The Kalacakra Tantra on the Sadhana and Mandala

The Kalacakra Tantra: The Chapter on Sadhana

Together with the Vimalaprabha Commentary, Translated from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian, Introduced and Annotated by Vesna A. Wallace.

(Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences Series, Tengyur Translation Initiative).

New York, The American Institute of Buddhist Studies,

Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, and Tibet House US, 2010.

The Kalacakra Tantra was the last Buddhist tantra to appear in India, before the disappearance of Buddhism there, roughly a thousand years ago. This is the third book on Kalacakra by Vesna Wallace. We must be very grateful to her for another helpful contribution to our knowledge of this complex system. Her first one, The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual (New York, 2001), provides an overview of the whole system, drawing on all

five chapters of the Kalacakra Tantra. Her next one, The Kalacakratantra: The Chapter on the Individual together with the Vimalaprabha (New York, 2004), presents a translation of the second chapter of the Kalacakra Tantra along with the indispensable Vimalaprabha commentary thereon. The Kalacakra Tantra is written entirely in the sragdhara metre, in which the length of every syllable is regulated. When a complex system is presented in a complex metre, we have a text that is hard to understand in the extreme. It would be almost incomprehensible without the full and detailed Vimalaprabha commentary Dr Wallace s third book on Kalacakra, the book under review, presents a translation of the fourth chapter of the Kalacakra Tantra along with the

Vimalaprabha commentary thereon. This chapter and her previous translation of Chapter Two are the only chapters of these texts so far published in English translation. This fourth chapter is on the Kalacakra meditation practice, or sadhana. Here, the elaborate Kalacakra mandala with all its 722 deities (according to the count current among Gelugpas) is described in full detail. This is to be visualised in meditation. So this chapter, whether directly or

indirectly, forms the basis of all the Kalacakra practice texts, or sadhanas, ever written. The Kalacakra Tantra is the core text of a system of much importance and influence. The present Dalai Lama has given the public Kalacakra Initiation more than thirty times, throughout the world. So the Kalacakra Tantra, and this chapter in particular, is likely to have an unusually large readership. For this reason, a careful review is warranted.

The task of reviewers of translations ofSanskrit texts for academic j our nals is much like that of proofreaders. They must carefully compare the translation with the original Sanskrit text:. They are called upon to pass over in silence the thousands upon thousands of well-translated words and phrases and sentences, and take note only of those that might be improved or refined. It is in this way that our knowledge advances. Merely praising a book does not

David Reigle advance scholarship. The resulting review, therefore, will necessarily be very one-sided. This is a very difficult text, and there are many problems to be solved in translating it. No one can solve all of them the first time through. Once the hard groundbreaking work of translation has been done, a reviewer can then come in and with comparative ease offer suggestions for improvement:. That is what I have done. It is worth trying to understand this text as accurately as we can. My suggestions follow.

p. II, title: "The Great Exposition on the Location, Protection, and Disclosure of Sins". sthana-raksa-papa-desanadi-mahoddesah. The word etc." (adi) is omitted after Sins". (This also occurs on pp. ix, 4, and 25.) In the title, "The Great Exposition on the Location (i.e., the places for practice),

Protection, Disclosure of Sins, etc.", the etc." brings in such additional topics as the purification of the mouth (vaktra-suddhi), rejoicing in the merits of others (punyanumodana), and the definition or characteristics of emptiness (sunyata-laksana). I will be using hyphens in my citations of Sanskrit in order to show exactly how I understand the word breaks. These are not in the printed texts, and the

printed texts are customarily cited without them in order to show exactly what is there. But in the printed texts themselves it has become customary for editors to introduce spaces showing word breaks, where the devandgan script allows. These are not in the manuscripts, where everything is written together. So the use of hyphens in Romanised text only takes farther the usually helpful process of showing word divisions that the editors of printed texts have already established

. p. 12, line 18: "Here, in the splendid garden of the southern Malaya [[[mountains]]], in the town of Kalapa^, iha srimati kalapa-grama-daksina-malayodyane. The word south" (daksina) refers to the Malaya garden or park that is located to the south of the town of Kalapa, rather than to the southern Malaya

mountains. See Vimalaprabhatika, vol. 1, 1986, p. 26, line 20: kalapa-grama-daksinena malayodyanam, "Td the south of the town of Kalapa is Malaya park". p. 13, verse I： uand four [higher initiations]——the vase and secret initiations, and the wisdom and gnosis initiations——"kumbhaguhyabhisekah prajnajnanabhiseko . . . caturthah. The word fburth" (caturtha) may be used as the actual name of the fourth initiation, also called the word"

initiation. This should be: "the vase and secret initiations, the wisdom and gnosis initiation, and the fourth [[[initiation]]] p. 14, lines 18—20: "The day is the sun, uterine blood, and lotus; . . . the night is the moon, semen, and vajra\ dinam suryo rajo vajram bhava-bhedair nisa sasi \ sukram padmam ... The words lotus" and "uaj沽'should be reversed: "The day is the sun, uterine blood, and vajra; ... the night is the moon,

semen, and lotus". p. 16, line 2 (and following): "astrological houses", lagna. The lagna is the astrological rising sign or ascendant:. It is the sign of the zodiac that

appears to be rising on the eastern horizon at any given moment of the day or night. So there are twelve of these in twenty-four hours. These are not the same as the astrological houses. For the astrological houses in Indian astrology, the term bhdva is used.

p. 18, footnote 57: "The Tibetan translation reads the word 'adept' (sgrup pa po) in the genitive instead of in the instrumental". After briefly noting that the typo "sgmp" should be corrected to in the Tibetan word for adept", Sanskrit sadhaka, and that a sadhaka is likely to be only a practitioner" of the sadhana and not yet an adept, we get to the main

point:. It would seem that the genitive ending here, yd" instead of the instrumental ending, yds" is merely a typographical error found only in the blockprint of Bu-stons edition of the Kalacakra Tantra (The Collected Works of Bu-ston, edited by Lokesh Chandra, Part 1 (ka), 1965, folio side 138 as numbered in this reproduction, line 7).

Now that the collated Kangyur published in China has become available, we can easily check eight editions at once: the sDe-dge, gYung-lo, Li-thang, Pe-cin (or Peking), sNar-thang, Co-ne, Khu-re (or Urga), and Zhol (or Lhasa) editions. The collated Kangyur has the instrumental yds" here, with no variants

reported (vol. 77, p. 190, line 14). Similarly, the collated Tengyur published in China allows us to quickly check the Kalacakra Tantra as it is found repeated in the Tengyur in the sDe-dge and Co-ne editions. The collated Tengyur, too, has the instrumental yds" here, with no variants reported (vol. 6, p. 133, line 16). The Jonang edition of the Kalacakra Tantra annotated by Phyogs-las rnam-rgyal, which has recently become available in a nicely typeset edition in the Jonang Publication Series, also has the instrumental yds" here (vol. 17, p. no, line 9). So the genitive yd" found in the blockprint of Bu-stons edition appears to be only a typographical error.

To clinch the case, we are now able to check a reproduction of a manuscript in cursive (dbu med) script ofBu-stons edition, published in the 7-volume Paltseg Kalachakra Commentary Series (part of the 17-volume set, Phyag bris gees btus, Beijing, 2007). There we find the instrumental yds" (vol. 2, folio

side 138 as numbered in this reproduction, line 5). Thus, neither the Tibetan translation (if we may speak ofthe" Tibetan translation) nor Bu-stons annotated edition of this translation has the discrepancy noted; it is a mere copyists error in the blockprint of his edition. Regarding the blockprint ofBu-stons edition, which is the Tibetan translation used by Dr Wallace, a difficulty with the references arises. The references

given in the footnotes include the folio numbers of the blockprint, which is a very helpful feature. However, these are not the folio numbers of the reproduction that is listed in the bibliography which was edited by Lokesh Chandra and published in the Sata-pitaka Series, New Delhi, 1965. This puzzled me for a while, as I tried to check the references. The only other reproduction I knew of was one that the Dalai Lamas Office had done, perhaps in the late

1980s. I had obtained a copy from them in January, 1991. It consists of much of the five Kalacakra volumes, rearranged. It was done in loose-leaf format, and without publication data, but to each folio side was added a number. Upon checking, I see that this is the reproduction used by Dr Wallace. To match the folio numbers of the more widely available 1965 reproduction in the Sata-pitaka Series, 474 must be added to the numbers given by Dr Wallace in the footnotes. This is because in the 1965 reproduction, the sadhana chapter starts on the folio side numbered 475, while in the Dalai Lamas Office reproduction, the sadhana chapter starts on the folio side numbered 1. So for folio side 20 as given in the footnotes, one must go to folio side 494 in the 1965 reproduction. The same thing is true of Dr Wallace s earlier translation of the second or adhyatma chapter. But that chapter starts on the folio side

numbered 305 in the Dalai Lamas Office reproduction, and thus in Dr Wallaces footnotes, but starts on the folio side numbered 1 in the 1965 reproduction. It must also be noted that both of these Vimalaprabha chapters are found in volume 2 of the 1965 reproduction, while the bibliography lists only volume 1, Sata-pitaka Series vol. 41.

p. 19, footnote 61: In the mantra, one ^hrah" is missing. There should be four of these. This mantra is found in the printed Sanskrit edition, vol. 2, p. 35, line 24.

p. 19, line 5: pericarp" karnika. The translation of karnika as pericarp has been in use since Horace Hayman Wilsons pioneering Sanskrit-English Dictionary in the early 1800s, and has been adopted in the subsequent standard Sanskrit-English dictionaries of Monier Monier-Williams and Vaman Shivaram

Apte. The texts make it clear that the karnika is the central portion of a lotus flower, not including the petals (e.g., Vimalaprabha, 3.45, p. 51, line 15: kamala-tri-bhaga-karnikayam asta-dalani vajjayitva). But if you look up pericarp" in English language reference books available today, this is not what you find. This always caused me to wonder, and I kept looking for a more accurate English term for 让.Wilson in his 1840 translation of the Visnu

Purana, besides pericarp (2.2.37), had also used seed-cup" for it (2.2.9). This described it accurately enough, but did not come into use as a translation term. Finally a few years ago I contacted botanist Steven Miller of the University of Wyoming, who kindly gave me a full explanation. In brief, the central portion of most flowers consists of their female parts, and the most accurate collective or general term for these is the gynecium

