Introduction

i.1This sūtra opens with an homage to the goddess Tārā, to whom the text is dedicated. Tārā immediately pronounces a dhāraṇī in front of an audience of gods, asuras, and spirits of various types. Awed by Tārā’s presence, they all praise her powers. In the central portion of the sūtra, the assembled beings offer homage and praise to Tārā in the form of a list of epithets of the goddess. At the end of this recitation, Tārā responds with some words of encouragement and gives a brief teaching on the path to liberation as well as on the importance of applying unwavering effort to cross over the ocean of cyclic existence. The text concludes with Tārā extolling the power of the dhāraṇī she previously pronounced, detailing its salvific effects, and praising those who uphold it. At the end of the sūtra, the audience is filled with joy, and we are told that their speech has been completely stilled.

i.2The sūtra can be divided into three sections. The first section centers on the dhāraṇī. After a brief introduction, Tārā recites the dhāraṇī, “which had never been seen or heard before,” and we are told of its effect on the audience. The second section, which is the longest and constitutes the core of the text, is composed of the list of epithets of the goddess Tārā. These epithets are given in the form of thirty-five four-line verses, and it is not obvious how to count exactly 108 names in them. This list of names is quite different from the most well-known list of Tārā’s names found in One Hundred and Eight Names of the Noble Lady Tārā (Toh 727; rje btsun ma ’phags ma sgrol ma’i mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad pa). There is very little overlap in the epithets, but many of them echo similar themes related to Tārā’s forms, qualities, attributes, and activities. The third and final section takes the form of a pithy teaching given by Tārā to her audience.

i.3Since this sūtra lacks a colophon, it offers no contextual information besides the original Sanskrit title. In particular, it is not known when or by whom it was translated into Tibetan. The Sanskrit text does not appear to be extant, and there do not appear to be any Indian or Tibetan authors who commented on it. The text was translated into Chinese by Fa Tian in the late tenth century under the title 聖多羅菩薩一百八名陀羅尼經 (Sheng duoluo pusa yibai ba ming tuoluoni jing, Taishō 1105). This sūtra has not been previously translated into any European language, and it has only been mentioned in passing in scholarly works on Tārā, which makes it a relatively unexplored text.

i.4This English translation is based on the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur. The Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur, the Stok Palace Kangyur, and the Phukdrak Kangyur were consulted for variant readings.