༄༅། །་་པ་ས་་བ་གངས།

The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”

Surūpānāmadhāraṇī
 · Toh 1078 ·
Degé Kangyur, vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waṃ), folios 240.a–240.b
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co. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ti. Title
im. Imprint
co. Contents
s. Summary
ac. Acknowledgements
i. Introduction
tr. The Translation
1. The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”
ap. Appendix
n. Notes
b. Bibliography
· Source Texts
· Other Sources
g. Glossary
s. SUMMARY
s.1 This text consists of a short dhāraṇī followed by its application, a food
offering made to the pretas (hungry spirits). The text says that by the power
of the spell, the offering will be made manifold and there will be many future
benefits for the person performing the rite.
ac. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ac.1 This text was translated and introduced by the Buddhapīṭha Translation
Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó).
ac.2 The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the
translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text.
Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
i. INTRODUCTION
i.1 The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa” is a short yet important and popular text. It reveals a
dhāraṇī that is to be used while making a food offering to pretas. The ritual is
outlined in simple terms. This is followed by a description of the benefits of
the spell and the ritual. In addition to many pretas being fed, the performer
of the ritual will have a favorable rebirth in Sukhāvatī that culminates in their
awakening. As is well known, the realm of the pretas is one of the five or six
(and one of the three unfavorable) destinies for rebirth in saṃsāra.1 Its
inhabitants are constantly tortured by hunger and thirst as karmic
retribution for being miserly. The depiction of this realm is a popular topic in
Buddhist literature and art.2 Pretas usually cannot eat proper meals because
the food that they see turns into disgusting substances as soon as they reach
it, or because they have needle-thin throats. The implication here seems to be
that the power of the dhāraṇī removes these difficulties for them.
i.2 We have been unable to find a self-standing transmission of the original
Sanskrit text. However, it is preserved in its entirety in no fewer than three
Sanskrit manuals for beginner practitioners (Skt. ādikarmika, Tib. las dang po
pa): the Ādikarmāvatāra by Mañjukīrti,3 the Ādikarmapradīpa by Anupamavajra,4
and the Ādikarmavidhi by Tatakaragupta.5 These texts have not been
translated into Tibetan, but the Tibetan canon does preserve a work that is
closely related to (and very likely even based on) the aforementioned triad:
The Gradual Path to Awakening (byang chub kyi gzhung lam, *Bodhipaddhati, Toh
3766), which is attributed to the famous and influential master
Abhayākaragupta. This work also incorporates the entire text. Prominent
Tibetan masters maintained this tradition. See, for example, the work of
Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), The Easy Path Leading to Omniscience
(rnam mkhyen du bgrod pa’i bde lam). These manuals describe the ritual as a bali
offering to be performed by bodhisattvas on the early stages of the path.
i.3 The Tibetan translation is not recorded in the imperial catalogs, and we
could not identify any Dunhuang fragments. Because the canonical
transmission lacks a translators’ colophon, the identity of the translators is
unknown. This text is included in both the Action Tantra section (Toh 540)
and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1078) of the Degé Kangyur,
as well as in other Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include such a separate
section. Several Tibetan witnesses leave the Sanskrit surūpa/surūpā
(“beautiful” / “having a beautiful form”) element untranslated in the
heading but translate it to gzugs legs in the colophon. The Sanskrit
transmission seems to have “Surūpā” (with a long ending) as a description
or name of the dhāraṇī. However, it is also noteworthy that the Indo-Tibetan
transmission of the dhāraṇī contains an obeisance to the tathāgata Surūpa,
who is otherwise unknown. It is not impossible, therefore, that
*Surūpadhāraṇī (if this was indeed the form, with a short ending in surūpa)
could also be understood as The Dhāraṇī of Surūpa.
i.4 The Chinese translation, The Beautiful, A Dhāraṇī-Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha
( 佛說妙⾊陀羅尼經 , Taishō 1386) dates from a rather late period, between
989–99 ᴄᴇ, and is the work of Faxian, who worked under the aegis of the
Northern Song dynasty’s famous Translation Bureau.6 Unlike the Sanskrit
and Tibetan translations, which are practically identical, two significant
differences can be found in the Chinese: (1) there is an introductory section
in which the Buddha teaches the spell to Ānanda and a closing section in
which Ānanda is delighted to have received the teaching, and (2) the text of
the dhāraṇī itself is quite different.
i.5 This English translation is principally based on the Tibetan translations of
the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of
Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the Stok
Palace Kangyur. We consulted all Sanskrit manuscripts available for the
three ādikarmika texts previously mentioned and created a constituted text
which we include here in an appendix.
The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”
1. The Translation
[F.240.a]7