(or gynoecium). In the case of the lotus and a small number of other flowers, a botanically correct term for the central portion is the receptacle. Since gynecium is as obscure to most readers as pericarp, I have chosen to adopt ucentral receptacle^^ for karnika, adding the adjective central" for clarity p. 20, line 2： sfpssxka. The footnotes 65 and 66 here explain that "The letter/here marks a modification of visavga, called "upadhmanrya ('on breathing'),

which is pronounced before the letters pa and pha"; and that "The letter x marks here a modification of visavga, called "jihvamuli-ya ("formed at the root of the tongue,) and pronounced before ka and kha\ I see no need to coin new transliterations for these forms of the visat^a.f and %, when the standard transliteration for the visarga, h, works perfectly fine. Since in the Sanskrit text these forms of the visavga are always indicated by giving them with a

following p or k, there can be no possible confusion as to what is meant:. That is, the upadhmaniya is always listed as hp, and the jihvamuliya is always listed as hk. So there is no need to transliterate these 2LsJp and xk. This string of letters can simply be transliterated as: shpsshka. p. 27, verse 8, line 4: uand the pavilion,\ vd. First we note that and" should be

or" (ya). This seemingly trivial thing becomes significant here in instructions for meditation, where one may visualise either this or the kutdgdra, the Umulti-storied palace". The basic and standard meaning of panjara found throughout the Sanskrit writings is a cage" and it will retain something of this idea even when used as an architectural term. This is lost in its Tibetan translation, gur, meaning tent". In descriptions of the mandala visualisation

found in Buddhist tantric texts it is sometimes compounded with bandhana, literally a binding" and commonly a prison" (e.g., Hevajra Tantra, 1.3.3: panjara-bandhana, Tibetan, gur being ba; also in the Sadhanamala). So we get the idea that it keeps inside what is inside, and by extension, that it keeps outside what is outside. Indeed, as shown by the title of the text, Sani-uajra-patyara-kauaca (from the Brahmdnda Purana), it may be seen as a kind of

"amiour" (kavaca), or protection. The Buddhist tantric Abhisamayamanjan specifically speaks of the raksd-panjara, the panjara of protection^^ (Sarnath, 1993, p. 8, lines 13, 15).

I have never found a clear definition oipanjara in relation to mandala architecture, but it is always described as being on top of the walls. The various sadhanas found in the Sadhanamala

give the same sequence for visualising a mandala. The vajra-ground (yajra-bhumi) is below; then come the vajra-walls (vajra-prakara), and above these is

the vajra-panjara. So it seems to be a kind of roo£ possibly a dome. David Snellgrove, perhaps influenced by its Tibetan translation (gur, tent"), translated it as canopy" in his pioneering 1959 translation of the Hevajra Tantra. But a few of the sadhanas in the Sadhanamala give a group of six items

in the sequence of visualising the mandala, adding three more to the three already stated (Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (ed.), pp. 424, 487, 491). After the panjara comes the vitdna, canopy", followed by the sara-jala and then the jvalanalarka. So a canopy of some sort is above or beyond the panjara.

Prasanna Kumar Acharyas extensive Dictionary of Hindu Architecture (London, 1934) does not help us here, under panjara. But under sikhara, he gives just what I would imagine the panjara to be: "a spherical roof rising like an inverted cup (Latin cupa) over a circular, square or multangular [sic\ building".

The panjara must be a roof of some kind, and I take it as a domed roof having the connotation of a protective sphere. p. 30, line 16: "'O king' is an invocation", rajann iti sambodhanam. I would translate this as: "'O king, is a vocative".

p. 32: lines 2—4: "The five pure colors correspond to the five collections, beginning with ethical discipline and the like", siladi-pancabhih skandhaih panca-varnam visodhitam. I take the past passive participle visodhitam, purified", as the verb-form that goes with the instrumentals in all of the verses

that are quoted here, rather than as an adjective modifying panca-varnam, the "five colours". So I understand this as: "The five colours are purified by the five collections, That is, the five colours are the purification of the five collections. This, of course, is the language used here and throughout this text to say that an element or deity of the mandala symbolises an element of the outer or inner world. In this case, it is saying that the five colours of the mandala symbolise the five collections. The construal of visodhitam as a verb-form rather than an adjective here is confirmed by the Tibetan translation: tshul khrims la sogs phung po Ingas \ kha dog Inga ni mam sbyangs pa (Bu-ston edition, folio side 490, line 4, and Peking and sNar-thang editions; or mam par dag in the sDe-dge and Co-ne editions; collated Tengyur, vol. 6, p. 762, line 2). There is no word for "correspond to" anywhere in these verses, but was added by the translator as being implied. p. 32, line 5: fences" prakara. While prakara can mean fbnce" I think it must be understood in its more usual meaning ofwall". In relation to the Kalacakra mandala, there is a threefold wall and a fivefold wall. When the visualisation of the mandala is first described, in the previous chapter 3,

verse 23 (Vimalaprabhatika, vol. 2, p. 23, lines 13—14), we read: tato rastra-raksartham rdstra-simdydm panca-prakaram bhavayet. uThen, for the sake of protecting the realm, one should visualise a fivefold wall at the boundary of the realm". If the Great Wall of China was a fence, it could hardly have protected the realm from the Mongol horsemen.

That wall" rather than is intended here is confirmed by the use of the word

bhitti for this in verse 20, and by the use of the compound, prakara-bhitti. The word bhitti means wall" (not and the compound prakara-bhitti is used in descriptions of Indian

temples to specify that a surrounding wall or enclosure wall is meant, as opposed to just a wall, such as of a building or a partition wall. This compound is used in the present chapter, in the Vimalaprabha on verses 20 and 33, where it is declined in the locative case: prakara-bhittau (Sanskrit edition, p. 163, line 27, p. 164, line 3, and p. 169, line 11). It was

translated into Tibetan as a sasti or genitive tatpurusa compound: ra bayi rtsig pa la. We can hardly take this as on the wall of the fence,\ so Dr Wallace translates this as uon/at the wall of the enclosure^^ (pp. 48, 58). We see fbnce" used frequently in translations made from the Tibetan. It would seem that the Sanskrit prakara and its Tibetan translation ra ba overlap at

opposite ends of their respective meaning spectrums. Thus, while ra ba can mean wall", its more usual meaning seems to be ufence,\ In footnote 25 here, I do not understand the sentence, "The Derge edition reads, "rab gsum^ instead of "rob bkral gsum'\ All editions read ra ba gsum (collated Tengyur, vol. 6, p. 762, line 3; Bu-ston, folio side 490, line 4).

p. 32, lines 5—8: "The three fences in the mandalas of the mind, speech, and body correspond to the three vehicles, to the five spiritual faculties of faith (sraddhendriyd) and the like, and to the five powers (bala), faith and so on", tri-prakaras tri-yanais ca panca-sraddhendriyadibhih \ sraddhadibhir balaih panca citta-vak-kaya-mandale. We know that the mind mandala is surrounded by a threefold wall, and the speech and body mandalas are each surrounded

by a fivefold wall. The word panca, five", in the second line refers to these latter two. It is a nominative, and cannot modify the instrumental balaih, powers". This sentence is saying: "The three walls [are purified] by the three vehicles, and the [two sets of] five [walls] [are purified] by the five spiritual faculties, faith and so on, and by the powers, faith and so on, [respectively,] in the mandalas of mind, speech, and body".

p. 32, line 9: pavilions", vedikd. On p. 2y,patyara was translated as pavilion", while on p. 12, mandapa was translated as pavilion". But vedikd, panjara, and mandapa are not synonyms. These three were at these places in the Kalacakra Tantra and Vimalaprabha translated into Tibetan respectively as kha khyer (Peking, sNar-thang eds.) or stegs bu (sDe-dge, Co-ne eds.), gur, and khang bzangs (Peking, sNar-thang eds.) or sgo khyams (sDe-dge, Co-ne eds.). Of these three, the mandapa is commonly a kind of open pavilion having columns or pillars, and I did not comment on it at its occurrence on p. 12. There, however (Sanskrit (ed.), p. 149, line 21), its placement at the limit or boundary (avasane) of the eastern doorway of the Kalacakra mandala house shows that it is an attached entrance hall rather than a separate pavilion near" the eastern gate (as avasdne was there translated). This is typical of many

Indian temples. I have already commented on the panjara.

Although the vedikd is reported to have once been a hall or pavilion in which the Vedas were read (P K. Acharya, A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture, pp.

564, 567), it is not a pavilion in Buddhist texts. There it is generally described as a railing, such as going around a stupa (Acharya, pp. 567—568; A. K. Coomaraswamy, "Indian Architectural Ibnns", Journal of the American Oriental Society, XEVIII (1928), p. 273; F Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary). But in Buddhist tantric texts, the vedika is not a railing, either. There it is essentially a platform, a narrow platform. This brings us

closer to the central meaning of vedika as an altar. In the Kalacakra mandala the vedika is like a walkway or sidewalk that goes along the bottom of a wall, and that happens to provide a place for the deities to sit or stand. I do not know of an English word that means this.

The term vedika has sometimes been translated as plinth" since a projecting foundation at the base of a wall is a meaning of plinth. However, I do not see the vedika as a plinth, since the foundation of a wall is not its function, and other words are used for a plinth in Indian architecture (Acharya, op.

cit.: janman, upana, paduka; Coomaraswamy op. cit.: adhisthana,

alambana). Jeffrey Hopkins has used apron" for it in the 1985 book, The Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation, p. 78. This would be in the sense of "a small area adjacent to another larger area or structure^ (Concise Oxford Dictionary, tenth edition). So how do we know that the vedika is a narrow platform rather than a pavilion? We know this because it is described in the Vimalaprabha as being half the width of the door (2.156, vol. i, p. 253, line 25), or twice the width of the walls (3.39, vol. 2, p. 47, line 6). The "measure of the door" {dvara-mand)

is a basic unit of measurement in the construction of the Kalacakra mandala.

p. 32, line II： "jewelled strips of fabric,\ ratna-pattika. The ratna-pattika in mandala architecture is not a strip of fabric. In the Kalacakra mandala the ratna-pattika (Tibetan, rin chen snam bu) is, as stated by Edward Henning, a "jewelled frieze running around the length of the wall and overhanging it" ("Mandala literalism", wwwkalacakra.org). This is not to be confused with the devatd-pattikd. For this, see below. p. 32, footnote 32: "The Sanskrit Ka manuscript and D wive di s edition read, "kravasirsaka instead of "kramasirsaka". Actually, Dwivedis edition reads ^kavasirsaka" (p. 157, line 4).

p. 35, lines 2 and 16: sounds", svarah. These thirty-two and sixteen sounds" are vowels" as svara must be translated here, and as it is translated shortly hereafter on p. 36, line 17, and p. 37, line 2.

