Toh 564Mārīcī Dhāraṇī — Đà-la-ni Nữ Thần Mārīcī (Ánh Sáng Rực Rỡ)

Summary

The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī opens at Prince Jeta’s
Grove in Śrāvastī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni introduces a saṅgha of monks and
bodhisattvas to the goddess Mārīcī by listing her unique qualities and powers.
The Buddha then teaches the saṅgha six dhāraṇī mantras related to the goddess
Mārīcī.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under
the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. The text was translated, checked
against the Sanskrit and Tibetan, and edited by Adam C. Krug.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Nathaniel Rich edited the translation and the introduction, and
Laura Goetz copyedited the text. Sameer Dhingra was in charge of the digital
publication process.

Introduction

The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī opens in Śrāvastī in
Prince Jeta’s Grove, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is residing with a saṅgha of
monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha introduces his saṅgha to the goddess
Mārīcī by describing her unique qualities and powers. He notes that whoever
knows and recites her dhāraṇī heart mantra will have the same powers as
Mārīcī, and he then pronounces six separate dhāraṇī mantras.

The colophon to this version of The Mārīcī
Dhāraṇī indicates that the text was translated into Tibetan in
the eleventh century by the Indian paṇḍita Amoghavajra and the
Tibetan translator Bari Rinchen Drakpa (1040–1112). However, the
Denkarma royal Tibetan
catalog of translated works also contains a dhāraṇī titled simply Noble Mārīcī (Skt. Āryamārīcī; Tib. ’phags pa ’od zer
can), which suggests that some version of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī was translated into Tibetan at some time
before the early ninth century. In the Phangthangma royal
Tibetan catalog of translated works we also find the text listed under its
full title, The Noble Dhāraṇī of Mārīcī (Skt.
Āryamārīcīnāmadhāraṇī; Tib. ’phags pa ’od zer can gyi gzungs). One witness
of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī survives among the
Dunhuang manuscript collection, which supports the existence of some version
of the text either during the Imperial period or shortly after the end of
the Tibetan Empire. It is likely, however, that this early translation of
The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī belonged to a different
textual tradition than The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī
translated in the eleventh century by Amoghavajra and Bari
Rinchen Drakpa.

The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī is included in the
Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the
Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus)
sections of the Degé Kangyur. There are also thirty-seven sādhanas for the
goddess Mārīcī in the Tengyur, seven of which were, like this text,
translated by Amoghavajra and Bari Rinchen Drakpa. The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī itself, along with ritual
manuals, sādhana practices, and even terma related to the goddess, has appeared in the collected
works of numerous Tibetan authors since at least the thirteenth century, and
Mārīcī has remained an important deity in Tibetan Buddhist traditions to
this day.

The earliest Chinese translation of The Mārīcī
Dhāraṇī was completed by an unknown translator in the sixth
century during the Liang dynasty (Taishō 1256). Later, Bukong translated two works titled Mārīcīdhāraṇī in the late eighth century
(Taishō 1254 and Taishō 1255 ). While Taishō 1254 differs significantly from the
present text in content and length, Taishō 1255 has some parallels with it.
The final canonical Chinese translation, which also has parallels with the
current work, was completed by Tian Xizai during the late tenth century
(Taishō 1257).

There is also one unpublished manuscript from Nepal titled Mārīcīkalpatantra, or simply Mārīcīkalpa, that contains Sanskrit versions
of all three works in the cycle of texts in the Kangyur on the goddess
Mārīcī. The fact that this witness contains all three texts in the exact
order in which they appear in the Degé Kangyur suggests it is related to the
textual tradition from which the translations of Toh 564,
The King of
Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising
(Toh 565), and
The Maṇḍala
Rites of Noble Mārīcī
(Toh 566) were produced. The
Sanskrit manuscript unfortunately cuts off at the material corresponding to
the middle of Toh 566. The
fragment of scribal colophon that survives notes that the text was copied by
one Vajrācārya Ravṛndrabhadra (perhaps a misspelling of Ravīndrabhadra), but
it does not note when or where the text was copied. The Sanskrit manuscript comes from the
private collection of Manavajra Vajrācārya and was microfilmed and cataloged
by both the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) and the International Association
for the Study of World Religions (IASWR). The readings in this Sanskrit witness reflect a relatively
close relationship to these texts as they are received in the Tibetan
Kangyur recensions, and it has proved a valuable resource for this
translation.

