ANANTAMUKHANIRHĀRADHĀRĀṆĪ, the name of a Buddhist text belonging to the Mahayanist Tantric tradition. The only surviving fragment of the original Sanskrit was edited by F. W. Thomas in A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, Oxford, 1916, pp. 86-87. Several Tibetan and Chinese translations are known (cf. Encyclopaedia of Buddhism I, fasc. 4, Ceylon, 1965, pp. 548-50), and three folios of a Khotanese version were edited and translated by E. Leumann (Buddhistische Literatur, Nordarisch und Deutsch, I. Teil: Nebenstücke, Leipzig, 1920, pp. 151-55). The folios were retranscribed by H. W. Bailey (Khotanese Texts V, Cambridge, 1963, pp. 102-04), while the main spell (Skr. dhāraṇī) of the text is also known from a Tunhuang ms. (transcription published by Bailey, Khotanese Texts III, Cambridge, 1956, pp. 77-78).
(R. E. Emmerick)
Originally Published: December 15, 1985
Last Updated: August 3, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 1, pp. 1-2
R. E. Emmerick, “ANANTAMUKHANIRHĀRADHĀRAṆĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, II/1, pp. 1-2, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anantamukhanirharadharai (accessed on 30 December 2012).
