Toh 1733 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of Red Ekajaṭī

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1733
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 3 passages · 2,328 Tibetan characters · 568 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 fragmentary text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for deity yoga, focused on the figure of Red Ekajaṭī. The work guides the practitioner through a structured visualization process designed to transform ordinary perception into a sacred landscape. It begins with the establishment of a seed syllable (OṂ) at the heart center, from which a red lotus emerges to serve as the base for the deity. The text commits the reader to a specific meditative architecture involving the visualization of Akṣobhya in union with the Bhagavatī, who appears as an emanation within the sky. By integrating visual imagery with the recitation of mantras, the practitioner aims to embody the deity's attributes. The fragment concludes with a dedicatory wish for the relief of others, indicating that the practice is situated within a broader framework of altruistic intent and tantric transformation.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana focused on the deity Red Ekajaṭī, the Raktaikajaṭīsādhana is a liturgical manual for deity yoga. The work is attributed to the Indian author Avadhūtavajra. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Narendrabhadra and legs pa’i blo gros, 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 work enacts a structured visualization process. It guides the practitioner to establish a red lotus from the syllable OṂ at the heart, followed by a moon maṇḍala and the visualization of Akṣobhya embraced by the Bhagavatī, who appears as an emanation in the sky. The practice further integrates the use of a red sandalwood seed rosary for mantra recitation according to oral instructions, concluding with a wish for the relief of others. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan text to examine the specific meditative architecture and tantric transformations associated with the Red Single-Tufted One, observing how visual imagery and recitation are combined to embody the deity's attributes.

Sanskrit title: Raktaikajaṭīsādhana
Indian author: Avadhūtavajra
Tibetan translators: Narendrabhadra, legs pa’i blo gros
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
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, “A Sādhana of Red Ekajaṭī” (Toh 1733), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1733

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it illustrates the synthesis of Indian tantric origins and Tibetan ritual application, as evidenced by the bilingual titles. It provides insight into the specific iconography of Red Ekajaṭī and the role of Akṣobhya in her practice, reflecting the complex intersection of Buddhist deity yoga and the appropriation of indigenous or semi-Indic protective deities.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	Introduction and Visualization	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, followed by the initial stages of visualization involving the seed syllable, the lotus, and the appearance of Akṣobhya and the Bhagavatī.
3	Dedication	A brief concluding aspiration for the relief of others.

Themes

Deity Yoga (1-2)
Visualization (1-2)
Altruism (3)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of Red Ekajaṭī·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། རཀྟ་ཨེ་ཀ་ཛཱ་ཊི་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རལ་པ་གཅིག་མ་དམར་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་རལ་གཅིག་མ་དམར་མོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཨཱ་སྙིང་གར་ཨོཾ་ཡིག་ལས་པདྨ་དམར་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ལས། དེའི་དབུས་སུ་སླར་ཡང་བསམ་པར་བྱ་བ་ཨ་ཡིག་ལས་ཟླ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་དུ། དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་སླར་ཡང་བསམ་པར་བྱ་བ་ཨ་ཡིག་ལས་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་དང་། དེ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐོད་པར་བསམ་པར་བྱ། ལྷ་དང་ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་གྱི་ཁྲག་གིས་གང་བའི་ཡི་གེ་གསུམ་གྱིས་ཁྱབ་པར་རོ། ། སླར་ཡང་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསམ་པར་བྱ་ཞིང་། དེ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པར་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་བསམ་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཞལ་བཞི་པ་ཐུང་ཞིང་ལྟོ་བ་འཕྱང་བ་ཆེན་པོར་འཇིགས་པའི་ཀླུ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ། མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་ཤིང་ཅུང་ཟད་འཛུམ་པའི་རོའི་སྟེང་དུ་ལང་ཚོ་གསར་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་ཐོབ་པ། ལོ་བརྒྱད་གཉིས་ལོན་པར་བསམ་ཞིང་། མགོ་བོ་གསར་པའི་ཕྲེང་བ་རབ་ཏུ་འཕྱང་བར་བྱེད་པ་དང་། སྐྲ་དམར་སེར་གྱེན་དུ་བརྫེས་པ་ཡང་ངོ་། ། སྟག་གི་པགས་པའི་ཤམ་ཐབས་དཀྲིས་པ། ཞལ་དང་པོ་དམར་པོ་ཡ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག་དང་མཚུངས་པ། ཞལ་གཡས་པ་ཀུནྡ་དང་ཟླ་བར་མཚུངས་པ། ཞལ་གཡོན་པ་ནག་པོ་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་། ཨུཏྤ་ལ་གསར་པ་སྔོན་པོ་ལྟ་བུའོ། ། སྟེང་ཞལ་ཞི་བ་བོང་བུའི་ཞལ་དུ་བའི་ཚོགས་འདུས་པ་ཉེ་བར་འབར་བས་རབ་ཏུ་མཚོན་པའོ། ། ཕྱག་བརྒྱད་ལ་རལ་གྲི་དང་། གྲི་གུག་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་དང་། མདུང་འཛིན་པའོ། ། གཞན་ལ་ཨུཏྤ་ལ་སྔོན་པོ་དང་། ཐོད་པ་དང་། གཞུ་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཞགས་པའི་སྡིགས་མཛུབ་དང་ལྡན་པའོ། །