1.1 Obeisance to all buddhas and bodhisattvas. [F.240.b]

namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru

prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya
saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā |8

1.2 One should recite this spell seven times over a meal of rice together with
water. Then, after having snapped the fingers of the left hand three times,
one should offer it in a secluded place to all pretas and say the following:
“Off with you, you who seek weak points and are looking for an
opportunity!9 I hereby donate food to pretas residing in every world
system!” One should make the donation before one has eaten. The outcome
is that the pretas will each be given a bushel of rice.
1.3 If one performs it in this way, in each and every rebirth one will never be
feeble or poor. Rather, one will possess great might, beauty, a countenance
lovely to behold, much wealth, and great enjoyments. One will have a long
lifespan, freedom from illness, and will swiftly attain unsurpassed, perfect
awakening. After death, one will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī.

1.4 Here ends “The Dhāraṇī ‘Surūpa’.”

ap. Appendix

APPENDIX
ap1.1 Constituted text of the Sanskrit based on how it is transmitted in the
ādikarmika manuals:

namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru

prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya
saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā | anayā dhāraṇyodakasahitaṃ bhaktaṃ sapta
vārān parijapya vāmahastenācchaṭātrayaṃ dattvā sarvapretebhyo vivikte pradeśe
dātavyam | evaṃ ca bhāṣitavyam | apasarantv avatāraprekṣiṇo dadāmy ahaṃ
sarvalokadhātuvāsināṃ pretānām āhāram iti | abhuktenaiva kartavyam | evaṃ
sarvapretānāṃ taṇḍuladroṇabhaktaṃ pratyekaṃ dattaṃ bhavati | evaṃ kurvan na
durbalo bhavati na daridro bhavaty api tu jātau jātau mahābalaḥ prāsādiko darśanīya
āḍhyo mahābhogo bhavati dīrghāyur arogī kṣipraṃ cānuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim
abhisaṃbhotsyate | cyutaś ca sukhāvatyāṃ lokadhātāv upapadyate || iti surūpā
nāma dhāraṇī ||
n. NOTES
n.1 See Sadakata 1997, pp. 41–70.

n.2 The pretas are enjoying renewed scholarly attention; McNicholl 2019 and
Rotman 2021 are two recent major works on the subject.

n.3 Unpublished manuscript, currently being studied by Szántó for a

forthcoming publication, Buddhism for Beginners II: The Mañjukīrti Corpus. The
current location of the manuscript is not known with certainty. It was first
seen and identified by Rāhula Sāṅkṛityāyana at Ngor Monastery; see
Sāṅkṛityāyana 1935, p. 32. We are reading the text from the photographs kept
at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, shelf
number Xc 14/50; for the catalog entry, see Bandurski 1994, pp. 86–87. Little
is known of the author; the manuscript is undated but was most likely
copied in Magadha during the eleventh or twelfth century.

n.4 There are two editions of this text: La Vallée Poussin 1898, based on Royal
Asiatic Society, London, MS. Hodgson 69 and Takahashi 1993, based on the
previous edition, and Tōkyō University Library MS. new 57, old 349.
Takahashi 1992 is a Japanese translation of the entire text. According to the
colophon, the author Anupamavajra was active at Vikramaśīla Monastery.

n.5 Unpublished, incomplete manuscript, currently at National Archives

Kathmandu, showcase 3/7, read from the microfilm images of the Nepal-
German Manuscript Preservation Project, reel no. A 1165/7. Little is known
of the author; the manuscript is undated but was probably copied in Bengal
during the thirteenth century.

n.6 On the life and career of this Kashmiri scholar, see Orzech 2011, pp. 448–49.
n.7 In the Toh 540 version of the text there is a slight discrepancy in the folio
numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud)
printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here,
further details concerning this may be found in the Toh 540
(https://read.84000.co/translation/toh540.html# UT22084-088-035-109)
version of this text.

n.8 “oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru, cross, cross, bear, bear, collect, collect,
remember, remember, gratify, gratify, for all pretas, svāhā!”

n.9 avatāraprekṣin. This description usually applies to bhūtas or other demons who
are constantly on the lookout for weak points, usually caused by a breach of
morality, in order to enter and possess a being. It is conceivable that one of
the two Tibetan elements was originally a gloss of the other.
b. BIBLIOGRAPHY

· Source Texts ·

su rU pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Toh 540, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folios
84.a–84.b.

su rU pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Toh 1078, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus,
waṃ), folios 240.a–240.b.

su ru pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs / gzugs legs zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Stok Palace
Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 104.a–104.b.

