འཕགས་པ་ཚ་དང་ཡ་ཤས་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པའ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro.9

intro.9

Perhaps as one result of potential ambiguity regarding the exact reference of its title, the text translated here, The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom,” is also referred to in some Tibetan works as The Sūtra [or Dhāraṇī] of the King of the Sound of the Drum (rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo/gzungs), which in Sanskrit would be *Dundubhi­svara­rāja­sūtra. Indeed, the name of the dhāraṇī that this work contains is explicitly stated in the text to be Dundubhi­svara­rāja, or Amṛta­dundubhi­svara­rāja, and tradition has taken this to be yet another moniker of Amitābha or Amitāyus of Sukhāvatī. As a name, Dundubhi­svara is not uncommon in Indian literature, and other Mahāyāna works list Dundubhi­svara­rāja (or the alternatives Dundubhi­svara and Dundubhi­svara­nirgoṣa) as names of a former buddha, a series of former buddhas, and the buddha who dwells in the northern quarter,⁸ but in this context, no doubt on the basis of the mentions in this text, Tibetan Buddhist tradition equates the names Dundubhi­svara­rāja (rnga sgra’i rgyal po) and Amṛta­dundubhi­svara­rāja (’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po) most frequently with Amitābha or Amitāyus of Sukhāvatī.