Fó shuō Mólìzhītiān tuóluóní zhòu jīng 佛說摩利支天陀羅尼呪經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī-Mantra of Mārīcī-deva, Spoken by the Buddha by 失譯 (anonymous translator)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous (失譯) Mārīcī dhāraṇī-sūtra preserved in the Taishō alongside Amoghavajra’s two T1255 renderings (KR6j0484 / KR6j0485). The catalog meta and canwww (T21N1256) record no translator and no date; Korean Tripiṭaka K0311; Zhōnghuá H0330; Nanjio 0847.
Abstract
This is the earliest stratum of Mārīcī-cult material in Sinitic Buddhism — a short, anonymous translation that pre-dates the systematic Esoteric reception of the goddess by Amoghavajra in the eighth century. The text’s framing is simpler than Amoghavajra’s elaborated renderings: the Buddha briefly expounds the mantra of Mārīcī, naming her protective and invisibility-conferring functions, and the assembly receives the teaching. The translation presumably belongs to the broader corpus of Six-Dynasties to early-Tang anonymous guǐshén and yakṣa dhāraṇī-translations that accumulated in Sinitic Buddhism before the systematic Esoteric programme of the Three Great Tantric Masters. The dating bracket is conservative.
Translations and research
- Hall, David A. The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten. Leiden: Brill, 2014.