Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual manual provides instructions for the performance of a fire offering (homa) dedicated to the deity Vajrayoginī. The text establishes a technical framework for the practitioner, known as a mantrin, to execute the rite using specific substances tailored to the intended spiritual outcome. The work is structured as a prescriptive guide, linking the material components of the offering to the four traditional categories of tantric activity. Specifically, it commits the reader to a precise correspondence between substance and effect: ghee for pacification, sweet substances for enrichment, and a combination of ghee and salt for magnetizing. By detailing these requirements, the text aims to ensure the efficacy of the ritual through the correct application of mantra and material offerings, positioning the fire offering as a tool for manipulating specific energetic or situational results within the Vajrayoginī tradition.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the fire offering of Glorious Vajrayoginī, the Śrīvajrayoginīhomavidhi belongs to the tradition of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Buddhadatta. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Varendraruci and bod kyi lo tsa ba blo ldan shes rab, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟ, where it extends over two pages. As a prescriptive guide from the classical Tibetan period, the work enacts the technical requirements for a mantrin seeking to accomplish mundane and supramundane activities. It establishes a precise correspondence between the material substances used in the homa and the intended spiritual outcome: ghee is prescribed for pacification, sweet substances for enrichment, and a combination of ghee and salt for magnetizing. For wrathful activities, the text mandates the use of pungent and bitter substances. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to understand the specific ritual mechanics of the fire offering, particularly how the manipulation of mantra and material offerings is designed to ensure the efficacy of the rite across the four traditional categories of tantric activity.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Ritual for Fire Offerings for the Glorious Vajrayoginī” (Toh 1556), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1556
Summary & commentary
Significance
The text is significant for its illustration of the intersection between material offerings and the four tantric activities in Indo-Tibetan ritual practice. It demonstrates how specific substances are systematized to achieve distinct goals such as pacification or enrichment. For the modern reader, it provides primary evidence of the technical precision required in the performance of homa rituals.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Introduction and Preliminary Requirements
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an initial homage, and the specific material requirements for different types of ritual activities.
Themes
Ritual substances and tantric activities (2)
Fire offering (homa) procedure (1-2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Ritual for Fire Offerings for the Glorious Vajrayoginī·
In the language of India: Śrīvajrayoginīhoma-vidhi. In the language of Tibet: dPal rdo rje rnal ’byor ma’i sbyin sreg gi cho ga (The Ritual of the Fire Offering of Glorious Vajrayoginī). Homage to the glorious Vajravārāhī!
First, a mantrin who wishes to perform the activity of the fire offering for the sake of accomplishing the collections of mundane and supramundane activities and the attainments (siddhi) according to the system of the glorious Vajrayoginī, should prepare a triangular hearth. Its depth should be half its width, and it should be well-constructed with an outer rim, colored red and so forth. Sitting in a posture facing west or another direction, one should make offerings with the five types of offering substances. Having arranged the materials to be burned in the hearth, one should meditate on the Fire God (Agni) arising from the seed-syllable RAṂ. He is red in color and holds a water-pot (kamaṇḍalu), the gesture of granting fearlessness, a staff, and a rosary in his hands.
Then, having performed the summoning of the wisdom-being (jñānasattva) and so forth, and having made perfect offerings, one should place the syllable RAṂ on the tip of the Fire God’s tongue. Then, having performed the fire offering with the five nectars (amṛta) and other substances, as well as the mundane substances, using the mantra OṂ AGNIDEVATĀ SVĀHĀ, one should offer the ladlefuls (āhuti) with that same mantra.
Then, by means of the mantra that is the nature of the wisdom of suchness (tathatā), one should intensely visualize the maṇḍala of the deities within the maṇḍala of the Fire God, and perform the offerings and so forth.
One should perform the fire offering (homa) for the goddesses or deities with substances such as the five nectars (amṛta) and so forth, using the mantra. For pacifying, the offering substances are ghee and the like; for enriching, they are sweet substances; for magnetizing, ghee and salt; and for the wrathful, pungent and bitter substances and so forth. For pacifying, the form is white; for enriching, one should visualize it as yellow; for magnetizing, it is said to be red; and for the wrathful, it is renowned as black. At the time of accomplishing the siddhi, one should visualize the color as red. Having done so, one should dissolve the maṇḍala wheel into one’s own body, offer the torma, and perform the supramundane offering in the manner of a feast circle (gaṇacakra), then request the siddhi one desires. This fire offering, which is not to be shown to others, should be kept secret with great effort. Otherwise, the siddhi will not arise, and one will not rely upon accomplishment. This mantra, which is like a wish-fulfilling jewel, should be taught to those endowed with faith who are devoted to the Great Seal (mahāmudrā) with perfect devotion. From the system of the glorious Vajrayoginī, this ritual of the secret fire offering composed by Buddhadatta—the grandson of Jayadatta and disciple of the great master Piṇḍapātika—is complete. Translated by the Nepalese paṇḍita Bharendraruci and the Tibetan translator Blo ldan shes rab. May all beings attain Buddhahood!