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Mahādibbamanta (Pali:Mahādibbamanta, Thai: พระมหาทิพพมนต์) is an esotericTheravādaparitta text preserved in palm-leaf manuscripts across mainland Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia. A well-known Cambodian exemplar consists of a short prose introduction followed by 108 verses, functioning as a protective chant that blends Pali invocations, auspicious number symbolism, and references to powerful guardians.[1]
Although outside the Pali Canon, the text belongs to the wider mainland Southeast Asianrakkhā/paritta literature—protective compositions transmitted alongside canonical suttas and widely used in ritual life.[2] Surveys of protective manuals and their manuscript cultures show how such texts proliferated in Theravāda communities and were arranged into regional cycles and anthologies.[3]
Within Buddhist studies, the text is read as part ofSouthern Esoteric Buddhism (borān kammatthāna), a ritual–meditative current combining Pali liturgy, mantras, yantric diagrams, deity frameworks, and initiatory transmission.[4][5][6]
A Cambodian palm-leaf manuscript has circulated among scholars; Padmanabh S. Jaini introduced and commented on this exemplar, highlighting its structure and protective aims. The title also appears in library and book-trade listings associated with the Fragile Palm Leaves research milieu.[1] Broader proceedings on protective texts provide catalog-style overviews and case studies of related manuscripts and printed recensions.[7]
The Cambodian exemplar contains an opening prose section followed by 108 verses—an auspicious total in Buddhist ritual—featuring salutations, truth-act formulas, protective epithets, and invocations arranged in a mandala-like ordering of Buddhas and disciples.[1] Within Southeast Asian paritta culture, such layering aligns with what Skilling terms the Śrāvakayānarakṣā tradition—protective compositions paralleling, but not limited to, the canonical paritta set.[2]
Like other paritta, theMahādibbamanta is recited for protection, blessing, and averting harm. Comparative studies highlight all-night recitations, lay sponsorship, and the embedding of such chants in life-cycle and crisis rites.[3] For Cambodia specifically, related liturgical curricula such as the PaliUṇhissavijaya are documented in protective contexts and manuscript transmission.[8]
TheMahādibbamanta displays a framework of ritualized Pali, mantra-like formulas, yantric or mandalic ordering, and initiatory transmission—situating it within a long Southeast Asian tradition that interacted with Brahmanical deities, local spirits, and protective technologies while remaining embedded in Theravāda monastic and doctrinal settings.[4][5][6]
Scholars compare theMahādibbamanta to other extra-canonical protective cycles such as theJinapañjara Gāthā, which likewise promise comprehensive protection through structured invocations and truth-act formulas.[9] Overviews ofrakkhā literature place these texts within a large family of protective compositions used across Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.[2]
Modern studies of Thai and Cambodian Buddhism treat texts like theMahādibbamanta as evidence for the enduring role of protective ritual and magical efficacy in Theravāda practice and material culture.[10] Recent cataloguing initiatives continue to document manuscripts, local printings, and performance practices of paritta andrakkhā texts.[3]
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