Fóshuō Jùlìjiāluó dàlóng shèng wàidào fú tuóluóní jīng 佛說俱利伽羅大龍勝外道伏陀羅尼經
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on the Dhāraṇī of the Great Nāga-King Kulika, by which the Heretics are Conquered by anonymous
About the work
A short anonymous sūtra on the Kulika Nāgarāja (俱利伽羅大龍, Kulika-mahā-nāga — also rendered Kṛkala or Krodhanāga in alternate transcription cycles) — the sword-swallowing dragon-king who is iconographically the embodiment of Acala’s flaming sword. Closely paired in the Taishō with T1207 (KR6j0434) and T1208 (KR6j0435).
Abstract
The frame-narrative: the Buddha is at Rājagṛha, where Bǎochuáng tuóluóní púsà 寶幢陀羅尼菩薩 (“Jewel-Banner Dhāraṇī Bodhisattva”) asks: “Why does the Kulika Great Dragon swallow the sharp sword and have his four feet bound?” The Buddha replies with the origin-myth: in a former Buddha-field, the demon-king Maheśvara of Akaniṣṭha was a non-Buddhist heretic who fashioned a sword and challenged the Buddha-Acala in a contest of supernatural power. Acala manifested as a dragon-form (i.e., as Kulika) and swallowed Maheśvara’s sword, thereby conquering the heretic and absorbing the sword’s power into his own body. From this event, Kulika acquired his characteristic iconography: a coiled dragon swallowing a flaming sword, the dragon’s four feet bound to the sword’s shaft.
The body of the text gives the Kulika dhāraṇī and its ritual application: protection against heretical doctrines, defeat of intellectual adversaries, and removal of obstacles to right view. The text is the scriptural authority for the iconography that became central to the Acala visualization in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism — the kuri-kara dragon (Japanese Kurikara 倶利伽羅) is one of the most distinctive elements of Acala’s standard depiction.
The dating bracket (750–950) brackets the late-Táng to mid-tenth-century period during which the anonymous Acala-cycle texts were compiled. The text has no named translator and no entry in the early Táng catalogues; it appears to be a late-Táng synthesis.
Translations and research
- Faure, Bernard. Protectors and Predators. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
Other points of interest
The Kulika-Acala iconography became one of the most distinctive visual emblems of East Asian Esoteric Buddhism, with the Kurikara-ken (倶利伽羅劍, “Kurikara-sword”) as a stand-alone ritual object and devotional icon in Japanese Esotericism. The text’s myth-narrative is the foundational charter for that entire visual-and-devotional tradition.