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| footer = The dharani are the oldest known printed texts in the world, preserved in Buddhist pagodas. Left: Korea (early 8th-century, a copy at the Incheon Seoul airport), Right: Japan (764–770 CE). Language: Sanskrit.<ref name=mellby/>
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| image1 = Mugujeonggwang daedaranigyeong (replica, Great Dharani Sutra of Immaculate and Pure Light), 8th century woodblock print - Korean Culture Museum, Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea - DSC00801.JPG
| image1 = Mugujeonggwang daedaranigyeong (replica, Great Dharani Sutra of Immaculate and Pure Light), 8th century woodblock print - Korean Culture Museum, Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea - DSC00801.JPG
| image2 = Hyakumantō Darani Scrolls.jpg
| image2 = Hyakumantō Darani Scrolls.jpg

Revision as of 16:40, 3 November 2018

"Dharani" redirects here. For the Indian film director, see Dharani (director). For the film, see Dharani (film). For the Southeast Asian Buddhist goddess, see Phra Mae Thorani.
11th-century Buddhist Pancaraksa manuscript in the Pala script. It is a dharani genre text on spells, benefits and goddess rituals.
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A dharani (Devanagari: धारणी, IAST: dhāraṇī) is a Buddhist chant, mnemonic code, incantation, or recitation, usually a mantra consisting of Sanskrit or Pali phrases, believed to have innate beneficial energy or powers to generate merit for the Buddhist devotee even if it is neither understood by the listener nor by the reciter.[1] These chants were borrowed from and have roots in Vedic Sanskrit literature,[2] and many are written in Sanskrit scripts such as the Siddham.[3][4][5]

Dharani 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, and most Mahayana sutras – such as the Lotus Sutra and the Heart Sutra – include or conclude with dharani.[1] Some Buddhist texts, such as Pancaraksa found in the homes of many Buddhist tantra tradition followers, are entirely dedicated to dharani.[6] They are a part of their ritual prayers as well as considered to be an amulet and charm in themselves, whose recitation can allay plagues, diseases or other calamity.[1][6] In some Buddhist regions, they serve as texts upon which the Buddhist witness would swear to tell the truth.[6] The dharani-genre of literature became popular in Buddhism in the 1st-millennium CE,[6] with Chinese records suggesting their profusion in East Asia by the early centuries of the common era, and Japanese by around 8th-century. The demand for printed dharani among the Buddhist lay devotees may have led to the development of textual printing innovations, and "some of the oldest authenticated printed texts in the world are of dharani-genre", state Robert Sewell and other scholars.[7][8][9]

Dharani recitation for the purposes of healing and protection is referred to as Paritta in some Buddhist regions,[10] particularly in Theravada communities.[11] The dharani-genre ideas also inspired the Japanese Koshiki texts, and chanting practices called Daimoku,[12] Nenbutsu (Japan), Nianfo (China) or Yombul (Korea).[13][14][15]

Etymology

The word dhāraṇī derives from a Sanskrit root √dhṛ meaning "to hold or maintain".[1][16] This root is likely derived from the Vedic religion of ancient India where chants and melodious sounds were believed to have innate spiritual and healing powers even if the sound cannot be translated and has no meaning (as in a music). The same root gives dharma or dhamma.[1][17]

Description

The term dharani as used in the history of Mahayana and tantric Buddhism, and its interpretation has been problematic since the mid-19th-century, states Ronald Davidson. It was initially understood as "magical formula or phrase", but later studies such as by Lamotte and Berhard interpreted them to be "memory", while Davidson proposes that some dharani are "codes".[18] Eugène Burnouf, the 19th-century French Indologist and a scholar of Buddhism, dharanis are magical formulas that to Buddhist devotees are the most important parts of their books. There is very little prescriptive or practical difference between dharani and mantras except that dharani are much longer, states Burnouf.[19] Burnouf, states Davidson, was the first scholar to realise how important and widespread dharani had been in Buddhism sutras and Mahayana texts.[20] The Indologist Moriz Winternitz concurred in early 20th-century that dharanis constituted a "large and important" part of Mahayana Buddhism, and that they were "protective spells".[21]

Benefits of chanting a dharani

[For one reciting this Great Peacock Spell], there will be no fear of kings’ [capricious punishment], no fear of thieves or of fire, or of death by drowning. Nor will poison afflict his body, nor weapons, and he will live long and prosper, only excepting the results of prior karma. And he will awake happy from dreams. He will be content, not experience a catastrophe, lead a life lacking terror, his enemies destroyed, his opponents ruined, himself untouched, freed from fear of any poison, living long and prosperously, only excepting the results of prior karma.

