འབྱུང་པོ་འདུལ་བའི་རྒྱུད།
The Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra
Bhūtaḍāmaratantram
འབྱུང་པོ་འདུལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
’byung po ’dul ba zhes bya ba’i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po
The Great Sovereign Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra
Bhūtaḍāmaramahātantrarājaḥ

Toh 747
Degé Kangyur, vol. 95 (rgyud, dza), folios 238.a–263.a.
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2020
Current version v 1.0.2 (2020)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.1.16
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

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Summary
The Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra is a Buddhist esoteric manual on magic and exorcism. The instructions on ritual practices that constitute its main subject matter are intended to give the practitioner mastery over worldly divinities and spirits. Since the ultimate controller of such beings is Vajrapāṇi in his form of Bhūtaḍāmara, the “Tamer of Spirits,” it is Vajrapāṇi himself who delivers this tantra in response to a request from Śiva. Notwithstanding this esoteric origin, this tantra was compiled anonymously around the seventh or eighth century ᴄᴇ, introducing for the first time the cult of its titular deity. Apart from a few short ritual manuals (sādhana), this tantra remains the only major work dedicated solely to Bhūtaḍāmara.
Acknowledgements
This translation was produced by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Wiesiek Mical translated the text from the Sanskrit manuscripts, prepared the Sanskrit edition, and wrote the introduction. Thomas Doctor then compared the translation against the Tibetan translation found in the Degé Kangyur and edited the text. Special thanks are owed to Dr. Péter-Dániel Szántó for making available his transcript of the manuscript, “Göttingen Xc 14/50 I,” which was our default source for the reconstruction of the Sanskrit text.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations Used in the Sanskrit Appendix
Critical apparatus
+ | plus signs replace illegible text |
---|---|
] | a right square bracket marks the lemma, i.e., the adopted reading for which variants are adduced |
conj. | conjectured |
em. | emended |
om. | omitted |
° | an upper ring indicates truncation of a word |
† | daggers enclose unintelligible text |
Sigla or acronyms of textual witnesses
Manuscripts
A | Tokyo University Library (New 274 / Old 567) |
---|---|
B | Tokyo University Library (New 273 / Old 483) |
G | Göttingen University Library (Göttingen Xc 14 / 50 I) |
Published Works
SM | Sādhanamālā, the sādhana of Bhūtaḍāmara (sādhana no. 264) |
---|---|
Tib. | Tibetan text of the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra in the Degé canon (Toh 747) |
Notes
Bibliography
Sanskrit and Tibetan Sources
Bhūtaḍāmaratantram. Rāya, Kṛṣṇa Kumāra, ed. Vārāṇasī: Prācya Prakāśana, 1933.
Bhūtaḍāmaratantra. University of Göttingen Library, Xc 14/50 I.
Bhūtaḍāmaramahātantrarāja. University of Tokyo Library, New 274/Old 567.
Bhūtaḍāmaramahātantrarāja. University of Tokyo Library, New 273/Old 483.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed., Sādhanamālā (pp. 512−28). Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1968.
’byung po ’dul ba zhes bya ba’i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po (Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra). Toh 747, Degé Kangyur vol. 95 (rgyud ’bum, dza), folios 238.a–263.a.
Secondary Sources
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. “The Cult of Bhūtaḍāmara.” Proceedings and Transactions of the Sixth All-India Oriental Conference: 349−70. Patna: Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1933.
———. The Indian Buddhist Iconography Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Sanskrit Texts and Rituals. Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1958.
Bühnemann, Gudrun. “Buddhist Deities and Mantras in the Hindu Tantras I: The Tantrasārasaṃgraha and the Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati.” Indo-Iranian Journal 42:4 (1999): 303–34.
Cabezón, José Ignacio. The Buddha’s Doctrine and the Nine Vehicles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Pal, Pratapaditya. Hindu Religion and Iconology According to the Tantrasāra. Los Angeles: Vichitra Press, 1981.
Glossary
Āditya
- nyi ma
- ཉི་མ།
- Āditya
- Sūrya
The god of the sun; the sun personified.
Agni
- me
- mar me’i lha
- མེ།
- མར་མེའི་ལྷ།
- Agni
The god of fire.
Aloeswood
- a ga ru
- ཨ་ག་རུ།
- aguru
Aloeswood used as incense.
Anantamukhī
- a nan+ta mu khi
- ཨ་ནནྟ་མུ་ཁི།
- Anantamukhī
“One with the Face of Ananta.” One of the eight nāga queens.
