Fó shuō Guǐzǐmǔ jīng 佛說鬼子母經
Sūtra of the Demon-Children Mother, Spoken by the Buddha by 失譯 (anonymous translator)
About the work
A short one-fascicle anonymous (失譯) early-Chinese sūtra on Hārītī 鬼子母 (“Demon-Children Mother”, the Chinese gloss of her Sanskrit yakṣiṇī-name). The text is the earliest stratum of Hārītī material in Sinitic Buddhism, pre-dating the Esoteric reception of the goddess by Amoghavajra in the eighth century. Korean Tripiṭaka K0875; Zhōnghuá H0952; Nanjio 0759. Catalogued by the Lìdài sānbǎo jì among Western Jin (西晉) anonymous translations, but the precise date and translator are unrecoverable.
Abstract
The text gives, in spare narrative form, the conversion-narrative of Hārītī: she is the yakṣiṇī mother of 500 (or some say 10,000) children, who satisfies herself by devouring the children of human beings; the inhabitants beg the Buddha for help; the Buddha hides her youngest and favourite son Pingala / Priyaṃkara (賓伽羅, 愛子) under his alms-bowl; she searches frantically and cannot find him; she comes to the Buddha; the Buddha reveals to her the suffering of those whose children she had devoured, and she repents; she takes the precepts and is appointed protectress of children and patroness of childbirth. This is the source-narrative of the entire East-Asian Hārītī / Kishimojin cult. The Sòng-Yuán-Míng witness-line indicates that the text remained in liturgical use throughout the medieval Buddhist tradition. The dating bracket reflects its Western-Jin to Six-Dynasties anonymous origin.
Translations and research
- Peri, Noël. “Hârîtî, la Mère-de-démons.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 17.3 (1917): 1–102.
- Strong, John. The Buddha: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford: Oneworld, 2009.