The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is a short work that teaches an Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda dhāraṇī and gives a short instruction for using it to cure illness.
This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation team. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is a short dhāraṇī text that includes the dhāraṇī formula for the Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara and a brief instruction for a ritual that employs the dhāraṇī to cure illness. Its contents closely parallel a section from the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703),1 where the dhāraṇī and ritual content of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda—along with several other dhāraṇīs, mantras, and rituals—is incorporated into a narrative framework that describes how Siṃhanāda acquired his curative powers. The concise Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda, in contrast, opens directly with the dhāraṇī proper, followed by instructions for making eight maṇḍalas with cow dung, and how to incant and smear the dung on a sick person to cure their illness. In the end, Avalokiteśvara states that if a curative result were not achieved through the practice, it would be as if he, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, had performed the five deeds of immediate retribution. This set of acts includes patricide, matricide, killing an arhat, causing a rift in the saṅgha, and drawing the blood of a tathāgata with malicious intent. This forceful statement implies that it is as impossible for the ritual not to take effect as it would be for Avalokiteśvara—the very embodiment of compassion—to perform any of these heinous acts. In the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda from which the content of this shorter text appears to be extracted, this promise is made even more explicit, with Śākyamuni telling Mañjuśrī, “Mañjuśrī, this is the Great Compassionate One’s own promise.”2 This sentence from the longer dhāraṇī text provides the context for the title of one recension of the shorter work: The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (Toh 704/912).3
Siṃhanāda, “Lion’s Roar,” also sometimes called Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda, is a form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. There are nine Siṃhanāda sādhanas and several other Siṃhanāda praises and ritual texts preserved in the Tibetan Kangyur, attesting to his importance in India. Images of Siṃhanāda have been found at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodh Gaya prior to that temple’s nineteenth-century renovation,4 and in Sri Lanka, where it seems Siṃhanāda was especially popular.5 The association of Siṃhanāda with curative properties that we find in the present text appears to be quite an old one, as a tenth-century Nepalese miniature painting kept at Cambridge depicts Siṃhanāda and includes a caption reading, “Lokeśvara of the hospital on the island of Siṃhala.”6 While Avalokiteśvara in general has a close iconographical association with the deity Śiva, this is even more clear in the case of Siṃhanāda. In the Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), Siṃhanāda—just like Śiva—holds a brahmin’s skull and a snake-wrapped trident, and wears a sacred thread made of a snake.
Although it is not described in this text, Siṃhanāda’s iconography is generally consistent across textual and artistic sources. In the descriptions found in his many sādhanas and praises, Siṃhanāda is white in color, has two legs and two arms, is dressed as an ascetic (tapasvin, dka’ thub ldan pa), and sits on a lion. In most descriptions, a skull-adorned trident rests at his right side, but in some, he holds it in his right hand. This trident is also frequently depicted with a white snake coiled around the shaft. With his left hand, he holds the end of a lotus stalk that rises upwards, with a sword standing on the open lotus blossom. Nearby and to the left, sits what is variously described as a cup (karoṭaka), pot (bhājana, snod), or skull cup (kapāla, thod pa) filled with fragrant flowers. This vessel often sits on a lotus or water lily.7
The Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara continues to be practiced in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Two arrangements of practices centered on Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda are found in the Compendium of Sādhanas (sgrub thabs kun btus) compiled by Jamyang Loter Wangpo,8 and the nineteenth-century scholar Mipham Gyatso wrote a short summary of the story of The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda.9
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is extant in Sanskrit, as text number twenty-one in the Sādhanamālā,10 and as part of the dhāraṇī collection published by Gergely Hidas.11 It does not appear to be extant in Chinese translation. Despite the fact that The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is preserved in the Tengyur, there is no attribution of authorship or other information to contextualize the transmission of the text in India. A different translation of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is also found in the Kangyur, where it is included in both the Tantra section (Toh 704) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 912) of the Degé collection.12 The Kangyur and Tengyur recensions of the work have several minor variants that suggest that, in addition to being translated by different translators, they were also based on different Sanskrit recensions of the text. Although the differences are minor, the Tengyur recension stands closer to the extant Sanskrit text as preserved in the Sādhanamālā than the Kangyur recension.
