Pantheon of the Kalacakra Tantra

The present collection of 156 images of the deities of the kalacakra Mandala has been reproduced from a rare blockprint edition of the Tibetan text of the kalacakra (Toh. No.362) . This blockprint, alongwith other Tibetan books and manuscripts of my Buryat teacher, the Venerable Jimba-Jamtso Tsybenov, abbot of Tsugol Datsan, was passed on to me by his children, Jimba-Jamtso once told me that he had acquired it in Mongolia in 1978 and supposed that it was there, in one of the outlying monasteries, that the text had been printed. The text does not have a publisher’s colophon.

The Venerable Jimba-Jamtso knew of the existence of at least one other copy of this book, in the possession of Lama Shirab of Aginsk Datsa, who passed away at the beginning of the 1990s. What became of it after the passing of Lama Shirab is unknown to me.

Our edition of the Kalacakra Tantra is in an unusually large format - 600 x 167 mm (with a print area of 485 x 152 mm) - and is printed on thin, smooth china paper with sheets glued back-to-back, characteristic of Mongolian manuscripts and blockprints of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The text, printed in large letters, begins on sheet 1b, without a separate title page, and concludes on sheet 104b of the fifth chapter of the tantra. Each chapter is numbered separately: 76 sheets in Chapter 1, 65 in Chapter 2 (the pagination indicates 66, since sheet 53 is given two numbers, 53 and 54), 75 sheets in Chapter 3, 93 sheets in Chapter 4, and 104 sheets in Chapter 5. The last sheet, which we have provisionally numbered 105, contains praise to Kalacakra in Sanskrit and the images of two protectresses.

The illustrations (Tib: dbu Iha) are scattered throughout the text of the tantra and placed either at the edges of the page or in the center. As a rule, they are of the same height as the inner border of the print area, i.e. around 100mm, with a width of around 85mm. They are furnished with Tibetan captions, given in transliteration below the reproductions. The Sanskrit names that follow are reconstructions. Where possible, these reconstructions have been checked and corrected by Dr. Alexander Berzin, based on Sanskrit mantras containing the deities’ names.

The Kalacakra Mandala, divided into four circles of great bliss, mind, speech, and body, is inhabited by 722 deities. The 156 deities shown in the blockprint include images from each iconographic group, aiding us in visualizing the principle features of the remaining personages in each of these groups, which as a rule are distinguishing from those depicted only by their color or attributes. The deities of the first circle, the Great Bliss Mandala, are preceded by images of all the kings of Shambala, holders of the Kalacakra teaching. (The kings’ Sanskrit names are cited according to Vimalaprabha.)

It is interesting to note that far from all of our 156 deities are to be found in the modern Kalacakra album published in an exquisite edition by the monks of Namgyal Monastery (text by Namgyal Monks, ed. By Laura Harrington. Roma, Tibet Domani, 1999), which serves yet again to emphasize the value of such ancient and traditional iconographic sources as the pantheon of the Kalacakra Tantra published here.

Chapter KA
1b. rgyal ba shākya thub / Jina Śākyamuni	1b. dpal dus kyi ’khor lo / Śrī Kālacakra
Kings of Shambhala
2a. chos rgyal zla ba bzang po / Dharmarāja Sucandra	2a. Iha yi dbang chen / Sureśvara	2b. Gzi brjid mtha’ yas / Teji	2b. zla bas byin / Somadātta
3a. Iha’I dbang phyug / Sureśvara	3a. sna tshogs gzugs / Viśvamūrti	3b. Iha’I dbang Idan / Sureśāna	3b. rigs Idan ’jam dpal grags / [Kalki Mañju] Yaśas
4a. padma dkar po / Puṇḍarīka	4a. bzang po / Bhadra	4b. rnam rgyal / Vijaya	4b. bzhes gnyen bzang po / Sumitra
5a. phyag dmar / Raktapāṇi	5a. khyab ’jug sbas po /  Viṣṇugupta	5b. nyi ma grags pa / Arkakīrti	5b. shin tu bzang po / Subhadra
6a. rgya mtsho rnam rgyal / Samudravijaya	6a. rgyal dka’ / Aja	6b. nyi ma / Sūrya	6b. sna tshogs gzugs / Viśvarūpa
7a. zla ba’I ’od / Śaśi	7a. mtha’ yas / Ananta	7b. sa skyong / Mahīpāla	7b. dpal skyong / Śrīpāla
8a. rigs Idan se nge / [Kalki] Harivikrama	8a. rigs Idan rnam gnon	8b. RIGS Idan stobs po che / [Kalki] Mahābala	8b. rigs Idan ma ’gags pa / [Kalki] Aniruddha
9a. mi yi se nge’I / Narasiṃha	9a. dbang phyug chen po / Maheśvara	9b. mtha’ yas rnam rgyal / Anantavijaya	9b. rigs Idan drag po / [Kalki] Raudra