Toh 2585 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Ritual for Drawing the Lines of a Maṇḍala according to the “Endowed with Secrecy” Tradition Sādhana

Machine translation from the Tibetan by MITRA-QWEN · no human review

2 passages · 1,654 Tibetan characters · 445 English words · 2026 machine draft Read ↓

This ritual manual provides technical instructions for the geometric construction of a maṇḍala according to the Endowed with Secrecy tradition. The text functions as a precise guide for the practitioner, beginning with a formal homage to Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva and the preparation of the ritual ground. It directs the user to establish the foundational Brahma, corner, and side lines using a ritual cord, adhering to established traditional standards. The text then shifts to specific proportional measurements, utilizing a unit called the small unit (cha-phran) to determine the dimensions of the eight spokes, the inner rim, and the hub. By committing the reader to these exact spatial ratios, the text ensures the creation of a sixteen-spoked wheel within a defined five-unit area. The work prioritizes mathematical accuracy and adherence to pith instructions over theological exposition, treating the physical act of drawing as a disciplined ritual process.

About this text · details, context, rights

Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 065
Extent: 2 passages · 1,654 Tibetan characters · 445 English words
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the geometric construction of a maṇḍala, the sgrub thabs gsang ba dang ldan pa'i thig gi cho ga belongs to the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Smṛtijñānakīrti. Preserved in the classical Tibetan Tengyur (vol. ངུ), the text spans two pages. It enacts the precise spatial layout of a ritual ground, beginning with an homage to Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva and the laying of Brahma, corner, and side lines via a ritual cord. The instructions detail the demarcation of outer and inner sections, specifically the creation of a sixteen-spoked wheel. By utilizing the small unit (cha-phran) to determine the proportions of the hub, rim, and spokes according to pith instructions, the work ensures mathematical accuracy in the physical manifestation of the maṇḍala. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to understand the technical requirements of ritual geometry and the specific proportional ratios required to distinguish the inner and outer sections of the sacred space.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Smṛtijñānakīrti
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Yoga Tantra Treatises
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ངུ
Period: classical Tibetan

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84000 catalogue entry

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Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant for its preservation of the specific proportional systems used in Tibetan ritual art, illustrating the intersection of geometry and sacred space. For the modern reader, it provides primary evidence of how pith instructions were codified into technical manuals to maintain consistency across the Endowed with Secrecy tradition.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	The Sequence for Laying the Lines	Instructions for the initial layout of the maṇḍala ground and the subsequent proportional drawing of the wheel's spokes, rim, and hub.

Themes

Ritual Geometry (1-2)
Proportional Measurement (2)

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

AnuvādaA Ritual for Drawing the Lines of a Maṇḍala according to the “Endowed with Secrecy” Tradition Sādhana·

༄༅༅། ། ཐིག་གདབ་པའི་རིམ་པ། འཇམ་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་པའི་ཐིག་སྐུད་ཀྱིས། ། ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་ས་གཞི་ལ། ། ཚངས་ཐིག་ཟུར་ཐིག་ལོགས་ཐིག་རྣམས། ། གཞན་དང་མཐུན་པར་གདབ་བྱས་ནས། ། ཕྱི་དང་ནང་དུ་དབྱེ་བར་བྱ། ། ཕྱི་ལ་དྲུག་དྲུག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཏེ། ། ནང་དུ་བརྒྱད་བརྒྱད་བཅུ་དྲུག་གདབ། ། ཆ་ཆེན་ཉི་ཤུ་བརྒྱད་དུ་འགྱུར། ། སོ་སོའི་ཆ་ནི་དབྱེ་བར་བྱ། ། ནང་གི་བརྒྱད་པོ་གཉིས་པོ་ཡང་། ། རེ་རེའང་བཞི་བཞིར་བགོ་བྱ་ཞིང་། ། ཕྱི་རོལ་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཐིག་ལ་ནི། ། དང་པོ་ཁྱམས་སུ་གཞག་པར་བྱ། ། གཉིས་པ་གསུམ་པ་བཞི་པ་དང་། ། ལྔ་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་བཞི་བཞིར་བགོ། དྲུག་པ་ལ་ནི་གཉིས་སུ་བྱ། ། དྲུག་པོ་གཞན་ཡང་དེ་བཞིན་བགོ། འདི་ལ། ། ཕྲེང་བ་རེ་ཡང་རེའུ་མིག་ནི། ། བརྒྱ་དང་ཆ་ཆུང་གཉིས་སུ་འགྱུར། ། ཚངས་པའི་ཐིག་གི་ངོས་གཉིས་ལས། ། གསུམ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་ལྔ་པ་དང་། ། བཅུ་བདུན་པ་དང་ཉི་ཤུ་པ། ། དེ་བཞིན་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པ། ། ཆ་ལྔར་ནང་དུ་བགོ་བར་བྱ། ། ཕྱི་ཡི་གསུམ་པ་ལྔ་པ་རྣམས། ། དེ་བཞིན་དུ་ནི་བགོ་བར་བྱ། ། གཉིས་པ་ལྔ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་རྣམས། ། ཆ་ཆུང་ལྔ་ལྔར་གདབ་པར་བྱ། ། ཕྱི་སྒོ་སུམ་ཆས་ཆེ་བར་དབྱི། ། སྒོ་ནི་འཁོར་ལོའི་བརྒྱད་ཆ་རུ། ། ཡ་ཕུགས་བཅས་པ་དབུས་སུ་དབྱི། ། རྟ་བབས་ཡ་ཕུབས་དག་ལ་ནི། ། ཆ་གཅིག་དོར་བའི་ཆ་ཆེན་ཚད། ། སྒོ་ཡི་མཚམས་དང་ཏྭ་ར་ཎ། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་གཅིག་ཉིད་མི་བྱའོ། ། དེ་སྟེང་འཁོར་ལོ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱ། ། ཚངས་ནས་ཆ་ཆུང་བརྒྱད་ལ་ནི། ། འཁོར་ལོ་རྩིབས་བརྒྱད་ཐིག་ཏུ་གདབ། ། ལྟེ་བ་ཆ་གསུམ་མུ་ཁྱུད་གཅིག།

