Fóshuō Dìzàng púsà tuóluóní jīng 佛說地藏菩薩陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha Spoken by the Buddha by anonymous
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous Tang-period dhāraṇī sūtra on Kṣitigarbha (地藏菩薩). The Taishō prints the text under the composite number 1159, with two pieces (A and B); the present is the B portion. Closely related to KR6j0380 (T1159A) and to KR6j0379 (T1158, Śubhakarasiṃha’s Dìzàng púsà yíguǐ). No translator-colophon. The Kharādīya-mountain (佉羅提耶山) framing is shared with the canonical Kṣitigarbha literature.
Abstract
The sūtra opens at Kharādīya-mountain, the dwelling-place of the muni-ṛṣi (牟尼仙所住之處), with the Buddha amid an immeasurable bhikṣu and bodhisattva-mahāsattva assembly. The frame explicitly cites the Candragarbha-sūtra (月藏) — i.e., this dhāraṇī sūtra is presented as following directly upon the Candragarbha preaching, locating it in the same canonical sequence as the Sūryagarbha / Candragarbha / Daśacakra-Kṣitigarbha trilogy of the Mahāsaṃnipāta-class. After the Candragarbha discourse concludes, miraculous southern rain-clouds shower the assembly with great-fragrance, great-flowers, innumerable necklace-jewels, and great robes — all proclaiming the threefold refuge, the precepts, kṣānti, vīrya, dhyāna, and the perfections. Kṣitigarbha appears in this miraculous setting and the dhāraṇī is propounded. The text thus belongs to the Mahāsaṃnipāta-extended Kṣitigarbha cluster rather than to the Esoteric Kṣitigarbha cycle of T1158 — it preserves the Indic-Mahāyāna soteriological framing while transmitting the operative dhāraṇī.
Translations and research
- Zhiru. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007.
- No dedicated study of T1159B located.