Wūchúsè míngwáng yíguǐ fànzì 烏芻澁明王儀軌梵字
Sanskrit Letters for the Ritual-Manual of Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja by anonymous compiler
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous (no translator/compiler in the catalog meta or in canwww) supplement to the Ucchuṣma ritual manual cycle: a transcription in Sanskrit script (梵字, Siddham / Brāhmī-derived script) of the mantras and seed-syllables (bīja) belonging to Ucchuṣma Vidyārāja 烏芻澁明王 — the wrathful Vidyārāja treated in KR6j0453 and KR6j0455. Because the work is essentially a graphic-phonetic appendix rather than a free-standing scripture, the canwww entry (T21N1226) records no translator and no responsible-statement, and the Korean Tripiṭaka has no parallel.
Abstract
The text supplies the Siddham graphs for: the deity’s seed-syllable; the various mantras associated with the rites of KR6j0453 (T1225) and the longer scripture KR6j0455 (T1227); and the dhāraṇīs needed for maṇḍala-construction, abhiṣeka, and homa applications. Such Siddham-script appendices were assembled in Tang and Song times as practitioners’ aids (since correct Sanskrit pronunciation was held to be soteriologically essential), and they survived in the canon attached to the rituals they served. No date or compiler is recoverable; the dating bracket is conservative.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The text is one of a small set of surviving canonical Siddham-script appendices in Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, and is of philological value as an early witness to Sanskrit-script reception in Sinitic Tantric practice.