Wúnéngshèng dàmíng xīn tuóluóní jīng 無能勝大明心陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Heart-Dhāraṇī of the Invincible Great Vidyā by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle dhāraṇī-sūtra translated by Fǎtiān (法天) at the early Sòng Institute for Sūtra Translation in Kāifēng — the third of his small Aparājita cluster (KR6j0461–KR6j0464, T1233–T1236). The qualifier xīn 心 (“heart”) in the title denotes the hṛdaya-dhāraṇī: the abbreviated, essence-form of the Aparājitavidyā mantra of T1233 / T1234.
Abstract
The text gives the heart-mantra of the Invincible Great Vidyā together with its abbreviated rite of recitation. Heart-mantras (hṛdaya) in Indian vidyā-literature are the condensed kernels of longer dhāraṇīs, retaining the deity’s essential power but suitable for rapid daily recitation; here Fǎtiān renders the Aparājita-hṛdaya of his deity. The rite is correspondingly compact — visualisation, mantra-recitation, dismissal — and its stated purpose is the same protective/apotropaic catalogue as the longer T1233 / T1234. The three texts together form the standard Indian set of long mantra + short mantra + heart mantra for an Esoteric deity, all rendered into Chinese by the same translator at the same institute. Date: Fǎtiān’s Kāifēng activity, 980–1001.
Translations and research
- See KR6j0461.