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आर्यानन्तमुखसाधकनामधारणी
Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī
འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs
The Dhāraṇī of Accomplishing the Boundless Gateways (84000)
Text
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Description
The Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī (also called The Incantation for Achieving the Boundless Gate) is an important Buddhist dhāraṇī text from the Mahāyāna tradition. It belongs to the early dhāraṇī literature that eventually developed into full tantric practices.
The text likely dates to around the 3rd-4th century CE, originating during the later development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India. Like many dhāraṇī texts, its specific author is unknown, as these works were typically attributed to the Buddha himself or were considered to have emerged from collective spiritual practice rather than individual authorship.
The text contains mantras and incantations believed to possess spiritual power. It focuses on the concept of "unimpeded" or "infinite entrances" (anantamukha) to dharma realization. The dhāraṇī is recited to remove obstacles to spiritual practice and to gain insight into the nature of reality.
The Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī was influential in several ways:
- It was translated into Chinese multiple times, including versions by Zhiyan in the 5th century and later by Xuanzang.
- It contributed to the development of esoteric Buddhist practices in East Asia
- It served as an important text in the transition from earlier Mahāyāna Buddhism to later tantric forms.
- Elements of its practices were incorporated into various Buddhist rituals across Asia. (Generated by Claude.ai Apr 4, 2025)
Quoted in the aligned translations
Reference
Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī [आर्यानन्तमुखसाधकनामधारणी]. 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs [འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།]. [The Dhāraṇī of Accomplishing the Boundless Gateways (84000)]. Translated by Buddhabhadra, Buddhaśānta, Chih-ch'ien, Guṇabhadra, Kung Te-chih, Saṅghabhara, Jñānagupta, Chih-yen. Kangyur, RKTSK 140 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=140&typ=1.
Interconnections
All 13Books 5Articles 4Classical Works 4
1 Recensions
This is a translation of a Sanskrit folio of the Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī by Frederick William Thomas. Published in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, 1916.
1 Full translations
Edition of the Sanskrit fragment (romanized) of the dhāraṇī, Hoernle No.143d.S.A.11, with complete English translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan of the root text and commentary.
2 Classical commentaries
Jñānagarbha (slob dpon ye shes snying po). anantamukhanirhāradhāraṇīṭīkā [आर्न्मखनिर्हारधारणीटीका]. 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa'i gzungs kyi rgya cher 'grel pa [འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ]. [An Extensive Explanation of the Dhāraṇī of Attaining Limitless Doors (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 1519 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1519&typ=2.
The Ānantamukhanirhāradhāriṇīvyākhyānakārikā is a collection of versified commentary verses (kārikā) authored by the 8th-century Indian Buddhist master Jñānagarbha. The title translates to "A Versified Explanation of the Dhāraṇī of Attaining Limitless Doors." It is a foundational commentarial text preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur canon (Tohoku 2697 / RKTST 1518) under the Tibetan title: འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཟུངས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ ('Phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa'i gzungs rnam par bshad pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa).
1 Partial translations
This is a translation of a Sanskrit folio of the Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī by Frederick William Thomas. Published in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, 1916.
3 Scholarship
Edition of the Sanskrit fragment (romanized) of the dhāraṇī, Hoernle No.143d.S.A.11, with complete English translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan of the root text and commentary.
This is a translation of a Sanskrit folio of the Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī by Frederick William Thomas. Published in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, 1916.
Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts, Translations and Notes, Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916), edited by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle (1841–1918) "in conjunction with other scholars," presents facsimiles, transcriptions, translations, and scholarly notes for Buddhist manuscript fragments recovered from Central Asian sites—chiefly through Sir Aurel Stein's expeditions, alongside material from Hoernle's own and George Macartney's collections—in Sanskrit, Khotanese, Kuchean, Tibetan, and Chinese. Compiled as a genuinely international collaboration, its contributors included Lionel D. Barnett, Édouard Chavannes, Sten Konow, Sylvain Lévi, Heinrich Lüders, F. E. Pargiter, and F. W. Thomas, each responsible for the material in their specialty. Hoernle's lengthy General Introduction argues, based on the newly recovered Khotanese material, that the Tibetan alphabet derived not directly from India but specifically from the script of Khotan. Though conceived as the first volume of an ongoing series, no further volumes were published. The Sanskrit material includes newly discovered fragments of hymns by the celebrated poet Mātṛceṭa, among other canonical and noncanonical texts.
5 A topic of
Edition of the Sanskrit fragment (romanized) of the dhāraṇī, Hoernle No.143d.S.A.11, with complete English translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan of the root text and commentary.
This is a translation of a Sanskrit folio of the Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī by Frederick William Thomas. Published in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, 1916.
Jñānagarbha (slob dpon ye shes snying po). anantamukhanirhāradhāraṇīṭīkā [आर्न्मखनिर्हारधारणीटीका]. 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa'i gzungs kyi rgya cher 'grel pa [འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ]. [An Extensive Explanation of the Dhāraṇī of Attaining Limitless Doors (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 1519 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=1519&typ=2.
The Ānantamukhanirhāradhāriṇīvyākhyānakārikā is a collection of versified commentary verses (kārikā) authored by the 8th-century Indian Buddhist master Jñānagarbha. The title translates to "A Versified Explanation of the Dhāraṇī of Attaining Limitless Doors." It is a foundational commentarial text preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur canon (Tohoku 2697 / RKTST 1518) under the Tibetan title: འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཟུངས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ ('Phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa'i gzungs rnam par bshad pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa).
Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts, Translations and Notes, Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916), edited by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle (1841–1918) "in conjunction with other scholars," presents facsimiles, transcriptions, translations, and scholarly notes for Buddhist manuscript fragments recovered from Central Asian sites—chiefly through Sir Aurel Stein's expeditions, alongside material from Hoernle's own and George Macartney's collections—in Sanskrit, Khotanese, Kuchean, Tibetan, and Chinese. Compiled as a genuinely international collaboration, its contributors included Lionel D. Barnett, Édouard Chavannes, Sten Konow, Sylvain Lévi, Heinrich Lüders, F. E. Pargiter, and F. W. Thomas, each responsible for the material in their specialty. Hoernle's lengthy General Introduction argues, based on the newly recovered Khotanese material, that the Tibetan alphabet derived not directly from India but specifically from the script of Khotan. Though conceived as the first volume of an ongoing series, no further volumes were published. The Sanskrit material includes newly discovered fragments of hymns by the celebrated poet Mātṛceṭa, among other canonical and noncanonical texts.
