Indian Antiquary Vol 43

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 41

MARCH, 1914.]
DHARANI OR INDIAN BUDDHIST SPELLS
37
“DHARANI”, OR INDIAN BUDDHIST PROTECTIVE SPELLS.
Translated from the Tibetan.
By L. A. WADDELL, C.B., L.L. D. The cult of protective spells, in the form of magical texts, has been shown by me elsewhere to be widely prevalent throughout Buddhism in all its sects, and to have played an important practical part in that religion from its commencement. Such texts under the name of Parittà or Dharani are in universal use by all sections of Buddhists - Southern ” as well as * Northern,"—and I there adduced evidence, almost unimpeachable, to show that some of these spells were used by Buddha himself
I also described the early widespread use of these spells amongst the amulet-loving people, not only of India but of the adjoining lands, that embraced Buddhism. It is also attested by the fact that the great bulk of the ancient Sanskritic manuscripts recovered from Central Asia by Sir Aurel Stein and others consist mainly of fragments of these protective texts, the originals of several of which are as yet unknown.
The interest and historical importance of these spells is not merely Buddhistic. Most of the charms and their associated rituals (sadhana) exhibit elements which, like those of the Atharvavêdo, are manifestly pre-Buddhist and even pre-Vedic, and afford some insight into the religion of pre-Aryan India. Especially interesting in this regard are the vestiges thus preserved of the animal-gods; e.g., the Garuda, dating manifestly to the earliest nomadic and pre-historic 'hunting'-stage of primitive society, and the references to the early anthropomorphie mother-fiends, (Râkşini), also pre-Vedic, and dating to the matriarchal and more settled stage of early civilization ; as well as the light that is shed upon the evolution of many of the Brahmanical gods of the Vedic and later periods. Thus several of the gods of the Hindu Pantheon are disclosed by these contemporary texts in early or transitional forms, and in the process of being clothed by the hands of the Brahmans with the functions and attributes of popular aboriginal gods and genii, in regard to which prototypes Brahmanical literature is more or less silent.
As little of this Dharani Literature has hitherto been published for Western readers, and a great mass of it exists in Tibetan texts translated with remarkable fidelity from the Sanskrit, it has been suggested to me that translations of some of these Tibetan versions into English would be acceptable to students of Oriental religion and mythology. I accordingly offer here an instalment of these texts and their translations.
The Tibetan material now available in Europe for this purpose is immense. The British collections in the national libraries are especially full, as they have been greatly increased by the large accessions collected by me during the Lhasa Expedition of 1904,3 which included several sets of the “Dharani Pilaka": as well as the series contained in three sets of the great Mahayana Canon (Ka-gyur), in the Encyclopedic Commentaries (Tan-gyur), and in numerous separate texts, mostly in duplicate or triplicate.
1 The “ Dharani" Cult in Buddhism, its Origin, Deified literature and Images: Ostasiatischen Zeitschrift. 1912, 155-195.
1 Of the PAli Parittà several have been translated by Gogerly." Collected Writings” edited by A. S. Bishop, Colombo, 1908. Of Dharani a few have been translated or summarised from the Sanskrit by R. L. Mitra ("Nepalese Buddhist Literature" 1882), by Max Müller (Uşnişa-vijaya D); by R. Hoernle
Maha-mayari 'in Bower MS."). From the Chinese, a few by S. Beal (Catena); by H. Kern (Sacred Books of the East. XXI); and a list of others contained in the Chinese Tripitak is given by B. Nanjio (Catalogue). Of the Tibetan collections, the titles of several are given by Csoma Körosi (" Analysis in Asiatic Researches XX) and more fully by J. J. Schinist (Inlex, St. Petersburg 1848), and for part of those in the Tan-gyur by F. W. Thomas (Sadhanas in "Museon," Louvain, 1903) and Dr. P. Cordier (in his Catalogue of the Tan-gyur Collection, Paris 1909). From the Uigur Dr. F. W. K, Müller has translated a few (Uigurica, II Berlin 1911.)
3 “Tibetan MSS. collected in the Lhasa Mission," Asiatic Quarterly Review 1912, 80-113. The collection was dispersed between the libraries of the India Office, British Museum, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
4 Hiuen Tsiang's Records (Beal) II. 165, Watters, do, II, 160; Kern's Manual Indian Buddhism 46,