This text consists of a short dhāraṇī followed by its application, a food offering made to the pretas (hungry spirits). The text says that by the power of the spell, the offering will be made manifold and there will be many future benefits for the person performing the rite.
This text was translated and introduced by the Buddhapīṭha Translation Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó).
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa” is a short yet important and popular text. It reveals a dhāraṇī that is to be used while making a food offering to pretas. The ritual is outlined in simple terms. This is followed by a description of the benefits of the spell and the ritual. In addition to many pretas being fed, the performer of the ritual will have a favorable rebirth in Sukhāvatī that culminates in their awakening. As is well known, the realm of the pretas is one of the five or six (and one of the three unfavorable) destinies for rebirth in saṃsāra.1 Its inhabitants are constantly tortured by hunger and thirst as karmic retribution for being miserly. The depiction of this realm is a popular topic in Buddhist literature and art.2 Pretas usually cannot eat proper meals because the food that they see turns into disgusting substances as soon as they reach it, or because they have needle-thin throats. The implication here seems to be that the power of the dhāraṇī removes these difficulties for them.
We have been unable to find a self-standing transmission of the original Sanskrit text. However, it is preserved in its entirety in no fewer than three Sanskrit manuals for beginner practitioners (Skt. ādikarmika, Tib. las dang po pa): the Ādikarmāvatāra by Mañjukīrti,3 the Ādikarmapradīpa by Anupamavajra,4 and the Ādikarmavidhi by Tatakaragupta.5 These texts have not been translated into Tibetan, but the Tibetan canon does preserve a work that is closely related to (and very likely even based on) the aforementioned triad: The Gradual Path to Awakening (byang chub kyi gzhung lam, *Bodhipaddhati, Toh 3766), which is attributed to the famous and influential master Abhayākaragupta. This work also incorporates the entire text. Prominent Tibetan masters maintained this tradition. See, for example, the work of Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), The Easy Path Leading to Omniscience (rnam mkhyen du bgrod pa’i bde lam). These manuals describe the ritual as a bali offering to be performed by bodhisattvas on the early stages of the path.
The Tibetan translation is not recorded in the imperial catalogs, and we could not identify any Dunhuang fragments. Because the canonical transmission lacks a translators’ colophon, the identity of the translators is unknown. This text is included in both the Action Tantra section (Toh 540) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1078) of the Degé Kangyur, as well as in other Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include such a separate section. Several Tibetan witnesses leave the Sanskrit surūpa/surūpā (“beautiful” / “having a beautiful form”) element untranslated in the heading but translate it to gzugs legs in the colophon. The Sanskrit transmission seems to have “Surūpā” (with a long ending) as a description or name of the dhāraṇī. However, it is also noteworthy that the Indo-Tibetan transmission of the dhāraṇī contains an obeisance to the tathāgata Surūpa, who is otherwise unknown. It is not impossible, therefore, that *Surūpadhāraṇī (if this was indeed the form, with a short ending in surūpa) could also be understood as The Dhāraṇī of Surūpa.
The Chinese translation, The Beautiful, A Dhāraṇī-Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha (佛說妙色陀羅尼經, Taishō 1386) dates from a rather late period, between 989–99
This English translation is principally based on the Tibetan translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) in the Degé Kangyur,77 in consultation with the Stok Palace Kangyur. We consulted all Sanskrit manuscripts available for the three ādikarmika texts previously mentioned and created a constituted text which we include here in an appendix.
One should recite this spell seven times over a meal of rice together with water. Then, after having snapped the fingers of the left hand three times, one should offer it in a secluded place to all pretas and say the following: “Off with you, you who seek weak points and are looking for an opportunity!10 I hereby donate food to pretas residing in every world system!”[F.101.b] One should make the donation before one has eaten. The outcome is that the pretas will each be given a bushel of rice.
If one performs it in this way, in each and every rebirth one will never be feeble or poor. Rather, one will possess great might, beauty, a countenance lovely to behold, much wealth, and great enjoyments. One will have a long lifespan, freedom from illness, and will swiftly attain unsurpassed, perfect awakening. After death, one will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī.
Here ends “The Dhāraṇī ‘Surūpa’.”
Constituted text of the Sanskrit based on how it is transmitted in the ādikarmika manuals:
namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā | anayā dhāraṇyodakasahitaṃ bhaktaṃ sapta vārān parijapya vāmahastenācchaṭātrayaṃ dattvā sarvapretebhyo vivikte pradeśe dātavyam | evaṃ ca bhāṣitavyam | apasarantv avatāraprekṣiṇo dadāmy ahaṃ sarvalokadhātuvāsināṃ pretānām āhāram iti | abhuktenaiva kartavyam | evaṃ sarvapretānāṃ taṇḍuladroṇabhaktaṃ pratyekaṃ dattaṃ bhavati | evaṃ kurvan na durbalo bhavati na daridro bhavaty api tu jātau jātau mahābalaḥ prāsādiko darśanīya āḍhyo mahābhogo bhavati dīrghāyur arogī kṣipraṃ cānuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim abhisaṃbhotsyate | cyutaś ca sukhāvatyāṃ lokadhātāv upapadyate || iti surūpā nāma dhāraṇī ||
This text consists of a short dhāraṇī followed by its application, a food offering made to the pretas (hungry spirits). The text says that by the power of the spell, the offering will be made manifold and there will be many future benefits for the person performing the rite.
