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.9

intro.9

The circulation of texts on Sitātapatrā can be traced back to at least the eighth century, which is the proposed date of the earliest textual witnesses available.⁶ Given that the earliest versions of the spell were discovered in Central Asia, it is clear the spell was popular well before this time.⁷ Sitātapatrā continues to be relevant in the contemporary Vajrayāna traditions of Buddhism, especially in Nepal and Tibet, as demonstrated by the numerous copies of her spell that circulate. In Tibet, the Sitātapatrā spell was widely popular from an early period, as indicated by the large number of Sitātapatrā texts discovered at Dunhuang.⁸ A version of the Sitātapatrā spell is also said to have been specifically translated for Tri Songdetsen (khri srong lde’u btsan, r. 756–800), as we find it included among the “ten royal sūtras” (rgyal po’i mdo bcu) translated for the king at Padmasambhava’s recommendation.⁹ Numerous practice manuals and ritual texts for Sitātapatrā have been composed in Tibet into recent times, many of which draw explicitly from the canonical sources.¹⁰