Abstract

GARCIA FERNANDEZ, Roberto Eduardo. The Buddhist Sūtra Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī in the Bower Manuscript. Estud. Asia Áfr. [online]. 2022, vol.57, n.3, pp.657-675.  Epub Feb 06, 2023. ISSN 2448-654X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v57i3.2736.

This is the first Spanish translation of Section VI of the Bower Manuscript, a collection of Sanskrit texts from the 4th to 6th centuries that includes works on medicine, divination and protection. The section presented here contains one of the oldest Sanskrit versions of the text known as Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñīsūtra, The Sūtra of the Queen of Charms, the Great Peahen. This work represents a synthesis of different Buddhist apotropaic texts, framed in a narrative of protection against the venom of snakes, and crowned by a formula of power, a dhāraṇī, presented as a sonic instrument capable of exerting control over different types of entities. It represents an example of the interest of Buddhists to assert their sovereignty, not only over the realms of knowledge and liberation, but also over the powers of the world as a whole.

Keywords : Buddhism; apotropaic; dhāraṇī; religion; Mahāmāyūrī.

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