Toh 1315 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Kurukullā Sādhana Taken From the Hevajra Tantra

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1315
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 010_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཏ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,845 Tibetan characters · 418 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)

This text is a sādhana, or liturgical manual for deity yoga, focused on the goddess Kurukullā as derived from the Hevajra Tantra. The work provides a prescriptive sequence for the practitioner to transition from a seed syllable to a fully realized divine identity. It begins with the visualization of the red syllable HRĪḤ, which serves as the ontological basis for the subsequent transformation. The text then instructs the practitioner to generate themselves as the red goddess Kurukullā, detailing her specific iconographic attributes, including her four arms, the five mudrās, her tiger-skin garment, and her half-lotus posture. By following these instructions, the reader commits to a process of self-transformation, replacing their ordinary sense of self with the visualized form of the deity to achieve the spiritual goals associated with the Hevajra tradition.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana focused on the goddess Kurukullā as arising from the Hevajra, the Hevajrodbhavakurukullāsādhana belongs to the tradition of the Non-dual Tantra. The work is attributed to the Indian author Sahajavilāsa. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume ཏ, under the Tibetan title dgyes pa'i rdo rje las byung ba'i ku ru kul+le'i sgrub thabs. The work enacts a process of deity yoga, guiding the practitioner through a prescriptive sequence of visualization and transformation. It begins with the placement of the red seed syllable HRĪḤ upon a moon maṇḍala at the heart, followed by the generation of the practitioner as the red goddess Kurukullā. The text specifies her iconography, noting her four arms, the five mudrās, her tiger-skin garment, and her half-lotus posture, while she is crowned by the Buddha Amitābha and holds a bow, arrow, utpala lasso, and hook. A scholar or serious reader consults this single-page manual to examine the precise ritual instructions and iconographic details required to replace an ordinary sense of self with the visualized form of the deity.

Sanskrit title: Hevajrodbhavakurukullāsādhana
Indian author: Sahajavilāsa
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Non-dual Tantra
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཏ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Kurukullā Sādhana Taken From the Hevajra Tantra” (Toh 1315), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1315

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it demonstrates the integration of Kurukullā practice within the broader Hevajra Tantra framework. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of the precise iconographic and visualization requirements essential to Vajrayana ritual practice.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Preliminary Visualization	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and instructs the practitioner to visualize the seed syllable HRĪḤ.
2	Deity Generation	Describes the process of transforming the syllable into the red goddess Kurukullā and details her physical appearance and posture.

Themes

Deity Yoga and Self-Generation (1-2)
Iconography of Kurukullā (2)
Tantric Visualization (1-2)

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

AnuvādaA Kurukullā Sādhana Taken From the Hevajra Tantra·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཧེ་བཛྲོ་དྡྷ་བ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དགྱེས་ པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། ལྷ་མོ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྔགས་པས་དང་པོར་རེ་ཞིག་རང་གི་སྙིང་གར་ཟླ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་སྟེང་དུ་ཡི་གེ་ཧྲཱིཿདམར་པོར་བསམས་ཏེ། དེའི་འོད་ཀྱིས་ལྷ་མོས་ཐོག་དྲངས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ དཔའ་དུ་མ་མདུན་གྱི་ནམ་མཁར་སྤྱན་དྲངས་ལ། དེ་དག་ལ་ཡིད་ལས་བྱུང་བའམ་དངོས་སུ་འབྱོར་པའི་མཆོད་པས་ཅི་རིགས་སུ་མཆོད་ནས་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་བྱའོ། ། དེའི་རྗེས་ལ་ཚད་མེད་པ་བཞི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་གཡོག་པར་ བྱ་སྟེ། དེ་ནས་སྭ་བྷཱ་བའི་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་སྣོད་བཅུད་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་དུ་རྒྱས་བཏབ་སྟེ། དེའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ངང་ལས་ཡི་གེ་རཾ་ལས་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བསམས་པའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཧཱུཾ་སྔོན་པོ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྡོ་རྗེ། དེ་ཡོངས་སུ་ གྱུར་པ་ལས་སྟེང་དང་འོག་དང་ཕྱོགས་དང་ཕྱོགས་མཚམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ས་གཞི་དང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ར་བ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གུར་གྱིས་བཅིང་སྟེ། དེ་ནས་སྔགས་འདི་བརྗོད་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་རཀྵ་རཀྵ་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། དེ་ནས་རང་གི་སྙིང་གར་པདྨ་དམར་པོའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཟླ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ བསམ། དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ས་བོན་གྱི་ཡི་གེ་ཧྲཱིཿདམར་པོ་བསྒོམ། ཧྲཱིཿཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས་ཨུཏྤ་ལ་དམར་པོ་བལྟ་ཞིང་། དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཟླ་བ་ཁ་དོག་དམར་པོའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རྒྱས་པར་བསྒོམ།

