Introduction

i.1The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī opens in Śrāvastī in Prince Jeta’s Grove, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is residing with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha introduces his saṅgha to the goddess Mārīcī by describing her unique qualities and powers. He notes that whoever knows and recites her dhāraṇī heart mantra will have the same powers as Mārīcī, and he then pronounces six separate dhāraṇī mantras.

i.2The colophon to this version of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī indicates that the text was translated into Tibetan in the eleventh century by the Indian paṇḍita Amoghavajra and the Tibetan translator Bari Rinchen Drakpa (1040–1112). However, the Denkarma royal Tibetan catalog of translated works also contains a dhāraṇī titled simply Noble Mārīcī (Skt. Āryamārīcī; Tib. ’phags pa ’od zer can), which suggests that some version of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī was translated into Tibetan at some time before the early ninth century. In the Phangthangma royal Tibetan catalog of translated works we also find the text listed under its full title, The Noble Dhāraṇī of Mārīcī (Skt. Ārya­mārīcī­nāmadhāraṇī; Tib. ’phags pa ’od zer can gyi gzungs). One witness of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī survives among the Dunhuang manuscript collection, which supports the existence of some version of the text either during the Imperial period or shortly after the end of the Tibetan Empire. It is likely, however, that this early translation of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī belonged to a different textual tradition than The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī translated in the eleventh century by Amoghavajra and Bari Rinchen Drakpa.

i.3The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī is included in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) sections of the Degé Kangyur. There are also thirty-seven sādhanas for the goddess Mārīcī in the Tengyur, seven of which were, like this text, translated by Amoghavajra and Bari Rinchen Drakpa. The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī itself, along with ritual manuals, sādhana practices, and even terma related to the goddess, has appeared in the collected works of numerous Tibetan authors since at least the thirteenth century, and Mārīcī has remained an important deity in Tibetan Buddhist traditions to this day.

i.4The earliest Chinese translation of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī was completed by an unknown translator in the sixth century during the Liang dynasty (Taishō 1256). Later, Bukong translated two works titled Mārīcīdhāraṇī in the late eighth century (Taishō 1254 and Taishō 1255). While Taishō 1254 differs significantly from the present text in content and length, Taishō 1255 has some parallels with it. The final canonical Chinese translation, which also has parallels with the current work, was completed by Tian Xizai during the late tenth century (Taishō 1257).

i.5We are fortunate that a relatively large number of Sanskrit witnesses of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī have survived. In 2006, a diplomatic edition of a Sanskrit witness for The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī from one of the many dhāraṇī collections (dhāraṇī­saṅgraha) in the National Archives in Kathmandu, titled A Compendium of Dhāraṇī and Other Works (Dhāraṇyādi­saṅgraha), was published by the Rare Buddhist Texts Project at the Central University for Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India.

i.6There is also one unpublished manuscript from Nepal titled Mārīcī­kalpa­tantra, or simply Mārīcīkalpa, that contains Sanskrit versions of all three works in the cycle of texts in the Kangyur on the goddess Mārīcī. The fact that this witness contains all three texts in the exact order in which they appear in the Degé Kangyur suggests it is related to the textual tradition from which the translations of Toh 564, The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising (Toh 565), and The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī (Toh 566) were produced. The Sanskrit manuscript unfortunately cuts off at the material corresponding to the middle of Toh 566. The fragment of scribal colophon that survives notes that the text was copied by one Vajrācārya Ravṛndrabhadra (perhaps a misspelling of Ravīndrabhadra), but it does not note when or where the text was copied. The Sanskrit manuscript comes from the private collection of Manavajra Vajrācārya and was microfilmed and cataloged by both the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) and the International Association for the Study of World Religions (IASWR). The readings in this Sanskrit witness reflect a relatively close relationship to these texts as they are received in the Tibetan Kangyur recensions, and it has proved a valuable resource for this translation.

i.7This translation was produced in consultation with both versions of The Dhāraṇī of Mārīcī preserved in the Degé Kangyur (Toh 564 and 988), the Tibetan translation preserved in the Stok Palace Kangyur, the Sanskrit edition published by the Rare Buddhist Texts Project at CUTS in Sarnath, India, and the Sanskrit manuscript witness cataloged in the NGMCP microfilm collection under the title Mārīcīkalpa (NGMCP E 1480/9) and the IASWR microfilm collection under the title Mārīcī­kalpa­tantra (MBB II 112). All instances in which the English translation deviates from the reading in the Degé Kangyur in favor of a reading in the Sanskrit witness or another Tibetan witness are noted in the translation.