Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Sragdharā-stotra (Praise of the Garland-Bearer) is a devotional hymn addressed to the deity Tārā. The text functions as a petition for liberation and protection, employing a rhetoric of extreme personal desperation and humility. The author positions themselves as a suffering being, comparing their plight to that of a dying patient or a neglected child, thereby emphasizing the necessity of Tārā's compassion. The work alternates between vivid descriptions of the deity's radiance and the visceral suffering of the devotee, while asserting that Tārā's grace extends even to those lacking in learning or merit. By invoking the power of Tārā's name and the presence of wrathful protectors, the text commits the reader to a practice of total surrender and faith. It argues that the deity's omniscience renders detailed requests unnecessary, yet the act of praising and recounting suffering serves as a psychological and spiritual release for the practitioner.
Provenance
About this text
A eulogy addressed to the Noble Tārā, the Sragdharāstotra (Tibetan: phreng ba 'dzin pa'i bstod pa) is a devotional work attributed to the Indian author Sarvajñāmitra. Preserved within the classical Tibetan tradition, the text is found in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it extends over eight pages and is categorized among the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work enacts a petition for liberation and protection, employing a rhetoric of extreme personal desperation and humility. The author positions themselves as a suffering being, comparing their plight to that of a dying patient or a neglected child to emphasize the necessity of Tārā's compassion. By alternating between vivid descriptions of the deity's radiance and the visceral suffering of the devotee, the text asserts that the power of Tārā's name can clear away immediate misdeeds. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine how the text commits the practitioner to a state of total surrender and faith, arguing that the deity's omniscience renders detailed requests unnecessary while the act of praising serves as a vehicle for spiritual relief.
This work is significant as an example of the Tārā cult's influence in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, highlighting the deity's role as a universal mother and savior. It illustrates the intersection of high-aesthetic praise and the raw expression of human vulnerability within a ritual context.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Invocation and Description
Opening homage and visual description of the deity's radiance.
2-3
Petition of the Suffering
The author describes their state of abandonment and the efficacy of Tārā's name in clearing misdeeds.
4-6
Protective and Transformative Power
Descriptions of the deity's power to repel death and grant physical and spiritual refinement to the unlearned.
7-8
Worldly and Celestial Benefits
The potential for domestic stability and the experience of celestial offerings.
9-10
Wrathful Manifestations and Final Submission
The appearance of wrathful deities and the author's admission of their own lack of skill in prayer.
Themes
Compassion for the Destitute (2-3, 5)
The Efficacy of the Sacred Name (3, 6)
Wrathful Protection (4, 9)
Divine Omniscience vs. Human Expression (10)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Sragdharā-stotra. In the language of Tibet: Phreng ba ’dzin pa’i bstod pa (The Praise of the Garland-Bearer). Homage to the Noble Tārā!
Like the radiance of the rising sun, red, the glory of the crest-jewels upon the heads of the supreme deities; like a fresh, clear, and sweetly applied red lac, as if not long applied; to your feet, O Noble Lady, I bow with palms joined and my crown pressed down, my supreme limbs prostrated. With devotion, I offer this praise to Tārā, the refuge for the destitute, as an offering of golden flower garlands.
With faces of wretched weeping, bodies falling into the fires of suffering so difficult to cross; though I have repeatedly attempted to act, I am weary, for my efforts are fruitless, wondering what to do. Having heard much of the glory of the sun and moon in the sky, I have come to hope to see them; yet, like a blind person watching the world of others, I rely with devotion upon you, the destroyer of sin.
Does your compassion not engage all sentient beings without distinction? By taking them into your care, there is no doubt that even one such as I will be included among them. In the darkness of the sins of all wandering beings, your power as the sun is without rival. Nevertheless, alas, I am wretched, burdened by evil deeds and possessed of suffering. I am a lowly person of inferior fortune, yet even the light rays of the sun dispel the darkness. I am like a piece of ice, cold and frozen, formed from the waters of the snowy mountains.
