Toh 1724 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Praise of Vajravārāhī Tārā

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1724
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,308 Tibetan characters · 306 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 liturgical text, attributed to the Paṇḍita Candrakīrti, functions as a praise (stotra) dedicated to Tārā in her manifestation as Vajravārāhī. The work employs a traditional devotional structure, beginning with formal homages to the deity's body and speech, which are identified with emptiness and compassion. The text specifically situates the deity within the symbolic environment of the eight charnel grounds, surrounded by a blazing fire, thereby linking the salvific qualities of Tārā with the tantric iconography of Vajravārāhī. By synthesizing these two figures, the text commits the reader to a practice of visualization and veneration that bridges the gap between the compassionate activity of Tārā and the transformative, cremation-ground imagery associated with the Vārāhī cycle. The work concludes with a formal colophon confirming its authorship and completion.

Provenance

About this text

A eulogy dedicated to the deity Tārā in her manifestation as Vajravārāhī, the Vajravārāhītārāstotra belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Candrakīrti. It is preserved in the Tengyur, specifically within volume ཤ, where it occupies two pages as part of the Other Wisdom Tantras collection. The text enacts a devotional practice through a series of formal homages to the body, speech, and mind of Tārā, identifying these aspects with compassion, emptiness, and stainless wisdom. By situating the deity within the blazing fire of the eight charnel grounds, the work synthesizes the compassionate nature of Tārā with the specific tantric iconography of Vajravārāhī. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the synthesis of these two figures and the resulting visualization and veneration practices that bridge the gap between salvific activity and the transformative imagery of the cremation grounds.

Sanskrit title: Vajravārāhītārāstotra
Indian author: Candrakīrti
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Eulogy
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, “Praise of Vajravārāhī Tārā” (Toh 1724), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1724

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant for its syncretic identification of Tārā with Vajravārāhī, suggesting a specific tantric intersection between these two female deities. For the modern reader, it provides evidence of how specific Paṇḍita-authored praises were used to integrate different deity cycles within the Indo-Tibetan tradition.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Homages	Formal salutations to the body and speech of Tārā, associated with emptiness and compassion.
2	Iconographic Praise and Colophon	Description of the deity's manifestation in the charnel grounds and the concluding statement of authorship by Candrakīrti.

Themes

Deity Synthesis (1-2)
Tantric Iconography (2)
Emptiness and Compassion (1)

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

AnuvādaPraise of Vajravārāhī Tārā·

#༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་བཱ་རཱ་ཧཱི་#ཏཱ་ར་སྟོ་ཏྲཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ། རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་ཆེ། ། སྒྲོལ་མའི་སྐུ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྨྲ་བསམ་བརྗོད་མེད་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན། ། སྒྲོལ་མའི་གསུང་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། དྲི་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཟླ་བའི་ཐུགས། ། སྒྲོལ་མའི་#ཐུགས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཟླ་འོད་སྲིད་པའི་མུན་སེལ་བ། ། འཇོམས་བྱེད་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་དང་མཚུངས། ། ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་རྟག་ཏུ་འདུད། ། འགྲོ་ལ་བུ་བཞིན་རྟག་ཏུ་གདུང་#། ། སྲིད་གསུམ་རྣམ་ཐར་གསུམ་ལ་འགོད། ། སེང་ལྡེང་ནགས་ལ་རབ་གནས་ཤིང་། ། འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྐྱོབ། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད#། ། མངོན་པར་དགའ་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་འགྲོར་#སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། འགྲོ་བའི་སྒྲིབ་གཉིས་སྦྱོང་མཛད་པ། ། #སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། དཔལ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། རིན་ཆེན་མཁའ་འགྲོར་སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ནད་སེལ་མཛད། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོར་སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ངང་ལ་གནས། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། ལས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་འགྲོར་སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། ཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་བཞིས་འགྲོ་དོན་མཛད། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། མཐའ་དབུས་མེད་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་མའི་སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཚོགས་དང་བཅས། །

In the language of India: Vajravārāhītārāstotram. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje phag mo sgrol ma la bstod pa (Praise to Vajravārāhī Tārā). Homage to the Venerable Lady Tārā! Homage to the body of Tārā, the Great Vārāhī of emptiness and compassion. Homage to the speech of Tārā, the perfection of wisdom beyond speech, thought, and expression. Homage to the mind of Tārā, the stainless wisdom moon. Like moonlight that dispels the darkness of existence, she is equal to the sun’s orb that destroys it; endowed with the qualities of skillful means and insight, I bow forever to Tārā. Always yearning for beings like her own children, she establishes them in the three liberations of the three realms; dwelling in the Acacia Forest, she protects thoroughly from the eight fears—homage and praise to Tārā! In the realm of Abhirati, manifesting in the form of the Vajra Ḍākinī, she purifies the two obscurations of beings—homage and praise to Tārā! In the glorious realm, manifesting in the form of the Ratna Ḍākinī, she clears away the diseases of suffering for beings—homage and praise to Tārā! In the realm of Sukhāvatī, manifesting in the form of the Padma Ḍākinī, she abides in the state of great bliss—homage and praise to Tārā! In the realm of complete purity, manifesting in the form of the Karma Ḍākinī, she acts for the benefit of beings through the four activities—homage and praise to Tārā! In the realm without center or periphery, manifesting in the form of the Pāramitā, together with the assembly of Buddhas of the ten directions...

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.

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termསྡུག་བསྔལ → suffering

སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། དུར་ཁྲོད་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོར་སྐུར་སྟོན་ཅིང་། ། མེ་དཔུང་འབར་བའི་དབུས་ན་བཞུགས། ། སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། པཎྜི་ཏ་ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པས་བསྟོད་པ་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Homage and praise to Tārā! In the realms of the eight charnel grounds, you manifest in the form of Vajravārāhī, dwelling in the midst of a blazing mass of fire. Homage and praise to Tārā! This praise composed by the Paṇḍita Candrakīrti is complete.

Terminology used in this text (8)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲོལ་མ	Tārā	2
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
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

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. A bibliography of the canon lists 1 English-language publication(s) on this text, e.g. Willson, Martin, ″Praise of Vajravārāhī Tārā″ (1986). in _In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress_ Boston: Wisdom Publ., pp. 286-287 — 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.

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