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權現金色迦那婆底九目天法

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Text ID
KR6j0653
Date
693–727
Dynasty
唐

Quánxiàn jīnsè Jiānàpódǐ jiǔmùtiān fǎ 權現金色迦那婆底九目天法

Ritual of the Provisionally-Manifested Golden-Hued Nine-Eyed Deity Gaṇapati

by 菩提留支 (譯)

About the work

A short Xùzàngjīng-only ritual text translated by 菩提留支 Pútíliúzhī (Skt. Bodhiruci, d. 727), the second-Tang Bodhiruci (formerly Dharmaruci; originally a Brahmin from southern India), active in the imperial Tang translation bureau under Wǔ Zétiān, Zhōngzōng, and Xuánzōng. The catalogue meta gives the dynasty as Tang. The dating window 693–727 covers Bodhiruci’s translation career at Luòyáng. The work is a Gaṇapati-cult ritual text — Jiānàpódǐ 迦那婆底 = Skt. Gaṇapati (the elephant-headed Vighnarāja). The “nine-eyed” form Jiǔmùtiān 九目天 is a particular vidyādhara-class iconographic variant: three heads each with three eyes.

Abstract

The ritual proper is preceded by careful prescription of icon-making. The Gaṇapati image is to be cast (not carved) from white tin, copper, sandalwood, cypress, pine, etc.; if cast, the work must be completed within twenty-four hours; the image must be three, five, or seven cùn tall. If painted, it must use no animal-glue — only vegetable-juice or scented-tree-juice as binder. The deity has a golden body, three heads each bearing three eyes (totalling nine eyes); a long nose reaching to the navel and neck, encircled by a snake-skin; four arms — left upper hand holds a “joy-pellet” (歡喜丸 modaka), right upper hand holds a mūla (radish-root); the lower left and right hands together form the mūlamudrā. He wears white garments and treads upon a golden mountain. Iconographic prohibitions: no foreign person may see the image during making; the artisan must observe purity, eat no five pungent vegetables. The ritual altar is to be a yú 1.5 zhǒu (cubit) square, 1 finger high, sealed with yellow earth (or, where this is not possible, a wooden altar may be substituted). The image is to face west; the master sits to the east. Two jewel-vessels are set up; offerings are vegetables, flowers, scented trees, sandalwood, candied biscuits, milk-rice, “joy-pellets” (modaka), butter and honey, fried mūla-root, biscuits, fruits, and miscellaneous offerings. The master approaches in three sessions. Restrictions: white-clad layfolk may not handle the image; servants and women may not approach; pollutants (death, parturition, foreign servants, “false monks”, śrāmaṇera disciples, women) must not contact the place.

The text is one of the most precisely-codified Tang-period iconographic-ritual specifications for the Vighnarāja-Gaṇapati cult, and is a key document in the Indian Buddhist Tantric Gaṇapati tradition’s early Chinese transmission.

Translations and research

For the Buddhist Gaṇapati tradition broadly:

  • Sanford, James H. “Literary Aspects of Japan’s Dual-Gaṇeśa Cult,” in R. L. Brown (ed.), Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, Albany: SUNY Press, 1991, pp. 287–335. — for the cult’s Japanese afterlife.
  • Krishan, Y. Gaṇeśa: Unravelling an Enigma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999.
  • Linrothe, Rob. Ruthless Compassion. London: Serindia, 1999.

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