Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
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.
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
g.1
Agni
Wylie: me lha
Tibetan: མེ་ལྷ།
Sanskrit: agni
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Agni guards the southeast quarter.
g.2
Anavatapta
Wylie: ma dros
Tibetan: མ་དྲོས།
Sanskrit: anavatapta
Name of a nāga king.
g.3
Āṭavaka
Wylie: ’brog gnas
Tibetan: འབྲོག་གནས།
Sanskrit: āṭavaka
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.4
Brahmā
Wylie: tshangs pa
Tibetan: ཚངས་པ།
Sanskrit: brahmā
As one of the three primary deities of the Hindu pantheon, in the Purāṇic cosmogony Brahmā is said to issue the four Vedas (Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma, and Athārva) from his four mouths, from which the entirety of creation unfolds. In Buddhist traditions, Brahmā is said to be a worldly deity who exists at the zenith of cyclic existence. He is thus added to the list of the eight guardians of the directions as the guardian of the zenith. In most narratives of the life of the Buddha, Brahmā is said to appear together with Śakra to request that the Buddha Śākyamuni teach the Dharma.
g.5
Daśagrīva
Wylie: mgrin bcu
Tibetan: མགྲིན་བཅུ།
Sanskrit: daśagrīva
Name of a nāga king; also a name for Rāvaṇa, the primary adversary of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa.
g.6
Dhṛtarāṣṭra
Wylie: yul ’khor srung
Tibetan: ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་།
Sanskrit: dhṛtarāṣṭra
One of the great kings of the four cardinal directions, Dhṛtarāṣṭra guards the eastern quarter of the heavens.
g.7
Durgā
Wylie: mkhar
Tibetan: མཁར།
Sanskrit: durgā
A goddess; another name for Pārvatī, the wife of Śiva.
g.8
Ekajaṭī
Wylie: ral pa cig
Tibetan: རལ་པ་ཅིག
Sanskrit: ekajaṭī
A goddess.
g.9
elephants of the quarters
Wylie: phyogs kyi glang po
Tibetan: ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ།
Sanskrit: diggaja
The eight elephants corresponding to the eight cardinal and ordinal directions and the eight world protectors.
g.10
Gaganaghoṣa
Wylie: nam mkha’i dbyangs
Tibetan: ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱངས།
Sanskrit: gaganaghoṣa
Name of a nāga king. Also known as Gaganasvara.
g.11
Gaṇapati
Wylie: tshogs bdag
Tibetan: ཚོགས་བདག
Sanskrit: gaṇapati
Gaṇapati, or Ganeśa, is the lord of the gaṇas, a class of demigods usually associated with the god Śiva. In the Purāṇic traditions Gaṇapati is portrayed as the elephant-headed son of Śiva and Pārvatī.
g.12
Gaṅgā
Wylie: gang gA
Tibetan: གང་གཱ།
Sanskrit: gaṅgā
A river goddess.
g.13
garuḍa
Wylie: gser ’dab
Tibetan: གསེར་འདབ།
Sanskrit: garuḍa
In Indian mythology, the garuḍa is an eagle-like bird that is regarded as the king of all birds, normally depicted with a sharp, owl-like beak, often holding a snake, and with large and powerful wings. They are traditionally enemies of the nāgas. In the Vedas, they are said to have brought nectar from the heavens to earth. Garuḍa can also be used as a proper name for a king of such creatures.
g.14
Gaurī
Wylie: dkar sham
Tibetan: དཀར་ཤམ།
Sanskrit: gaurī
A goddess; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.15
Ghaṇṭākarṇa
Wylie: dril rna
Tibetan: དྲིལ་རྣ།
Sanskrit: ghaṇṭākarṇa
The name of a worldly deity who is identified variously as an attendant of Skanda, an attendant of Śiva, a piśāca attendant of Kubera, and a rākṣasa.
g.16
graha
Wylie: gza’
Tibetan: གཟའ།
Sanskrit: graha
Deities associated with the planets.
g.17
Guardian of Speech
Wylie: brjod skyob
Tibetan: བརྗོད་སྐྱོབ།
A goddess.
g.18
Haimavata
Wylie: gangs la gnas
Tibetan: གངས་ལ་གནས།
Sanskrit: haimavata
Name of a yakṣa general in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.19
Hanuman
Wylie: ha nu man ta
Tibetan: ཧ་ནུ་མན་ཏ།
Sanskrit: hanuman
Name of a nāga king; a monkey god; Rāma’s companion and devotee in the Rāmāyaṇa.
