AMṚTAPRABHADHĀRAṆĪ, name given by H. W. Bailey to a fifty-line text in Late Khotanese (transcribed in Bailey, Khotanese Texts V, Cambridge, 1963, pp. 61-64). The name occurs in line 30, and a dhāraṇī (Skt. “spell, sacred formula”) begins with the word amritta-prrabhe in line 32. The as yet untranslated text is devoted to veneration of the Buddha Amitāyus, here mentioned in the Late Khotanese form Armyāya (lines 17, 23); Amṛta is another name for Amitāyus in esoteric Buddhism. The work, which refers to itself several times as a sutra, is unusual in that it contains a date inserted into the body of the text (1.12).
Bibliography:
See also R. E. Emmerick, A Guide to the Literature of Khotan, Tokyo, 1979.
(R. E. Emmerick)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: August 3, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 9, p. 996
R. E. Emmerick, “AMṚTAPRABHADHĀRAṆĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/9, p. 996, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amrta-prabha-dharai-name-given-by-h (accessed on 30 December 2012).
