Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra

The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra (Tibetan: ['phags pa] za ma tog bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo; Chinese: 佛說大乘莊嚴寶王經; pinyin: Fó shuō dàchéng zhuāngyán bǎo wáng jīng, Vietnamese: Phật Thuyết Đại Thừa Trang Nghiêm Bảo Vương Kinh, Taishō Tripiṭaka 1050) is a Mantrayāna[1] sūtra which extols the virtues and powers of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, and is particularly notable for introducing the mantra Om mani padme hum into the sutra tradition.

General features
www.himalayanart.org (item no. 89001)
Shristhikantha Lokeśvara, 18th century painting in Nepal.

The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra is a Mantrayāna sutra that was compiled at the end of the 4th century or beginning of the 5th century CE.[2] According to the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra, the Hindu deities born from Avalokiteśvara bodhisattva's body,

The sutra introduces the Buddhist mantra, Om Manipadme Hum, which it states can lead to liberation (moksha) and eventual Buddhahood.[4] A. Studholme sees this famous mantra as being a declarative aspiration, possibly meaning 'I in the jewel-lotus',[5] with the jewel-lotus being a reference to birth in the lotus made of jewels in the Buddhist Eternal Paradise or Pure land 'Sukhavati' of Buddha Amitabha. The mantra is the very heart of Avalokiteśvara (the supreme Buddha of Compassion) and can usher in Awakening. A. Studholme writes:

'Om Manipadme Hum, then, is both the paramahrdaya, or 'innermost heart', of Avalokiteśvara ... It is also ... a mahavidya, a mantra capable of bringing about the 'great knowledge' of enlightenment itself ...' [6]

Avalokiteśvara himself is linked in the versified version of the sutra to the first Buddha, the Adi-Buddha, who is 'svayambhu' (self-existent, not born from anything or anyone). Studholme comments:

'Avalokitesvara himself, the verse sutra adds, is an emanation of the Adibuddha, or 'primordial Buddha', a term that is explicitly said to be synonymous with Svayambhu and Adinatha, 'primordial lord'.' [7]

According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, the text of Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra arrived in a casket from the sky unto the roof of the palace of the 28th king of Tibet, Lha Thothori Nyantsen who died in the fifth century C.E., in southern Tibet. This coincides with one version of dating of the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, somewhere in the 4th or perhaps early 5th century, however it seems more likely that the sutra has originated in Kashmir, due to closeness to characteristics to Kasmiri tantric traditions of the time and to Avataṁsakasūtra earlier associated with the Central Asian regions.[8]

Translations
  • Tibetan. The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra was first translated into Tibetan as the Za ma tog bkod pa in the 8th century CE by Jinamitra, Yeshe De (or Jnanasutra) and others.[9]
  • Chinese. The text was translated by T'ien-hsi-tsai into Chinese in 983 CE.[10]
  • French. The Sutra has been translated from the Sanskrit into French by Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852) : Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852) et les études indo-iranologiques, actes de la Journée d'étude d'Urville (28 mai 2022) suivis des Lalitavistara (chap. 1-2) et Kāraṇḍavyūha traduits par E. Burnouf, édités par Guillaume Ducoeur, Université de Strasbourg, 2022.
  • English. The Sutra has been translated from the Tibetan into English by Peter Alan Roberts with the help of Tulku Yeshi , in 2013.[11]

See also

References
  1. http://www.pacificbuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Karandavyuha-Sutra.pdf
  2. Alexander Studholme, The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2002, p. 17
  3. Studholme, Alexander (2002). The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra. State University of New York Press. p. 39-40.
  4. Studholme, The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra, SUNY, 2002, p. 68
  5. Alexander Studholme, The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra, SUNY, 2002, p. 117
  6. Alexander Studholme, The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra, SUNY, 2002, p. 108
  7. Alexander Studholme, The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra, SUNY, 2002, p. 12
  8. Studholme, Alexander: The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum, Albany, NY 2002, pp. 13-14.
  9. According to the sTog palace bka' 'gyur, the relevant colophon reading is: phags pa za ma tog bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo rdzogs so/ /rgya gar gyi mkhan po dzi na mi tra dang / dA na shI la dang / zhu chen gyi lo tsha ba ban d+he ye shes sdes bsgyur cing zhus te gtan la phab pa. See TBRC Digital Library: . Retrieved 11 May 2022..
  10. Yu Chun-fang, Ambiguity of Avalokites'vara and Scriptural Sources for the Cult of Kuan-yin in China, is available online: ; also see C.N. Tay, "Kuan-Yin: The Cult of Half Asia," History of Religions, vol. 16, no. 2 (Nov., 1976), pp. 147-177.Retrieved 11 May 2022..
  11. Link to the scanned version Internet Archive: 84000 Reading Room (2013). "Kāraṇḍavyūha Sutra (ཟ་མ་ཏག་བཀད་པ།), The Basket's Display Sutra, (Translated by Peter Alan Roberts with Tulku Yeshi)".Retrieved 11 May 2022.. After the translated text is a "Glossary", which contains the definitions of 195 words, given in Sanskrit IAST and Tibetan script.
    Note: The "pdf" version is also available via the link indicated in the External links section.

Bibliography
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