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Dharani

This article is about the genre of Buddhist mantras. For the Theravadin dharani, see Paritta.
11th-century Buddhist Pancaraksa manuscript in Pāla script. It is a dharani genre text on spells, benefits and goddess rituals.
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Dharanis (IAST: dhāraṇī), also known as (Skt.) vidyās and paritas or (Pal.) parittas, are lengthier Buddhist mantras[1] functioning as mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, and almost exclusively written originally in Sanskrit[2] while Pali dharanis also exist. Believed to generate protection and the power to generate merit for the Buddhist practitioner, they constitute a major part of historic Buddhist literature.[3][4][5] Most dharanis are in Sanskrit written in scripts such as Siddhaṃ[6] as can be transliterated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sinhala, Thai and other regional scripts.[7][8][9] They are similar to and reflect a continuity of the Vedic chants and mantras.[10]

Dharanis are found in the ancient texts of all major traditions of Buddhism. They are a major part of the Pali canon preserved by the Theravada tradition. Mahayana sutras such as the Lotus Sutra and the Heart Sutra include or conclude with dharani.[3] Some Buddhist texts, such as Pancarakṣa found in the homes of many Buddhist tantra tradition followers, are entirely dedicated to dharani.[11] They are a part of the regular ritual prayers as well as considered to be an amulet and charm in themselves, whose recitation believed to allay bad luck, diseases or other calamity.[3][11][4] They were an essential part of the monastic training in Buddhism's history in East Asia.[12][13] In some Buddhist regions, they served as texts upon which the Buddhist witness would swear to tell the truth.[11]

The dharani-genre of literature became popular in East Asia in the first millennium CE,[11] with Chinese records suggesting their profusion by the early centuries of the common era. These migrated from China to Korea and Japan. The demand for printed dharani among the Buddhist lay devotees may have led to the development of textual printing innovations.[14] The dharani records of East Asia are the oldest known "authenticated printed texts in the world", state Robert Sewell and other scholars.[15][16][17] The early-eighth-century dharani texts discovered in the Bulguksa of Gyeongju, Korea are considered as the oldest known printed texts in the world.[18][19][20][note 1]

Dharani recitation for the purposes of healing and protection is referred to as Paritta in some Buddhist regions,[22] particularly in Theravada communities.[23] The dharani-genre ideas also inspired Buddhist chanting practices such as the Nianfo (Chinese: 念佛; Pinyin: niànfó; Rōmaji: nenbutsu; RR: yeombul; Vietnamese: niệm Phật), the Daimoku,[24] as well as the Koshiki texts in Japan.[25][26][27] They are a significant part of the historic Chinese dazangjing (scriptures of the great repository) and the Korean daejanggyeong – the East Asian compilations of the Buddhist canon between the 5th and 10th centuries.[28]