— Buddha to monk Svati, in Mahamayuri 58.20–59.6
Translator: Ronald Davidson[22]

According to Winternitz, a dharani resembles the incantations found in the Yajurveda, but that a dharani may contain words or wisdom from a Buddhist Sutta.[21] Étienne Lamotte stated that a dharani included mantra, but was much more because they were a "memory aid" to memorize and chant Buddha's teachings. This practice was linked to concentration (samadhi) and believed to have magical virtues and a means to both spiritual and material karma-related merit making. To the lay Buddhist communities, states Davidson, the material benefits encouraged devotionalism and an addiction to Buddhist rituals and rites through dharanis.[23] According to Braarvig, the dharanis are "seemingly meaningless strings of syllables". While they may once have been "memory aids", the dharanis that have survived into the modern era do not match with any text. In later practice, the dharanis were "hardly employed as summaries of doctrine, but were employed as aids to concentration and magical protection benefits".[24]

According to Jan Nattier, Vedic mantras are more ancient than Buddhist dharani, but over time they both were forms of incantations that are quite similar.[25] In the early texts of Buddhism, proposes Nattier, "it would appear that the word dharani was first employed in reference to mnemonic devices used to retain (Skt. "hold") certain elements of Buddhist doctrine in one's memory". In Nattier's view, the term dharani is "peculiar to Buddhism".[25] A dhāraṇī can be a mnemonic, Ryuichi Abe and Jan Nattier, to encapsulate the meaning of a section or chapter of a sutra.[26] According to the Buddhism-related writer Red Pine, mantra and dharani were originally interchangeable, but at some point dhāraṇī came to be used for meaningful, intelligible phrases, and mantra for syllabic formulae which are not meant to be understood.[27]

The Indologist Frits Staal who known for his scholarship on mantras and chants in Indian religions, states the Dharani mantras reflect a continuity of the Vedic mantras.[2] He quotes Wayman to be similarly stressing the view that the Buddhist chants have a "profound debt to the Vedic religion".[2][28] The Yogacara scholars, states Staal, followed the same classification as one found in the Vedas – arthadharani, dharmadharani and mantradharani, along with express acknowledgment like the Vedas that some "dharani are meaningful and others are meaningless" yet all effective for ritual purposes.[2]

Dhāraṇīs and mantras

Chinese Buddhism's dharani iconography with Siddhaṃ script in Sanskrit, Later Tang, 927 CE

Dhāraṇīs are a form of amulet and believed in the various Buddhist traditions to deliver protection from malign influences and calamities.[6][29]

Early mentions of dharani in the European literature are from the records left by John of Plano Carpini (1245–7) and William of Rubruck (1254) where they wrote in their respective memoirs that Uighurs and Mongols chanted "Om man baccam", later identified with "Om mani padme hum". They also mention that these Asians write "short sorcery sentences on paper and hang them up".[18] Other than such scant remarks, little was known about the Dharani-genre of literature or its value in Buddhism till the mid-19th-century colonial era, when Brian Hodgson began buying Sanskrit and related manuscripts in Nepal, Tibet and India for a more thorough scholarship, often at his personal expense.[18] According to Hodgson, as quoted by Ronald Davidson, dharani were esoteric short prayers "derived from [Buddhist tantric] Upadesa" that are believed to be amulet to be constantly repeated or worn inside little lockets, something that leads to "a charmed life".[18]

Shingon Buddhism

The Japanese Buddhist monk Kūkai drew a distinction between dhāraṇī and mantra and used it as the basis of his theory of language. Kūkai claims that mantra is restricted to esoteric Buddhist practice whereas dhāraṇī is found in both esoteric and exoteric ritual.

Kūkai classified mantras as a special class of dhāraṇīs and argued that every syllable of a dhāraṇī was a manifestation of the true nature of reality – in Buddhist terms, that all sound is a manifestation of śūnyatā or emptiness of self-nature. Thus, rather than being devoid of meaning, Kūkai suggests that dhāraṇīs are in fact saturated with meaning – every syllable is symbolic on multiple levels.

