King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions
Toh 73
Degé Kangyur vol. 43 (dkon brtsegs, ca), folios 204.b–215.b
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
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Table of Contents
Summary
Manipulated into a murderous rage by the jealous Queen Anupamā, King Udayana launches a barrage of arrows at Queen Śyāmāvatī. King Udayana is terrified when Queen Śyāmāvatī pays homage to the Buddha, cultivates loving kindness, and the arrows are repelled. Awestruck by such a spectacle and inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī’s words of praise for the Buddha, King Udayana approaches the Buddha and requests a teaching on the inadequacies of women. The Buddha tells King Udayana that he must first understand his own faults and proceeds to deliver a discourse on the four faults of men, such as attachment to sense pleasures and failure to take care of elderly parents. The teaching is delivered with a plethora of analogies and striking imagery to turn the mind away from sensual desires. The work concludes with King Udayana giving up his weapons and going for refuge in the Three Jewels, filled with love for all beings.
Acknowledgements
The translation and introduction were prepared by Ben Ewing and Lowell Cook.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. David Fiordalis edited the translation and introduction, and incorporated the evidence from the portions preserved in Sanskrit. Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions1 is a cautionary discourse on the dangers of sense desires and the consequences of acting on them. In this work, King Udayana is driven into a murderous rage when his jealous wife, Queen Anupamā, deceives him with lies about Queen Śyāmāvatī engaging in infidelities with the Buddha and his monastic community. Queen Śyāmāvatī is a female lay disciple of the Buddha, however, and when the king attempts to kill her, she pays homage to the Buddha and cultivates loving kindness, and the king’s arrows are miraculously repelled. This miraculous display, along with Queen Śyāmāvatī’s own words of faith in the Buddha, convinces the king to seek him out and ask for his guidance. King Udayana asks the Buddha to explain the faults of women, such that they could lead him to commit murder, but the Buddha responds that he must first understand his own faults. The rest of the work consists of the Buddha explaining the four faults of men who indulge in sense pleasures, causing them to fall under the sway of women, and the hellish fates that await them as a result.
The four faults concern ignorant attachment to objects of desire: reckless indulgence in sense pleasures; shameful neglect of one’s parents, especially in their old age; immoral actions due to a failure to heed the teachings of the wise; and miserly failure to give donations to those who deserve them, such as renunciants, the Buddhist monastic community, and the poor. Throughout the work, women are given as the primary example of objects of sensual desire. The work goes into highly colorful descriptions, both in prose and poetic verse, of the impure nature of the human body and of the female body in particular, seemingly as a way of instilling a sense of aversion and disgust for sensual pleasures like sexual activity. The Buddha also analyzes the delusive nature of desire and the mental conditions under which people become addicted to sensual pleasures. He gives extensive descriptions of the terrible deeds men are driven to commit under the influence of their desire for women, as well as the terrible fates that await the men who commit such deeds. Their behaviors are condemned in no uncertain terms. The text gives vivid descriptions of the punishments one will undergo in many of the specific hell realms into which one may be reborn, providing the names of many of them.
This text has received attention throughout the centuries for its descriptions of the dangers of sexual desire toward women and of the impure nature of the human body. Several passages from King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions, comprising about two to three pages in all, are quoted in Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya. Śāntideva uses this work, among others, as a scriptural basis for a discussion of the harms of desire. King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is also quoted extensively by the yogi Shabkar (zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol, 1781–1851) in his work The Wondrous Emanated Scriptures (rmad byung sprul pa’i glegs bam). In this case, as well, King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is used as scriptural evidence for the dangers of desiring women. The sections quoted by Shabkar appear to match those in the Degé Kangyur. In modern scholarship, Diana Paul has translated a version of this work from Chinese and discussed it in her book Women in Buddhism.2
The narrative framework of the Buddha’s discourse in this work builds on the old story of Mākandika (Māgaṇḍiya in Pali), who offers his beautiful daughter, Anupamā, to the Buddha. That a version of the Buddha’s dialogue with Māgaṇḍiya is found in the Suttanipāta of the Pali Canon suggests that the story is among the oldest in Buddhist literature,3 and the Pali commentary on that text, which is also part of the Pali Canon, provides one version of the backstory for the dialogue.4 Another version of this tale, found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya5 (and also in the closely related Divyāvadāna6), starts earlier than the episode related in the present text and ends later. Earlier, we learn, Mākandika had given his daughter to King Udayana after the Buddha had refused her. And later, whereas King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions concludes when King Udayana becomes a lay disciple of the Buddha, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya version goes on to describe how Queen Anupamā, undeterred in her murderous intent, subsequently conspires with her father, Mākandika, who had become King Udayana’s chief minister, to set fire to the queens’ quarters; that ultimately results in the deaths of the morally pure Śyāmāvatī and the rest of King Udayana’s five hundred wives, all of whom willingly cast themselves into the flames.