佛說妙⾊陀羅尼經 Taishō 1386 (CBETA

(https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T1386); SAT (https://21dzk.l.u-
tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2018/T1386.html))

· Other Sources ·

Bandurski, Frank. “Übersicht über die Göttinger Sammlungen der von

Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana in Tibet aufgefundenen buddhistischen Sanskrit-
Texte (Funde buddhistischer Sanskrit-Handschriften, III).” In
Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur, edited by Frank Bandurski,
Bhikkhu Pāsādika, Michael Schmidt, and Bangwei Wang, 9–126.
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994.

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. Bouddhisme. Études et matériaux. Ādikarmapradīpa.

Bodhicaryāvatāraṭīkā. London: Luzac & Co., 1898.

McNicholl, Adeana. Celestial Seductresses and Hungry Ghosts: Preta Narratives in

Early Indian Buddhism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford
University, 2019.
Orzech, Charles D. “Translation of Tantras and Other Esoteric Buddhist
Scriptures.” In Esoteric Buddhist and the Tantras in East Asia, edited by Charles
D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, 439–50. Leiden,
Boston: Brill, 2011.

Rotman, Andy, trans. Hungry Ghosts. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications,

2021.

Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins (trans. By Gaynor

Sekimori). Tokyo: Kōsei Publishing Co., 1997.

Sāṅkṛityāyana, Tripiṭakâcharya Rāhula. “Sanskrit Palm-leaf MSS. in Tibet.”

Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 21/1 (1935): 21–43.

Takahashi, Hisao. “『アーディカルマプラディーパ『 初⾏のしるべ』和訳”

[“Japanese translation of Anupamavajra’s Ādikarmapradīpa.”] In 興教⼤師覚
鑁研究:興教⼤ 師⼋百五⼗年御遠忌記念論集, edited by 興教⼤師研究論集編
集委員会, 551–90. Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1992.
— — “Ādikarmapradīpa 梵⽂校訂 — 東京⼤学写本による” [“Sanskrit Text of
the Ādikarmapradīpa according to the manuscript at Tōkyō University
宮坂宥勝博⼠古稀記念論⽂集 インド学密教学研究 下, edited by
Library.”] In
宮坂宥勝博⼠古稀記念論⽂集刊⾏会編, vol. 2, 129–56. Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 1993.
g. GLOSSARY

· Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding ·

source language

AS Attested in source text

This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.

AO Attested in other text

This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.

AD Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding
language.

AA Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names
where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested
in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

RP Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the
term.

RS Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan
translation.

SU Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often
is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.1 Abhayākaragupta
—
—
abhayākaragupta
An influential scholar active at Vikramaśīla Monasery in the late eleventh
and early twelfth centuries.
g.2 Anupamavajra
—
—
anupamavajra
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active at Vikramaśīla Monastery.

g.3 bali
—
—
bali
A food offering made to a deity or spirits; such an offering may be varied and
elaborate, or may be simple uncooked food.

g.4 beginner practitioner

las dang po pa

ལས་དང་་པ།
ādikarmika

g.5 bhūta
’byung po

འང་།
bhūta
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human,
animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of
nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside
rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of
nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen
bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take
spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva
(also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild
places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of
certain tantras concentrate on them.

g.6 bushel
bre bo che

་་།
droṇa
 A measure of volume.

g.7 dhāraṇī
gzungs

གངས།
dhāraṇī
See “spell.”

g.8 Mañjukīrti
—
—
mañjukīrti
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active in Magadha.

g.9 preta
yi dags

་དགས།
preta
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born
as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the
departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the
pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly
translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓⿁ e
gui.

The pretas live in the realm of Yama, the Lord of Death, where they are
particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to
acquire sustenance.

g.10 snapped the fingers

se gol

་ལ།
acchaṭā
A courteous way of attracting someone’s attention.

g.11 spell
gzungs

གངས།
 dhāraṇī
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so
it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall
detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings —
an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula that distills and “holds” essential
points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and
supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain
such formulas.

g.12 Sukhāvatī
bde ba can

བ་བ་ཅན།
sukhāvatī
The buddha realm in which the Buddha Amitābha resides.

g.13 Surūpa
gzugs legs

གགས་གས།
surūpa
Name of a buddha.

g.14 Tatakaragupta
—
—
tatakaragupta
Name of a scholar of uncertain dates, active in Bengal.

g.15 Vikramaśīla
—
—
vikramaśīla
A renowned monastic complex in India.