Zūnshèng púsà suǒwèn yīqiè zhūfǎ rù wúliàngmén tuóluóní jīng 尊勝菩薩所問一切諸法入無量門陀羅尼經
Sūtra on the Dhāraṇī of Entry into the Boundless Gate of All Dharmas, in answer to the Questions of the Bodhisattva Vijaya by 萬天懿 (Wàn Tiānyì, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Qí translation of the Anantamukha-nirhāra-dhāraṇī by the lay translator 萬天懿 Wàn Tiānyì. The colophon “北齊居士萬天懿譯” identifies him as a jūshì (居士, lay practitioner). The translation was produced at Yèdū 鄴都 during the Héqīng 河清 era (562–564); the dating bracket here is therefore very tight. The text is the second Chinese recension of the same Indic original underlying KR6j0572 T1342 (Western-Qín, 聖堅 Shèngjiān).
Abstract
The opening assembly is identical in pattern to KR6j0572: Jeta-grove, 1,250 bhikṣus, 12,000 bodhisattvas all of one-life-remaining, attainment of dhāraṇī and unobstructed eloquence; the bodhisattva-list opens with Gānlù-gǔ 甘露鼓 (“Drum-of-Ambrosia”) rather than Wúzhōng-gǔ 無終鼓. The dialogue partner is the bodhisattva Vijaya 尊勝, who asks the Buddha for the dhāraṇī “by which all the dharmas enter the boundless gate”; the Buddha responds with the vidyā in transcription and explains its threefold application as means of entering the bodhisattva path, of preserving the dharma in the age of decline, and of protecting beings from karmic obstruction.
The text is recorded in the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 under Wàn Tiānyì’s name; it is the only translation securely attributable to him. Comparison with KR6j0572 (Shèngjiān, c. 388–431) and with the later Táng recensions in T19 reveals progressively closer approximation to the Sanskrit source over time. Nanjio N0365.
Translations and research
- Inagaki, Hisao. “The Anantamukha-nirhāra-dhāraṇī and its Chinese Translations.” Indo-Iranian Journal 30 (1987), 81–108.