Toh 1771 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Glorious Mahākāla

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1771
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,682 Tibetan characters · 379 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 text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for the ritual practice of the deity Mahākāla. The fragments indicate a structure that begins with the establishment of a meditative state based on emptiness, followed by the visualization of a seed syllable (HŪṂ) as the basis for the deity's manifestation. The text commits the practitioner to a complex ritual sequence that blends meditative visualization with external offerings and symbolic actions. Specifically, it details the use of a torma mantra and the preparation of a ritual effigy made from kuśa grass, which is treated with specific substances including poison and black sesame (kṛṣṇa-tila) and pierced with thorns. This suggests the practice is designed for the purpose of overcoming obstacles or neutralizing threats through the symbolic application of the Rācikā ritual, moving from internal mental cultivation to the external manipulation of ritual objects to achieve siddhi and peace.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the ritual practice of the deity Mahākāla, the Śrīmahākālasādhana belongs to the tradition of the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Nāgārjuna. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it extends over two pages under the Tibetan title dpal nag po chen po'i sgrub thabs. The work enacts a complex ritual sequence that begins with the meditation on emptiness and the visualization of the deity arising from the seed syllable HŪṂ upon a multicolored lotus and sun disk. It further details the application of a torma mantra and the performance of the Rācikā ritual, which involves the use of a kuśa grass effigy treated with poison, kṛṣṇa-tila, and thorns to neutralize threats. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the intersection of internal meditative cultivation and external ritual manipulation, specifically regarding the symbolic and material methods used to overcome obstacles within this specific liturgical framework.

Sanskrit title: Śrīmahākālasādhana
Indian author: Nāgārjuna
Tibetan translators: not recorded
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 the Glorious Mahākāla” (Toh 1771), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1771

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it illustrates the integration of meditative emptiness with the 'wrathful' ritual technology of the Indo-Tibetan tradition. It demonstrates how specific material substances and symbolic violence against an effigy are employed within a structured Buddhist framework to achieve protective results.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Preliminary Visualization	Instructions on meditating on emptiness and the visualization of the seed syllable HŪṂ.
2	Ritual Application	The torma mantra and the detailed preparation of a ritual effigy using kuśa grass and specific substances.

Themes

Ritual Visualization (1)
Symbolic Ritual Action (2)
Mantra and Material Offerings (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Glorious Mahākāla·

#༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲཱི་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཔལ་ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། རྡོ་རྗེ་ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྔར་གསུངས་པའི་ཆོ་གས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམས་པའི་ངང་ལས། སྣ་ཚོགས་པདྨ་དང་ཉི་མ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་ནག་པོ་དེ་ཉིད་ལས་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་རྗེ་བཙུན་དཔལ་ནག་པོ་ཆེན་ པོ་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་པ་སྐུ་#མདོག་ནག་པོ་སྤྱན་གསུམ་པ་འབར་བ་ཆེན་པོ་ཕྱག་གཡས་པ་གྲི་གུག་གཡོན་གྱིས་ཐོད་པ་འཛིན་པ། མི་མགོའི་རྒྱན་ཅན། སྐྲ་ཁམ་པ་གྱེན་དུ་བརྫེས་པ#། སྨྲ་ར་ཁམ་པ་ཅན། མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་#པས་འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་པ། ཡན་ལག་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་སྦྲུལ་གྱིས་ བརྒྱན་པ་བོང་ཐུང་བ། ཞལ་ནས་ཁྲག་འཛགས་#པར་བདག་ཉིད་སྐད་ཅིག་ཏུ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱས་ནས་སྔགས་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ལ་སྔགས་ནི་འདི་ལྟ་#སྟེ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། དུག་དང་ཁྲག་དང་#སྒོག་པ་ཡུངས་ཀར་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྤོས་ཕུལ་ནས། ཤ་དང་སྲན་ཆེན་ མྱོས་བྱེད་དང་། ། མེ་ཏོག་བདུག་སྤོས་བྱུག་པ་དང་། ། ཤ་ལྔ་དང་ནི་བདུད་རྩི་ལྔ#། ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོའི་གཏོར་མ་བྱ། ། དེ་ཡི་སྔགས་ནི་འདི་ལྟ་སྟེ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་ཡ་ཤཱ་#ས་ནོ་པ་ཀ་ར་#ཡཱ་སརྱ་མུཥྚ་#ཤྨ་ཤཱ་ཎ་#བཱ་སི་ནཱ་#སྐྲི་ཏཱ་ཡ་ཨེ་ཥོ་ཨ་པཥྩི་མ་ཀཱ་ལོ྅#ཡཾ་ཡ་ཏི་ཏཱཾ་པྲ་ཏི་#ཛྙཱ་སྨ་ར་སི་ཏི་དཱ་# ཨི་མཾ་རཏྣ་ཏྲ་ཡཱ་#ཀ་རི་ཎ་མཱ་མུ་ཀ་ན་དུཥྚཱཾ་#ཁ་ཁཱ་ཧི་ཁ་#ཁཱ་ཧི། མ་ར་མ་ར#། གྲྀཧྞ་གྲྀཧྞ། བནྡྷ་བནྡྷ། ཧ་ན་ཧ་ན། ད་ཧ་ད་ཧ། པ་ཙ་པ་ཙ། དི་ན་མེ་ཀེ་ན། མཱ་ར་#ཡ་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ། སརྦ་ཡཀྵ་རཱཀྵ་ས་བྷཱུ་#ཏ་པྲེ་ཏ་པྲི་ཤཱ་ཙ་#ན།

