The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses
Translation of འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱ་གཟངས (འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་གཟུངས)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Adam C. Krug
- Extent
- 23 passages, 1,597 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.2 2025). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…
Contents
- intro 84000's introduction — 14 parts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- notes Notes — 5 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses is a teaching that was given by the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi to the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī on a set of dhāraṇīs that corresponds to an eight-goddess maṇḍala. The text consists of material extracted from the work that precedes it in the Degé Kangyur, the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses is a teaching given by the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi to the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī on a set of dhāraṇīs in an eight-goddess maṇḍala. The eight dhāraṇī goddesses in this maṇḍala are as follows:
intro.3
1. Consecrated in Great Gnosis
intro.4
2. Vajradhātvīśvarī
intro.5
3. Mahāpratisarā
intro.6
4. Unconquered Vajra
intro.7
5. Relinquishing All Misdeeds
intro.8
6. Durdāntā
intro.9
7. Destroying All Māras
intro.10
8. Anantamukhasādhakā
intro.11
After Vajrapāṇi recites the dhāraṇīs for each of these goddesses, he tells Mañjuśrī that anyone who has the maṇḍala for these dhāraṇī goddesses placed in their hand, or simply recites these dhāraṇīs one time every morning, will be protected in this life and liberated from rebirth in the lower realms.
intro.12
There is no known Sanskrit witness for The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses, and the text does not appear to have been translated into Chinese. It appears in both the Denkarma¹ and Phangthangma² imperial Tibetan catalogs of translated works, and the translators’ colophon to the Tibetan witness in the Degé Kangyur notes that it was translated by the Indian preceptor Śīlendrabodhi and the Tibetan translator Bandé Yeshé Dé. These data suggest that The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses was translated into Tibetan during the eighth century.
intro.13
Nearly all the material in The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses is extracted from the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣekatantra (Āryavajrapāṇyabhiṣekamahātantra, ’phags pa lag na rdo rje dbang bskur ba’i rgyud chen po), which immediately precedes the version of this dhāraṇī in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) of the Degé Kangyur. The Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka provides instructions on the construction of a version of “the maṇḍala of consecration in great gnosis” (ye shes chen por dbang bskur ba’i skyil ’khor), but the maṇḍala described in the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka is far more complex than the eight-goddess maṇḍala that is suggested (but never described) by the title of the present work, The Dhāraṇī of the Eight Goddesses. While it is very likely the case that each of these dhāraṇīs are considered goddesses in the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka, they are only depicted in aniconic form as dhāraṇīs and symbols, and they are not once explicitly referred to as goddesses. They are accompanied in that text, however, by a set of very well-known male bodhisattvas who also only appear in the maṇḍala in aniconic form, and who all have very well-known iconic forms. Whatever ambiguity there may be in the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka around whether these dhāraṇīs are in fact understood as goddesses is resolved in the current text, where the title suggests that the eight members of this maṇḍala are known as a set of dhāraṇī goddesses. Elements of this ambiguity have been preserved in the English translation of the current text to reflect the relationship of this material to the passages in the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka from which it derives.
intro.14
This English translation was produced based on the Tibetan witnesses in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus)³ in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the Tibetan witnesses in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok Palace Kangyur.