King Udayana seems to be portrayed in these stories as a powerful but impulsive, passionate, and sometimes belligerent person who is led by the Buddha to reflect and change. Another text in the Kangyur featuring King Udayana of Vatsa that follows this pattern is Advice to a King (2) (Toh 215).7 In its brief framing story, the king is about to set out on a military campaign of conquest when he meets the Buddha. At first angry about being intercepted, he shoots an arrow at the Buddha, but the arrow is miraculously prevented from meeting its target—just as, in the present text, the arrow he shoots at Queen Śyāmāvatī is stalled and turned back. This startling event arouses his respect and he becomes receptive to the advice the Buddha then gives him on combating the great enemy of belief in a self.
King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is included in all extant versions of the Kangyur as the 29th member of the Ratnakūṭa, or Heap of Jewels, section. All versions agree that it was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the Indian scholars Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi along with the Tibetan translator-editor Yeshé Dé, all of whom were prolific in their translation activity. Given this translation team, along with the fact that it is included in both the Phangthangma and Denkarma8 imperial catalogs, we can be confident that this work was translated into Tibetan between the late eighth and early ninth centuries. The work was also translated into Chinese on three different occasions: between 290–306 ᴄᴇ by Faju, in 706 ᴄᴇ by Bodhiruci, and in 984 ᴄᴇ by Fatian. The present translation is based on the Degé Kangyur with reference to variant readings recorded in the Pedurma comparative edition and Stok Palace edition, as well as the Sanskrit excerpts in the Śikṣāsamuccaya.
Text Body
King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the Sarasvatī grove in Kauśāmbī with a great assembly of some five hundred monks and numerous bodhisattva great beings. At that time, Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika, was overcome with jealousy and envy toward Queen Śyāmāvatī.
Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika, addressed King Udayana of Vatsa: “Your Majesty, five hundred women, including Queen Śyāmāvatī, have committed dishonorable acts with Gautama the mendicant. I humbly request Your Majesty to act as you see fit with regard to this situation.”
With these lies, Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika, sowed her discord. Rage, aggression, and wrath toward the Blessed One and the assembly of disciples welled up in King Udayana of Vatsa. Miserable and overcome with a wrathful fury, he drew his bow and shot a razor-sharp arrow at Queen Śyāmāvatī with murderous intent.
In that instant, Queen Śyāmāvatī called out, “Homage to the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha!” She prostrated herself to the Blessed One, praised him, and entered into meditative absorption on loving-kindness. [F.205.a] Through the power of the Buddha, the razor-sharp arrow turned back and burst into flames directly above King Udayana of Vatsa’s head. As it burned and blazed, it became a single flame, sometimes moving about and sometimes standing still. Then, moving toward King Udayana of Vatsa, the arrow remained on his right side without touching his body.
King Udayana of Vatsa shot two or three more arrows with the same result before Queen Śyāmāvatī said to him, “Great King, in this situation, if you were to prostrate to the Thus-Gone One, you too would find well-being.”