The Tengyur version of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda translated here was produced in the eleventh or twelfth century by Patshab Lotsawa Tsultrim Gyaltsen, and is part of the collection called “The ‘Hundred’ Sādhanas translated by Patshab” (pa tshab kyi bsgyur ba’i sgrub thabs rgya rtsa) in the Tantra section of the Tengyur. It is one of only two dhāraṇīs in that collection of one hundred and sixty-three texts, the majority of which are indeed sādhanas. The version transmitted in the Kangyur was translated into Tibetan by the Indian master Vāgīśvara and the Tibetan translator Lokya Sherab Tsek, who were active in the eleventh century.
This English translation of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda was made on the basis of the Degé Tengyur recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) of the Tengyur, both recensions of the text from the Degé Kangyur (Toh 704 and 912), the single Stok Palace Kangyur recension, the parallel passage in the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), as well as the Sanskrit versions of the Siṃhanādadhāraṇī from the Sādhanamālā, and Hidas 2021. The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is generally stable across all recensions consulted, including the Sanskrit, with only minor variants. We edited the dhāraṇī itself very slightly on the basis of the Sanskrit text from the Sādhanamālā and have noted those emendations.
[F.178.a]namo ratnatrayāya | nama āryāvalokiteśvarāya bodhisattvāya mahāsattvāya mahākāruṇikāya | tadyathā | oṁ akaṭe vikaṭe nikaṭe kaṭaṃkaṭe karoṭe karoṭavīrye13 svāhā ||
In the early morning, in front of the blessed, noble Lokeśvara, make eight maṇḍalas out of cow dung that has not fallen to the ground. Recite this thirteen14 times at each maṇḍala, then incant the resulting15 dung with the mantra seven times. Smear it on the sick person and all of their illnesses will be cured.
If this is not successful after seven, thirteen, or twenty-one days, even if performed by someone who has carried out the five deeds of immediate retribution, then I16 myself will have carried out the five deeds of immediate retribution, and I will have deceived the blessed buddhas.
This completes “The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda.”
This was translated by the monk Tsultrim Gyaltsen.
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is a short work that teaches an Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda dhāraṇī and gives a short instruction for using it to cure illness.
This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation team. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is a short dhāraṇī text that includes the dhāraṇī formula for the Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara and a brief instruction for a ritual that employs the dhāraṇī to cure illness. Its contents closely parallel a section from the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703),1 where the dhāraṇī and ritual content of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda—along with several other dhāraṇīs, mantras, and rituals—is incorporated into a narrative framework that describes how Siṃhanāda acquired his curative powers. The concise Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda, in contrast, opens directly with the dhāraṇī proper, followed by instructions for making eight maṇḍalas with cow dung, and how to incant and smear the dung on a sick person to cure their illness. In the end, Avalokiteśvara states that if a curative result were not achieved through the practice, it would be as if he, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, had performed the five deeds of immediate retribution. This set of acts includes patricide, matricide, killing an arhat, causing a rift in the saṅgha, and drawing the blood of a tathāgata with malicious intent. This forceful statement implies that it is as impossible for the ritual not to take effect as it would be for Avalokiteśvara—the very embodiment of compassion—to perform any of these heinous acts. In the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda from which the content of this shorter text appears to be extracted, this promise is made even more explicit, with Śākyamuni telling Mañjuśrī, “Mañjuśrī, this is the Great Compassionate One’s own promise.”2 This sentence from the longer dhāraṇī text provides the context for the title of one recension of the shorter work: The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (Toh 704/912).3
Siṃhanāda, “Lion’s Roar,” also sometimes called Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda, is a form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. There are nine Siṃhanāda sādhanas and several other Siṃhanāda praises and ritual texts preserved in the Tibetan Kangyur, attesting to his importance in India. Images of Siṃhanāda have been found at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodh Gaya prior to that temple’s nineteenth-century renovation,4 and in Sri Lanka, where it seems Siṃhanāda was especially popular.5 The association of Siṃhanāda with curative properties that we find in the present text appears to be quite an old one, as a tenth-century Nepalese miniature painting kept at Cambridge depicts Siṃhanāda and includes a caption reading, “Lokeśvara of the hospital on the island of Siṃhala.”6 While Avalokiteśvara in general has a close iconographical association with the deity Śiva, this is even more clear in the case of Siṃhanāda. In the Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), Siṃhanāda—just like Śiva—holds a brahmin’s skull and a snake-wrapped trident, and wears a sacred thread made of a snake.
