Fó shuō Zuìshàngyì tuóluóní jīng 佛說最上意陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Viśeṣavatī Dhāraṇī (Highest-Resolve)
by 施護 (譯)
About the work
A short single-juan dhāraṇī-sūtra translated at the Sòng 譯經院 by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla, d. 1017). CANWWW restores the Sanskrit title as Viśeṣavatī-nāma-dhāraṇī(sūtra). CANWWW alt-title 最上意經.
Abstract
The Buddha is at the Jiùgē-chéng 救鴿城 (“the City Where the Dove Was Rescued” — i.e. Śivipura, the legendary city of King Śivi who saved the dove from the hawk by offering his own flesh) at the Niútóu zhāntán (牛頭栴檀 Gośīrṣa-candana “Ox-Head Sandalwood”) monastery, with a great assembly of bhikṣus, devas, nāgas, and the eight classes of supernatural beings. The Buddha addresses Ānanda and the assembly: he has observed that in the kaliyuga age of South Jambudvīpa, beings of slight merit suffer manifold calamities at the hands of evil yakṣas and rākṣasas; he therefore proclaims a dhāraṇī of the Viśeṣavatī class, capable of pacifying these troubles and increasing auspiciousness. The text exemplifies the Sòng dhāraṇī-genre’s deep interweaving of Indian Buddhist jātaka / avadāna place-narrative with the vidyā-spell. Recorded in the Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù; Nanjio N0831.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The pair T1408 / T1409 (KR6j0640 / KR6j0641) preserves two related Shīhù-translated vidyās — both registered by CANWWW under the same Sanskrit Viśeṣavatī-nāma-dhāraṇī parent tradition, but in distinct Chinese recensions, useful for tracking the variations within a single Indian vidyā-line.
Links
- CBETA online
- Companion text: KR6j0641
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000)
- 施護 DILA
- Kanseki DB