p. 35, line 4: on the moon disc, or on the discs of the moon, sun, and Rahu^, candra-surya-rahu-mandalopari candra-mandale. There is no word for or" in the Sanskrit or Tibetan here. I would not mention such a small thing, except that a controversy arose over whether Kalacakra stands on three or four seats here. See: Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kalacakra Tantra, by Khedrup Norsang Gyatso, translated by Gavin Kilty (Boston, 2004), pp. 326—331, where this line is quoted on p. 329.

p. 35, lines 5—10: "The thirty-two [[[signs]]] are a pentad of the first digit of the moon ... a pentad of the second digit of the moon ... a pentad of the third digit of the moon \ prathama-kald-pancakam ... dvitiya-kala-pancakam ... trtiya-kala-pancakam. I understand these thirty-two [[[Wikipedia:vowels|vowels]], rather than signs] as pentads of the first five digits of the moon, the second five digits of the moon, and the third five digits of the moon. p. 35, line 13: The I and r should be long I and f.

p. 35, line 15: "ap'; and note 53: "The Tibetan reads,'亦.As we saw with footnote 57 on p. 18, only the reading found in the blockprint of Bu-stons edition is being reported for the Tibetan. The collated Tengyur reports "o矿 here for all four editions: sDe-dge, Pe-cin (Peking), sNar-thang, and Co-ne (vol. 6,

p. 763, line 12). Similarly for the Vimalaprabha as it is found repeated in three editions of the Kangyur, the collated Kangyur reports "旳"here for all three: sDe-dge, Li-thang, and Khu-re (or Urga) (collated Kangyur, vol. 99, p. 476, line 19). Likewise, the printed Jonang edition of the Vimalaprabha has "a* here (vol. 20, p. 17, line 17). The Seventh Dalai Lamas full-length Kalacakra sadhana, found in his Collected Works, volume VIII, as reprinted in

Gangtok, 1976, also has "a* here (folio side 329, line 3). The blockprint ofBu-stons edition is alone in having "N矿 here (Part 2 (kha), folio side 492, line 1). That it is only a typographical error in the blockprint is proved by the reproduced manuscript of Bu-stons edition, where we find "时(vol. 3, folio side 243, line 2).

p. 35, lines 16—17: "These thirty-two signs of a great man are within a degree of the latitude of the moon", etani dvatrimsan-mahapurusa-laksanani candramse; and from footnote

54: "The Tibetan reads, "angd (yan lag) instead oi'amsa". That is, limb" or body" instead ofpart" or degree". Here in the printed Sanskrit edition is a footnote giving the variant reading candrange" as occurring in "ga. ca. bho." The abbreviations "ga； and "ca." refer to the two old palm-leaf

manuscripts used in preparing this edition, and "bho." refers to the Tibetan translation in the sDe-dge edition. When we see the combination of these three oldest sources agreeing in a footnote giving a variant reading, it is almost invariably the correct reading. The other readings found in the later paper manuscripts are almost always incorrect, however reasonable they may have appeared to the copyists and editors at the time. A new edition is underway by

the editors at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, and these later readings will no doubt be corrected. So I believe that ^anga" is the correct reading here instead of ^amsa". The phrase candrahgam" occurs in verse 2 of this chapter, where it refers to "the single Kalacakra^, as translated by Dr Wallace on p. 14, line 6. In the Vimalaprabha commentary thereon, this phrase is glossed as ^ekdngam", showing that

candra, moon", is one of the characteristic word-numbers used in Kalacakra, standing for eka, one". This is explained a little farther on by the translator in a footnote (81) to verse 12, on p. 39. She has translated candrangam" in the commentary on verse 2 as "a single body" (p. 16, line 1). I think that this is the correct translation of the correct reading, ^candrdnge", here as well: "These thirty-two signs of a great man are on a single body";

i.e., the body of Kalacakra. Probably a double meaning is intended here, because the corresponding thirty-two vowels sit on the candrdnga, literally the "body of the moon".

p. 35, line 25 (and footnote 58): ^ssa \ As stated in the footnote, Dwivedis edition omits ^ssa \ However, it has been restored in not quite the right place in the translation. The order of this class or vavga should be: ssa, hphpa, ssa, ssa, hkhka.

p. 37, footnote 67: "The Tibetan translation misses the following: ... "It is only the blockprint of Bu-stons edition of the Tibetan translation that misses this line. This line is found in the Tengyur editions of the Tibetan translation. It is also found in the reproduced manuscript ofBu-stons edition, vol. 3, folio side 244, lines 6—7.

p. 37, line 13: Between Ufour faces^ and utwelve eyes" the words uthree necks" (tri-gnvam) are missing.

p. 37, verse II： "whose legs are in the alidha [pose] and whose very playful feet are on the hearts of Rudra and Ananga,\ rudrananga-dvayor hrt-sulalita-caranalidha-padam. I do not think that feet or legs are spoken of twice here, with the synonymous words carana and pada. The word pada is here a metrically

required substitute for pada, the normal word for pose" or posture" in these texts. Like for many such words used in Kalacakra, this meaning is not found in our dictionaries. As the translator pointed out in footnote 70 on this page, "The Tibetan translation reads, "whose very playful feet are in the alidha pose'". The Tibetan word for pose" here is stabs, coming immediately afterbrkyang, or alidha, where it clearly translates pada. We see this same

metrical lengthening in this phrase elsewhere in the verses of the Kalacakra Tantra (3.35b, 3.88b, 4.66c, 4.135b). But in the prose commentary, unless quoting the verse, it is always pada; and even twice in the verses, where the placement allowed, it is pada (4.68b, 4.109b). For pada, and for pada as metrically lengthened, we find the same Tibetan translation, stabs, in this context of describing poses or postures.

The oldest extant source describing these postures is Bharatas Natya-sastra, which is referred to by name in verse 69 of this chapter of the Kalacakra Tantra. In the Natya-sastra they are called sthana rather than pada (chapter 11, verses 50 f£). The term sthana was retained for them in the later Samgita-

ratnakara as well (chapter 7, verses 1017 ff.). But like Buddhist tantric texts, some other Hindu texts use pada for them (e.g., Visnudharmottara Purana, Citrasutra, 3.39). The Natya-sastra describes six of these: vaisnava, samapada, vaisdkha, mandala, alidha, and pratyalidha. Five of these are used in Kalacakra (4.66—68, 109), omitting vaisnava, while a different sixth one is added, called lalita (4.69).

The term sulalita found here in verse 11, however, is likely to be largely a metrical filler in the difficult middle segment of the verse line, where six short syllables in a row are needed. In describing feet in the alidha posture, as it does here, I would take sulalita in its meaning of "very gracefuF, rather than "very playful,\ Besides the fact that Kalacakra is here trampling on the hearts of Rudra and Ananga, which does not seem very playful to me,

the rasa or sentiments that are associated with this posture are the vira or heroic and the raudra or fierce (Natya-sastra, 11.68). The alidha posture is to be used to portray aggressiveness, shooting arrows at enemies, etc. (11.69). p. 40, footnote 90, on the word "hatchet", saying: "Sanskrit texts read here "pasu\ literally meaning 'cattle\ "an animaF. This use of the word pasu for a hatchet indicates that this type of weapon was used mostly for butchering animals". Actually they read parsu (or the variant spelling parasu), meaning an axe" or hatchet".

p. 40, verse 14: ^khatvdnga with smiling faces’’，khatvdnga-vikasita-mukham. The khatvahga is an implement that is supposed to have originated as the leg (angd) of a bed (khatva), on which three severed heads are usually mounted. It would seem incongruous for these heads to be smiling. The word vikasita normally means opened", like when a flower blooms. It is used in this text in the phrase vikasita-vadana (verses 10, 176, and 193 of the present chapter, and verse 117 of the second chapter), which has duly been translated as "opened mouth". Here, however, it would seem similarly incongruous for these heads to have opened mouths. For a question like this we would turn to the annotations of Bu-ston.

The translator gives Bu-ston s annotation to this phrase from the verse as it is repeated in the Vimalaprabha, in footnote 92 on p. 41, as: uBu ston [22]: "Three smiling vajra faces'". The Tibetan text of the Vimalaprabha here is ^khatvdmga mam par 復yas pa'i kha\ on which Bu-stons note is: "ni rtse mo'i rdo

jje kha gyes pa\ Something seems amiss. We do not see three" here, nor do we see smiling". Bu-ston appears to be saying that the vajra at the top has an opened mouth. We know that khatvangas usually have either a vajra or a trident at the top, above the three heads. So Bu-stons note would assume that this khatvdnga has a vajra at the top, and be saying that the prongs of this vajra are opened or separated at the end. This is what a wrathful vajra has as opposed to a peaceful vajra, whose prongs join at the end. I was quite unsure of this interpretation, because I have not yet come across a description of a wrathful vajra in Sanskrit texts to see if vikasita is used to describe it, and I have no familiarity with how the Tibetan gloss, gyes pa, is used in native Tibetan. This same gloss for mam par pa (vikasita) is also given in the annotated Jonang edition by Phyogs-las rnam-rgyal (vol. 20, p. 21, line 12).

