Toh 2056 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Yakṣa King Kīlikīla

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2056
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 048_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཙི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,172 Tibetan characters · 281 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 brief text is a sādhana, a ritual manual for the accomplishment of a specific deity, in this case, the Yakṣa King Kīlikīla. The work functions primarily as a liturgical formula, providing the necessary linguistic components to invoke the entity. It begins by establishing the title in both Sanskrit and Tibetan, ensuring the continuity of the ritual's identity across linguistic traditions. The core of the text consists of a dharani—a ritual incantation—which commits the practitioner to the precise recitation of a mantra to engage the Yakṣa King. By prescribing this specific sonic formula, the text directs the reader toward a ritualized interaction with a non-human protector or spirit. The work concludes abruptly after the presentation of the mantra, indicating that its primary purpose is the transmission of the seed-syllables and the invocation rather than providing extensive theoretical or meditative instructions.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the accomplishment of the Yakṣa King Kīlikīla, the Yakṣarājakīlikīlasādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana. The work is attributed to the Indian author Prajñārakṣita. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the translation of Dānaśīla (III), and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཙི, as part of the canonical collection known as The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, a Sādhana Activity Garland of Red Yamāri. In the classical Tibetan tradition, the work is titled gnod sbyin gyi rgyal po phur bus 'debs pa'i sgrub thabs. The text enacts a liturgical process to invoke the deity, providing a specific mantra and prescribing its recitation seven times over food in a secluded setting to engage the Yakṣa King. Spanning two pages in its source edition, the work functions primarily as a transmission of the necessary sonic formulas and dharanis required for the ritual. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise linguistic components and ritual instructions used to interact with this non-human protector, observing how the ritual identity is maintained across its Sanskrit and Tibetan forms.

Sanskrit title: Yakṣarājakīlikīlasādhana
Indian author: Prajñārakṣita
Tibetan translators: Dānaśīla (III)
Canonical collection: The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, a Sādhana Activity Garland of Red Yamāri
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཙི
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 Yakṣa King Kīlikīla” (Toh 2056), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2056

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as an example of the integration of Indian yakṣa cults into the Tibetan Buddhist ritual corpus. It demonstrates the preservation of Sanskrit mantras alongside Tibetan translations to maintain the perceived efficacy of the ritual. For the modern reader, it illustrates the concise nature of certain tantric manuals where the mantra itself constitutes the essence of the practice.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Mantra	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and the specific ritual incantation for Kīlikīla.
2	Colophon	A formal statement marking the completion of the sādhana.

Themes

Ritual Invocation (1)
Linguistic Translation (1)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Yakṣa King Kīlikīla·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཡཀྵ་ཀཱི་ལི་ཀཱི་ལ་རཱ་ཛ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཕུར་བུས་འདེབས་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། ཡཀྵ་ཀཱི་ལོ་ནཱ་མ་ས་ཏྱ་བ་དི་ཏྲིཊྚ་པྲ་ཏཿཏ་ཤ་ཏྱ་ཧ་པིཎྜ་ད་དི་མ་སེ་མེ་ཀ་མཱ་ན་པྲ་ཡཙྪཾ་ཏུ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཞེས་སོ། ། དེ་ནས་ཟན་ཟ་བའི་དུས་སུ། ཟན་གྱི་ཕུད་ལ་སྔགས་ལན་བདུན་བཟླས་ལ། དབེན་པའི་སར་ལྕི་བས་བྱུགས་པའི་མཎྜལ་བྱས་ལ་ཉི་མ་རེ་རེ་ཞིང་གནོད་སྦྱིན་ལ་ཟན་དབུལ་ལོ། ། ཟླ་གཅིག་སོང་ནས་ཉི་མ་རེ་ལ་འདིས་ནོར་རེ་སྟེར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་གཉིས་པ་ལ་འདིས་ནོར་ཉི་ཤུ་སྟེར་བའམ་ཡང་ན་སྟོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་གསུམ་པ་ལ་ཉི་མ་རེ་ལ་འདིས་ནོར་བརྒྱ་ཚོ་རེ་སྟེར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་བཞི་པ་ལ་འདིས་ནོར་སྟོང་སྟེར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་ལྔ་པ་ལ་ཀཱི་ལི་ཀཱི་ལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་མཆོག་སྟེར་བར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། འབྲུ་དང་། ནོར་དང་གཏེར་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་བ་སྟེར་བར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ནད་མེད་པ་དང་བར་ཆད་མི་འབྱུང་བ་དང་བློ་དང་ལྡན་པར་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་དྲུག་ན་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་འགྲོ་བར་ནུས་ཤིང་རིག་པ་འཛིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་བདུན་ན་རལ་གྲིའི་རིག་པ་འཛིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ཟླ་བ་བརྒྱད་ན་ལྷའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་བར་ནུས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། ཆོ་ག་འདི་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བྱས་ལ་གཡས་(གྱི་,ཀྱི་)ཁུ་ཚུར་བཅངས་ལ་མཛུབ་མོ་དང་མཐེ་བོང་རྩེ་སྤྲད་ལ་ཁ་ཕྱེ་ལ། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་འདི་དང་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་ཟན་རྡོག་གཅིག་བྱིན་དེས་ཟོས་ཟིན་པའི་དུས་སུ། ཁ་བཤལ་བའི་ཆུ་ལན་གསུམ་བྱིན་པར་བྱའོ། །

In the language of India: Yakṣakīlikīlarājasādhanam. In the language of Tibet: Gnod sbyin gyi rgyal po phur bus ’debs pa’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Yakṣa King Kīlikīla). Yakṣakīlo nāma satyavādī triṭṭapratīṣṭha taśatyāha piṇḍa dadima se me kamāna prayacchantu svāhā. Thus it is said. Then, at the time of eating, recite the mantra seven times over the first portion of the food. In a secluded place, prepare a maṇḍala smeared with cow dung and offer the food to the yakṣa every day. After one month has passed, he will grant one piece of wealth each day. In the second month, he will grant twenty pieces of wealth or else reveal them. In the third month, he will grant one hundred pieces of wealth each day. In the fourth month, he will grant one thousand pieces of wealth. In the fifth month, one will see the yakṣa king named Kīlikīla, and he will grant the supreme siddhi. He will grant an abundance of grain, wealth, and treasures. One will become free from illness, free from obstacles, and endowed with intelligence. After six months, one will be able to travel through the sky and become a vidyādhara. After seven months, one will become a sword-vidyādhara. After eight months, one will be able to travel to the abodes of the gods. Having performed all these rituals, clench the right fist and join the tips of the index finger and thumb, then open the hand. With this mudrā and the mantra, give a single morsel of food. When he has finished eating, one should give him water for rinsing the mouth three times.

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.

definitionགནོད་སྦྱིན “yakṣa” — A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or control

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

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 ).

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 )

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

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

termགནོད་སྦྱིན → yakṣa

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termམེ → fire

termསྔགས → mantra

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

ཀཱི་ལི་ཀཱི་ལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ། །

The sādhana of the yakṣa king known as Kīlikīla is complete.

Terminology used in this text (7)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
གནོད་སྦྱིན	yakṣa	2
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	2
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
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
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 048_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཙི.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