This translation was produced in consultation with both versions of
The Dhāraṇī of Mārīcī preserved in the Degé
Kangyur (Toh 564 and 988), the
Tibetan translation preserved in the Stok Palace Kangyur, the Sanskrit
edition published by the Rare Buddhist Texts Project at CUTS in Sarnath,
India, and the Sanskrit manuscript witness cataloged in the NGMCP microfilm
collection under the title Mārīcīkalpa
(NGMCP E 1480/9) and the IASWR microfilm collection under the title Mārīcīkalpatantra (MBB II 112). All
instances in which the English translation deviates from the reading in the
Degé Kangyur in favor of a reading in the Sanskrit witness or another
Tibetan witness are noted in the translation.

The Translation

##
The Noble Mārīcī Dhāraṇī

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was in Śrāvastī in
Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, with a large saṅgha of 1,250
monks and a great number of bodhisattva great beings.

“Monks,” said the Blessed One, “there is a certain goddess named
Mārīcī who arrives just before the sun and moon. She cannot be seen, cannot
be seized, cannot be bound, cannot be stopped, cannot be opposed, cannot be
enchanted, cannot be cut by a blade, cannot be decapitated, cannot be
injured, cannot be burned, and cannot be brought under an enemy’s
control.

“Monks, whoever knows the goddess Mārīcī’s name also cannot be
seized, cannot be bound, cannot be stopped, cannot be opposed, cannot be
enchanted, cannot be cut by a blade, cannot be decapitated, cannot be
injured, cannot be burned, and cannot be brought under an enemy’s control.

“Since I know the name of the goddess Mārīcī, may I, too not be
seen, not be seized, not be bound, not be stopped, not be opposed, not be
enchanted, not be cut, not be decapitated, not be injured, not be beaten,
not be burned, and not be brought under an enemy’s control. These are the
mantra verses:

“tadyathā oṃ
padākramasi parākramasi udayamasi nairamasi arkamasi
markamasi urmamasi vanamasi gulmamasi cīvaramasi mahācīvaramasi

antardhānamasi
svāhā.

“
Oṃ
goddess Mārīcī, protect me on the path. Protect me from the wrong path.
Protect me from perils related to people. Protect me from perils related
to kings. Protect me from perils related to elephants. Protect me from
perils related to robbers. Protect me from perils related to nāgas.
Protect me from perils related to lions. Protect me from perils related
to tigers. Protect me from perils related to fire. Protect me from
perils related to water. Protect me from perils related to serpents.
Protect me from perils related to poison. Protect me from all
adversaries and enemies. Protect me when there is conflict and calm and
when there is disorder and order. Protect me from lions. Protect me from tigers.
Protect me from nāgas. Protect me from serpents,
svāhā. Protect me from all perils
and from all manner of harm, infectious disease, and conflict. Protect
me!

rakṣa rakṣa māṃ. Protect me and all
beings and from all manner of injury, peril, and illness, svāhā.

“Homage to the Three Jewels. I will recite the heart mantra of the
goddess Mārīcī:

“oṃ mārīcyai
svāhā.

When the Blessed One said this, the entire retinue of monks and
bodhisattvas and the entire world with its gods, humans, asuras, and
gandharvas rejoiced and praised the words of the
Blessed One.

This concludes “The Noble Dhāraṇī of
Mārīcī.”

Colophon

This work was translated by the paṇḍita Amoghavajra and
the lotsāwa-monk Bari Rinchen Drakpa.

Notes

Abbreviations

Dhiḥ42

“Āryamārīcī-nāma-dhāraṇī.” Dhiḥ 42 (2006): 155–58.

NE
1480/9

Bibliography

Tibetan Sources

Sanskrit Sources

Reference Works

Secondary Sources

Bukong

不空
amoghavajra

Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ
rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།