Toh 2132 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Yakṣa Dvayabhrātī

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2132
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,129 Tibetan characters · 516 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 sādhana, a ritual manual for the propitiation of the Yakṣa brothers Vasudhara and Mahāyaśas. The work functions as a liturgical guide, beginning with a formal invocation and homage to Vajradhara, followed by a description of the deities' wrathful and terrifying forms. The text commits the practitioner to a specific set of ritual actions, primarily the recitation of heart mantras designed to achieve particular worldly or spiritual outcomes. Specifically, it provides the mantra for the yakṣa Kāla and indicates that a second mantra exists to grant the practitioner renown across the ten directions. By linking specific phonetic formulas to desired effects, the text positions the practitioner in a reciprocal relationship with these powerful non-human entities, utilizing the mantra as the primary vehicle for illumination and attainment.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the propitiation of the Yakṣa brothers Vasudhara and Mahāyaśas, the Śrīdvayabhrātīyakṣasādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Mitrayogin. It was translated into Tibetan by Mitrayogin and gnubs lo tsa ba byams pa dpal, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཚི, where it occupies three pages within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection. The ritual enacts a liturgical process beginning with homage to Vajradhara and the visualization of the deities' wrathful, terrifying forms. It guides the practitioner through the recitation of specific heart mantras, such as those for the yakṣa Kāla and a second formula intended to grant renown throughout the ten directions. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise phonetic formulas and ritual actions used to establish a reciprocal relationship with powerful non-human entities, utilizing the mantra as the primary vehicle for illumination and attainment.

Sanskrit title: Śrīdvayabhrātīyakṣasādhana
Indian author: Mitrayogin
Tibetan translators: Mitrayogin, gnubs lo tsa ba byams pa dpal
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཚི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

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Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of the Yakṣa Dvayabhrātī” (Toh 2132), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2132

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it illustrates the integration of yakṣa worship—originally rooted in indigenous and Vedic traditions—into the Vajrayāna Buddhist framework. It demonstrates the tradition's use of wrathful deities for the attainment of renown and wealth. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of the technical structure of a Tibetan ritual manual.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Description	Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, homage to Vajradhara, and a description of the Yakṣa kings Vasudhara and Mahāyaśas.
2	Mantra Instructions	Provides the heart mantra for the yakṣa Kāla and mentions a second mantra for achieving renown.

Themes

Wrathful Deities (1)
Mantra and Ritual Efficacy (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Yakṣa Dvayabhrātī·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲཱི་དྭ་ཡ་བྷྲ་ཏ་ར་ཡཀྵ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་སྤུན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གང་གི་བཀའ་སྡོད་འཇིགས་པའི་གཟུགས། ། གཞོན་ནུ་ཁྲོས་པ་རྔམས་པའི་ཚུལ། ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་རྒྱལ་པོ་ནོར་སྦྱིན་དང་། ། གྲགས་ཆེན་འཇིགས་པ་མཁས་པས་བསྒྲུབས། ། དུར་ཁྲོད་ལ་སོགས་ཡ་ང་བར། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོའི་ལྟས་མཐོང་བས། ། དེ་ཉིད་རིག་པ་དྲན་བྱས་ལ། ། ཚར་གཅོད་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་པ་ཡིས། ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་གཉིས་ཡང་དག་བསྒོམ། ། སྟོང་དང་སྙིང་རྗེ་དབྱེར་མེད་ལས། ། རང་ཉིད་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཁྲོར་བསྒོམ། ། ཞབས་མཐིལ་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཧཱུཾ་གཉིས་ལས། ། རི་རབ་བྱང་ནས་གནོད་སྦྱིན་དགུག། འདམ་སྐྱེས་ཐོད་པ་དབུགས་བྲལ་གྱི། ། གདན་ནི་གཡས་དང་གཡོན་བསམས་ལ། ། དེ་སྟེང་ཟར་མ་ལི་ཁྲིའི་མདོག། ཧཱུཾ་ལས་གནོད་སྦྱིན་གཉིས་གཟུགས་བལྟ། ། བསད་གྲི་(ཙཏྟི་,ཙིཏྟ་)གཡས་དང་གཡོན། ། དེ་བཞིན་རྔ་ཆེན་མགོ་ཕྱེད་འཛིན། ། རུས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྟག་ལྤགས་བརྒྱན། ། ཁྲོ་ཞིང་ཞི་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་མཛེས། ། མཆོད་ཅིང་བྱིན་རླབས་དབང་བསྐུར་དང་། ། རྒྱས་གདབ་བཀའ་ལ་གདགས་པ་དང་། ། དམ་ཚིག་བརྗོད་ཅིང་བསྐུལ་བ་དང་། ། ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་པོའི་བཀའ་ཡིས་བྱ། ། དཀར་དམར་བ་དན་གྱིས་མཚན་པའི། ། དཀར་དམར་གཏོར་མ་གཉིས་བཤམས་ལ། ། རང་སྔགས་འབྲུ་གསུམ་ལྡན་པ་ཡིས། ། བདུད་རྩིར་བསྒྱུར་ལ་ཐོག་མར་སྦྱིན། ། དེ་རྗེས་འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཡིད་ཀྱིས། ། ནོར་འཕེལ་གནོད་སྦྱིན་སྲོག་སྙིང་ནི། ། སྙིང་གར་བཀོད་ལ་འདོད་པས་བཟླས། ། འོད་འཕྲོས་རིན་ཆེན་ཆར་ཕབ་བསམ། །

