Toh 1701 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Generating Knowledge

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1701
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,883 Tibetan characters · 479 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)

Generating Knowledge (Vidyāvardhani) is a ritual manual dedicated to the deity Tārā, designed to remove intellectual blindness and grant supreme knowledge to a diverse audience including royalty and householders. The text functions as a prescriptive guide for a specific tantric practice, combining devotional intent with precise technical requirements. It commits the practitioner to a rigorous schedule and a set of material conditions, specifically requiring the performance of offerings—including fire sacrifices and tormas—at midnight on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. Furthermore, the text mandates the creation of a precise geometric wheel using vermilion on a flawless mirror, indicating that the attainment of knowledge is contingent upon the exact execution of these external ritual markers and the alignment of the practitioner with specific astrological and material parameters.

Provenance

About this text

Designed to grant the supreme knowledge of the Vidyā Tārā to householders and kings whose intellects are blinded by delusion, the Vidyāvardhana is a treatise belonging to the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Tathāgatarakṣita. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the efforts of translators including Tathāgatarakṣita and cog gru lo tsa ba mya ngan med pa’i dpal, and is preserved in the classical Tibetan period within volume ཤ of the Tengyur, where it extends over two pages. The work enacts a precise ritual procedure to be performed at midnight on the fifteenth day, facing the moon. This process requires the presentation of fire sacrifices and torma offerings, alongside the technical construction of a geometric wheel drawn with vermilion and a golden or copper stylus upon a flawless mirror. To complete the arrangement, the practitioner must incorporate the essence mantra and the dhāraṇī. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific material and astrological parameters required for the attainment of knowledge, as well as the intersection of devotional intent with the rigorous execution of external ritual markers.

Sanskrit title: Vidyāvardhana
Indian author: Tathāgatarakṣita
Tibetan translators: Tathāgatarakṣita, cog gru lo tsa ba mya ngan med pa’i dpal
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཤ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Generating Knowledge” (Toh 1701), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1701

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its intersection of ritual art and cognitive attainment, illustrating how the Tibetan tradition employs material supports like mirrors and mandalas to facilitate mental clarity. It reflects the tradition of adapting Indian Vidyā practices for a Tibetan audience to address both spiritual and worldly intellectual needs.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Statement of the work's titles in Sanskrit and Tibetan, the dedication to Tārā, and the intended audience.
2	Ritual Instructions	Detailed requirements for timing, offerings, and the construction of a ritual wheel on a mirror.

Themes

Attainment of Knowledge (1)
Ritual Precision (2)
Material Supports (2)

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

AnuvādaGenerating Knowledge·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བི་དྱ་བརྡྷ་ནི། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རིག་པ་བསྐྱེད་པ། རིག་བྱེད་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གང་ཞིག་རྨོངས་པས་བློ་མདོངས་པ། ། རིག་བྱེད་སྒྲོལ་མ་རིག་པའི་མཆོག། རྒྱལ་པོ་ཁྱིམ་བདག་མགུ་བྱེད་པ། ། བླང་ཕྱིར་བདག་གིས་བྲི་བར་བྱ། ། གཞན་ཡང་སྒྲོལ་མའི་རིག་པ་མཆོག་བླང་བའི་སླད་དུ་བསྙེན་པའི་གྲངས་ཚད་དུ་སོང་ཞིང་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཆོ་ག་བློ་འདྲིས་པའི་རྟེན་གྱི་གང་ཟག་གིས་བྱམས་པ་དང་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྔོན་དུ་བསྐྱེད་ལ་སྐད་ཅིག་གིས་རིག་བྱེད་སྒྲོལ་མ་སྐུ་མདོག་ཚོས་ཆེན་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་བཞི་པ། གཡས་ཀྱི་དང་པོ་མི་འཇིགས་པའི་ཕྱག་དང་། གཉིས་པས་མདའ་དང་། གཡོན་གྱིས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཞུ་དང་། གཡོན་གཉིས་པས་ཨུཏྤ་ལ་དམར་པོ་འཛིན་པ། རྒྱན་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་སྤྲས་པ། པདྨ་དང་ཟླ་བའི་གདན་ལ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་གིས་བཞུགས་པ། དེའི་ཐུགས་ཀར་པཾ་ལས་པདྨ། ཨ་ལས་ཟླ་བའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཏཱཾ་དམར་པོ་བྱི་རུའི་མདོག་ལྟ་བུ་ལས། ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་འོད་འཕྲོས་ཚུར་བསྡུས་ནས་བདག་གི་ཀུན་དུ་རྨོངས་པའི་ཚོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཞི་བར་བསམ་ཞིང་སེམས་གཏད་ལ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་སྐྱེ་བར་གྱུར་ན་གསང་སྔགས་རྒྱུན་མགལ་མེའི་འཁོར་ལོ་ལྟ་བུས་སེམས་སྦྱངས་ནས་ཡར་ངོའི་ཚེས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ཉིན་པར་ནས་མཚལ་དང་གུར་གུམ་དང་གི་ཝཾ་རྣམས་སྦྱར་ལ་པདྨ་འདབ་མ་བཅུ་དྲུག་པ་གཉིས་བྲིས་ལ། ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཨ་ནི་བྷི་པྲཛྙཱ་སཱ་དྷ་ན། ཨ་བྷི་པྲཛྙཱ་པྲ་སཱ་དྷ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཞེས་བཟླ་ཞིང་བདག་དང་འཁོར་ལོ་ཕན་ཚུན་ཐིམ་ཞིང་སྙིང་པོ་དང་གཟུངས་དགོད། འཁོར་ལོ་གཅིག་ལ་དབྱངས་དང་གསལ་བྱེད་བྲི་བར་བྱའོ། །

