Gergely Hidas A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture Beyond Boundaries Religion, Region, Language and the State Edited by Michael Willis, Sam van Schaik and Lewis Doney Volume 3 Gergely Hidas A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja – Critical Edition and Translation Published with support of the European Research Council Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State (Project No. 609823) ISBN 978-3-11-061765-8 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-062105-1 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-062049-8 ISSN 2510-4446 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 Licence. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2019934260 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Gergely Hidas, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing & binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Acknowledgements This research commenced some seven years ago when Dr Péter-Dániel Szántó provided information about the survival of the Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja in the original Sanskrit. Soon afterwards the ERC Synergy Project No. 609823 embraced the idea to pursue a thorough investigation and the present publi- cation is the fruit of this project work. Many thanks to Dr Michael Willis, Dr Sam van Schaik, Dr Péter-Dániel Szántó, Gergely Orosz, Professor Gyula Wojtilla, Professor Shanker Thapa, Deepak Bajracharya, Dr Csaba Kiss, Dr Dániel Balogh, Professor Max Deeg, Dr Kenichi Kuranishi, Hidetoshi Yoshizawa, Professor Harunaga Isaacson, Professor Francesco Sferra and the staff of the National Archives, Kathmandu, the Staatsbibliothek Berlin and De Gruyter. Open Access. © 2019 Gergely Hidas, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110621051-001 Contents Introduction 1 Previous research | 3 1.1 Primary references | 3 1.2 Secondary references | 3 2 Sources | 4 2.1 Sanskrit | 4 2.2 Chinese | 5 2.3 Tibetan | 5 2.4 Mongolian | 6 2.5 Commentaries, citations, parallels, auxiliary texts | 6 3 Structure | 6 4 Contents | 7 5 Contexts | 11 5.1 Central theme | 11 5.2 Ritual roots and relevant sources | 11 5.3 Title | 17 5.4 Texts for rainmaking | 19 5.5 Dating | 22 5.6 Geographical, botanical and zoological references | 22 5.7 Monastic references | 23 5.8 Vidyādhara | 24 5.9 Maṇḍala/maṇḍalaka and mudrā | 25 6 Practice | 26 6.1 Weather control and pesticides | 26 6.2 Modern practice | 28 7 A critical edition | 29 7.1 The five manuscripts | 29 7.2 Manuscript affinities | 33 7.3 Editorial policy | 34 7.4 Silent standardizations | 34 7.5 Symbols and abbreviations | 35 Edition and translation | 37 References | 131 Index | 137 | Introduction Open Access. © 2019 Gergely Hidas, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110621051-002 1 Previous research 1.1 Primary references The first work that mentions the Vajratuṇḍa is Waddell (1912: 175), where it is listed along with other Garuḍa-related dhāraṇī texts and described as the “Vajra Tuṇḍa. Thunderbolt Beak of Garuḍa” under no. 33.1 This scripture is indicated to be extant only in Tibetan and its use is outlined as “Against Nāgas to protect crops and cause seasonable rain.”2 In another publication two years later, Waddell (1914: 41–42) translates the opening part to the end of the first dhāraṇī with a brief summary of the rest of that chapter.3 The seemingly sole further reference to this text comes from a century later, when Szántó (2012: I.235–36) shows that the Vajratuṇḍanāgasamaya is included in composite rainmaking ritual manuals from Nepal and survives in the original Sanskrit. 1.2 Secondary references There are several works on mythical Nāgas,4 often along with mentions of Garuḍa.5 The classic monograph on this extensive topic is Vogel (1926) and recent studies include Rhi (2009), Legittimo (2010) and Cozad (2015). Gunawardana (1979: 215–219) and Shaw (2004: 17–19, 50–52; 2018: 233–234) consider the con- nections between Nāgas and agriculture in Sri Lanka and central India respec- tively and Deeg (2008 and 2016) discusses Nāga-related Buddhist rain rituals in a broad context on the basis of Chinese and Sanskrit sources.6 On the non-Buddhist || 1 See also Waddell (1912: 168). 2 These texts and deities are curiously classified into three different types, and the fierce “Thun- derbolt-Garuḍa-Sunbird type” into which the Vajratuṇḍa is supposed to fall is detailed (Waddell 1912: 180–81, 187–92). 3 Note that a summary of the “Vajra-loha-tuṇḍa Dhāraṇī” (the “Red-copper Beak” and the “Black Iron-Beak”) is also given (Waddell 1912: 38–41, 49). 4 Nāga does refer to real snakes, too, and sometimes boundaries between the two groups are somewhat blurred. A recent monograph, Slouber (2017), considers snakebite and healing in early tantric Gāruḍa literature. In the present context it is the mythical Nāgas who feature as prime characters. 