Chanting the Names of Manjushri
Chanting the Names of Manjushri (Skt. Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti; Tib. འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད་, Wyl. ‘jam dpal mtshan brjod) (Toh. 360) — 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. It consists of 160 verses and mantra sentences. In spite of the text's length and difficulty, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö famously memorized it after reading it only once.[1]
Tibetan Text
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 Tribe (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.
In Tibetan
- Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe, 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
- Khenpo Yönten Gönpo, 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
- Chone Drakpa Shedrup: གསུང་འབུམ་, Vol. 2, p. 368, རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་འགྲེལ་གསལ་བ།
Translations
- 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
- Wayman, Alex, Chanting the Names of Manjusri: The Manjusri Nama-Samgiti, Shambhala, 1985, ISBN 978-8120816534
- Tulku Sherdor, Professing the Qualities of Manjushri, in The Wisdom of Manjushri. 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).