In the language of India: Vidyāvardhani. In the language of Tibet: Rig pa bskyed pa (Generating Knowledge). Homage to the Vidyā Tārā. I shall write this in order to satisfy kings and householders, and to acquire the supreme knowledge of the Vidyā Tārā for those whose intellects are blinded by delusion. Furthermore, for the sake of acquiring the supreme knowledge of Tārā, a person who has completed the required number of recitations for the approach stage and is familiar with the ritual of the sādhana should first generate love and compassion. Then, in an instant, they should meditate on Vidyā Tārā, whose body is the color of a great dye, with one face and four arms. Her first right hand is in the gesture of fearlessness, the second holds an arrow, and the left hands hold a precious bow and a red utpala lotus. She is adorned with various ornaments and sits in the vajra posture upon a lotus and moon seat. At her heart, from the syllable paṃ comes a lotus, and upon a moon disc from the syllable a, there is a red tāṃ the color of coral. Light radiates to the ten directions and is reabsorbed, and one should meditate with focused mind, imagining that all collections of one's total delusion are pacified. Then, when [the signs of] birth occur, having trained the mind with the secret mantra like a circling firebrand, on the eighth day of the waxing moon, one should mix vermilion, saffron, and gi-waṃ to draw two sixteen-petaled lotuses. Reciting "Oṃ tāre tuttāre abhiprajñāsādhana abhiprajñāprasādhana svāhā," one should visualize oneself and the wheel dissolving into one another and arrange the essence and the dhāraṇī. On one of the wheels, the vowels and consonants should be written.

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.

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

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.”

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

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

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 ).

terminologyགཟུངས → “dhāraṇī”. A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retention spell'.

homonymགཟུངས is rendered “dhāraṇī” here; the glossary also records retention, incantation, spell for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

དེ་ནས་བཅོ་ལྔའི་མཚན་ཕྱེད་ལ་ཟླ་བ་ལ་མངོན་དུ་ཕྱོགས་པས་མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ་དང་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་དང་གཏོར་མ་རྣམས་ཕུལ་ལ། མེ་ལོང་གཡའ་ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པ་བུ་ག་མེད་པ་ལ་སིནྡྷུ་ར་དམར་པོ་མཎྜལ་ལ་གསེར་རམ་ཟངས་ཀྱི་ཐུར་མས་འཁོར་ལོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ཕྱི་ནང་དུ་གཉིས་བྲིས་ལ་སྙིང་པོ་དང་གཟུངས་དང་། ཕྱི་མ་ལ་དབྱངས་དང་གསལ་བྱེད་བཀོད་དེ་ཅུང་ཞིག་བཟླས་པ་བྱ་ཞིང་མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་པ་ལྔས་ཡང་དག་པར་མཆོད་ལ་འཁོར་ལོ་གཉིས་དྲིལ་ཏེ་མགུལ་དུ་གདགས་པར་བྱ། སིནྡྷུ་ར་ལེགས་པར་བསྡུས་ཏེ་དུག་ལང་ཀ་ཝ་ཏིའི་སྦུ་གུར་བླུགས་ལ་མཆན་ཁུང་གཡོན་པར་བཏགས་ཏེ་ཐིག་ལེ་དམར་པོ་སྐྲ་མཚམས་སུ་བྱ་ཞིང་། བསོད་སྙོམས་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་ཞུགས་ན་རྒྱལ་པོ་དང་ཁྱིམ་བདག་དད་ཅིང་འདུན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། སྒྲ་དང་བསྟན་བཅོས་མང་པོ་དང་། ། རོལ་མོ་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་ཇི་སྙེད་དང་། ། ལྷ་དང་གནོད་སྦྱིན་བུ་མོ་སོགས། ། རིག་བྱེད་མཐུ་ཡིས་འདུན་པར་བྱེད། ། རིག་པ་བསྐྱེད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Then, at midnight on the fifteenth day, facing the moon, one should present the five types of offerings, the fire sacrifice, and the torma offerings. Upon a stainless, flawless mirror, one should use vermilion and a golden or copper stylus to draw the wheel exactly as described, both externally and internally. One should then arrange the essence mantra and the dhāraṇī, and on the outer rim, the vowels and consonants. Reciting the mantra for a short while, one should make perfect offerings with the five types of offerings, wrap the two wheels together, and wear them around the neck. Having carefully collected the vermilion, one should place it in a tube made of kaṭaka-vati (a type of reed) and attach it to the left armpit. One should then apply a red tilaka at the hairline. If one enters a city for alms, kings and householders will become faithful and devoted. Through the power of this vidyā, one will attract many sounds and treatises, as many musical arts and skills as there are, and even the daughters of gods and yakṣas. This concludes the generation of the vidyā.

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

terminologyགཏོར་མ → “offering cake”. 'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

homonymགཏོར་མ is rendered “offering cake” here; the glossary also records Bali, oblation, bali offering for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཏོར་མ “offering cake” — Bali wrested control of the world from the devas , establishing a period of peace and prosperity with no caste distinction. Indra requested Viṣṇu to use his wiles so that the devas could gain the world back from him. He

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

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termགཟུངས → dhāraṇī

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termལྷ → god

termགནོད་སྦྱིན → yakṣa

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
རིག་པ	knowledge	2	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	2
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
གཟུངས	dhāraṇī	2	A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retent
སྒྲོལ་མ	Tārā	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	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
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
གནོད་སྦྱིན	yakṣa	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).

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

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