Pratītyasamutpāda gāthā

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Stone statue of Buddha from Sultanganj in Bihar with ye dharma hetu inscribed on the lotus base (magnify to see), 500-700 AD

The Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā, also referred to as the Pratītyasamutpāda-dhāraṇī (dependent origination incantation) or ye dharmā hetu, is a verse (gāthā) and a dhāraṇī widely used by Buddhists in ancient times which was held to have the function of a mantra or sacred spell.[1] It was often found carved on chaityas, stupas, images, or placed within chaityas.[2][3][4]

The Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā is used in Sanskrit as well as Pali. It is found in Mahavagga section of Vinaya Pitaka of the Pali Canon. The mantra has been widely used. It has been used at Sarnath, Tirhut, Kanari Copperplate, Tagoung, Sherghatti, near Gaya, Allahabad column, Sanchi etc.

According to Buddhist scriptural sources, these words were used by the Arahat Assaji (Skt: Aśvajit) when asked about the teaching of the Buddha. On the spot, Sariputta (Skt: Śāriputra) attained the stage of stream entry and later shared the verses with his friend Moggallāna (Skt: Maudgalyayana) who also attained stream entry. They then went to the Buddha, along with 500 of their disciples, and asked to become his disciples.[5]

Original text[edit]

Votive plaque with figure of the Buddha at the Cleveland Museum of Art, originating from Bodhgaya, and featuring the pratītyasamutpāda gāthā at the bottom: magnify to see the text

Sanskrit[edit]

Image of a Buddhist engraving discovered by Stein at the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China. The engraving is a series of dharanis and mantras, beginning with the Pure Land Rebirth Dharani, but also including the Dependent Origination Gatha.[1]
The Dependent Origination Dhāraṇī in Ranjana and Tibetan scripts

The gāthā / dhāraṇī in Sanskrit is as follows:[1]

ये धर्मा हेतु-प्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागतो ह्यवदत्
तेषां च यो निरोध एवंवादी महाश्रमणः

IAST transliteration:

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hyavadat.
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ

Pali[edit]

In Pali, the text reads:

‘යේ ධම්මා හේතුප්පභවා

තේසං හේතු තථාගතෝ ආහ
තේසංච යෝ නිරෝධෝ

ඒවං වාදි මහා සමණෝ”

Transliteration into Latin script:

ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesaṁ hetuṁ tathāgato āha,
tesaṃ ca yo nirodho evaṁvādī mahāsamaṇo.

English[edit]

Daniel Boucher translates as follows:[6]

Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause, and that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant (sramana) has taught.

The Pāḷi commentaries take the first line as pointing to suffering (dukkha), the second to its cause (samudaya) and the third to its cessation (nirodha).

Tibetan[edit]

In Tibetan:

ཆོས་གང་རྒྱུ་བྱུང་དེ་དག་གི། །རྒྱུ་དང་དེ་འགོག་གང་ཡིན་པའང་། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་བཀའ་སྩལ་ཏེ། །དགེ་སློང་ཆེན་པོས་དེ་སྐད་གསུངས།།

or

ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྒྱུ་ལས་བྱུང་། །དེ་རྒྱུ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་གསུངས། །རྒྱུ་ལ་འགོག་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ། །དགེ་སྦྱོང་ཆེན་པོས་འདི་སྐད་གསུངས།

The Wylie transliteration is:

chos gang rgyu byung de dag gi/ rgyu dang de 'gog gang yin pa'ng de bzhin gshegs pas bka' stsal te/ dge slong chen po de skad gsungs // chos rnams thams cad rgyu las byung/ de rgyu de bzhin gshegs pas gsungs/

rgyu la 'gog pa gang yin pa/ dge sbyong chen pos 'di skad gsungs //

Usage[edit]

Copper plate in the Schøyen Collection[edit]

A copper place from the Gandhara region (probably Bamiyan), dated to about 5th century AD has a variation of the mantra. It appears to have some mistakes, for example it uses taṭhāgata instead of tathāgata. It is now in the Schøyen Collection.[7]

On Buddha images[edit]

The mantra was often also carved below the images of the Buddha. A Buddhist screen (parikara) and accompanying Buddha image is now preserved at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. While the objects were found in South India, the mantra is given in north Indian 8-9th century script, perhaps originating from the Pala region.[8]

