AMOGHAPĀŚAHṚDAYA

 

AMOGHAPĀŚAHṚDAYA, “the heart or essence (Sanskrit hṛdaya) of the Amoghapāśa ritual,” the name of a Buddhist text belonging to the Mahayanist Tantric tradition. Amoghapāśa is the name given to a manifestation of the well-known Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, who in this work recites the spell known as Amoghapāśahṛdaya. The Sanskrit text was translated into Tibetan and Chinese. A critical edition of the Sanskrit (based on six mss.) and two Tibetan versions together with an English translation of the Tunhuang Tibetan versions were published by R. O. Meisezahl (Monumenta Nipponica 17, 1962, pp. 265-328). A fragment of a Sanskrit ms. from Tunhuang, not known to Meissezahl, was published in transcription by H. W. Bailey in his Khotanese Texts V, Cambridge, 1963, pp. 325-26, under the title “Dhāraṇī of Pautsia” (cf. line 32 of the text). Bailey subsequently identified the text as the Amoghapāśahṛdaya (Asia Major N.S. 11/2, 1965, p. 116 and 111-2 ).

(R. E. Emmerick)

Originally Published: December 15, 1989

Last Updated: August 3, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 9, pp. 979-980

Cite this entry:

R. E. Emmerick, “AMOGHAPĀŚAHṚDAYA,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/9, pp. 979-980, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amoghapasahrdaya (accessed on 30 December 2012).