Full of terror and fear, King Udayana of Vatsa became weak, and his hair stood on end. Falling to the ground, he spoke these verses to Queen Śyāmāvatī:
Inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī, King Udayana of Vatsa, surrounded by a great assembly of people and his royal power and wealth, went to meet the Blessed One with great speed and haste. He saw the Blessed One, elegant and beautiful. The Blessed One’s sense faculties and mind were calmed, and he was completely controlled. He had perfected the most sublime tranquility meditations and the most sublime meditative concentrations. He rose above the crowd like a golden sacrificial post resplendent with glory. The Blessed One’s body was brilliant, vibrant, and beautifully adorned with the thirty-two marks of a great being. Surrounded by an assembly of monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, and bodhisattvas, the Blessed One was venerated by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans. Having seen that, the king approached the Blessed One and bowed at his feet.
Addressing the Blessed One, he said, “Blessed One, I have witnessed wonders the likes of which I have never seen before. Will the Blessed One grant me the opportunity to make a request?”
The Blessed One replied to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, make a request as you wish. Speak!”
King Udayana of Vatsa then said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One because I am attached to my desires and their cause and basis, today I was overcome with wrath and fury by the words of Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika. I was overcome with thoughts of rage and anger toward the Blessed One and his assembly of disciples [F.206.b] and shot a razor-sharp arrow at my wife Śyāmāvatī with murderous intent. When I did, it burst into flames in the sky, and as it burned and blazed, it became a single flame. As if the arrow were counteracted, it returned back to remain on my right side, without touching my body.
“Blessed One, I bowed at the feet of my wife Śyāmāvatī, and asked her, ‘Are you a goddess, nāginī, gandharvī, piśācī, rākṣasī, or something else?’ She told me, ‘I am not a goddess, nāginī, gandharvī, piśācī, or rākṣasī. Rather, I am a disciple of the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect Buddha. Out of love for you, I have rested my mind in equipoise.’ My wife Śyāmāvatī then sang the praise of the Blessed One in various ways.
“Then, Blessed One, I had this thought: ‘If a disciple of the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy, perfectly awakened Buddha, is so full of compassion, loving-kindness, great superhuman power, and great marvelous strength, and is of such great distinction, then what must the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy, perfectly awakened Buddha himself be like?’
“Blessed One, in that way, because I was like a fool—ignorant, unclear, and unwise—I felt rage and hatred toward the Thus-Gone One and the assembly of disciples. For this, I request your forgiveness. In the presence of the assembly of disciples, I confess my errors. [F.207.a] In the hope that you may show me compassion, I confess my errors. I request you, Blessed One, to treat me with kindness. I vow to practice restraint from this day forward.”
The Blessed One said, “Great King, rise and be seated,” and he accepted with kindness King Udayana of Vatsa who had confessed his faults. King Udayana of Vatsa bowed his head at the feet of the Blessed One and sat to one side.
King Udayana of Vatsa, sitting to one side, addressed the Blessed One: “Blessed One, because of how cruel, obstinate, and quick to anger I was, I have been driven to negative actions by the words of women. Because of that, Blessed One, I will go to the hell realms. Blessed One, out of compassion for me, I request the Blessed One to describe thoroughly and correctly the faults of women so that, from today onward, I will not, by any means, fall under the sway of women and be driven to negative deeds that will lead me to fall into the hell realms. It would be for the long-term benefit of myself and all sentient beings, so that we may be helped and happy. Please describe thoroughly and correctly the behaviors of women, the characteristics of women, the treachery of women, the deceitfulness of women, the dishonesty of women, the unsteadiness of women, the fickleness of women, the dependencies of women, the words of women, and the deceptiveness of women.”
The Blessed One asked King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, what is your purpose in asking such questions?” [F.207.b]
King Udayana of Vatsa responded, “Blessed One, I fall under the sway of women because they are vicious, hateful, fierce, and quick to anger. Blessed One, it is women who will lead me to the hell realms. Thus, Blessed One, please heed this request of mine.”
The Blessed One said to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, you must first understand your own faults and then you will come to understand the faults of women.”
