Toh 1111 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Praise of the Omniscient Maheśvara

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1111
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt
Extent: 3 passages · 2,585 Tibetan characters · 639 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

The Praise of the Omniscient Maheśvara is a devotional hymn that employs the figure of the Great Īśvara as a focal point for spiritual aspiration. The text is structured as a series of prostrations and accolades directed toward a figure who transcends the status of a deity to become the guru of gods. By attributing the possession of the eightfold path and the power to pacify karmic oppression to this figure, the text synthesizes elements of Indian deity terminology with Buddhist soteriological goals. The work concludes with a dedicatory prayer, committing the merit generated through the act of praise to the universal attainment of primordial wisdom. The reader is thus led from the recognition of an omniscient authority to a collective aspiration for enlightenment, framing the act of praise as a merit-generating practice for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Provenance

About this text

A praise of the Omniscient Great Lord, the Sarvajñāmaheśvarastotra is a work of the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Udbhaṭasiddhisvāmin, though the translation's opening also mentions the brahmin layman Thozun Drubje. The text was translated into Tibetan by Jarāndana and the translator Rin chen bzang po of Zhu chen. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it spans three pages and is situated within the Eulogy collection. The work enacts a series of prostrations and accolades directed toward the Great Īśvara, a figure described as the guru of gods and the possessor of the eightfold path. By praising this figure's ability to pacify beings oppressed by karma and destroy the pursuit of worldly aims, the text functions as a merit-generating practice. It concludes with a dedicatory prayer aspiring that the entire world may attain primordial wisdom. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine how the text synthesizes Indian deity terminology with Buddhist soteriological goals, framing the act of devotional praise as a means toward universal enlightenment.

Sanskrit title: Sarvajñāmaheśvarastotra
Indian author: Udbhaṭasiddhisvāmin
Tibetan translators: Jarāndana, zhu chen gyi lo tsa ba rin chen bzang po
Canonical collection: Eulogy
Genre: Eulogy
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཀ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Praise of the Omniscient Maheśvara” (Toh 1111), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1111

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its integration of the figure of Maheśvara into a Buddhist framework, illustrating the adaptation of Indic religious terminology to express Buddhist concepts like the eightfold path. For the modern reader, it provides an example of how Tibetan Buddhist literature utilizes the language of power and lordship to describe the nature of an omniscient being.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	Invocation and Prostration	Initial homage to the Three Jewels and a series of prostrations to the Great Īśvara, highlighting his authority over gods and his possession of the eightfold path.
3	Dedication of Merit	A final bow to the Peaceful One and a prayer that the merit of the praise leads all beings to primordial wisdom.

Themes

Omniscience and Authority (1-2)
Karmic Pacification (3)
Universal Enlightenment (3)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaPraise of the Omniscient Maheśvara·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། སརྦ་ཛྙེ་མ་ཧཱ་ཤྭ་ར་སྟོ་ཏྲཾ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གང་ཞིག་ལྷ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་ལྷ། ། དེ་གང་ལྷ་ཡི་བླ་མ་སྟེ། ། བླ་མའི་བླ་མར་གྱུར་པ་དེ། ། དེ་ལ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། ། ཆེན་པོ་ཉིད་དང་དབང་ཉིད་དང་། ། གང་ཞིག་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་ཉིད་གྱུར། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ གསུམ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ་ཡི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་མེ་ཡི་འོད་ཀྱིས་ནི། ། འདོད་དང་རྨོངས་པའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི། ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་སུམ་བརྩེགས་ཟད་བསྲེགས་པའི། ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གསུམ་བསྲེགས་པ་དེར་འདུད། ། བྱམས་པའི་ཐོད་པ་རྟག་འཆང་ཞིང་། ། སྙིང་རྗེའི་ ཐལ་བས་ཡང་དག་བྱུགས། ། ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཟླ་བས་དབུ་བརྒྱན་པའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། བྱམས་དང་སྙིང་རྗེའི་རྭ་མཆོག་དང་། ། དགའ་དང་བཏང་སྙོམས་མིག་ལྡན་པའི། ། ཐེག་ཆེན་ཁྱུ་མཆོག་བཅིབས་པ་ཡིས། ། གང་ཞིག་གཤེགས་ མཛད་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ། ། སྦྱིན་དང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བཟོད་བརྩོན་འགྲུས། ། བསམ་གཏན་ལ་སོགས་བཙུན་མོ་དང་། ། མཆོག་བཅས་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་གཤེགས་མཛད་པའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། གཡོ་ཡི་རྭ་ཡིས་ཀུན་དུ་ཁྱབ། ། ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་སྲིད་དབུས་ཞིག། ཕར་ འགྲོའི་སྲིད་བུ་མི་བཟད་པ། ། ལྟ་བ་འབར་བ་རབ་བསྲེགས་ཅན། ། དུར་ཁྲོད་གང་དགོས་ཐུགས་མངའ་བ། ། རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྤྲུལ་པའི་གཟུགས། ། རྟག་ཏུ་ཚོགས་བཅས་ཀྱིས་འཁྱུད་པའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་གྱི་འདོད་པའི་རྒྱུས། །