In the language of India: Rakta-ekajaṭī-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: Ral pa gcig ma dmar mo’i sgrub pa’i thabs (The Sadhana of the Red Single-Tufted One). Homage to the Bhagavatī, the Red Single-Tufted One. At the heart, from the syllable OṂ, there arises a red lotus. In its center, one should again visualize a moon maṇḍala arising from the syllable A. Above that, one should again visualize a sun maṇḍala arising from the syllable A. Upon that, from the complete transformation of the syllable HŪṂ, one should visualize a vajra and a skull-cup, filled with the blood of gods and asuras and pervaded by the three syllables. Furthermore, one should visualize a crossed vajra in the sky, and from its complete transformation, one should visualize the Bhagavatī. She has four faces, is short and pot-bellied, and is adorned with the eight terrifying nāgas. She bares her fangs and has a slight smile; she stands in the full bloom of youth upon a corpse. One should visualize her as sixteen years of age, with a garland of fresh heads hanging down and orange-red hair bristling upward. She is wrapped in a lower garment of tiger skin. Her first face is red, like a hibiscus flower; her right face is white, like a kunda flower or the moon; her left face is black, like a blue utpala lotus; and her upper face is peaceful, the face of a donkey, characterized by a mass of smoke-like flames. In her eight hands, she holds a sword, a curved knife, a vajra hook, and a spear. In the others, she holds a blue utpala, a skull-cup, a bow, and a vajra noose with the threatening gesture.

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.

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.

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

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

terminologyལྷ་མ་ཡིན → “asura”. Literally 'not-god'; 84000 harmonises on 'asura'. Do not render 'anti-god'.

homonymལྷ་མ་ཡིན is rendered “asura” here; the glossary also records demigod, Asura, dānava for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མ་ཡིན “asura” — One of the six classes of sentient beings, sometimes included among the gods and sometimes among the animals, they are engendered and dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility and are described as being incessantly embr

terminologyཀླུ → “nāga”. Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

definitionཀླུ “nāga” — A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be ass

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termལྷ → god

termལྷ་མ་ཡིན → asura

termཀླུ → nāga

མཆོག་ཏུ་དགའ་བས་ཡང་དག་པར་མོས་པར་འཁྱུད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་མི་བསྐྱོད་པ་འཛིན་པ་རྒྱན་སྣ་ཚོགས་པས་བརྒྱན་པའོ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་སྤྲོ་བའི་གཟུགས་སུ་རྣམ་པ་དང་བཅས་པར་མཁའ་ལ་བསམ་པར་བྱ་ཞིང་། རྣལ་འབྱོར་ནི་ཇི་ལྟར་མན་ངག་ལས་ཙནྡན་དམར་པོའི་འབྲུའི་ཕྲེང་བས་བགྲང་བར་བྱའོ། ། བློ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྔགས་ཆེན་པོ་ནི། ཧྲི་དྷྲཱཾ་ཁྲཾ་ཤྲཱི་ཧྲཱི་ཡཿབརྒྱད་ལྷག་པའི་བརྒྱ་བཟླས་པ་ལས་སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བྱེད། ཁྲི་ཚོ་གཅིག་བཟླས་པ་ལས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། མ་ཐོས་པ་རྣམས་འཛིན་ཞིང་ཤེས་པར་བྱེད་དོ། ། འབུམ་བཟླས་པས་རལ་པ་གཅིག་མ་དམར་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་ལྡན་པའོ། ། འདི་མཛད་པ་ནི་ཀུན་སྤངས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཞེས་པས་ཀྱིའོ། ། རང་གི་སྙིང་གར་ཨུཏྤ་ལ་འདབ་མ་བཅུ་དྲུག་པ་བསམ། དབུས་སུ་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་དང་འདབ་མ་ལ་ཧྲཱིཿཡིག་བསམ། ཧཱུཾ་གི་ཡི་གེ་ནས་སྤྲོས་ཏེ་བསྒྲུབ་བྱའི་ཡིད་བཀུག་ཅིང་སླར་ཡང་འདབ་མ་བཅུ་དྲུག་པའི་ཧྲཱིཿཡིས་སྤྲོས་ཏེ། བསྒྲུབ་བྱའི་མགྲིན་པ་ནས་ཞགས་པས་བཅིངས་ཏེ་སྒྲུབ་པ་པོའི་རྐང་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་བྱེད་པར་བསམ་ཏེ། དྷི་ཧྲིཿ ཤྲཱི་ཧྲཱིཿཆེ་གེ་མོ་དབང་དུ་གྱིས་ཡ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྒོམ་ཞིང་སྔགས་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། གལ་ཏེ་འོངས་པར་མ་གྱུར་ན་ངེས་པར་འཆིའོ། ། རྒྱ་གར་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་པཎྜི་ཏ། ། མི་དབང་བཟང་པོའི་ཞལ་སྔ་དང་། ། དམ་ཆོས་སྨྲ་བའི་བཙུན་པ་ནི། ། ལེགས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་བདག་གིས་བསྒྱུར། ། འདི་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་དགེ་བ་ནི། ། རྣམ་པར་དཀར་བའི་བསིལ་ཟེར་འདིས། ། གཞན་སྡེའི་ཀུ་མུད་ཚོགས་རྣམས་ལ། །

One should visualize Akṣobhya, who is embraced by supreme joy and perfect devotion, and who is adorned with various ornaments. In that way, one should visualize the Bhagavatī in the form of an emanation within the sky, together with her aspects. As for the yoga, one should perform the recitation using a rosary of red sandalwood seeds according to the oral instructions. The great mantra of the wise is: Hṛ dhṛ kṣṛ śrī hrī yaḥ. By reciting it one hundred and eight times, the practitioner composes verses. By reciting it ten thousand times, one becomes endowed with the discernment of the aggregates of Dharma. One retains and understands what has not been heard before. By reciting it one hundred thousand times, one is perfectly endowed with the accomplishment of the red Ekajaṭī. This was composed by the renunciant known as Vajra. One should visualize a sixteen-petaled utpala lotus at one's own heart. In the center, visualize the syllable Hūṃ, and on the petals, the syllable Hrīḥ. Emanating from the syllable Hūṃ, summon the mind of the object of accomplishment. Then, emanating again from the Hrīḥ on the sixteen petals, imagine that the object of accomplishment is bound by a noose from the throat and prostrates at the feet of the practitioner. Recite: Dhi hrīḥ śrī hrīḥ, [Name], bring under my power! Meditate in this way and recite the mantra. If they do not come, they will certainly die. The Indian scholar from the East, the presence of Narendrabhadra, and the monk who speaks the sublime Dharma, Lekpé Lodrö, have translated this. By the virtue arising from this, may this cool white light cause the lilies of the opposing schools to bloom.

terminologyམི་བསྐྱོད་པ → “Akṣobhya”. Literally 'the immovable one'; the deity name stays Akṣobhya in tantric texts, 'Immovable' in some sūtra registers — pick one per text and record it.

definitionམི་བསྐྱོད་པ “Akṣobhya” — Literally “Not Disturbed” or “Immovable One.” The buddha in the eastern realm of Abhirati. A well-known buddha in early Mahāyāna, regarded in the higher tantras as the head of one of the five buddha families, the adamant

terminologyསྔགས → “mantra”. སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

definitionསྔགས “mantra” — A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects ( trā )

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termམི་བསྐྱོད་པ → Akṣobhya

termསྔགས → mantra

རྟག་ཏུ་དབུགས་འབྱིན་བྱེད་པར་ཤོག།

May they always provide relief.

Terminology used in this text (8)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
ལྷ་མ་ཡིན	asura	1	Literally 'not-god'; 84000 harmonises on 'asura'. Do not render 'anti-god'.
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
མི་བསྐྱོད་པ	Akṣobhya	1	Literally 'the immovable one'; the deity name stays Akṣobhya in tantric texts, 'Immovable' in some sūtra registers — pic
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

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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