King Udayana of Vatsa responded to the Blessed One, “Excellent, Blessed One, excellent! When men possess certain faults, they fall under the sway of women. Please, Blessed One, explain these faults of men to me.”
The Blessed One responded to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Yes, Great King, listen carefully and pay attention. I will now explain.”
King Udayana of Vatsa said, “Very well, Blessed One,” and he listened as the Blessed One had instructed.
The Blessed One addressed him, saying, “Great King, when men possess four particular faults, they fall under the sway of women. What are the four? They are as follows:
“Great King, men are attached to the objects of their desire and become reckless in pursuit of them. Intoxicated by sense pleasures, they ignore the morally disciplined, virtuous, [F.208.a] and wise mendicants and brahmins and, instead, only desire to gaze upon women again and again. They do not serve, follow, or venerate the morally disciplined, virtuous, and wise mendicants and brahmins when they see them. By abandoning the morally disciplined, virtuous, and wise mendicants and brahmins, they also abandon their own faith, moral discipline, generosity, and wisdom. Those men are faithless, their discipline is faulty, they lack learning, and they are stingy. They behave like hungry spirits; they are weak-minded, attracted to open sores,11 and involved with excrement. They delight in the smell of backsides, they enjoy filth, and they have a craving for women. They do not seek peace, they are occupied with their attachments, and they go to places where they should not. They are contemptible, they resemble maggots in excrement, and they welcome defilement. They lust after the objects of their desire, abandoning all shame and modesty. They violate the laws of gods and men, lead despicable lives, are detested by the wise, and keep company with foolish beings. They entertain negative thoughts, keep company with bad friends, are constantly engaging in bad actions, and are inclined toward bad actions.
“They become controlled by women and enslaved by them. They fall under the sway of women as they become dedicated to them and live beside them. They are fixated upon orifices, dependent on orifices, and reliant on orifices. They are occupied with saliva, mucus, phlegm, snot, pus, fetid excretions,12 cerebral secretions, and excrement. They behave like sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, pigs, jackals, and asses. They make their living by harming others. [F.208.b] They do not cherish their parents, nor do they cherish mendicants, brahmins, or others worthy of receiving offerings. They lose their faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha; they lose nirvāṇa. They enter the hells, the animal realm, and the realm of the Lord of Death—they fall to that level. They take up the bodies of lions and garuḍas. They sink to the level of the Hell of Iron-Thorn Trees and the Hell of Burning Coals. They enter the Reviving Hell, Black Line Hell, Crushing Hell, Howling Hell, Great Howling Hell, Hot Hell, Fiercely Hot Hell, and the Hell of Endless Torment.
“Even after hearing about these faults of women, these men feel neither anxiety nor disgust13 when they reflect on how they laughed, cried, and felt like shouting aloud, and how they danced, sang, and played music while desiring women and keeping company with them.
“Great King, such is the conduct of foolish beings. Beings with these behaviors will be reborn in the lower realms. Great King, attachment to sense pleasures is the first fault of men whereby they fall under the influence of women and are reborn in the lower realms.”
The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:
“Furthermore, Great King, one’s parents undergo hardship. For nine or ten months, your mother carries you in the womb, enduring much pain to raise you. She wipes away your urine and excrement and nurses you on her lap. She helps you to grow and nurtures you. Parents show you the world and teach you all about it. They are concerned about you and wish for your well-being. They desire your benefit and wish you well. They desire your success and happiness. They desire to help you out in the world. As such they are worthy of generosity.
“Out of desire to help their son and for him to be happy, they use the wealth they have saved to find him a bride from a different family. The son then becomes attached and intoxicated; he lusts after her to the point of fainting. He becomes fixated on her and remains infatuated. Attached to and intoxicated by this girl from a different family, he neglects his parents who are worthy of generosity and who have grown old, frail, weak, and blind. He kicks them out of their own home, banishing them without resources or wealth.
