Dōngfāng zuìshèng dēngwáng rúlái jīng 東方最勝燈王如來經
Sūtra of the Eastern Most-Excellent Lamp-King Tathāgata by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta, 等譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Suí translation by team under 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta (523–600). Notable for its elaborate colophon — opening with the formulaic verse “我闍那崛多 / 歸命大智海 / 毘盧遮那佛” (“I, Jñānagupta, take refuge in the great-wisdom ocean, Vairocana-buddha”), preserved in the Shōgozō (聖) witness — and a complex multi-edition apparatus reflecting some manuscript variation in the colophon’s particulars. The Taishō editors mark the parallel “[Nos. 1351–1353, 1355]” — i.e. this is the second Jñānagupta version, paired with KR6j0583, differing from it in framing and dhāraṇī wording.
Abstract
The frame is once again the chíjùzhòu template. The Buddha at Śrāvastī Jeta-grove with 1,250 bhikṣus, an immeasurable host of bodhisattvas, Brahmā, Indra, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Gōngdé dàtiān 功德大天 (Lakṣmī?) at the head of eighty-four thousand devas, the Nàyéyé 那耶耶 great general at the head of the aṣṭa-class divine generals, and Hāritī with her five hundred children. From the eastern world Wúbiān huá 無邊華 (“Boundless-Flower”), past one hundred myriad-koṭi Buddha-fields, the Tathāgata Zuìshèng dēng 最勝燈 (“Most-Excellent Lamp”) sends bodhisattvas Dàguāng and Gānlùguāng 甘露光 (“Ambrosia-Light”) — note the second messenger has a different name from KR6j0583 (Wúliàngguāng) — bearing the dhāraṇī. The dhāraṇī text and the apotropaic effects (immunity to the various classes of guǐshén, yakṣa, piśāca, etc.) are essentially identical.
The pair KR6j0583/KR6j0584 is unusual in Chinese translation history: two parallel Suí translations of the same text by the same translator (or his team), both transmitted, with one preserved by way of the Shōgozō (聖) and Goryeo (麗) traditions and the other by the Taishō main edition. The doublet records textual layering in Jñānagupta’s atelier. Nanjio N0930 (separate from N0429).
Translations and research
- Overbey, Ryan. “Memory, Rhetoric, and Education in the Great Lamp of the Dharma Dhāraṇī Scripture.” PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 2010.