Mahamayuri Vidyarajni Sutra

Origins and development

The Mahāmayūrī Vidyārājñī Sūtra developed from an earlier text containing two Buddhist narratives. The first concerns the monk Svāti (also known as Sāḍḍhi), who is bitten by a venomous snake while collecting firewood. Ānanda finds him in distress and asks the Buddha for help. The Buddha then teaches the Mahāmayūrī dhāraṇī to cure Svāti and counteract the poison. The second is a jātaka tale in which the Buddha, in a previous life as the Golden Peacock King, uses a protective mantra to protect himself and his flock. On one occasion, he becomes distracted by his peahen consorts and forgets to recite the mantra, allowing a hunter to capture him. He later remembers the dhāraṇī and escapes by reciting it.

The earliest known version of the text is preserved in the 4th-century Bower Manuscript. Later versions became longer and incorporated additional rituals, protective deities, and cosmological material. These changes can be seen in the later Chinese translations, which vary considerably in length.

The Mahāmayūrī Vidyārājñī Sūtra belongs to Buddhist dhāraṇī literature and is associated with the esoteric traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The text originated in India and was translated into Chinese several times between the 4th and 8th centuries. It later became an important protective text in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. Several Chinese translations are known:

• A version attributed to Po-Srimitra during the Eastern Jin dynasty, which survives in three variant recensions.
• A two-scroll version translated by Saṅghavarman during the Liang dynasty, around 516 CE.
• A three-scroll version translated by Yijing in 705 CE, titled Dà Kǒngquè Wáng Zhòuwáng Jīng (大孔雀王咒王經).
• A version produced by the esoteric master Amoghavajra (Chinese: 不空; pinyin: Bùkōng) in the mid-8th century, titled Fómǔ Dà Kǒngquè Míngwáng Jīng (佛母大孔雀明王經).

These versions are preserved in the Taishō Tripiṭaka (T. 985–987) and other Buddhist canonical collections.

In the Chinese Buddhist canon, the sutra appears under several titles corresponding to its different translations. One of the best-known is Fómǔ Dà Kǒngquè Míngwáng Jīng (佛母大孔雀明王經).