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Ä€á¹avaka | |
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Sanskrit | आटवक
Ä€á¹avaka |
PÄli | आळवक
Āḷavaka |
Burmese | အာဠá€á€€á€˜á€®á€œá€°á€¸ |
Chinese | 大元帥明王 ( Pinyin: Dà yuánshuà i MÃngwáng) ç„¡æ¯”åŠ›å¤œå‰ ( Pinyin: WúbÇlì YèchÄ) 阿å’嚩迦 ( Pinyin: Ä€zhà pójiÄ) æ› é‡Žé¬¼ç¥žå¤§å°‡ ( Pinyin: Kuà ngyÄ› GuÇshén Dà jiÄng) |
Japanese | 大元帥明王 ( romaji: Daigensui MyÅÅ) ç„¡æ¯”åŠ›å¤œå‰ ( romaji: Muhiriki Yasha) 阿å’嚩迦 ( romaji: Atabaka) æ› é‡Žé¬¼ç¥žå¤§å°† ( romaji: KÅya Kishin TaishÅ) |
Korean | 대ì›ìˆ˜ëª…왕 ( RR: Daewonsu Myeongwang) |
Thai | à¸à¸²à¸¬à¸§à¸à¸¢à¸±à¸à¸©à¹Œ
Alawaka Yak" |
Tibetan | 'Brog gnas |
Vietnamese | Äại Nguyên Soái Minh VÆ°Æ¡ng A Tra Bà Câu |
Information | |
Venerated by |
TheravÄda
Other |
Attributes | Protection against enemies Protection against calamities, etc. |
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Ä€á¹avaka ( Sanskrit; Pali: Ä€lavaka) is a popular figure in Buddhism. He is a yaká¹£a and regarded as a Wisdom King in esoteric tradition.
The Pali Canon provides the story of Ä€á¹avaka as follows: [1] [2]
At the time of the Buddha, Ä€á¹avaka was a man-eating yaká¹£a that lived deep in the forest of Ä€á¹avI. One day, the king of Ä€á¹avÄ« was hunting in the forest. On his way back to the palace, he passed under a large banyan tree where Ä€á¹avaka dwelt. The yaká¹£a was granted permission by King VaiÅ›ravaṇa that he could seize and devour anyone who came within the shadow of his abode. In exchange for his life, the king, along with his ministers and the mayor Nagaraguttika, made a promise to provide the demon with the bodies of captured criminals as food.
Of Ä€á¹avaka's many powers, one was that a glance at him could make one's body as soft as butter. It eventually came to pass that due to a shortage of criminals, each household in the vicinity was forced to sacrifice one child to satiate the demon. Pregnant women fled the capital until twelve years later, the only child left was the king's own son Ä€á¹avaka KumÄra. The king dressed his son for the occasion of sacrifice. The Buddha, using his power of clairvoyance, saw the potential outcome of the situation and hastened to the yaká¹£a's lair.
While Ä€á¹avaka was away with an assembly of yaká¹£as in the Himalayas, the Buddha was greeted by his doorkeeper Gadrabha. Gadrabha warned the Buddha of the demon's wrathful nature, but the Buddha fearlessly entered Ä€á¹avaka's abode and sat upon his throne.
Gadrabha traveled to the Himalayas to inform Ä€á¹avaka what had happened. Meanwhile, the Buddha was teaching Dharma to Ä€á¹avaka's womenfolk. The yaká¹£as Åšatagiri and Haimavata were also on their way to the assembly in the Himalayas and became aware of the Buddha's presence by their inability to fly directly over him. They flew down to venerate the Buddha before continuing on their journey.
When Ä€á¹avaka heard from Gadrabha, Åšatagiri and Haimavata of the Buddha's presence, he placed his left foot on ManosilÄtala and his right foot on KelÄsakÅ«ta, both localities in the Himalayas, which suggests that the yaká¹£a grew to an enormous size. He cried out his name aloud and hurried back to his palace. Despite his various supernormal powers, he was unsuccessful as dislodging the Buddha from his throne. Even his ultimate weapon; the cloth DussÄvudha, one of the four most powerful weapons in the world; was of no effect. When he hurled it, it simply fell at the Buddha's feet as a rug.
Ä€á¹avaka finally asked the Buddha to leave. The Buddha complied. The demon then summoned him to return, which the Buddha did. To and fro the Buddha went at Ä€á¹avaka's command until the fourth time, when the Buddha refused to obey.
