Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual text provides instructions for performing an offering to Karmayama, a manifestation of the deity Yamāntaka. The work functions as a liturgical manual designed to remove obstacles and ensure the fulfillment of spiritual and worldly goals for both the practitioner and others. The text is structured as a procedural guide, beginning with a devotional invocation to the Slayer of Hatred and moving into the technical requirements for the ritual space. It commits the reader to the precise visualization and generation of a complex mandala, requiring the practitioner to mentally construct a hierarchical arrangement of deities. This includes the principal deities, the four great kings, the eight planets, the eight great nāgas, and the ten guardians of the directions, thereby establishing a sacred geography intended to facilitate the efficacy of the offering.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual for offering to Karmayama, the las kyi gshin rje'i mchod pa'i cho ga is a work of the classical Tibetan period. Attributed to the Indian author Darpaṇācārya, the text was translated into Tibetan by Darpaṇācārya and lo tsa ba zhe sdang rdo rje. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras and spans three pages. The work enacts a liturgical procedure intended to pacify obstacles for the practitioner and others while bringing accomplishments to their ultimate fulfillment. It begins with an invocation to Yamāntaka, the Slayer of Hatred, and provides technical instructions for the yogi to generate a complex mandala. This visualization includes the principal deities, the four great kings, the eight planets, the eight great nāgas, the ten guardians of the directions, the eight classes of spirits, and the twenty-eight lunar mansions. A scholar or serious reader consults this manual today to understand the precise requirements for the ritual space and the hierarchical arrangement of deities necessary to facilitate the efficacy of the offering to Karmayama and his retinue.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “An Offering Associated with Activities of Yama” (Toh 1993), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1993
Summary & commentary
Significance
The text is significant for its illustration of the intersection between Buddhist tantric practice and the propitiation of figures associated with death and karma. It demonstrates the use of complex visualization techniques to manage obstacles, reflecting a broader tradition of ritual technology used to navigate spiritual impediments.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Purpose
Establishes the ritual's objective to pacify obstacles and achieve accomplishments through offerings to Karmayama.
2
Mandala Visualization
Details the spatial arrangement and generation of the deity's attire and the surrounding protective deities and planetary spirits.
Themes
Ritual Pacification (1)
Sacred Geography and Visualization (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaAn Offering Associated with Activities of Yama·
The Ritual for Offering to Karmayama is contained herein.
Homage to the Blessed One, Yamāntaka, the Slayer of Hatred.
In order to pacify obstacles for oneself and others and to bring accomplishments to their ultimate fulfillment, one should perform the ritual for offering to Karmayama and his retinue in this manner.
The yogi, possessing the [necessary] qualities, should perform the front-generation offering. Upon the summit of the four-tiered Mount Meru is the Dharma King, black in color, with one face and two hands. He stands upon a lotus, a sun disk, and a buffalo, in a posture with the right leg bent and the left extended. He holds a vajra, a skull-topped staff, and a snake-noose. He is clothed in silks and a tiger-skin garment, and adorned with ornaments of snakes and bone. His mouth is agape, his fangs are bared, and his brows are knit in wrath. His three eyes emit fierce sparks of fire; his yellow hair and beard are matted and bristling upward. Terrifying, fierce, and hideous, he holds the goddess Cāmuṇḍā in his left armpit, who holds a pure trident.
On the outer terrace surrounding him are Yamārāja, the Agitating One, and the Blazing One; Marutse and the Nine-Tufted One; and the leaders, messengers, and envoys. They all hold staffs, lotuses, and swords, each marked with a vajra. To the right are Yamadhūti, Kālapāśa, and the black Daṇḍin; Yamadaṃṣṭri, with an iron hook, a noose, a club, and fangs, all held in hands marked with wheels. To the left are Kālarātri, the Great Black Killer, Namdru, Śakali, and others. They hold mirrors, bags of disease, small drums, tally-sticks, and lotuses marked with wheels; in their left hands, they hold white and black dice. They are blue, white, and red in color.
Generate the attire in the same manner as the principal deities. On the outer platform, in the four directions, are the four great kings; to their left and right are the eight planets and the eight great nāgas. On the outermost platform, generate the ten guardians of the directions, the eight classes of spirits, and the twenty-eight lunar mansions, each in their own form or like the principal deities, surrounded by all the bhūtas. Bless the three places and summon them from the expanse. Bestow empowerment and seal them with Vajrasattva. Perform the offerings of the feast and the torma, the gur-pod, the ngar-glud, the sky-banner, the ba-dan, the arrows and the ’phang, the various animals and the ngur-ba bird, the five precious gems, the fruits, the continents and sub-continents, and so forth. Offer praise and entrust the activities. Carry out all activities in accordance with the worldly beings' own desires and according to the command. This was composed in accordance with the wishes of the great patron, the son of a king in the Land of Snows, and in harmony with the Tibetan tradition, for the sake of benefiting migratory beings. Without contradicting the instructions of the guru and in harmony with the intellect of those to be trained, this was spoken from the oral instructions and the deity’s permission by Banggala. This concludes the work composed by the Paṇḍita of Eastern India, Darpaṇācārya. It was accurately translated by that same Paṇḍita and the translator Zhe-sdang-rdo-rje.
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.