The Twelve Names of the Goddess Śrī
Toh 741
Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud ’bum, tsha), folios 235.a–235.b
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Twelve Names of the Goddess Śrī is a short text revealed to Avalokiteśvara in the pure land of Sukhāvatī. In essence, it is a dhāraṇī centered on twelve epithets of the goddess of wealth. The spell is said to provide prosperity.
Acknowledgements
The text was translated from Tibetan 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 Laura Goetz copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
The Twelve Names of the Goddess Śrī is a short text revealed to Avalokiteśvara in the pure land of Sukhāvatī. In essence, it is a dhāraṇī centered on twelve epithets of the goddess of wealth and a short ritual instruction concerning its recitation. Lists of the epithets of a deity are a common type of dhāraṇī, and such texts can sometimes be extremely long (for example, Reciting the Names of Mañjuśrī).1 An alternative version of this text is The Sūtra of Mahāśrī,2 from which it differs in only minor details.
Mahāśrī, or simply Śrī, or commonly Lakṣmī, is a goddess who is perhaps more prevalent in the brahmanical tradition, where she is said to be the great god Viṣṇu’s consort. She is associated with well-being and prosperity. Here her names constitute the inner core of the dhāraṇī, which is promised to provide prosperity. This text styles her a bodhisattva.
The text is extant in Sanskrit in the old palm-leaf Nepalese Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha). Two such witnesses have been published by Hidas.3 The first is unfortunately fragmentary, and we cannot determine what the end of the text looked like. The second witness concludes the text with the application of the dhāraṇī, which is not mirrored in the Tibetan but is paralleled by the penultimate section of The Sūtra of Mahāśrī. Another difference is that in the Sanskrit, the name-dhāraṇī is revealed not only to Avalokiteśvara, but also to Mañjuśrī.
The Tibetan translation dates from the imperial period, sometime in the early ninth century. It is listed in both imperial catalogs,4 and the colophon attributes it to the famous translator-duo Jinamitra and Yeshé Dé. We know of at least one Dunhuang copy of the Tibetan translation;5 this was copied on the back of a Chinese scroll in a somewhat unusual way, in columns.
The Chinese translation dates to the Tang dynasty and holds the distinction of being the earliest attestation of the text, which thus must have been in circulation before the middle of the eighth century. Although some catalogs list this translation as one item (Taishō 1252),6 in fact, what we have here is not one, but two translations of the same text. Both are attributed to Amoghavajra, arguably the most influential master to propagate esoteric Buddhist lore at the Tang court. A part of the dhāraṇī portion is also included here in the siddham script. There are some differences when compared to the Sanskrit and the Tibetan: the male bodhisattva to whom the name-dhāraṇī is revealed is Samantabhadra, and this version also transmits some passages on the application of the spell, as well as another dhāraṇī, which is quite similar to the famous dhāraṇī of the Heart Sūtra, (gate gate, etc.)
This translation was made principally on the basis of the Tibetan translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus)7 in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the editions of two Sanskrit witnesses, the Dunhuang version, the Stok Palace Kangyur, and The Sūtra of Mahāśrī.
Text Body
The Translation
Homage to the Three Jewels.
Homage to the noble Avalokiteśvara.
Homage to Vajrapāṇi.
Homage to the great goddess Śrī.8
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was residing in the realm of Sukhāvatī. Then the bodhisattva mahāsattva, the noble Avalokiteśvara, set out to where the Blessed One was residing. Having arrived, he bowed his head at the feet of the Blessed One, circumambulated the Blessed One thrice, and sat down on one side. Then the bodhisattva mahāsattva, the great goddess Śrī, also set out to where the Blessed One was residing. Having arrived, she bowed her head at the feet of the Blessed One and sat down on one side.
Then the Blessed One looked at Mahāśrī and said this to the noble Avalokiteśvara: [F.235.b] “Avalokiteśvara, whosoever, including monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, gets to know, upholds, recites, accomplishes, or speaks of the twelve names of Mahāśrī here will escape destitution and become very wealthy.”9
“These are the twelve names of the great goddess Śrī: “It is thus—Welfare, Splendor, She Who Is Wearing a Garland of Lotuses, Mistress of Wealth, White One,11 She of Great Fame, Lotus-Eyed One, She of Great Radiance, She Who Accomplishes, Bestower of Nourishment, She of Jewel-Like Gleam,12 Great Splendor. Homage to all buddhas! Homage to Avalokiteśvara! Homage to the great goddess Śrī! It is thus—jini ghriṇi, O Accomplisher of All Goals, simi simi nimi nimi,13 remove my destitution completely,14 svāhā.15
Thus spoke the Blessed One, and the bodhisattva, the noble Avalokiteśvara, was gladdened and praised the speech of the Blessed One.
Here ends “The Twelve Names of the Great Goddess Śrī.”
Colophon
This was translated, checked, and redacted by the Indian preceptor Jinamitra and the great editor-translator Bandé Yeshé Dé.
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1006 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1006, n.7, for details.
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
dpal gyi lha mo’i mtshan bcu gnyis pa. Toh 741, Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud ’bum, tsha), folios 235.a–236.b.
dpal gyi lha mo’i mtshan bcu gnyis pa. Toh 1006, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waM), folios 172.a–172.b.
dpal gyi lha mo’i mtshan bcu gnyis pa. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 108 (rgyud, tsa), folios 87.a–88.a.
dpal chen mo’i mdo (Mahāśrīsūtra). Toh 740, Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud ’bum, tsha), folios 234.b–235.a; Toh 1005, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waM), folios 171.a–172.b. English translation The Sūtra of Mahāśrī 2024.
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 ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Pelliot tibétain 68.1. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, accessed through Bibliothèque nationale de France Gallica.
Other Sources
84000. The Sūtra of Mahāśrī (Mahāśrīsūtra, dpal chen mo’i mdo, Toh 740). Translated by the Buddhapīṭha Translation Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó). Online publications. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Kawagoe, Eishin, ed. dKar chag ’Phang thang ma. Tōhoku Indo-Chibetto Kenkyū Sōsho 3. Sendai: Tohoku Society for Indo-Tibetan Studies, 2005.
Lalou, Marcelle. Inventaire des Manuscrits tibétains de Touen-houang conservés à la Bibliothèque Nationale (Fonds Pelliot tibétain nos. 1–849). Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1939.
Skorupski, Tadeusz. A Catalogue of the Stog Palace Kanjur. Bibliographia Philologica Buddhica, Series Maior 4. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1985.
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
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Avalokiteśvara
- spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug
- སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག
- avalokiteśvara AS
Bandé Yeshé Dé
- ban+de ye shes sde
- བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
- —
bodhisattva mahāsattva
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- bodhisattvamahāsattva AS
She of Jewel-Like Gleam
- rin chen ’od ldan ma
- རིན་ཆེན་འོད་ལྡན་མ།
- ratnaprabhā AS
She Who Is Wearing a Garland of Lotuses
- pad+ma’i phreng thogs ma
- པདྨའི་ཕྲེང་ཐོགས་མ།
- padmamālinī AS