Wénshūshīlì Yēmàndéjiā zhòufǎ 文殊師利耶曼德迦呪法
Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka Spell-Method by anonymous
About the work
A short anonymous Táng Esoteric ritual manual on the Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka spell, the dhāraṇī of the wrathful Yamāntaka identified explicitly as a manifestation of Mañjuśrī. The text uses the variant transcription 耶曼德迦 for Yamāntaka. No translator named.
Abstract
The frame-narrative: the Buddha is at Rājagṛha in the Bamboo Grove (竹林間), conversing with Mañjuśrī about events in the prior age of Dīpaṅkara Buddha (燃燈佛), specifically the Buddha’s earlier vyākaraṇa (prediction) of his own buddhahood. Vajra-Yakṣa-General (大金剛藥叉將) rises from the assembly, prostrates, and asks the Buddha to expound the Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka spell.
The body of the text gives the Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka dhāraṇī in transcribed Sanskrit, framed by the doctrinal claim that Mañjuśrī’s compassion takes the wrathful Yamāntaka form precisely to subdue beings whose afflictions are too deep for gentler methods. The text is parallel in spirit to T1214 (KR6j0441) and T1215 (KR6j0442), but is more compact and presented as an extracted zhòufǎ (spell-method) rather than a full yíguǐ.
The text has no named translator and is not entered in the early Táng catalogues; it is conventionally placed in the late-Táng to Five Dynasties period (750–950) on the basis of its phonological transcription style and its placement in the Taishō between the Yamāntaka-cluster proper.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.