I am cast into the alleys of the jewel island and the vast jeweled caves and mansions. O Blessed One, though you are the sole mother of the entire world, I remain without a protector. Even a mother grows weary of a child who weeps incessantly from the very cause of her own breasts. Even a father grows angry with those who, day after day, seek what is not noble. You are the supreme creeper of the great wish-fulfilling tree, whose vast fruit fulfills the hopes of the world. You bestow all the goals sought by those who aspire to them; you never change, nor is there anything lacking in you. Why should I, Tārā, not be the one to liberate those embodied beings in whom the fire of the host of afflictions blazes? Make my own pledge and vow fruitful for me as I sink beneath the weight of suffering. However much the force of the suffering of living beings increases—harsh and overwhelming—the compassion of those whose minds are set on the vehicle of the perfectly enlightened Buddhas increases by that same measure. Thus, under the guise of words of praise, I raise my voice in a loud lament and lift my hands. If it is not right for others to remain indifferent, what need is there to mention you, my sole mother? Seeing others obtain the wealth they desired from you, I am repeatedly and intensely scorched by the unbearable, continuous inner torment born of my own non-virtuous deeds. If I am a sinner, why does this great devotion to you continue to increase?
Even by merely hearing or remembering your name alone, immediate misdeeds are cleared away. If that is so, how could the burden of my tasks ever be removed? Thus you spoke the truth: even if a patient is dying, does the physician’s vast compassion not act solely for their benefit?
Because I have been surrounded—both simultaneously and sequentially—by the base faults of deceit, stinginess, pride, and envy, like a common gathering place or a tea-house for many, I have not found the opportunity to offer worship at your lotus feet for even a single moment. For that reason, out of necessity, I have composed these words in humble script; may my aspiration not be in vain.
When the waters are churned by the turbulent winds of the end of the age, and the whirlpools are agitated like matted locks, and the great roar of crashing waves resounds like a loud laugh, those who are without movement or strength, crying out in the lamentation of a sinking ship, will find immediate liberation and joy upon the shore of the ocean through your praises, O Goddess.
When smoke swirls like clouds and sparks emerge from within, wandering through the sky, and one sits upon a bed in a fiercely blazing house where masses of fire and tongues of flame radiate, those who bow to you with palms joined and crowns, offering prayers in broken, stammering speech, will have their obscurations instantly dispelled by the force of the clouds and the joy of flashing lightning.
With intoxicating fluid overflowing, falling upon both cheeks and forming a swarm of bees, [the elephant]—
When the great elephants, summoned by the sound of "Hūṃ," ignite the fire of their wrath and, with their bodies raised upon the high-tusked palanquins of their tusks, remember you, they dwell upon the fortress of their lofty heads and, with great joy, repel the Lord of Death.
The forest of empty wilderness is filled with the festive display of human heads struck by fierce, long spears and impaled upon stakes, while the tips of thieves' hands brandish and strike with swords in the void. Those with eyes that gaze with frowning brows and crooked sidelong glances, their pride swelling, are the very ground for the glory of your name; they are employed as servants by the tireless pens of those who clearly inscribe your praises.
With the tips of their razor-sharp claws striking like vajras, they crush the brains of intoxicated elephants; their thick, matted hair, washed by the profuse flow of blood, clearly covers their shoulders in a terrifying and pitiful sight. The enemies of wild beasts, with mouths agape and sharp fangs bared, leap from afar in a rage; yet, terrified by the arrangement of your meaningful words of praise, they turn back and depart.
The serpents, whose forms are like houses of smoke and darkness, clearly emit a multitude of hissing sounds. With gaping mouths and tongues like the nooses of Yama, they are large and flickering. Yet, though born of sin, they again take up the task of enumerating your qualities to protect themselves, holding you as if encircled by a garland of intoxicated bees adorned with a wreath of blue lotuses.
Those terrified by the movement of their master’s brows, driven by laughter and the sweeping of the whip, their hair disheveled; bound by the tight knots of the noose as servants who speak harshly and make clamorous sounds; those whose mouths and throats are parched by hunger and thirst—whoever takes refuge at the feet of the Noble Tārā, even if abandoned by loving kinsmen, will be instantly freed from those endless misfortunes.
