Hēlìdìmǔ zhēnyán jīng 訶利帝母真言經
Mantra Sūtra of Hārītī by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric mantra-sūtra on Hārītī 訶利帝母 (rendered with the more orthodox transliteration of her Sanskrit name, Hārītī = 訶利帝, with the Chinese gloss 母 “mother”) translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The text complements KR6j0490 (T1260) by giving a more sūtra-form (and somewhat less elaborately ritualised) presentation of the same goddess’s cult. Korean Tripiṭaka K1306; Zhōnghuá H1432; Nanjio 1449. Alternate titles 訶利帝母經 and 訶利帝母真言法.
Abstract
The framing-narrative recapitulates Hārītī’s conversion-story: the great yakṣiṇī who once devoured the children of others is converted by the Buddha, who hides her favourite son until she comes to grasp the suffering she has inflicted on others; she repents, becomes the protectress of children and parturients, and receives from the Buddha her protective mantra — which is the principal subject of this text. The body gives the mantra in transliterated Sanskrit; the conditions of recitation; the anuśaṃsā (protection of children, easy childbirth, removal of pediatric disease, fertility); and the iconographic instructions for the deity’s image. As with T1260, the text underwrites the East-Asian Kishimojin cult. Date: Amoghavajra’s Chángān activity, 746–774.
Translations and research
- Peri, Noël. “Hârîtî.” BEFEO 17.3 (1917).