  1. ^ Gergely Hidas, with J. Silk, O. von Hinüber, V. Eltschinger (eds.), "Dhāraṇī Sūtras". Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Vol. I. Literature and Languages. Brill: Leiden, 2015. p.129-137.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brill was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Richard McBride (2004). Robert Buswell (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference. pp. 21, 180, 217–218, 253. ISBN 978-0-02-865718-9.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Winternitz1996p367 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Davidson 2009, pp. 101–102.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference mullersiddhamtrans was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Helen J. Baroni (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8239-2240-6.
  8. ^ Robert Gimello (2010). Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (ed.). Images in Asian Religions: Text and Contexts. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 229–231. ISBN 978-0-7748-5980-6.
  9. ^ Silvio A. Bedini (1994). The Trail of Time: Time Measurement with Incense in East Asia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 69–84. ISBN 978-0-521-37482-8.
  10. ^ Frits Staal (1991). Harvey P. Alper (ed.). Understanding Mantras. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 62–64. ISBN 978-81-208-0746-4., Quote: "[Wayman] stressed the continuity between Vedic and Buddhist mantras and has concluded his survey of Buddhist Tantric mantras by saying, it is... obvious from the present study that the later religious practices of India, such as the Buddhist Tantra, have a profound debt to the Vedic religion". [...] They [Buddhist Yogacara philosophers] distinguish [like Vedic ones], between artha-dharani, mantra-dharani, [...]
  11. ^ a b c d K. R. van Kooij (1978). Religion in Nepal. BRILL Academic. pp. 25–27. ISBN 978-90-04-05827-9.
  12. ^ Richard D McBride II (2005). "Dharani and Spells in Medieval Sinitic Buddhism". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 28 (1): 113–114., Quote: "Buddhist intellectuals and eminent monks conceptualized dharani and spells as integral components of mainstream Sinitic Buddhism. Zhoushu, “spell techniques,” was one of the most prevalent translations of dharani used by Buddhists in medieval China. Seminal Buddhist literature describes an ordinary monk as a student of spell techniques and the acquisition of dharani as a prominent quality of a bodhisattva. Dharani have a firmly established position in the Mahayana doctrine of the bodhisattva path. They were perceived to be part of an ordinary monk's religious cultivation and a by-product of meditation. In this respect they are closely associated with an advanced monk or bodhisattva's acquisition of the spiritual penetrations, supernormal powers and the ability to work miracles. [...] Dharani and spells were functional and fashionable in medieval Sinitic Buddhism and their role in Chinese religion has continued to the present. They were understood and used as powerful practices to promote the Buddhist teaching and to protect the personal and spiritual welfare of believers. Yet, the very success of Buddhist spells was probably due to the long-standing value of spells and talismans in Chinese religion."
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Abe1999159 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Peter Francis Kornicki (2018). Languages, Scripts, and Chinese Texts in East Asia. Oxford University Press. pp. 112–117. ISBN 978-0-19-879782-1.
  15. ^ Ernst Wolff (1978). Allen Kent; Harold Lancour; Jay E. Daily (eds.). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 24 - Printers and Printing. CRC Press. pp. 76–79, 85–87. ISBN 978-0-8247-2024-7. The earliest extant examples of textual printing in Japan represent a remarkable eighth-century enterprise as well as the oldest authenticated printed texts in the world. The texts are part of the Hyakmano darani, or "One Million Pagodas and Dharani", consisting of miniature pagodas, each containing one printed Buddhist charm or prayer called dharani in Sanskrit.
  16. ^ Peter Francis Kornicki (1998). "Empress Shōtoku as a Sponsor of Printing". The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. BRILL Academic. pp. 114–116. ISBN 978-90-04-10195-1. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w8h246.9. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  17. ^ Hyakumantō Darani, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Quote: "Hyakumantō Darani [The one million pagodas and Dharani prayers] is considered to be the oldest traceable publication in the world whose production date is clearly identified. In 764, the Empress Shōtoku (718–770) ordered the creation of one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a scroll printed with four Buddhist Dharani sutras.";
    One of the “One Million Pagodas” (Hyakumanto) and Invocation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Quote: "Each pagoda was painted white and contained a printed Buddhist text called a darani (Sanskrit: dharani), or invocation. The text displayed here came from the pagoda on known as the Jishin’in darani, the invocation is one of four from the sacred text Mukujōkōkyō (Sanskrit: Vimala Mirbhasa Sutra) found in the pagodas. These printed texts are among the oldest known in the world. They are likely to have been printed from bronze plates, but some scholars maintain that they were printed from woodblocks.";
    Ernst Wolff (1978). Allen Kent; Harold Lancour; Jay E. Daily (eds.). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 24 - Printers and Printing. CRC Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0-8247-2024-7.
  18. ^ Robert E. Buswell (2004). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference. p. 676. ISBN 978-0-02-865720-2., Quote: "The earliest examples of Buddhist printing involve a type of charm or spell called a dharanI. To date, the oldest printed material that has been discovered is the Korean Mugu chong-gwang tae-darani kyong [dharani]";
    Kornicki, Peter (2012). "The Hyakumanto Darani and the Origins of Printing in Eighth-Century Japan". International Journal of Asian Studies. 9 (1). Cambridge University Press: 43–70. doi:10.1017/s1479591411000180. S2CID 146242695.;
    Peter Kornicki; et al. (2016). "Empress Shōtoku as a Sponsor of Printing". In Hildegard Diemberger (ed.). Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change. Brill Academic. pp. 47–48.
  19. ^ Masayoshi Sugimoto; David L. Swain (2016). Science and Culture in Traditional Japan. Tuttle. pp. 184 footnote 36. ISBN 978-1-4629-1813-3.
  20. ^ Mark Edward Lewis (2009). China's Cosmopolitan Empire. Harvard University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-674-03306-1., Quote: "The earliest surviving printed texts are eighth-century samples of Buddhist charms preserved in Korea and Japan. The oldest is a scroll discovered in 1966 in a stone stupa in the Pulguk-sa temple in Kyongju, Korea. [...] Another specimen of the same scroll printed between 764 and 770 has been preserved in Japan."
  21. ^ C. B. Walker; John Chadwick (1990). Reading the Past: Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet. University of California Press. pp. 345–347. ISBN 978-0-520-07431-6.
  22. ^ Damien Keown; Charles S. Prebish (2013). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Routledge. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-136-98588-1.
  23. ^ Donald K. Swearer (2004). Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton University Press. pp. 116–118. ISBN 978-0-691-11435-4.
  24. ^ Rita M. Gross; Terry C. Muck (2003). Christians Talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists Talk About Christian Prayer. A&C Black. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-0-8264-1439-7.
  25. ^ Allan Andrews (1987), Pure Land Buddhist Hermeneutics: Hōnen's Interpretation of Nembutsu, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 7–25
  26. ^ James Dobbins (2004). Robert Buswell (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference. pp. 137–139, 587–588. ISBN 978-0-02-865718-9.
  27. ^ James L. Ford (2006). Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. Oxford University Press. pp. 114–121. ISBN 978-0-19-972004-0.
  28. ^ Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. pp. 225–226. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.


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