Dàshèng Huānxǐ shuāngshēn Dàzìzàitiān Pínàyèjiāwáng guīyī niànsòng gòngyǎng fǎ 大聖歡喜雙身大自在天毘那夜迦王歸依念誦供養法
Method of Refuge, Recitation, and Offering to the Great Holy Joyful Dual-Bodied Mahêśvara, the Vināyaka King by 善無畏 (Shàn Wúwèi, Śubhakarasiṃha, 譯)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual (儀軌) for the Dual-Bodied Joyful-Heaven (雙身歡喜天 = Nandikeśvara / Conjugal Vināyaka), translated by Śubhakarasiṃha (善無畏) during his Cháng-ān period. The text is the principal Tang Esoteric companion-piece to Amoghavajra’s KR6j0497 (T1266) and KR6j0498 (T1267), and to Vajrabodhi’s KR6j0500 (T1269). It was paired with KR6j0502 (T1271) by Amoghavajra in transmission and the two texts circulated together in Japan as a fundamental pair for the Shōten 聖天 / Kangiten 歡喜天 cult.
Abstract
The text opens with the cosmogonic frame: the Great Holy Self-Existing Heaven 大聖自在天 (Mahêśvara) and his consort Umā 烏摩女 produced three thousand sons; the leader of the leftward fifteen hundred is Vināyaka King 毘那夜迦王, who performs evil deeds and commands 107,000 Vighnas, while the leader of the rightward fifteen hundred is Senāyaka the Good-Holding Heaven 扇那夜迦持善天, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara 觀音 who commands 178,000 meritorious good-holding hosts. To pacify Vināyaka’s evil action, Senāyaka takes the form of his sibling and consort, and the two manifest embracing in the same body (相抱同體) — the iconography of the dual-body Joyful Heaven (the original cause is given as Dà-míng zhòu-zéi jīng 大明呪賊經).
The text then prescribes the dual-body iconography (a five-inch elephant-headed couple, husband nose down, wife nose up, on a four-leaf seat), its three dhāraṇī (root, heart, heart-of-heart, used respectively for pacification-and-affection, prosperity-augmentation, and fierce subjugation), the body-mudrās for each, and a five-fold ritual programme: (1) the two-cubit altar with offerings of argha-water, paste, flowers, incense, radish dumplings, sesame oil, etc.; (2) the recitation-and-offering rite, including the Buddha-mother, Lotus-mother, Vajra-mother, armouring, and cintāmaṇi-offering mudrās, the four-knowledge praise, and the seven-hundred oil-anointings of the icon per day; (3) the nose-tying rite (結鼻頓合法) for forcing the two figures together when ordinary offerings fail; (4) the harmonizing rite with the six-tusk weapon-bearing form; and (5) the all-business accomplishment rite (求曷闍 — affection, subjugation of evildoers, stopping of slander, etc.). The colophon is a Japanese 1802 (享和二) Tomi-yama collation by 快道 Kuàidào (collator), comparing the Chìjīyuàn 智積院 manuscript and the Kōchi-bō 小池坊 storehouse copy.
The dating bracket follows Śubhakarasiṃha’s Cháng-ān activity (716 – 735). The text is not listed independently in his early Táng catalogue records (the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 enters his core programme); the attribution may reflect later (mid- to late Táng) Tángmì-school redaction of materials transmitted through his lineage. Cf. Strickmann (1996) and Sanford (1991) below.
Translations and research
- Sanford, James H. “Literary Aspects of Japan’s Dual-Gaṇeśa Cult.” In Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, edited by Robert L. Brown, 287–335. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Duquenne, Robert. “Gaṇapati Rituals in Chinese.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 77 (1988): 321–354.
- Faure, Bernard. The Fluid Pantheon: Gods of Medieval Japan, vol. 1. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.