འཕགས་པ་ད་བཞན་གཤགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱ་གཙག་ཏར་ནས་བྱང་བ་གདགས་དཀར་པ་ཅན་ཞས་བྱ་བ་གཞན་གྱས་མ་ཐབ་མ་ཕྱར་ཟླག་པའ་རག་སྔགས་ཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མ་ཆན་མའ intro.2

intro.2

The Noble Invincible Great Queen of Spells for Averting Called “Sitātapatrā Born from the Uṣṇīṣa of All Tathāgatas” (Toh 590) is one of four texts preserved in the Degé Kangyur (Toh 590–93) dedicated to the female deity Sitātapatrā (gdugs dkar po can), the White Umbrella Goddess. Though these four texts differ somewhat in length and arrangement, they all share the same core material and thus represent four unique variations of a single work. At the heart of each of these texts is a series of spell formulas that can be recited to avert a wide array of threats to health, well-being, and prosperity. The spell of Sitātapatrā has enjoyed sustained popularity as a source of security and protection in numerous Buddhist communities, as evidenced by its long and complex textual history and the numerous languages into which it has been translated. The four texts translated into Tibetan and preserved in Kangyur reflect distinct stages of the spell’s evolution, stages that mirror its development in the broader Buddhist community. Toh 590 is the longest of the four canonical translations and appears to represent a later stage in the spell’s evolution in the Indic Buddhist tradition. The popularity of this version of the spell is particularly evident in the substantial number of extant Sanskrit manuscripts that reflect this stage of its development.