Hōngjiātuóyě yíguǐ 吽迦陀野儀軌
Ritual Manual of Hūṃkāra by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A three-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智) — the first of the Three Great Tantric Masters of Tang Esoteric Buddhism. The transliterated title 吽迦陀野 = Skt. Hūṃkāra (the seed-syllable hūṃ embodied as deity, also the wrathful Vidyārāja of the eastern direction in some Vajraśekhara mandala-arrangements). The text is one of the substantial multi-fascicle ritual works of Vajrabodhi’s Chángān period, completing his Vajrayāna programme alongside his fascicle of the Vajraśekhara and the Vajra-Kumāra material of KR6j0451.
Abstract
The three fascicles develop the cult of Hūṃkāra 吽迦陀野 — the wrathful deity-form of the Vajrayāna seed-syllable hūṃ, which in Indian Yoga-tantra embodies the cumulative power of all wrathful Buddha-activity. The text gives the deity’s iconography (typically blue-black, multi-armed, holding vajra and ghaṇṭā); the maṇḍala-construction with parivāra-deities; the abhiṣeka protocol; the elaborated mantra and mudrā programme; the visualisation sequences; and the homa applications. As one of Vajrabodhi’s longest surviving Esoteric translations it is an important early-Tang witness to the Yoga-tantra-class material that he and his disciple Amoghavajra would systematise into the Tángmì 唐密 tradition.
The dating bracket follows Vajrabodhi’s Chángān translation activity (720–741).
Translations and research
- Sundberg, Jeffrey, with Rolf Giebel. “The Life of the Tang Court Monk Vajrabodhi.” Pacific World, 3rd ser., no. 13 (2011): 129–222.
- Giebel, Rolf. Two Esoteric Sutras. BDK English Tripiṭaka. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center, 2001.