Aparājita
- gzhan gyis mi thub pa
- གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་པ།
- Aparājita
‟Never Conquered by Another,” one of the eight bhūta kings.
Apsaras
- lha’i bu mo
- lha’i bu med
- lha mo
- ལྷའི་བུ་མོ།
- ལྷའི་བུ་མེད།
- ལྷ་མོ།
- apsaras
A celestial nymph.
Bali
- gtor ma
- གཏོར་མ།
- bali
An offering of edibles to nonhuman beings, usually including lower orders of spirits.
Bhairava
- ’jigs byed
- འཇིགས་བྱེད།
- Bhairava
Bhairavī
- ’jigs byed ma
- འཇིགས་བྱེད་མ།
- Bhairavī
Bhūta
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- bhūta
A class of spirits; in the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra this term can refer to all nonhuman beings, including gods.
Bhūti
- mi ’byung ba
- མི་འབྱུང་བ།
- Bhūti
‟Prosperity,” one of the eight goddesses of offerings in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala. Note that the Tibetan translation does not accord with the Sanskrit Bhūti.
Bhūtinī
- ’byung mo
- འབྱུང་མོ།
- Bhūtinī
A female bhūta or any nonhuman female being; in some mantras it seems to be used as a proper name.
Bovine bezoar
- gi’u wang
- གིའུ་ཝང་།
- gorocanā
- gorocana
A dye or paint prepared from the gall stones of cattle.
Brahmā
- tshangs pa
- ཚངས་པ།
- Brahmā
One of the chief Hindu gods; in Buddhism, he is the highest being in saṃsāra.
Caitya
- mchod rten
- མཆོད་རྟེན།
- caitya
A domed structure containing relics.
Cāmuṇḍā
- tsa muN+Di
- ཙ་མུཎྜི།
- Cāmuṇḍā
Candra
- zla ba
- ཟླ་བ།
- Candra
The god of the moon; the moon personified.
Daitya
- sbyin byed
- sbyin byed ma
- སྦྱིན་བྱེད།
- སྦྱིན་བྱེད་མ།
- Daitya
Son of the goddess Diti.
Daṃṣṭrākarālī
- mche ba gtsigs ma
- མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་མ།
- Daṃṣṭrākarālī
‟Terrible One with Bared Fangs,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Dhudhurī
- spyod ngan ma
- སྤྱོད་ངན་མ།
- Dhudhurī
‟Impetuous One,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Dinar
- dong tse
- དོང་ཙེ།
- dīnāra
A gold coin of considerable value.
Gaṇapati
- tshogs kyi bdag po
- ཚོགས་ཀྱི་བདག་པོ།
- Gaṇapati
‟Lord of gaṇas,” an epithet of Gaṇeśa, the elephant-headed god invoked to remove obstacles.
Gandharva
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
A class of nonhuman beings known for their musical skills.
Garuḍa
- nam mkha’i lding
- ནམ་མཁའི་ལྡིང་།
- garuḍa
A class of nonhuman beings, half-human and half-bird.
Ghoramukhī
- gdong drag mo
- གདོང་དྲག་མོ།
- Ghoramukhī
‟One with the Terrible Face,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Great queen of spirits
- ’byung po’i dbang phyug ma
- འབྱུང་པོའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ།
- Mahābhūteśvarī
An epithet of Caṇḍakātyāyanī.
Indra
- brgya byin
- བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
- Indra
The chief god in the realm of the thirty-three gods, also known as Śakra.
Jagatpālinī
- ’gro ba bskyong ma
- འགྲོ་བ་བསྐྱོང་མ།
- Jagatpālinī
‟Protectress of the World,” one of the eight great bhūtinīs.
Jambudvīpa
- ’dzam bu’i gling
- འཛམ་བུའི་གླིང་།
- Jambudvīpa
The southern continent, one of the four continents surrounding Mount Meru.
Jarjaramukhī
- rgan mo gdong
- རྒན་མོ་གདོང་།
- Jarjaramukhī
- Jarjarī
‟One with an Aged Face,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Kamalalocanī
- pad+ma’i mig can ma
- པདྨའི་མིག་ཅན་མ།
- Kamalalocanī
‟Lotus-Eyed One,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Kāmeśvarī
- ’dod pa’i dbang phyug ma
- dga’ ba’i dbang phyug ma
- འདོད་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ།
- དགའ་བའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ།
- Kāmeśvarī
‟Goddess of Desire,” one of the eight great bhūtinīs as well as one of the eight great yakṣinīs.