This text was translated and introduced by the Buddhapīṭha Translation Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó).
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa” is a short yet important and popular text. It reveals a dhāraṇī that is to be used while making a food offering to pretas. The ritual is outlined in simple terms. This is followed by a description of the benefits of the spell and the ritual. In addition to many pretas being fed, the performer of the ritual will have a favorable rebirth in Sukhāvatī that culminates in their awakening. As is well known, the realm of the pretas is one of the five or six (and one of the three unfavorable) destinies for rebirth in saṃsāra.1 Its inhabitants are constantly tortured by hunger and thirst as karmic retribution for being miserly. The depiction of this realm is a popular topic in Buddhist literature and art.2 Pretas usually cannot eat proper meals because the food that they see turns into disgusting substances as soon as they reach it, or because they have needle-thin throats. The implication here seems to be that the power of the dhāraṇī removes these difficulties for them.
We have been unable to find a self-standing transmission of the original Sanskrit text. However, it is preserved in its entirety in no fewer than three Sanskrit manuals for beginner practitioners (Skt. ādikarmika, Tib. las dang po pa): the Ādikarmāvatāra by Mañjukīrti,3 the Ādikarmapradīpa by Anupamavajra,4 and the Ādikarmavidhi by Tatakaragupta.5 These texts have not been translated into Tibetan, but the Tibetan canon does preserve a work that is closely related to (and very likely even based on) the aforementioned triad: The Gradual Path to Awakening (byang chub kyi gzhung lam, *Bodhipaddhati, Toh 3766), which is attributed to the famous and influential master Abhayākaragupta. This work also incorporates the entire text. Prominent Tibetan masters maintained this tradition. See, for example, the work of Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), The Easy Path Leading to Omniscience (rnam mkhyen du bgrod pa’i bde lam). These manuals describe the ritual as a bali offering to be performed by bodhisattvas on the early stages of the path.
The Tibetan translation is not recorded in the imperial catalogs, and we could not identify any Dunhuang fragments. Because the canonical transmission lacks a translators’ colophon, the identity of the translators is unknown. This text is included in both the Action Tantra section (Toh 540) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1078) of the Degé Kangyur, as well as in other Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include such a separate section. Several Tibetan witnesses leave the Sanskrit surūpa/surūpā (“beautiful” / “having a beautiful form”) element untranslated in the heading but translate it to gzugs legs in the colophon. The Sanskrit transmission seems to have “Surūpā” (with a long ending) as a description or name of the dhāraṇī. However, it is also noteworthy that the Indo-Tibetan transmission of the dhāraṇī contains an obeisance to the tathāgata Surūpa, who is otherwise unknown. It is not impossible, therefore, that *Surūpadhāraṇī (if this was indeed the form, with a short ending in surūpa) could also be understood as The Dhāraṇī of Surūpa.
The Chinese translation, The Beautiful, A Dhāraṇī-Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha (佛說妙色陀羅尼經, Taishō 1386) dates from a rather late period, between 989–99
This English translation is principally based on the Tibetan translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) in the Degé Kangyur,77 in consultation with the Stok Palace Kangyur. We consulted all Sanskrit manuscripts available for the three ādikarmika texts previously mentioned and created a constituted text which we include here in an appendix.
One should recite this spell seven times over a meal of rice together with water. Then, after having snapped the fingers of the left hand three times, one should offer it in a secluded place to all pretas and say the following: “Off with you, you who seek weak points and are looking for an opportunity!10 I hereby donate food to pretas residing in every world system!”[F.101.b] One should make the donation before one has eaten. The outcome is that the pretas will each be given a bushel of rice.
If one performs it in this way, in each and every rebirth one will never be feeble or poor. Rather, one will possess great might, beauty, a countenance lovely to behold, much wealth, and great enjoyments. One will have a long lifespan, freedom from illness, and will swiftly attain unsurpassed, perfect awakening. After death, one will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī.
Here ends “The Dhāraṇī ‘Surūpa’.”
Constituted text of the Sanskrit based on how it is transmitted in the ādikarmika manuals:
namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā | anayā dhāraṇyodakasahitaṃ bhaktaṃ sapta vārān parijapya vāmahastenācchaṭātrayaṃ dattvā sarvapretebhyo vivikte pradeśe dātavyam | evaṃ ca bhāṣitavyam | apasarantv avatāraprekṣiṇo dadāmy ahaṃ sarvalokadhātuvāsināṃ pretānām āhāram iti | abhuktenaiva kartavyam | evaṃ sarvapretānāṃ taṇḍuladroṇabhaktaṃ pratyekaṃ dattaṃ bhavati | evaṃ kurvan na durbalo bhavati na daridro bhavaty api tu jātau jātau mahābalaḥ prāsādiko darśanīya āḍhyo mahābhogo bhavati dīrghāyur arogī kṣipraṃ cānuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim abhisaṃbhotsyate | cyutaś ca sukhāvatyāṃ lokadhātāv upapadyate || iti surūpā nāma dhāraṇī ||
The pretas are enjoying renewed scholarly attention; McNicholl 2019 and Rotman 2021 are two recent major works on the subject.
