Notes

n.1The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (translated 2024).

n.2See The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703, 1.­20).

n.3The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda , The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (translated 2024).

n.4Losty 2021, p. 17.

n.5Holt 1991, p. 41.

n.6Holt 1991, p. 79.

n.7The iconographic details of Siṃhanāda are described with some variation and differing degrees of detail in Toh 2858, 2859, 3155, 3157, 3329, 3414, 3417, 3418, 3419, and 3650. Descriptions in Sanskrit can be found in sādhana nos. 17, 20, 22, and 25 in volume one of the Sādhanamālā. For a survey of Indo-Tibetan artistic depictions of Siṃhanāda, see the deity’s main page at Himalayan Art Resources: https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=472&page=1.

n.8See sgrub thabs kun btus vol. 6, folios 252.a–297.b.

n.9See seng ge sgra’i gzungs kyi lo rgyus.

n.10Bhattacharyya 1925 vol. 1, p. 52.

n.11Hidas 2021, p. 138.

n.12The two versions of this text preserved in the Kangyur are identical in content but have different titles. Toh 704 is titled The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda (seng ge sgra’i gzungs), while Toh 912 is titled The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda’s Promise (seng ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs).

n.13Here we follow the Kangxi and Narthang versions by adding karoṭa (ka ro Ta), which is absent in the Degé but attested in the Sanskrit text from the Sādhanamālā and in Hidas 2021.

n.14Here we follow the Kangxi and Narthang Kangyurs, which read bcu gsum, “thirteen,” rather than the Degé, which reads gsum, “three,” as this is in accordance with the reading in the parallel text Toh 704/912, as well as in Toh 703, which seems to be the source text from which this work was extracted.

n.15lhag ma. The parallel passage from The Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703) includes an instruction to gather the incanted dung on which the maṇḍalas were previously inscribed and then to incant the “resulting dung” (Toh 703, 1.­20). This also seems to be indicated in the version of the dhāraṇī published by Hidas (2021, p. 138); there this cow dung is described as prati­maṇḍalalekhitaśeṣagomaya, which could be interpreted to mean “the cow dung that remains after inscribing the individual maṇḍalas.” The implication of the Tibetan and Sanskrit seems to be that this “remaining” dung is the same dung that was first inscribed with maṇḍalas and incanted before being collected together, incanted a second time, and applied to the patient. This would make logical sense insofar as this process would infuse the dung with healing potency. This interpretation is nonetheless tentative.

n.16In the section of the Dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda (Toh 703), which closely parallels this text, it is made clear that this is Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda’s promise. However, in that text, it is Śākyamuni who articulates Siṃhanāda’s promise to Mañjuśrī.