Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature I: Revisiting the Meaning of the Term Dhāraṇī

The evolution of the Buddhistrakṣāgenre in the light of new evidence from Gandhāra: The *Manasvi-nāgarāja-sūtrafrom the Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts

“…549. An extensive discussion of the semantic values of the term dhāraṇ ī is now provided in Davidson 2009. from the "spiritual mantras" which are linked with spiritual goals like enlightenment and were introduced not later than the second century CE (Skilling 1992: 151). As he pointed out, the earliest texts that used these elements were composed in the early centuries of our era in North India.…”

Studies indhāraṇīliterature II: Pragmatics ofdhāraṇīs

“…The minimal perlocutionary (affective reception) goal was that the current formulator/user of the mantra-dhāraṇ ī would be understood as acting in a legitimate manner within the Buddhist world and not acting in an illegitimate manner. In my previous study (Davidson 2009: 115-16) I cited a section in Māhīśāsaka-vinaya in which monks reciting "Namo bhagavan!" doubted whether this was legitimate.…”

“…Some may be drawn from Dravidian languages, as Bernhard (1967) argued, but he was not correct in assessing them as mnemonic devicesthey only become mantra-dhāraṇ īs when no longer recognizable. Indeed, the entire discussion of mantra-dhāraṇ īs in the Bodhisattvabhūmi relies on the idea that such phrases are not referential (anartha), in the argument I presented previously (Davidson 2009). There, apparently Dravidian-based words -iṭ i miṭ i kiṭ iare articulated as part of the example, and the Mahāmāyūrī in three places recognizes that it employs similar Dravidian words (Mahāmāyūrī: ili misti kili misti ili kili misti ili me sidhyantu drāmiḍ ā mantrapadāḥ , pp.…”

“…In a previous study of dhāraṇī literature, my primary concern was with the semantics of the term dhāraṇī (Davidson 2009). There I argued that the term had been somewhat misunderstood or presented in a one-sided manner.…”

Stages and perspectives of the development of Dhāraṇī Studies as a branch of Buddhist studies

“…The scholar reviewed composition and content of the monument, and the functioning of dhāraṇī within the text. Secondly, the main line of research into Buddhist sacred recitatives, which was founded as early as in the middle of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries by V. P. Vasiliev and L. Waddell, continued in R. Davidson [8;9;10] and R. Payne's [11] works. The total amount of scientific literature touching on this "speculative" aspect of the study of dhāraṇī can be divided into four directions.…”