Móhē fèishìluó mònàyě típó hēluóshé tuóluóní yíguǐ 摩訶吠室囉末那野提婆喝囉闍陀羅尼儀軌
Ritual-Manual of the Dhāraṇī of Mahā-Vaiśravaṇa-deva-rāja by 般若斫羯囉 (Bānruòzhuójiéluō, Prajñācakra / Zhìhuìlún 智慧輪, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual on Vaiśravaṇa-deva-rāja 毘沙門天王 (here transliterated in full as Mahā-Vaiśravaṇa-deva-rāja — 摩訶吠室囉末那野提婆喝囉闍 = Skt. Mahā-Vaiśravaṇa-deva-rāja), translated by the late-Tang monk Prajñācakra (般若斫羯囉 = Zhìhuìlún 智慧輪), the principal transmitter of late-Tang Esoteric Buddhism to the Japanese pilgrim Enchin 圓珍 (Tendai Jimon lineage).
Abstract
The text supplies the dhāraṇī-rite for the Vaiśravaṇa cycle — the iconography, mantra (transliterated Sanskrit), mudrā, and ritual sequence. As a late-Tang Esoteric production it represents a strand of Vaiśravaṇa-cult material distinct from the Amoghavajra recensions of the previous century (KR6j0472, KR6j0475–KR6j0478) — and it is precisely the kind of mid-ninth-century Esoteric material that Prajñācakra transmitted to Enchin in the Dàzhōng 9 (855) consecration at Dàxìngshànsì 大興善寺 in Chángān, and subsequently as part of the Xīnjīngfǎ 新經法 sent to him in Xiántōng 2 (861). The dating bracket reflects Prajñācakra’s documented translation activity at Chángān (847–861, the Dàzhōng and Xiántōng reigns).
Translations and research
- Chen, Jinhua. “Esoteric Buddhism and Monastic Institutions.” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, edited by Charles D. Orzech et al., Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 286–93.
- Chen, Jinhua. Crossfire: Shingon-Tendai Strife as Seen in Two Twelfth-Century Polemics. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2010.