“Great King, one should constantly, at all times, and with genuine happiness, honor one’s kind and venerable parents. One should revere, venerate, and worship them. And yet, men kick their parents out of their own homes, banishing them, as they give their respect and honor to the girl taken from another family, presenting her food, drink, and clothing. They cherish, esteem, worship, and respect her with genuine happiness, yet not their parents. Just look at these heartless and inconsiderate people with their wicked minds!
“Great King, look at these people who forsake the Dharma that leads to the higher realms [F.210.b] as they adopt the way of life that leads to the lower realms. Great King, indulging in objects of one’s desire and falling under the sway of women, such men neglect their parents and proceed to the lower realms. This is the second fault of men.”
The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:
“Great King, inferior people are those who perform the acts of inferior people and tenaciously adhere to wrong views. Such people wonder about virtue and nonvirtue and do not understand how to act in their own self-interest. Because they are insecure, they are disliked by many beings and delight in the praises of foolish beings. Deluded by desire and aversion, they are despised by the wise, consumed by anger, and perform nonvirtuous deeds. They are forsaken by the buddhas and the bodhisattvas. They are intoxicated by the pride17 of wealth. They are miserly, delight in harming others, and despise cultivating the Dharma.
“Great King, look how these inferior people delight in the acts of inferior people and despise the acts of superior people. Great King, this is the third fault of men who indulge in the objects of desire and proceed to the lower realms.”
The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:
“Great King, men make their living from a variety of occupations and professions. Great King, they may be scribes, astrologers, accountants, palmists, armorers, royal servants, farmers, merchants, or herdsmen. From these occupations and professions, they make their livelihood. For the sake of wealth, they travel where there are no roads or where the roads are poor; they cross canyons, rivers, war zones, and oceans; they endure the icy winds of winter and the heat of summer; they suffer from hunger and thirst, and, all the while they delight in such journeys. They endure such suffering as this for the sake of their own livelihood, yet they will not donate any of the wealth they earn to mendicants, brahmins, the destitute, the poor, or beggars, because they are under the sway of women, controlled by them, [F.212.a] enthralled by them, and enslaved by them.18 Because of this same love for women, these men are unable to give gifts even to support their women or to practice moral discipline. Infatuated by their women, they will endure their chatter, and even put up with their abuse, evil looks, and reprimands. When abused by women, those men will voluntarily accept it and still regard those same women without ill will. Those men fall under the sway of women who are the objects of their desire.
“Great King, this is the fourth fault of men who crave women, consider filth to be the highest bliss, delight in foulness, and act without awareness. Thereby, they indulge in women and proceed to the lower realms. Great King, a man who possesses these faults comes under the power of sense pleasure.”
The Blessed One then spoke these verses:
“Great King, these are the faults of men who indulge in sense pleasures. Those who cling to sense pleasure, to the causes43 of sense pleasure, and to the bases of sense pleasure will experience the hell realms. [F.215.b] Therefore, Great King, you must constantly and continuously cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha. You must cultivate mindfulness of the body.”
That is how the Blessed One taught King Udayana of Vatsa. As a result of that teaching, King Udayana of Vatsa was delighted, joyful, and extremely happy with the Thus-Gone One.
Then King Udayana of Vatsa said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect Buddha’s explanation of the excellent teaching on the inconceivably numerous faults of men and women is truly amazing. Blessed One, I seek refuge in the Blessed One, the Dharma, and the Saṇgha. I have abandoned my weapons and my clubs. I have become modest, and I feel love for all living beings. Blessed One, please accept me as a male lay disciple.”
When the Blessed One had finished teaching, King Udayana of Vatsa, the monks, bodhisattvas, gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, together with the whole world, rejoiced and praised the Blessed One’s words.
Thus concludes The Episode “King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions,” the twenty-ninth of the one hundred thousand sections of the Dharma discourse known as The Noble Great Heap of Jewels.
Colophon
Translated, edited, and finalized by, among others, the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi and the chief editor-translator, Bandé Yeshé Dé.
Notes
Bibliography
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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.
