Chanting the Names of Manjushri

Manjushri

Chanting the Names of Manjushri (Skt. Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti; Tib. འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད་, Jampal Tsenjö, Wyl. ‘jam dpal mtshan brjod) — a famous praise of Manjushri, sometimes known as the 'king of all tantras'. Taught directly by Buddha Shakyamuni, the tantra lists names that praise Manjushri, who is here to be understood not as a bodhisattva but as the embodiment of the primordial wisdom of all buddhas.

The text takes the form of a long poem in 167 verses plus a chapter in prose describing the benefits of reciting the tantra. Like many Buddhist scriptures, it is presented in the form of a request and response: the bodhisattva Vajrapani requests a teaching of the Buddha, and the Buddha gives the reply that forms the main portion of the work. At the end, Vajrapani and the others present rejoice and praise the Buddha. The commentaries generally divide Chanting the Names of Manjushri into fourteen short chapters, thirteen in verse and one in prose.

In spite of the text's length and difficulty, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö famously memorized it after reading it only once.

Text

The Sanskrit text is still extant today. It can be found for example in:

• Wayman, Alex, Chanting the Names of Manjusri: The Manjusri Nama-Samgiti, (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1985).

Tibetan

The Tibetan translation of this text can be found in the Kangyur; it is the very first text of the Tantra section (Toh. 360). It is classified within the Highest Yoga Tantra section.

The first translation into Tibetan was done in the eighth century by the great early translators Chokro Lüi Gyaltsen and Kawa Paltsek working under the guidance of Padmasambhava.

The best known Tibetan translation is that of the great Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo, done during the 10th-11th centuries. Rinchen Zangpo is renowned for having recited Chanting the Names of Manjushri himself 100,000 times each in Sanskrit and Tibetan, and in addition to having sponsored a further 100,000 recitations of it.

The Tibetan Kangyur includes a translation by Pang Lodrö Tenpa, and there were at least three other Tibetan translations as well.

• Tibetan text: འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད་, ‘jam dpal mtshan brjod

Chinese

Chanting the Names of Manjushri was first translated into Chinese by an Indian monk named Dānapāla, a contemporary of Rinchen Zangpo, while he was visiting China.

Mongolian

Chanting the Names of Manjushri was also translated from Rinchen Zangpo’s Tibetan into Mongolian, and a four-language woodblock edition was made with the Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian versions.

English Translations by Translator

• Berzin, Alexander, 'A Concert of Names of Manjushri', available here (date unknown)
• Conlon, Ryan, Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī, available on Lotsawa House, 2022.
• Davidson, Ronald M. (ed. & transl.) 'The Litany of Names of Manjushri - Text and Translation of the Manjushri-nama-samgiti', in Strickmann (ed.) Tantric and Taoist Studies (R.A. Stein Festschrift), Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises (Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques, vol. XX-XXI) 1981
• Gyurme Dorje, 'The Litany of the Names of Manjushri', included with interlinear commentary in Choying Tobden Dorje's The Complete Nyingma Tradition, Volumes 15-17 (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2018)
• Khenpo David Karma Choephel, Reciting the Names of Manjushri, translation from the Sanskrit with reference to the Tibetan translations as well as to various Sanskrit and Tibetan commentaries. It is accompanied by a version arranged for chanting in Tibetan as well as an analysis of the sources. Available here (Dharma Ebooks Publications, 2024)
• Sherdor, Tulku, 'Professing the Qualities of Manjushri', in The Wisdom of Manjushri (Delancey: Blazing Wisdom Publications, 2012)
• Tribe, Anthony, Tantric Buddhist Practice in India: Vilāsavajra’s Commentary on the Mañjuśrī-Nāmasaṃgīti, 1st edition (London, New York: Routledge, 2016).
• Wayman, Alex, Chanting the Names of Manjusri: The Manjusri Nama-Samgiti, (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1985)

French Translations

• Carré, Patrick, Le Choral du Nom de Mañjusshrî : Arya-Mañjushrî-Nâmasangîti (La Bégude de Mazenc: Arma Artis, 2004)

Commentaries

In Sanskrit

Three major commentaries (and one further sub-commentary) are presently known to be extant in Sanskrit:

• Vilāsavajra, Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī: The first five chapters of this text have been edited and translated by Anthony Tribe in Tantric Buddhist Practice in India: Vilāsavajra’s commentary on the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṃgīti (Routledge, 2016)
• Raviśrījñāna, Aṃṛtakaṇikā: This work, which accords with the Kalachakra Tantra's system, has been edited and published by Banarasi Lal in 1994 along with a sub-commentary by Vibhūticandra.
• Gūḍhapadā, attributed to one 'Advayavakra' (likely Advyavajra), is known to be extant in only one manuscript, namely, Hodgson 34 in the Royal Asiatic Society. This large commentary has not been edited, nor does it appear to have been translated into Tibetan.

A further twenty three Indian commentaries are available in the Tibetan Tengyur; they were translated from the Sanskrit between the eighth century, when Vairotsana’s commentary was translated, and the late fifteenth century, when Shalu Lotsawa translated the commentary by Umala Gawa.

In Tibetan

• Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (11th c.)
• Ngok Shyedang Dorjé (12th c.)
• Khedrup Gelek Palzang (14th-15th c.)
• Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe, (15th c.) འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་རྒྱུད་དོན་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ནོར་བུའི་སྒྲོན་མ་, ‘phags pa 'jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa'i 'grel pa rgyud don rab tu gsal bar byed pa legs bshad nor bu'i sgron ma
• Gendün Gyatso, the Second Dalai Lama (15th-16th c.)
• Chone Drakpa Shedrup (17th-18th c.): གསུང་འབུམ་, Vol. 2, p. 368, རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་འགྲེལ་གསལ་བ།
• Khenpo Yönten Gönpo (19th c.): འཇམ་དཔལ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་རྒྱུད་དོན་རབ་གསལ་ཉི་ཟླའི་སྣང་བ་, ‘jam dpal sgyu 'phrul drwa ba'i rgyud kyi mchan 'grel rgyud don rab gsal nyi zla'i snang ba
• Tsalo Rinchen Namgyal (19th c.), The Stainless Jewel Mirror Illuminating the Suchness of the Vajra Tantra, the Noble Recitation of Manjushri’s Names, a student of Chokgyur Lingpa
• Rinchen Dargye (19th c.)

External Links

• Chanting the Names of Manjushri: A Reader's Guide
• Wisdom’s Bestowal—A Way to Accumulate the Recitation of the Tantra Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī, by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
• Prayer book from the North American Sakya Monlam, translated by Gelong Ngawang Khyentse