Arrayed in many transformations through the stages of the path of illusory emanations, possessing a mass of weapon-rays that correspond to their distorted forms and are utterly unbearable; rākṣasas adorned with garlands of strings of intestines extracted from human corpses—by recollecting the secret mantra derived from your lineage, these invincible protectors will seize away their sins.
When the battlefield is shrouded in darkness by the roar of elephants, the bodies of rain-clouds, and the flow of intoxicating rivers, and the rain of arrows falls as brightly as flashing lightning; when the enemy forces, possessing supreme strength of arm, are held back—by a single hero who slays your enemies, the enemy’s land is instantly ground to dust.
Those who follow sinful conduct, afflicted by abscesses from which putrid pus and blood flow, their bodies wasted as they are eaten by creatures moving in the openings of the channels of their rotting flesh and skin—whoever, with devotion and longing, takes the supreme medicinal pill that relies upon your feet, [shall be healed].
One will possess a body like refined gold and eyes as broad as a white lotus. Yet, those in whose ears the pith instructions bestowed by the gurus do not dwell, who lack the wealth of learning and thus admit themselves to be like the mute among the assembly of the wise—even they, through the power of devotion to you, will be adorned with every ornament and prosperity. Having attained mastery of speech, they shall seize the lion thrones of challengers in the courts of kings.
Covered in dust upon the ground as their bed, their bodies soiled, with tattered rags upon their limbs clearly visible, and tormented by lice, they once sought food in shards of pottery before the cities of others. But through their diligence in pleasing you, they will now be held by the smiles of the finest young maidens waving fly-whisks; they will become lords of the earth, holding aloft a single parasol filled with the breath of elephants blinded by rut.
Exhausted by the various means of servants, labor, crafts, and medical treatments, those who lacked the wealth that is the fruit of merit accumulated in previous lives and failed to obtain it, you have delivered from poverty—acting as a mother to the hungry. If they seek your favor, they will once again obtain treasures of gold emerging from the earth.
Deprived of livelihood, they become ashamed; their clothes worn out, they are reviled by their wives. To sustain themselves, they are utterly abandoned by their own kin, children, friends, and relatives.
By recounting your own suffering to you, your own wife, the sound of her tinkling bracelets, will wake her from sleep; she will become the mistress of a household whose boundaries are marked by the tips of horses' hooves. The wheel is joined to the wheel of the directions; the woman is adorned with the marks, her great radiance shimmering. The lord of elephants has six tusks; the supreme horse has a dark blue coat that shines like a peacock's neck. The jewel is as clear as the rays of the sun, a treasury of stainless qualities that fills the storehouse. The general possesses a glorious army; O Bhagavatī, this arises from even a minute fraction of your grace. With sandalwood water, the fragrance of the jewel-stone, and the beautiful woman, she is attached to the joy of the appointed time. She has perfectly accomplished the secret invitation to the enjoyments of the lovely mother's pleasure. With the sword's light, the thick, high arms are like pestles, adorned with playful armlets. Your six classes of Vidyādharas, O Sovereign Mother, roam at will in the groves of Malaya flowers. Adorned with necklaces and breast-ornaments, her long eyes rival the blue lotuses of her ears. The lovely goddess possesses Mandārava flowers, and bees are intoxicated by the scent of the fresh filaments. Accompanied by the sound of tiny bells, her anklets clearly proclaim a delightful and melodious sound. Intoxicated by desire, the young maidens respectfully seek you, their protector. Within the ponds, the interiors are adorned with jewels; the golden lotuses have filaments like vajra garlands.
