Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for deity yoga, focused on the wrathful manifestation of Tārā known as Ugratārā. The work guides the practitioner through a process of imaginative transformation, instructing the user to visualize themselves as the deity. The text specifies the iconographic details of this form, including a blue lotus, a garland of heads, and a specific posture with the left leg extended. The practice commits the reader to a rigorous meditative discipline involving the visualization of specific implements, the recitation of a mantra, and the process of emanation and reabsorption. The stated objective of this ritual commitment is the attainment of wisdom and mastery of poetry, suggesting that the practice is intended to refine both the intellectual and creative capacities of the practitioner through the stabilization of the mind.
Provenance
About this text
A sādhana focused on the wrathful manifestation of Tārā known as Ugratārā, the Āryogratārāsādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Śāśvatavajra. It was translated into Tibetan by Vanaratnapāda and lo tsa ba many+dzu shri, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it is situated within the Other Wisdom Tantras collection. Spanning three pages in this edition, the text enacts a process of deity yoga in which the practitioner transforms themselves into the deity. This involves visualizing Ugratārā—characterized by her blue color, four arms, and a garland of heads—while reciting a mantra and employing the techniques of emanation and reabsorption. A scholar or serious reader consults this manual to understand the specific iconographic and meditative requirements of the practice, which aims to stabilize the mind to achieve wisdom and a mastery of poetry.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of the Wrathful Ārya Tārā” (Toh 1727), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1727
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it represents the wrathful aspect of the Tārā cycle, demonstrating the use of terrifying imagery to achieve liberation across the three realms. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of the technical precision required in Indo-Tibetan visualization practices.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers homage to Ugratārā.
2-3
Visualization
Details the physical attributes of the deity and the meditative process of emanation and reabsorption to achieve wisdom.
Themes
Deity Yoga (2-3)
Wrathful Iconography (2-3)
Mantra and Mental Stability (3)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Ārya-ugratārāsādhanam-nāma. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags ma sgrol ma drag mo’i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of the Noble Wrathful Tārā). Homage to the Venerable Tārā!
Bowing to Ugratārā, who liberates the three realms of existence, I shall describe her sādhana according to the pith instructions of Padma. In a single linga, or likewise in a charnel ground, or else in an empty house, the yogin should practice the vidyā who liberates the three realms in that place. Seated upon a soft corpse of a child, or else upon a soft cushion and so forth, one should accomplish the supreme siddhi while remaining in meditative equipoise.
First, having thoroughly purified the face and mouth, one takes refuge in the Three Jewels. In the sky before one, one makes offerings to the Guru, confesses misdeeds, rejoices in merit, dedicates all virtue, and thoroughly relies upon the path. One recollects the four Brahma-abodes and generates the bodhicitta. Through the yoga of the instantaneous mode, one rests in the blissful equality of the three vajras. One should contemplate those at the three places; from them, light rays radiate forth, clearly illuminating the sentient beings who dwell in the three realms. Then, having gathered all the three realms back together, one should contemplate them as emptiness.
Then, one recites the secret mantra of the nature of the Victors, such as śūnyatā and so forth. Then, one visualizes a red lotus arisen from the syllable A in the sky. Furthermore, upon that, one should visualize a lotus arisen from the syllable Tāṃ. In its center, one visualizes a dark blue syllable Hūṃ. From that syllable Hūṃ, a curved knife (kartṛ) is born, adorned with the seed-syllable.
Meditate on oneself as Tārā, completely transformed from the curved knife (kartṛkā): with left leg extended, wearing a garland of terrifying heads hanging down; adorned with a blue lotus, short and with a protruding belly, the Terrifying One (Bhīṣaṇī). The Excellent One has one face, four arms, and three eyes, possessing a laughing roar and light. Exceedingly joyful, she tramples a corpse and is adorned by the eight nāgas. With red, rounded eyes, she wears a tiger skin around her waist. Youthful and perfect, she is adorned with the five mudrās. Her tongue flickers, her fangs are bared, and she is the Great Terrifier who strikes fear. In her right hands she holds a sword and a curved knife; in her left, an utpala and a skull-cup. Her single lock of hair, orange-red, is tied upward, and she is crowned by Akṣobhya. By meditating thus, one’s power is perfected, and the yogi becomes a great poet. Even if one is dull and ignorant, if one strives in the taste of meditation, by one hundred thousand recitations, one will attain Mañjughoṣa himself. At the heart, the three-syllable great mantra is perfectly arranged, with the syllable phaṭ at the end. Possessing the five perfect light rays, it thoroughly burns the fuel of ignorance. This is the ritual for extracting the reality (tattva) for those following the Yogācāra. First, the letter beyond the earth (sa) is adorned with the fourth vowel; mounted on ra, it radiates light and is perfectly endowed with the lunar drop (bindu). Likewise, the fourth [vowel] adorns the letter ta and is perfectly bestowed. Again, from the syllable haṃ, the application is perfectly endowed with the long ū. Then the syllable phaṭ is bestowed; this is the complete mantra of accomplishment.
In the place of the sword, the wise should visualize a garland of human heads. Reciting the supreme, authentic mantra, through the application of emanation and reabsorption, and having examined with a stable mind, one becomes wise and a master of poetry. By becoming habituated to this intense meditation, that very reality is accomplished without doubt.
Arisen from the syllable HŪṂ, she is blue, stout, and short, with her hair tied in a topknot. With her supreme left leg extended, she tramples a human corpse and possesses a most formidable, supreme roar. Holding a sword, an utpala flower, a curved knife, and a skull-cup, she is adorned with the great nāgas. To you, the fierce Tārā who destroys the darkness of ignorance of wandering beings, I prostrate.
Whatever merit I have accumulated by composing this excellent sādhana of Tārā, by that may all wandering beings without exception become wise in the teachings of the Victorious One. Since this Sādhana for Increasing Intelligence was composed here by Nityavajra, the wise who are learned in the profound should grant their forbearance to it.
This concludes the Sādhana of the Noble Fierce Tārā, composed by the master Nityavajra. It was later translated by the great paṇḍita of Eastern India, Śrī Vanaratna, and the translator Mañjuśrī.
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.