Toh 2159 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Ritual for Suppressing the Four Classes of Nāgas

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2159
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 049_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཚི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,977 Tibetan characters · 520 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 ritual text, titled The Ritual for Suppressing the Four Classes of Nāgas, provides a prescriptive procedure for the spiritual subjugation of nāga lineages. The work functions as a manual for a specific ritual operation intended to permanently immobilize these entities so they cannot rise again. The procedure is centered on the invocation of the wrathful deity Vajrapāṇi, whose power is leveraged to physically and spiritually suppress the nāgas beneath Mount Meru. The text commits the practitioner to a precise temporal and spatial protocol, requiring the secure concealment of a ritual object beneath the threshold of a practice hall at midday on the twenty-fourth day of the month. By adhering to these instructions, the practitioner seeks to neutralize potential disturbances caused by the four classes of nāgas through the application of wrathful Buddhist power.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual for the suppression of the four classes of nāgas, the Nāgakulacaturastambhanavidhi belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Jabaripa. It was translated into Tibetan by Devapūrṇamati and bod kyi lo tsa ba dge slong mgar 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 text enacts a prescriptive procedure for the permanent spiritual subjugation of nāga lineages. It details a specific protocol requiring the practitioner to conceal a ritual object beneath the threshold of a practice hall at midday on the twenty-fourth day. Through the invocation of the wrathful deity Vajrapāṇi, the ritual seeks to immobilize these entities beneath Mount Meru, ensuring they cannot rise again for ten million eons. A scholar or serious reader consults this manual today to examine the precise temporal and spatial requirements of the operation, the role of wrathful Buddhist power in neutralizing disturbances, and the strict adherence to samaya required to ensure the efficacy of the suppression.

Sanskrit title: Nāgakulacaturastambhanavidhi
Indian author: Jabaripa
Tibetan translators: Devapūrṇamati, bod kyi lo tsa ba dge slong mgar chos kyi bzang po
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Ritual
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 Ritual for Suppressing the Four Classes of Nāgas” (Toh 2159), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2159

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text illustrates the use of wrathful deities in the Indo-Tibetan tradition to manage perceived environmental or spiritual threats. It highlights the intersection of cosmology, such as the centrality of Mount Meru, and practical ritual application in maintaining the sanctity of a practice space.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Invocation	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers homage to Vajrapāṇi.
2	Ritual Procedure	Specifies the timing, location, and method for suppressing the nāga lineages.

Themes

Ritual Subjugation (1-2)
Wrathful Deities (1-2)
Cosmology (2)

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

AnuvādaA Ritual for Suppressing the Four Classes of Nāgas·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ནཱ་ག་ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རི་སྟཾ་བྷ་བི་དྷི་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཀླུ་རིགས་བཞི་མནན་པའི་ཆོ་ག་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། དཔལ་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གང་ཞིག་དབང་དུ་འདུས་གྱུར་པས། ། བསྐལ་པ་བྱེ་བའི་མཐའ་རུ་ཡང་། ། ལྡང་བར་མི་ནུས་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཅན་ལ་གུས་བཏུད་ནས། ། སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ལ་ཕན་གདགས་ཕྱིར། ། དེ་ཡི་མནན་པའི་ཆོ་ག་བསྟན། ། གསེར་ལས་བྱས་པའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་ནམ། ། ཡང་ན་རིན་ཆེན་ལྔ་ལས་བྱས། ། ཁྲུ་གང་ཚད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་རྟེན་བརྩིག། བུམ་པ་ཁོག་སྟོང་བྱས་པའི་ནང་། ། ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རིའི་གཟུགས་བྱས་ཏེ། ། ཁོང་སྟོང་ཕྱོགས་བཞིར་དགོད་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་འོག་ཕྱོགས་བཞིའི་རྨང་དུ་ནི། ། ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རིའི་བྲན་རྣམས་གཞུག། དེ་ནས་ལྷ་ཡི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱིས། ། ཕྲེང་བའི་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་བཟླས་པ་ལས། ། སྔགས་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ཡིས། ། བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་བཀུག་སྟེ་གཉིས་མེད་བསྟིམ། ། ཡང་ན་རང་ལྷའི་ས་བོན་ལས། ། ཁྲོ་བོ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྤྲོས་པ་ཡིས། ། བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་བཀུག་སྟེ་སྔ་མ་བཞིན། ། མངོན་སུམ་ལྟ་བུར་ཁུགས་པར་བསམ། ། ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རིའི་སྤྱི་སྟེང་དུ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱ་གྲམ་མེ་རི་འབར། ། དེ་ཡི་ལྟེ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་དུ་ནི། ། མི་འཁྲུགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་བཞུགས། ། བསྐལ་པའི་མཐའ་རུ་མནན་པར་བསམ། ། དེ་ནས་བདུད་རྩི་ལྔར་བཅས་པ། ། རང་གི་འདོད་པའི་ལྷ་ལ་དབུལ། ། དམ་ལ་གནས་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར། ། སྦྲུལ་དང་སྦལ་པའི་ཤ་དང་ཚིལ། ། གླང་དམར་བ་དམར་ལ་སོགས་པའི། ། ཁྲག་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི། ། བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་ལ་ནི་གཏོར་མ་སྦྱིན། ། དབྱར་གྱི་ཁྱིམ་གསུམ་ཐ་མ་ཡི། །