Although it is not described in this text, Siṃhanāda’s iconography is generally consistent across textual and artistic sources. In the descriptions found in his many sādhanas and praises, Siṃhanāda is white in color, has two legs and two arms, is dressed as an ascetic (tapasvin, dka’ thub ldan pa), and sits on a lion. In most descriptions, a skull-adorned trident rests at his right side, but in some, he holds it in his right hand. This trident is also frequently depicted with a white snake coiled around the shaft. With his left hand, he holds the end of a lotus stalk that rises upwards, with a sword standing on the open lotus blossom. Nearby and to the left, sits what is variously described as a cup (karoṭaka), pot (bhājana, snod), or skull cup (kapāla, thod pa) filled with fragrant flowers. This vessel often sits on a lotus or water lily.7
The Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara continues to be practiced in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Two arrangements of practices centered on Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda are found in the Compendium of Sādhanas (sgrub thabs kun btus) compiled by Jamyang Loter Wangpo,8 and the nineteenth-century scholar Mipham Gyatso wrote a short summary of the story of The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda.9
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is extant in Sanskrit, as text number twenty-one in the Sādhanamālā,10 and as part of the dhāraṇī collection published by Gergely Hidas.11 It does not appear to be extant in Chinese translation. Despite the fact that The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is preserved in the Tengyur, there is no attribution of authorship or other information to contextualize the transmission of the text in India. A different translation of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is also found in the Kangyur, where it is included in both the Tantra section (Toh 704) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 912) of the Degé collection.12 The Kangyur and Tengyur recensions of the work have several minor variants that suggest that, in addition to being translated by different translators, they were also based on different Sanskrit recensions of the text. Although the differences are minor, the Tengyur recension stands closer to the extant Sanskrit text as preserved in the Sādhanamālā than the Kangyur recension.
The Tengyur version of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda translated here was produced in the eleventh or twelfth century by Patshab Lotsawa Tsultrim Gyaltsen, and is part of the collection called “The ‘Hundred’ Sādhanas translated by Patshab” (pa tshab kyi bsgyur ba’i sgrub thabs rgya rtsa) in the Tantra section of the Tengyur. It is one of only two dhāraṇīs in that collection of one hundred and sixty-three texts, the majority of which are indeed sādhanas. The version transmitted in the Kangyur was translated into Tibetan by the Indian master Vāgīśvara and the Tibetan translator Lokya Sherab Tsek, who were active in the eleventh century.
This English translation of The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda was made on the basis of the Degé Tengyur recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) of the Tengyur, both recensions of the text from the Degé Kangyur (Toh 704 and 912), the single Stok Palace Kangyur recension, the parallel passage in the longer Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), as well as the Sanskrit versions of the Siṃhanādadhāraṇī from the Sādhanamālā, and Hidas 2021. The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is generally stable across all recensions consulted, including the Sanskrit, with only minor variants. We edited the dhāraṇī itself very slightly on the basis of the Sanskrit text from the Sādhanamālā and have noted those emendations.
[F.178.a]namo ratnatrayāya | nama āryāvalokiteśvarāya bodhisattvāya mahāsattvāya mahākāruṇikāya | tadyathā | oṁ akaṭe vikaṭe nikaṭe kaṭaṃkaṭe karoṭe karoṭavīrye13 svāhā ||
In the early morning, in front of the blessed, noble Lokeśvara, make eight maṇḍalas out of cow dung that has not fallen to the ground. Recite this thirteen14 times at each maṇḍala, then incant the resulting15 dung with the mantra seven times. Smear it on the sick person and all of their illnesses will be cured.
If this is not successful after seven, thirteen, or twenty-one days, even if performed by someone who has carried out the five deeds of immediate retribution, then I16 myself will have carried out the five deeds of immediate retribution, and I will have deceived the blessed buddhas.
This completes “The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda.”
This was translated by the monk Tsultrim Gyaltsen.
The iconographic details of Siṃhanāda are described with some variation and differing degrees of detail in Toh 2858, 2859, 3155, 3157, 3329, 3414, 3417, 3418, 3419, and 3650. Descriptions in Sanskrit can be found in sādhana nos. 17, 20, 22, and 25 in volume one of the Sādhanamālā. For a survey of Indo-Tibetan artistic depictions of Siṃhanāda, see the deity’s main page at Himalayan Art Resources: https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=472&page=1.
The two versions of this text preserved in the Kangyur are identical in content but have different titles. Toh 704 is titled The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda (seng ge sgra’i gzungs), while Toh 912 is titled The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (seng ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs).
Here we follow the Kangxi and Narthang versions by adding karoṭa (ka ro Ta), which is absent in the Degé but attested in the Sanskrit text from the Sādhanamālā and in Hidas 2021.
