PARITTA AND RAKṢĀ TEXTS

Paritta (protection) or rakṣā (Pāli, rakka; protection) are protective texts that keep a person who chants them safe from evil spells, menacing other-worldly creatures, and the dangers of knives, guns, disease, betrayal, fire, and poison. Parittas like the Ratana, Maṅgala, Mora, Dibbamanta, Khandha, Dhajagga, and Āṭānāṭiya suttas are some of the most common texts used in Southeast Asian Buddhism. Rakṣās like the Pañcarakṣā and sections of the Candragarbha-sūtra also fall under this protective invocational genre and are well known by practitioners in India, Tibet, and East Asia. They are important in daily monastic and lay Buddhist life, and collections of these texts, such as the Pirit Pota in Sri Lanka or the Jet Tamnān in Laos, are found in most homes and monasteries. Any Buddhist who regularly attends monastic ceremonies, or requests monks to bless his or her property or endeavors is familiar with these Pāli and Sanskrit texts, which often serve as subjects for sermons. Paritta and rakṣā literature has long been associated with ritual action and protective implements, such as sacred string, holy water, candles, amulets and talismans, incense, knives, engraved metal manta (Sanskrit, mantra) texts—rolled and worn around the neck (Thai, takrut)—and the like. Paritta and rakṣā literature is also the subject of decorative and ritual art in Tibet and East Asia.

Primary textual sources abound for those interested in Buddhist protective texts. There are several places in the earliest Pāli suttas, chronicles, and commentaries from the third century b.c.e. to the sixth century c.e. that mention how parittas were employed during protective ceremonies. For example, the commentary on Ratana-sutta mentions that Ānand A sprinkled water from the Buddha's alms bowl as he went through Vesāli reciting the sutta. Older canonical texts from the third century b.c.e. to the third century c.e. that also describe parittas being used in ceremonies are mentioned in the Mahāvaṃsa (VII 14) when the Buddha is said to have permitted the use of a protective chant to cure a snakebite in the Vinayapiṭaka (II 109–110). As Peter Skilling points out, the Āṭānāṭiya-sutta of the Dīghanikāya is a protective paritta. The MilindapaÑha (150, 27) states that the Buddha himself sanctioned the use of these protective texts. The Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā (III 6) includes a story in which the Buddha recommends the use of a protective manta for monks who are afraid of tree spirits.

Although the differences between the uses of paritta texts of South and Southeast Asia and their counterparts—the rakṣā texts of India, Tibet, and East Asia—have not been adequately explored, certain MahĀyĀna sūtras contain sections that could be called protective texts. Some texts that fall under this rubric are sections of the Sikṣāsamuccaya and Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, as well as tantric (Tibetan, rgyud) texts in the Tibetan Kanjur, such as the Mahāsitavanasūtra and Bhadrakara-sūtra. In East Asia, chapter 21 of the Lotus SŪtra (SaddharmapuṆḌarikasūtra), on the supernatural powers of the tathāgata, is also considered a protective text.

The five goddesses of Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism also are the focus of protective texts known loosely as the Pañcarakṣā These texts are hymns that praise and request the protective power of the five goddesses (Mahāprātisārā, Mahāsāsrapramardiṇī, Mahāmantrānudhāriṇī, Mahāmantrānusāriṇī, and Mahāmāyūī). The last, Mahāmāyūrī, became the focus of her own cult, and popular protective texts, such as the fourth-century MahāmāyūrīVidyārājñī, were used to invoke her in ritual. These five deities are especially popular among Newar Buddhists in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, but they are also depicted on murals in the AjaṆṬĀ cave complex in India and are the subject of elaborate maṆḌalas in Tibet and China. In the various mikkyo (esoteric) schools of Japan, Mahāmāyūrī, in particular, is a myōō (radiant wisdom ruler) and she is depicted riding on the back of a peacock (who has the ability to kill snakes) and holding two fruits that ward off evil spirits and protect against illness.

In Southeast Asia parittas are part of everyday Buddhist monastic and secular life. In modern Thailand parittas are chanted at a number of ceremonies and especially at house, water buffalo, and even motorcycle blessings. In northeastern Thailand these ceremonies often involve a quorum of four monks who chant while holding a white cord that connects their hands to everyone in the room. This cord is also wrapped around a Buddha image and often surrounds the whole room or even the whole house. One end of the cord is submerged in a bowl of water and, after the chanting, a handful of leaves is placed in the water and then used to flick water over those objects to be blessed and the people who attend the ceremony. Protective yan (Sanskrit, yantra) are drawn with moistened white powder and sealed with small gold leaves and the exhalation of the monk who has chanted. The power of parittas lies in their sound and in their role in a protective ceremony, and less (or not at all) in their semantic meaning. In fact, their meaning often has nothing to do with their role and result in a ritual.

The numbers of mantras (Pāli, manta) in the various paritta collections varied widely before the printing of modern prayer books like the Royal Chanting Book of Thailand, the various Gu Meu Phra Song of modern Laos, and the Catubhānavāra in Burma (Myanmar). Still, the Ratana, Maṅgala, and Dibbamanta parittas have remained at the core of these collections for centuries. The parameters of the Rakṣā genre in Tibet and East Asia are more difficult to define and this genre overlaps in content and function with that of dhĀraṆĪ. Both groups of texts play a significant role in the ritual life of Buddhists across the various schools in Asia.

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Justin McDaniel