Toh 1949 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Destroyer, Staff-Bearing Yamāri

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1949
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,862 Tibetan characters · 486 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 Staff-Bearing Yamāri (Yamāntaka). The work begins by establishing its bilingual identity, providing titles in both Sanskrit and Tibetan to authenticate its lineage. It initiates the ritual process through formal homage to Vajrasattva and the central deity, transitioning into a section titled the King of Praises. This section employs a series of prostrations and praises directed toward a constellation of Vajrayana figures, including Samantabhadra, Akṣobhya, and the Wisdom Vajra. By engaging with these praises and the sensory imagery of tasting nectar with a vajra tongue, the practitioner is committed to a process of identification with the deity and the cultivation of a purified, tantric consciousness. The text functions as a guide for transforming the practitioner's ordinary perception into the divine pride of the Destroyer Yamāri.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana focused on the deity Yamāntaka, the Staff-Bearer and enemy of Māra, this work belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. The text was translated into Tibetan by Prajñājñānakīrti and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the collection of Other Skillful Means Tantras. Spanning two pages in this edition, the work enacts a ritual process of deity yoga. It begins with formal homage to Vajrasattva and the central deity, followed by the King of Praises, which directs prostrations toward figures such as Samantabhadra, Akṣobhya, and the Wisdom Vajra. The practice involves sensory imagery, such as tasting nectar with a vajra tongue, and the recitation of a secret mantra ten thousand times following the process of radiation and reabsorption. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific liturgical instructions and the constellation of Vajrayana figures invoked to transform the practitioner's consciousness through the identification with the Staff-Bearing Yamāri.

Sanskrit title: Daṇḍadhṛgvidārayamārināmasādhana
Indian author: Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
Tibetan translators: Prajñājñānakīrti
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. མི
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 Destroyer, Staff-Bearing Yamāri” (Toh 1949), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1949

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as an example of the Yamāntaka cycle, which focuses on the subjugation of death and the transformation of aggression into wisdom. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of Sanskrit and Tibetan liturgical traditions and the specific role of praise in tantric preparatory rites.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Homage	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and offers initial bows to Vajrasattva and Yamāntaka.
2	The King of Praises	A series of prostrations to various Vajra deities and instructions on tasting nectar.

Themes

Deity Yoga and Identification (1-2)
Liturgical Praise (2)
Bilingual Tradition (1)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Destroyer, Staff-Bearing Yamāri·

#༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། དཎྜ་དྷྲྀཀ་#བི་དཱ་ར་ཡ་མཱ་#རི་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དབྱུག་པ་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཐུགས་ཀྱི་དེ་ཉིད་གཙོ་དང་མཚུངས་པ་ཡི། ། ལྷ་ནི་བདུད་དགྲ་དབྱུག་པ་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད། ། ལས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཐར་མཛད་ལ་བཏུད་དེ། ། མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བསྒྲུབ་ཕྱིར་བཤད་པར་བྱ། ། རང་ལུས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོར་དྲན། ། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བློར་བྱས་ནས། ། བླ་མ་རྗེ་བཙུན་རྣམས་ལ་ནི། ། བསོད་ནམས་ཚོགས་རབ་བསག་པར་བྱ། ། གཉིས་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་གཉིས་སུ་མེད། ། རྐྱེན་སྐྱེས་ཆོས་ཀུན་ཆུ་ཟླ་འདྲ། ། དེ་ཉིད་སྐྱེ་མེད་ཤེས་བྱའི་ཕྱིར། ། དག་པའི་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་བསྐུལ་ལ་བསྒོམ། ། ཚད་མེད་རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་པའི་སེམས། ། ནམ་མཁའི་ཐིགས་#པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལས། ། སྲུང་#བའི་འཁོར་ལོ་གདན་བསམས་ཏེ། ། ཛ་ལས་དབྱུག་པ་དཀར་དང་སྐུ། ། རྩ་ཞལ་དཀར་ལ་སྔོ་དམར་ཞལ། ། རང་གི་རིག་མར་མཚུངས་པའི་ལུས། ། གྲི་གུག་དབྱུག་པ་རལ་གྲི་དང་། ། ཐོད་པ་འཁོར་ལོ་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འཛིན། ། གཡས་བསྐུམ་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་བ་ཡི་ཞབས། ། ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འོད་ཟེར་རྣོན་པོ་མནན། ། མི་མགོའི་ཕྲེང་དཔྱངས་#སྟག་ལྤགས་མནབས། ། ཀླུ་དང་རུས་རྒྱན་#དབུས་མཛེས་པ། ། བསྐྱེད་ལ་ལུས་ངག་ཡིད་གསུམ་དང་། ། སྐྱེ་མཆེད་རྣམས་ལ་འདིས་བྱིན་བརླབ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ། ཀྵིཾ་ཛིཾ་ཁྃ་གྃ་ཀྃ་སྃ། ། དབང་བསྐུར་ཅོད་པན་མི་བསྐྱོད་བསམ། ། ཛཿཧཱུྃ་བཾ་ཧོཿས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ། ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་སྤྲུལ་པས་མཆོད། ། དེ་ནས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲིལ་ལྡན་པས། །

