Introduction

i.1Śrīdevī Kālī’s One Hundred and Eight Names opens at Vulture Peak Mountain, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is delivering a teaching on what constitutes “correct names” (bden pa’i mtshan) to a retinue of bodhisattvas. When the goddess Śrīdevī Kālī rises from her seat, circumambulates the Buddha, and then sits at his side, another bodhisattva in the retinue is intrigued by her appearance and asks the Buddha to enumerate the qualities of this bodhisattva who is dressed like a rākṣasī.

i.2The Buddha then recites fourteen verses on the names of Śrīdevī Kālī and a concluding verse containing a samaya mantra for the goddess. The Buddha also enumerates the qualities and virtues that will ensue when one keeps the names of Śrīdevī Kālī in mind, and how such a person will quickly traverse the levels of śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas.

i.3The Tibetan term mtshan (Skt. nāman) in the title of this text and throughout its sections of prose and verse is somewhat challenging to translate into English. In this translation we have rendered it “name,” since it is clear that this work was composed within the genre of texts devoted to the enumeration of the “one hundred and eight names” of a given deity, a genre that appears to have been recognized by the compilers of the ninth-century royal Tibetan catalogs of translated works. However, the content of the verses in this text do not actually constitute a list of names or epithets for Śrīdevī Kālī, but are rather an extensive list of her various qualities. However, an alternative translation of the term mtshan could also be “quality,” a translation that resonates with the uses of the term nāman in Sanskrit literature as a “characteristic mark or sign.” Finally, the text itself does in fact draw a direct correlation between the Buddha’s enumeration of Śrīdevī Kālī’s one hundred and eight names with the virtues she possesses. Thus, while the term mtshan/nāman is translated as “name” in the title of this work, the reader should bear this double meaning in mind and understand that the text's title is a reference to a broader genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature (and South Asian Sanskritic devotional literature) that is organized around the chanting of the one hundred and eight names of a deity.

i.4There is currently no known Sanskrit witness to this text, and the text does not include a translators’ colophon. It does not appear in either of the ninth-century royal Tibetan catalogs of translated works and does also not appear as an independent work in the Chinese canon. As a result, it is difficult to determine the provenance of the work at this time.

i.5This English translation is based on the versions of Śrīdevī Kālī’s One Hundred and Eight Names that are found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) sections of the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the Stok Palace Kangyur and the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Degé Kangyur.