In the language of India: Sarvajñe-mahāśvara-stotra-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Thams cad mkhyen pa dbang phyug chen po’i bstod pa zhes bya ba (The Praise of the Omniscient Great Lord). Homage to the Three Jewels! To him who is the god beyond gods, the guru of gods, who has become the guru of gurus—to him I go for refuge. To him who is greatness itself, sovereignty itself, who has become the Great Lord (Maheśvara) himself—to that Great Lord, liberated from the three worlds, I prostrate. With the light of the fire of primordial wisdom, he has utterly incinerated the triple city of the nature of desire and delusion; to him who has burned the three cities, I bow. Always wearing the skull-cup of loving-kindness, perfectly smeared with the ashes of compassion, his head adorned with the moon of ethical discipline—to that Great Lord, I prostrate. With the supreme horns of loving-kindness and compassion, possessing the eyes of joy and equanimity, he who travels mounted upon the Great Vehicle bull—to that Great Lord, I prostrate. Accompanied by the queens of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and so forth, he who travels with the supreme assembly—to that Great Lord, I prostrate. Pervaded by the horns of guile, having destroyed the center of existence amidst the afflictions, he who possesses the fierce bow of the perfections, who has utterly incinerated the blazing views, who dwells in the charnel grounds as his heart’s desire, and who manifests in various emanated forms—to that Great Lord, who is always embraced by the assembly, I prostrate. Through the causes of desire in the three worlds...

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

definitionདབང་ཕྱུག “Īśvara” — The Sanskrit īśvara literally means “powerful one.” In both Indian and Tibetan literature it is often an epithet applied to Śiva. However, here where the title is given to a “supremely great almighty brahmā , sovereign o

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

definitionདཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ “the Three Jewels” — The Tibetan literally means “the three rare and precious ones,” the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha‍—the three objects of Buddhist refuge.

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལས “action” — Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one h

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

definitionབདག “self” — A substantial, self-subsistent entity within beings or things, or the intrinsic reality of things, or the intrinsic identity of things, that is permanent and nonrelative. The Buddha’s teaching, in contrast to that of oth

terminologyདབང → “empowerment”. In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

termདབང་ཕྱུག → Īśvara

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termདཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ → the Three Jewels

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལྷ → god

termལས → action

དོན་ གཉེར་འཇོམས་པ་གང་ཞིག་འཁོར། ། བཀའ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡིས་མི་མཆི་བའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་ལྡན་ཞིང་། ། རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་རྐང་པའི་སྒོང་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི། ། ཡོངས་བསྐོར་མི་འཇིགས་ཆེན་པོའི་གླིང་། ། སྒོ་ཉིད་གཡོ་བ་རབ་ཏུ་དག། སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཆུ་ནི་རྒྱུ་ བ་ཅན། ། དམ་ཆོས་ཆུ་བོ་གང་འཛིན་པ། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། མི་ཤེས་པ་ཡི་མ་ཧེ་ཡིས། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཐམས་ཅད་འཇིགས་བྱེད་པའི། ། བསྣུན་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྩེ་གསུམ་གྱིས། ། རྩེ་གསུམ་ཅན་གང་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ། ། མཆོག་དང་ཐ་མ་བར་དག་དང་། ། ཞི་འམ་མ་ཞི་གོ་ འཕང་ལ། ། མ་ཞི་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་གྲོལ་བའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་དེར་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། སྐྱེ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མ་ལུས་པ། ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་མཆོག་གི་ཁྱད་པར་གྱིས། ། གང་ཞིག་གསལ་བར་འཕྲོག་པ་ཡི། ། འཕྲོག་པ་དེ་ལ་བདག་འདུད་ཀྱིས། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་དམ་པ་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཤིང་། ། འདོད་པའི་ཆུ་ལ་སྲེད་སྤངས་པ། ། དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལྷ་ཆེན་པོ། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེ་མཛད་པ། ། གང་ཞིག་ཀུན་གྱི་རྗེས་འབྲངས་པས། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུད་པ་ཡི། ། བདུད་ཀྱི་བགེགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་པའི། ། འདོད་པ་འཇོམས་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ དམ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཉིད། ། རབ་ཉེས་སྦུབ་པ་སྐྱེས་བུ་གང་། ། དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལྷ་ཆེན་པོ། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཕན་བཞེད་པ། ། གནོད་པའི་ཀུན་དུ་དགྲར་གྱུར་གང་། ། བྱམས་པ་ཡིས་ཀྱང་རྣམ་ཞེན་དང་། ། དཀར་པོའི་ཆོས་ཀྱང་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་པའི། ། དབང་ཕྱུག་ཚེ་དེར་བདག་ ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། གཟའ་དང་རིམས་ནད་དབུལ་བ་དང་། །

