The Brahmahoranavagraha (梵天火羅九曜), preserved in the Taishō Tripiṭaka, is an early Buddhist astrological text linking the Nine Luminaries—planets, lunar nodes, and solar bodies—to ritual efficacy. Composed in the mid-8th century, it prescribes the recitation of mantras and ritual offerings that enabled practitioners to engage physically with celestial forces.
This project investigates how this astral knowledge was visualized and enacted across East Asia, with particular focus on Star Mandalas (Hoshi Mandara) and the ritualized chanting of Nine-Luminary mantras. In Japan, textual doctrines were transformed into mandala diagrams structuring the Nine Luminaries within a cosmic schema under the Buddha Ichiji Kinrin. These practices combined visual, oral, and body-centered elements, demonstrating how ritual performance mediated celestial influence and shaped sacred space.
Through philological analysis of manuscripts, close study of mandala iconography, and ritual manuals, the project reconstructs how astral knowledge was both visualized and embodied. It highlights the central role of image and sound in localizing Buddhist astrology and illuminates the strategies through which practitioners drew celestial power into themselves, functioning as a microcosm of the cosmic order. In tracing these practices and texts across historical Buddhist networks, the study situates the Brahmahoranavagraha within the broader processes by which Buddhist astrological knowledge circulated, adapted, and took new form across cultural contexts.
