The Formation Features of 'Dhāraṇis Collection' (Dhāraṇi-piṭaka) as a part of Buddhist Canon in Mahāsāṃghika and Dharmaguptaka schools tradidions
Abstract
The article deals with the specifics of the formation of the ‘Dhāraṇīs Collections’ (Dhāraṇī-piṭaka) in the traditions of Mahāsāṃghika and Dharmaguptaka schools as well as the legitimation of these texts within the Buddhist Canon, regardless of the Abhidharma position that denied the practice of sacred formulas reciting as a Brahmanic heritage of the Vedic hymns proclaiming. The article examines the structural and formation features of Dhāraṇī-piṭakas both Mahāsāṃghika and Dharmaguptaka. It is pointed out that the ‘core’ of the Mahāsāṃghika’s “Spells Collection” was composed based on the texts representing the ‘autochthonous level’ of the religious practice (so called ‘folk magic’) that influenced the formation of both Buddhist (Mahāyāna) and Śaiva ‘pantheon’. The Dharmaguptaka’s dhāraṇīs, on the contrary, are distinguished by their reliance on the ‘mnemotechnical principles of the Buddhist syllabary-arapacana which were used in the prajñāpāramitā text's structure. Therefore, the Dhāraṇī-piṭakas of Mahāsāṃghika and Dharmaguptaka reflect both levels of the Buddhist doctrine functioning – the ‘popular level’ (Mahāsāṃghika) aimed to the favourable mundane existence and the high, ‘hieratic one’ (Dharmaguptaka) that has the goal of the obtaining of the final liberation – nirvāṇa.
About the Author
Safarali H. Shomakhmadov
Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Competing Interests:
Russian Federation
Safarali H. Shomakhmadov – Ph. D. (Hist.), Senior Research Fellow of the Laboratory “Serindica”
Saint Petersburg
Competing Interests:
The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
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For citation:
Shomakhmadov S.Kh. The Formation Features of 'Dhāraṇis Collection' (Dhāraṇi-piṭaka) as a part of Buddhist Canon in Mahāsāṃghika and Dharmaguptaka schools tradidions. Orientalistica. 2021;4(1):15-27. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31696/2618-7043-2021-4-1-015-027
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