Dà yàochānǚ Huānxǐmǔ bìng àizǐ chéngjiù fǎ 大藥叉女歡喜母并愛子成就法
Accomplishment Method of the Great Yakṣiṇī Hārītī, Joyful Mother, Together with her Beloved Children by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual on Hārītī 訶利帝 / 鬼子母 — here in her cult-name Huānxǐmǔ 歡喜母 (“Joyful Mother”) — translated by Amoghavajra (不空). Hārītī is the great yakṣiṇī who, in the canonical narrative, was a child-eater until converted by the Buddha (who hid her own youngest son to make her understand a parent’s grief), after which she became the great protector of children and patron-goddess of motherhood and easy childbirth. Korean Tripiṭaka K1348; Zhōnghuá H1479; Nanjio 1392. The text is paired with KR6j0491 (T1261, Hēlìdìmǔ zhēnyán jīng).
Abstract
The text gives the cult of Hārītī together with her beloved children (并愛子) — that is, the rite includes not only the mother but also the parivāra of her offspring (in different traditions, 500 or 10,000 in number; in the standard Indian narrative, the youngest is named Priyaṃkara 愛子). The body of the text develops: Hārītī’s iconography (a beautiful goddess seated with children on her lap and around her); her mantra; the maṇḍala arrangement; the rite for invocation; and the anuśaṃsā catalogue — protection of children, easy childbirth, removal of disease afflicting children, conferment of santāna (offspring) on the childless, and protection of the home. The cult was transmitted to Heian Japan as the Kishimojin 鬼子母神 cult, important especially in Nichiren Buddhism and in popular Japanese maternal-protective religion. Date: Amoghavajra’s Chángān activity, 746–774.
Translations and research
- Peri, Noël. “Hârîtî, la Mère-de-démons.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 17.3 (1917): 1–102. (The classic monograph; still authoritative on the cult’s transmission.)
- Strong, John. The Buddha: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford: Oneworld, 2009 — for the Hārītī-conversion narrative.