g.20
Hārītī
Wylie: sras ’phan
Tibetan: སྲས་འཕན།
Sanskrit: hārītī
A yakṣiṇī; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.21
hosts of grahas
Wylie: gdon la ’jebs
Tibetan: གདོན་ལ་འཇེབས།
The translation of this term remains tentative but is read here as a potential translation of the Sanskrit compound *grahaprācurya in which the Tibetan has employed an incorrect grammatical particle. An alternate translation that favors the meaning that the term ’jebs pa bears in Tibetan and the Tibetan reading of the compound indicates that this could be either a collective noun or a proper name that translates as “Pleasing to the Grahas.”
g.22
Indra
Wylie: dbang po
Tibetan: དབང་པོ།
Sanskrit: indra
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Indra guards the eastern quarter.
g.23
Īśāna
Wylie: dbang bdag
Tibetan: དབང་བདག
Sanskrit: īśāna
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Īśāna guards the northeast quarter.
g.24
Jambhala
Wylie: gnod ’dzin
Tibetan: གནོད་འཛིན།
Sanskrit: jambhala
A yakṣa king associated with wealth and often identified with Kubera/Vaiśravaṇa.
g.25
Jinarṣabha
Wylie: rgyal ba’i khyu mchog
Tibetan: རྒྱལ་བའི་ཁྱུ་མཆོག
Sanskrit: jinarṣabha
Name of a yakṣa general; a son of Kubera.
g.26
Kālī
Wylie: nag mo
Tibetan: ནག་མོ།
Sanskrit: kālī
A goddess; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559); one of Durgā’s attendants.
g.27
Kārttikeya
Wylie: ka rti ka
Tibetan: ཀ་རྟི་ཀ
Sanskrit: kārttikeya
Kārttikeya (alt. Skanda) is the son of Śiva and Pārvatī. Like Gaṇapati, Kārttikeya is said to lead the gaṇas in battle against demonic beings and is considered a god of war.
g.28
Kinnara
Wylie: mi’am ci
Tibetan: མིའམ་ཅི།
Sanskrit: kinnara
A class of nonhuman beings that resemble humans to the degree that their very name—which means “is that human?”—suggests some confusion as to their divine status. Kinnaras are mythological beings found in both Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, where they are portrayed as creatures half human, half animal. They are often depicted as highly skilled celestial musicians.
g.29
Kubera
Wylie: lus ngan po
Tibetan: ལུས་ངན་པོ།
Sanskrit: kubera
One of the great kings of the four directions, Kubera guards the northern quarter of the heavens. Also known as Vaiśravaṇa.
g.30
Kumbhakarṇa
Wylie: bum rna
Tibetan: བུམ་རྣ།
Sanskrit: kumbhakarṇa
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.31
kumbhāṇḍa
Wylie: grul bum
Tibetan: གྲུལ་བུམ།
Sanskrit: kumbhāṇḍa
A class of dwarf beings subordinate to Virūḍhaka, one of the Four Great Kings, associated with the southern direction. The name uses a play on the word aṇḍa, which means “egg” but is also a euphemism for a testicle. Thus, they are often depicted as having testicles as big as pots (from kumbha, or “pot”).—
g.32
Mahābala
Wylie: stobs po che
Tibetan: སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེ།
Sanskrit: mahābala
Listed as the great yakṣa general of Rājagṛha in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.33
Mahākāla
Wylie: nag po chen po
Tibetan: ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
Sanskrit: mahākāla
Mahākāla (“the great black one”) is both a name for one of the god Śiva’s wrathful manifestations and an important Buddhist protector deity. The Mahābhārata and Harivaṁśa list Mahākāla as one of Śiva’s attendants.
g.34
Mahākālī
Wylie: nag mo chen mo
Tibetan: ནག་མོ་ཆེན་མོ།
Sanskrit: mahākālī
A goddess; one of Durgā’s attendants.
g.35
Mahākarṇa
Wylie: rna bo che
Tibetan: རྣ་བོ་ཆེ།
Sanskrit: mahākarṇa
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.36
Mahāpadma
Wylie: pad+ma chen po
Tibetan: པདྨ་ཆེན་པོ།
Sanskrit: mahāpadma
“The great lotus.” One of the four great treasures and the being who presides over it.
g.37
Mahāśaṅkha
Wylie: dung chen
Tibetan: དུང་ཆེན།
Sanskrit: mahāśaṅkha
“The great conch shell.” One of the four great treasures and the being who presides over it.
g.38
Manasvin
Wylie: gzi can
Tibetan: གཟི་ཅན།
Sanskrit: manasvin
Name of a nāga king.
