『成就法の花環』Sādhanamālāにおける大寒林明妃成就法

抄録

Mahāśītavatī is a goddess represented in the Buddhist scripture Mahāśītavatī. This paper is an exploration of the influence of the physical descriptions of this goddess on how she is visualized in the Sādhanamālā (SM).

The SM, compiled by Abhayākaragupta in the eleventh or twelfth century, is one of the primary sources for the visualization of images of Buddhist deities. It contains nine different sādhana of the goddess Pañcarakṣā. Of these, No. 200 describes the visualization of Mahāśītavatī, separate from the other four goddesses. Nos. 201 and 206 describe all five manifestations of the goddess Pañcarakṣā.

The Mahāśītavatī is a Buddhist scripture associated with the Pañcarakṣā, a collection of five dhāraṇī. This dhāraṇī sūtra has two versions, commonly referred to as A (ŚV-A) and B (ŚV-B). Although they tell the same story, they differ in their precise contents.

Because the names of real animals (owls, crows, pigeons, etc.) correspond to those of Mahāśītavatī in no. 206 of the SM, it is speculated that the depiction of Mahāśītavatī in SM was influenced by that in ŚV-A.