So I asked Tibetan translator Gavin Kilty about the meaning of this. Gavin Kilty replied that gyes pa does mean separated here, and is used, for example, to describe how the channels separate out again and again to make 72,000. So, he explained,

this gloss is saying that the root meaning of pa, expand", here has the sense of "separate out", gyes pa. Therefore, it does refer to the prongs of the vajra separating out at the top. He added that Dr Wallace was probably thinking of dgyes pa, udelighted, pleased" for her smiling .

p. 41, line 16: origination" pravesa. Th this, footnote 94 is added: uBu ston [22] 'origination'". The word pravesa was translated into Tibetan here as rab tu zhugs, which Bu-ston glosses by adding: pa ste rdzogs par bskyed. This gloss was translated into English as origination". The glosses of Bu-ston are extremely helpful, if not indispensable. The same thing is true of Sayanas commentaries on the Vedas. But the gloss is not the text:. When Horace

Hayman Wilson produced the first English translation of the Rgveda, he necessarily drew heavily upon Sayanas commentary He was later criticised for giving in it translations of Sayanas glosses of Vedic words rather than translations of the Vedic words themselves. I do not think that pravesa entry", can per se be translated as origination", but only glossed as referring to that:.

p. 44, verse 18: ambrosia" amrta. In the Vimalaprabha commentary here, amrta is translated as both nectar" and ambrosia" (p. 45, lines 1—2). As we know, in Greek and Roman mythology ambrosia is the food of the gods, while nectar is the drink of the gods. So the question is whether amrta is a solid or a liquid. In one meaning of amrta, there are two solids and three liquids among the five amrtas spoken of in Kalachakra Tantra 2.125: feces, urine, semen,

blood, and human flesh. Pills can be made with these (4.169). The five amrtas are explained differently in two commentaries on the Hevajra Tantra (1.2.20), as curds, milk, ghee, cow urine, and cow dung (Kanhas \bgaratnamala, Snellgrove (ed.), p. 111, line 19), or as milk, curds, ghee, honey, and sugar (Vajragarbhas Hevajra-pindartha-tika, or Satsahasrika-hevajra-tika, Malati J. Shendge (ed.), 2004, p. 54, line 9). Perhaps this led David Snellgrove to translate amrta as ambrosia" in his 1959 translation of this tex匚 But there and here, these substances are largely symbolic (see Vimalaprabha on 4.113,

and on 5.127, vol. 3, pp. 69, 72). The more central meaning in Kalacakra hardly differs from the standard meaning in Hindu mythology, where amrta is the nectar of immortality a liquid. In the latter two of the four parts of the Kalacakra sadhana, amrta is a liquid that flows (sravate) in the form of drops (e.g., Vimalaprabha on 4.110, quoting the mula-tantra, p. 205, line 9: sravate bindu-rupena amrtam). Therefore, I think nectar" is more appropriate than ambrosia" as the translation of amrta.

p. 44, verse 18: In Pitas right hands there are, in sequence, a conch, a flute, a damaru [sic\, and a jewel". The order of the last two should be reversed: "a jewel and a damaru" sa-mani-damarukah. This is confirmed in the commentary On a typographical note, damaru is given throughout the book without the diacritic, damaru.

p. 45, verse 19: "The black and white [[[deities]]] on the moon and the red and yellow [[[deities]]] on the sun are present in the intermediate directions", krsna svetendu-murdhni tv atha vidisi gate rakta-pite ^ka-murdhni. The meaning of Sanskrit sentences such as this depends on where one places the implied uis/are,\ To get the required meaning, explained in the Vimalaprabha commentary on this and the following verse, we must place these as follows: "The black

and white [[[deities]]] are on moon [discs], but also [the goddesses] present in the intermediate directions; the red and yellow [[[deities]]] are on sun [discs]." Besides the exception made for the goddesses in the intermediate directions, who are to be placed on moon discs, The Kalacakra Tantra on the Sadhana and Mandala 449

an exception is also made for the gods in the cardinal directions. These are to be placed on sun discs, says the Vimalaprabha on verses 19 and 20. p. 46, footnote no: Euston [26]: "The palace ofgnosis,,\ In this review, I am comparing the Sanskrit text, and only occasionally looking at Bu-stons Tibetan annotations. I happened to check this one (26 should be 25, corresponding to folio side 499 in the 1965 reproduction). It reads: shes pas gzhal yas khang yang. This refers to a palace, but does not mention gnosis.

p. 47, line 10： uAbove is Usnisa [sic\, who is dark in color . . . and p. 48, line 23: "who is dark like Aksobhya^^ syama. While syama does often mean dark" my impression is that it is normally used in Kalacakra in its meaning ofgreen". The Tibetan translation here, Ijang khu, green", supports this. On another typographical note, it so happens that the diacritic is missing on the i" in Usnisa here. But missing diacritics on the countless Sanskrit words in this book are remarkably rare.

p. 48, bottom paragraph: "Here, the black and white, or the eastern and northern, male and female deities who stand above in the east and north, must be placed on the disc of the moon", urdhvasthds candra . . . ; and p. 49, top: "Likewise, the red and yellow, or the southern and western, male and female deities who stand below, are on the discs of the sun", adhastdc ca. This leaves out a lot of deities. For the proper meaning, we need a ca, and", in the

Sanskrit text after urdhvasthds, thus saying: uand those who stand above". We have a ca after adhastdc, and this must be included in the translation: uand those who stand below". That is, those deities in the east, in the north, and above the mandala should be placed on moon discs, while those deities in the south, in the west, and below the mandala should be placed on sun discs.

In 2010, an excellent old palm-leaf manuscript of the Vimalaprabha was reproduced by Lokesh Chandra in the book, Sanskrit Manuscripts from Tibet (Sata-pitaka Series, vol. 629, New Delhi). This is as good as the old palm-leaf manuscript, preserved at the Asiatic Society Calcutta, which was also once used in Tibet, and is designated as ca in the printed Sanskrit edition. Although I have long had a microfilm of the Calcutta manuscript, I will refer to this

book since it is available for anyone to check. In using this book, one must note that the folio sides without numbers are placed out of order. Five folio sides are reproduced on each page. So I will cite this book by page number and first through fifth folio side on that page. Sure enough, on p. 79, second folio side, line 3, we find our needed ca: urdhvasthds ca candra ...So the Sanskrit edition must be corrected, p. 164, line 8, and the English translation emended accordingly. While doing so, there is an extra east" and north" that should be deleted, p. 48, bottom paragraph. Also, footnote 122 on p. 48, saying that the Tibetan translation reads below" instead of above" should be cancelled. I only checked this after finding the Sanskrit ca, but the Tibetan translation in Bu-stons edition reads: Wir shar dang byang dang steng na gnas pa. I understand this as: "Here, located in the east, the north, and above, ...

" p. 49, verse 2I： [A male deity], who has an emblem in the palm of his first right hand, has a mudrd without a lotus", yac cihnam yasya savye prathama-kara-tale sasya mudrabja-hina. Besides the fact that all the deities hold an emblem (cihna) or implement (ayudha) in their first right hand, I do not think the word mudrd is here referring to a female partner. So there would also be no need to assume only a male deity as the subject. I think that mudra, seal" or stamp", is here being used to mean the primary cihna, emblem" or sign" of a deity. When

the deities are generated in the sadhana, from a seed-syllable and then an emblem, we find that the emblem they are generated from is usually the implement that is held in their first right hand. So I understand this as: "The emblem that is in the palm of the first right hand of a particular [[[deity]]] is the seal (mudra) of that [[[deity]]], except for a lotus". The lotus is excluded.

p. 52, verse 25: "With the exception of eight goddesses, Dhuma and the others, sometimes in the lotus of the Lord of Jinas there is a splendid wheel in the centre, which consists of twenty-five [[[deities]]], O king", astau dhumadi-devir jinapati-kamale vajjayitva kadacit \ sri-cakram garbha-madhye bhavati narapate pancavimsatmakam ca. The sn-cakra, "splendid wheel" or "glorious circle", is glossed here in the Vimalaprabha as the citta-mandala or mind mandala", the centremost of the three individual mandalas that together comprise the Kalacakra mandala. It is always there. I understand this sentence as:

"And when leaving aside the eight goddesses, Dhuma and the others on the lotus of the Lord of Jinas, the glorious circle inside the inner chamber comes to consist of twenty-five [[[deities]]], O king".

The Vimalaprabha commentary adds, as translated on p. 52, bottom lines: "Thereafter, although the Divine Lord has joined in, it becomes like in the glorious [Guhya\samaja\ upavisto 'pi tadd Bhagavan bhavati sn-samajavat. I think we must take the api here in its meaning of also" rather than although". I understand this as: Then, the Bhagavan also being settled in [or included], it becomes like in the glorious [Guhya\samaja.^ This apparently has reference to what must have then been a standard Guhyasamaja mandala consisting of twenty-five deities, although the thirty-two deity Guhyasamaja mandala became standard later in Tibe匚

We may deduce from the annotations of Phyogs-las rnam-rgyal (vol. 20, p. 29) that the Kalacakra mind mandala is here being said to consist of twenty-five lotuses. On each of these is a pair of deities, male and female. We know that there are eight pairs of tathagatas, twelve pairs of bodhisattvas, and four pairs of krodha-rajas, or wrathful protectors. Then, making twenty-five, is the central eight-petalled lotus on which stand Bhagavan Kalacakra and his

consort, surrounded by the eight goddesses, Dhuma and the others. These are each on a petal of the central lotus, and thus are left out of the count:. Regarding this, the Vimalaprabha commentary explains, as translated on p. 53, top two lines: "There is no mistake here because of its being without a lineage", atra doso nasti niranvayatvat. It is not that there is no mistake" here, but rather that there is no (dosa)

here in teaching this. The reason given for this brings in an important term in Kalacakra, niranvaya, a term that was subject to various interpretations. This is however too large a topic to introduce here; suffice to say that Bu-stons edition and the Peking and sNar-thang editions of the lengyur translate niranvaya as rigs med pa, "without lineage^^ here, or following RonaldM. Davidsons Manjusn-nama-samgiti translation, "without causal connection", while Phyogs-las rnam-rgyals Jonang edition and the sDe-dge and Co-ne editions of the Tengyur here translate niranvaya as ris med pa, uwithout partiality" or "without following one line".

The verse concludes, as translated on p. 52: "For the sake of initiation, the mandala lacks the outer circle due to the power of the families", sekartham mandalam vai bhavati kida-vasdd bahya-cakra-prahinam. It may be clearer to directly account for the bhavati by translating bhavati prahinam as something like "becomes devoid of, rather than just Tacks". Only the deities of the mind mandala are needed for granting initiation, not the deities of the speech

and body mandalas. It is not that the latter are not there, only that they are not needed. So I understand

this sentence, still awkward in expression because of the original being metrical, as: "For the sake of initiation, the mandala becomes devoid of the outer [two] circles [i.e., mandalas] due to the power of the families".

p. 53, lines 21—22： in accordance with the natures of the body, speech, and mind^^ citta-vdk-kdya-svabhdvena. As we often see in the prose Vimalaprabha, the word order given is intentional. Here it is intended to correspond to that of the three circles in the first part of the sentence. So the translation should follow the literal order: in accordance with the natures of the mind, speech, and body".

p. 54, verse 26: On the eight petals of the lotuses outside [the mind mandala] there are yoginis, Carcika and the others, ... and are accompanied by their eight respective goddesses of the eight directions^^. bdhye castastakenastasu kamala-dalesv asta-dig-devadbhir \ yoginyas carcikadyah. The first

clause must be moved to the end of the sentence in order to get the required meaning. It is not Carcika and the other seven who are on the eight petals of the lotuses. Rather, they are each at the centre of a lotus and are each surrounded by a group of eight goddesses on the eight petals of each of the eight

lotuses. So this sentence should be rearranged and modified to read: "Outside [the mind mandala] there are yoginis, Carcika and the others, ... and are accompanied by the eight groups of eight goddesses in the eight directions on the eight petals of the lotuses". As always, the translation of the Vimalaprabha commentary will have to be adapted accordingly. Additionally line 20 on this page includes an emendation by

the translator: uCarcika ... is on the eastern petal". As stated in footnote 146 thereon, "Dwivedi's edition and the Tibetan translation read, 'lotus' instead of'petal'". In fact, lotus" is quoted directly from the verse itself^ and is correct. So lotus" must be restored in place ofpetal" following the Sanskrit text and Tibetan translation.

p. 56, lines 4—5: uKauman has a jewel and a goad" kaumarya ratnam pasah. This is a mere slip, and should be: uKaumari has a jewel and a noose". p. 56, fourth paragraph: Tn the petals of the lotuses of Carcika and the others - where the goddesses of the petals of Carcika and the others are to be

known as turning toward the right, or toward the east and so forth — Bhima is on the first petal, ..." carcikadi-kamala-dalesu purvadi-daksinavartena carcikadinam patra-devyo veditavyah, tatra prathama-patre bhima. The phrase, "or toward the east and so fbrth" is not glossing uturning toward the right" but is giving necessary additional information. As such, it will need to be translated differently. I take purvadi here in its basic meaning as "beginning

in the east" rather than its usual paraphrase as "the east and so fbrth,\ Also, in agreement with the translators footnote 151 on this page, we must correct yatra where", in the Sanskrit edition (p. 168, line 2) to patra, petal". But the where" is still in her translation, making a subordinate clause for what should be the main verb of the sentence, veditavya uare to be known". So I understand this sentence as: On the petals of the lotuses of

Carcika and the others, the goddesses of the petals of Carcika and the others are to be known, turning toward the right beginning in the east. Of these, on the first petal is Bhima,\ Then follow seven more names, going clockwise around the lotus in sequential order. p. 57, line 4: S uparamavij aya is just Vijay a here in the Vimalaprabha commentary. The suparama is probably just an addition in the Kalacakra Tantra verse to fit the metre, as it is in the middle segment of the line that requires a string of short syllables.

p. 58, line 8: Suparamaturita is just Turita here in the Vimalaprabha commentary

p. 58, line II： Sasadharadhavana should be Sasadharavadana.

p. 58, bottom two lines: in the right and other sections of the eastern gate", purva-dvarasya savya-bhagadau. The text is not speaking of sections of a gate as the locations for the twelve lotuses of the body mandala, but rather the sections of the mandala going all the way around. Like before, as noted

regarding a similar phrase on p. 56, we must here take adi as "beginning with" rather than uand other". I understand savya-bhagadau as in the sections beginning on the right (of the eastern gate)" rather than in the right and other sections (of the eastern gate)". Again, this has much relevance when enumerating deities in sequential order (yatha-samkhyani) going around the mandala, as follows here in the text:.

p. 60, verse 36 (and Vimalaprabha, p. 62, line 2): "The ten lunar days of caitra ..." vasu-kara-tithayah. When word numbers are used together, like here, they are to be read backwards, not added together. Thus, vasu, the (eight) Vasus, or eight, and kara, hand", or two, are to be read as twenty-eight, not as ten. So "the twenty-eight lunar days of caitra" are spoken of here. Then in this verse, "the two pumas" are added to the twenty-eight lunar days, making

the thirty days of the month. Although ^Purna is a name of the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth lunar days", as stated in footnote 158, it is here the latter; i.e., the new moon and full moon days.

p. 61, footnote 162: "the day of the new moon ... It is the twenty-fifth day of the dark half of every lunar month". Correct utwenty-fifthto fifteenth". p. 62, lines 5—6: "Their names ... end with vajras\ vajrdntam ndma. This should say "Their names ... end with vajra"; that is, their names are na-vajra, ni-vajrd, nr-vajrd, etc.

p. 62, lines 10—II： "They are the secondary female deities because they move to the locations of the others", dsdm para-sthana-gamanad anunayikatvam. The deities in the mandala are stationary. The Sanskrit word here is not a verb, but rather is a noun, gamana, "the moving^^ or "the going". More literally the

second clause says "because of their moving or going to the location or place of another^^ something they have already done. This is saying that, in the case of Marici for example, although she is yellow and belongs to the Vairocana family in the west, she has taken her place in the east as the consort of black Niladanda, of the Amoghasiddhi family

p. 62, lines 12—13: "Therefore, the families of the east and other directions move toward the location of Vajrasrnkhala and the others", ata dsam purvadi-kulam vajrasrnkhalddindm gamanam abhimukha-sthane. The families do not move. This obscure sentence pertains to what implements or weapons are held in the

hands of the secondary female deities. Literally it says: "Therefore, the family of these [[[goddesses]]] beginning in the east is the going of Vajrasrnkhala and the others to a facing place". That is, although Vajrasrnkhala is located in the west, she holds the implements characteristic of her own family, that of Amoghasiddhi in the east. Specifically, she holds the same ones held by the corresponding male deity in the east, Niladanda. Similarly although Bhrkuti

is located in the north, she holds the same implements held by the corresponding male deity of her own j ewel family in the south, Takkiraja. Thus it goes, beginning in the east and proceeding clockwise, with the other goddesses as well. p. 63, lines 15 and 31: uKarkota,\ This name is Karkogaka" in both the Kalacakra Tantra verse and the Vimalaprabha commentary.

p. 63, lines 17—19: uAtimla has a skull and a bell. Raudraksi has a ndgas noose and a khatvanga. It is likewise in the case of Niladanda, Takkiraja, Mahabala, and Acala, ... "It would be helpful to add a note here explaining that Niladanda holds the same implements in the same hands as does

Vajrasrnkhala, Takkiraja holds the same ones as Bhrkuti, Mahabala holds the same ones as Marici, and Acala holds the same ones as Cunda. p. 64, line I, etc.: uVasuki and Sankhapala are in the southern fire mandalas", etc., daksine vahni-mandale, etc. The nagas Vasuki, etc., are here

described as sitting in the various directions on lotus seats on pairs of individual mandalas of the elements. The translation would be clearer if given more literally as in the south, on fire mandalas", etc.

p. 64, line 25: uforty-five million bhutas\ sardha-tri-koti-bhuta-. This should be uthirty-five million bhutas". pp. 64—65, verse 40: "A redpreta, [and seven more creatures] are the seats ofCamunda and the others, respectively, in the cardinal and intermediate directions of the lotus" rakta-pretam ... cdmundadeh kramena prabhavati kamalany dsanam dig-vidiksu. As noted regarding verse 26 on p. 54, the eight main goddesses of the speech mandala are each on their own lotus; they are not on petals of a central lotus. This latter idea seems to have influenced the

translation here. What is being said may be seen from the Vimalaprabhas statement introducing this verse: idamm camundadinam kamalasanany ucyante, "Now the lotus seats of Camunda and the others are stated" (rather than "the seats of Camunda and the others in the lotus"). These are the eight individual lotus seats (kamala-dsana, Tibetan, padma^i gdan) of Camunda (another name of Carcika) and the other seven main goddesses of the speech mandala, namely the eight creatures listed here, a red preta, etc.

This fact makes it necessary to modify the translation of the sentence in the Vimalaprabha commentary given in lines 8—9 of p. 65 as: "The goddesses, Camunda and the others, are on the eight petals" asta-dalesu camundadi-devyah. As the Tibetan translation shows, 'dab ma brgyad la tsa mundi la sogspayi

lha mo mams so (Bu-ston (ed.), folio side 513, line 5), this should be understood as: "The goddesses of Camunda and the others are on the eight petals". The eight goddesses of Camunda that are on the eight petals of her lotus have been named in verse 29 of this chapter of the Kalacakra Tantra, and earlier

in the Vimalaprabha on verse 63 of chapter 3: Bhima, Ugra, etc. Likewise, the eight goddesses on the eight petals of each of the lotuses of the other seven main goddesses of the speech mandala have been named here in verses 30—33, and earlier in the Vimalaprabha on 3.63—64.

Similarly the translation of another sentence here on p. 65 should be modified, the sentence in lines 12—13: "These are, in sequence, the seats within the cardinal and intermediate directions of the lotus" iti kramendsanam kamalasya dig-vidiksu. The phrase "of the lotus" should go with "the seats". Thus: "These are, in sequence, the lotus seats in the cardinal and intermediate directions".

Then, the phrase in line 15 bringing in the deities of the body mandala, "a red preta is a seat in the lotus of Nairftya" would be clearer as, "a red preta is the lotus seat of Nairrtya^ (nairrtya-kamaldsanam rakta-pretani). We cannot here go into the question of whether such a deity is located directly on a lotus, which is mounted on one of these creatures, or whether such a deity is mounted directly on one of these creatures, which stands on a lotus. Suffice to say that the Gelugpa tradition accepts the former, and depicts them this way in their sand mandalas and paintings, while the Jonangpa writer Phyogs-las rnam-gyal

accepts the latter, and the revised Jonang translations of the Kalacakra texts reflect this understanding.

p. 65, footnote 178: uDaitya is another name for Visnu,\ Actually, Daitya is another name for Nairrtya, also called Raksasa. Visnu is a different deity in Kalacakra.

p. 65, verse 41: "a heron", krunca; with footnote 180 saying that the Tibetan and Mongolian translations read, "a crane". The existing Sanskrit-English dictionaries are notoriously unreliable for specialised words such as this. Monier-Williams gives "a kind of snipe, curlew". V S. Apte repeats Monier-

Williams, curlew and adds to it the much larger heron ("a curlew, heron^^). The krunca or kraunca, made famous by the story from the beginning of Valmikis Ramayana, has at long last been accurately identified thanks to the work of K. N. Dave and Julia Leslie. Julia Leslie showed that the one described in the Ramayana story is the Indian Sarus Crane, in her article, "A Bird Bereaved: The Identity and Significance of Valmikis Kraunca" (Journal of Indian Philosophy, XXVI (1998), pp. 455—487). She also drew on K. N. Dave s Birds in Sanskrit Literature (Delhi, 1985), which shows that while it can denote other large water-birds such as flamingoes, storks, and herons, in later literature, kraunca tends to denote specifically the Common Crane^^ (Leslie, p. 458).

