Toh 704Siṃhanādadhāraṇī — Đà-ra-ni Sư Tử Hống

Summary

The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda, also known as
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise, is a short
work that teaches a dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara’s form as Siṃhanāda, “Lion’s
Roar,” and gives a short instruction for using it to cure illness.

Acknowledgements

This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation
team. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan
Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited
the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda (Toh 704),
also known as The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s
Promise (Toh 912), is preserved in two separate Kangyur
recensions with different titles, which contain essentially identical
content. This short dhāraṇī text includes a dhāraṇī
for Siṃhanāda and a short instruction for a ritual that employs the dhāraṇī
to cure illness. Its contents closely parallel a section from the longer
Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh
703), where the dhāraṇī and ritual content of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda—along with several other
dhāraṇīs, mantras, and rituals—is incorporated into a narrative framework
that describes how Siṃhanāda acquired his curative powers. The concise
Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda, in contrast, opens
directly with the dhāraṇī, followed by instructions for making eight
maṇḍalas with cow dung that is subsequently incanted and smeared onto a sick
person to cure their illness. In the end, Avalokiteśvara states that if a
curative result were not achieved from the practice, it would be as if he
himself had performed the five deeds of immediate retribution. This is a set
of acts that include patricide, matricide, killing an arhat, causing a rift
in the saṅgha, and drawing the blood of a tathāgata with malicious intent.
This forceful statement implies that it is as impossible for this rite to
fail as it is for Avalokiteśvara—the very embodiment of compassion—to
perform any of these heinous acts. In the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda, this promise is made even
more explicit, with Śākyamuni telling Mañjuśrī, “Mañjuśrī, this is the Great
Compassionate One’s own promise.” This sentence from the longer dhāraṇī text provides the context for
the title of Toh 912: The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s
Promise.

Siṃhanāda, “Lion’s Roar,” also sometimes called Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda,
is a form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. There are nine Siṃhanāda
sādhanas and several other Siṃhanāda praises and ritual texts preserved in
the Tibetan Kangyur, attesting to his importance in India. Images of
Siṃhanāda have been found at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodh Gaya prior to that
temple’s nineteenth-century renovation, and in Sri Lanka
where it seems Siṃhanāda was especially popular. The association of
Siṃhanāda with curative properties that we find in the present text appears
to be quite an old one. A tenth-century Nepalese miniature painting kept at
Cambridge depicts Siṃhanāda and includes a caption reading, “Lokeśvara of
the hospital on the island of Siṃhala.” While
Avalokiteśvara in general has a close iconographical association with the
deity Śiva, this is even more clear in the case of Siṃhanāda. In The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda,
Siṃhanāda—just like Śiva—holds a brahmin’s skull and a snake-wrapped
trident, and wears a sacred thread made of a snake.

Although it is not described in this text, Siṃhanāda’s iconography
is generally consistent across textual and artistic sources. In the
descriptions found in his many sādhanas and praises, Siṃhanāda is white in
color, has two legs and two arms, is dressed as an ascetic (tapasvin, dka’ thub ldan pa) and sits on a
lion. In most descriptions, a skull-adorned trident rests at his right side,
but in some he holds it in his right hand. This trident is also frequently
depicted with a white snake coiled around the shaft. With his left hand, he
holds the end of a lotus stalk that rises upwards, with a sword standing on
the open lotus blossom. Nearby and to the left, sits what is variously
described as a cup (karoṭaka), pot (bhājana, snod), or skull cup (kapāla, thod
pa) filled with fragrant flowers. This vessel often sits on a
lotus or water lily.

The Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara continues to be practiced in
contemporary Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Two arrangements of practices
centered on Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda are found in the Compendium of Sādhanas
(sgrub thabs kun btus) compiled by
Jamyang Loter Wangpo, and the nineteenth-century scholar Mipham Gyatso
wrote a short summary of the story of The Dhāraṇī of
Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda.

The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is extant in
Sanskrit, as text number 21 in the Sādhanamālā, and as part of the dhāraṇī
collection published by Gergely Hidas. It does not
appear to be extant in Chinese translation. In Tibetan, in addition to the
two Kangyur recensions of this short work—one included the Tantra section
(Toh 704) and the other in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 912) of
the Degé Kangyur—another version is found in the Tengyur with the tile
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda (Toh 3156),
which was translated by a different Tibetan translator and lacks attribution
to a specific author. Toh 3156 contains several minor variants from Toh
704/912, suggesting that, in addition to being translated by different
translators, the latter texts were also based on different Sanskrit
recensions. Although the differences are minor, the Tengyur recension stands
closer to the extant Sanskrit text as preserved in the Sādhanamālā than the present Kangyur
recension.

The version of the text translated into English here was translated
into Tibetan by the Indian master Vāgīśvara and the Tibetan translator Lokya
Sherab Tsek, who were active in the eleventh century. The Tengyur recension
was translated in the eleventh or twelfth century by Patshab Lotsawa
Tsultrim Gyaltsen and is part of the collection called “The ‘Hundred’
Sādhanas translated by Patshab” (pa tshab kyis
bsgyur ba’i sgrub thabs rgya rtsa) in the Tantra section of the
Tengyur. It is one of only two dhāraṇīs in that collection of one hundred
and sixty-three texts, the majority of which are indeed sādhanas.

This English translation was made on the basis of both Degé Kangyur
recensions of this work, with additional reference to the Stok Palace
recension, the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma), the Tengyur recension (Toh 3156), the parallel
passage in the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara
Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), as well the Sanskrit Siṃhanādadhāraṇī from the Sādhanamālā, and Hidas 2021. The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is generally stable
across all recensions consulted, including the Sanskrit, with only minor
variants. We edited the dhāraṇī itself very slightly based on the Sanskrit
text from the Sādhanamālā and have noted
those emendations.

The Translation

The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda

The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s

Promise

Homage to Mañjuśrī.

kaṭaṃkaṭe karoṭe karoṭavīrye svāhā ||

In front of the Blessed One, make eight individual maṇḍalas out of
cow dung that has not fallen to the ground. Recite this thirteen times at
each maṇḍala, then incant the resulting dung with
the mantra. When it is smeared on a sick person, all illnesses will be
cured.

If this is not successful after seven, thirteen, or twenty-one days,
even for someone who has carried out the five deeds of immediate
retribution, then I
myself will have carried out the five deeds of immediate retribution.

Colophon

It was translated by the Indian preceptor
Vāgīśvara and Lokya Sherab Tsek.

It was translated by the Indian preceptor Vāgīśvara and
the translator Lokya Sherab Tsek.

Notes

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources