Toh 1772 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Mahākāla Sādhana

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1772
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,124 Tibetan characters · 261 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 fragment of a Mahākāla sādhana provides the initial instructions for the ritual visualization of the deity. The text begins by establishing the bilingual title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, followed by a formal homage. It then directs the practitioner to engage in a specific meditative visualization of Nīlāmbaradhara Mahākāla. The text focuses on the iconographic details of the deity, specifying the attributes he holds—a curved knife and a skull-cup—as well as his physical appearance, including erect hair and a crown of skulls. By prescribing these precise visual markers, the text commits the reader to a disciplined mental reconstruction of the deity's form, which is a prerequisite for the subsequent stages of the ritual practice. The fragment serves as the foundational step in a larger process of deity yoga, where the practitioner aligns their perception with the prescribed divine form.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the practice of deity yoga, the Mahākālasādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana and is attributed to the Indian author Nāgārjuna. Preserved within the classical Tibetan tradition, the work is found in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it occupies two pages and is categorized among the Other Wisdom Tantras. Under the Tibetan title nag po chen po'i sgrub thabs, the text enacts the ritual visualization of Nīlāmbaradhara Mahākāla. It directs the practitioner to mentally reconstruct the deity's specific iconographic form, detailing attributes such as the curved knife and skull-cup, as well as physical markers including a crown of skulls, red eyes, and a tiger-skin garment. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise visual and meditative requirements necessary for the foundational stages of this ritual practice, observing how the practitioner is instructed to align their perception with the prescribed divine form of the deity.

Sanskrit title: Mahākālasādhana
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 Mahākāla Sādhana” (Toh 1772), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1772

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it illustrates the standardized iconographic requirements for the visualization of Mahākāla within the Indo-Tibetan tradition. For a modern reader, it demonstrates the intersection of linguistic translation and ritual precision in the transmission of tantric practices.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Visualization	Contains the bilingual title, homage, and the beginning of the iconographic description of Nīlāmbaradhara Mahākāla.

Themes

Iconography (1)
Ritual Visualization (1)

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

AnuvādaA Mahākāla Sādhana·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ནི་མྠི་ཤི་ལ་ནག་པོ་བྱ་སྟེ་གྲི་གུག་དང་ཐོད་པ་བསྣམས་པ་སྐྲ་གྱེན་དུ་ལངས་པ། ཐོད་པའི་ཅོད་པན་ཅན། སྦྲུལ་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ། སྤྱན་དམར་བ། མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་པའི་ཞལ། སྟག་གི་པགས་པའི་ཤམ་ཐབས་ཅན་མི་མགོའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་དོ་ཤལ་དང་ལྡན་པ། ཡི་དྭགས་ཀྱི་གདན་ལ་བཞེངས་པར་གནས། མུན་པ་མི་བཟད་པའི་རང་བཞིན་དུ་བསྒོམས་ལ་ནག་པོའི་ཚེས་ནས་སྒྲུབ་པ་བཅས་ཏེ། དེའི་ཞལ་ལྷོར་བསྟན་ལ་གཞག། ཁ་ཤར་དུ་བསྟན་ལ་གཞག། ཁ་ཤར་སྔགས་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བཅུ་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དམ་ཚིག་གི་རྫས་ཀྱི་གཏོར་མ་ཕུལ་ལ། གུ་གུལ་གྱི་བདུག་སྤོས་དབུལ་བར་བྱའོ། ། མེ་ཏོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ་གཏོར་ནས། ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་སི་མུ་ས་ལ་ཏྲི་ཤཱུ་ལ། ཨེ་ཧྱེ་ཧི་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་སརྦྦ་ཤ་ཏྲཱུཾ། ནིརྒ་ཏ་ཡ་ནིརྒ་ཏ་ཡ། ཛྭ་ར་ཎ། གྲྀཧྞཱ་པ་ཡ་གྲྀཧྞཱ་པ་ཡ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ། བཟའ་བ་སྤངས་ལ་བཟླས་པ་བྱའོ། ། ཚངས་པར་བྱས་ལ་མངོན་དུ་ཕྱོགས་པས་སྔགས་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། སྔར་བཞིན་གཏོར་མ་དབུལ་ལོ། ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་ཧ་ན་ཧ་ན་བཛྲ་ཎ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་འབུམ་ཕྲག་གཅིག་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་ཧ་ན་ཧ་ན་བཛྲ་ཎ་ཨེ་ཏེ་ཏ་པྲེ་ཥ་ཡཱ་མི་ཀ་ར་ཥེ་ཐཱ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཞེས་འབུམ་ཕྲག་གསུམ་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ་ཧི་ཧ་ན་ཧ་ན་རཀྵ་རཀྵ་བྷ་གྲྀཧྞ་ཀརྱཾ་ཀུ་རུ་ཛ་ཛ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་གཏོར་མའི་སྔགས་སོ། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་དང་སྒྲུབ་པ་བྱས་ལ་ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱའོ། ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Mahākālasādhana. In the language of Tibet: Nag po chen po’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of Mahākāla). Homage to Mahākāla! One should meditate on Nīlāmbaradhara Mahākāla, who holds a curved knife and a skull-cup, with hair standing erect, wearing a crown of skulls, adorned with snakes, red-eyed, with a face baring its fangs, wearing a lower garment of tiger skin, and possessing a necklace of a garland of human heads. He stands upon a seat of a hungry ghost (preta). Meditating on him as having the nature of unbearable darkness, one should begin the practice from the first day of the dark fortnight. One should place his face toward the south, or place his face toward the east. One should recite the mantra ten thousand times while facing east. Having offered a torma of samaya substances, one should offer incense of guggulu. Having scattered various flowers, [recite]: Oṃ āsi musala triśūla | ehyehi mahākāla sarvaśatrūn nirgata ya nirgata ya | jvaraṇa gṛhṇāpaya gṛhṇāpaya hūṃ phaṭ. One should perform the recitation while abstaining from food. Having maintained celibacy, one should recite the mantra while facing [the deity]. One should offer the torma as before. One should recite Oṃ mahākāla hana hana vajreṇa svāhā one hundred thousand times. One should recite Oṃ mahākāla hana hana vajreṇa ete ta preṣayāmi karṣaṇe tathā svāhā three hundred thousand times. Oṃ mahākāla hi hana hana rakṣa rakṣa bhagṛhṇa kāryaṃ kuru ja ja is the torma mantra. Having performed the yoga and the practice, one should accomplish Mahākāla. The Sādhana of Mahākāla is complete.

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

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 )

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

terminologyགཏོར་མ → “offering cake”. 'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

homonymགཏོར་མ is rendered “offering cake” here; the glossary also records Bali, oblation, bali offering for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཏོར་མ “offering cake” — Bali wrested control of the world from the devas , establishing a period of peace and prosperity with no caste distinction. Indra requested Viṣṇu to use his wiles so that the devas could gain the world back from him. He

terminologyཚངས་པ → “Brahmā”. The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do not carry the deity capital into the vow.

homonymཚངས་པ is rendered “Brahmā” here; the glossary also records brahman, brahmās, Brahma for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཚངས་པ “Brahmā” — One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra / Śakra ) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The pa

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake; Brahmā

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསྔགས → mantra

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

Terminology used in this text (6)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཚངས་པ	Brahmā	1	The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do n

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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI