Dà fǎjù tuóluóní jīng 大法炬陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Great Dharma-Torch Dhāraṇī by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta, 譯)
About the work
A twenty-fascicle Mahāyāna dhāraṇī-sūtra translated by 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta (523–600) at the Suí Dàxīngshànsì 大興善寺 in the late 580s or 590s. The colophon “隋天竺三藏法師闍那崛多等譯” indicates a translation team (děng yì); CANWWW shows the Sanskrit Mahā-dharmolka (大法炬, “great dharma-torch”). The work is one of the most ambitious vidyā-piṭaka sūtras of the Suí period, comparable in scale and ambition with its companion translation KR6j0571 Dà wēidé tuóluóní jīng (T1341, also 20 fascicles).
Abstract
The text opens at Vulture-Peak (耆闍崛山) with the standard 1,250 bhikṣus. Across twenty fascicles divided into a long sequence of pǐn (chapters: 緣起品 Origins, 伏魔品 Subduing-Māra, etc.) the Buddha discloses the “Great Dharma-Torch” dhāraṇī — a vidyā-system organised as an extended doctrinal teaching on the practice of the bodhisattva path through the dhāraṇī-gateways. Notable chapters expound the construction of the maṇḍala, the practice of the four brahma-vihāras in coordination with mantra-recitation, the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) as the metaphysical ground of dhāraṇī efficacy, and the protection of the dharma-master who upholds the work in degenerate ages.
The Dà fǎjù tuóluóní jīng is one of the longest dhāraṇī-frame sūtras in Chinese; in scale and structural ambition it stands alongside the Mahāmegha-sūtra and the Bodhisattva-piṭaka translations of the late sixth century. It is recorded in the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 under Jñānagupta’s Suí translations, and the text is securely his — the team-leadership děng yì notation indicates collaborative working through the Indian-trained team at Dàxīngshànsì. Nanjio N0431.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. (The work has yet to receive a sustained modern monograph; passing references in Strickmann, Mantras et mandarins (1996) and in Funayama Tōru 船山徹, Bukkyō no Chūgokuteki tenkai 仏教の中国的展開 (Tokyo: Iwanami, 2013).)