[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Protective spells and dhāraṇī-sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani) › [Protective and healing dhāraṇīs](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection) › [Healing and Disease Pacification](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease) › [\*Mahārakṣāgrahaṇadhāraṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani) › [Toh 588](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo) › [The Dharani to Uphold “The Noble Great Amulet”](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000) › notes # Toh 588 notes: Notes The Dhāraṇī to Uphold “The Noble Great Amulet” notes - **Language:** English ### Notes ### [notes.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.1) 1. Mahāpratisarā (so sor ’brang ba chen mo, Toh 561). See The Great Amulet . ### [notes.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.2) 2. The Great Amulet, 1.134. ### [notes.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.3) 3. For further details and references, see Hidas 2010, especially note 72. ### [notes.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.4) 4. Hidas 2021, p. 27, item 20(c) in Cambridge University Library Ms. Add. 1680.8.1. The dhāraṇī is also transmitted elsewhere; see pp. 150, 154, 232–33, and 235. ### [notes.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.5) 5. The unique manuscript transmitting this text is currently being studied by Szántó for a forthcoming publication, Buddhism for Beginners II: The Mañjukīrti Corpus. The current location of the manuscript is not known with certainty. It was first seen and identified by Rāhula Sāṅkṛityāyana at Ngor Monastery; see Sāṅkṛityāyana 1935, p. 32. We are reading the text from the photographs kept at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, shelf number Xc 14/50; for the catalog entry, see Bandurski 1994, pp. 86–87. Little is known of the author; the manuscript is undated but was most likely copied in Magadha during the twelfth century. The dhāraṇī can be found on folio 7 verso within the context of installing caityas. A somewhat carelessly produced edition of the text has now been published in Dhīḥ: Journal of Rare Buddhist Texts Research Unit 62 (2022): 89–150. The dhāraṇī is on p. 103. ### [notes.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.6) 6. Unpublished, incomplete manuscript, currently at National Archives Kathmandu, showcase 3/7, read from the microfilm images of the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, reel no. A 1165/7. Little is known of the author; the manuscript is undated but was probably copied in Bengal during the thirteenth century. No Tibetan translation is known. The dhāraṇī can be found on folios 33 recto–33 verso. ### [notes.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.7) 7. byang chub kyi gzhung lam (Toh 3766). See folio 120.b for the dhāraṇī. This text heavily depends on Mañjukīrti. ### [notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.8) 8. This text, Toh 944, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 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 101. 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 944 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 944, , for details. ### [notes.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.9) 9. This word is omitted in Mañjukīrti. ### [notes.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.10) 10. A tentative translation is as follows: “Homage to all buddhas whose teaching is unopposed. Oṁ O Amulet holder, O One with a Vajra, O Great Amulet hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā.” ### [notes.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes.11) 11. Instead of what we translate here as “to uphold” to capture the ambiguity of the original, Tatakaragupta, when discussing a similar dhāraṇī said to encapsulate The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (see The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines ,” Toh 576/932), is more explicit when he replaces the verb with kaṇṭhasthīkṛ (“to place it in one’s throat”), which is the Sanskrit idiom for “to learn by heart.” He also spells out the benefit as the “meritorious karmic fruit” (puṇyaphala) of memorizing the parent text. This sentence is then followed by a fascinating short discussion, which merits to be quoted in full: “Surely, this is an exaggeration! No, one should not say this. For countless thus-gone ones have empowered this dhāraṇī to serve as a method for gaining the equipment of merit for women, immature people, and simpletons, as well as for learned people whose minds are confused, just like the pole of a snake charmer\[, which is preprepared by the expert snake charmer to be effective even when he is no longer present,\] for removing poison; however, it is not a method for gaining the knowledge conveyed by The \[Perfection of Wisdom in\] One Hundred Thousand Lines. This should be understood to apply in other cases \[i.e., where the text is abbreviated into a dhāraṇī\] as well” (nanv atyuktir eveti. na caitad vaktavyam. yataḥ strībālamūrkhān paryākuli­tamatīn paṇḍitān praty api puṇya­saṃbhāra­sādhana­tvenāsaṃ­khyeya­tathāgatair adhiṣṭhi­teyaṃ dhāriṇī, yathā viṣahara­tvena gāruḍikaṃ stambhaḥ; na tu lakṣāprati­pāditajñāna­sādhana­tvena. evam anyatrāpi boddhavyaḥ). In his note to this dhāraṇī, he reiterates the point about “to uphold” meaning “to memorize” and promises as the reward the fruit of reciting the text (pāṭhaphala). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.protection.disease.maharaksagrahanadharani*bo~en-84000.notes) · Pramāṇa