In the language of India: Hevajrodabhavakurukullāsādhanam. In the language of Tibet: dgyes pa'i rdo rje las byung ba'i ku ru ku lle'i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of Kurukullā Arising from the Hevajra). Homage to the goddess Kurukullā! First, the practitioner should visualize a red syllable HRĪḤ upon a moon maṇḍala at his own heart. With its light, he should invite into the space before him numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, headed by the goddess. Having made offerings to them as appropriate—either mentally emanated or actually prepared—he should perform the seven-limbed practice by way of taking refuge and so forth. Following that, he should extend the four immeasurables to all sentient beings. Then, with the svabhāva mantra, he should seal the entire environment and its inhabitants as emptiness. Subsequently, from within the state of emptiness, he should visualize a sun maṇḍala arising from the syllable RAṂ, upon which he should meditate on a blue HŪṂ. From the total transformation of that, a crossed vajra (viśvavajra) appears. From the total transformation of that, the entire space above, below, and in all cardinal and intermediate directions is bound by a vajra ground, a vajra fence, and a vajra canopy. Then, this mantra should be recited: OṂ RAKṢA RAKṢA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Then, he should visualize a red lotus at his own heart, upon which is a moon maṇḍala. Upon that, he should meditate on the seed syllable HRĪḤ, red in color. From the total transformation of the HRĪḤ, he should visualize a red utpala flower, and upon that, a full moon maṇḍala of red color.

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.

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ “vajra” — This term generally indicates indestructibility and stability. In the sūtras, vajra most often refers to the hardest possible physical substance, said to have divine origins. In some scriptures, it is also the name of th

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

definitionསྒྲུབ་ཐབས “sādhana” — Derived from the Sanskrit verb √sādh , “to accomplish,” the term sādhana most generically refers to any method that brings about the accomplishment of a desired goal. In Buddhist literature, the term is often specificall

homonymལྷ་མོ is rendered “goddess” here; the glossary also records devī, Devī for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མོ “goddess” — The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalen

terminologyསྔགས → “mantra”. སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

definitionསྔགས “mantra” — A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects ( trā )

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

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.

termརྡོ་རྗེ → vajra

termལས → action

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསྔགས → mantra

དེ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས་བདག་ཉིད་ལྷ་མོ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེ་སྐུ་མདོག་དམར་མོར་བསྐྱེད་པར་ བྱའོ། ། དེ་ཡང་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་བཞི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལྔ་དང་ལྡན་མ་སྟག་གི་པགས་པའི་སྨད་གཡོགས་ཅན། སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ཕྱེད་པའི་བཞུགས་སྟངས་ཀྱིས་གནས་པ། དབུ་སྐྲ་སེར་པོ་གྱེན་དུ་བརྫེས་པ། སངས་རྒྱས་འོད་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱིས་དབུ་བརྒྱན་པ་ཅན། གཞུ་དང་མདའ་ཨུཏྤ་ལའི་ཞགས་པ་ དང་ལྕགས་ཀྱུའི་ཕྱག་མཚན་བསྣམས་པའོ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྒོམས་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས་སྔགས་ཀྱི་བཟླས་པ་བྱ་སྟེ། ཨོཾ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེ་ཧྲཱིཿསྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཞེས་མི་གྲག་པའི་ཚུལ་དུ་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཟླ་བ་ཕྱེད་ཀྱིས་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདུ། ། ཁྲི་ཡིས་ཕལ་པ་དབང་དུ་བྱེད། ། བྱེ་བས་ཕྱུགས་དང་གནོད་སྦྱིན་སོགས། ། ལྷ་མིན་ འབུམ་ཕྲག་བདུན་གྱིས་སོ། ། དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ལྷ་མོ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་སྒེག་པས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར། ། #

