Toh 2153 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana for Overcoming and Dispelling Ghosts, Piśācas, Kuṃbhāṇḍas, and Pūtanas

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2153
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.txt
Extent: 3 passages · 2,739 Tibetan characters · 764 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 sādhana provides a ritualized procedure for the purification and expulsion of various classes of malevolent spirits, specifically pretas, piśācas, kumbhāṇḍas, and pūtanas. The text outlines a complex visualization process wherein the practitioner transforms the ritual environment—ground, fence, and canopy—into a blazing vajra and establishes a square mandala featuring solar and lunar seats for the sense-faculties. The practitioner is committed to a transformative identity shift, generating a deity form with three faces and six arms. The ritual culminates in the violent subjugation of the target entity, involving the dissolution and killing of the form, followed by its symbolic burial in a charnel ground. The practitioner then assumes a fierce manifestation characterized by a body of fire, loud laughter, and the treading upon sense-deities, embodying the three kāyas to achieve the objective of dispelling the specified spiritual obstructions.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the purification and dispelling of pretas, piśācas, kumbhāṇḍas, and pūtanās, the Pretapiśācakumbhāṇḍapūtanaviśodhanaharasādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Jabaripa. It was translated into Tibetan by Devapūrṇamati and lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po, and is preserved in the Tengyur (vol. ཚི) within the collection of Other Skillful Means Tantras. Spanning two pages in this edition, the ritual enacts a process of spiritual cleansing and expulsion. It guides the practitioner through the visualization of a blazing vajra environment and a square mandala with solar and lunar seats, leading to the generation of a deity form with three faces and six arms. The procedure involves the violent subjugation, killing, and burial of the target entity in a charnel ground, concluding with the practitioner assuming a fierce manifestation of fire that treads upon sense-deities while embodying the three kāyas. Scholars and serious readers consult this text to examine the specific ritualized procedures used to neutralize malevolent spirits and the complex iconographic transformations required to achieve such an objective.

Sanskrit title: Pretapiśācakumbhāṇḍapūtanaviśodhanaharasādhana
Indian author: Jabaripa
Tibetan translators: Devapūrṇamati, lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po
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

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana for Overcoming and Dispelling Ghosts, Piśācas, Kuṃbhāṇḍas, and Pūtanas” (Toh 2153), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2153

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as a representative of the ritual technologies used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism to manage perceived supernatural threats and psychological disturbances. It illustrates the application of deity yoga and the use of fierce manifestations to neutralize negative influences through symbolic violence and spatial purification.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Titles	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan names of the ritual.
2	Mandala Generation	Describes the visualization of the ritual space and the generation of the practitioner's deity form.
3	Subjugation and Manifestation	Details the destruction of the entity and the subsequent manifestation of the practitioner as a fierce deity.