Malaysia inscriptions[edit]

The Bukit Meriam Sanskrit inscription from Kedah includes two additional lines. The inscription is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Other similar inscriptions were found in the Kedah region.[9]

ये धर्मा हेतु-प्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागत उवाच
तेषां च यो निरोध एवं वादी महाश्रमणः
अज्ञानाच्चीयते कर्म जन्मनः कर्म कारणम्
ज्ञानान्नचीयते कर्म कर्माभावान्न जायते

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgata uvāca,
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādi mahāśramaṇaḥ.
ajñānāc cīyate karma; janmanaḥ karma kāraṇam,
jñānān na cīyate karma; karmābhāvān na jāyate.

Here several minor orthographic peculiarities (i.e. misspellings) have been standardized. The lines can be translated as:

Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause, and that which is the cessation of them; thus the great renunciant has taught.

Through ignorance, karma is accumulated; karma is the cause of birth.

Through knowledge, karma is not accumulated; through absence of karma, one is not (re)born.

Inscriptions in Pallava scripts found in Thailand[edit]

Ye dharma hetu is also found in Thailand including the stupa peak found in 1927 from Nakhon Pathom [10] along with a wall of Phra Pathom Chedi and a shrine in Phra Pathom chedi found in 1963,[11][12] a brick found in 1963 from Chorakhesamphan township, U Thong district of Suphanburi,[13] stone inscriptions found in 1964 [14][15] and the stone inscription found in 1980 from Srithep Archeological site.[16] All of them have been inscribed in Pallava scripts of Pali language dated 12th Buddhist century (the 7th Century in common era). Furthermore, there are Sanskrit version of ye dharma hetu inscribed in Pallava scripts in clay amulets found in 1989 from an archaeological site in Yarang district of Pattani dated to the 7th century CE.[17][18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Gergely Hidas (2014). Two dhāranī prints in the Stein Collection at the British Museum. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 77, pp 105-117 doi:10.1017/ S0041977X13001341
  2. ^ "A New Document of Indian Painting Pratapaditya Pal". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (3/4): 103–111. Oct 1965. JSTOR 25202861.
  3. ^ On the miniature chaityas, Lieut.-Col. Sykes, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 16, By Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,, University Press, 1856
  4. ^ Boucher, Daniel. 1991. “The Pratītyasamutpādagāthā and its role in the medieval cult of the relics”, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14: 1–27.
  5. ^ Text and Translation of their story: http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Mahakhandhako/41-Sariputta-Moggallana.htm
  6. ^ Boucher, Daniel. 1991. “The Pratītyasamutpādagāthā and its role in the medieval cult of the relics”, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14: 1–27.
  7. ^ An Unusual ye dharmā Formula, in TRACES OF GANDHĀRAN BUDDHISM An Exhibition of Ancient Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, TRACES OF GANDHĀRAN BUDDHISM An Exhibition of Ancient Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Hermes Publishing, 2010, p. 86
  8. ^ Jan Fontein, A Buddhist Altarpiece from South India, MFA Bulletin, Vol. 78 (1980), pp. 4-21, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  9. ^ The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk-Road (100 Bc-1300 Ad), by Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h, BRILL, 2002. p. 220
  10. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ ๒ บนสถูปศิลา".
  11. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ ๑ (ระเบียงด้านขวาองค์พระปฐมเจดีย์)".
  12. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ ๓ (หน้าศาลเจ้าฯ)".
  13. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ บนแผ่นอิฐ (สุพรรณบุรี)".
  14. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ ๔ (พระองค์ภาณุฯ ๑)".
  15. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ ๕ (พระองค์ภาณุฯ ๒)".
  16. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ เมืองศรีเทพ".
  17. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ บนพระสถูปพิมพ์ดินดิบเมืองยะรัง (แบบมีรูปสถูปองค์เดียว) แบบที่ ๑".
  18. ^ "ฐานข้อมูลจารึกในประเทศไทย | จารึกเยธมฺมาฯ บนพระสถูปพิมพ์ดินดิบเมืองยะรัง (แบบมีรูปสถูปองค์เดียว) แบบที่ ๒".

External links[edit]

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