In the language of India: Śrī-dvaya-bhrātṛ-yakṣa-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: The Sādhana of the Two Yakṣa Brothers. Homage to the glorious Vajradhara! The attendants of whom possess terrifying forms, The manner of wrathful and fierce youths— The Yakṣa kings Vasudhara and Mahāyaśas, Who are accomplished by the wise through fear. In terrifying places such as charnel grounds, Having seen the signs of the Protector of the World, One should recollect the knowledge of reality (tattva), And through the methods of subduing and gathering, Perfectly meditate upon the two types of bodhicitta. From the inseparability of emptiness and compassion, One meditates on oneself as the wrathful Avalokiteśvara. From the two HŪṂs at the soles of the wheels, The yakṣas are summoned from the north of Mount Meru. Visualize lotuses, skull-cups, and lifeless corpses As seats to the right and left; Upon them, the color of flax or vermilion, From HŪṂ, behold the forms of the two yakṣas. In the right and left hands, they hold Swords and likewise great drums and half-heads. Adorned with bone, jewels, and tiger skins, They are wrathful, peaceful, and exceedingly beautiful. Perform the offerings, blessings, empowerments, Sealing, and the entrustment of commands; Recite the samaya and the exhortations— All should be done by the command of the Lord. Having arranged two torma offerings, White and red, marked with banners, Transform them into nectar with the three syllables of one's own mantra, And offer them first. Thereafter, with a mind wishing to benefit beings, Place the life-essence of the wealth-increasing yakṣas At the heart and recite with desire. Visualize light radiating and a rain of jewels falling.

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

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

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

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

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 )

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake

termགནོད་སྦྱིན → yakṣa

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་ཀཾ་བཛྲ་ཀཱ་ལ་མ་ཧཱ་དྷ་ནཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་ཀཱ་ལའི་སྙིང་པོའོ། ། དེ་བཞིན་ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་གྲགས་འདོད་པས། ། གཉིས་པའི་སྙིང་གར་འབབ་པའི་སྔགས། ། ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་སྣང་བྱེད་གསལ་བྱས་ལ། ། གང་འདོད་འདུན་པས་རིག་པ་བཟླས། ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་བཾ་བཛྲ་པི་ཀ་ལ་མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱི་རྟི་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་བི་ཀ་ལའི་སྙིང་པོའོ། ། ཡིག་འབྲུའི་གྲངས་ཀྱིས་ཁྲིར་བསྙེན་ལ། ། སྦྱིན་སྲེག་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་སྔོན་འགྲོས། ། མགོན་པོས་སྲོག་སྙིང་དབང་མཛད་དེ། ། ལས་སྒྲུབ་སྔགས་ནི་དེ་རྗེས་སོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧྲཱིཿཤྲཱི་ཀཱ་ལ་མ་མ་དྷ་ན་པུཥྟིཾ་ཀུ་རུ་ཡེ་ཧཱུཾ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་ཀཱ་ལའི་ལས་སྔགས་སོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧྲཱིཿཤྲཱི་བི་ཀཱ་ལ་མ་མ་པྲ་སིདྡྷཾ་སྥ་ར་ཡེ་ཧཱུཾ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གནོད་སྦྱིན་བི་ཀ་ལིའི་ལས་སྔགས་སོ། ། གལ་ཏེ་འདི་དག་ཁྲོ་བྱེད་ནས། ། བསྒོ་བའི་ལས་མྱུར་མི་བྱེད་ན། ། དཔའ་མོ་རལ་པ་གཅིག་ཁྲོས་པས། ། བདུན་ཕྲག་བདུན་དུ་གཟིར་བར་བྱ། ། སྒྲུབ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕན་གདགས་ཕྱིར། ། ཕྱི་ནང་རྙེད་གྲགས་སྒྲུབ་བྱེད་འདི། ། རྐུན་པོས་རྙེད་པའི་ནོར་བཞིན་དུ། ། འབད་དེ་གསང་བས་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ། ། དཔལ་གནོད་སྦྱིན་སྤུན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཨ་ཛི་མི་ཏྲས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མི་ཏྲ་ཨཱ་ནནྡའི་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་ལྷའི་རིགས་གནུབས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་བྱམས་པ་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ KAṂ VAJRA KĀLA MAHĀ DHANAṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. This is the heart mantra of the yakṣa Kāla. Likewise, for one who desires renown throughout the ten directions, the mantra that descends into the heart of the second [deity] illuminates the ten directions. Having made it clear, recite the knowledge mantra with whatever aspiration you desire. OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ BAṂ VAJRA PIKALA MAHĀ KĪRTI HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. This is the heart mantra of the yakṣa Vikala. Perform the approach recitation ten thousand times according to the number of syllables, preceded by one hundred and eight fire offerings. The Protector then takes control of the life-essence, and the activity-accomplishing mantra follows thereafter. OṂ ĀḤ HRĪḤ ŚRĪ KĀLA MAMA DHANA PUṢṬIṂ KURUYE HŪṂ SVĀHĀ. This is the activity mantra of the yakṣa Kāla. OṂ ĀḤ HRĪḤ ŚRĪ VIKĀLA MAMA PRASIDDHAṂ SPHĀRAYE HŪṂ SVĀHĀ. This is the activity mantra of the yakṣa Vikali. If these two become angry and do not swiftly perform the commanded activity, the Heroine Ekajaṭī, in her wrath, shall oppress them for seven weeks. For the sake of benefiting practitioners, this means of accomplishing outer and inner gain and fame should be practiced with effort and secrecy, like a thief guarding stolen wealth. This concludes the Sādhana of the Glorious Yakṣa Brothers, composed by the master Ajimitra. It was translated by Nub Lotsāwa Jampa Pal, a member of the lineage of deities of the activity of the Lord of Yogins, Mitra Ānanda.

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

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: god

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termགནོད་སྦྱིན → yakṣa

termསྔགས → mantra

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termལྷ → god

Terminology used in this text (9)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
གནོད་སྦྱིན	yakṣa	2
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
རིག་པ	knowledge	2	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.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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