Fóshuō Jīngāngshǒu púsà xiángfú yīqiè bùduō dàjiàowáng jīng 佛說金剛手菩薩降伏一切部多大教王經
Mahā-Tantra-Rāja Sūtra of the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi Subjugating All Bhūtas Spoken by the Buddha (Vajrapāṇi-sarva-bhūta-vidāraṇa-mahā-tantra-rāja) by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A three-fascicle Northern Sòng dàjiàowáng (大教王 = mahā-tantra-rāja) sūtra translated by Dharmadeva (法天). The text is centred on Vajrapāṇi (金剛手 Jīngāngshǒu) in his wrathful form as subjugator of all bhūtas (一切部多 yīqiè bùduō = sarva-bhūta) — i.e., all malevolent supernatural beings. As a mahā-tantra-rāja, the text is one of the principal Sòng-period witnesses to the developed Indian anuttarayoga-tantra-class wrathful-deity material in the Chinese canon.
Prefaces
The text opens with a gāthā-form vandanā invocation.
Abstract
The work is a comprehensive kalpa-rāja on Vajrapāṇi as wrathful protector. The text expounds: (1) the Vajrapāṇi-bhairava (wrathful Vajrapāṇi) iconography (multi-armed, dark-blue or black bodied, wreathed in flames, holding the vajra, kartṛkā, kapāla, triśūla, etc., trampling on a corpse), (2) the mūla-mantra and the vidyā-formulae for subjugating, binding, and destroying the various classes of bhūta (piśāca, yakṣa, rākṣasa, bhūta proper, kumbhāṇḍa, graha-planet-spirits, etc.), (3) the maṇḍala-construction with the central Vajrapāṇi-bhairava and the eight directional protectors, (4) the abhiṣeka sequence, (5) the homa offerings (especially the abhicāraka-aggressive homa fires), and (6) the siddhi-applications.
The text is doctrinally important as a Sòng-period witness to the wrathful-deity Vajrayāna that was developing in the late Pāla-period North India and that would become a central component of the subsequent Tibetan Vajrayāna. The wrathful-Vajrapāṇi cycle remained a marginal current in Chinese Buddhism (which generally preferred the peaceful Vajraśekhara-Vajrasattva forms over the wrathful bhairava forms), but the text preserves a valuable canonical witness to the late-Indian Vajrayāna development.
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
- Linrothe, Rob. Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art. London: Serindia, 1999 — Vajrapāṇi-bhairava iconography.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2003.
Links
- CBETA T20n1129
- Kanseki DB
- 法天 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (980) — 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.