In the language of India: Śrī Mahākālasādhana. In the language of Tibet: dPal nag po chen po’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Glorious Mahākāla). Homage to the Vajra Mahākāla! From the state of meditating on emptiness according to the previously explained ritual, from a black syllable HŪṂ upon a multicolored lotus and sun disk, the venerable and glorious Mahākāla is fully perfected. He has one face and two arms, a black body, three blazing eyes, and is of great brilliance. His right hand holds a curved knife (kartṛka) and his left holds a skull-cup (kapāla). He is adorned with human heads, his tawny hair is bristling upward, and he has a tawny beard. With bared fangs, he is terrifying. His entire limbs are adorned with snakes, and he is short in stature. Having instantly perfected oneself as him, with blood dripping from his mouth, one should recite the mantra. In that regard, the mantra is as follows: OṂ MAHĀKĀLA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Having offered incense of poison, blood, garlic, and white mustard seeds, one should prepare the torma (bali) for Mahākāla with meat, large beans, intoxicants, flowers, incense, ointments, the five meats, and the five nectars (amṛta). Its mantra is as follows: OṂ MAHĀKĀLĀYA ŚĀSANOPAKĀRĀYA SARVAMUṢṬIŚMAŚĀṆAVĀSINĀ KṚTĀYA EṢO’PAṬCIMAKĀLO’YAṂ YATI TĀṂ PRATIJÑĀ SMARA SITI DĀ IMAṂ RATNATRAYĀKARIṆAṂ MĀMUKAṂ DUṢṬĀṂ KHA KHĀHI KHA KHĀHI | MĀRA MĀRA | GṚHṆA GṚHṆA | BANDHA BANDHA | HANA HANA | DAHA DAHA | PACA PACA | DINAMEKENA MĀRAYA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | SARVAYAKṢARĀKṢASABHŪTAPRETAPIŚĀCĀNA |

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.

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

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ “vajra” — This term generally indicates indestructibility and stability. In the sūtras, vajra most often refers to the hardest possible physical substance, said to have divine origins. In some scriptures, it is also the name of th

definitionསྟོང་པ་ཉིད “emptiness” — Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intr

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལས “action” — Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one h

definitionཉི་མ “Āditya” — The sun; the god of the sun; the king identified as Ādityavardhana of the Śrīkaṇṭha - Sthāṇvīśvara dynasty who ruled in Madhyadeśa in the sixth century ᴄᴇ .

definitionབདག “self” — A substantial, self-subsistent entity within beings or things, or the intrinsic reality of things, or the intrinsic identity of things, that is permanent and nonrelative. The Buddha’s teaching, in contrast to that of oth

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 )

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 ).

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termརྡོ་རྗེ → vajra

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསྟོང་པ་ཉིད → emptiness

termལས → action

termཉི་མ → Āditya

བ་ལ་#གྲྀཧྞ་མཱ་མ་སིདྡྷི་ཀུ་རུ་ཤཱནྟིཾ་ཀུ་རུ་རཀྵ་ཀུ་རུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་གཏོར་མའི་སྔགས་སོ། ། དེ་ལ་ཉེ་བར་སྤྱོད་པ་འདི་ཡིན་ཏེ། ཀུ་ཤ་ལས་བསྒྲལ་#བྱའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ལ། ཚ་བ་གསུམ་དང་དུག་དང་སྐེ་ཚེ་མ་#རྣམས་ར་ཙི་ཀ་ཆོ་ག་བཞིན་དུ་བསྐུས་#ནས་རྩང་གིས་ཁྲག་ཐམ་པར་བཙུགས་ཏེ་གང་གི་མིང་གིས་མེ་ལ་བདུགས་ན་དེ་ནི་སྐད་ཅིག་དེ་ཉིད་ལ་མི་སྣང་བ་དང་ ཉམས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། དེ་བཞིན། གང་ཞིག་སློབ་དཔོན་ལ་སྡང་དང་། ། རྟག་ཏུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་སྨོད། ། སེམས་ཅན་དུ་མ་འཇོམས་བྱེད་པ། ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོས་གསོལ་བར་མཛད། ། དེ་བཞིན་མགོ་ལ་འདུག་ནས་སུ། ། ཏིལ་འབྲུ་ཙམ་དུ་གཏུབ་པར་བྱེད། ། ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ལ་སོགས་ པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་རྟོགས་#པར་བྱའོ། ། དཔལ་ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་#ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Bala gṛhṇa māma siddhiṃ kuru śāntiṃ kuru rakṣa kuru—this is the mantra for the torma. Regarding the ritual application: having smeared an effigy of the victim made from kuśa grass with the three hot spices, poison, and kṛṣṇa-tila according to the ritual of Rācikā, and having pierced it with thorns, if one fumigates it in the fire while reciting the victim's name, that person will instantly become invisible and perish. Likewise: "Whoever is hostile toward the master, who constantly reviles the Three Jewels, and who destroys many sentient beings—Mahākāla shall devour them. Likewise, staying upon their heads, he shall mince them into pieces the size of sesame seeds," and so forth; one should understand such [teachings] to be immeasurable. This concludes the Sādhana of Glorious Mahākāla.

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

definitionགཟུགས “form” — The first of the five aggregates ; but also, in this sūtra, “inner form ” within consciousness (see 1.38 ).

definitionསློབ་དཔོན “ācārya” — A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

definitionདཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ “the Three Jewels” — The Tibetan literally means “the three rare and precious ones,” the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha‍—the three objects of Buddhist refuge.

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: action

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termསྔགས → mantra

termལས → action

termགཟུགས → form

termམེ → fire

termསློབ་དཔོན → ācārya

termདཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ → the Three Jewels

Terminology used in this text (14)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ལས	action	2	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
མེ	fire	2	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
ཉི་མ	Āditya	1
བདག	self	1
བདུད་རྩི	amṛta	1
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
གཟུགས	form	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ	the Three Jewels	1

Colophon

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

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

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

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