(Sanskrit, ; ; Japanese: ; ) or (; Ch: 羅馬化) is a female Indian Buddhist deity who remains popular in East Asian Buddhism. In Chinese Buddhism, she is associated with the practice of the well known Cundī dharani, which is performed along with a specific mudra (hand gesture), as well as the use of a circular mirror.Gimello, Robert (2004). "Icon and Incantation: The Goddess Zhunti and the Role of Images in the Occult Buddhism of China". In Images in Asian Religions: Texts and Contexts, ed. Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara: pp. 71–85. She is considered to be able to purify negative karma, provide protection, support spiritual practice which allows one to quickly attain Buddhahood.Shaw, Miranda (2006). Buddhist Goddesses of India, pp. 265–267. Princeton University Press
This deity is also called by various other names and epithets, including Cundavajrī, Saptakoṭi Buddha-bhagavatī ("The Blessed Buddha of the Seventy Million", 七俱胝佛母), "Zhunti Buddha Mother" (準提佛母, Zhǔntí Fómǔ) in Chinese and Saptakoṭibuddhamatṛ ("Mother of Seventy Million Buddhas", though this Sanskrit reconstruction of 佛母 is speculative).
Some depictions of Cundī share many iconographic and symbolic elements with another female Buddhist deity, Prajñāpāramitā Devi. As such, some images of these goddesses are difficult to identify.Kinnard, Jacob (1999). Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism, pp. 114–148. Routledge.
In Tibetan Buddhism she is known by the name Lhamo Cunda, Chunde or Cundi ('Lhamo' in Tibetan is 'Devi' in Sanskrit, a term of veneration meaning 'goddess').
In India
Name The name Cundī (along with other variations like Cundā, Cundrā, Candrā, Caṇḍā, and Cuṇḍrā) refers to an Indian Mahayana Buddhist deity found in numerous Indian sources such as the Śikṣāsamuccaya, Cundādhāriṇī Sūtra, Sādhanamālā, Niṣpannayogāvalī, Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa and the Guhyasamāja.Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (1924). The Indian Buddhist Iconography Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals, P. 220. Oxford University Press.Puspa Niyogi (1977). Cundā - a Popular Buddhist Goddess. East and West, 27(1-4), 299–308. doi:10.2307/29756386 Conze notes that the Tibetan terms for the goddess goes back to the Sanskrit: Cundī, Caṇḍī (a name for hindu goddess Durga), Cunda, Chundi, or Cuṇṭi. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya argues the correct Sanskrit name should be Cundā.
The deity's mantra, "oṃ cale cule cunde svāhā," seems to indicate the original name being Cundā. Peter Alan Roberts comments, in a note to a translation of the Tibetan version of the : "Cale cule cunde are the vocative forms of Calā, Culā, and Cundā, three variations of her name. Cundi is the vocative for Cundī."
The meaning of these names is not always clear. The name Cundī connotes a low caste woman, prostitute or other low class female position (such as a madam/procuress). Robert Gimello and the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism claim that the deity may have emerged as a local yakshini that became important in Indian Buddhism in around the 8th century.
According to The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, the word Cuṇḍā in Sanskrit can also mean a small well or reservoir.
Regarding Candrā, the name means moon in Sanskrit and the goddess is often described as being the color of the moon.
In Japanese Buddhism, there is no agreed upon etymology. Proposals include Śundhi (purity), Sunda (bright and beautiful), Cuṇṭi (well), or Cuṇḍī (to become smaller). Oda Tokunō (織田得能) interpreted the name as "purity, in praise of the purity of mind and nature" which refers to the Dharmakāya (in Bukkyo daijiten [Buddhist Dictionary], rev. ed. Tokyo 1954, p. 993b, s.v. "Juntei 準提").C. N. Tay. Kuan-Yin: The Cult of Half Asia, History of Religions, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Nov. 1976), p. 152. According to C. N. Tay, "the Fo Guang Buddhist Dictionary, ed. Ding Fubao (丁福保) follows this interpretation."
In Indian Buddhist sources An 11th century manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (at the Cambridge University Library) contains a miniature illustration of "Cundā of the Cundā temple of Paṭṭikerā" (in Tippera, Bangladesh).
In the Sādhanamālā, Cundā is considered to be affiliated with Vairocana Buddha and the Niṣpannayogāvalī states that she is the embodiment of the Cundādhāriṇī, a dharani also mentioned by Shantideva in his Śikṣāsamuccaya. In the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, she appears under the name Candrā (which generally means moon in Sanskrit).Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (1924). The Indian Buddhist Iconography Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals, P. 221. Oxford University Press. Images of the deity also appear in illustrated Prajñāpāramitā sutra manuscripts. Cundī and the Cundī Dhāraṇī are also featured in the Cundī Dhāraṇī Sūtra, which was translated three times from Sanskrit into Chinese in the late 7th century and early 8th century by the Indian esoteric masters Divākara (685 CE), Vajrabodhi (723 CE), and Amoghavajra (8th century).
The worship of this deity became popular in north India during the Pala Empire, where she was taken as a patron deity of the Pāla dynasty. According to the Tibetan historian Taranatha, the founder of the dynasty, Gopala I, was a devotee of Cundā. The deity spread throughout the Buddhist world to the rest of India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and the Himalayan regions, also becoming popular in East Asia. During the 8th century, various texts related to the deity were translated into Chinese.
