Fó shuō Shèngyàomǔ tuóluóní jīng 佛說聖曜母陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Holy Mother of Stars (Grahamātṛkā), Spoken by the Buddha by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Skt. Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric dhāraṇī-sūtra — the Northern Song parallel translation of the same Indian Grahamātṛkā-dhāraṇī prototype that underlies KR6j0533 (Fǎ-chéng, mid-9th century). Translated by Fǎ-tiān (法天, Skt. Dharmadeva; later renamed 法賢 法賢 by imperial decree in 1001), the Magadha monk who arrived at the Northern Song court in 973 and headed (with 天息災 and 施護) the Yì-jīng yuàn 譯經院 translation bureau established by Emperor Tài-zōng in Tài-píng xīng-guó 7 = 982. The colophon’s title-formula 西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚卿傳教大師臣法天奉詔譯 (“the West-Indian translator of scriptures, Tripiṭaka-master, Court Gentleman for Comprehensive Service, Vice Director of the Court of State Ceremonial, Great Master Spreading the Teaching, your servant Fǎ-tiān, translated by imperial decree”) is the formal late Tang–Song court designation.
Abstract
The Sanskrit prototype is the Grahamātṛkānāmadhāraṇī (Holy Star-Mother Dhāraṇī), critically edited by Hidas (2014). Fǎ-tiān’s version replicates the basic narrative frame of KR6j0533: the Buddha is in Aṭavī (here transcribed 阿拏迦嚩帝大城 Ā-ná-jiā-mó-dì), surrounded by devas, nāgas, the five planets (Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn = 木火金水土 in this order), the two lunar lights (太陰 Moon, 太陽 Sun), and the lunar nodes 羅睺 Rāhu and 計都 Ketu — 27 stars in total (“如是等二十七曜”). Vajrapāṇi (金剛手菩薩) asks the Buddha to expound the dhāraṇī, and the Buddha utters first an invocation-mantra to the planetary deities one by one (preserving short Sanskrit fragments transcribed in Chinese — oṃ … āditya, candra, lakṣmī-kumāra and so on are recoverable in the source), then the Grahamātṛkā dhāraṇī proper.
The text differs from KR6j0533 in several technical details: it lists 27 stars (= 5 planets + 2 lights + 2 lunar nodes + 18 ṛṣi-stars in some manuscript traditions) rather than 28+; it preserves the deity-list in the Northern Song court-translation idiom (e.g. 摩睺羅伽 for mahoraga); and the dhāraṇī itself is given in a slightly different syllabification corresponding to a different Sanskrit recension. Together with KR6j0533, it is one of the two principal Chinese witnesses for the Grahamātṛkā tradition.
The dating bracket follows Fǎtiān’s documented Chángān / Bīanjīng activity from his arrival in 973 to his death in 1001 (the year his honorary name was changed to Fǎxián 法賢 by imperial decree). The text was almost certainly translated in the early years of the Translation Bureau (after 982), but no precise internal date is given.
Related texts (CANWWW cross-reference, normalised to KR id):
- KR6j0533 Zhūxīngmǔ tuóluóní jīng 諸星母陀羅尼經 (T21n1302, transl. 法成, mid-Tang at Dūnhuáng).
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. “Grahamātṛkānāmadhāraṇī: Critical Edition and Translation.” Indica et Buddhica Editiones 1 (2014): 1–28 — the indispensable critical apparatus comparing T1302, T1303, and the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 — chapter 3 on the Northern Song Translation Bureau and Fǎ-tiān’s career.
- Yano, Michio. Mikkyō senseijutsu 密教占星術. Rev. ed., Tōyō shoin, 2013.
- Kotyk, Jeffrey. “Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic in the Tang Dynasty.” DPhil, Leiden, 2017.
- Jan Yün-hua 冉雲華. “Buddhist Relations Between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6.1 (1966): 24–42; 6.2: 135–168 — key study of the Northern Song translation bureau.