5 Note that a definitive monograph on Garuḍa is lacking. For references to scholarship on this subject, see Slouber (2017). 6 Note Capitanio (2008) on rainmaking rituals in medieval China. See also Meinert (2013), fur- thermore Ruppert (2002) on Japanese contexts. 4 | Vajra Beak Vow side, Sanderson (2015)7 analyses Śākta texts and provides instances of various relevant rituals for crop protection, calming bad weather and Nāgas, and binding Nāgas at their residence lake.8 In another recent article, Davidson (2017a) gives a treatment of Buddhist rites focussing on a Nāga altar in fifth-century India, along with Chinese sources. Finally, there are a couple of studies on South Asian weather rituals in general: Khatry (1996) describes the Buddhist Matsyendranāth rain festival in the Kathmandu Valley; Willis (2009) examines Udayagiri mon- soon rites, while Vajracharya (2016) discusses this wider topic along with the presentation of manifold materials from Nepal. 2 Sources 2.1 Sanskrit The Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja (henceforth VTSKR) survives in longer Varṣāpaṇavidhi (“rainmaking ritual manual”) collections from Nepal.9 Five such compendia have been identified preserving this text,10 three kept in Kathmandu11 || 7 Sanderson (2012–13: 43–44) remarks that “we have in other Śaiva scriptural sources, particu- larly the Jayadrathayāmala, a quantity of Gāruḍa material, that is to say, prescriptions whose purpose is the removing of poison and the control of snakes, both actual snakes and the mythical Nāgas, and through the latter the control of rainfall, believed to lie in their power, and hence the protection of crops. The working of such material into the major Tantras may account at least in part for the atrophy of the original sources.” 8 Sanderson (2015: 5–8, 10–11 and 19–22). There are further rituals given to obtain siddhis (2–3, 4–5), to obtain siddhis including weather control (11–14) and to control clouds by propitiating Megha-Kālī (16–19). 9 This genre was preliminarily studied in Szántó (2012: I.235–36). There is also a different Varṣāpaṇavidhi tradition, a short work by Abhayākaragupta. 10 Manuscripts referred to as A and C in this edition have been identified by Péter-Dániel Szántó, B and D by the author and E by Hidetoshi Yoshizawa. 11 Note that Varṣāpaṇavidhi NGMPP H 300/23 (39 folios), Varṣāpaṇavidhi NAK 3/647=NGMPP B 106/4 (24 folios) and Varṣāpaṇanāmadhāraṇī NGMPP E 1337/3 (15 folios) do not include the VTSKR. Shorter manuscripts, Varṣāpaṇa Kesar 224=NGMPP C 107/3 (9 folios), Varṣāpaṇasūtra NGMPP D 26/7 (6 folios), Varṣāpaṇasūtra NGMPP E 1730/10 (5 folios) and Varṣaśrāddhavidhi NGMPP H 162/15 of (6 folios), have not been consulted. Introduction | 5 and two in Tokyo.12 This scripture is not included in Sanskrit Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections known to me.13 2.2 Chinese While there is no Chinese version of the VTSKR, T 1007, the “Root Mantra (-dhāraṇī) Sūtra”, translated into Chinese in the sixth century and studied in Da- vidson (2017a), reveals a number of similarities. T 1027, the “Vajra Blaze Dhāraṇī to Stop Wind and Rain”, translated by Bodhiruci around 700 CE and referred to in Schmithausen (1997: 63–64), also shares many features with this scripture. 2.3 Tibetan The VTSKR is listed in the Lhan Kar ma catalogue (c.800 CE) under no. 336 as ’phags pa rdo rje mchu’i gzuṅs (Ārya-vajratuṇḍa-dhāraṇī)14 and included in vari- ous Kangyurs as rdo rje mchu shes bya ba kluhi dam tshig go (Vajratuṇḍa-nāma- nāgasamaya).15 The text of the Vajralohatuṇḍa-dhāraṇī and two Lohatuṇḍa- dhāraṇīs follow this scripture in the Tibetan canon and thus it appears that “tuṇḍa-texts” were grouped together in many cases.16 A Tibetan manuscript of the VTSKR survives in Dunhuang.17 || 12 As far as it can be determined, other depositories do not include manuscripts, either individ- ual or composite ones, with the VTSKR. Related compendia at the Asha Archives, Kathmandu – No. 2510 Pañcaṣaṣṭhitā varṣāpana nāma dhāraṇī (15 folios with a part of the Meghasūtra), No. 2570 Nāgarāja aṣṭāṅgapraṇāma dhāraṇī (with 157 mantras to various Nāgarājas) and No. 3501 Varṣāpaṇasūtra (6 folios) – do not include this text. Manuscripts digitized in the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library focussing on the Kathmandu Valley (EAP 790) ex- clude Varṣāpaṇavidhi collections. 13 On these collections, see Hidas (forthcoming). In the Tibetan tradition, a composite gzungs sdus manuscript from Tabo, Spiti, does include the VTSKR as ’phags pa rdo rje mchu’ zhes bya ba’i klu’i dam tshig go (Ārya-Vajratuṇḍa-nāma-nāgasamaya).