The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra is a Mantrayāna sūtra which extols the virtues and powers of Avalokiteśvara, and is particularly notable for introducing the mantraOm mani padme hum into the sūtra tradition.
General Features
The Karandavyuha Sutra is a Mantrayāna sutra that was compiled at the end of the 4th century or beginning of the 5th century CE. According to the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra, the sun and moon are said to be born from Avalokiteśvara's eyes, Shiva from his brow, Brahma from his shoulders, Narayana from his heart, Sarasvati from his teeth, the winds from his mouth, the earth from his feet and the sky from his stomach. The sutra introduces the Buddhist mantra, Om Manipadme Hum, which it states can lead to liberation and eventual Buddhahood. A. Studholme sees this famous mantra as being a declarative aspiration, possibly meaning 'I in the jewel-lotus', with the jewel-lotus being a reference to birth in the lotus made of jewels in the Buddhist Paradise, Sukhavati, of BuddhaAmitabha. The mantra is the very heart of Avalokitesvara and can usher in Awakening. A. Studholme writes: 'Om Manipadme Hum, then, is both the paramahrdaya, or 'innermost heart', of Avalokitesvara... It is also... a mahavidya, a mantra capable of bringing about the 'great knowledge' of enlightenment itself...' Avalokitesvara himself is linked in the versified version of the sutra to the first Buddha, the Adi-Buddha, who is 'svayambhu'. Studholme comments: 'Avalokitesvara himself, the verse sutra adds, is an emanation of the Adibuddha, or 'primordial Buddha', a term that is explicitly said to be synonymous with Svayambhu and Adinatha, 'primordial lord'.' According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, the text of Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra arrived in a casketfrom the sky unto the roof of the palace of the 28th king of Tibet, LhaThothori Nyantsen who died in 650 C.E., in southern Tibet. This coincides with one version of dating of the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, somewhere in the 4th or perhaps early 5th century, however it seems more likely that the sutra has originated in Kashmir, due to closeness to characteristics to Kasmiri tantrictraditions of the time and to Avataṁsakasūtra earlier associated with the Central Asian regions.
Translations
The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra was first translated into Tibetan as the Za ma tog bkod pa in the eighth century CE by Jinamitra, Ye shes sdes and others. Later, the text was translated by T'ien-hsi-tsai into Chinese from a Tibetan version around 1000 CE. The Sutra has also been translated into English by Peter Alan Roberts with the help of Tulku Yeshi
