འཕགས་པ་གྲགས་ལྡན་མའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction
The Yaśovatī Dhāraṇī intro
- Language
- English
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Yaśovatī Dhāraṇī is a collection of six dhāraṇīs that can be recited to cure and protect oneself from various illnesses, avert the influence of demonic beings, and, in one case, to revive the recently deceased.
intro.2
The Yaśovatī Dhāraṇī is a collection of six dhāraṇīs that are recited to cure and protect oneself from various illnesses, avert the influence of demonic beings, and, in one case, to revive the recently deceased. The first five dhāraṇīs open with a verse of homage to the Three Jewels and the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and the sixth begins with an homage to the Three Jewels, Avalokiteśvara, and the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi. The text does not include any introductory material concerning the occasion when it was first taught, the audience present for the teaching, or the individual who gave the teaching. It also contains no information on the identity of Yaśovatī (Tib. grags ldan ma), and it is not clear if this name refers to a goddess, to the dhāraṇī itself, or to both.
intro.3
There are numerous figures in the Kangyur and Tengyur with the name Yaśovatī or with a name approximating or synonymous to Yaśovatī.¹ A goddess (or goddesses) by the name grags ldan ma appears in The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī,² The Tantra of the Complete Enlightenment of Vairocana,³ The Root Manual for the Rites of the Blessed Noble Tārā,⁴ The Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra,⁵ The Tantra of Subhāhu’s Questions,⁶ and The Section on Propitiation Rituals [in The Great Tantra, Susiddhikara].⁷ A goddess (or goddesses) with the name grags ldan ma also appears in the Tengyur among the maṇḍala retinues of the deities Heruka and Cakrasaṃvara, as well as in Gayādhara’s Instructions on the Arising of Gnosis.⁸ None of the passages in the Kangyur and Tengyur that mention a goddess named grags ldan ma, however, provide any description or broader information about this goddess, or any indication that she is at all related to the Yaśovatī associated with this dhāraṇī. As a result, the identity of Yaśovatī who appears in the title of this dhāraṇī remains uncertain.
intro.4
There are no extant Sanskrit witnesses of The Yaśovatī Dhāraṇī and the text does not appear to have been translated into Chinese. It is not included in either of the imperial Tibetan catalogs of translated works, and the text does not contain a translator’s colophon. Thus, there is also no clear data on when and under what circumstances this dhāraṇī was translated into Tibetan.
intro.5
This translation was prepared on the basis of The Yaśovatī Dhāraṇī contained in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus)⁹ in consultation with the versions from the Stok Palace and the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur.