Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This fragmentary text provides a ritual procedure for the Sādhana of Alagupta. The work functions as a technical manual for a specific ritual operation, centering on the use of a mantra—Oṃ alagupte gṛhṇa piṇḍaṃ piśācini svāhā—to consecrate a food offering. The text instructs the practitioner to recite this mantra over a ball of food remaining from a meal for a duration of one month. By committing to a practice that increases in intensity or volume over time, the practitioner aims to achieve a specific, though here truncated, result. The structure is characteristic of a brief ritual instruction, beginning with the bilingual title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, followed by the precise mantra and the specific conditions for its application, including the material requirements and the temporal framework of the practice.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the practice of Alagupta, the Alaguptanāmasādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana. The work is attributed to the Indian author Prajñārakṣita. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the translator 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 this classical Tibetan transmission, the text enacts a specific ritual operation centered on the mantra Oṃ alagupte gṛhṇa piṇḍaṃ piśācini svāhā. The procedure requires the practitioner to recite this mantra over a ball of food remaining from a meal for one month, performing the practice in an ever-increasing manner to obtain a dināra for each instance. A scholar or serious reader consults this single-page text today to examine the technical requirements of the ritual, the specific material conditions for the food offering, and the temporal framework necessary to achieve the stated result.
Sanskrit title
Alaguptanāmasādhana
Indian author
Prajñārakṣita
Tibetan translators
Dānaśīla (III)
Canonical collection
The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, a Sādhana Activity Garland of Red Yamāri
The text is significant for its depiction of the intersection between Buddhist ritual and the propitiation of non-Buddhist entities, specifically a piśācinī. It illustrates the use of food offerings and repetitive mantra recitation as a means of spiritual or mundane attainment within the broader context of Tibetan ritual technology.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Ritual Instructions
Contains the bilingual title, the specific mantra for Alagupta, and the initial instructions for the food offering practice.
Themes
Mantra and Ritual Efficacy (1)
Offerings to Non-Human Entities (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Alaguptasādhanam. In the language of Tibet: The Sādhana known as Alagupta. Oṃ alagupte gṛhṇa piṇḍaṃ piśācini svāhā. Thus it is said. If one recites this mantra over a ball of food left over from a meal for one month and performs the practice in an ever-increasing manner, one will be given a dināra for each. The Sādhana known as Alagupta is complete.
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.