Fó shuō bǎodài tuóluóní jīng 佛說寶帶陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Jewelled-Sash Dhāraṇī
by 施護 (譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Sòng dhāraṇī-translation by 施護 Shīhù at the Sòng Institute. The colophon “西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試光祿卿傳法大師賜紫臣施護奉詔譯”. The text shares the Rāhula-by-night attack frame with KR6j0607 Shèng-zhuāngyán tuóluóní jīng (T1376) but is shorter and gives a different dhāraṇī.
Abstract
The Buddha resides at the Nyagrodha-park (尼拘律陀樹園) at Kapilavastu among the Śākyas. The young Rāhula, lodging elsewhere in the night, is suddenly seized by terror at the assault of a great rākṣasa; surrounded by his kumāra-companions, he comes weeping to the Buddha. The Buddha tells Ānanda: “I have a great vidyā called Bǎo-dài (Jewelled-Sash), of great power and able to protect Rāhula”. He then enumerates the same exhaustive demonological audience as KR6j0607 — deva, nāga, yakṣa, rākṣasa, asura, garuḍa, gandharva, kinnara, piśāca, preta, kumbhāṇḍa, pūtana, kaṭa-pūtana, the planetary spirits, the aṣṭa-viṃśat-yakṣa-generals, the four great yakṣa-rulers, the four great heavenly kings, the vītarāga sages of the Snow-Mountain, the bhūta hosts of the ten directions, the seven great mātṛkā-classes, the Triple-Mother (三母訥誐 triṃmātṛkā?), the four cardinal-direction rākṣasīs — and pronounces the dhāraṇī.
The pair KR6j0607/KR6j0608 is a clean example of the Sòng Institute’s paritta-translation programme: two Indic bālarakṣā texts, structurally similar but distinct in spell-content, are rendered in close succession to provide Chinese practitioners with a wider range of options. Nanjio N0893.
Translations and research
- Filliozat (1937), as for KR6j0607.