The Epithets of Mañjuśrī
Toh 548
Degé Kangyur, vol. 89 (rgyud ’bum, pa), folios 14.b.1–14.b.2
Imprint
Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Translated by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer, with Geshé Lobsang Dawa and Phakyab Rinpoche (Geshé Ngawang Sungrab), under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. Introduction by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer. Special thanks to Paul Hackett for generously sharing his bibliographic expertise and resources. This translation would not have been possible without the kind and dedicated tutelage of Gen Lozang Jamspal, Executive Director, Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
The Epithets of Mañjuśrī is the fourth of six dhāraṇī scriptures (Toh 545–550) gathered together within the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that provide instruction in incantatory practices that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Five of these scriptures (Toh 547 omitted) also appear in the Dhāraṇī section of the Degé Kangyur as Toh 892–896.
A concise scripture, it consists of a salutation to Mañjuśrī that highlights the qualities of his speech, a thirty-six syllable Sanskrit dhāraṇī, and a one-sentence statement of the benefit accrued by twenty-one recitations thereof. The dhāraṇī itself consists of six mantras, each six syllables in length, that each express epithets of Mañjuśrī. The single stated benefit accrued by recitation of this dhāraṇī is the purification of karmic obscurations incurred by the five misdeeds with immediate retribution.
The six mantras that constitute the Sanskrit dhāraṇī in this text also appear, with only minor variation, in chapter 7 of The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī. There, the Buddha explains that this dhāraṇī has been taught by 760 million buddhas to tame beings, instruct them in the development of skillful means, and exhort them to adopt the practice of mantra.1
A Sanskrit version of The Epithets of Mañjuśrī is to our knowledge no longer extant, and it appears that the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon that might have offered information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. The text’s absence from the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs suggests that it was translated into Tibetan later than the beginning of the ninth century ᴄᴇ,2 but earlier than the flourishing of Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), who listed its title, along with those of the other dhāraṇī texts in this collection, in his History of Buddhism.3
Text Body
Epithets of Mañjuśrī
The Translation
oṁ vākyetejāya | oṁ vākyeśeṣa sva5 | oṁ vākyekhañjaye | oṁ vākyeniṣṭhāya6 | oṁ vākyeya namaḥ | oṁ vākyeda7 namaḥ ||8
Reciting these epithets of noble Mañjuśrī9 twenty-one times will purify all the karmic obscurations resulting from the five misdeeds with immediate retribution.
This concludes the noble “Epithets of Mañjuśrī.”
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 894 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 894, n.4, for details.
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
’jam dpal gyi mtshan. Toh 548, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud ’bum, pa), folios 14.b.1–14.b.2.
’jam dpal gyi mtshan. Toh 894, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 167.b.3–167.b.4.
’jam dpal gyi mtshan. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 89, p. 54.
’jam dpal gyi mtshan. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 97, p. 497.
’jam dpal gyi mtshan. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 495.b.1–495.b.3.
’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud (Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa). Toh 543, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folios 105.a.–351.a. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2020.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ʼphang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). The Collected Works of Bu-Ston. Edited by Lokesh Candra. 28 vols. Śata-piṭaka Series 41–68. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106.
———. chos ’byung (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i gter mdzod). In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 24 (ya), folios 1.a–212.a/pp. 633–1055. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71.
———. gsang sngags rgyud sde bzhiʼi gzungs ʼbum. In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 16 (ma), folios 1.a–278.a/pp. 1–556. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71.
Western Language Sources
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, Toh 543). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
five misdeeds with immediate retribution
- mtshams med pa lnga
- མཚམས་མེད་པ་ལྔ།
- pañcānantarya
karmic obscuration
- las kyi sgrib
- ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ།
- karmāvaraṇa
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
mantra
- sngags
- སྔགས།
- mantra