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.[1] It was often found carved on chaityas, stupas, images, or placed within chaityas.[2] [3] [4]
The Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā is used in Sanskrit as well as Pali. It is found in Mahavagga section of Vinaya Pitaka of the Pali Canon. The mantra has been widely used. It has been used at Sarnath, Tirhut, Kanari Copperplate, Tagoung, Sherghatti, near Gaya, Allahabad column, Sanchi etc.
According to Buddhist scriptural sources, these words were used by the Arahat Assaji (Skt: Aśvajit) when asked about the teaching of the Buddha. On the spot, Sariputta (Skt: Śāriputra) attained the stage of stream entry and later shared the verses with his friend Moggallāna (Skt: Maudgalyayana) who also attained stream entry. They then went to the Buddha, along with 500 of their disciples, and asked to become his disciples.[5]
The gāthā / dhāraṇī in Sanskrit is as follows:
ये धर्मा हेतु-प्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागतो ह्यवदत्IAST transliteration:
तेषां च यो निरोध एवंवादी महाश्रमणः
ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hyavadat.
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ
In Pali, the text reads:
‘යේ ධම්මා හේතුප්පභවාTransliteration into Latin script:
තේසං හේතු තථාගතෝ ආහ
තේසංච යෝ නිරෝධෝ
ඒවං වාදි මහා සමණෝ”
ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesaṁ hetuṁ tathāgato āha,
tesaṃ ca yo nirodho evaṁvādī mahāsamaṇo.
Daniel Boucher translates as follows:[6]
Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause,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).and that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant (sramana) has taught.
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།།orཆོས་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'ngde bzhin gshegs pas bka' stsal te/ dge slong chen po de skad gsungs //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 //
A copper place from the Gandhara region (probably Bamiyan), dated to about 5th century AD has a variation of the mantra. It appears to have some mistakes, for example it uses taṭhāgata instead of tathāgata. It is now in the Schøyen Collection.[7]
The mantra was often also carved below the images of the Buddha. A Buddhist screen (parikara) and accompanying Buddha image is now preserved at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. While the objects were found in South India, the mantra is given in north Indian 8-9th century script, perhaps originating from the Pala region.[8]
The Bukit Meriam Sanskrit inscription from Kedah includes two additional lines. The inscription is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Other similar inscriptions were found in the Kedah region.[9]
Here several minor orthographic peculiarities (i.e. misspellings) have been standardized. The lines can be translated as:
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 has taught.
Through ignorance, karma is accumulated; karma is the cause of birth.
Through knowledge, karma is not accumulated; through absence of karma, one is not (re)born.
Ye dharma hetu is also found in Thailand including the stupa peak found in 1927 from Nakhon Pathom [10] along with a wall of Phra Pathom Chedi and a shrine in Phra Pathom chedi found in 1963,[11] [12] a brick found in 1963 from Chorakhesamphan township, U Thong district of Suphanburi,[13] stone inscriptions found in 1964 [14] [15] and the stone inscription found in 1980 from Srithep Archeological site.[16] All of them have been inscribed in Pallava scripts of Pali language dated 12th Buddhist century (the 7th Century in common era). Furthermore, there are Sanskrit version of ye dharma hetu inscribed in Pallava scripts in clay amulets found in 1989 from an archaeological site in Yarang district of Pattani dated to the 7th century CE.[17] [18]