Folio from a Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra Manuscript, ca 14th Century CE
The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra ("The Basket's Display", Full Sanskrit: Āryakāraṇḍavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra, Tibetan: ['phags pa] za ma tog bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo; Chinese: 佛說大乘莊嚴寶王經; pinyin: Fó shuō dàchéng zhuāngyán bǎo wáng jīng) is a Mantrayānasūtra which extols the virtues and powers of Avalokiteśvara, who is presented here as a primordial cosmic overlord (a kind of adibuddha figure) and as the source of numerous Indian deities.[1][2][3]
The Kāraṇḍavyūha was compiled at the end of the 4th century or beginning of the 5th century CE.[4] It exists in Chinese translation (atTaishō Tripiṭaka no. 1050) and in Tibetan (Tohoku no. 116). This sutra is particularly notable for introducing the mantraOm mani padme hum and also teaching the important Cundi dharani.
Overview
[edit]Shristhikantha Lokeśvara, 18th century painting in Nepal.Sahasrabhuja Lokeśvara on the facade of the Janabahā temple, Keltole, Kathmandu.
Alexander Studholme writes that the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra presents the great bodhisattvaAvalokiteśvara (Lokeśvara) as a kind of supreme lord of the cosmos and as the progenitor of various heavenly bodies and divinities (such as the Sun and Moon, the deities Shiva and Vishnu, etc.).[2]
According to the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra, many Indic deities were born from Avalokiteśvara bodhisattva's body, such as:[5]
Surya (the Sun) and Chandra (Moon) are said to be born from Avalokiteśvara's eyes,
Avalokiteśvara himself is linked in the versified version of the sutra to the first Buddha, the Adi-Buddha, who is 'svayambhu' (self-existent, not born from anything or anyone). Studholme comments:
Avalokitesvara himself, the verse sutra adds, is an emanation of the Adibuddha, or 'primordial Buddha', a term that is explicitly said to be synonymous with Svayambhu and Adinatha, 'primordial lord'.[6]
The sutra introduces the Buddhist mantra, Om Mani padme Hum, which it states can lead to liberation (moksha) and eventual Buddhahood.[7] In the sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha states, "This is the most beneficial mantra. Even I made this aspiration to all the million Buddhas and subsequently received this teaching from Buddha Amitabha."[8]
Alexander Studholme sees this famous mantra as being a declarative aspiration, possibly meaning 'I in the jewel-lotus',[9] with the jewel-lotus being a reference to birth in the lotus made of jewels in the Buddhist Eternal Paradise or Pure land 'Sukhavati' of Buddha Amitabha. The mantra is the very heart of Avalokiteśvara (the supreme Buddha of Compassion) and can usher in Awakening. A. Studholme writes:
Om Manipadme Hum, then, is both the paramahrdaya, or 'innermost heart', of Avalokiteśvara ... It is also ... a mahavidya, a mantra capable of bringing about the 'great knowledge' of enlightenment itself ...[10]
The Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra also sees the mantra as the pith or condensed expression of all "eighty four thousand Dharmas". Because of this it is called "the grain of rice of the Mahayana", and reciting it is equivalent to reciting numerous sutras.[11]
After presenting the Mani mantra, the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra also presents the dhāraṇīofCundī, which occurs towards the end of the sūtra.[12] This occurs as Seventy million Buddhas appear and recite Cundī Dhāraṇī which is: namaḥ saptānāṃ samyaksaṃbuddha koṭīnāṃ tadyathā, oṃ cale cule cunde svāhā.[13] This event causes『a pore in Avalokitesvara’s body to open and reveal in brilliant illumination a vast multitude of world systems (T. 1050: 20.63a)』according to Gimello.[14]
According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, the text of Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra arrived in a casket from the sky unto the roof of the palace of the 28th king of Tibet, Lha Thothori Nyantsen who died in the fifth century C.E., in southern Tibet. This coincides with one version of dating of the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, somewhere in the 4th or perhaps early 5th century, however it seems more likely that the sutra has originated in Kashmir, due to closeness to characteristics to Kasmiri tantric traditions of the time and to Avataṁsakasūtra earlier associated with the Central Asian regions.[15]
The Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra was also an influential text on Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, which makes use of both the Mani mantra and the Cundi dharani.
Tibetan. The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra was first translated into Tibetan as the Za ma tog bkod pa in the 8th century CE by Jinamitra, Yeshe De (orJnanasutra) and others.[16]
Chinese. The text was translated by T'ien-hsi-tsai into Chinese in 983 CE.[17]
French. The Sutra has been translated from the Sanskrit into French by Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852) : Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852) et les études indo-iranologiques, actes de la Journée d'étude d'Urville (28 mai 2022) suivis des Lalitavistara (chap. 1-2) et Kāraṇḍavyūha traduits par E. Burnouf, édités par Guillaume Ducoeur, Université de Strasbourg, 2022.
English. The Sutra has been translated from the Tibetan into English by Peter Alan Roberts with the help of Tulku Yeshi , in 2013.[18]
^Gimello, Robert (2004). ″Icon and Incantation: The Goddess Zhunti and the Role of Images in the Occult Buddhism of China." In Images in Asian Religions: Texts and Contexts ed. Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara: pp. 71-85.
^Studholme, Alexander: The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum, Albany, NY 2002, pp. 13-14.
^According to the sTog palace bka' 'gyur, the relevant colophon reading is: phags pa za ma tog bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo rdzogs so/ /rgya gar gyi mkhan po dzi na mi tra dang / dA na shI la dang / zhu chen gyi lo tsha ba ban d+he ye shes sdes bsgyur cing zhus te gtan la phab pa. See TBRC Digital Library: [1]. Retrieved 11 May 2022..
^Yu Chun-fang, Ambiguity of Avalokites'vara and Scriptural Sources for the Cult of Kuan-yin in China, is available online: [2]; also see C.N. Tay, "Kuan-Yin: The Cult of Half Asia," History of Religions, vol. 16, no. 2 (Nov., 1976), pp. 147-177.Retrieved 11 May 2022..