1
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Then, Vajrapāṇi taught this supreme queen of great dhāraṇī mantras that is the mother of the thus-gone ones, that purifies all misdeeds, that cures all illnesses, that frightens off all vighnas, and that brings all manner of prosperity.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā he buddhamātari sarvapāpanāśani garja garja bhañja bhañja marda marda gambhari gambhari hasa hasa dama dama matha matha vidhvaṃsaya vidhvaṃsaya sarvaśatrūn taramati vimale pūraya pūraya pratijñāna sarvabuddhaparyupasiti bhagavati gana gana jahi jahi vimasani kramaṇi dhavani ramaṇi mātaṅgi ge svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Consecrated in Great Gnosis.⁴
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā amari amari taṭa bhañja bhañja jha jha mici mici sphoṭaya sphoṭaya matha matha durdāntadamaka svāhā |
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyā sarvathā he he kinade
2
sarvatathāgatabhaneke bhodhiṃ dada trāṭa trāṭa hūṁ phaṭ hūṁ phaṭ⁵ garja garja paramati vihurike svāhā |
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā bhagavati prajñāpāramite a sarvapāpakṣayaṅkari jñānārcisparaṇi bhañja bhañja matha matha dama dama ānaya ānaya sara sara māraya māraya sarvabuddhajanetrīyai svāhā |
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā garja garja matha matha dama dama bhañja bhañja dundubhi sarvanirghoṣe hana hana vidhvaṃsaya vidhvaṃsaya moṭaya moṭaya daha daha vipulanirmalanirjāte āhara āhara gaccha gaccha sarvabuddhaparyupasatim mā vilamba svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Vajradhātvīśvarī.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā oṁ bhagavati sarvatathāgatajanika pūraya pratijñāna taṭa taṭa marda marda āhara āhara hūṁ hūṁ jati svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Mahāpratisarā.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā hūṁ hrī sarvabuddhamātiri bhañja bhañja matha matha damani damani gargāri gargāri hrī svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Unconquered Vajra.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā trāṭa trāṭa muhu muhu sarvapāpaviśodhani svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called the Relinquishing All Misdeeds.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā dhaka dhaka moṭa moṭa daha daha sarvatathāgatajñānanirjāte svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Durdāntā.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā ha ha mihu mihu dama dama khāhi khāhi dhuna dhuna mici mici
3
durdāntadamani svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Destroying All Māras.
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyaḥ sarvamukhebhyaḥ sarvathā mici mici garja garja sphoṭaya sphoṭaya matha matha dama dama svāhā |
This is the blessed dhāraṇī called Anantamukhasādhakā.
“Manjuśrī, anyone in whose hand the maṇḍala of consecration in great gnosis is placed will be free from afflictions and free from peril. Even if they find themselves in the midst of thieves, in the midst of rākṣasas, in the midst of enemies, or in the midst of conflict, their bodies will not be pierced by weapons, they will not be killed by thieves and rākṣasas and the like will not harm them. They will have no fear of dying an untimely death, they will always have good fortune, and all their misdeeds will be purified. In a single day, they will come to possess the root of virtue equal to that accumulated by one hundred thousand one hundred million tens of millions of buddhas. When their time of death has come, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will care for them, and, after they die, they will be born in Sukhāvatī.
“Thus, it goes without saying that the obscurations of whoever upholds, recites, focuses upon, and maintains it without relenting will be purified. They will close the doors to the lower realms and they will be very far away from lower rebirths and the lower realms.
“Any person who recites it once
In the morning when they wake,
And who fears the next life,
Will be free from all the misdeeds they have committed.
“Rākṣasas and the like, thieves,
Weapons, and enemies will not strike them,
They will be liberated from untimely death,
And they will always have good fortune.
4
“When their time of death has come,
They will be very far from the lower realms,
The buddhas will care for them, and
They will be reborn in Sukhāvatī.”
When he had said that, the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised him.
Colophon
This was translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptor Śīlendrabodhi and the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé.
Notes
notes.1
1. Denkarma, folio 302.b; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 224–25.
notes.2
2. Phangthangma 2003, p. 27.
notes.3
3. This text, Toh 999, 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. Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 999 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 999, , for details.
notes.4
4. Following Toh 497 and Toh 999: bcom ldan ’das ma ye shes chen por dbang bskur ldan pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs so. This translation reads the term “blessed” (bcom ldan ’das ma) strictly as a modifier for the term dhāraṇī (gzungs). The use of this term is indicative of this text understanding all these dhāraṇīs as dhāraṇī goddesses. Given the fact that none of these dhāraṇīs are explicitly referred to as goddesses, coupled with the fact that the depictions of each dhāraṇī in the source for this material, the Vajrapāṇyabhiṣeka, are aniconic, we have remained cautious in this translation and chosen to preserve the ambiguity in the source texts.
notes.5
5. This follows Toh 497. Toh 499 reads hUM hUM phaT phaT.