Zhìjù tuóluóní jīng 智炬陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Jñānolkā Dhāraṇī (Torch of Knowledge)
by 提雲般若 (等譯)
About the work
A short single-juan dhāraṇī-sūtra translated under the leadership of 提雲般若 Tíyúnbānruò (Devaprajñā / Devendraprajñā, fl. late 7th c.). The colophon — 唐三藏法師提雲般若等奉制譯 — uses 等 (“and others”), reflecting the collaborative team format characteristic of Tang imperial dhāraṇī translation. CANWWW restores the Sanskrit title as Jñānolkā-nāma-dhāraṇī-sarvadurgati-pariśodhanī(sūtra) — i.e. “The Dhāraṇī Called Torch of Knowledge, Purifying All Evil Destinies”. Devaprajñā arrived at Luòyáng in 689 under Wǔ Zétiān and was active there until ca. 691.
Abstract
The Buddha is in the Sun-and-Moon Palace (日月宮), with countless great bodhisattvas — Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, Dhāraṇī-iśvara-rāja, Vajrapāṇi, etc. — at the head. From the four cardinal directions appear the Buddhas Zhìjù rúlái 智炬如來 (Jñānolka-tathāgata, East), Jīnguāngjù rúlái 金光聚如來 (South), Shíyǔ rúlái 實語如來 (West), and the corresponding northern Buddha. The text proclaims the dhāraṇī of the Zhìjù-tathāgata, whose ritual function is the purification of all unwholesome destinies (sarva-durgati-pariśodhana) and the kindling of supramundane wisdom. The same dhāraṇī is later re-translated by 施護 Shīhù under the title Zhìguāng miè yīqiè yèzhàng tuóluóní jīng 佛說智光滅一切業障陀羅尼經 (T1398, KR6j0630) — CANWWW correctly correlates the two via the shared Sanskrit reconstruction. Recorded in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù under Devaprajñā; Nanjio N0496.
Translations and research
- Forte, Antonino. Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock. Roma: Instituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1988. — for Devaprajñā at Luòyáng under Wǔ Zétiān.
- Chou Yi-liang. “Tantrism in China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 8 (1945): 241–332. — on the Tang dhāraṇī translation milieu.
Other points of interest
The Sanskrit Jñānolkā-dhāraṇī is preserved in extant Sanskrit manuscripts and in Tibetan as Ye-shes ta-la-la (Tōh. 522, Pek. 188, etc.), and was widely used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist death-rituals as a durgati-pariśodhana spell. The Devaprajñā version (T1397, this work) and the Shīhù version (T1398, KR6j0630) thus represent two Chinese transmissions of a single Indian vidyā, separated by some three centuries.
Links
- CBETA online
- Companion text: KR6j0630
- Dazangthings date evidence (690)
- 提雲般若 DILA
- Kanseki DB