Ä€á¹avaka's proposed a set of questions to the Buddha, claiming that if he was unable to answer, he would possess his mind, rip out his heart, or hurl him by the feet across the Ganges river. Although there are a total of thirteen questions, they are usually grouped together as eight. In question and answer format, these are as follows:
Conviction is a person’s highest wealth.
Dharma, when well-practiced, brings bliss.
Truth is the highest of savors.
Living with discernment, one’s life is called best.
Through conviction one crosses over the flood.
Through heedfulness, one crosses over the sea.
Through persistence one overcomes suffering & stress.
Through discernment a person is purified.
Convinced of the arhats’ Dharma for attaining unbinding,—heedful, observant—one listening well gains discernment.
Doing what’s fitting, enduring burdens, one with initiative finds wealth.
Through truth one attains honor.
Giving binds friends to oneself.
Endowed with these four qualities,— truth, self-control, stamina, relinquishment (cÄga)—a householder of conviction, on passing away, doesn’t grieve. [3]
After his questions were answered, the yaká¹£a, amazed at the Buddha's wisdom and righteousness, became a Å›rotÄpanna. The Commentary (SnA.i.228) states that Ä€á¹avaka's parents had prepared these questions and their answers from KÄÅ›yapa Buddha and taught them to their son. He had them written on a gold leaf with red paint to be stored in his palace. The answers the Buddha gave were identical to those given by KÄÅ›yapa Buddha.
At dawn, the king's men arrived with the young prince prepared for sacrifice as food for Ä€á¹avaka. They hear the yaká¹£a shout with joy upon hearing the Buddha's teachings. When they offered the boy to the demon who in turn handed him over to the Buddha. The Buddha blessed the boy and handed him back to the king's men. This boy was then known as Hastaka Ä€á¹avaka, who became one of the foremost lay disciples of the Buddha.
Upon learning of the demon's conversion, the king and the citizens of Ä€á¹avÄ« built for him a special residence near that of VaiÅ›ravaṇa, where they provided him with gifts of flowers, scents, and more.
The MahÄyÄna tradition recognizes Ä€á¹avaka as a Wisdom King and one of the Eight Great Yaká¹£a Generals of VaiÅ›ravaṇa. A common title is Ä€á¹avaka MahÄyaká¹£asenÄpati ( Sanskrit; lit. “Great Yaká¹£a General Ä€á¹avakaâ€).
In East Asia, he is commonly known as 大元帥明王 ( Chinese: Dà yuánshuà i MÃngwáng; Japanese: Daigensui MyÅÅ; lit. " Generalissimo Wisdom King"), though many other names and translations exist.
Images of Ä€á¹avaka vary, but he is commonly depicted with one head and four arms, four heads and eight arms, six heads and eight arms, eighteen heads and thirty six arms, etc. He is often blue, black or red in color and wields a sword, vajra, and other items. He has a countenance of wrath and a body enveloped by flame, which is common to other Wisdom Kings. He is sometimes seen with NÄgas encircling his arms and legs. [4]
Daigensui MyÅÅ is venerated as a protector of the nation from foreign enemies as well as natural disasters. In ancient times, the Japanese Imperial Court held a ceremony from the eighth to fourteenth days of the first month called Taigen[sui] no hÅ (大元帥ã®æ³•; lit. Law of Ä€á¹avaka) to ward off calamities. [5] In January, 1945, several Shingon monks performed Goma rituals dedicated to Daigensui MyÅÅ to curse the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt died three months later, which the monks claimed was due to their rituals. [6]
Below is a non-exhaustive list of temples and shrines at which Daigensui MyÅÅ is enshrined:
Several esoteric practices fall under Ä€á¹avaka's jurisdiction and include several mantras and dhÄraṇīs. Some are as follows:
Mantra
Mantras for protection
Defense against evil
The Ä€á¹avaka DhÄraṇī SÅ«tra (T. 1238) contains several more dhÄraṇīs as well as several seals (å°, pinyin: yìn) and talismans (符, pinyin: fú) that serve different purposes.
The shout Ä€á¹avaka cried before facing the Buddha is held by tradition to be one of the four shout heard throughout JambudvÄ«pa. His weapon, the DussÄvudha, is also known as one of the four most powerful weapons in the world. If he threw it up into the sky, no rain would fall for twelve years; if he let it fall on the earth, all plants and trees would die and nothing would grow for twelve years; if he threw it into the sea, the sea would completely dry up; it could make Sineru crumble into pieces. The others are:
He is also listed among the yaká¹£as in the AtÄnÄtiya Sutta to be called upon by Buddhists for protection.
Professor Kaigyoku Watanabe has identified the story of Ä€á¹avaka as among the class of KalmÄsapÄda stories, in which three main themes are central: