A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t5.53

v2.c19.s6.t5.53

³ Thus *Waddell* in OZ I, 155 ff. The expression Dhāraṇī first occurs in the Lalita-Vistara and Saddarma-Puṇḍarīka. *Waddell* (Asiatic Quart. Review, N.S., I, 1913, p. 293 ff.) compares the Dhāraṇīs with the magic formulas of the Nestorian Christians, and is of opinion that these formulas are derived from Chaldean ones, and that even the Buddhist magic formulas came to India from Chaldea and Iran. This is very unlikely, when we take the universality of protecting magic formulas into consideration; we need only compare, for instance, ERE III, 392-472, and VIII, 245-321. *J. W. Hauer* (Die Dhāraṇī, etc. 1927) has pointed out the similarity between the Dhāraṇīs and the Mithras liturgy, but he is right in not assuming anything beyond a parallel development.