Jīngāngdǐng jīng Mànshūshìlì púsà wǔzì xīn tuóluóní pǐn 金剛頂經曼殊室利菩薩五字心陀羅尼品
Chapter on the Five-Syllable Heart-Dhāraṇī of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva from the Vajraśekhara-sūtra by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric ritual text translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 671–741). Alternate title 曼殊五字心陀羅尼經. Colophon: 大唐南印度摩賴耶國三藏金剛智奉制譯 — preserving Vajrabodhi’s South-Indian Malabar (摩賴耶國 = Malaya-deśa / Malabar) origin. The Vajrabodhi parallel of the same Indic Mañjuśrī-pañcākṣarī material that Amoghavajra translated as KR6j0395 (T1171); the two versions document slightly different Tang Esoteric translation idioms within the same lineage.
Abstract
The text opens with Vajrapāṇi-Mahāsattva (執金剛菩薩摩訶薩) and the other bodhisattvas before Vairocana Buddha, each propounding their heart-dhāraṇī-mudrā. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva then rises and addresses the Buddha: I, in order to benefit all sentient beings of the future and have them swiftly accomplish the Mahā-Prajñā-Pāramitā, also propound a heart-dhāraṇī. The Buddha praises him: Excellent! Excellent! Kula-putra… The text proceeds to expound the Five-Syllable formula in Vajrabodhi’s distinct phonetic transliteration. The narrative-frame is identical to Amoghavajra’s T1172 (KR6j0396) except that Mañjuśrī here speaks after Vajrapāṇi rather than after the general bodhisattva-collective, suggesting Vajrabodhi worked from a Sarvāstivāda-and-Yogatantra Indic redaction with an explicit Vajrapāṇi-Mañjuśrī sequencing — a marker of the Trailokyavijaya Yogatantra system as it existed in early eighth-century South-Indian Esoteric Buddhism. Vajrabodhi’s translation activity at Cháng’ān spans 720 (arrival) to 741 (death); this work falls in that bracket.
Translations and research
- Sundberg, Jeffrey, with Rolf Giebel. “The Life of the Tang Court Monk Vajrabodhi as Chronicled by Lü Xiang (呂向).” Pacific World, 3rd series, 13 (2011): 129–222.
- Birnbaum, Raoul. Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī. Boulder: Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, 1983.
- Chou Yi-liang. “Tantrism in China.” HJAS 8.3/4 (1945): 241–332.
Links
- CBETA T20n1173
- Kanseki DB
- 金剛智 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (730) — 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.