Fó shuō shèng dàzǒngchíwáng jīng 佛說聖大總持王經
Sūtra of the Holy Great Dhāraṇī-King
by 施護 (譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation by 施護 Shīhù at the Sòng Institute (982–1017). The colophon “西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚少卿傳法大師臣施護奉詔譯”.
Abstract
The Buddha at Śrāvastī’s Jeta-grove. Ānanda has just finished the vārṣika retreat at a separate location and now comes silently to the Buddha’s assembly, prostrates himself, and sits to one side. The Buddha addresses him: “I shall now speak the Mahā-dhāraṇī-rāja-paddhati — the great dhāraṇī of seventy-seven koṭi past Tathāgatas — for the welfare of all beings”. The dhāraṇī’s protective range is exhaustive: blade and poison, fire and water, royal punishment, untimely death; deva, human, asura, maruta, garuḍa, gandharva, kinnara, mahoraga, yakṣa, rākṣasa, preta, piśāca, kumbhāṇḍa, pūtana, apasmāra; magical operations, illusion-spells, evil knowledge; one-day-fever, two-day-fever, three-day-fever, four-day-fever, multi-day-fever, brief-spasm-fever; vāta, pitta, kapha (風癀痰癊) imbalances; headache and the rest — “these all cannot harm”. The dhāraṇī itself follows in transcription.
The work belongs to the same Sòng-Institute paritta-collection genre as KR6j0601 (T1370), but presents a single all-encompassing dhāraṇī rather than an enumeration of eight. The “seventy-seven koṭi past Tathāgatas” formula is a common Mahāyāna trope for all-Buddha-authority. Nanjio N0889.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.