Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual manual outlines the procedural stages for making offerings to Pīṭhīśvarī, the Sovereign of the Field. The text functions as a technical guide for a practitioner to transition from a state of emptiness into a visualized deity, specifically through the transformation of the seed syllable Hrīṃ into a white deity with ten arms and five faces. The work commits the reader to a rigorous sequence of meditative visualization, the use of ritual implements such as the bell to invite deities into a maṇḍala, and the performance of specific mudras involving the placement of seed syllables on the fingers. It further mandates the identification of the practitioner with Vajradhara and the invocation of Sūryaśrī. The ritual concludes with the mental offering of substances to the deities of sacred sites and the physical offering to supports such as thangkas, aiming for the liberation of the practitioner from sins and the generation of bodhicitta.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual detailing the stages of offering to the Sovereign of the Field, the Piṭhīśvarīpūjākrama belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. It was translated into Tibetan by Kaśmīri Parahita and lo tsA ba dge slong shes rab rgyal mtshan, and is preserved in volume ཤ of the Tengyur within the collection of Other Wisdom Tantras. Spanning five pages in this edition, the work enacts a complex meditative process. It begins with an invocation of the Blessed Noble Lady Tārā and a visualization of the wrathful Vajrapāṇi, before guiding the practitioner to transform the seed syllable Hrīṃ into a white deity with ten arms and five faces. Through the use of a bell to stabilize deities within a maṇḍala and the performance of specific ritual actions, the text seeks to liberate the practitioner from sins, cease all suffering, and eliminate diseases and the eight great fears. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the technical procedures of visualization and the ritual mechanisms intended to generate bodhicitta and attain the essence of the tathāgatas.
Sanskrit title
Piṭhīśvarīpūjākrama
Indian author
not recorded
Tibetan translators
Kaśmīri Parahita, lo tsA ba dge slong shes rab rgyal mtshan
Cite thisAnuvāda, “An Arrangement of the Offering Ritual for Pīṭhīśvarī” (Toh 1713), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1713
Summary & commentary
Significance
The text is significant for its integration of visualization, mantra, and physical offerings to local or territorial deities within a Vajrayāna framework. It demonstrates the synthesis of emptiness-based meditation with the propitiation of specific female and solar deities to achieve spiritual purification.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Invocation and Visualization
Initial homage and the meditative transformation of the seed syllable Hrīṃ into the central deity within a maṇḍala.
3-4
Ritual Implementation
The use of the bell for invitation and the preparation of the practitioner's body and fingers with seed syllables.
5
Deity Invocation
The invocation of Sūryaśrī and the recitation of a mantra identifying the practitioner with the nature of the emptiness-knowledge vajra.
6
Final Offerings
The performance of mental offerings to sacred site deities and physical offerings to ritual supports.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Visualization (2, 5)
Ritual Purification and Bodhicitta (3)
Somatic Ritualism (4)
Offerings to Sacred Sites (6)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaAn Arrangement of the Offering Ritual for Pīṭhīśvarī·
In the language of India: Kṣetrapatipūjākrama. In the language of Tibet: Zhing gi dbang phyug ma’i mchod pa’i rim pa (The Stages of Offering to the Sovereign of the Field). Homage to the Blessed Noble Lady Tārā.
Vajrapāṇi, holding the threatening gesture, black in color and beautiful in his wrathful form, short in stature with limbs adorned by snakes, his eyebrows, beard, and hair yellow and bristling upward, with three eyes and holding the threatening gesture at his heart. First, having arisen from one's seat, one should perform the instantaneous yoga.
First, having entered a temple or similar place, the mantra for prostration is: Oṃ sarvatathāgatakāyavākcittapraṇāmena vajra-vandanāṃ karomi. Sitting upon the seat, one should expel obstructors by snapping the fingers in the ten directions while reciting the aforementioned Vighnāntaka samādhi: Oṃ amṛtakuṇḍali hana hana sarvavighnān daha daha sarvapāpaṃ hūṃ phaṭ. Then, with the mantra Oṃ vighnāntakṛt samayatas me yaccha aḥ hūṃ hūṃ amṛtakuṇḍalini svāhā, one should use the alms bowl, scents, and the incense wheel. Having poured these, one should consecrate them through the meditation on nectar. One should protect oneself, the place, and the yoga. The yoga of Kṣetrapatitārā is thus completed.
Then, one should perform the meditation on the vajra and bell. Then, with the bell resting in the left hand, one should meditate as follows: Oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako ’ham. (I am the self-nature of the vajra of the wisdom of emptiness.)
Thus, from the state of emptiness, within a triangular maṇḍala, in the center of a multicolored lotus maṇḍala, one should meditate on the seed syllable Hrīṃ completely transforming into a white-colored [deity]. She has ten arms and five faces, adorned with the garlands of all the buddhas. Her first face is white, the right yellow, the back red, the left sapphire-blue, and the upper face black. In her right hands are a vajra, a wheel, a sword, a hook, and a source of phenomena (dharmodaya). In her left hands are a jewel, a lotus, a bell, a noose, and a volume of scripture of omniscient wisdom.
Visualizing that from her, emanations in the form of mantras of all the tathāgatas of the world systems are summoned, she is the vajra sword that cuts through all malevolent obstructors along with their various sufferings. From the mouth of the mantra for the offering to the liberating Tārā: Oṃ namo bhagavati sarvatathāgatānāṃ sarvasattvāpratihataghoṣāṇāṃ oṃ gandhe a. Likewise, the mantra of the Bhagavatī herself is: Oṃ vajraghaṇṭe raṇita praraṇita saṃpraraṇita sarvabuddhakṣetra pracalite prajñāpāramitānādasvabhāva viśuddhe vajradhara hṛdayā saṃtoṣa hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā.
