Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections

Description

Open Access This sourcebook explores the most extensive tradition of Buddhist dhāraṇī literature and provides access to the earliest available materials for the first time: a unique palm-leaf bundle from the 12th–13th centuries and a paper manuscript of 1719 CE. The Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections have been present in South Asia, and especially in Nepal, for more than eight hundred years and served to supply protection, merit and auspiciousness for those who commissioned their compilation. For modern scholarship, these diverse compendiums are valuable sources of incantations and related texts, many of which survive in Sanskrit only in such manuscripts. Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 An Edition of Cambridge Ms. Add. 1680.8 3 An Edition of Cambridge Ms. Add. 1326 Appendices A.1 Gilgit spell texts (ca. 6th–7th c.) A.2 Lhan Kar Ma catalogue spells and related texts (ca. 800 CE) A.3 Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata, Ms. B 5 A.4 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 201 A.5 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 420 A.6 Private collection Ms., Kathmandu = NGMPP E 1774–3 A.7 National Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. NAK 5/31 = NGMPP B 107–14 A.8 Unspecified collection Ms. and Asha Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. 2507 A.9 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms. 1449 – Ms. Hodgson 6 A.10 Asha Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. No. 2566 A.11 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Ms. No. 62 A.12 Royal Asiatic Society, London, Hodgson Ms. 55 A.13 Private collection Ms., Kathmandu = NGMPP E 614–3 A.14 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 419 A.15 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 418 A.16 Toyo Bunko, Tokyo, Ms. No. 13 A.17 National Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. NAK 3/589 = NGMPP A 131–9, A 861/13 A.18 National Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. NAK 3/641 = NGMPP A 131–10 References Index