Notes

This text, Toh 948, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, waM), are listed as being located in volume 101 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases‍—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room‍—list this work as being located in volume 102. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text‍—which forms a whole, very large volume‍—the Vimala­prabhā­nāma­kālacakra­tantra­ṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.

Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 948 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 948, n.1, for details.

See Gardner 2009.

Resources for Kanjur and Tenjur Studies, University of Vienna, accessed November 27, 2025. The colophon of the Golden Tengyur edition (folio 329.a) reads, rgya brtson seng gi ’gyur te/ ’gyur rnying kho na lags so, which seems to mean that this version preserves an older translation that was considered still good and not in need of revision. This “survival” of the older in addition to the new translation in the different Kangyur editions is also confirmed by the mention of a different translator team in the colophons of the Narthang and Lhasa versions of The Ritual of the Blue-Clad Vajrapāṇī, as well as the version in the Gondhla, London, and Phukdrak Manuscript Kangyurs: The first Tibetan translation according to those was done by the Indian upādhyāya Jñānagarbha (c. eighth or ninth century ᴄᴇ) and the Tibetan monk and translator Lüwangpo (klu’i dbang po; Nāgendra; c. eighth century ᴄᴇ). The Lithang-Kangyur version provides the additional piece of information that the earlier translation of the last-mentioned pair was later revised and finalized by the monk and translator Devacandra. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, no. 375, pp. 214–15.

Āryanīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇi­dhāraṇīvṛtti, ’phags pa phyag na rdo rje gos sngon can gyi gzungs kyi ’grel pa, Toh 2676.

Āryanīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇikalpanāma­dhāraṇīṭīkā, ’phags pa lag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi cho ga zhes bya ba’i gzungs kyi ’grel pa, Toh 2675.

Karmavajra’s and Nāgārjuna’s commentaries add gdug pa (“venomous”).

The Tibetan literally has “glistening venomous snakes” (sbrul gdug pa ’bar ba).

Reading D bzhin. K and Y read gzhin.

Karmavajra explains this iconography: “His body is black, he holds a stick, a club, an iron hook, and a noose, a garland of human entrails hangs [from his neck] as a necklace, and he rides on a buffalo. He is embraced by a/the black devī who appears instantaneously.” See Āryanīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇi­dhāraṇīvṛtti (Toh 2676), folios 139.a–139.b.

The name Suparṇa, literally “having beautiful wings,” does not occur in the Mahāvyutpatti, which contains an extensive list of the names of nāga kings in Buddhist literature (Mvy: Sakaki 3226–3308). Suparṇa is a known epithet of Garuḍa (cf. Monier-Williams, s.v. “suparṇa”).

An interjection expressing delight or amazement. According to Karmavajra, however, here this expresses “the samaya (‘pledge’) that terrifies a vetāla” (ro langs skrag par byed pa’i dam tshig). Vetālas or vetāḍas are charnel ground–haunting spirits that can be utilized in sorcery to possess a corpse, which then stops deteriorating and becomes one’s servant. See Āryanīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇi­dhāraṇīvṛtti (Toh 2676), folio 139.b.

The translation remains tentative, as the grammar is obscure. Karmavajra’s commentary has rgya mtsho’i zabs su dpag tshad brgyad khri bzhi stong yod pa rkang pa’i pus mor phyin pa (“[whose body,] which measures eighty-four thousand yojanas, sinks to his knee in the depth of the ocean”), and according to Karmavajra this refers to the enormous size of Vajrapāṇi’s body. See Āryanīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇi­dhāraṇīvṛtti (Toh 2676), folio 140.a.

Reading Toh 748 bAn+nAga. S reads paM nA ga.

Here the Sanskrit has been emended. Toh 748, 948, and S read sa mA ti kra ma tha, and Karmavajra reads sa mA ti k+rA ma ti.

S reads mA ku lot sA da naM.

Toh 948 reads phu d+dha.

According to Toh 748. Karmavajra and Toh 948 read ma hI prap+ta, and S reads mA ti krA ma tha.

Here the Sanskrit has been emended. Toh 948 reads bi sI r+yan+tu, Toh 748 reads bhi sIr+yA n+tu, and S reads bi shAr+yan+tu.

According to Toh 748. Toh 948 reads bi s+pho Ta ya nA ga nA ya nA ni.

S omits tadyathā.

Here the Sanskrit has been emended. Toh 748 reads nI lAM ba sa nA ya.

From here on, S adds hūṁ before phaṭ.

Here the Sanskrit has been emended. D and Karmavajra read kusmaNDot+sA da nA ya.

According to Karmavajra. S reads d+ha ra d+ha ra, and D reads dA ra dA ra.

Here the Sanskrit has been emended from sarvavighnāṃ to sarvavighna.

According to Toh 748 and 948. S reads °saṃvarta° for °saṃgha°.

Cf. also Karmavajra’s commentarial gloss: bde bar gshegs pa’i bka’ bsgo bar bya’o (“The Sugata’s command should be carried out”).

For more details regarding this vidyāmantra, see Karmavajra’s commentary. The following translation is tentative. “It is like this: O you who call out to the overlord of the nāgas! Whoever transgresses this essence of Vajrapāṇi, whose body is clad in a blue garment, will be ruined. It is like this: Wake up, wake up! Rise up, rise up! Do not linger (Karmavajra: ma ’gor cig)! Seize, seize the nāgas! Strike, strike the nāgas! Cut, cut the heart of the nāgas! Pierce, pierce the nāgas’ vital points! Let the nāgas’ bodies crumble to pieces! Blind the nāgas’ eyes! Like this, hūṁ phaṭ! To the one who smites the nāgas, phaṭ! To the one who brings ruin upon the nāgas, phaṭ! To him who acts like a blue-clad one, phaṭ! To the one with unhindered power and strength, phaṭ! To Kṛtānta, phaṭ! To the one with Kṛtānta’s form, phaṭ! To the wrathful one, phaṭ! To the frightening one, phaṭ! To the one who ruins the kumbhāṇḍas, phaṭ! To the destroyer of the pretas and piśācas, phaṭ! To the destroyer of the yakṣas and apasmārakas, phaṭ! Laugh, laugh! Hold, hold! Kill, kill! Destroy, destroy! To the destroyer of all vighnas, phaṭ! To the destroyer of the assemblies of all enemies, phaṭ! Oṁ‍—the Blue-Clad Vajrapāṇi commands‍—svāhā.” On the enigmatic custom of wearing blue garments, see The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi (Bhagavannīlāmbaradhara­vajrapāṇitantra­nāma, Toh 498), i.3, and Davidson 2002, p. 204, and p. 387, note 111.

Karmavajra’s commentary ends after the vidyāmantra.

Presumably, the text speaks about the manner in which the sprinkling of the incanted water or the protection from the different nonhuman beings should be done. In all probability, makshe refers to the plant Spiraea arcuata, a type of meadowsweet, while the Nepalese pomegranate is possibly the plant known in Sanskrit as dāḍima.

Reading Toh 748 yi ga ’chus pa. S reads yid ka ’chus pa, and Toh 948 reads yi ge ’chus pa.

On Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna and Gya Tsöndrü Sengé, see Gardner 2009.

Abbreviations

C Choné Kangyur

D Degé Kangyur

H Lhasa Kangyur

J Lithang Kangyur

K Kangxi Peking Kangyur

N Narthang

S Stok Palace Kangyur

Y Yongle Peking Kangyur