Pratītyasamutpāda gāthā

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Stone statue of Buddha from Sultanganj in Bihar with ye dharma hetu inscribed on the lotus base (magnify to see), 500-700 AD

The Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā, also referred to as the Pratītyasamutpāda-dhāraṇī (dependent origination incantation) or ye dharmā hetu, is a verse (gāthā) and a dhāraṇī widely used by Buddhists in ancient times which was held to have the function of a mantra or sacred spell.

According to traditional sources, these words were spoken by the Buddha's disciple Aśvajit when asked about the teaching of the Buddha. Upon hearing these words, Śāriputra instantly attained the stage of stream entry; he later shared the verses with his friend Maudgalyayana who also attained stream entry. Then they both visited the Buddha, along with 500 of their disciples, and asked to become his disciples.

Text

File:India, Bihar, Bodhgaya - Votive Plaque with Figure of the Buddha, Temple at Bodhgaya, and Stupas - 1985.219 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif

Votive plaque with figure of the Buddha at the Cleveland Museum of Art, originating from Bodhgaya, and featuring the Pratītyasamutpāda gāthā at the bottom. (Magnify to see the text.)

Sanskrit

Image of a Buddhist engraving discovered at the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China. The engraving is a series of dharanis and mantras, beginning with the Pure Land Rebirth Dharani, but also including the Dependent Origination Gatha.

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The Dependent Origination Dhāraṇī in Ranjana and Tibetan scripts

The gāthā / dhāraṇī is rendered in Sanskrit as follows:

ये धर्मा हेतुप्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागतो ह्यवदत् ।
तेषां च यो निरोध एवंवादी महाश्रमणः ॥

IAST transliteration:

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hyavadat
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahāśramaṇaḥ.

Pali

In Pali (Sinhala script), the text reads:

‘යේ ධම්මා හේතුප්පභවා

තේසං හේතුං තථාගතෝ ආහ .
තේසඤ්ච යෝ නිරෝධෝ

ඒවං වාදී මහාසමණෝ ..”

Transliteration into Latin script:

ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesaṃ hetuṃ tathāgato āha .
tesañca yo nirodho evaṃ vādī mahāsamaṇo ..

English translation

Daniel Boucher translates as follows:

Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause, and that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant (śramaṇa) has taught.

The Pāḷi commentaries take the first line as pointing to suffering (dukkha), the second to its cause (samudaya) and the third to its cessation (nirodha).

Tibetan translation

In Tibetan:

ཆོས་གང་རྒྱུ་བྱུང་དེ་དག་གི། །རྒྱུ་དང་དེ་འགོག་གང་ཡིན་པའང་། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་བཀའ་སྩལ་ཏེ། །དགེ་སློང་ཆེན་པོས་དེ་སྐད་གསུངས།།

or

ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྒྱུ་ལས་བྱུང་། །དེ་རྒྱུ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་གསུངས། །རྒྱུ་ལ་འགོག་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ། །དགེ་སྦྱོང་ཆེན་པོས་འདི་སྐད་གསུངས།

The Wylie transliteration is:

chos gang rgyu byung de dag gi | rgyu dang de 'gog gang yin pa'ng |

de bzhin gshegs pas bka' stsal te | dge slong chen pos de skad gsungs ||

or

chos rnams thams cad rgyu las byung | de rgyu de bzhin gshegs pas gsungs |

rgyu la 'gog pa gang yin pa |

dge sbyong chen pos 'di skad gsungs ||

Inscriptions

This gāthā was commonly inscribed on Buddhist images. It was often found carved on chaityas, stupas, images, or placed within chaityas.

For examples, see:

• Pratītyasamutpāda_gāthā#Usage, Wikipedia

External links

• Ye dharmā hetuprabhava - Causation
• - Sāriputta and Moggallāna's story in the Mahavagga