Theravada tradition

The Theravada tradition is found in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asian Buddhist countries. The three historic ritual practices of the Theravada community include the Buddha puja (triratna rite), the Five Precepts ceremony (pancasil), and the protective chanting of Paritrana (paritta).[30] The Theravada Paritrana texts are equivalent to the Dharani texts in the Mahayana tradition, both providing protective charm through chanting of hymns. According to Buddhist studies scholars Sarah LeVine and David Gellner, Theravada lay devotees traditionally invite their monks into their homes for rites of "protection from evil" and the monk(s) chant the paritrana hymns.[30] These rituals are particularly common during rites-of-passage ceremonies such as baby naming, first rice-eating and others.[30] According to Buddhologist Karel Werner, some Mahayana and Vajrayana dharani texts influenced the paritta texts of Theravada tradition, such as the Gini (fire) Paritta, as the hymns are identical in parts and the Theravada text uses the same terms, for example, "dharani dharaniti".[31]

In northern Thailand, the Suat Boek Phranet (lit. Eye-Opening Sutta) is a Pali chant text used during rites such as the consecration of a Buddha image. The text, states Donald Swearer, includes a "unique dharani in praise of the Buddha" and his victory over the evil Mara.[32] Though the dharani appears at the end of the text and the associated chant in Thai Buddhist practice occurs at the close of the ceremony, they highlight their key role in "the buddhabhiseka ritual".[32]

Influence: oldest printed texts in the world

The Buddhist dharani invocations are the earliest mass printed texts that have survived. Till the mid-20th-century, the Hyakumantō Darani found as charms in wooden pagodas of Japan were broadly accepted as having been printed between 764 and 770 CE, and the oldest extant printed texts.[8] In 1966, similarly printed dharani were discovered in stone pagoda of Pulguksa temple in Gyeongju, Korea. These are dated to the first half of the 8th-century, and now considered as the oldest known printed texts in the world.[7][8][9] According to Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin, the Korean dharani scrolls were printed after the era of Empress Wu in China, and these date "no earlier than 704 CE, when the translation of the sutra was finished, and no later than 751, when the building of the temple and stupa was completed".[33] The printed Korean text consists of "Chinese characters transliterated from the [Indian] Sanskrit".[33] While the Korean dharani were likely printed in China, the evidence confirms that the Japanese dharani were printed in Japan from Buddhist chants that arrived through China.[33] The tradition of printing and distributing the Buddhist dharanis as well as transliterated Sanskrit sutras continued in East Asia over the centuries that followed. By the 9th-century, the era of mass printing and the sale of books had begun covering additional subjects such as "astrology, divination of dreams, alchemy, and geomancy".[34]

According to languages and ancient manuscripts scholar Ernst Wolff, "it was Buddhism, above all, that eminently stimulated and sustained printing activities". Its chants and ideas were in demand in East Asia, and this led to the development of wood-block based mass printing technology. The oldest known dharanis were mass produced by the 8th-century, and later in the 10th-century the canonical Tripitaka in addition to 84,000 copies of dharanis were mass printed.[35]

The 8th-century dharanis are the "oldest authenticated printed texts in the world", states Robert Sewell.[36] These were mass produced as a set consisting of miniature hollow wooden pagodas each containing a printed dharani prayer or charm in Sanskrit on thick paper strips.[36][37] The Japanese records[note 1] state a million dharanis were so produced and distributed through Buddhist temples by the order of Empress Shotoku – previously a Buddhist nun – after an attempted coup against her court.[36] According to Ross Bender, these events and Empress Shotoku's initiatives led to the founding of major new Buddhist temples, a "great acceleration" and the "active propagation of Buddhism" in Japan.[39] Empress Shotoku's million dharanis are among the oldest known printed literature in the world.[40][41]

The dharani are the oldest known printed texts in the world, preserved in Buddhist pagodas. Left: Korea (early 8th-century, a copy at the Incheon Seoul airport), Right: Japan (764–770 CE).[37]

Texts

While dharanis are found inside major texts of Buddhism, some texts are predominantly or exclusively of the dharani-genre. Some illustrations include,[42][43]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ These are the Shoku Nihongi records. According to the British Library Treasures collection archival notes, "The Hyakumantō darani or ‘One Million Pagoda Dharani’ are the oldest extant examples of printing in Japan and one of the earliest in the world. The eighth-century Japanese chronicle the Shoku Nihongi records that they were printed between 764 and 770 on the orders of Empress Shōtoku as an act of atonement and reconciliation following the suppression of the Emi Rebellion led by Fujiwara no Nakamaro in 764."[38]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Richard McBride (2004). Robert Buswell (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference. pp. 21, 180, 217–218, 253. ISBN 0-02-865718-7.
  2. ^ a b c d Frits Staal (1991). Harvey P. Alper (ed.). Understanding Mantras. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 59–66. ISBN 978-81-208-0746-4.
  3. ^ Helen J. Baroni (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8239-2240-6.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c d e K. R. van Kooij (1978). Religion in Nepal. BRILL Academic. pp. 25–27. ISBN 90-04-05827-3.
  7. ^ a b 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., Quote (p. 87): "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".
  8. ^ a b c Peter Francis Kornicki (1998). The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. BRILL Academic. pp. 114–116. ISBN 90-04-10195-0.
  9. ^ a b Masayoshi Sugimoto; David L. Swain (2016). Science and Culture in Traditional Japan. Tuttle. pp. 184 footnote 36. ISBN 978-1-4629-1813-3.
  10. ^ Damien Keown; Charles S. Prebish (2013). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Routledge. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-136-98588-1.
  11. ^ Donald K. Swearer (2004). Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton University Press. pp. 116–118. ISBN 0-691-11435-8.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ James Dobbins (2004). Robert Buswell (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference. pp. 137–139, 587–588. ISBN 0-02-865718-7.
  15. ^ James L. Ford (2006). Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. Oxford University Press. pp. 114–121. ISBN 978-0-19-972004-0.
  16. ^ Braarvig, Jens (1985), p.19
  17. ^ Brereton, Joel P. (2004). "Dhárman In The Rgveda". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 32 (5–6): 449–489. doi:10.1007/s10781-004-8631-8.
  18. ^ a b c d Davidson 2009, pp. 97–100.
  19. ^ Davidson 2009, p. 100.
  20. ^ Davidson 2009, pp. 100–101.
  21. ^ a b Davidson 2009, pp. 101–102.
  22. ^ Davidson, Ronald M. (2014). "Studies in dhāraṇī literature II: Pragmatics of dhāraṇīs". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 77 (01). Cambridge University Press: 28. doi:10.1017/s0041977x13000943.
  23. ^ Davidson 2009, pp. 103–105.
  24. ^ Davidson 2009, pp. 105–106.
  25. ^ a b Nattier 1992, pp. 201-202 note 9
  26. ^ Nattier 1992, pg. 158
  27. ^ Pine 2004, pg. 146
  28. ^ Alex Wayman (1990). Buddhist Insight: Essays. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 430, context: 413–430. ISBN 978-81-208-0675-7.
  29. ^ P. K. Mishra (1999). Studies in Hindu and Buddhist Art. Abhinav Publications. pp. 49–55. ISBN 978-81-7017-368-7.
  30. ^ a b c Sarah LeVine; David N Gellner (2009). Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal. Harvard University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-674-04012-0.
  31. ^ Karel Werner (2013). Love Divine: Studies in 'Bhakti and Devotional Mysticism. Routledge. pp. 82–83 note 7. ISBN 978-1-136-77461-4.
  32. ^ a b Donald K. Swearer (2004). Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton University Press. pp. 94–95, 156, 169–170. ISBN 0-691-11435-8.
  33. ^ a b c Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). Joseph Needham (ed.). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology Part 1: Paper and Printing. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149–151. ISBN 978-0-521-08690-5.
  34. ^ Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). Joseph Needham (ed.). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology Part 1: Paper and Printing. Cambridge University Press. pp. 151–153. ISBN 978-0-521-08690-5.
  35. ^ 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.
  36. ^ a b c 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. 87–88. ISBN 978-0-8247-2024-7.
  37. ^ a b Julie L. Mellby (2009), One Million Buddhist Incantations, Princeton University, Quote: "Completed around 770, these slips of paper—now held in collections around the world—represent some of the earliest printed texts. They are known as the Hyakumanto Dharani or one million pagoda prayers, and Princeton University library holds two. The text consists of four Sanskrit prayers of the Mukujoko-kyo, entitled Kompon, Jishinin, Sorin, and Rokudo from the Darani-kyo."
  38. ^ The Million Pagoda Charms, The British Library
  39. ^ Ross Bender (1979). "The Hachiman Cult and the Dokyo Incident". Monumenta Nipponica. 34 (2): 139–140. JSTOR 2384320.
  40. ^ 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."
  41. ^ Hyakumantō Darani, Library of Congress, Washinton DC, 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."
  42. ^ Davidson, Ronald M. (2014). "Studies in dhāraṇī literature II: Pragmatics of dhāraṇīs". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 77 (01). Cambridge University Press: 53. doi:10.1017/s0041977x13000943.
  43. ^ Elisabetta Chiodo (2000). The Mongolian Manuscripts on Birch Bark from Xarbuxyn Balgas in the Collection of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-05714-1.

Bibliography

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