Themes

Ritual Purification (1-3)
Deity Yoga and Visualization (2-3)
Subjugation of Malevolent Spirits (3)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana for Overcoming and Dispelling Ghosts, Piśācas, Kuṃbhāṇḍas, and Pūtanas·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཀུཥྨཎྜོཏྶཱ་དྷ་པྲེ་ཏ་པི་ཤཱ་ཙ་ཡེ་བི་ཤོ་དྷ་ཡ་ཧ་ར་སཱ་དྷ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཡི་དྭགས་དང་ཤ་ཟ་དང་གྲུལ་བུམ་དང་སྲུལ་པོ་རྣམས་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་ཞིང་སེལ་བའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱ་བ། འཕགས་པ་ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྐུ་གསུམ་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་ལྡན། ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལས་སྒྲོལ་བའི། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཅན་ལ་གུས་བཏུད་དེ། ། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བྲི། ། སྔོན་དུ་བསྙེན་པ་རབ་རྫོགས་པས། ། ཡན་ལག་ཚོན་སྣས་རབ་བཅིངས་ནས། ། ལྷ་ཡི་རྣམ་པ་གསལ་བསྒོམས་ཏེ། ། རྟགས་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བ་བརྟག། བརྟགས་ཟིན་ནས་ནི་སྒྲུབ་པ་བརྩམ། ། ས་ཡི་ཆོ་ག་རྫོགས་བྱས་ལ། ། སྟ་གོན་ལེགས་པར་རྫོགས་ནས་ནི། ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཐིག་སྐུད་བྱིན་རླབས་གདབ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐིག་གདབ་ས་ཐིག་ནི། ། ཚངས་ཐིག་ནས་བཟུང་སྒོ་རྒྱན་བར། ། ལེགས་ཤིང་རྫོགས་པར་གདབ་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ནས་ཚོན་དགྱེ་དབུས་ཉི་དཀྱིལ། ། པདྨ་འདབ་བརྒྱད་གེ་སར་བཅས། ། ཁ་དོག་སོ་སོ་གྲུ་ཆད་ལྗང་། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ར་བ་ལྷ་སྣམ་རིགས། ། མཚན་མ་ས་བོན་རབ་ཏུ་དགོད། ། ཤར་ནས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་འཁོར་ལོ་རལ་གྲི་དང་། ། དགྲ་སྟ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཁ་དོག་སོ་སོར་བྲི། ། ཤར་ལྷོ་ནས་བཟུང་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་གྲི་གུག་དང་། ། མི་མགོ་དང་ནི་རྒྱུ་མའི་ཞགས་པ་བྲི། ། མཚམས་སུ་གཏོར་མ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཐོད་པ་བཀྲམ། ། དབུས་སུ་སྐུ་གདུང་གུར་དང་བླ་རེ་བྲེ། ། ལྷ་སྣམ་ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོང་གཏོར་མ་སོ་སོར་དགྲམ། ། བུམ་པ་ཕྱོགས་བཞིར་ལས་བུམ་ཤར་སྒོར་གཞག། མདུན་དུ་བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་ལྷ། ། སྤྱན་དྲངས་མཆོད་ནས་སྟོང་ཉིད་བསྒོམ། །

In the language of India: Kuṣmāṇḍotsāda-preta-piśāca-viśodhana-hara-sādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Yi-dwags dang sha-za dang grul-bum dang srul-po rnams rnam-par-sbyong-zhing sel-ba'i sgrub-thabs zhes-bya-ba (The Sādhana for Purifying and Dispelling Pretas, Piśācas, Kumbhāṇḍas, and Pūtanās). Homage to the Noble Vajrapāṇi! Bowing with devotion to the Vajra-holder, who possesses the three bodies and the six perfections, and who delivers beings from the ocean of suffering, I shall write this for the benefit of sentient beings. Having first completed the preliminary service (sevā), and having bound the limbs with various colored threads, one should clearly meditate on the form of the deity and examine the signs until they are clearly manifest. Once the signs have been examined, one should begin the actual practice (sādhana). Having completed the ritual of the site and finished the preparatory rites (sthāpanā), one should lay the blessed lines of the maṇḍala. One should lay the wisdom lines and the ground lines, starting from the Brahma-lines and extending to the door ornaments, ensuring they are well-drawn and complete. Then, one should apply the colors: a sun disk in the center, an eight-petaled lotus with a filament, and the various colors for the corners and the green border. The vajra fence and the deity platforms should be arranged according to their respective families, and the symbols and seed-syllables should be placed. Starting from the east, one should draw a wheel, a sword, a battle-axe, and a vajra, each in its respective color. From the southeast, one should draw a hook, a curved knife, a human head, and an entrail-noose. In the intermediate directions, arrange the offering cakes (bali), and in the cardinal directions, arrange the skull-cups. In the center, hang the reliquary stūpa, the canopy, and the ceiling-curtain. On the deity platforms, arrange the individual offering cakes for the directional guardians. Place the vases in the four directions and the activity vase at the eastern gate. In front, invite the gurus and yidam deities, make offerings, and meditate on emptiness.

