The Quintessence of the Peahen
Māyūrīvidyāgarbha
A food offering made to a deity or spirits; such an offering may be varied and elaborate. In conventional use, the term bali can also mean “tax.”
According to classical Indian medicine (āyurveda), one of the three vital substances in the body, along with wind and phlegm, which result in good health when balanced and illness or less than optimal health when imbalanced.
In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possession of six auspicious qualities (bhaga) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term—where bcom is said to refer to “subduing” the four māras, ldan to “possessing” the great qualities of buddhahood, and ’das to “going beyond” saṃsāra and nirvāṇa—possibly reflects the commentarial tradition where the Sanskrit bhagavat is interpreted, in addition, as “one who destroys the four māras.” This is achieved either by reading bhagavat as bhagnavat (“one who broke”), or by tracing the word bhaga to the root √bhañj (“to break”).
A fully awakened being; here it refers to the Buddha Śākyamuni, one of the Three Jewels.
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
Here dharma refers to one of the Three Jewels. The term dharma conveys ten different meanings according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti. The primary meanings are as follows: the doctrine taught by the Buddha, the ultimate reality underlying and expressed through the Buddha’s teaching, the trainings that the Buddha’s teaching stipulates, the various awakened qualities or attainments acquired through practicing and realizing the Buddha’s teaching, qualities or aspects more generally (i.e., phenomena or phenomenal attributes), and mental objects.
The term graha refers to a class of nonhuman beings who “seize,” possess, or otherwise adversely influence other beings by causing a range of physical and mental afflictions, as well as various kinds of misfortune. The term can also be applied generically to other classes of supernatural beings who have the capacity to adversely affect health and well-being. The word also very often denotes the nine “planets”: the seven planets of classical astrology (including the sun and the moon) plus the two lunar nodes.
A term that at once refers to a type of mantra or dhāraṇī and to the deity it invokes, thereby reflecting their inseparability. A vidyā is typically applied to female deities and is often, but not exclusively, used for worldly goals in esoteric ritual. In worldly contexts a vidyā is similar to a “spell.”
According to classical Indian medicine (āyurveda), one of the three vital substances in the body, along with wind and bile, which result in good health when balanced and illness or less than optimal health when imbalanced.
Though often specifically reserved for the monastic community, this term can be applied to any of the four Buddhist communities—monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen—as well as to identify the different groups of practitioners, like the community of bodhisattvas or the community of śrāvakas. It is also the third of the Three Jewels (triratna) of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Teaching, and the Community.
According to classical Indian medicine (āyurveda), one of the three vital substances in the body, along with phlegm and bile, which result in good health when balanced and illness or less than optimal health when imbalanced.
rma bya’i yang snying (Māyūrīvidyāgarbha). Toh 560, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, pha), folios 117.a–117.b.
rma bya’i yang snying. Skorupski 519, Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 103 (rgyud, na), folios 516.a–516.b.
rig sngags kyi rgyal mo rma bya chen mo (Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī). Toh 559, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, pha), folios 87.b–117.a. English translation The Queen of Incantations: The Great Peahen 2023.
Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī. GRETIL edition input by Klaus Wille, based on Takubo 1972. Accessed April 23, 2024.
84000. The Queen of Incantations: The Great Peahen (Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī, rigs sngags kyi rgyal po rma bya chen mo, Toh 559). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
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Cowell, E. B., and F. W. Thomas, trans. The Harṣa-Carita of Bāṇa. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1897.
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Strauch, Ingo. “The Evolution of the Buddhist rakṣā Genre in the Light of New Evidence from Gandhāra: The *Manasvi-nāgarāja-sūtra from the Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77, no. 1 (2014): 63–84.
Takubo, Shūyo, ed. Ārya-Mahā-Māyūrī Vidyā-rājñī. Tokyo: Sankibo, 1972.
