóhēluó, Divākara, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric dhāraṇī-sūtra on Cundī, the earliest of the three Tang Cundī recensions, translated by the central-Indian master Divākara (地婆訶羅, 614–687) at the Western Yìjīngyuàn 譯經院 of the late-7th-century capital. Divākara was active 676–687, so the rendering must fall in those years; the death of 高宗 Gāozōng in 683 and 武則天 Wǔ Zétiān’s accession provide an internal political context in which Divākara remained the principal Sanskrit translator.
Abstract
The text gives a more compact rendering of the Cundī-dhāraṇī than the later Vajrabodhi (KR6j0282) and Amoghavajra (KR6j0283) recensions: the sūtra emphasises the xīn-dhāraṇī — the hṛdaya or core formula — without the elaborate ritual apparatus of the later Tángmì 唐密 versions. As the earliest Tang witness, Divākara’s recension is the philological control for the Sanskrit Vorlage in its mid-7th-century form, and represents the dhāraṇī-sūtra genre of pre-Tángmì Esotericism rather than the systematised yoga-tantra genre of Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. CANWWW (T20N1077) cross-references the parallel recensions.
Translations and research
- Gimello, Robert. “Icon and Incantation: The Goddess Zhunti.” In Images in Asian Religions, 2004.
- Forte, Antonino. “The Activities in China of the Tantric Master Manicintana from Kashmir and of his Northern Indian Collaborator Bodhiruci.” East and West 34 (1984): 301–345 — context for the late-7th-century translation milieu in which Divākara was the lead figure.
Links
- CBETA T20n1077
- Kanseki DB
- 地婆訶羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (680) — 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.