འཕགས་པ་ཡ་ཤས་ཏ་ལ་ལ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས་འགྲ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡངས་ས་སྦྱང་བ intro.2

intro.2

The Dhāraṇī of the Noble Tathāgatha Jñānolka that Purifies All Rebirths centers on a pairing of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who offer dhāraṇīs to the deities of the Sun and the Moon after perceiving their wish to shine a light upon beings residing in the darkest depths of cyclic existence. The tathāgata Jñānolka is identified in the Indic title of the work in the Kangyur, and the Sanskrit names of the three tathāgatas accompanying him have been identified here thanks to an edition of the Khotanese manuscript of the Jñānolka­dhāraṇī published, along with a brief study and German translation, by Ernst Leumann in 1920.¹ The set of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas at the center of the Jñānolka­dhāraṇī cult, based on Leumann’s Khotanese sources, are as follows: