Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a ritual manual, or sādhana, dedicated to the deity Red Yamāri. It provides a prescriptive framework for the practitioner to achieve specific spiritual or worldly goals through a combination of visualization, mantra recitation, and physical offerings. The work is structured as a series of ritual instructions: it begins with the deity's iconographic description—emphasizing a fierce appearance with bared fangs, orange-red hair, and ornaments of human heads—and proceeds to the technical requirements of the practice. This includes the offering of torma, the blessing of samaya, and the use of a moon maṇḍala for empowerment. Notably, the text commits the reader to the performance of coercive rites, including the use of specific mantras and the fumigation of a wheel soaked in ghee and honey to bring a target under control. The text thus functions as both a meditative guide for deity yoga and a manual for ritual influence over others.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the practice of the deity Red Yamāri, the Raktayamārisādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana. The work is attributed to the Indian author Śrīdhara. It was translated into the Tibetan language by shakya’i dge slong nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཙི, where it comprises four pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is situated among the Other Skillful Means Tantras. The work enacts a prescriptive ritual framework, guiding the practitioner through the visualization of a sun maṇḍala and the fierce iconography of the deity—characterized by orange-red hair, bared fangs, and a garland of human heads—while providing specific mantras for the blessing of samaya and the offering of torma. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan text today to examine the technical requirements of the practice, including the precise combination of mantra recitation and physical offerings used to achieve spiritual or worldly goals.
Sanskrit title
Raktayamārisādhana
Indian author
Śrīdhara
Tibetan translators
shakya’i dge slong nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po
The work is significant as an example of the 'wrathful' tradition within Indo-Tibetan ritual practice, where fierce deities are invoked for protection or subjugation. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of meditative visualization and the application of ritual technology for specific external results.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Introduction and Iconography
Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, opening mantras, and a detailed visual description of Red Yamāri's fierce form.
3
Ritual Offerings and Blessings
Instructions for torma offerings and mantras intended to bless the samaya and appease various classes of spirits.
4-5
Empowerment and Subjugation Rites
Guidelines for visualizing the moon maṇḍala, conferring empowerment via a nectar vase, and performing rites to bring a target under control.
Themes
Wrathful Iconography (2)
Mantra and Recitation (1, 3, 4, 5)
Ritual Subjugation (4, 5)
Visualization and Maṇḍala (4, 5)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Rakta-yamāri-sādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Gshin rje gshed dmar po’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of Red Yamāri). Homage to Red Yamāri!
Oṃ hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ vikṛtānana hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā. Oṃ yamāntakṛt hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā.
First, the mantra practitioner should sit comfortably on a pleasant seat. One should meditate on a sun maṇḍala arising from the syllable Aṃ at one’s own heart. In its center, one should meditate on the syllable Hūṃ. With its light rays, one should summon the Red Yamāri, the Guru, the Buddhas, and the Bodhisattvas into the space before one, and perform the offerings of flowers and so forth, prostrations, the confession of misdeeds, and so on.
Then, one should contemplate the nature of the three realms as being like an illusion, a dream, or a magical display, and meditate on emptiness: Oṃ śūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāvātmako ’haṃ. With this, one should bless the mind.
Then, from the syllable Hūṃ or a red syllable Aṃ, a sun maṇḍala arises. Above that is a red syllable Hūṃ. From its total transformation comes a white staff marked with a fresh human head. In its center, from the total transformation of a red syllable Aṃ, a sun maṇḍala arises. In its center is a red syllable Hūṃ. From the total transformation of all these, one should visualize the nature of Yamāntaka, the Slayer of Death. His body is red, and he stands with his left leg extended.
With bared fangs and a distorted face, his tongue flickering fiercely, he is adorned with the eight nāgas. His orange-red hair blazes upward; he wears a garland of human heads around his neck and a lower garment of tiger skin, and is arrayed in various red ornaments. One should meditate on him as being marked by the Wisdom Consort’s right leg extended. Then, from the complete transformation of the mantra seed-syllable at the heart of the Blessed One, a sun disk arises; upon that, the syllable HŪṂ. From its complete transformation, one should clearly meditate on a white staff marked by a fresh human head. In its center, one should visualize a red syllable HŪṂ resting upon a sun maṇḍala. Then, from the complete transformation of the syllable HŪṂ at the secret place, one should visualize a vajra. From the secret place of the Blessed Lady, there is an eight-petaled lotus marked by a red syllable AṂ. Following that, the mantra should be recited: OṂ SARVA-TATHĀGATA-ANURĀGAṆA-VAJRA-SVABHĀVA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ. Following that, one should visualize a blazing red syllable HRĪḤ upon an eight-petaled red lotus below the navel. One should meditate on the Blessed One with one face and two arms, holding a skull-cup filled with blood in his left hand and a white staff marked by a head in his right, upon a buffalo and a variegated lotus. The Wisdom Consort is intoxicated with joy, embracing him by the neck, wearing a dry skull, with one face and two arms, dwelling in union with the Blessed One. In such a manner, one should meditate on Yamāntaka for three sessions. Or...
Meditate on the four sessions and offer the torma. Bhrūṃ āṃ jrīṃ māṃ hūṃ is the mantra for blessing the samaya. Oṃ kha kha khāhi khāhi sarva yakṣa rākṣasa bhūta preta piśāca unmāda kumbhāṇḍa apasmāra ḍākinīyādayaḥ idaṃ gṛhṇantu sarva siddhiṃ me prayacchantu yatheṣṭaṃ bhuñjatha pivatha jighratha mā ti krama sarva siddhiṃ ye sahayika bhavantu hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā. This is the mantra for the torma of all spirits. One should visualize the body in colors corresponding to the activity: red, black, yellow, or white. Then, one should recollect the recitation: Oṃ hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ vikṛtānana hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ devadattasya śāntiṃ kuru nāma svāhā. For enrichment, use vauṣaṭ; for summoning, jaḥ; for magnetizing, hūṃ mukhe hoḥ; for paralyzing, laḥ; for expelling, hūṃ phaṭ; for seizing, hūṃ phaṭ; and for other activities, use ucchaṭa. In this way, one should apply these to the vast array of activities such as paralyzing and so forth. For pacifying, protection is achieved with bezoar. On silk, cotton, white birch bark, bamboo, or a washed bark-cloth, draw two wheels and place the name within them. Place them inside a joined clay vessel free from black stains and the like, filled with molasses and honey, and wrap them with white thread. Facing east, offer white flowers during the three sessions, and clearly meditate on Yamāntaka as being white in color.
Visualize the object of accomplishment seated upon a moon maṇḍala. Imagine conferring empowerment with a white vase filled with nectar as white as the moon, and then perform the recitation: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | NĀMA DEVA DATTA SYA ŚĀNTIṂ KURU NĀMA SVĀHĀ. This is the rite of pacification. For men, use saffron for pacification; for enrichment, also use saffron. Having clearly drawn two wheels, place them together with the syllable VAUṢAṬ inside a vessel of ghee and honey. Wrap it with yellow thread and place it in a sealed clay jar. Offer yellow fire during the three sessions. Facing north, visualize oneself in the form of Yamāntaka, yellow in color. Visualize the object of accomplishment seated upon a yellow moon maṇḍala, and imagine conferring empowerment with a yellow golden vase and yellow nectar. The mantra recitation is: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | DEVA DATTA SYA PUṢṬIṂ KURU VAUṢAṬ SVĀHĀ. This is the rite of enrichment. On birch bark or cloth, clearly draw two wheels using lac, red sandalwood juice, or blood mixed with the blood of the ring finger. Place the syllable HO together with the name inside. Place it in a fully fired sealed clay jar, fill it with ghee and honey, and offer red flowers. Facing west, visualize oneself in the form of red Yamāntaka. Visualize the object of accomplishment in the center of a red moon maṇḍala. By the light radiating from one's own body, they are empowered and become intoxicated.
Visualize [the target] prostrating at the feet of the two [deities] and recite the mantra: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | DEVADATTA-SYA KṚTE YAJÑADATTAṂ VAŚYAṂ KURU HOḤ. If they do not come under control, fumigate that very wheel—which has been soaked in ghee and honey—with smokeless charcoal of acacia wood and so forth. Recite the mantra: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | DEVADATTA VAŚYAṂ KURU HOḤ. This is the ritual for subjugation.
On cloth from a charnel ground or cloth soaked in blood, draw two wheels using pigments mixed with [blood]. Insert the syllables JA, HRĪḤ, and NI-MĀ inside them. Place them within the joined skull-cup of a woman and make offerings of red flowers. At the evening session, visualize oneself as the red Yamāntaka, who resembles the sun, holding a hook and a noose. Imagine piercing his heart with the hook and binding his neck with the noose so that he comes. If he comes, heat him with a fire of acacia wood and recite the mantra. The infinite activities should be understood from the tantra.
The Sādhana of Red Yamāri, composed by the great master Śrīdhara, is complete. It was translated by the Śākya monk Nyima Gyaltsen Palzangpo, who is well-versed in the language of the gods, at the temple of the seat of translators, the glorious Tharpa Ling.
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.