From the complete transformation of that, one should generate oneself as the goddess Kurukullā, red in color. She has one face and four arms, is adorned with the five mudrās, and wears a lower garment of tiger skin. She abides in the half-lotus posture, with her yellow hair tied upward and her head crowned by the Buddha Amitābha. She holds a bow, an arrow, an utpala lasso, and a hook as her hand implements. The yogin who meditates in this manner should perform the mantra recitation: OṂ KURUKULLĒ HRĪḤ SVĀHĀ. This should be recited in an inaudible manner. By reciting it for half a month, kings are summoned; by ten thousand recitations, commoners are brought under control; by ten million, cattle, yakṣas, and so forth; and by seven hundred thousand, asuras. This concludes the Sādhana of the Goddess Kurukullā based on the glorious Hevajra, composed by the great master Sahajalalita. Translated by Dānaśīla himself. #

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

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

definitionཕྱག་རྒྱ “mudrā” — A seal, in both the literal and metaphoric sense. Mudrā is also the name given to an array of symbolic hand gestures, which range from the gesture of touching the earth displayed by the Buddha upon attaining awakening to

terminologyའོད་དཔག་མེད → “Amitābha”. འོད་དཔག་མེད is Amitābha (boundless light); ཚེ་དཔག་མེད is Amitāyus (boundless life). They are distinct figures and must not be merged.

homonymའོད་དཔག་མེད is rendered “Amitābha” here; the glossary also records Amitavajra, Amitāyus for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionའོད་དཔག་མེད “Amitābha” — One of the five buddhas . The buddha of the western buddhafield of Sukhāvatī, where fortunate beings are reborn to make further progress toward spiritual maturity. Amitābha made his great vows to create such a realm when

terminologyམཚན → “name”. མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.

homonymམཚན is rendered “name” here; the glossary also records major signs, buddha marks, auspicious marks for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཚན “name” — The thirty-two primary physical characteristics of a “great being,” mahāpuruṣa , which every buddha and cakravartin possesses. They are considered “major” in terms of being primary to the eighty minor marks or signs of a

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

definitionགནོད་སྦྱིན “yakṣa” — A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or control

definitionལྷ་མིན “asura” — A type of nonhuman being whose precise status is subject to different views, but is included as one of the six classes of beings in the sixfold classification of realms of rebirth. In the Buddhist context, asuras are pow

definitionསློབ་དཔོན “ācārya” — A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

definitionདཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ “Dānaśīla” — A Kashmiri khenpo active in Tibet, who helped compile the Mahāvyutpatti and was one of the about fifteen Indian scholars, who assisted Bandé Yeshé Dé. (ninth century).

termལས → action

termབདག → self

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termཕྱག་རྒྱ → mudrā

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termའོད་དཔག་མེད → Amitābha

Terminology used in this text (24)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	2
ལས	action	2	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	2
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	2	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	2	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས	bodhicitta	1
རིགས	family	1	The tantric 'family' (buddha-family); not 'lineage' (which is རྒྱུད་པ or བརྒྱུད་པ).
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
བདག	self	1
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
འོད་དཔག་མེད	Amitābha	1	འོད་དཔག་མེད is Amitābha (boundless light); ཚེ་དཔག་མེད is Amitāyus (boundless life). They are distinct figures and must n
མཚན	name	1	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
དབང	empowerment	1	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
གནོད་སྦྱིན	yakṣa	1
ལྷ་མིན	asura	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1
དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ	Dānaśīla	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 010_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཏ.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.

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