The Siṃhanāda Tantra
Toh 702
Degé Kangyur, vol. 93 (rgyud, rtsa), folios 163.b–164.b
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First published 2024
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Siṃhanāda Tantra is a short tantra that teaches the long mantra and a short practice of the form of Avalokiteśvara called Siṃhanāda, “Lion’s Roar.”
Acknowledgements
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.
Introduction
The Siṃhanāda Tantra opens in Vajrāsana where the Buddha is residing in the form of Padmeśvara. Vajrapāṇi asks him how to train on the path, and Padmeśvara replies that one should recall the practice of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda. The story of Avalokiteśvara’s Siṃhanāda form is recounted in detail in The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda, Toh 703.1 There we learn how, during a past-life adventure with his friend who became the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara came to take this particular form. In this form, he obtained the power to tame the nāgas and his famed curative powers. The Siṃhanāda Tantra features the latter. After speaking Siṃhanāda’s secret mantra and teaching a short practice to accompany it, Padmeśvara concludes his discourse by describing the benefits of respecting and upholding the tantra and the detriments of deprecating it.
In addition to The Siṃhanāda Tantra, there are two short dhāraṇī texts associated with Siṃhanāda in the Kangyur and numerous practice manuals, praises, and ritual texts dedicated to him in the Tengyur, attesting to the importance of this particular form of Avalokiteśvara. Siṃhanāda was especially popular in Sri Lanka.2 An image of Siṃhanāda was found at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodh Gaya prior to the temple’s nineteenth-century renovation.3 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,” referencing his curative abilities.4
Siṃhanāda’s iconography is generally consistent across textual and artistic sources, though not all of the details are clearly elaborated in this text. 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 upward and has 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.5 The iconography described in the present text largely conforms with this depiction, but a lack of clarity in the Tibetan translation and its Sanskrit sources leaves a number of specific points ambiguous.
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,6 and the nineteenth-century scholar Mipham Gyatso wrote a short summary of the story of The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda.7
The Siṃhanāda Tantra does not appear to be extant in Sanskrit or Chinese translation. It was translated into Tibetan by the Indian master Prajñākara and the Tibetan translator Gö Khukpa Lhetse in the eleventh century.
The present English translation of The Siṃhanāda Tantra was made on the basis of the Degé Kangyur recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) of the Kangyur, the Stok Palace (stog pho brang) Kangyur, and the Phukdrak (phug brag) Kangyur recensions of the text. We also consulted the Sanskrit Siṃhanādadhāraṇī from the Sādhanamālā.
Text Body
The Translation
Homage to the blessed Lotus Lord of Speech.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One, transformed into Padmeśvara, was residing at Vajrāsana. The Lord of Guhyakas said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, how does one train in the accumulation of merit and wisdom, and in the path?”
The Blessed One answered, “Amazing! There is someone called Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda, who has supreme love and compassion for beings. One should contemplate how he previously8 trained on the path and gathered the accumulations of merit and wisdom.”
Then the blessed Padmeśvara rose and pronounced this secret mantra:
namo ratna trayāya | nama āryāvalokiteśvarāya bodhisattvāya mahasattvāya mahākāruṇikāya ||
tadyathā | oṁ akaṭe vikaṭe nikaṭe kaṭaṃkaṭe karoṭe karokaṃṭe vīryai svāhā | oṁ āḥ hrīḥ siṃhanāda hūṁ | bruṁ āṁ jrīṁ khaṁ hūṁ | oṁ āḥ hūṃ | oṁ balīn9 bhuñja jiva puśpe dhūpe hūṁ | sarvāmṛte hūṁ | oṁ vatali mahāvatali [F.165.a] hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ jaḥ svāhā | oṁ bhakṣa bhakṣa samaya tiṣṭha jaṃ hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | oṁ taprati10 hūṁ phaṭ | sritikara hūṁ phaṭ | oṁ varuṇa āgacchaya āgacchaya mahānāga gisati sarve bhuraḥ11 phuḥ phuḥ phuḥ svāhā | oṁ bhagavati śrutismṛtisamavati saramati siddhi svāhā | oṁ āḥ hrīḥ hūṃ svāhā | phuḥ hrīḥ | oṁ siṃhanāda hūṁ phaṭ phaṭ | nāgadupali12 māraya phaṭ | jvāla jvāla hūṁ phaṭ | oṁ āḥ13vighnāntakṛt hūṁ | oṁ agnaye ativya abhisamayaviśa mahāśriye havyakavyam ahanīya14 svāhā | oṁ bhavaka agnaye śāntiṃ15 kuru16 svāhā | oṁ hrīḥ siṃhanāda vajracakravartalokika bruṁ bruṁ bruṁ | lokottarāṇi siṃhanāda bruṁ bruṁ bruṁ hūṁ na hūṁ na siṃhanāda bruṁ bruṁ bruṁ hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ svāhā ||
“Lord of Guhyakas, this is called the accomplishment of the maṇḍala. It includes the ritual actions of killing, averting, summoning, binding, and pacifying. In the morning, make a maṇḍala with cow dung that has not fallen to the ground. Please the nāgas by holding the three sweet substances in the palm of your hand. This pacifies the anger of the nāgas.