Having spread a high canopy of flower pollen, fragrant and emanating from the Pārijāta tree, and being proclaimed with sweet sounds by the delights of the celestial city skilled in playing the lute and flute—by making offerings to you as you traverse the Joyful Grove, you shall experience [these] for a long time. Through the fully ripened power of merit dedicated to you, the inner agent, you shall sport together with beautiful women in water-sports, amidst water droplets that are not medicinal, where waves swirl in the shelter of the breasts of women swelling with the pride of desire, and where the waters flow slowly like the scent of camphor, ela, clove, agarwood, and nālada powder. With their crowns bowed by the burden of disciplined speech, the gods of the higher realms prostrate to your command; mounted upon celestial elephants adorned with tinkling ornaments, they are constantly guided by the reins of the hands of Śacī, whose hair stands on end. Purified by the touch of your gaze, they are protected by the gods who hold vajras in their hands. Seated upon the crest-jewels of the Sugatas, you are like a canopy of celestial splendor; with the expansion of light rays as brilliant as ten million rising suns, you fill the three worlds. With one foot firmly extended, you trample upon the burden of Brahmā, Indra, Rudra, and Viṣṇu, who bow down; for those who rely on birth, meditating on your body shall serve to sever the fears of cyclic existence.
The blazing light-rays of weapons, together with the wrathful deities, pervade the expanse of space with their hands and implements. With bracelets and hoods, the unbearable and unassailable ones, possessing majestic conduct, laugh to terrify the hateful. When the fierce damaru is struck with great force, the vetālas clap their hands violently; some see the fierce goddesses, who, through the expansion of heedlessness, raise a great clamor. Some see [the deity] dwelling in each and every pore, abiding in the reaches of space, upon the earth, and beneath the earth. Abiding in the higher realms, Brahmā, Indra, Rudra, and so forth—humans, gods, siddhas, gandharvas, and nāgas—reside within the light-rays that pervade the directions, the bodies of infinite emanations of hundreds of Sugatas. In essence, they are the nature of all things, both stable and moving, worthy of the prostrations of the three worlds, a wondrous marvel. Some see your body as intensely red, like the colors of lac and vermilion, or like the rising sun; likewise, others see it as dark blue and lustrous, like ground fragments of sapphire; some see it as exceedingly white, like the light of the churned ocean of milk, or like the radiance of gold. Your body is like a crystal, appearing distinct through the connection of the various essences it manifests. The lamp of omniscient primordial wisdom illuminates all that can be known; you are the sole sovereign of those very realities. Only the All-Knowing One, or his sons, can directly perceive the number of your collection of qualities. As for one like me, who merely proclaims the conduct of the torma offering, I can only utter a great clamor with my mouth wide open.
This unbearable suffering, the torment that produces illness and the decline of the mind, is the cause of my laughter. Whatever I have requested, you already know it in its innermost detail; nevertheless, to speak of it further is a labor for me, an unskilled one, only to satisfy my own mind. Even though the meaning is already known, when one who possesses suffering speaks of that suffering before loving kinsmen, it is like vomiting poison; the heart feels a sense of relief and remains at ease. I pray that you grant your clear, cooling gaze, like a portion of the moon upon the ocean of all-encompassing joy. May you expand [this] through the teachings of primordial wisdom, and through your compassion, dispel the inner darkness of the sinful. Because the minds of beings in the world have been purified by the water of your praise, I see that the mere praise of your qualities is the sole abode of excellence for all creatures. Having praised even a fraction of the collection of your qualities, I do not know if this is all; may the fruit of the merit and auspiciousness I desire be enjoyed until the end of existence. By whatever [merit] is obtained, may this world quickly travel to the land called Sukhāvatī, the ground of the Sugata’s sons, marked by the auspicious signs of the feet of the Noble Lord of the World. This Mālādhāra-stotra, composed by the great Paṇḍita Sarvajñāmitra, is complete.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations. A bibliography of the canon lists 2 English-language publication(s) on this text, e.g. Vidyabhusana, Satis Chandra, Sragdharā Stotra of Bhikçu Sarvajña Mitra of Kāśmīra (1908). Calcutta: Asiatic Society, xxx, 273 p. (Bibllndica 166) (Bauddha-Stotra-Samgraha I), p. 114-126 — these may include a full or partial translation. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.