Toh 505a intro.2

intro.2

A Mantra for Incanting Medicines When Administering Them is a short work that pays homage to the Three Jewels and the Medicine Buddha, Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha­rāja, and provides a mantra to be used for incanting medicines. The text itself does not mention the original source of the mantra, but it may have been extracted from The Dhāraṇī of Vaiḍūryaprabha (Toh 505),¹ where it appears as the final part of the longer dhāraṇī taught there. The short mantra presented in A Mantra for Incanting Medicines When Administering Them was later incorporated into the Aṣṭāṅga­hṛdaya­saṃhitā and Aṣtāṅga­saṅgraha, two important works of the Indian Āyurvedic medical tradition that are believed to have been composed by Vāgbhaṭa (ca. 600 ce).² In both works the mantra is used in an emetic procedure (vamanavidhi) to incant a medicinal beverage immediately before it is administered to the patient.³ The mantra incorporated into Vāgbhaṭa’s texts includes both the mantra formula itself and the initial homage to Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha­rāja.