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.

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

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

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

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

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

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསྡུག་བསྔལ → suffering

termལྷ → god

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

དེ་ནས་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་ས་གཞི་ར་བ་གུར་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མེ་འོད་བཅས། ། དེ་ནས་བྷྲཱུཾ་ལས་གྲུ་བཞི་སྒོ་བཞི་རྟ་བབས་བཅས་ཤིང་དབང་པོ་ཉི་ཟླའི་གདན། ། དེ་སྟེང་བདག་ཉིད་གསུམ་གྱི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་བསྐྱེད། ། མདུན་དུ་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་དགའ་རབ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་ཅན་དང་བུམ་རྣ་ཤ་ཟན་སེན་དགུ་བསྐྱེད། ། ཐལ་དཀར་མདོག་དང་གནག་དང་སྔོ་དང་ཤིན་ཏུ་གནག། གཡས་ན་འཁོར་ལོ་རལ་གྲི་དགྲ་སྟ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་། ། གཡོན་ན་བསྡིགས་པའི་སྡིགས་མཛུབ་བོ། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཅན། ། ཐལ་བས་ལུས་བྱུགས་ཁྲག་འཛག་པའོ། ། མཚམས་རྣམས་སུ་ནི་མེ་ཏོག་མ་དང་མཛེས་ལྡན་དང་ནི་འོད་ཟེར་འཕྲོག་དང་མདངས་འཕྲོག་མའོ། ། གཡས་ན་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་གྲི་གུག་མི་མགོ་རྒྱུ་མའི་ཞགས། ། གཡོན་ན་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་གིས་བཀང་བའོ། ། སྨུག་ནག་མཐིང་ནག་དམར་ནག་ལྗང་ནག་འཇིགས་པའི་གཟུགས་ཅན་བདུད་མོ་བཞིའོ། ། ཐུགས་ཀའི་རེ་ཕའི་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་སྤྱན་དྲངས་བསྟིམ་སོགས་རྫོགས་བྱས་ནས། ། གསང་བའི་སྔགས་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་བཟླས། ། ཨོཾ་ཀུཥྨཎ་བི་དྷ་ར་ཡ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ། ཌོཏྶཱ་དྷ་ན་ཀྲོ་དྷ་ཡ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ། པྲེ་ཏ་བི་ས་ན་ཡ་ཕཊ། པི་ཤཱ་ཙ་ཧ་ཏ་བ་བ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཀུཥྨཎ་ཀྲ་མཱ་ཡ་ཕཊ། ཌོཏྶཱ་ཏ་ན་ཀྲི་ཏཱ་ན་ཡ་ཕཊ། པྲེ་ཏ་ཀྲི་ཏཱནྟ་རཱུ་པ་ཡ་ཕཊ། པི་ཤཱ་ཙེ་རོ་ཥ་ཎ་ཡ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཞེས་པ་བཟླས་ཏེ། སྔོན་དུ་བསྙེན་པས་བསྒྲུབ་བྱའི་རྟགས་ནི་རིམ་པ་དྲུག་པར་བརྟག། རྟགས་བྱུང་བསྐྲད་པའི་ལས་བརྩམ་མོ། ། ཡཾ་ལས་རླུང་བསམས་སྟེང་དུ་བསྐྱེད། ། དགུག་ཅིང་ཨུཙྪ་ཏ་ཡས་བསྐྲད། ། ལས་བཅོལ་ཕྲིན་ལས་གཞན་ཡང་བརྩམ། ། རབས་ཆད་ནག་པོའི་ཐོད་པར་ནི། །