Unpublished manuscript, currently being studied by Szántó for a forthcoming publication, Buddhism for Beginners II: The Mañjukīrti Corpus. The current location of the manuscript is not known with certainty. It was first seen and identified by Rāhula Sāṅkṛityāyana at Ngor Monastery; see Sāṅkṛityāyana 1935, p. 32. We are reading the text from the photographs kept at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, shelf number Xc 14/50; for the catalog entry, see Bandurski 1994, pp. 86–87. Little is known of the author; the manuscript is undated but was most likely copied in Magadha during the eleventh or twelfth century.
There are two editions of this text: La Vallée Poussin 1898, based on Royal Asiatic Society, London, MS. Hodgson 69 and Takahashi 1993, based on the previous edition, and Tōkyō University Library MS. new 57, old 349. Takahashi 1992 is a Japanese translation of the entire text. According to the colophon, the author Anupamavajra was active at Vikramaśīla Monastery.
Unpublished, incomplete manuscript, currently at National Archives Kathmandu, showcase 3/7, read from the microfilm images of the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, reel no. A 1165/7. Little is known of the author; the manuscript is undated but was probably copied in Bengal during the thirteenth century.
This text, Toh 1078, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, waM), are listed as being located in volume 101 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room—list this work as being located in volume 102. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text—which forms a whole, very large volume—the Vimalaprabhānāmakālacakratantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.
Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhimaṇḍasyālaṃkāralakṣadhāraṇī (byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs, Toh 508), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer.
In the Toh 540 version of the text there is a slight discrepancy in the folio numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here, further details concerning this may be found in n.8 of the Toh 540 version of this text.
“oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru, cross, cross, bear, bear, collect, collect, remember, remember, gratify, gratify, for all pretas, svāhā!”
avatāraprekṣin. This description usually applies to bhūtas or other demons who are constantly on the lookout for weak points, usually caused by a breach of morality, in order to enter and possess a being. It is conceivable that one of the two Tibetan elements was originally a gloss of the other.
An influential scholar active at Vikramaśīla Monasery in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries.
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active at Vikramaśīla Monastery.
A food offering made to a deity or spirits; such an offering may be varied and elaborate, or may be simple uncooked food.
This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva (also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of certain tantras concentrate on them.
A measure of volume.
See “spell.”
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active in Magadha.
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.
They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance. Detailed descriptions of their realm and experience, including a list of the thirty-six classes of pretas, can be found in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Toh 287, 2.1281– 2.1482.
A courteous way of attracting someone’s attention.
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
The buddha realm in which the Buddha Amitābha resides.
Name of a buddha.
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active in Bengal.
A renowned monastic complex in India.
su rU pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Toh 540, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folios 84.a–84.b.
su rU pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Toh 1078, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waṃ), folios 240.a–240.b.
su ru pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs / gzugs legs zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 104.a–104.b.
Bandurski, Frank. “Übersicht über die Göttinger Sammlungen der von Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana in Tibet aufgefundenen buddhistischen Sanskrit-Texte (Funde buddhistischer Sanskrit-Handschriften, III).” In Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur, edited by Frank Bandurski, Bhikkhu Pāsādika, Michael Schmidt, and Bangwei Wang, 9–126. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994.
La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. Bouddhisme. Études et matériaux. Ādikarmapradīpa. Bodhicaryāvatāraṭīkā. London: Luzac & Co., 1898.
McNicholl, Adeana. Celestial Seductresses and Hungry Ghosts: Preta Narratives in Early Indian Buddhism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 2019.
Orzech, Charles D. “Translation of Tantras and Other Esoteric Buddhist Scriptures.” In Esoteric Buddhist and the Tantras in East Asia, edited by Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, 439–50. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2011.
Rotman, Andy, trans. Hungry Ghosts. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins (trans. By Gaynor Sekimori). Tokyo: Kōsei Publishing Co., 1997.
Sāṅkṛityāyana, Tripiṭakâcharya Rāhula. “Sanskrit Palm-leaf MSS. in Tibet.” Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 21/1 (1935): 21–43.
Takahashi, Hisao (1992). “『アーディカルマプラディーパ『初行のしるべ』和訳” [“Japanese translation of Anupamavajra’s Ādikarmapradīpa.”] In 興教大師覚鑁研究:興教大 師八百五十年御遠忌記念論集, edited by 興教大師研究論集編集委員会, 551–90. Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1992.
Takahashi, Hisao (1993). “Ādikarmapradīpa 梵文校訂 —東京大学写本による” [“Sanskrit Text of the Ādikarmapradīpa according to the manuscript at Tōkyō University Library.”] In 宮坂宥勝博士古稀記念論文集 インド学密教学研究 下, edited by 宮坂宥勝博士古稀記念論文集刊行会編, vol. 2, 129–56. Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 1993.