Here we follow the Kangxi and Narthang Kangyurs, which read bcu gsum, “thirteen,” rather than the Degé, which reads gsum, “three,” as this is in accordance with the reading in the parallel text Toh 704/912, as well as in Toh 703, which seems to be the source text from which this work was extracted.
lhag ma. The parallel passage from The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703) includes an instruction to gather the incanted dung on which the maṇḍalas were previously inscribed and then to incant the “resulting dung” (Toh 703, 1.20). This also seems to be indicated in the version of the dhāraṇī published by Hidas (2021, p. 138); there this cow dung is described as pratimaṇḍalalekhitaśeṣagomaya, which could be interpreted to mean “the cow dung that remains after inscribing the individual maṇḍalas.” The implication of the Tibetan and Sanskrit seems to be that this “remaining” dung is the same dung that was first inscribed with maṇḍalas and incanted before being collected together, incanted a second time, and applied to the patient. This would make logical sense insofar as this process would infuse the dung with healing potency. This interpretation is nonetheless tentative.
In the section of the Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), which closely parallels this text, it is made clear that this is Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda’s promise. However, in that text, it is Śākyamuni who articulates Siṃhanāda’s promise to Mañjuśrī.
Five acts said to lead to immediate and unavoidable birth in the hell realms: killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, sowing discord within the saṅgha, and drawing the blood of a tathāgata with ill intent.
1847-1914. A master of the Sakya tradition.
An eleventh-century Tibetan master and translator who is specifically known for his Cakrasaṃvara lineage, which he received from teachers in the Kathmandu Valley.
Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra in his left. To his name, Mañjuśrī, meaning “Gentle and Glorious One,” is often added the epithet Kumārabhūta, “having a youthful form.” He is also called Mañjughoṣa, Mañjusvara, and Pañcaśikha.
A Tibetan translator who lived in the eleventh to twelfth century. He translated the collection of sādhanas referred to as “The ‘Hundred’ Sādhanas translated by Patshab” (pa tshab kyis bsgyur ba’i sgrub thabs rgya rtsa), a collection of one hundred and sixty-three sādhanas. He mostly translated these in the presence of the paṇḍita Abhayākaragupta, who was a Bengali scholar and the abbot of Vikramaśīla. Patshab’s collection is included in the Tantra section of the Degé Tengyur.
Literally, “The Lion’s Roar.” The name of a form of Avalokiteśvara.
An Indian master active in the eleventh century. This may be a shortened name of Vāgīśvarakīrti, a renowned master of the Cakrasaṃvara who was a gate keeper at Vikramaśīla before spending the latter part of his life in the Kathmandu Valley.
seng ge sgra’i gzungs (Siṃhanādadhāraṇī). Toh 3156, Degé Tengyur vol. 75 (rgyud ’grel, phu), folio 178.a.
seng ge sgra’i gzungs (Siṃhanādadhāraṇī). Toh 704, Degé Kangyur vol. 93 (rgyud, rtsa), folios 171.a–171.b.
seng ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs. Toh 912, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, e), folios 242.a–242.b.
seng ge sgra’i gzungs. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 93, pp. 501–02.
Seng ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 97, pp. 723–24.
seng ge sgra’i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 107 (rgyud, ma), folios 45.b–46.a.
Siṃhanādadhāraṇī. In Sādhanamālā, vol. 1, edited by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, 52. Baroda: Central Library, 1925.
Mipham Gyatso (mi pham rgya mtsho). seng ge sgra’i gzungs kyi lo rgyus. In Mipham Gyatso’s Collected Works (gsung ’bum/ mi pham rgya mtsho), Chengdu: gangs can rig gzhung dpe rnying myur skyobs lhan tshogs, 2007, vol. 25 (ra), folios 51.a–51.b.
84000. The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Āvalokiteśvarasiṃhanādadhāraṇī, spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug seng ge sgra’i gzungs, Toh 703). Translated by Catherine Dalton. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda (seng ge sgra’i gzungs, Toh 704). Translated by Catherine Dalton. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (seng ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs, Toh 912). Translated by Catherine Dalton. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Holt, John C. Buddha in the Crown: Avalokiteśvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Losty, J. P. “The Mahābodhi Temple Before its Restoration.” In Precious Treasures from the Diamond Throne: Finds from the Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, edited by Sam van Schaik, Daniela De Simone, Gergeley Hidas, and Michael Willis, 8–28. London: The British Museum, 2021.