Then, from HŪṂ, the ground, fence, and canopy become a vajra with blazing fire. Then, from BHRŪṂ, a square mandala with four gates and archways, with seats of the sun and moon for the sense-faculties. Upon that, one generates oneself in the manner of the three identities, with three faces and six arms. In front, from HŪṂ, generate the Skull-Garlanded Lord of Delight, the Jar-Ear, and the Flesh-Eater with nine nails. They are ash-white, black, blue, and extremely black. In their right hands are a wheel, a sword, a battle-axe, and a vajra; in their left hands are the threatening mudrā. They are of an extremely terrifying nature, their bodies smeared with ash and dripping with blood. In the intermediate directions are the Flower Lady, the Beautiful One, the Radiance-Stealer, and the Vitality-Stealer. In their right hands are an iron hook, a curved knife, a human head, and an entrail-noose; in their left hands are skull-cups filled with blood. The four demonesses are dark-maroon, dark-blue, dark-red, and dark-green, with terrifying forms. Having invited and absorbed them from the HŪṂ at the repha in the heart, and completed the stages such as the dissolution, one should recite the secret mantra: OṂ KUṢMAṆA VIDHARĀYA HŪṂ PHAṬ | ḌOTSĀDHANA KRODHAYA HŪṂ PHAṬ | PRETAVISANĀYA PHAṬ | PIŚĀCA HATA VAVA PHAṬ SVĀHĀ | KUṢMAṆA KRAMĀYA PHAṬ | ḌOTSĀTANA KṚTĀNAYA PHAṬ | PRETAKṚTĀNTARŪPAYA PHAṬ | PIŚĀCE ROṢAṆAYA PHAṬ SVĀHĀ | Reciting this, one should examine the signs of accomplishment through the preliminary service according to the six stages. Once the signs have appeared, begin the activity of expulsion. Visualize wind from YAṂ and generate it above. Summon and expel with UCCHĀTAYA. Entrust the activity and perform other rites as well. In the skull of a black man of broken lineage...

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 )

termམེ → fire

termསྔགས → mantra

གཟུགས་གཞུག་བསད་པས་དུར་ཁྲོད་སྦ། ། ཧཱུཾ་མེ་དཔུང་འབར་བ་བརྗིད་པའི་སྐུ། ། གད་རྒྱངས་བཞད་མཛད་ཐལ་མོ་རྡེབས། ། རྒྱ་མཚོར་ཞབས་ནུབ་དབང་པོ་མནན། ། སྐུ་གསུམ་དོན་ལྡན་ཞལ་འཛུམ་བཞད། ། ཕྱག་དྲུག་བདུད་འདུལ་མཚོན་ཆ་འཛིན། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཅན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་འདུད། ། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་མུཿཞེས་པས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ་ནས་བསྡུ་བའོ། ། བདག་གིས་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བརྩམས། ། དགེ་བ་དེ་ཡིས་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན། ། བླ་མེད་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག། ནམ་གྲུའི་རིགས་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཛཱ་བ་རི་པས་མཛད་པའི་བདུད་བཟློག་པའི་ཆོ་ག་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། བལ་པོའི་བླ་མ་དེ་བ་པཱུརྞ་མ་ཏི་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

Having dissolved the form and killed it, bury it in a charnel ground. HŪṂ! Your majestic body is a blazing mass of fire; you let out a roar of laughter and clap your hands. Your feet are submerged in the ocean, treading upon the sense-deities. Possessing the meaning of the three kāyas, your face smiles and laughs. With six arms, you hold the weapons that subdue the māras. I prostrate and bow to the Vajra-holder. With "OṂ VAJRA MUḤ," request the departure and perform the dissolution. I have composed this for the benefit of others. By this merit, may all wandering beings attain unsurpassed enlightenment. This concludes the ritual for averting māras composed by the master Jāvaripa, who arose from the line of Revatī. It was translated by the Nepalese guru Devapūrṇamati and the translator Chos kyi bzang po.

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: homage; dharma

termམེ → fire

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termཆོས → dharma

Terminology used in this text (12)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
བླ་མ	guru	2
མེ	fire	2	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཡི་དམ	yidam	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two

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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