འཕགས་པ་རག་པའ་རྒྱལ་མ་ས་སར་འབྲང་བ་ཆན་མ་སངས་རྒྱས་དང intro.4

intro.4

The rites and incantations found in the Pañcarakṣā texts have long functioned as important techniques for addressing pragmatic concerns throughout the Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna world. While it seems certain that these texts each developed independently and were only later combined into a five-text corpus, their popularity is attested by their eventual spread from India to Nepal, Tibet, Central Asia, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and Indonesia.⁷ In East Asia, the textual tradition associated with The Great Peahen in particular was instrumental in integrating Buddhist and indigenous notions of divine kingship.⁸ Moreover, the tradition of all five goddesses and their texts still to this day occupies a place of central importance in the Vajrayāna Buddhism practiced by the Newar population of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Newar Buddhist communities have even translated the texts of the Five Protectresses into the modern vernacular, based on which they continue to stage a number of annual rites for a broad range of pragmatic purposes.⁹