In the language of India: Daṇḍadhṛk-vināśana-yamāri-sādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Dbyug pa gshin rje gshed rnam par ’joms pa zhes bya ba’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Subduer of the Staff-Bearing Yamāntaka). Homage to the glorious Vajrasattva! I bow to the deity Yamāntaka, the Staff-Bearer, the enemy of Māra, who is equal to the Lord of the Reality of the Mind and who brings all activities to their ultimate conclusion. In order to accomplish the supreme siddhi, I shall explain this. Recalling one’s own body as the Mahāmudrā and having established the Mahāyāna mind, one should accumulate the vast collection of merit before the venerable gurus. The non-dual Buddhas are non-dual; all phenomena born of conditions are like the moon in water. In order to know that very reality as unborn, one should meditate while invoking with the pure mantra. From that very essence, like a drop in the sky, with a mind of immeasurable and uninterrupted compassion, one should visualize the protection wheel and the seat. From the syllable ja, the white staff and body arise. The central face is white, with blue and red faces. His body is like that of his consort. He holds a curved knife, a staff, a sword, a skull-cup, a wheel, and a lotus. His right leg is bent and his left is extended, treading upon a lotus and sharp rays of light. He is adorned with a garland of human heads and a tiger skin, and is beautified in the center by nāgas and bone ornaments. Having generated [the deity], one should bless the body, speech, and mind, as well as the sense bases, with these: Oṃ āḥ hūṃ kṣiṃ jiṃ khaṃ gaṃ kaṃ saṃ. One should visualize Akṣobhya as the crown of the empowerment. With jaḥ hūṃ baṃ hoḥ, one is blessed. One should make offerings through the emanations of bodhicitta. Then, holding the vajra and bell...

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་སེམས་དཔའ “Vajrasattva” — Used as a proper name, Vajrasattva is one of the principle deities of the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, regarded as both a source of the Buddhist tantras and the exemplar of the awakened state. As an adjective, the term va

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

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

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

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

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

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ → Vajrasattva

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལྷ → god

termབླ་མ → guru

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

བསྟོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བརྗོད་པར་བྱ། ། སངས་རྒྱས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཀུན་དུ་བཟང་། ། མཉམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མི་བསྐྱོད་པ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་གསང་བ་དབྱིངས་ཆེན་པོ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཡིག་འབྲུ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱིན་བརླབས་པའི། ། བདུད་རྩི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལྕེ་ཡིས་མྱང་། ། སྤྲོ་དང་བསྡུ་བ་བྱས་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། གསང་སྔགས་ཁྲི་རུ་བཟླས་པ་བྱ། ། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་དཎྜ་དྷྲྀཀ་#ཧཱུྃ་ཧཱུྃ་ཧཱུྃ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་འབྱུང་བའི་རིམ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐིག་ལེར་བྱས་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། གཟུགས་ནི་སྒྲ་ཉིད་རང་བཞིན་དག། བདག་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། མ་རིག་མུན་པ་འཇོམས་བྱེད་སྒྲོན་མའི་མཆོག། བདུད་དགྲ་ཁྲོ་བོའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་འདིས། ། འགྲོ་བའི་འཇིགས་ཆེན་ངེས་དགྲ་བཅོམ་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། ཐམས་ཅད་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་པོ་ཉིད་མཚུངས་ཤོག། དབྱུག་པ་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་རས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་པྲཛྙཱ་ཤྲཱི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཀཱིརྟིས་རང་འགྱུར་དུ་མཛད་པའོ། །

I shall now express the King of Praises: Homage and praise to the Buddha Vajrasattva Samantabhadra, To the equal Vajra Akṣobhya, To the Vajra Secret Great Expanse, To the Wisdom Vajra, I prostrate and praise. Blessed by the three syllables, Taste the nectar with the vajra tongue. Having performed the radiation and reabsorption, Recite the secret mantra ten thousand times: OṂ VAJRA-DAṆḌA-DHṚK HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Having transformed the sequence of the elements—earth, water, fire, and wind— Into the bindu of primordial wisdom, One should meditate on the essence of selflessness, In which form and sound are pure by nature. This supreme lamp that destroys the darkness of ignorance, This sādhana of the King of Wrathful Deities, the enemy of Māra— May it utterly conquer the great fears of wandering beings, And may all become equal to Yamāntaka himself. The Sādhana of the Staff Yamāntaka, the Destroyer, composed by the great master Dīpaṃkara, is hereby complete. It was translated into Tibetan by the yogin Prajñāśrījñānakīrti himself.

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

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

periodདབྱིངས → “expanse”. In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.

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

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 ).

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termམི་བསྐྱོད་པ → Akṣobhya

termདབྱིངས → expanse

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

Terminology used in this text (16)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	2	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ	Vajrasattva	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
བླ་མ	guru	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
སྐྱེ་མཆེད	sense base	1
བསྟོད་པ	praise	1
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
མི་བསྐྱོད་པ	Akṣobhya	1	Literally 'the immovable one'; the deity name stays Akṣobhya in tantric texts, 'Immovable' in some sūtra registers — pic
དབྱིངས	expanse	1	In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
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. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.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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