It would seem that the Tibetan translation, and the Mongolian translation made from the Tibetan translation, got it right:. p. 67, verse 43, first sentence: "The eight [[[goddesses]]] in the interior, who are in the sky and at the base of the verandah, are to be placed beneath the

portals" garbhe (stau vedikayam gagana-tala-gate toranadho niyojyo. This line of the verse is referring to the twelve goddesses of worship or offering goddesses (puja-devi) spoken of in the previous verse. These are located in the garbha, the uinner chamber^^ which in relation to the Kalacakra mandala is a specific term for the mind mandala, rather than a general term for the interior" (see Vimalaprabha on verse 36 of chapter 3). Eight of these are on

the vedika" (locative, vedikayani), a narrow platform running along the bottom of the walls. This term was discussed above, at its occurrence on p. 32, line 9. There in the book it was translated as pavilion" as it is again in the commentary just preceding the present verse (p. 66, bottom line), and in the second line of the present verse. But here in the first line of this verse, and in the commentary on the second line of this verse, it is translated as

uverandah,\ Two more of these goddesses are located in the sky" (gagana), that is, above the mandala, and two more are located "at the base" or bottom" (tala), that is, below the mandala (not the base "of the vemndah"). However, the goddesses above and below the mandala cannot be shown above and below in a two-dimensional representation such as a particle mandala, commonly a sand mandala. Therefore these four are to be represented there as beneath" (adhah)

portals" (torana), or arches" as torana was translated on pp. 29—31. So I understand this line as: Tn the inner chamber [the mind mandala], eight [[[goddesses]]] are on the vedika, and those who are located in the sky and at the bottom [of the mandala] should be placed beneath the toranas". The Vimalaprabha commentary hereon explains this using contrast, although this is not reflected in the translation on p. 67, lines 16—19: "Certain

goddesses who are in the sky and at the base within the sand mandala should be displayed beneath the eastern and western portals. During meditation, the guardians of the directions and the others are in the previously mentioned locations^^ rajo-mandale gagana-tala-gata devyo yah kdscit tah purvapara-toranadho darsaniyah \ bhdvanayam punar dikpaladayo yathokta-sthana eva. I understand this as: Tn a

The Kalacakra Tantra on the Sadhana and Mandala 455 particle mandala, whichever goddesses are located in the sky and at the bottom [of the mandala] should be displayed beneath the eastern and western toranas. But (punar) in meditation, the guardians of the directions and the others are [to be visualised] just in their places as stated". The contrast

between where these deities should be placed in a particle or sand mandala and where they should be placed in a visualised mandala makes clear what is meant in the first line of the verse. The reference to the guardians of the directions additionally provides a clear example. The guardians of the above" direction, Usnisa and consort Atinila, are visualised in the sadhana above the mind mandala, while in a sand mandala they are represented by an additional

lotus at the eastern door of the mind mandala. A correction is required in the next sentence of the Vimalaprabha commentary as translated in lines 19—20: "The four, Samantabhadra and the others, are on the right of the gates". This must say on the left of the gates", dvarasyavasavye. The reason for this statement here in the Vimalaprabha is that the

blue and green colours of the four bodhisattvas, Samantabhadra, Vajrapani, Sabdavajra, and Dharmadhatuvajra, might place them below and above the mandala. But instead, they are to be placed to the left of the four doors of the mind mandala, respectively It may not be superfluous to note that in the Kalacakra mandala left and right are always from the standpoint of the central deity whose four faces face the four doors: sarvatra vdme bhagavatas catur-mukha-

bhedatah (Vimalaprabha on 3.59, p. 61, lines 9—10). p. 67, verse 43, second sentence: ^Dharanis are on the porch", dharinyah pattikayam. This line of the verse is not talking about the dharanis, if by this is meant mantric formulas as we must assume in the absence of a glossary. The word here is dharini, Tibetan gzungs ma rather than just gzungs, which latter

is the normal translation of dharani. We do not find dharini in our dictionaries in the sense used in Kalacakra, so we must find its meaning in the Vimalaprabha commentary There on verse 62 of chapter 3 we read (Sanskrit (ed.), p. 63, line 16): garbha-vedikayam anekahpuja-devatyo dharinyah samastd lekhyah, On the vedika of the inner chamber [the mind mandala], the many offering goddesses, the dharinis, are all to be drawn". So dhariniis an offering

goddess, puja-devati. This seems to be a more general term than puja-devi, which is used specifically for the twelve offering goddesses of the mind mandala. We may assume that the dharinis, meaning bearing" or holding", get their name from bearing or holding offerings. These goddesses are on the pattika, which was translated here as porch". This is another word that is not found in our dictionaries in the sense used in Kalacakra. It is glossed as vedika here in the Vimalaprabha: pattikayam vedikayam iti. The word vedika is yet another that is not found in our dictionaries in the sense used in Kalacakra. But as discussed above, the vedika, and therefore also the pattika, is a narrow platform that runs along the bottom of a wall. This sense of pattika apparently derives from its meaning of a strip". As derived from the idea of a strip" or band" we also have in the

Kalacakra mandala the decorative ratna-pattika, or "jewelled frieze,\ at the top of a wall, discussed above at its occurrence on p. 32, line 11. This is to be distinguished from the kind of pattika spoken of here, called the devatd-pattika in the Vimalaprabha introducing verse 3.46, on which deities stand or sit. The Vimalaprabha on verse 3.43 specifically speaks of the dharini-pattika, as we have here, saying: vedika sveta sa ca dharini-pattika \ rakta tad-

upari ratna-pattika, "The vedika is white, and that is the dharini-pattika. Above that is the red ratna-pattika." So the dharini-pattika is the pattika specifically for the offering goddess deities, and this is the vedika. We may deduce from other

references that the vedika goes along the outside of the walls (3.39—41), while the pattika for the main deities goes along the inside of the walls (later note: Edward Henning informs me that the pattika is separated from the walls by a small space).

The second part of the second sentence of this verse was translated as: ^praticchas, who are associated with the family of snakes (phani), are in the pavilion". I have already mentioned that pavilion" here translates vedika, which will need to be modified. So will the phrase, "who are associated with the family of snakes", phani-kula-sahitah. This is saying "along with", rather than "who are associated with". The family of snakes is the group often

nagas who are on the vedika of the body mandala along with the praticchas. In the third sentence of this verse, to be consistent with the other names here, the name "Pau 英 ikf should be Paus tike [c cha],,. p. 68, verse 44: A few words in this verse that are relevant to the meaning of the names of the goddesses have been omitted in the translation. One of

these, kaye, on the body", has been accounted for in footnote 189, giving the meanings of the names: "Desire for Scratching the Body^. This is scratching in the sense of scratching an itch. Another, payasi, in water", would go with uDesire for Swimming". A third, sayane, on a bed", becomes quite relevant in reference to "Desire for Lying". This is not desire for telling lies, but rather is desire for lying down on a bed.

p. 68, line 15: "Likewise Vldyecch2‘ etc., uare on the eastern and other verandahs,\ purvadi-vedikayam. Like similar phrases with adi discussed above, this should be uare on the vedika beginning in the east". p. 68, line 17: Between uVaisnavr, and Plavanecch2' a line is missing: ange maleccha varahi-janya \ nrtyeccha kauman-janya \ asaneccha raudn^janya.

"Maleccha, on (or in regard to) the body, is born from Varahi. Nrtyeccha is born from Kaumari. Asaneccha is born from Raudrr\ The descriptive word, ange, on (or in regard to) the body", is not part of the name, Maleccha (desire for dirt, or impurities, or impure bodily secretions). So this name need not be written [Aiiga|inaleccha" as it is in verse 44 here. Similarly like these descriptive words in the verse that are declined (kaye, ange, payasi, sayane),

so the descriptive vadana-gata, "found in the mouth", that is given undeclined in a compound, is not actually part of the name, Kaphotsasaneccha. It is found in the middle segment of the verse line, where a string of short syllables is required. So again, this name need not be written Vkdanagatakaphotsaijaiie|ccha]" as it is in verse 44 here.

p. 68, verse 45: "The activities of the eight, Camunda and the others, are icchas of those born from krodhas on the earth. They are Samtape[ccha],\ etc. camundady-asta-krtyany api ca bhuvi-tale krodhajanam tathecchd, santape, etc. The first part of this line is referring to the last seven icchas or desire goddesses listed in the previous verse and the eighth given in the Vimalaprabha commentary thereon. These must be carried down to form the first part of

this sentence, which then goes on to bring in the next group of icchas, or personified desires. So this line says: [The eight last-named personified desires] are the activities of the eight, Camunda and the others; and so also on the surface of the earth the iccha [[[goddesses]]] of the wrath-born [[[guardian deities]]] are Samtape[ccha],\ etc. The Vimalaprabha on the previous verse lists which of these eight last-named iccha goddesses is born from which of the

eight main goddesses of the speech mandala, Camunda and the others. On this verse, it lists which of ten of the iccha goddesses named here is born from which of the ten wrathful

guardian female consort deities, here called krodhaja, the "wrath-boni" (cp. Vimalaprabha, 3.151). It then goes on to list two more iccha goddesses, who are born from two of the pracanda goddesses. These are continued in the following verse 46. That is why in verse 46 Ucchistabhakte[ccha] is called the

fifth, even though coming in a long list of iccha goddesses, and being the third one listed in this verse. She is the fifth of those born from the pracanda goddesses. p. 70, lines 12—13: "Similarly in the external pavilion within the external mandala, whatever other activity of sentient beings there is ..." evam bahya-

mandale bahya-patyam aparam api yat kincit sattva-krtyam. The phrase, aparam api, "also the other" goes with what precedes it rather than what comes after 让.So it does not refer to other" in "whatever other activitybut rather goes with the preceding bahya-patyam. The reading bahya-vedyam, found in the verse that is being glossed here (see footnote 194 on p. 69 of the translation), does not change the meaning, since the outer pattika is the vedikd. As

discussed above, this is the narrow platform going along the bottom of the walls on the outside of the walls. In the mind mandala, the pujd-devis or offering goddesses stand on it; in the speech mandala, the icchas or desire goddesses stand on it; and in the body mandala, the praticchas or counter-desire goddesses stand on 让.These latter two groups of goddesses have just been described. So this sentence is saying: Tn this way in the outer mandala, on the outer pattika [where the praficchas stand] and also the other [the outer pattika of the speech mandala where the icchas stand], whatever activity of sentient beings there is ..."

It is worth noting that the indeclinable evam, taken by me as in this way", was given in the translation as similarly", one of its stock meanings that is not applicable here. What is being said here is not similar to what was said above. The same thing occurs in the verse here (46), where the indeclinable tatas was translated in a stock meaning, afterwaKT' rather than its applicable meaning, utherefore,\ This is frequent with indeclinables throughout the translation.

p. 70, verse 47: in the environment, in the body, elsewhere, and in expansion and contraction", bahye dehe pare ca spharana-nidhanate. Here in the first seven-syllable metrical unit we have one of the most characteristic phrases and ideas of the whole Kalacakra system: in the outer (bahye), or in the

environment, in the body (dehe), or in the inner, and in the other (pare), here translated as elsewhere". The other" refers to the Kalacakra mandala, as reiterated in the Vimalaprabha commentary here, and as more famously stated in a verse apparently from the lost milla Kalacakra Tantra quoted in the Vimalaprabha on 3.55 (p. 57, lines 18—19): yathd bahye tatha dehe yatha dehe tathapare \ trividham mandalam jnatva acaryo mandalam likhet, "As in the

outer, so in the body; as in the body so in the other. Having understood the threefold mandala, let the teacher draw the mandala". p. 72, footnote 200： "Dwivedi's edition reads "ali kalV instead of "ali kali". The contrast is presumably to Biswanath Baneijee s Critical Edition of Sn Kalacakratantra-raja (Calcutta, 1985). It is always necessary to consult this edition, because the verses of the tantra as given in Dwivedis edition of the

Vimalaprabha were mostly based on a single paper manuscrip匚 Upon checking this, we see that it does read ^ali-kali But this is a silent emendation on the part of Baneijee. He has no note here giving variant readings. Yet one of the manuscripts he used, preserved in the Cambridge University Library, forms the basis of the 1966 edition by Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra, and this edition has "api kali" here. The point is that the

syllables are short, not long. That the original reading is ^ali-kali^ is confirmed in the old palm-leaf manuscript from Narthang reproduced by Lokesh Chandra in Sanskrit Manuscripts from Tibet (Sata-pitaka Series, vol. 81. New Delhi, 1971), folio side 139, line 6. This, of course, is because of the metre, which requires short syllables here in the middle segment of the pada or metrical fbot:. The meaning remains unchanged: these are the vowels and consonants of the Sanskrit alphabe匚

The same thing is seen in the very first verse of the Kalacakra Tantra, in the middle segment of pada d, kaliyugasamaye, where it appears to say "at the time of kali-yuga\ the dark age. But the Vimalaprabha commentary makes it clear that this is to be understood not as kali-■yuga-samaye, but rather as kali-

yug-a-samaye, and is talking about the consonants (kali) and the vowels. See Vimalaprabhatika, vol. 1, p. 46. John Newman translated this phrase as, "the A collection that possesses the KA line" (The Outer Wheel of Time, PhD thesis, 1987, p. 319), and well explained this in a later footnote (p. 381). p. 73, line 13: "the threefold speech has the [ka-sa\ contraction (pratyahara)'\ vdg api trividhapratyaharena. Why the ^[ka-sa]^, we may wonder. A little

farther in the commentary on this verse, p. 74, line 14, we read, "Here, a collection of all the consonants is the syllable ksa\ atra sarva-vyanjana-samuhah ksa-karah. Th this, footnote 212 is added: uAccording to Bu-ston [46], the syllable ksa is a contraction of all the consonants, which begin with ka and end with sd\ This is like the well-known pratyahara or abbreviation used in Paninis system of grammar to represent all the consonants, hat. But for the

threefold speech here, we would expect not just the ka-sa pratyahara representing all the consonants. The vowels would also have to be included. We would expect something like thepratyahara used in Paninis system to represent the whole alphabet, al. In Paninis system, pratyaharas are made from the fourteen Siva-sutras, which are usually given at the beginning of his Astadhyayi. Although pratyaharas

from this system are quoted in the Vimalaprabha (e.g., on 1.5, vol. 1, p. 56, line 3), forpratyaharas in Kalacakra, a rule and nine sutras different from the Siva-sutras are given in the commentary on verse 8 of chapter 1 (p. 60, lines 27—31). Bu-ston adds a note here identifying the source of this rule for pratyaharas as the (jam dpalgyi bya ka ra na, or Manjusn-vyakarana (Bu-ston, part 1, folio side 441, line 2). Its text, the Manjusn-sabda-laksana, does not

seem to have survived in the original Sanskrit, but is preserved in Tibetan translation in the Tengyur (see: Pieter C. Verhagen, A History of Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet, vol. 1, Leiden, 1994, pp. 126—129, 199—200, 300—304). p. 73, lines 18—19: "Thus, the syllable om is the pranava. The heart is called a 'lotus'" evam omkarah pranavah \ hrdayam ucyate kamalam iti. Here is a

good example of where the punctuation in the printed Sanskrit edition should be corrected on the basis of the Tibetan translation: de Itar om yigpra na ba ni snying porgsungs tepadma^o. This shows that there should be no danda after pranavah. In India, one would not normally need to be told that the syllable om is the pranava. This is saying: "Thus, the syllable om, the pranava, is called the heart; i.e., the lotus". The point is that the om, consisting of the

letters a, w, and ma, is being compared in this verse with a lotus, consisting of the bulbous root and stalk, the petals and filaments, and the central receptacle with its moon and sun seats. p. 74, lines 10—12： "Thereafter, one should immediately observe their bodies, which have become the nature of the circle of the mandala" tatas tesdm

svakayan mandala-cakra-svabhdvi-bhutan jhatiti pasyet. Here in the Vimalaprabha the meditator has just been instructed to draw all sentient beings into the mandala, initiate them, and transform them into mandala deities.

The words used for this are dhyayat, the standard word for meditation in general, so "one should meditate on", here applied to a visualisation, and bhavayet, the favored word in tantric writings for the visualisation type of meditation, so "one should meditate on" in the sense of "one should

visualise". Now comes the sentence using the word pasyet, the standard word for seeing, so "one should see"; but where the clear implication is "one should picture", or "one should visualise", not merely see or observe. So I would construe this sentence as: "Thereafter, one should visualise that their own bodies have instantaneously become of the nature of the circle of the mandala".

p. 74, lines 15—16: uAccording to this suggestive rule, he who has the first name has consonants and should do all this" tena jnapakena yasya yat prathamam noma tasya vyanjanam tena tat sarvam kartavyam. We must try to make sense of this. There are always questions of what a pronoun refers to. Here we have several pronouns. The so-called yat-tat correlative of a relative pronoun and a demonstrative pronoun, widely used in Sanskrit, is not used in English.

Here it is doubled, making the Sanskrit phrase even more awkward for us in English. Very literally, it says, uAccording to this suggestive rule, what first name of who/what, its consonant, with that all this/those should be made". The idea seems to be that all subsequent names should be made with the consonant of the first name. This is what we see in the following paragraph that gives thirty-two seed-syllables of various deities corresponding to the thirty-two marks of a great person. All of these seed-syllables begin with the conjunct consonant "恣'，. That the demonstrative pronoun tasya should here not be correlated with the relative pronoun yasya, but rather should be construed separately is supported by the Tibetan translation. The Sanskrit words prathamam ndma tasya vyanjanam, literally ufirst name, its consonant", are translated into Tibetan in Bu-

stons edition as ming gi gsal byed dang po, meaning the ufirst consonant of the name". The genitive pronoun tasya has here been merged into the genitive noun ming gi, "of the name". With tasya out of the way, or construed separately, we are left with the demonstrative pronouns tena tat to correlate with the relative pronouns yasya yat. These make a nice yat-tat correlative. When construed in this way, this sentence gives the idea or sense stated by me above.

p. 74, line 20： "JQ厂 should be ^Ksha"; line 21: ^kstr should be ^ksha\ In both cases, this is the conjunct consonant ks plus the letter h, not merely an alternate transliteration of k plus §. The mantras as given in the printed Sanskrit edition cannot be fully relied on, because they are often based on inaccurate late paper manuscripts. The readings of the more accurate old palm-leaf manuscripts are sometimes not recorded or are recorded incorrectly in

the notes that give variant readings. The old Tibetan translations preserve the seed-syllables in transliteration more accurately, clearly showing the letter h here, where it is considered to be one of the semi-vowels. The mantras in general, however, have many scribal errors in the Tibetan blockprints, and these must be allowed for. When several different editions of the Tibetan texts can be checked, as is now possible, and when these agree with the old

palm-leaf Sanskrit manuscripts, the correct form of the mantras can in most cases be established with a high degree of certainty Mantras are of fundamental importance in the Kalacakra system, and their accuracy is crucial to it:. p. 75, line I： Then, having generated in detail every single male deity with every single seed syllable within the private organ of the goddesses, one should emanate them", atha vistaratah pratyekaika-bijena devi-guhye pratyeka-devatam nispadya utsrjet. The deities spoken of

here as being generated are not only male but also female, and they are generated in the private organ or secret place of one particular goddess only Visvamata. I understand this sentence as: "Now, in detail: Having generated each deity with each individual seed syllable in the secret place of the goddess, one should emanate them".

p. 76, lines 24—28: uHaving perceived the blue-coloured syllable hum in the fluid of the moon as shining and causing purity, he transforms the vajra from that [[[hum]]] and difRises it by means of that [[[Wikipedia:syllable|syllable]]]. [[[Seeing]]] himself generated, the Divine Lord, a yogi, has the vajra jewels and the tiara with the

Lord of Jinas, and is embraced by the wisdom [being] as before,\ tatra candra-drave hum-karam nlla-varnam drstva sphurad amala-karam tena parinatam vajram tena spharitam iti nispannam dtmanam yogi Bhagavan vajralahkara-yukto jina-pati-mukutah prajnayalingitas ca purvavat. At the time the four goddesses sing their song to awaken the Bhagavan Kalacakra, he is supposed to have previously melted into a drop of moon fluid or bodhicitta. He arises from this drop of

moon fluid in three stages. First is the syllable hum, which then transforms into a vajra, and this vajra in turn becomes the completed or perfected (nispanna) full form of Kalacakra. This is how all the deities arise, being a general rule in tantra that is applicable everywhere (Vimalaprabha, 4.73, p. 187, lines 24—25): evam hyena cihnotpadah, cihnena devatotpadah sarvatrdvagantavyo yogineti tantra-niyamah, "Thus, from a seed [-syllable] arises an

emblem; from an emblem arises a deity This should be understood by the yogi everywhere. It is the rule in tantra". So the translation of the clause, "he transforms the vajra from that [[[hum]]] and difRises it by means of that [[[Wikipedia:syllable|syllable]]] should be modified. Because the passive construction is used so often in Sanskrit, and by comparison is used so little in English, some translators routinely change passive constructions into active constructions. However, there are times when this does not work out satisfactorily Sometimes the passive verb-forms do not imply an active agent, which is supplied by the translator as he" etc. I understand this clause as being such a case. So rather than "he transforms the vajra from that [/z力呼]"we would have simply utransformed from that [[[hum]]] is a vajra\ tena parinatam vajram. This idea could be expressed in an active

construction as: "that [[[hum]]] transforms into a vajra\ The next part of this clause, translated as uand difRises it by means of that [[[Wikipedia:syllable|syllable]]] is also a passive phrase in Sanskrit, tena spharitam. But besides this, there are also other issues here. I understand spharitam to mean uemanateor manifested" in the Kalacakra writings, where we find nidhana,

destruction", used in a contrasting pair with the cognate spharana, creation" or manifbstatioii" or uemanation,\ This is not the idea that one gets from diffiise", as spharitam is translated here, or expand", as its cognates are translated in the next couple verses. So we would have emanate" rather than "di伍ise in meaning, and the passive emanated" rather than the active diffiises" in form. We must now take the pronoun tena as ufrom

that", like in the previous phrase, rather than as "by means of that", and we must take it as referring to the vajra rather than to the syllable. So I understand the phrase tena spharitam as "emanated from that \vajra\'\ For what is emanated from that, we must bring in the rest of the Sanskrit phrase. The Sanskrit phrase, tena spharitam iti nispannam dtmanam, shows us that what is emanated from the vajra is dtmanam, "himself' and he is now nispannam,

generated" as completed" or uperfected,\ Bhagavan Kalacakra is now generated in his full and finished form, complete with vajra ornaments (vajralahkara), a crown (mukuta), in embrace with his wisdom consort

(projnayalirigita), etc. So as expected, here in the third stage Bhagavan Kalacakra is "emanated from that \vajra\'\ which in turn was "transformed from that [[[hum]]\'\ In the lines quoted above, the translation of the words nispannam dtmdnam was placed at the beginning of a new sentence: u [[[Seeing]]] himself generated, ..."