g.39
Maṇibhadra
Wylie: nor bu bzang
Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་བཟང་།
Sanskrit: maṇibhadra
Name of a yakṣa general; brother of Pūrṇabhadra in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.40
Mārīcī
Wylie: ’od zer can
Tibetan: འོད་ཟེར་ཅན།
Sanskrit: mārīcī
A goddess; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.41
Meghanāda
Wylie: ’brug sgra
Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྒྲ།
Sanskrit: meghanāda
Name of a nāga king; name of Rāvaṇa’s son in the Rāmāyaṇa.
g.42
mighty helmet
Wylie: dbu rmog btsan pa
Tibetan: དབུ་རྨོག་བཙན་པ།
A martial metaphor for the territory that falls under the rule of a particular king.See also n.13.
g.43
Nairṛta
Wylie: bden bral
Tibetan: བདེན་བྲལ།
Sanskrit: nairṛta
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Nairṛta guards the southwest quarter. Also known as Nirṛti.
g.44
nakṣatra
Wylie: skar
Tibetan: སྐར།
Sanskrit: nakṣatra
Deities associated with the stars.
g.45
Nanda
Wylie: dga’ bo
Tibetan: དགའ་བོ།
Sanskrit: nanda
Name of a nāga king.
g.46
Nandi
Wylie: na n+ti
Tibetan: ན་ནྟི།
Sanskrit: nandi
Nandi is the bull attendant of Śiva and the guardian of Śiva’s realm in Kailāsa. He is commonly depicted at Śaiva temples as a bull positioned outside of the main gate of the temple gazing in upon Śiva’s liṅga with utter devotion.
g.47
Padma
Wylie: pad+ma
Tibetan: པདྨ།
Sanskrit: padma
“The lotus.” One of the four great treasures and the being who presides over it.
g.48
Pāñcālagaṇḍa
Wylie: lnga len tshigs
Tibetan: ལྔ་ལེན་ཚིགས།
Sanskrit: pāñcālagaṇḍa
Name of a yakṣa general in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.49
Pāñcālaka
Wylie: lnga ser
Tibetan: ལྔ་སེར།
Sanskrit: pāñcālaka
Name of a nāga king.
g.50
Pāñcika
Wylie: lngas rtsen
Tibetan: ལྔས་རྩེན།
Sanskrit: pāñcika
Name of a yakṣa general in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.51
Pārvatī
Wylie: ri
Tibetan: རི།
Sanskrit: pārvatī
A goddess; wife of Śiva in the Purāṇic traditions.
g.52
Pṛthivīdevatā
Wylie: sa yi lha
Tibetan: ས་ཡི་ལྷ།
Sanskrit: pṛthivīdevatā
The name of the earth deity.
g.53
Pūrṇa
Wylie: gang po
Tibetan: གང་པོ།
Sanskrit: pūrṇa
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.54
Pūrṇabhadra
Wylie: gang pa bzang po
Tibetan: གང་པ་བཟང་པོ།
Sanskrit: pūrṇabhadra
Name of a yakṣa general; brother of Maṇibhadra in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.55
reign
Wylie: chu srid
Tibetan: ཆུ་སྲིད།
Rule, kingdom, government, lit. “water domain.” See Kapstein 2006, p. 4.
g.56
Sāgara
Wylie: rgya mtsho
Tibetan: རྒྱ་མཚོ།
Sanskrit: sāgara
Name of a nāga king.
g.57
Śakra
Wylie: brgya byin
Tibetan: བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
Sanskrit: śakra
Sometimes functioning as an alternate name for Indra, Śakra is considered to be the ruler of the god realm and the leader of the army of devas.
g.58
Sañjaya
Wylie: yang dag rgyal ba
Tibetan: ཡང་དག་རྒྱལ་བ།
Sanskrit: sañjaya
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.59
Sañjñeya
Wylie: yang dag shes
Tibetan: ཡང་དག་ཤེས།
Sanskrit: sañjñeya
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.60
Śaṅkha
Wylie: dung
Tibetan: དུང་།
Sanskrit: śaṅkha
“The conch shell.” One of the four great treasures and the being who presides over it.
g.61
Śaṅkhinī
Wylie: dung can
Tibetan: དུང་ཅན།
Sanskrit: śaṅkhinī
A rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.62
Sarasvatī
Wylie: dbyangs can
Tibetan: དབྱངས་ཅན།
Sanskrit: sarasvatī
A river goddess.
g.63
Sātāgiri
Wylie: bde ri
Tibetan: བདེ་རི།
Sanskrit: sātāgiri
Name of a yakṣa general in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.64
Śrīmati
Wylie: dpal gyi lha mo
Tibetan: དཔལ་གྱི་ལྷ་མོ།
Sanskrit: śrīmati
A goddess; a yakṣiṇī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī (Toh 559).