In the language of India: Nāgakulacatustambhanavidhi-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Klu rigs bzhi mnan pa’i cho ga zhes bya ba (The Ritual for Suppressing the Four Classes of Nāgas). Homage to the glorious Vajrapāṇi! In order that whoever is brought under control may not be able to rise again even at the end of ten million eons, I bow with devotion to the Vajra-holder and shall teach the ritual for suppressing them for the benefit of practitioners. Construct a stūpa made of gold, or else made of the five precious gems, measuring one cubit in size. Inside the hollow interior of the vase, fashion the forms of the kulacari [nāgas] and place them within the four hollow directions. Below that, in the foundations of the four directions, insert the servants of the kulacari. Then, through the yoga of the deity, by reciting the garland mantra, the light rays of the mantra act as hooks to summon the object of practice and dissolve them non-dually. Alternatively, from the seed syllable of one’s own deity, emanate various wrathful deities who summon the object of practice as before; imagine them being captured as if in person. Upon the crown of the kulacari, a crossed vajra blazes with a mountain of fire. In the center of its hub, King Akṣobhya sits with his left leg extended; imagine him suppressing them until the end of the eon. Then, together with the five nectars, offer them to one’s own chosen deity. In order to bind them to their oath, offer a torma to the object of practice consisting of the flesh and fat of snakes and frogs, and the blood and so forth of red oxen, red cows, and the like. [This is to be done] during the last of the three summer months.

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.

terminologyཀླུ → “nāga”. Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

definitionཀླུ “nāga” — A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be ass

definitionཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ “Vajrapāṇi” — Vajrapāṇi means “Wielder of the Vajra.” In the Pali canon, he appears as a yakṣa guardian in the retinue of the Buddha. In the Mahāyāna scriptures he is a bodhisattva and one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha.” In t

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

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 )

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 ).

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.

termཀླུ → nāga

termཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ → Vajrapāṇi

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལྷ → god

termསྔགས → mantra

termམེ → fire

དྲུག་གཉིས་བཞི་ཡི་ཉིན་ཕྱེད་ན། ། སྒྲུབ་ཁང་ཐེམ་རྩའི་འོག་ཏུ་ནི། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་དམ་པར་སྦ་བར་བྱ། ། ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཁྲོ་བོ་ཆེ། ། རབ་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་པའི་མཐུ་སྟོབས་ཀྱིས། ། རི་རབ་ཀླད་ལ་བསྐོར་ནས་ནི། ། དེ་འོག་ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རི་ནི། ། རིགས་དེ་རྣམས་ནི་མནན་བྱས་ཀྱིས། ། ཐར་བ་ཡི་ནི་དུས་མེད་པར། ། དམ་ཚིག་གཉན་གྱིས་མ་འདའ་ཅིག། ཉེས་པ་འདི་ལས་མ་ལྡོག་ཅིག། ལུས་འདི་རུལ་ཅིང་མྱགས་གྱུར་ནས། ། སྙིང་ནི་འགེམས་ཤིང་ཟགས་པར་བྱེད། ། ཚེ་ཡི་འདུ་བྱེད་བྱས་ནས་ནི། ། མནར་མེད་པར་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་ཡིན། ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་བྱམས་པའི་སེམས། ། སྐྱེས་པའི་ཚེ་ན་གཏང་བར་བྱ། ། ཕྲེང་བའི་སྔགས་ནི་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་པས་བཟླས་པར་བྱ། ། མཐུ་སྟོབས་དྲག་པོའི་ང་རོ་ཡིས། ། སྟང་སྟབས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་མནན་པར་བྱ། ། ངང་ཚུལ་བཟང་ཞིང་ཤེས་རབ་ཅན། ། བླ་མ་ལ་གུས་གཏོང་ཕོད་པ། ། གལ་ཏེ་རྨོངས་པས་གཞན་དུ་སྦྱིན། ། ཚ་བ་ཆེན་པོར་ཡུན་རིང་གནས། ། ཨོཾ་ནཱི་ལཱཾ་བ་ར་བཛྲ་པཱ་ཎི་ས་མ་ཡ་ནཱ་ག་ཀུ་ལ་ཙ་རི་ཨི་མཱཾ་བ་ལིཾ་ཁཱ་ཧི་ཁཱ་ཧི་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གཏོར་མ་སྦྱིན་པའི་སྔགས་སོ། ། ཀླུ་རིགས་བཞིའི་མནན་པ་ནམ་གྲུའི་རིགས་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཛཱ་བ་རི་པས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

On the day of the twenty-fourth, at midday, one should hide [the object] very securely beneath the threshold of the practice hall. By the power of the great wrathful Vajrapāṇi, who is utterly enraged, he shall circle Mount Meru with his head and suppress those nāga lineages beneath it. Do not transgress the strict samaya; there shall be no time of escape from this. Do not turn back from this transgression! Once this body has rotted and decayed, the heart shall be crushed and split open. Having brought about the formations of life, one will go to the Avīci hell. When the bodhicitta and the mind of loving-kindness have arisen, then [the suppression] should be released. One should recite the mantra of the rosary one hundred and eight times with great wrath. With the fierce roar of power and strength, one should also suppress them with ritual postures. If one who is of good character, possessed of insight, respectful to the guru, and generous, should give this to others out of delusion, they will remain for a long time in the Great Heat hell. OṂ NĪLĀṂVARA VAJRAPĀṆI SAMAYA NĀGA KULACARI IMĀṂ BALIṂ KHĀHI KHĀHI SVĀHĀ. This is the mantra for offering the torma. This concludes the suppression of the four nāga lineages, composed by the master Jāvaripa from the Revatī lineage.

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

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

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ → Vajrapāṇi

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termསྔགས → mantra

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termབླ་མ → guru

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

Terminology used in this text (10)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཀླུ	nāga	2	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ	Vajrapāṇi	2
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	2	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
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
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
བླ་མ	guru	1

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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