Copied by the head monk of "the great Dharmakirti monastery"

[Nepal - Buddhism]. Karandavyuha [Compassionate Acts of Avalokitesvara].

€ 18.000,00

The important sutra of Mahayana Buddhism on the compassion of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, copied in Sanskrit by a monk in 17th century Nepal. According to an unusually detailed colophon: "In the year Samvat 765 [1645 CE] [...] in the great Dharmakirti monastery, the Head Monk Sri Purnacandra made for himself, his wife, a veritable goddess of Auspiciousness, Bhikuni, his eldest son Kalyana and his wife Bhafini, and for the middle son Jayakusala and his wife Helamani, and his youngest son Jayadharma and his wife Sumangali, and for his grandson Ratnasri [...] this Mahayana sutra called Karandavyuha, the first Nirvyuha [called] Ratnaraja [...] written while dwelling in the Cakravihara monastery, by Manjudeva son of Elder Manideva, the Vajracarya, the sacrificer priest Kutudeva the Vajracarya [...]".

The Karandavyuha is concerned with the compassionate acts of Avalokitesvara, the most widely revered of the Boddhisattvas. The sutra can be seen as an assimilation of Tantric practices into Mahayana Buddhism, and is the earliest work to deal with the most important Buddhist mantra, "Om mani padme hum". Recitation of this mantra is one of the means by which the devotee can attain rebirth in Sukhavati, the dwelling-place of Amitabha Buddha.