The Dhāraṇī of Glorious Mahākāla
Toh 668
Degé Kangyur, vol. 91 (rgyud ’bum, ba), folios 201.b–202.a
Imprint
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
Current version v 1.0.4 (2023)
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Glorious Mahākāla opens at the Vajra Seat under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgayā shortly after the Buddha Śākyamuni has defeated Māra and his demonic horde and attained awakening. As Śākyamuni sits under the Bodhi tree, Mahākāla approaches him, prostrates at his feet, sits to one side, and offers to give him a vidyā, or “spell,” as a gift. Mahākāla then pronounces his vidyā and tells Śākyamuni that it can be used to prevent diseases and ward off potentially harmful spirit beings. The text then concludes with Mahākāla’s promise to Śākyamuni to act as a guardian of temples and maṇḍalas and to protect the Three Jewels.
Acknowledgements
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. The translation was produced by Adam Krug and then checked against the Tibetan and edited by Andreas Doctor.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
The Dhāraṇī of Glorious Mahākāla opens at the Vajra Seat under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgayā shortly after the Buddha Śākyamuni has defeated Māra and his demonic horde and attained awakening. As Śākyamuni sits under the Bodhi tree, Mahākāla approaches him, prostrates at his feet, sits to one side, and offers to give him a vidyā, or “spell,” as a gift. Mahākāla then pronounces his vidyā and tells Śākyamuni that it can be used to prevent diseases and ward off potentially harmful spirit beings. The text then concludes with Mahākāla’s promise to Śākyamuni to act as a guardian of temples and maṇḍalas and to protect the Three Jewels.
A Sanskrit version of this text has yet to come to light, and it does not appear as an independent work in the Chinese canon. It also does not appear in the Denkarma or Phangthangma royal Tibetan catalogs of translated works. The text lacks a translators’ colophon, so the historical circumstances surrounding its transmission into Tibet remain unclear.
Text Body
Dhāraṇī of Glorious Mahākāla
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was seated upon the Vajra Seat at the base of the Bodhi tree shortly after subduing Māra and becoming a perfect buddha. The great general of the gods, the lord of the gaṇas, Mahākāla, glorious lord Mahākāla who has dominion over the lords of the desire realm, approached the Blessed One, prostrated at the Blessed One’s feet, sat to one side, and addressed him, saying, “Honorable Blessed One, please accept my vidyā as a gift:
oṃ śrīmahākāla gaṇaguti2 svāhā
namaḥ śrīmahākāla gaṇe gutiśāya
namo yoginaṇīna
tadyathā | oṃ hile hile kite kiteni cite citeni svāhā |
“Chanting this vidyā will bind all beings who cause illness and diseases, all grahas, all beings who cause plague, all bhūtas, evil magic, and the evil eye upward through the Heaven of Controlling the Emanations of Others. [F.202.a] It will bind them downward through the hell realms. It will bind them outward to the surrounding mountains.3
“Moreover, I promise and vow to be a guardian of temples and maṇḍalas, to be a physician who treats the illness of the three poisons, to be the vital support4 of all vidyā holders, to be the warrior spirit of all yogins, and to be the sovereign lord of those who subdue Māra, as well as to completely destroy the rākṣasa city of Laṅkāpūrī, to reduce to dust the yakṣa daughters and rākṣasīs who flash like lightning, and to protect the teaching of the Three Jewels.”
This concludes “The Noble Dhāraṇī of Glorious Mahākāla.”
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1085 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1085, n.1, for details.
Bibliography
Tibetan sources
dpal mgon po nag po zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Śrīmahākālanāmadhāraṇī). Toh 668, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud ’bum, ba), folios 201.b–202.a.
dpal mgon po nag po zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Śrīmahākālanāmadhāraṇī). Toh 1085, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waM), folios 252.a–252.b.
dpal mgon po nag po zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Śrīmahākālanāmadhāraṇī). 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. 91, pp. 734–38.
dpal mgon po nag po zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Śrīmahākālanāmadhāraṇī). 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. 98, pp. 876–78.
dpal mgon po nag po zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Śrīmahākālanāmadhāraṇī). Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 105 (rgyud, pha), folios 178.a–178.b.
Reference Works
Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2004.
Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon, accessed June 11, 2019. http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/index.html.
Monier-Williams, Sir Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2005.
Negi, J. S. Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary (bod skad legs sbyar gyi tshig mdzod chen mo). Sarnath: Dictionary Unit, Central Institute of higher Tibetan Studies, 1993.
Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies, Universität Wien, accessed June 11, 2019. http://www.rkts.org/.
The Buddhist Canons Research Database. American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, accessed June 11, 2019. http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu.
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.
beings who cause plague
- mi ngas
- མི་ངས།
- —
Heaven of Controlling the Emanations of Others
- gzhan ’phrul dbang byed
- གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེད།
- paranirmitavaśavartin AO
Laṅkāpūrī
- lang ka pu ri
- ལང་ཀ་པུ་རི།
- laṅkāpūrī
Mahākāla
- nag po chen po
- mgon po nag po
- ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- མགོན་པོ་ནག་པོ།
- mahākāla
rākṣasīs who flash like lightning
- nam mkha’i glog ma srin
- ནམ་མཁའི་གློག་མ་སྲིན།
- —
warrior spirit
- dgra bla
- དགྲ་བླ།
- —
yakṣa daughter
- gnod sbyin gyi bu mo
- གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་བུ་མོ།
- —