Karkoṭakamukhī
- karkote mu khi
- ཀརྐོཏེ་མུ་ཁི།
- Karkoṭakamukhī
“One with the Face of Karkoṭa.” One of the eight nāga queens.
Kārttikeya
- smin drug
- སྨིན་དྲུག
- Kārttikeya
Divine son of Śiva and Pārvatī.
Kātyāyanī
- ka ta ya na
- ཀ་ཏ་ཡ་ན།
- kātyāyanī
Usually an epithet of the goddess Durgā, in the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra this term refers to a class of wild and powerful female spirits.
Kinnara
- mi’am ci
- མིའམ་ཅི།
- kinnara
A class of nonhuman beings, half-human and half-horse, or half-human and half-bird.
Kuleśvara
- rigs sngags kyi dbang phyug
- རིགས་སྔགས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག
- Kuleśvara
‟Lord of the Family,” one of the eight bhūta kings.
Kuñjaramati
- ba lang mo’i blo gros
- བ་ལང་མོའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Kuñjaramati
‟Excellent Mind,” the name of a female spirit summoned in a sādhana.
Mahādeva
- lha chen po
- ལྷ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahādeva
‟Great God,” one of the epithets of Śiva.
Mahākāla
- nag po chen po
- ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahākāla
‟Great Death.” Most often considered a wrathful form of Avalokiteśvara, in the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra he is one of the wrathful forms of Śiva.
Maheśvara
- dbang phyug chen po
- དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ།
- Maheśvara
‟Great Lord,” one of the epithets of Śiva.
Maheśvara-Mahādeva
- dbang phyug chen po’i lha chen po
- དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོའི་ལྷ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Maheśvara-Mahādeva
‟Great Lord Mahādeva,” one of the epithets of Śiva.
Mahoraga
- lto ’phye chen po
- ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahoraga
A class of nonhuman, snake-like beings.
Manohārī
- yid ’phrog ma
- ཡིད་འཕྲོག་མ།
- Manohārī
‟She who Captivates the Mind,” one of the six kinnara queens.
Manohāriṇī
- yid ’phrog ma
- ཡིད་འཕྲོག་མ།
- Manohāriṇī
‟She Who Captivates the Mind,” one of the eight great yakṣiṇīs.
Mudrā
- phyag rgya
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- mudrā
Hand gesture that invokes a particular type of magical power.
Nāga
- klu
- ཀླུ།
- nāga
A class on nonhuman beings, half-snake and half-human.
Nandi
- dga’ ba’i dbang phyug
- དགའ་བའི་དབང་ཕྱུག
- Nandi
The bull of Śiva who serves as his vehicle.
Narteśvara
- gar gyi dbang phyug
- གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག
- Narteśvara
‟Lord of Dance,” most often the dancing form of Avalokiteśvara; in the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra, he is a dancing form of Śiva.
Oblation
- sbyin sreg
- སྦྱིན་སྲེག
- homa
An oblation offered into the fire a prescribed number of times.
Oleander
- —
- karavīra
Pala
- srang
- སྲང་།
- pala
Unit of weight equal to approximately 75 grams.
Piśāca
- sha za
- ཤ་ཟ།
- piśāca
A class of flesh-eating demons
Pledge
- dam tshig
- དམ་ཚིག
- samaya
Mutual pledge or bond between the master and the disciple; also that between the practitioner and the deity or spirit.
Practitioner
- sgrub pa po
- སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ།
- sādhaka
The person who performs a sādhana or a ritual aimed at a particular result.
Prajāpati
- skye gu’i bdag po
- སྐྱེ་གུའི་བདག་པོ།
- Prajāpati
The mythical preceptor of the gods.
Princely youth Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal gzhon nur ’gyur pa
- འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་འགྱུར་པ།
- Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta
Mañjuśrī who takes the form of a youth, an epithet by which the well-known bodhisattva is often referred.
Pūjā
- mchod pa
- མཆོད་པ།
- pūjā
Worship consisting mainly of making offerings.
Pūtana
- lus srul po
- ལུས་སྲུལ་པོ།
- pūtana
A class of demons associated with charnel grounds and cemeteries, closely related to vetālas.
Rāhu
- sgra gcan
- སྒྲ་གཅན།
- Rāhu
The demon who ‟swallows” the moon or the sun during an eclipse.
