Jiànzhì fàn zàn 犍稚梵讚
Sanskrit Hymn on the Gaṇḍī (Wooden Bell) by 法賢 (Fǎxián / Tiānxīzāi, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian Buddhist stotra on the gaṇḍī — the wooden monastic call-bell used to summon the saṃgha to ritual and to assembly. The Sanskrit title is Gaṇḍīstotragāthā. The Chinese phonetic 犍稚 (or 揵稚 in the Taishō) renders the Sanskrit gaṇḍī. Translated by 法賢 Fǎxián (originally Tiānxīzāi).
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1683) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The Gaṇḍīstotragāthā is one of the more curious of the canonical Indian Buddhist stotras — a hymn addressed not to a deity or to the Buddha but to the wooden monastic bell that summons the saṃgha. The genre reflects the broader Indian and Buddhist tendency to ritualize devotion to liturgical objects. Sanskrit fragments of the work are preserved; the Tibetan translation also survives.
Fǎxián’s translation is bracketed by his Institute career, 982–1000. The Taishō uses 金臧廣勝寺本 as base. Note that the catalog title gives the second character as 稚 zhì, but the Taishō text uses 揵稚 (with a zhì substituted for the standard jiàn-zhī form); this is a known variant orthography.
Translations and research
- Hahn, Michael. Invitation to Enlightenment. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1999. — Background on Indian stotras.
- No substantial secondary literature located on this specific text.
Other points of interest
The Gaṇḍī-hymn is a small but valuable witness to the everyday Indian monastic life: the wooden call-bell was the principal instrument of monastic timekeeping, and a hymn in its praise reflects the devotional valuation of the most ordinary instruments of monastic discipline.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Fǎxián): A000146
- Dazangthings date evidence (1001): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/