Toh 1317 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Praise of Tārā Kurukullā

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1317
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 010_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཏ.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,053 Tibetan characters · 294 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 short text, titled Praise to the Noble Tārā Kurukullā, functions as a devotional hymn addressed to the deity Kurukullā. The fragment provided establishes the work's bilingual identity, providing both the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, and opens with a formal homage. The text posits a paradox central to the nature of a bodhisattva: the deity maintains a state of unchanging equanimity while simultaneously engaging in active, compassionate intervention for the benefit of sentient beings. By framing the deity as both transcendent and active, the text commits the reader to a vision of enlightenment that does not preclude worldly engagement. The structure follows the traditional format of a stotra, beginning with an invocation and moving toward a description of the deity's qualities.

Provenance

About this text

A praise to the Noble Tārā Kurukullā, the Āryatārākurukullāstotra is a work of the classical Tibetan period. It is attributed to the Indian author Ḍombi Heruka. The text is preserved in the Tengyur, specifically within volume ཏ, where it occupies two pages and is situated within the Non-dual Tantra collection. The record does not name the translators responsible for its passage into Tibetan. In its enactment, the work functions as a devotional hymn that addresses the deity Kurukullā, who is described as radiating red light with the brilliance of a thousand suns. The text posits a central paradox regarding the nature of the bodhisattva: the deity maintains a state of unchanging equanimity while simultaneously engaging in active, compassionate intervention for the benefit of sentient beings through discerning wisdom. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine a vision of enlightenment that does not preclude worldly engagement, following a traditional structure that begins with a formal homage and moves toward a detailed description of the deity's transcendent and active qualities.

Sanskrit title: Āryatārākurukullāstotra
Indian author: Ḍombi Heruka
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Non-dual Tantra
Genre: Eulogy
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 Praise of Tārā Kurukullā” (Toh 1317), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1317

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for illustrating the synthesis of Indian and Tibetan liturgical traditions through its bilingual titling. It highlights the specific role of Kurukullā within the Tārā cycle, emphasizing the balance between meditative stillness and altruistic action.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Opening	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, followed by an homage and a description of the deity's equanimity and activity.

Themes

Equanimity and Compassion (1)
Divine Activity (1)

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

AnuvādaA Praise of Tārā Kurukullā·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་ཏཱ་ར་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེ་སྟོ་ཏྲ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་བསྟོད་པ། འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། མི་འགྱུར་ མཉམ་པའི་ངང་ལས་མ་གཡོས་ཀྱང་། ། སོ་སོར་རྟོགས་པས་འགྲོ་བའི་དོན་མཛད་པ། ། དམར་བའི་འོད་འཕྲོ་ཉི་མ་སྟོང་གི་གཟི། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་བཞི་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཧྲཱིཿལས་བྱུང་བའི་ལྷ་མོ་ནི། ། ཁ་དོག་དམར་ཞིང་ཕྱག་བཞི་མ། ། མདའ་དང་གཞུ་ཡི་ལག་པ་མ། ། ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ འཛིན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། བསྐལ་པའི་མེ་དཔུང་ལྟར་འབར་འོད། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་སྤྱན་ནི་གསུམ་པ་སྟེ། ། དབུ་སྐྲ་དམར་སེར་གྱེན་དུ་འབར། ། ཨུཏྤལ་འཛིན་པ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཕྱེད་ཀྲུང་བཅས་པའི་གར་གྱིས་བཞུགས། ། གཏུམ་པའི་ཁྲོ་ཚུལ་འགྱིང་བག་ཅན། ། ཐོད་པ་ ལྔ་ཡི་དབུ་རྒྱན་ཅན། ། སྟག་ལྤགས་བསྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། མཆེ་གཙིགས་དམར་མོ་མི་བཟད་སྐུ། ། དྲག་ཆེན་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལྔ་ཡིས་བརྒྱན། ། བརྒྱ་ཕྱེད་ཕྲེང་བའི་དོ་ཤལ་ཅན། ། བདུད་འཇོམས་མ་ལ་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཨཱ་ལི་ཀཱི་ལི་སྙོམས་འཇུག་ལས། ། བདེ་ལ་རྟག་དགྱེས་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང་། ། འོད་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱིས་དབུ་ལ་བརྒྱན། ། གར་གྱིས་དགྱེས་ལ་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། མདའ་དང་གཞུ་ཡིས་བསྡིགས་པར་མཛད། ། ཨུཏྤ་ལ་ཡིས་དབང་དུ་བྱེད། ། ལྕགས་ཀྱུས་ཉོན་མོངས་འདམ་ལས་འདྲེན། ། བདུད་དག་ཕྱག་བཞི་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། འཕགས་ མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་མོ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་བསྟོད་པ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ཌོམྦི་ཧེ་རུ་ཀས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Ārya-tārā-kurukullā-stotra. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags ma sgrol ma ku ru ku lle’i bstod pa (Praise to the Noble Tārā Kurukullā). Homage to the Noble Tārā of Great Power! Though you do not waver from the state of unchanging equanimity, you act for the benefit of beings through discerning wisdom. To her who radiates red light with the brilliance of a thousand suns, who has one face and four arms, I pay homage! The goddess arisen from the syllable Hrīḥ, red in color and with four arms, holding a bow and arrow in her hands and grasping a hook—to her I pay homage and praise! Blazing with light like the fire at the end of an eon, with one face and three eyes, her orange-red hair streaming upward; to her who holds an utpala flower, I pay homage and praise! Seated in the dancing posture of half-lotus, fierce and wrathful in her majestic bearing, adorned with a crown of five skulls and wearing a tiger-skin skirt—to her I pay homage and praise! With bared fangs, a red and terrifying body, adorned with the five fierce mudrās and a necklace of fifty skulls, the vanquisher of Māra—to her I pay homage! Through the union of the vowels and consonants, she eternally delights in bliss and awakening; her head is adorned by Amitābha. To her who delights in the dance, I pay homage! With bow and arrow she threatens; with the utpala she brings others under her power; with the hook she draws beings from the mire of the afflictions. To her with four arms who subdues the Māras, I pay homage! The Praise to the Noble Goddess Tārā Kurukullā, composed by the great master Ḍombi Heruka, is hereby complete.

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.

definitionསྒྲོལ་མ “Tārā” — Female bodhisattva of compassion; the chief goddess of the activity family, personifying the true nature of the element wind; one of the five goddesses personifying the five “hooks of gnosis.”

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

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

definitionཉི་མ “Āditya” — The sun; the god of the sun; the king identified as Ādityavardhana of the Śrīkaṇṭha - Sthāṇvīśvara dynasty who ruled in Madhyadeśa in the sixth century ᴄᴇ .

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

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

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

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

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལས → action

termཉི་མ → Āditya

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

Terminology used in this text (16)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲོལ་མ	Tārā	1
བསྟོད་པ	praise	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
ཉི་མ	Āditya	1
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	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
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
བདུད	Māra	1
བདག	self	1
བྱང་ཆུབ	awakening	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
དབང	empowerment	1	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	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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