By thoroughly invoking all of them, and likewise by perfectly invoking the five tathāgatas, the bodhisattvas, and the kings of the wrathful deities through sound, they are constantly invited at the time of offering, being summoned by one who releases [the offering] together with incense.
This bell swiftly exhorts the invitation and stabilizes [the deities] within the maṇḍala. By the sound of this ritual, the essence of the tathāgatas is swiftly attained; and whoever sees, perceives, or hears it will be completely liberated from all sins and will generate the bodhicitta. By its ringing, all suffering will cease, and diseases, as well as the eight great fears, the harm of poisonous clouds, and excessive or deficient wind and rain, will be eliminated. Māras, obstructors, and misleading spirits, as well as yakṣas, rākṣasas, and fanged beings—all of these will be terrified, trembling, and fainting, and will flee in the ten directions. The tathāgatas, bodhisattvas, gods, vajra wrathful deities, world-protectors, great gods, mahoragas, Virūḍhaka and the other great kings, Hārītī, the planets, the constellations, and so forth, will naturally arrive. It performs the empowerment; it bestows the siddhi of great accomplishment; it accomplishes all desired aims. It bestows long life, freedom from disease, and separation from the unpleasant; it grants the great bliss of beloved ones and the unsurpassed wisdom, and it delivers all beings to the state of buddhahood. It is to be used at the time of the offering maṇḍala, during consecration, and when performing the fire ritual.
Likewise, at the beginning of performing the offering of the reflected image, one should take this and prostrate. In that way, one then becomes a Vajradhara. Having blessed the left hand, one should arrange the syllables Oṃ Āḥ Hūṃ Trāṃ Khaṃ sequentially upon the fingers, ending with the little finger. Then, having prostrated, one should hold the vessel of perfumes in the right hand with the vajra-fist. With this, at the time of invitation and likewise at the time of requesting the tathāgatas to depart, one should perform the maṇḍala through the samādhi of the vajra bell.
For the tathāgatas, bodhisattvas, gods, and wrathful deities, as well as for whichever ritual of a particular family, one should manifest the specific emblem and ring the bell. For pacifying, one rings the bell while manifesting the wheel. For enriching, one holds it while manifesting the jewel. For magnetizing, summoning, and subjugating, one should ring it swiftly while manifesting the lotus. For all wrathful activities, one rings it while manifesting the crossed vajra. Light radiates from whichever activity one is engaged in. By holding and offering it in this way in a monastery or one's own home, it is the cause of constant great enjoyment; this is the speech of all the buddhas. By recollecting the locus of all mantras, everything is accomplished. This is the sequence for meditating on the samādhi of the ritual for holding whichever one follows from the vajra and bell of the Bhagavatī, through this devotion to the tathāgatas.
The characteristics and so forth of the great Vajrācārya, the deity Sūryaśrī, whose face is beautiful, are not described here. From the vajra situated to the right, recite: oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako ’haṃ. From the state of emptiness, upon a lotus and moon, from the transformation of the syllable hūṃ, meditate on the glorious Vajrasattva, white in color, with one face and two hands. His right hand holds a vajra at his heart, and his left hand rests a bell at his hip. He sits in the vajra posture and is peaceful. He is adorned with jewel ornaments and draped in multicolored silks.
Light rays radiate from him, causing all sentient beings to become tathāgatas. These dissolve into him, and he becomes a vajra. Holding it in his right hand, make offerings with: oṃ vajrarāja hūṃ. Recite the hundred-syllable mantra and scatter the maṇḍala with the five nectars. With: oṃ mahāmaṇḍalavidhi hūṃ, and likewise with the mantras for blessing as they appear in the Tārāsādhana, perform the offerings and so forth. Perform the sprinkling of purification: oṃ vajra arghaṃ svāhā, oṃ vajra puṣpe svāhā, oṃ vajra dhūpe svāhā, oṃ vajra dīpe svāhā, oṃ vajra gandhe svāhā, oṃ vajra naivedye svāhā. Make offerings with the bell, and with the ring finger of the left hand, hold the vajra. Bless it with these three mantras: oṃ medinī vajrībhava hūṃ, oṃ vajra arjani gṛhṇa hūṃ, oṃ vajra sukāsana hūṃ. For the self-offering, hold the fragrant scent with the ring finger and thumb of the left hand.
One should mentally perform all offerings without exception to the deities of the great sacred sites of the goddess’s wheel of mantras. Then, one should drink the offering of the five nectars. Next, one should make all types of offerings to the supports, such as the painted scroll (thang ka). Then, holding the vajra and bell, one should recite the mantra for inviting the wisdom wheel. Likewise, one should recite the hundred-syllable mantra, the bell mantra, and then the mantras of the Tārā wheel. Then, with the respective mantras of each goddess, one should present all the offerings, such as the water for the feet. At the time of burning incense, one should ring the bell and then recite the root mantra of the Tārā wheel. One should offer the torma and the five nectars. Then, one should offer praise, perform the seven-limb prayer, and make aspiration prayers. Then, having recited the hundred-syllable mantra, one should request the wisdom wheel to depart with: "Oṃ! You have accomplished all the welfare of sentient beings; please bestow the appropriate accomplishments. Even after you have departed for the buddha-fields, please return once again." Thus, one requests the wisdom wheel to depart, and requests the visualized deities to return within the seed syllable at one's own heart. This concludes the sequence of offerings to the Sovereign of the Field. Translated by Paṇḍita Parahita and the translator-monk Sherab Gyaltsen.
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.