Another important Buddhist textual source of Cundī and the Cundī Dhāraṇī is the , a sūtra centered around the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara that introduced the popular mantra .Studholme, Alexander (2002) The Origins of Oṃ Maṇipadme Hūṃ: A Study of the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra: p. 175 This text is first dated to around the late 4th century CE to the early 5th century CE.Studholme, Alexander (2002) The Origins of Oṃ Maṇipadme Hūṃ: A Study of the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra: p. 17 This text may be the reason the deity later came to be identified with Guanyin. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha, her mantra appears after Om mani padme hum is pronounced. Seventy million Buddhas appear and recite the Cundī Dhāraṇī. Gimello writes that the sutra "relates an occasion on which seventy-seven krore of tathagatas recited the Cundī Dhāraṇī, thereby causing a pore in Avalokitesvara's body to open and reveal in brilliant illumination a vast multitude of world systems (T. 1050: 20.63a)".
Iconography
Cundī is usually depicted with multiple arms. A common form of Cundī found in East Asia has eighteen arms, each wielding implements that symbolize skillful means. Her eighteen arms also represent the eighteen merits of attaining Buddhahood, as described in an appendix to the . There are forms of Cundī with four, six, sixteen or twenty-six arms. The four arms of the four-armed form of Cundī symbolize the four immeasurables: loving-kindness or benevolence (maitrī), compassion (karuṇā), empathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekṣā).
In the Sādhanamālā, she is described as follows:She is of the colour of the autumn moon, and is four-armed. She shows the varada-mudrā in the right hand and holds the book on a lotus in the left. The two other hands hold the bowl. She is decked in all ornaments. Abhayakaragupta's Niṣpannayogāvalī describes the deity in the mañjuvajra-maṇḍala as follows:Cundā is moon-white in colour. She has twenty-six arms. With the two principal hands she exhibits the chief mudrā. In the remaining right hands she shows the 1. abhaya-mudrā, 2. sword, 3. garland of jewels, 4. citron, 5. arrow, 6. axe, 7. club, 8. hammer, 9. goad, 10. thunderbolt, 11. tripatākā and 12. rosary. In the remaining left hands she shows the 1. flag marked with cintāmaṇi jewel, 2. lotus, 3. Kamaṇḍalu, 4. noose, 5. bow, 6. javelin, 7. discus, 8. sword, 9. tarjaṇī (raised index finger), 10. bowl, 11. bhiṇḍipāla and 12. the prajñāpāramitā Scripture. A three-faced, twenty-six armed Cundā form exists in the Rinjung Gyatsa, a collection of deities from all four classes of tantra, compiled in the sixteenth century by the Tibetan master Lama Taranatha.
In many images of Cundā, her arms hold numerous symbolic objects or make Buddhist hand gestures - mudras. Important mudras which are often depicted in images of Cundā include the dharmachakra mudra (which symbolizes turning the dharmawheel), the varada mudra (symbolizes granting fulfillment) and the abhaya mudra (fearlessness). Regarding the symbols that she holds, Puspa Niyogi writes:Among the objects held, the lotus is a symbol of purity; the book held by Cundā is Cundādhāriṇī, the rosary is for counting the number of repetitions of the mantra; the cakra is the symbol of absolute completeness; dhvaja is the banner of victory; the trisula is held to symbolize "the sun with a flame" but there is much diversity of opinion regarding it; the sword is the symbol of the emptiness which constitutes the core of the doctrine of perfect wisdom. The begging-bowl typifies renunciation of all possessions.
Hinduism In Hindu texts, a deity also called Cundā is considered a vindictive form of the goddess Durgā, or Pārvatī, wife of the god Śiva. However, as Gimello notes "the often repeated claim that she is the Buddhist form of the Saivite deity Durgā invites suspicion, except insofar as both goddesses are examples of the general growth of devotion to female and maternal deities so rife throughout medieval India."
In East Asian Buddhism Chinese history
According to Robert Gimello, Cundī "came to be a, if not the, central focus of esoteric Buddhist practice in late traditional Chinese Buddhism. She is still a significant presence in Chinese Buddhism today." In China she became known as Zhǔntí Fómǔ (, "Buddha-Mother Zhunti").Bentley, Tamara Heimarck (2017). Repentant Monk: Illusion and Disillusion in the Art of Chen Hongshou, p. 47. Univ of California Press. She is also called Zhǔntí Púsà (, "Cundi Bodhisattva").
She was introduced into China in the 8th century when the Cundīdevīdhāraṇīsūtra was translated by Divakara (Dipoheluo, 613–688). Zanning (919–1001) mentions that Vajrabodhi (who also translated a version of the Cundīdevīdhāraṇīsūtra) conducted a Cundī ritual for the Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–736) to help end a long drought, a rite which was deemed to be successful. Amoghavajra translated another version of the sutra, Cundīdevīdhāraṇīsūtra (Qi Juzhi Fomu Suo Shuo Zhun Ti Tuoluoni Jing) which is significantly larger. Various related ritual manuals (like the Seven Koti Buddha Devi Cundi Heart Dharani Ritual and the Seven Koti Devi Ritual, are attributed to Śubhakarasiṃha).
Further sources were translated during the Song dynasty which augmented the Chinese cult of Cundī and her status as an esoteric deity including Kāraṇḍavyūha sūtra, the Māyājāla tantra, and the Cundī (Cundā) tantra.
In the 11th century Buddhism of the Liao dynasty (916–1125), Chinese Cundī practice developed into its most well known form (which remains influential today). This was led by the work of Daoshen who wrote the Collection of Essentials for the Attainment of Buddhahood by Total [Inter-]Penetration of the Esoteric and the Exoteric,. Daoshen's work linked Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, especially Cundī esotericism, with Huayan philosophy. According to Gimello, Daoshen's work is the foundation of what is today known as Chinese "Cundī Esotericism".