The Sequence for Laying the Lines Homage to Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva. With a ritual cord possessing the proper characteristics, upon the completely perfected ground, one should lay the Brahma lines, the corner lines, and the side lines in accordance with other traditions, thereby distinguishing the outer and inner sections. Externally, there are twelve lines, six by six; internally, there are sixteen, eight by eight. Thus, there will be twenty-eight large units (mahā-aṃśa). One should then divide each of these individual parts. Regarding the eight internal sections, each of the two [sets] should also be divided into four. As for the lines of the outer maṇḍala, the first should be set aside for the veranda (prākāra). The second, third, fourth, and fifth should each be divided into four. The sixth should be divided into two; the other six should likewise be divided. In this regard, each row of squares will consist of one hundred and two small units (aṇu-aṃśa). From both sides of the Brahma line, the third, the fifth, the seventeenth, the twentieth, and likewise the twenty-third should be divided into five parts internally. The external third and fifth should likewise be divided. The second, fifth, and eighth should be laid out with five small units each. The outer gate should be delineated as three large units. The gate, including the lintel (yapuṣa), should be divided into eight parts of the wheel. The architrave (toraṇa) and the lintel should be one large unit in measure, excluding one part. The boundary of the gate and the architrave should not be made as a single unit. Above that, the wheel should be completed. From the Brahma line, at eight small units, one should lay the lines for the eight-spoked wheel. The hub is three parts, and the rim is one.

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.

homonymཚངས་པ is rendered “Brahmā” here; the glossary also records brahman, brahmās, Brahma for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

Terms and glossary notes (7)

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made.

terminologyཚངས་པ → “Brahmā”. The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do not carry the deity capital into the vow.

definitionཚངས་པ “Brahmā” — One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra / Śakra ) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma.

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

དེ་ནས་རྩིབས་བརྒྱད་ཆ་ཕྲན་བཞི། ། མན་ངག་ཐིག་ལ་ཚོད་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར། ། དེ་རྒྱབ་ཆ་ཆུང་གཅིག་ལ་ནི། ། ནང་གི་མུ་ཁྱུད་ལེགས་པར་བྱ། ། ཆ་ཆུང་གཅིག་ལ་ལྟེ་བར་བྱ། ། དེ་བརྟེན་ཆ་ཆུང་ལྔ་ལ་ནི། ། རྩིབས་ནི་བཅུ་དྲུག་འཁོར་ལོ་བྱ། ། དེ་རྒྱབ་ཆ་ཆུང་མུ་ཁྱུད་འགྱུར། ། དེ་རྒྱབ་ནང་སྒོ་ཆ་ཆེན་བཞི། ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཁྱམས་དག་ལ། ། རྩིབས་བཅུ་དྲུག་ཏུ་གདབ་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་རྗེས་ཆ་ཆེན་བཞི་པོ་ལ། ། ཕྱི་ཡི་སྒོ་ནི་རྫོགས་པར་གཞག། མཚན་ཉིད་གོང་མ་བཞིན་དུ་དབྱེ། ། ཕྱི་རོལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕྲེང་གསལ་བ། ། ཆ་ཆེན་གྱི་ནི་ཕྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚད། ། འབར་བའི་ཕྲེང་བའང་དེ་ཡི་ཚད། ། སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་གསང་བ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཐིག་གི་ཆོ་ག། པཎྜི་ཏ་སྨྲྀ་ཏི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཀཱིརྟིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། །

Then, the eight spokes are four small units (cha-phran) each, drawn according to the proportions of the pith instruction lines. Beyond that, one small unit is used to properly form the inner rim. One small unit is used for the hub. Based on that, a sixteen-spoked wheel is made over five small units. Beyond that, there is a rim of one small unit. Beyond that, the inner gate consists of four large units (cha-chen). On the veranda outside the maṇḍala, one should strike sixteen spokes. Following that, on the four large units, the outer gate is to be fully established. The characteristics are to be distinguished as before. The outer vajra garland is clear, with a measure of half a large unit; the garland of flames is also of that same measure. This concludes the ritual of the lines for the Secret Sādhana, composed by the Paṇḍita Smṛtijñānakīrti.

Terminology used in this text (4)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཚངས་པ	Brahmā	1	The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do n
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Ritual for Drawing the Lines of a Maṇḍala according to the “Endowed with Secrecy” Tradition Sādhana” (Toh 2585), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2585

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 065. 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