Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja (Devi)

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Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja

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Sutras (Sanskrit)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Critically edited edition of the Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja by Sushama Devi. Includes texts in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese.

The Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja -which is more commonly known as Bhadracari in Sanskrit or Braṅ-spyod in Tibetan, whereas Winternitz, Hist. of Indian Lit., II. 326, calls it Bhadracarī-praṅidhāna-gāthāḥ -is a long prayer in melodious dodhaka stanzas which may safely be said to rank among the most beautiful products of Buddhist literature and among the most characteristic expressions of Buddhist piety. It has since the 4th century A.D. been used for purposes of worship in all countries of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It belongs to a trio of texts, the other two being the Mañjuśrī-jñanasattvasya paramārthanāma-saṅgītiḥ and the Ārya-prajñāpāramitā-sañcaya-gāthā. In Sanskrit manuscripts as well as in the Chinese translations - it was translated into this language several times in the 4th and 8th century and into Tibetan in the 9th century - this text is found at the end of the Gaṇḍavyuha, but it occurs also as an independent text. The text may be divided into four parts. a prose preamble, the main body of the work (stanza 1-42) containing pious effusions, adorations. prayers, confessions of sin, enumerations of the virtues of the Jinas, expressions of humility and obedience etc., the introduction of Samantabhadra as the object of devotion, and the phalaśruti i.e. the good derived by reciting, preaching or hearing the text. In this volume Mrs. Sushama Devi has edited the Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese texts. The manuscripts used are a Peking xylograph, giving the Sanskrit text - which is written in Buddhist Gāthā (so-called Hybrid) Sanskrit - in Lantsha and Tibetan characters together with the corresponding Tibetan translation (collection Raghu Vira); a photographic reprint in Siddham characters followed by three Chinese translations, the whole text of this source being photographically reproduced in the present edition. The Tibetan text as presented by Mrs. Sushama Devi is based on four different xylographed editions. The edition has been prepared with much care and the various texts are conveniently arranged. In order to ist those Sanskritists who are not familiar with Buddhist Gāthā a chāyā or interpretation in normal classical Sanskrit has been added (p. 15 ff.). There is also a very useful summary of the contents (p. 22 ff.) and a Sanskrit-Tibetan index (p. 158 ff.). The young authoress deserves our gratitude for her appreciable piece of work. (Source: Review by J. Gonda, Central Asiatic Journal Vol. 4, no. 4 (1959): 313-314)

Citation

Devi, Sushama, ed. Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja. Śata-Piṭaka Series 4. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1958.

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Recension of

Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja [आर्यभद्रचर्याप्रणिधानराज]. 'phags pa bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam gyi rgyal po [འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།]. [The Prayer of Good Action (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 1095 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1095&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཞུགས།

The King of Aspiration Prayers: Samantabhadra’s “Aspiration to Good Actions” (Zangchö Mönlam) from the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Many translations of this text exist as it is regularly chanted around the world in many different traditions. For an example, see Lotsawa House.

Bhadracarīpranidhāna. (T. Bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam; C. Puxian pusa xingyuan zan; J. Fugen bosatsu gyōgansan; K. Pohyǒn posal haengwǒn ch'an 普賢菩薩行願讚). In Sanskrit, "Vows of Good Conduct," the last section of the Gaṇḍavyūha in the Avataṃsakasūtra and one of the most beloved texts in all of Mahāyāna Buddhism; also known as the Samantabhadracarīpraṇidhānarāja. The Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna focuses on the ten great vows (praṇidhāna) taken by Samantabhadra to realize and gain access to the dharmadhātu, which thereby enable him to benefit sentient beings. The ten vows are: (1) to pay homage to all the buddhas, (2) to praise the tathāgatas, (3) to make unlimited offerings, (4) to repent from one's transgressions in order to remove karmic hindrances (cf. karmāvaraṇa), (5) to take delight in others' merit, (6) to request the buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma (dharmacakrapravartana), (7) to request the buddhas to continue living in the world, (8) always to follow the teachings of the Buddha, (9) always to comply with the needs of sentient beings, and (10) to transfer all merit to sentient beings for their spiritual edification. The text ends with a stanza wishing that sentient beings still immersed in evil be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitābha. The text was translated into Chinese in 754 by Amoghavajra (705–774). Other Chinese recensions appear in the Wenshushili fayuan jing ("Scripture on the Vows made by Mañjuśrī"), translated in 420 by Buddhabhadra (359–429), which corresponds to the verse section from Ru busiyi jietuo jingjie Puxian xingyuan pin, the last roll of the forty-roll recension of the Huayan jing translated by Prajña in 798. (There is no corresponding version in either the sixty- or the eighty-roll translations of the

