The Practice Manual of Noble Tārā Kurukullā
Glossary
Toh 437
Degé Kangyur, vol. 81 (rgyud ’bum, ca), folios 29.b–42.b
- Kṛṣnapaṇḍita
- tshul khrims rgyal ba
Imprint
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2011
Current version v 2.42.18 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Practice Manual of Noble Tārā Kurukullā is the most comprehensive single work on the female Buddhist deity Kurukullā. It is also the only canonical scripture to focus on this deity. The text’s importance is therefore commensurate with the importance of the goddess herself, who is the chief Buddhist deity of magnetizing, in particular the magnetizing which takes the form of enthrallment.
The text is a treasury of ritual practices connected with enthrallment and similar magical acts—practices which range from formal sādhana to traditional homa ritual, and to magical methods involving herbs, minerals, etc. The text’s varied contents are presented as a multi-layered blend of the apotropaic and the soteriological, as well as the practical and the philosophical, where these complementary opposites combine together into a genuinely spiritual Buddhist work.
Acknowledgments
Translation by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee.
Translated by Thomas Doctor from the Tibetan of the Degé Kangyur, with continuous reference to an English translation and critical edition of the extant Sanskrit manuscripts by Wieslaw Mical. English text edited by Gillian Parrish.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Text Body
Colophon
The translation was prepared, edited, and established by the Indian preceptor, Kṛṣnapaṇḍita, and the lotsāwa monk, Tsültrim Gyalwa.
Bibliography
The bibliography contains the publications that we have referred to as well as background reading on Kurukullā and Tārā in India and Tibet. Information on the Sanskrit manuscripts consulted is given at the beginning of the critical edition.
’phags ma sgrol ma ku ru kulle’i rtog pa (Āryatārākurukullākalpa). Toh. 437, Degé Kangyur, vol. 81 (rgyud ’bum, ca), folios 29.b–42.b.
’phags ma sgrol ma ku ru kulle’i rtog pa. Toh. 437, 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. 81, pp. 127–69.
’phags ma sgrol ma ku ru kulle’i rtog pa. Stok 403. Stok Palace Kangyur (stog pho brang bris ma). Leh: smanrtsis shesrig dpemzod, 1975–80, vol. 95 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 316.b–435.a.
Bandurski, Frank (1994). Übersicht über die Göttinger Sammlung der von Rahula Sankrtyayana in Tibet aufgefundenen buddhistischen Sanskrit-Texte (Funde buddhistischer Sanskrit-Handschriften, III). (Sanskrit-Wörterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden: Beiheft ; 5). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994.
Bendall, Cecil. Catalogue of the Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge, p. 178, 1992.
Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. The Indian Buddhist Iconography: mainly based on the Sādhanamālā and cognate Tāntric texts of rituals. 2nd edition. Calcutta: K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1958.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed. The Sādhanamālā. 2nd edition. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1968.
Matsunami, Seiren (1965). A Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Tokyo University Library. Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1965.
Mehta, R. N. “Kurukullā, Tārā and Vajreśī in Śrīpura.” In Tantric Buddhism: Centennial Tribute to Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, edited by N.N. Bhattacharyya. Reprint. New Delhi: Manohar, 2005.
Pandey, Janardan Shastri, ed. Kurukullākalpaḥ. Rare Buddhist Texts Series, 24. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001.
Shaw, Miranda Eberle. Buddhist Goddesses of India, ch. 22. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Snellgrove, David. The Hevajra Tantra: a critical study. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Willson, Martin. In Praise of Tārā: Songs to the Saviouress: source texts from India and Tibet on Buddhism’s great goddess, selected, translated, and introduced by Martin Willson. Boston, MA.: Wisdom Publications, 1996.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
