Notes

n.1The Basket’s Display , (Kāraṇḍa­vyūha, Toh 116).

n.2The Basket’s Display, Toh 116, translated by Peter Alan Roberts with Tulku Yeshi, 2.­79. While the Sanskrit in the dhāraṇī refers to “seventy-million completely perfect buddhas” (saptānām saṃyaksaṃ­buddha­koṭīnām), the Tibetan translation of The Basket’s Display notes that “seventy-seven times ten million” completely perfect buddhas assemble and recite her dhāraṇī. Given that in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit the usage of the genitive case, which functions as the dative in constructions with namaḥ (“salutation to…”), is common in mantras and dhāraṇīs, the use of the genitive here (namaḥ saptānām samyaksam­buddha­koṭīnām) prompts us to understand this as an homage to the seventy-million completely perfect buddhas, here reading the genitive plural as an honorific form for the dative.

n.3Shaw 2006, pp. 265–75.

n.4Numerous references to Cundā appear in Toh 453, The Beginning Chapter of the Supremely Great Vajra and in Toh 466, The Net of Magical Illusion. Cundā also appears as a goddess in the Heruka maṇḍala presented in chapter six of Emergence from Sampuṭa, See Emergence from Sampuṭa, Toh 381, translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2020; 2024), 6.­166.

n.5Śāntideva, Śikṣāsamuccaya, in Śikṣāsamuccaya of Śāntideva, edited by P. L. Vaidya, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 11 (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1960), p. 96. The Tibetan witnesses of The Dhāraṇī of the Goddess Cundā preserved in the various recensions of the Kangyur focus primarily on invoking Cundā for protection against various illnesses that are brought on by demonic beings. There is no true equivalent of an invocation to the goddess for the purification of one’s misdeeds. It is thus possible that the version of The Dhāraṇī of the Goddess Cundā that survives in the Tibetan Kangyurs is somewhat different from the text that Śāntideva references in his Śikṣāsamucchaya.

n.6Chandra and Sharma 2015, p. 169.

n.7Ibid., p. 191.

n.8Ibid., p. 294.

n.9Bhattacharyya 1925;1968, pp. 270–73. This Sanskrit edition of the Sādhanamālā corresponds to the Ocean of Sādhanas in the Degé Tengyur, which contains a collection of two hundred and forty-five sādhanas. All three of the Cundā sādhanas in Bhattacharyya’s edition of the Sādhanamāla also appear in the Tibetan translation of this collection. See Toh 3519 tsun+da’i sgrub thabs (Cundāsādhana), Toh 3519 Degé Tengyur vol. 77 (rgyud, mu), folios 165a–165b; Toh 3520 tsun+da’i sgrub thabs (Cundāsādhana) Toh 3520 Degé Tengyur vol. 77 (rgyud, mu) folio 165b; and Toh 3521 tsun+da’I sgrub thabs (Cundāsādhana) Toh 3521 Degé Tengyur vol 77 (rgyud, mu), folios 165b–166a.

n.10skul byed ma’i sgrub thabs (Cundāsādhana) Toh 3246 Degé Tengyur vol. 76 (rgyud, bu), folios 12a–12b.

n.11tsun+da’i sgrub pa’i thabs (Cundāsādhana). Toh 3346 Degé Tengyur vol. 77 (rgyud, mu), folios 33a–33b.

n.12For an excellent summary of this episode from Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India as well as additional data on the extent of the Goddess Cundā’s popularity in the Pāla Empire and the broader Indic world, see Shaw 2006, pp. 265–75. For an English translation of this episode in the life of Gopāla I from Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India, see Chattopadhyaya 1970; 1990, pp. 257–64.

n.13This assessment is based on the colophon data for The Dhāraṇī of the Goddess Cundā across twenty-five recensions of the Kangyur (see http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=607&typ=1) and the entry for this text in Tarthang Tulku, The Nyingma edition of the sDe-dge bKa’-’gyur and bsTan-’gyur Research Catalogue and Bibliography vol. 2 (Oakland, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1981), p. 231.

n.14Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 989 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 989, n.­14, for details.

n.15Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Accessed April 4, 2023. For e-texts of this version, see Qi juzhi fomu xin da zhunti tuoluoni jing 七倶胝佛母心大准提陀羅尼經 (Cundādevī­dhāraṇī), Taishō 1077 (CBETA; SAT).

n.16Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Accessed April 4, 2023. For etexts of this version, see Qi juzhi fomu zhunti daming tuoluoni jing 七倶胝佛母准提大明陀羅尼經 (Cundādevī­dhāraṇī), Taishō 1075 (CBETA; SAT).

n.17Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Accessed April 4, 2023. For e-texts of this version, see Qi juzhi fomu suo shuo zhunti tuoluoni jing 七倶胝佛母所說准提陀羅尼經 (Cundādevī­dhāraṇī), Taishō 1076 (CBETA; SAT).

n.18All Tibetan witnesses consulted for this translation read: drag po’i gzugs can ma. This phrase appears as the name of a goddess in The Hevajra Tantra, where it corresponds to the Sanskrit raudrarūpiṇī.

n.19Stok, Toh 613, and Toh 989 read: rdo rje rdo rjes ’dren ma. The Yongle and Kanxi Peking Kangyurs read: rdo rje rdo rje ’dren ma. This translation is tentative. The word ’dren ma is an old Tibetan term meaning “mixture” or “variety” that is related to the more common ’dres pa, and, following Negi, understood as corresponding to the Sanskrit saṃkīrṇa or kalmāṣa. The Tibetan ’dren ma as a translation of the Sanskrit nāyikā, referring to Cundā as the “leader” or “principal deity” is also possible, but this reading leaves the phrase rdo rje rdo rjes somewhat difficult to resolve.

n.20Following Stok, Toh 613, and Toh 989: rdo rje’i spyan gdangs pa’i stang stabs can ma. This translation is tentative.

n.21All Tibetan witnesses consulted for this translation read: rtag pa’i rims dang / yud tsam pa dang. This translation is tentative. The Tibetan term for “fever” (rims) does not actually occur here, but the proximity of the term yud tsam pa to the Tibetan for “persistent fever” (rtag pa’i rims) suggests that these two should be read in juxtaposition. It is possible, however, that the term yud tsam pa (Skt. *muhūrta) should be included with the list of demonic and disease-causing beings (Skt. grahas ), as is indicated in the Tibetan translation. However, it is not at all clear that the term yud tsam pa (Skt. muhūrta) can be read in this case as a noun referring to a specific class of demonic beings.

n.22All Tibetan witnesses consulted for this translation read: ’byung po dang / ro langs dang / yi dags dang / sha za dang / gnod sbyin dang / srin po dang / grul bum gyi gdon dang. The term graha has been distributed to all of the members of this list, but it is possible that it only applies to the final member, the kumbhāṇḍa graha .

n.23All Tibetan witnesses consulted for this translation read: kha k+ke na. The reading in this translation amends the transliteration in the Tibetan to the proper form for the Sanskrit term for “sword” (Skt. khaḍga), which the text has already told us is one of the weapons that Cundā holds in her hands.