Shèng Xūkōngzàng púsà tuóluóní jīng 聖虛空藏菩薩陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Holy Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern Sòng dhāraṇī sūtra translated by Făhuán/Făhuá-tiān (法天, Dharmadeva, d. 1001). Colophon: 西天中印度摩伽陀國那爛陀寺三藏傳教大師賜紫沙門臣法天奉詔譯 — preserving Făhuán’s distinctive titulature linking him to Nālandā in Magadha. Alternate title 虛空藏菩薩陀羅尼經. Taishō head-note: No. 1147 [Nos. 1333, 1334]. CANWWW lists KR6j0563 (T1333) and KR6j0564 (T1334) as related texts (both Ākāśagarbha-related, in the Vidyādhara-piṭaka of the Taishō).
Abstract
The sūtra opens at “Mount Joy-and-Bliss” (喜樂山頂) — a deva-vimāna not far from a ṛṣi-dwelling — with the Buddha amid five hundred great bhikṣus and a great-bodhisattva assembly, all ekajātipratibaddha (一生得成無上正等菩提, “in their final life before unsurpassed perfect awakening”). The framing thus presents Ākāśagarbha as a Tuṣita-class teaching, set in a celestial assembly. The sūtra propounds a long Ākāśagarbha-dhāraṇī with introductory praṇidhāna-verses and a closing anumodanā. Făhuán’s translation diction is the polished late-tenth-century Imperial-Translation-Bureau idiom (with Bhagavān rendered 世尊 and the Sòng biànsǎndàfū 朝散大夫 official-title in the colophon). The text is part of the broad Sòng output of dhāraṇī-sūtras translated under the Chuánfǎyuàn programme. Făhuán arrived in Bianjing in 973 and worked at the Bureau until his death in 1001; this work falls in that bracket.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2003.
- Bowring, Richard. “Brief Notes on the Sung Buddhist Translation Project.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 7 (1993): 137–146.
Links
- CBETA T20n1147
- 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.