Huajan jing.) The verses are also called the "Précis of the Huayan jing (Lüe Huayan jing), because they are believed to constitute the core teachings of the Avataṃsakasūtra. In the main Chinese recension by Amoghavajra, the text consists of sixty-two stanzas, each consisting of quatrains with lines seven Sinographs in length, thus giving a total number of 1,736 Sinographs. In addition to the sixty-two core stanzas, Amoghavajra's version adds ten more stanzas of the Bada pusa zan ("Eulogy to the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") from the Badapusa mantuluo jing ("Scripture of the Maṇḍalas of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") . . . Buddhabhadra's version consists of forty-four stanzas with 880 Sinographs, each stanza consisting of a quatrain with lines five Sinographs in length. Prajña's version contains fifty-two stanzas with each quatrain consisting of lines seven Sinographs in length. There are five commentaries on the text attributed to eminent Indian exegetes, including Nāgārjuna, Dignāga, and Vasubandhu, which are extant only in Tibetan translation. In the Tibetan tradition, the prayer is called the "king of prayers" (smon lam gyi rgyal po). It is incorporated into many liturgies; the opening verses of the prayer are commonly incorporated into a Tibetan's daily recitation. (Source: "Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 106. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

1 Scholarship on

Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja [आर्यभद्रचर्याप्रणिधानराज]. 'phags pa bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam gyi rgyal po [འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།]. [The Prayer of Good Action (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 1095 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1095&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཞུགས།

The King of Aspiration Prayers: Samantabhadra’s “Aspiration to Good Actions” (Zangchö Mönlam) from the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Many translations of this text exist as it is regularly chanted around the world in many different traditions. For an example, see Lotsawa House.

Bhadracarīpranidhāna. (T. Bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam; C. Puxian pusa xingyuan zan; J. Fugen bosatsu gyōgansan; K. Pohyǒn posal haengwǒn ch'an 普賢菩薩行願讚). In Sanskrit, "Vows of Good Conduct," the last section of the Gaṇḍavyūha in the Avataṃsakasūtra and one of the most beloved texts in all of Mahāyāna Buddhism; also known as the Samantabhadracarīpraṇidhānarāja. The Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna focuses on the ten great vows (praṇidhāna) taken by Samantabhadra to realize and gain access to the dharmadhātu, which thereby enable him to benefit sentient beings. The ten vows are: (1) to pay homage to all the buddhas, (2) to praise the tathāgatas, (3) to make unlimited offerings, (4) to repent from one's transgressions in order to remove karmic hindrances (cf. karmāvaraṇa), (5) to take delight in others' merit, (6) to request the buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma (dharmacakrapravartana), (7) to request the buddhas to continue living in the world, (8) always to follow the teachings of the Buddha, (9) always to comply with the needs of sentient beings, and (10) to transfer all merit to sentient beings for their spiritual edification. The text ends with a stanza wishing that sentient beings still immersed in evil be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitābha. The text was translated into Chinese in 754 by Amoghavajra (705–774). Other Chinese recensions appear in the Wenshushili fayuan jing ("Scripture on the Vows made by Mañjuśrī"), translated in 420 by Buddhabhadra (359–429), which corresponds to the verse section from Ru busiyi jietuo jingjie Puxian xingyuan pin, the last roll of the forty-roll recension of the Huayan jing translated by Prajña in 798. (There is no corresponding version in either the sixty- or the eighty-roll translations of the

Huajan jing.) The verses are also called the "Précis of the Huayan jing (Lüe Huayan jing), because they are believed to constitute the core teachings of the Avataṃsakasūtra. In the main Chinese recension by Amoghavajra, the text consists of sixty-two stanzas, each consisting of quatrains with lines seven Sinographs in length, thus giving a total number of 1,736 Sinographs. In addition to the sixty-two core stanzas, Amoghavajra's version adds ten more stanzas of the Bada pusa zan ("Eulogy to the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") from the Badapusa mantuluo jing ("Scripture of the Maṇḍalas of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") . . . Buddhabhadra's version consists of forty-four stanzas with 880 Sinographs, each stanza consisting of a quatrain with lines five Sinographs in length. Prajña's version contains fifty-two stanzas with each quatrain consisting of lines seven Sinographs in length. There are five commentaries on the text attributed to eminent Indian exegetes, including Nāgārjuna, Dignāga, and Vasubandhu, which are extant only in Tibetan translation. In the Tibetan tradition, the prayer is called the "king of prayers" (smon lam gyi rgyal po). It is incorporated into many liturgies; the opening verses of the prayer are commonly incorporated into a Tibetan's daily recitation. (Source: "Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 106. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)