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Anupamā
- dpe med
- དཔེ་མེད།
- anupamā
asura
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
Bandé Yeshé Dé
- ye shes sde
- ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
- —
Black Line Hell
- thig nag
- ཐིག་ནག
- kālasūtra
Blazing River Hell
- chu bo rab med
- ཆུ་བོ་རབ་མེད།
- nadī vaitaraṇī
Blessed One
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavān
Crushing Hell
- bsdus ’jom
- བསྡུས་འཇོམ།
- saṃghāta
disciple
- nyan thos
- ཉན་ཐོས།
- śrāvaka
female lay disciple
- dge bsnyen ma
- དགེ་བསྙེན་མ།
- upāsikā
Female piśāca
- sha za mo
- ཤ་ཟ་མོ།
- piśācī
Fiercely Hot Hell
- rab tu tsha ba
- རབ་ཏུ་ཚ་བ།
- mahātāpana
gandharva
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
gandharvī
- dri za mo
- དྲི་ཟ་མོ།
- gandharvī
garuḍa
- nam mkha’ lding
- ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་།
- garuḍa
Gautama
- gau ta ma
- གཽ་ཏ་མ།
- gautama
Great Howling Hell
- ngu ’bod chen po
- ངུ་འབོད་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahāraurava
halāhala poison
- ha la ha la’i dug
- ཧ་ལ་ཧ་ལའི་དུག
- hālāhala
Hell of Burning Coals
- me ma mur
- མེ་མ་མུར།
- kukūla
Hell of Endless Torment
- mnar med
- མནར་མེད།
- avīci
Hell of Iron-Thorn Trees
- shal ma li
- ཤལ་མ་ལི།
- śalmali
Hell of Razor Blades
- spu gri’i so
- སྤུ་གྲིའི་སོ།
- kṣuradhāra
Hot Hell
- tsha ba
- ཚ་བ།
- tāpana
Howling Hell
- ngu ’bod
- ངུ་འབོད།
- raurava
Jinamitra
- dzi na mi tra
- ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ།
- jinamitra
Kauśāmbī
- kau sham+bI
- ཀཽ་ཤམྦཱི།
- kauśāmbī
Lord of the World
- jig rten mgon po
- ཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ།
- lokanātha
mahoraga
- lto ’phye chen po
- ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahoraga
Mākandika
- ma du
- མ་དུ།
- mākandika
male lay disciple
- dge bsnyen
- དགེ་བསྙེན།
- upāsaka
Māra
- bdud
- བདུད།
- māra
Miśrakā
- dres pa
- དྲེས་པ།
- miśrakā
mung bean
- mon sran sde’u
- མོན་སྲན་སྡེའུ།
- māṣa
nāga
- klu
- ཀླུ།
- nāga
nāginī
- klu mo
- ཀླུ་མོ།
- nāginī
Nirmāṇarata
- rab ’phrul
- རབ་འཕྲུལ།
- nirmāṇarata
Pāruṣika
- rtsub ’gyur
- རྩུབ་འགྱུར།
- pāruṣika
pratyekabuddha
- rang sangs rgyas
- རང་སངས་རྒྱས།
- pratyekabuddha
rākṣasī
- srin mo
- སྲིན་མོ།
- rākṣasī
Reviving Hell
- yang sos
- ཡང་སོས།
- saṃjīva
sacrificial post
- mchod sdong
- མཆོད་སྡོང་།
- yūpa
Sarasvatī Grove
- dbyangs can gyi kun dga’ ra ba
- དབྱངས་ཅན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- sarasvatyārāma
Surendrabodhi
- su ren dra bo d+hi
- སུ་རེན་དྲ་བོ་དྷི།
- surendrabodhi
Śyāmāvatī
- sngo sangs can
- སྔོ་སངས་ཅན།
- śyāmāvatī
Udayana
- ’char byed
- འཆར་བྱེད།
- udayana
urad bean
- mon sran sde’u
- མོན་སྲན་སྡེའུ།
- mudga
Vatsa
- bad sa
- བད་ས།
- vatsa
yakṣa
- gnod sbyin
- གནོད་སྦྱིན།
- yakṣa