“Lord of Guhyakas, whoever deprecates this tantra deprecates all buddhas and bodhisattvas. [F.165.b] Lords of Guhyakas, the gods of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the brahmaputras, and the great brahmas will protect, guard, conceal, and always accompany any being who hears this tantra, thinks of it, worships it, upholds it, or even just takes an interest in it. All the buddhas and bodhisattvas, who are greatly superior to those gods, will protect such beings just as a mother protects her child and the māras will never be able to obstruct them. When they die, they will take birth in lotuses in the western realm of Sukhāvatī, freed from the pain of the womb. In this life, they will be freed from any fear of fire or water. Here I have only briefly stated the benefits, but apart from these all that is wished for will be fulfilled exactly as desired.
“If someone damages this tantra, is hostile toward it, or thinks about it improperly, you gods and nāgas must protect it!”
The Lord of Guhyakas along with the gods of the Realm of Brahma were delighted and agreed to this.
Additionally, in order to protect others, if one incants white earth many times, all obstacles will be pacified.
This concludes “The Siṃhanāda Tantra.”
Colophon
It was edited, translated, and finalized by the Indian preceptor Prajñākāra and the Tibetan translator Gö Khukpa Lhetse.
Notes
Bibliography
Primary Sources
seng ge sgra’i rgyud ces bya ba (Siṃhanādatantra). Toh 702, Degé Kangyur vol. 93 (rgyud, rtsa), folios 163.b–164.b.
seng ge’i sgra’i sgrub thabs (Siṃhanādasādhana). Toh. 3560, Degé Tengyur vol. 77 (rgyud ’grel, mu), folios 262.a–262.b.
seng ge’i sgra’i sgrub thabs (Siṃhanādasādhana). Toh 3414, Degé Tengyur vol. 77 (rgyud ’grel, mu), folios 81.a–81.b.
seng ge sgra’i rgyud ces bya ba. 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. 478–482.
seng ge sgra’i rgyud ces bya ba. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 107 (rgyud, ma), folios 36.b–38.a.
seng ge sgra’i rgyud ces bya ba. Phukdrak Kangyur vol. 114 (rgyud, ma), folios 88.a–89.b.
Siṃhanādadhāraṇī. In Sādhanamālā, vol. 1, edited by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, 52. Baroda: Central Library, 1925.
Advayavajra. Siṃhanādasādhana. In Sādhanamālā, vol. 1, edited by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, 47–8. Baroda: Central Library, 1925.
mi pham rgya mtsho. seng ge sgra’i gzungs kyi lo rgyus. In gsung ’bum / mi pham rgya mtsho, vol 25 (ra), folios 51.a–51.b. Chengdu: gangs can rig gzhung dpe rnying myur skyobs lhan tshogs, 2007.
sgrub thabs kun btus [Compendium of Sādhanas]. Reproduced from the sde dge xylograph edition 1902. Dehra Dun: G.T.K. Lodoy, N. Gyaltsen, N. Lungtok, 1970. [BDRC W23681].
Mori, Masahide. “The Vajrāvālī of Abhayākaragupta: a Critical Study, Sanskrit Edition of Selected Chapters and Complete Tibetan Version.” PhD diss., SOAS 1997.
Secondary Sources
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.
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, Gergely Hidas, and Michael Willis, 8–28. London: The British Museum, 2021.
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Gö Khukpa Lhetse
- ’gos khug pa lhas btsas
- འགོས་ཁུག་པ་ལྷས་བཙས།
- —
Gods of the Realm of Brahma
- tshangs ris kyi lha
- ཚངས་རིས་ཀྱི་ལྷ།
- brahmakāyikadeva AD
Heaven of the Four Great Kings
- rgyal chen bzhi’i ris
- རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་རིས།
- cāturmahārājakāyika AD
Heaven of the Thirty-Three
- sum cu rtsa gsum
- སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ།
- trayatriṃśa AD
Jamyang Loter Wangpo
- ’jam dbyangs blo gter dbang po
- འཇམ་དབྱངས་བློ་གཏེར་དབང་པོ།
- —
Mipham Gyatso
- mi pham rgya mtsho
- མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
- —
Prajñākāra
- pradz+nyA kA ra
- པྲཛྙཱ་ཀཱ་ར།
- —