Dà āluóhàn Nántímìduóluó suǒshuō fǎzhù jì 大阿羅漢難提蜜多羅所說法住記
Record of the Abiding of the Dharma, as Spoken by the Great Arhat Nandimitra
translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 602–664, 譯) in 654
About the work
A short text in one juan, translated by 玄奘 in 654 (Yǒnghuī 永徽 5) — known to East Asian Buddhists as the Fǎzhù jì 法住記 (“Record of the Abiding of the Dharma”). It is the locus classicus for the canonical East Asian list of the Sixteen Great Arhats (shíliù dà āluóhàn 十六大阿羅漢), each charged by the Buddha to remain in the world until the coming of Maitreya in order to protect the Dharma. The arhat names and dwelling-places enumerated here became the iconographic basis for the entire pictorial tradition of arhat painting and sculpture in China, Korea, and Japan.
Abstract
The text is presented as the discourse of the great arhat Nandimitra (難提蜜多羅), said to live eight hundred years after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa, on the island of Siṃhala (Śrī Laṅkā). On the day of his own parinirvāṇa the assembly questions him about the future fate of the Dharma; he replies that the Buddha had entrusted the protection of the Dharma to sixteen great arhats, who, by the power of their supernatural longevity, abide at sixteen specified locations in the human realm — each with a fixed retinue of disciples — until the advent of Maitreya. He then enumerates the names, residences, and retinue numbers of all sixteen.
The text is dated by Xuánzàng’s translation colophon and the entries in the Dà Táng nèidiǎn lù 大唐內典錄 (KR6m0011) and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù of 智昇 (Zhìshēng) to 654. The Indic original is no longer extant, but the Sanskrit title can be reconstructed as Nandimitrāvadāna, and an extended Tibetan version is preserved in the bsTan-‘gyur. The text has been the principal scriptural authority for the cult of the sixteen arhats throughout East Asian Buddhism; the later expansion to eighteen arhats — first attested in the late Táng and standardised under the Sòng — was layered onto Xuánzàng’s list of sixteen rather than displacing it.
Translations and research
- Sylvain Lévi & Édouard Chavannes, “Les seize arhat protecteurs de la loi,” Journal Asiatique 8 (1916): 5–50, 189–304 — the foundational European study, with full French translation, comparison with the Tibetan, and an iconographic survey. Still the single most cited treatment.
- Marylin M. Rhie & Robert A. F. Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (New York, 1991) — uses the Fǎzhù jì and its Tibetan parallels as the textual basis for the iconographic chapter on the sixteen elders.
- T. H. Barrett, “The Sixteen Arhats and the Fashu ji,” in various contributions on East Asian arhat cults.
Other points of interest
The text is the direct source for the iconographic programme found in nearly every major East Asian arhat-hall painting and sculpture series, from the Northern Sòng luóhàn sets through the Korean Joseon period. Its companion piece in the visual tradition is the Shíliù dà luóhàn yīnguǒ shíjiàn sòng (KR6r0006), which provides the verses chanted in the cult.
Links
- CBETA: T49n2030
- Wikipedia: Sixteen Arhats