Earlier in the preceding sentence quoted above we find the phrase, shining and causing purity" (sphurad amala-karam), describing "the blue-coloured syllable hum". In this oft-repeated phrase, amala-karam is consistently translated into Tibetan as dri ma med payi (od zer, u immaculate rays of light" and taken as the object of sphurad, mdiating" or shining". I see no compelling reason to override this and translate it instead as uand causing purity", so I take this phrase as: "radiating immaculate rays of light".

The sentences quoted above began with, uHaving perceived the blue-coloured syllable hum". If Bhagavan Kalacakra is seeing or perceiving the syllable hum, how is he at the same time emanating from it? Because, as discussed in my comments regarding p. 74, lines 10—12, words for seeing" in these writings

sometimes have the sense ofpicturing" or Uvisualising,\ not just seeing or perceiving. The verbal drstvd used here, uhaving seen^^ occurs twice in this long Sanskrit sentence, the first time in the first part of it that was not quoted above. In the translation, this long Sanskrit sentence is broken into smaller sentences, as required for English. In the earlier part of it, Bhagavan Kalacakra "perceives the entirety of the three realms, characterised by

desire, form, and formlessness, as similar to an illusion^^ (p. 76). This first occurrence of drstvd was translated into Tibetan as gzigs nas (Bu-ston (ed.), fol. 522, line 6), while the second occurrence of drstvd was translated as bltas te (fol. 522, line 6). It would seem that the Indian pandit and Tibetan translator team understood these to be somewhat different in import:. In seeing that the three realms are similar to an illusion, Bhagavan

Kalacakra is perceiving this. In seeing the syllable hum, he is picturing this. As discussed in the above six paragraphs, I understand all these lines as: "There in the moon fluid, having seen (or pictured) a blue-coloured syllable hum radiating immaculate rays of light, [picturing] a vajra transformed from this [[[hum]]], and [picturing] himself emanated from that \vajra\, thus generated as

perfected, the yogi, the Bhagavan, has Pti/ra-ornaments, has the Lord of Jinas on his crown, and is embraced by the wisdom [[[consort]]], as befbre,\ The long Sanskrit sentence just discussed, found in the commentary to verse 49, actually pre-glosses the coming verse 51. There in the translation we find some of the same issues. The first two lines of this verse are translated (p. 82) as: "Hearing that song, perceiving the entire three worlds as illusory

and expanding his shining and pure emblem, the vajri creates [the mandala]^ gitam srutva sa vajn tri-bhuvana-sakalam tv indrajalopamam vai, drstvotpattim karoti sphurad amala-karam spharayitva sva-cihnam. The word spharayitva is translated as expanding". As noted above with the cognate word spharita, there translated as Udifluses,\ these words mean emanate" or manifest" in Kalacakra. Keeping in mind the three stages mentioned above, it is not that he has

expanded his emblem (cihna), the vajra, but rather has emanated 让. As also noted above, the phrase sphurad amala-karam, there translated as shining and causing purity" and here translated as shining and pure" is better translated as uradiating immaculate rays of light". Then, regarding the last phrase here, "the vajn creates [the mandala]The vajn does not here create the mandala, but rather he arises" utpattim karoti. It is in the last line of verse 51

that, after arising, he creates the mandala. I understand these two lines as: "Hearing [their] song, and perceiving the entire three worlds as being like an illusion, he, the vajn,

arises, having emanated his emblem radiating immaculate rays of light". That is, from the vajra that he emanated, which radiates immaculate rays of light, he arises.

The last line of verse 51 is translated as: "Moreover, O king, the entire generation of the mandala is by means of the wisdom and method [[[beings]]] prajnopayena rajan punar api sakalam mandalotsarjanam ca. Here we carry down the karoti from the phrase in the second line, utpattim karoti, arises",

making the corresponding verb phrase here, utsarjanam karoti, generates". It is here that he generates the mandala (mandalotsarjanam). The point of this line is not to say how he generates the mandala, but to say that he generates the mandala. This is missed when an implied is" is placed before the dependent clause "by means of the wisdom and method [[[beings]]] as the verb of the sentence. Also, I see no indication that "wisdom and method^^ refers to

beings" here. It is glossed here in the Vimalaprabha as prajnopaya-samapattya, "by the attainment of wisdom and method", which was so translated on p. 82. Then, here at the beginning of the second part of the sddhana, the indeclinable punar is used in its meaning ofagain" rather than moreover". The commentary leaves no doubt about this, saying purvavat, "like before,\ so this last line is saying: "And again, O king, he generates the entire mandala, by

wisdom and method". It is only after first arising, by way of the three stages mentioned above, that the vajn can generate the mandala, and he now does so. The sequence spoken of in this verse is made clear in the song of the four goddesses, immediately preceding it, quoted from the lost mula Kalacakra Tantra in the Vimalaprabha commentary on verse 50. Each of the four individually requests him to arise" from dissolution or "get up" from this kind of sleep,

using the imperative verb, uttha. Each of them also requests him to udesire me" (mam), using the imperative verb, kdma. Then together, they request him to uemanateor manifest" the triple mandala, using the imperative verb, spharayasva. Again, this cognate word is translated as expand". However, it is not that he is being exhorted here to uexpand the mandalas of the body speech, and mind^^ (p. 81), but rather that he is being exhorted to once again uemanate

the mandalas of body speech, and mind". We cannot leave the song of the four goddesses without noticing another translation issue. As recognised in the annotations by Bu-ston, the verses of this song make reference to the kinds of result" or "firuit" (phala); and indeed, Kalacakra Tantra verse 50 speaks of sama-sukha-phala-de\ The Mahavyutpatti

(2271—2277) lists five of these: nisyanda-phala, adhipati-phala, purusakara-phala, vipaka-phala, and visamyoga-phala, and these are found in the Abhidharmakosa (2.56 f£, 4.87 fE), the Abhidharmasamuccaya (part 2, chap. 4, near beginning); the Mahayanasutralamkara-vyakhya (17.31), the Bodhisattvabhumi (Wogihara (ed.), p. 102, line 16 fF.; Dutt (ed.), p. 72, line 12 fF.), etc.; so the Indian Buddhist audience of the Kalacakra Tantra would

have been familiar with them. Here in the Vimalaprabha, like in the Hevajra Tantra (2.4.56—58), only four are given, adopting three of these five, nisyanda, vipaka, purusa(kara), and using a different name for a fourth, vaimalya, rather than visamyoga. So the translations of these terms in the song of the four goddesses must be altered.

In the first verse of the song of the goddesses, nisyande yoginam sthita does not mean "present in the yogVs emission^^ (p. 81), but rather refers to the nisyanda-phala, the unatural outcome result". In the third verse, puruse yoginam sthita, does not mean "present in the spirit of yogis", but rather refers to the purusakara-phala, the uman-made result". Although

Samkhya terms and ideas are used in the Kalacakra writings, purusa does not here mean spirit" as it does in Samkhya. The translations of the second and fourth verses, speaking of vipdke and vaimafye, also referring to results" (phala), must likewise be altered.

p. 76, lines 28—31: "Furthermore, because of the newborn childs cry at spiritual awakening, one should emanate a mandala that is of the nature of the body speech, and mind and that consists of wisdom and method", punah prajnopayatmakena citta-kaya-vag-dharmena mandalotsatjanam kuryaj jatasya balakasya

prabodhdkrandanad iti. This sentence comes immediately after the long sentence discussed at length above. Like in the translation of the similar last line of verse 51, also discussed above, the import and intent of the Sanskrit is lost in the translation of this sentence. The meaning fiirthennore" for the

indeclinable punar, like the meaning moreover" given for it in verse 51, is not applicable here. The indefinite article a" before mandala should be made the definite article the". The sadhana is being described, and we are at the beginning of the second part of it. Here Bhagavan Kalacakra has been reawakened by the song of the four goddesses just prior to once again emanating the threefold mandala, like he did in the first part of the sadhana. In the

previous sentence he has arisen from a syllable hum, and then a vajra, and is now in full form. Now, says the text, he should again (punar) generate or emanate the mandala (mandalotsarjanam kurya^).

This brings us to the end of the translation of the second section of the fourth chapter of the Kalacakra Tantra and Vimalaprabha, and this review has gotten too long. It is time to conclude. We have seen that if one does not take full account of the description of the mandala given in the third chapter,

significant errors of interpretation occur in the translation of the description of the sadhana given here in the fourth chapter. Similarly, we have seen that if one does not take full cognizance of what is happening in the sadhana here in this chapter, significant errors of interpretation again occur in the

translation. There is much involved in translating even a single Sanskrit sentence from this complex system, and this gives us a perspective on translating a text that has thousands of difficult sentences. If one wants to complete the translation, it is not always practical to deal with all the problems of translation that each of these poses. This is where reviews come in and can make their contribution to the understanding of these texts.

When the Buddhist texts were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan around a thousand years ago, this was usually accomplished by a translation team consisting of an Indian pandit who had been taught the text and a native Tibetan translator. We do not have this luxury today We must do the best we can

using the avenues now available to us, and try to support each other in this difficult work in whatever ways possible. I am personally very grateful to Dr Wallace for her tremendous labour in making this translation, thereby opening up access to the core texts of the important Kalacakra system. David Reigle International Kalachakra Network