g.65
Sugrīva
Wylie: mgrin bzang
Tibetan: མགྲིན་བཟང་།
Sanskrit: sugrīva
Name of a yakṣa general; in the Rāmāyaṇa, Sugrīva is the monkey king who lends his army to Rāma to defeat Rāvaṇa.
g.66
Supūrṇa
Wylie: shin tu gang
Tibetan: ཤིན་ཏུ་གང་།
Sanskrit: supūrṇa
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.67
Svaraghoṣā
Wylie: sgra dbyangs
Tibetan: སྒྲ་དབྱངས།
Sanskrit: svaraghoṣā
A goddess.
g.68
Tiraka
Wylie: ti ra ka
Tibetan: ཏི་ར་ཀ
Sanskrit: tiraka
Name of a yakṣa.
g.69
Trikarṇa
Wylie: rna gsum
Tibetan: རྣ་གསུམ།
Sanskrit: trikarṇa
Name of a yakṣa general.
g.70
Triśirṣaka
Wylie: stong gsum
Tibetan: སྟོང་གསུམ།
Sanskrit: triśirṣaka
Name of a nāga king.
g.71
Upananda
Wylie: bsnyen dga’ bo
Tibetan: བསྙེན་དགའ་བོ།
Sanskrit: upananda
Name of a nāga king.
g.72
uraga
Wylie: lto ’phye
Tibetan: ལྟོ་འཕྱེ།
Sanskrit: uraga
A serpent deity that inhabits specific localities. Also known as a kākorda.
g.73
Vāgīśvarī
Wylie: tshig dbang lha mo
Tibetan: ཚིག་དབང་ལྷ་མོ།
Sanskrit: vāgīśvarī
A goddess.
g.74
Vaiśravaṇa
Wylie: rnam thos bu
Tibetan: རྣམ་ཐོས་བུ།
Sanskrit: vaiśravaṇa
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Vaiśravaṇa guards the northern quarter. Also known as Kubera.
g.75
Varuṇa
Wylie: chu lha
Tibetan: ཆུ་ལྷ།
Sanskrit: varuṇa
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Varuṇa guards the northeast quarter.
g.76
Vāsuki
Wylie: nor rgyas
Tibetan: ནོར་རྒྱས།
Sanskrit: vāsuki
Name of a nāga king.
g.77
Vatsavatī
Wylie: be’u ’dra
Tibetan: བེའུ་འདྲ།
Sanskrit: vatsavatī
A goddess.
g.78
Vāyu
Wylie: rlung gi lha
Tibetan: རླུང་གི་ལྷ།
Sanskrit: vāyu
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Vāyu guards the northwest quarter.
g.79
Vibhīṣaṇa
Wylie: rnam ’jigs
Tibetan: རྣམ་འཇིགས།
Sanskrit: vibhīṣaṇa
Name of a nāga king; name of a yakṣa; name of Rāvaṇa’s brother in the Rāmāyaṇa.
g.80
vidyāmantra
Wylie: rig pa
Tibetan: རིག་པ།
Sanskrit: vidyāmantra
A type of incantation or spell used to accomplish a ritual goal. This can be associated with either ordinary attainments or those whose goal is awakening.
g.81
Virūḍhaka
Wylie: ’phags skyes
Tibetan: འཕགས་སྐྱེས།
Sanskrit: virūḍhaka
One of the great kings of the four cardinal directions, Virūḍhaka guards the southern quarter of the heavens.
g.82
Virūpākṣa
Wylie: mig mi bzang
Tibetan: མིག་མི་བཟང་།
Sanskrit: virūpākṣa
One of the great kings of the four carinal directions, Virūpākṣa guards the western quarter of the heavens.
g.83
Viṣṇu
Wylie: khyab ’jug
Tibetan: ཁྱབ་འཇུག
Sanskrit: viṣṇu
In the schema of the eight guardians of the directions, Viṣṇu guards the nadir.
g.84
vowels and consonants
Wylie: yi ge gnyis
Tibetan: ཡི་གེ་གཉིས།
Sanskrit: svaravyañjana
A dvandva compound signifying (in this text) linguistic expression in general and the basic components of the Sanskrit alphabet in particular.
g.85
Yama
Wylie: gshin rje
Tibetan: གཤིན་རྗེ།
Sanskrit: yama
One of the eight guardians of the directions, Yama guards the southern quarter.
g.86
Yamunā
Wylie: ya mu na
Tibetan: ཡ་མུ་ན།
Sanskrit: yamunā
A river goddess.