Rākṣasa
- srin po
- སྲིན་པོ།
- rākṣasa
A class of flesh-eating demons that haunt frightening places.
Rambhā
- rtsom ma ma
- རྩོམ་མ་མ།
- Rambhā
An asparas; one of the eight goddesses of offerings in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala.
Ratnabhūṣaṇī
- rin chen rgyan can ma
- རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱན་ཅན་མ།
- Ratnabhūṣaṇī
‟Jewel Goddess,” one of the eight goddesses of offerings in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala.
Rāvaṇa
- srin po’i bdag po
- སྲིན་པོའི་བདག་པོ།
- Rāvaṇa
The name of a demon king.
Rudra
- drag po
- དྲག་པོ།
- Rudra
Sādhana
- sgrub thabs
- སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།
- sādhana
Ritual practice organized into sessions and dedicated to a particular goal; the act of achieving or accomplishing one’s purpose in general.
Śakra
- brgya byin
- བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
- Śakra
Another name for Indra, the chief god in the realm of the thirty-three gods.
Śālabhañjikā
- sa la ’joms ma
- ས་ལ་འཇོམས་མ།
- śālabhañjikā
A term used for a courtesan. In the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra this term refers to a class of nonhuman female beings.
Sarasvatī
- tshig dbang lha mo
- dbyangs can ma
- ཚིག་དབང་ལྷ་མོ།
- དབྱངས་ཅན་མ།
- Sarasvatī
The goddess of learning; in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala she is one of the eight goddesses of offerings.
Śaśī
- zla ba’i lha mo
- ཟླ་བའི་ལྷ་མོ།
- Śaśī
‟Moon Goddess,” in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala she is one of the eight goddesses of offerings.
Saumyamukhī
- bzhin mdzes ma
- བཞིན་མཛེས་མ།
- Saumyamukhī
‟Gentle-Faced One/She with the Beautiful Face,” one of the eight demonesses who inhabit the eight great charnel grounds.
Siṃhadhvajadhāriṇī
- —
- Siṃhadhvajadhāriṇī
‟She who Holds the Lion Banner,” one of the eight great bhūtinīs.
Śmaśānādhipati
- dur khrod kyi bdag po
- དུར་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་བདག་པོ།
- Śmaśānādhipati
‟Lord of the Cremation Ground,” one of the eight bhūta kings.
Śrī
- dpal gyi lha mo
- དཔལ་གྱི་ལྷ་མོ།
- Śrī
The goddess of royal splendor, equated with Lakṣmī; in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala she is one of the eight goddesses of offerings.
Supreme master Great Wrath
- ’khro bo’i bdag po chen po
- འཁྲོ་བོའི་བདག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahākrodhādhipati
One of the epithets of Bhūtaḍāmara.
Surahāriṇī
- lha ’joms ma
- ལྷ་འཇོམས་མ།
- Surahāriṇī
‟One Who Captivates the Gods,” One of the eight great bhūtinīs.
Surasundarī
- sdu gu mdzes ma
- སྡུ་གུ་མཛེས་མ།
- Surasundarī
‟Divinely Beautiful,” one of the eight goddesses of offerings in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala; also the name of one of the eight great yakṣiṇīs.
Tilottamā
- thig le mchog
- ཐིག་ལེ་མཆོག
- Tilottamā
The name of an apsaras; in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala she is one of the eight goddesses of offerings.
Triple universe
- khams gsum
- ’jig rten gsum
- srid pa gsum
- ཁམས་གསུམ།
- འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ།
- སྲིད་པ་གསུམ།
- tribhuvana
- traidhātuka
The desire, form, and formless realms, which together comprise the cycle of existence.
Umā
- dka’ zlog ma
- u ma
- དཀའ་ཟློག་མ།
- ཨུ་མ།
- Umā
One of the wives of Śiva; in the Bhūtaḍāmara maṇḍala she is one of the eight goddesses of offerings.
Umā’s husband
- u ma yi bdag po
- ཨུ་མ་ཡི་བདག་པོ།
- Umāpati
Śiva.
Urvaśī
- brang na gnas pa ma
- brang na gnas pa
- pang na gnas pa
- pang pa na gnas pa
- བྲང་ན་གནས་པ་མ།
- བྲང་ན་གནས་པ།
- པང་ན་གནས་པ།
- པང་པ་ན་གནས་པ།
- Urvaśī
An apsaras/goddess.