Jīngāngsàduǒ shuō Pínnàyèjiātiān chéngjiù yíguǐ jīng 金剛薩埵說頻那夜迦天成就儀軌經
Sūtra of the Accomplishment-Rite Manual for the Vināyaka-Heaven, Spoken by Vajrasattva by 法賢 (Fǎxián, formerly Tiānxīzāi 天息災, 譯)
About the work
A four-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual translated under imperial commission by Fǎ-xián (法賢) at the Translation Hall (譯經院) of Tài-píng xīng-guó-sì 太平興國寺 in early-Northern Sòng Biàn-jīng. The text is a far longer counterpart — and the only multi-fascicle treatment in the canon — to the short Tang Vināyaka manuals that fill T21 nos. 1266–1275 (e.g. KR6j0497, KR6j0498, KR6j0500, KR6j0501, KR6j0502, KR6j0504, KR6j0505, KR6j0506). Where the Tang manuals codify a single rite, this Sòng translation expounds Vajrasattva’s full ritual system for the Vighnarāja form of Vināyaka — the obstacle-removing as well as the obstacle-causing aspects — across four fascicles of abhicāra (binding-and-subjugation), śāntika (pacification), pauṣṭika (prosperity), vaśīkaraṇa (subjugation-and-attraction), and ākarṣaṇa (summoning) procedures.
Abstract
The text opens with the Vajrasattva 金剛薩埵 expounding the “supreme first ritual manual” capable of accomplishing all kinds of benefit — pacification, prosperity, affection-attraction, and subjugation — for sentient beings. It then moves systematically through scores of named rites for specific objectives: subjugation of the śatru (設咄嚕, the personal enemy) by smearing the Vināyaka image with mustard-oil and roasting it over a corpse-pyre; infliction of leprosy by applying nyagrodha and arka tree-saps; expulsion by wrapping the image in birth-cloth and hanging it in a Maheśvara-shrine; vidveṣaṇa-rites for sundering enemies, māraṇa-rites for slaying, uccāṭana-rites for displacement, and the various vaśīkaraṇa-rites for rendering rulers, ministers, women, and ordinary people compliant. Each is paired with the necessary mantra, mudrā, yantra, fire-rite (homa), and reversal procedure (the rite for undoing what was done — frequently effected by bathing the image with milk-and-honey 酥蜜).
The text is the most substantial abhicāra-tantra in the Chinese canon and the principal Sòng-translation source for the Vighnarāja-tantric material that in India circulated within the Hevajra- and Vināyakatantra corpora. Its dating bracket is set by Fǎxián’s tenure at the Sòng Translation Bureau (982 – 1001).
Structural Division
Per CANWWW 〈T21N1272〉, the text divides into four fascicles 卷一 — 卷四. CANWWW lists no internal cross-references to other canonical texts.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996, ch. 4 (the most extensive treatment of Sòng abhicāra tantra in Chinese).
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: U. of Hawai’i Press, 2003 — for the Sòng translation programme under which the work was produced.
- 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, 1991.