Ākhaṇḍala
- mi phyed pa
- མི་ཕྱེད་པ།
- ākhaṇḍala
Amitābha
- ’od dpag med
- འོད་དཔག་མེད།
- amitābha
amorous sentiment
- sgeg byed
- སྒེག་བྱེད།
- śṛṅgāra
Āṣāḍha
- dbyar zla ’bring po
- དབྱར་ཟླ་འབྲིང་པོ།
- āṣāḍha
Avalokiteśvara
- spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug
- སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག
- avalokiteśvara
bhagavatī
- bcom ldan ’das ma
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ།
- bhagavatī
blessed lady
- bcom ldan ’das ma
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ།
- bhagavatī
blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
Caitra
- dpyid bzla dang po
- དཔྱིད་བཟླ་དང་པོ།
- caitra
empowerment
- dbang
- དབང་།
- abhiṣeka
enthrall
- dbang byed
- དབང་བྱེད།
- vaśīkṛ
ghost
- yi dags
- ཡི་དགས།
- preta
guardian of the nether world
- sa ’og skyon
- ས་འོག་སྐྱོན།
- pātālapāla
Hārītī
- ’phrog ma
- འཕྲོག་མ།
- hārītī
Indra
- dbang po
- དབང་པོ།
- indra
Jaya
- rgyal ba byed pa
- རྒྱལ་བ་བྱེད་པ།
- jaya
Kārttika
- ston zla tha chung
- སྟོན་ཟླ་ཐ་ཆུང་།
- kārttika
Khavajra
- nam mkha’i rdo rje
- ནམ་མཁའི་རྡོ་རྗེ།
- khavajra
knowledge
- rig pa
- རིག་པ།
- vidyā
Kurukullā
- ku ru kul le
- ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལ་ལེ།
- kurukullā
Lakṣmī
- phun tshogs mnga’ ba
- ཕུན་ཚོགས་མངའ་བ།
- lakṣmī
Mahākāla
- nag po chen po
- ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahākāla
Maitreya
- byams pa
- བྱམས་པ།
- maitreya
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
Nārāyaṇa
- sred med bu
- སྲེད་མེད་བུ།
- nārāyaṇa
oblation
- sbyin sreg
- སྦྱིན་སྲེག
- homa
one to be won
- bsgrub bya
- བསྒྲུབ་བྱ།
- sādhya
Padmapāṇi
- pad+ma bsnams
- པདྨ་བསྣམས།
- padmapāṇi
Pārvatī
- ri khrod ma
- རི་ཁྲོད་མ།
- pārvatī
perfections
- pha rol tu phyin pa
- ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།
- pāramitā
Potala
- gru ’dzin ri
- གྲུ་འཛིན་རི།
- potala
practice manual
- rtog pa
- རྟོག་པ།
- kalpa
practitioner
- sgrub pa po
- སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ།
- sādhaka
Rāhulabhadra
- sgra can ’dzin bzang po
- སྒྲ་ཅན་འཛིན་བཟང་པོ།
- rāhulabhadra
Rājagṛha
- rgyal po’i khab
- རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ།
- rājagṛha
Realm of Bliss
- bde ba can
- བདེ་བ་ཅན།
- sukhāvatī
restoration of vows ceremony
- gso sbyong
- གསོ་སྦྱོང་།
- poṣadha
Rohiṇīkumāra
- gzhon nu snar ma
- གཞོན་ནུ་སྣར་མ།
- rohiṇīkumāra
rouse
- bkul ba
- བཀུལ་བ།
- √cud; sam + √cud
Rudra
- drag po
- དྲག་པོ།
- rudra
Śacī
- bde
- བདེ།
- śacī
Sāgaramati
- blo gros rgya mtsho
- བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
- sāgaramati
samaya vows
- dam tshig
- དམ་ཚིག
- samaya
Sarvanivaraṇaviṣkambhin
- sgrib pa rnam sel
- སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་སེལ།
- sarvanivaraṇaviṣkambhin
spell
- rig pa
- རིག་པ།
- vidyā
Śrī
- dpa’ mo
- དཔའ་མོ།
- śrī
summon
- bkug pa
- བཀུག་པ།
- ā + √nī
Sunanda
- shin tu dga’ ba
- ཤིན་ཏུ་དགའ་བ།
- sunanda
Tārā
- sgrol ma
- སྒྲོལ་མ།
- tārā
The Arising of Tārā
- sgrol ma ’byung ba
- སྒྲོལ་མ་འབྱུང་བ།
- tārodbhava
The Enchantress
- dbang du byed ma
- དབང་དུ་བྱེད་མ།
- vaśakāriṇī
The Meditative Absorption of Tārā
- sgrol ma ’byung ba’i ting nge ’dzin
- སྒྲོལ་མ་འབྱུང་བའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
- tārāsamādhi
Tsültrim Gyalwa
- tshul khrims rgyal ba
- ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ།
- —
Upendra
- sa ’dzin lha
- ས་འཛིན་ལྷ།
- dharaṇīṃdhara
- dharaṇīdhara
Vācaspati
- tshogs bdag
- ཚོགས་བདག
- vācaspati
Vaiśakha
- dpyid zla ’bring po
- དཔྱིད་ཟླ་འབྲིང་པོ།
- —
Vajradharma
- rdo rje chos
- རྡོ་རྗེ་ཆོས།
- vajradharma
Vajrapāṇi
- lag na rdo rje
- ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
- vajrapāṇi
Vajrasattva
- rdo rje sems dpa’
- རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- vajrasattva
Veṇuvana grove
- ’od ma’i tshal
- འོད་མའི་ཚལ།
- veṇuvana
white Amalagīśvariṇī
- dri med dbyangs kyi dbang phyugs dkar mo
- དྲི་མེད་དབྱངས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུགས་དཀར་མོ།
- amalagīśvariṇī
Yaśodharā
- sgrags ’dzin ma
- སྒྲགས་འཛིན་མ།
- yaśodharā