I prostrate to that Great Īśvara who destroys the pursuit of worldly aims and whose retinue does not depart because they fulfill his commands. I prostrate to that Great Īśvara who possesses the eightfold path, who is surrounded by the egg-born of the bases of miraculous power, and who is the island of great fearlessness where the gates are perfectly pure and the waters of compassion flow. I prostrate to that Great Īśvara who holds the river of the sublime Dharma, which flows with the water of compassion. I prostrate to that Great Īśvara, the trident-bearer, who with the three-pronged trident of wisdom strikes down the buffalo of ignorance that terrifies the entire world. I prostrate to that Great Īśvara who liberates all those who are not at peace, whether they be in the highest, lowest, or middle states, or in states of peace or non-peace. I bow to that Stealer who, through the excellence of supreme compassion, clearly robs away every single suffering of birth without exception. I prostrate to that Great God, the supreme Īśvara who is perfected and has abandoned craving for the waters of desire. I prostrate to the Destroyer of Desire, who brings happiness to all sentient beings, who follows after all, and who cannot be overcome by the obstacles of Māra. I prostrate to that Great God, the supreme and great Īśvara, the person who has emerged from the hollow of great faults. I prostrate to that Great God, the supreme Īśvara who desires the benefit of all sentient beings, who has become the universal enemy of all harm, and who, through loving-kindness, is free from attachment and has perfected all virtuous qualities. I prostrate to that Great Īśvara who [overcomes] planets, infectious diseases, and poverty.

definitionརྫུ་འཕྲུལ “miraculous power” — The supernatural powers of a śrāvaka correspond to the first abhijñā : “Being one he becomes many, being many he becomes one; he becomes visible, invisible; goes through walls, ramparts and mountains without being impede

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

definitionབདུད “Māra” — Māra , literally “death” or “maker of death,” is the name of the deva who tried to prevent the Buddha from achieving awakening, the name given to the class of beings he leads, and also an impersonal term for the destruct

definitionབགེགས “vighna” — A term for obstacles to well-being and spiritual advancement in general, and specifically to a class of beings that personify obstructive forces.

definitionབྱམས་པ “Maitreya” — The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions, where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: self; homage; empowerment

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termདབང་ཕྱུག → Īśvara

termབདག → self

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termརྫུ་འཕྲུལ → miraculous power

termཆོས → dharma

termདབང → empowerment

ལས་ཀྱིས་གཟིར་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་དང་། ། གསུང་ཙམ་གྱིས་མྱུར་ཞི་མཛད་པའི། ། ཞི་བ་དེ་ལ་བདག་འདུད་དོ། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀུན་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ལ། ། བསྟོད་པས་བདག་གིས་དགེ་བསགས་པས། ། དེས་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་མ་ལུས་འདི། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེ་གྱུར་ཅིག། ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟོད་པ་བྲམ་ཟེའི་དགེ་བསྙེན་མཐོ་བཙུན་གྲུབ་རྗེས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་ཛཱ་རན་ད་ན་དང་། ཞུ་ཆེན་གྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

To the one who pacifies beings oppressed by karma Merely by his speech, I bow to that Peaceful One. Through the merit I have gathered by praising The Lord of all the worlds, May this entire world without exception Become a great lord of primordial wisdom. The praise to the Omniscient One called Maheśvara, composed by the brahmin layman Thozun Drubje, is complete. It was translated by the Indian abbot Jārandana and the chief editor-translator Rinchen Zangpo.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

definitionདབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ “Maheśvara” — One of the gods of the pure realms. This is a frequently used name for Śiva and often synonymous with Īśvara, though sometimes they are presented as separate deities.

definitionདགེ་བསྙེན “layman” — The upāsaka precepts for lay practitioners include the five fundamental vows ( pañcaśīla ) not to (1) kill, (2) steal, (3) commit sexual misconduct, (4) lie, or (5) use intoxicants. Additionally, three other precepts are

terminologyམཁན་པོ → “abbot”. In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

homonymམཁན་པོ is rendered “abbot” here; the glossary also records upādhyāya, Preceptor for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཁན་པོ “abbot” — A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: self; empowerment

termལས → action

termབདག → self

termདབང་ཕྱུག → Īśvara

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termདབང → empowerment

termདབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ → Maheśvara

Terminology used in this text (27)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
དབང་ཕྱུག	Īśvara	3
བདག	self	3
དབང	empowerment	3	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	3	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
ལས	action	2	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ	the Three Jewels	1
བླ་མ	guru	1
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས	discipline	1
བཏང་སྙོམས	equanimity	1
བརྩོན་འགྲུས	diligence	1
བསམ་གཏན	concentration	1
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	1
གཟུགས	form	1
རྫུ་འཕྲུལ	miraculous power	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
ཐུགས་རྗེ	compassion	1
བདུད	Māra	1
བགེགས	vighna	1
བྱམས་པ	Maitreya	1
དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ	Maheśvara	1
དགེ་བསྙེན	layman	1
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI