Fó shuō Tántèluómáyóushù jīng 佛說檀特羅麻油述經
Sūtra of the Daṇḍala / Sesame-Oil Spell
by 曇無蘭 (譯)
About the work
An archaic short dhāraṇī-text from the Eastern-Jìn period, ascribed to 曇無蘭 Tánwúlán (= 竺曇無蘭 Zhú Tánwúlán; fl. 381–395). The title is unusual: Tántèluó 檀特羅 transcribes daṇḍala / daṇḍa-ra (or possibly Tantra-style elements), 麻油 (máyóu) is “sesame oil”, and 述 (shù) glosses the act of “expounding”/“recital”. The title is best read as “Sūtra of the Daṇḍala and the Recital with Sesame-Oil” — a rare witness to Indo-Buddhist taila-mantra (oil-empowering) practice in the early Chinese spell-text corpus.
Abstract
The Buddha is on Mount Yīnshāduó 因沙奪山 in Magadha (摩竭國 Magadha-rāṣṭra). Rāhula (羅云 Rāhula) accompanies him and, sleeping at night, is harassed by demons; rising in the morning he goes to the Buddha, prostrates, sits troubled and silent under a tree. The Buddha asks why he looks so frightened. Rāhula recounts the disturbance. The Buddha distinguishes the various demonic agents — house-demons, mountain-spirits, road-side spirits, and the spirits of those who have died well — and their motives in testing the practitioner’s resolve. He then pronounces a protective formula and a ritual using consecrated sesame-oil. The text occupies a significant niche in early Eastern-Jìn zhòu-jīng literature for its narrative situating of demonological-protective ritual specifically around Rāhula. Recorded in the Chū sānzàng jì jí under Tánwúlán; Nanjio N0487.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. — discusses the Eastern-Jìn zhòu-jīng corpus.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008. — for Tánwúlán’s profile.