Toh 1988 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Activities of Vajracarcikā

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1988
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,084 Tibetan characters · 519 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 ritual manual, or sādhana, designed to facilitate the activities of the deity Vajracarcikā. The work functions as a prescriptive guide for a practitioner who must first be endowed with ascetic discipline and situated within a charnel ground to perform the rite. The text combines Tibetan instructional prose with Sanskrit mantras to direct the practitioner's focus toward the elimination of obstacles or enemies. Specifically, the ritual commits the reader to a wrathful practice involving the use of fire offerings and the symbolic striking of Devadatta, indicating a focus on the subjugation of adversarial forces. By integrating specific phonetic formulas with physical offerings, the text aims to manifest the power of the Red Yamāntaka tradition to achieve a particular result, likely the destruction of harmful entities as indicated by the mantra's command to kill specific targets.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana designed for the accomplishment of the activity of Vajracarcikā, the Vajracarcikākarmasādhana belongs to the tradition of the Red Yamāntaka. The work is attributed to the Indian author Śrīdhara. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Vibhūticandra and glo bo lo tsa ba dge slong shes rab rin chen, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the collection of Other Skillful Means Tantras. Spanning three pages in this edition, the work enacts a wrathful ritual requiring the practitioner to be endowed with ascetic discipline and situated within a secluded charnel ground for seven days. The practice involves the use of Sanskrit mantras and fire offerings of wrathful substances to strike and stab Devadatta with a single-pointed vajra, aiming for the subjugation of adversarial forces and the destruction of harmful entities. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan text today to examine the specific integration of phonetic formulas and physical offerings used to manifest the power of the deity for the elimination of obstacles.

Sanskrit title: Vajracarcikākarmasādhana
Indian author: Śrīdhara
Tibetan translators: Vibhūticandra, glo bo lo tsa ba dge slong shes rab rin chen
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 Activities of Vajracarcikā” (Toh 1988), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1988

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as an example of the wrathful ritual technology found in the Indo-Tibetan tradition, specifically within the Yamāntaka cycle. It illustrates the intersection of asceticism, mantra recitation, and the use of charnel ground imagery to achieve rapid spiritual or worldly results. For the modern reader, it provides primary evidence of how specific deities were deployed for protective or aggressive ritual purposes.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Preparation	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, offers homage to the Red Yamāntaka, and specifies the necessary qualifications and location for the practitioner.
2	Ritual Execution	Contains a Sanskrit mantra for the destruction of enemies and instructions for performing a fire offering directed at Devadatta.

Themes

Wrathful Ritualism (1-2)
Subjugation of Adversaries (2)
Ascetic Discipline (1)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Activities of Vajracarcikā·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་ཙཱརྩི་ཀཱ་ཀརྨ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཱཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཙཱརྩི་ཀཱའི་ལས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་དམར་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྒྲུབ་པ་པོས། དུར་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཕྱིན་ལ་དབེན་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཞག་བདུན་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱའོ། ། མདུན་དུ་མཎྜལ་མདའ་གང་གི་ཚད་ཀྱི་གྲུ་བཞི་པ། དབུས་སུ་སོར་ཉི་ཤུ་པའི་ཐབ་ཁུང་བརྐོ་ཞིང་། སྟེང་དུ་ཁ་ཁྱེར་བརྩིག་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ལ་དུར་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་སོལ་བས་བྱུག། དེའི་གྲྭ་ལྷ་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བསྟན། ལྕགས་ལས་བྱས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་གཅིག་པ་སོར་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་མདུན་དུ་དགོད། འབྲས་ཕྱེ་དང་ལྷ་སྦྱིན་གྱི་རྫས་ལ་བརྟག་པ་བྱས་ལ། ཨརྒའི་ལོ་མ་ལ་རིགས་དང་མིང་བྲིས་ལ། སྙིང་གར་བཅུག་ལ། བྷི་ཀུའི་སྲད་བུས་བཏགས་ཏེ་མགོ་བོར་བཅིང་། དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་མན་ཇིའི་སྟེང་དུ། ཀོ་ཤ་ཀ་པཱ་ལར། ཤ་ཁྲག་གམ། གཏོར་མ་གཞག་གོ། ། དེ་ལྟར་གཏོར་མ་རྒྱུན་དུ་བཏང་ངོ་། ། དེ་ནས་བདག་ཉིད་གཤིན་རྗེའི་གཤེད་དམར་པོ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་དང་ལྡན་པས། མདུན་གྱི་ཟུར་དེར། དཔལ་ལྷ་མོ་ཙཎྜི་ཀ་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་པ། སྐུ་མདོག་དམར་ནག། གཡས་གྲི་གུག། གཡོན་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་གིས་བཀང་བ་བསྣམས་པ། བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལུང་ཉན་པར་བསྒོམས་པ། དམ་ཚིག་གི་རྫས་ཕུལ་བས་མཉེས་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཤྲཱི་ཡ་མཱནྟ་བཛྲ། ཙཎྜི་ཀ། རཀྟ་ཛ་ཊི། ཨ་མུ་ཀཾ། ཀ་པ་ཏྲི་ཡན་ཏྲི་པ་ན་ཏྲི། ཀ་བིད་ཏྲཱི། མ་ཧཱ་ནི་ཏྲི། ཀ་ལ་ན་ཏྲི། པི་ཙོ་ཀ་ཡ། མ་ཙུ་ཁོ། ཨུ་ལ་ཙ་ཙུ་ཏྲི། ཁ་ན་ཨུ་མ་ཙོ། ། ཁོ་ལ་ན་ཙོ། ། བཛྲ་ཙ་མུཎྜི་ཧཱུཾ། པཱུ་ཙ་ཨུ་ཨ་ཁ་མུཎྜི། ཨི་ཙི་མི་ཙི།

In the language of India: Vajracarcikā-karmasādhana. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje tsārtsi ka’i las sgrub pa’i thabs (The Method for Accomplishing the Activity of Vajracarcikā). Homage to the Blessed One, the Red Yamāntaka. A practitioner endowed with ascetic discipline should go to a charnel ground and make it secluded, then perform the practice for seven days. In front, one should prepare a square maṇḍala measuring one arrow-length in size. In the center, one should dig a hearth-pit twenty finger-widths deep and construct a rim on top. It should be smeared with charcoal from the charnel ground. Its corners should be pointed toward the direction of Devadatta. In front, one should place a twelve-finger-width, single-pointed vajra made of iron. Having prepared a mixture of rice flour and the substances of Devadatta, one should write the lineage and name on an Arjuna leaf, insert it into the heart, tie it with a cord of bhiku grass, and bind it to the head. Upon a mat, in a kośaka skull-cup, one should place meat and blood, or a torma. In this way, the torma should be offered continuously. Then, identifying oneself with the yoga of the Red Yamāntaka, one should meditate on the glorious goddess Caṇḍikā at that corner in front—having one face and two arms, dark red in color, holding a curved knife in her right hand and a skull-cup filled with blood in her left, and obeying my commands. She should be pleased by the offering of the samaya substances. OṂ ŚRĪ YAMĀNTAKA VAJRA CAṆḌIKĀ RAKTA JAṬI AMUKAṂ KAPATRIYAN TRI PA NA TRI KAVITRĪ MAHĀNITRI KALANTRI PICOKAYA MACŪKHO ULACACUTRI KHANA UMACO KHOLANACO VAJRA CAMUṆḌI HŪṂ PŪCA U A KHAMUṆḌI ICIMI CI.

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.

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possess

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

homonymལྷ་མོ is rendered “goddess” here; the glossary also records devī, Devī for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མོ “goddess” — The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalen

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

ཕུ་ལ་ཨུ་མ་ཙི། ཁོ་ཁུ་ལི། མི་ལི་ཙུ་པ་ཙ་རོ། ། ཙ་མུཎྜི། ཀ་ར་ཨི་ཀ་ར། སརྦ་དུཥྚཱན། ཨ་མུ་ཀཾ། མཱ་ར་ཡ་ཕཊ། ཨི་མཾ་བ་ལིཾ། རཀྟ་ཙིཏྟ། ཁ་ཁ། ཁཱ་ཧི་ཁཱ་ཧི། སརྦ་དུཥྚཱན། ཨ་མུ་ཀཾ། མཱ་ར་ཡ་ཕཊ། ཅེས་པ་དང་། སྐབས་སུ་དྲག་པོའི་རྫས་ཀྱི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གིས་ལྷ་སྦྱིན་ལ་བརྡེག་པར་བྱའོ། ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་དུ་སྲོག་ཆགས་མུན་ཊོ་ཀ་ལ་ངར་སྒྲ་སྒྲོགས་པ་དང་། རཀྟ་ས་མུ་དྲ་བྱུང་བ་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་གཅིག་པས་ལྷ་སྦྱིན་ལ་བརྡུང་བ་དང་གདབ་པར་བྱའོ། ། ལྷ་སྦྱིན་ཡི་དྭགས་དང་། མིང་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཐབ་ཁུང་དུ་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་བྱའོ། ། གཏོར་མ་ཡང་ལྷ་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་དོར་རོ། ། དེས་མ་གྲུབ་ན་ལན་གཉིས་གསུམ་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེས་ཀྱང་ལས་མི་བྱེད་ན། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཙཎྜི་ཀ་སྔོན་གྱི་ཐུགས་དམ་དྲན་དུ་གཞུག་པའི་མན་ངག་བྱ་སྟེ། གནད་ལ་དབབ་པས། མནའ་བསྐྱལ་བའི་དམ་ཚིག་དྲན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་སྒྲུབ་པ་པོའི་བསམ་པ་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཙཎྜི་ཀའི་ལས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་བྲམ་ཟེ་དཔལ་འཛིན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་པཎྜི་ཏ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་བི་བྷཱུ་ཏི་ཙཎྜིའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས། གློ་བོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དགེ་སློང་ཤེས་རབ་རིན་ཆེན་གྱིས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཕོ་བྲང་སྐུ་མཁར་ཉི་གཟུངས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། ། ། །

PHU LA U MA TSIT / KHO KHU LI / MI LI TSU PA TSA RO / TSA MUN TI / KA RA I KA RA / SARVA DUṢṬĀN / AMUKAṂ / MĀRAYA PHAṬ / IMAṂ BALIṂ / RAKTA CITTA / KHA KHA / KHĀHI KHĀHI / SARVA DUṢṬĀN / AMUKAṂ / MĀRAYA PHAṬ. At this point, one should strike Devadatta with a fire offering of wrathful substances. In the maṇḍala, one should strike and stab Devadatta with a single-pointed vajra when the muṇḍoka creature utters a roar and the ocean of blood (rakta-samudra) appears. One should perform the fire offering of Devadatta, the hungry ghosts, and so forth, into the hearth. The torma should also be cast in the direction of Devadatta. If success is not achieved, one should perform the practice a second or third time. If the activity is still not accomplished, one should apply the pith instruction for reminding the glorious Vajracaṇḍikā of her former solemn vow; this is done by striking the vital points in order to make her remember the samaya of the oath. By doing so, the practitioner’s intention will be fulfilled. This concludes the method for accomplishing the activities of Vajracaṇḍikā, composed by the great master, the Brahmin Śrīdhara. It was translated by the Lo-wo translator, the monk Sherab Rinchen, from the presence of the Indian Paṇḍita Gyalsay Vibhūticandra, at the Sun-Holding Palace (Nyizung) of the Dharma King’s residence.

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

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

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

terminologyགཟུངས → “dhāraṇī”. A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retention spell'.

homonymགཟུངས is rendered “dhāraṇī” here; the glossary also records retention, incantation, spell for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཟུངས “dhāraṇī” — The term dhāraṇī ‍ is in some sūtras both a mnemonic formula and the ability of realized beings to retain ( √dhṛ ) any teachings in their transmundane memory. In its most general use it is as understood in the context of

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: insight; dhāraṇī

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termདགེ་སློང → monk

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termགཟུངས → dhāraṇī

Terminology used in this text (9)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	2	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	2
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	1
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
དགེ་སློང	monk	1
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
གཟུངས	dhāraṇī	1	A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retent

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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