འཕགས་མ་ད་བཞན་གཤགས་པའ་གཙག་ཏར་ནས་བྱང་བའ་གདགས་དཀར་པ་ཅན་གཞན་གྱས་མ་ཐབ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro.5

intro.5

Sitātapatrā is at once the name of a spell and the deity it invokes. In the title of Toh 590 and throughout all four texts, Sitātapatrā is called a vidyā, a term that refers to both a class of deities and a type of magical formula, thus indicating their inseparability. To recite Sitātapatrā’s spell—or to wear it, inscribe it on a talisman, insert it into a caitya, and so forth—is to summon the powerful deity to intercede on one’s behalf. The primary name of the spell in Sanskrit is sarva­tathāgatoṣṇīṣa­sitātapatrā,² which is somewhat ambiguous given that the precise relationship between the compound sarva­tathāgatoṣṇīṣa (“uṣṇīṣa[s] of all tathāgatas”) and sitātapatrā can be read in a number of plausible ways. The Tibetan translators settled on a specific interpretation by inserting the phrase nas byung ba (“born from”) in all versions of the title so that it reads, in Tibetan translation, Sitātapatrā born from the uṣṇīṣa of all tathāgatas.³ As this aligns well with the setting of the sūtra, in which the spell emerges from Śākyamuni’s uṣṇīṣa, we have followed this interpretation here.