by Pramuditadeva
The Maradamanastotra ("Praise of the Mara-Subduer") is a three-verse poem of astonishing compression. Each verse is a single long cinematic scene from the night of the Buddha's awakening beneath the Bodhi tree: the mocking speech of Mara's daughters, the assault of the demon army, and the final identification of the one who sat through it all unmoved. The poet lets the enemy speak first — the first voice we hear belongs to Mara's jealous daughters, taunting the meditating Buddha for his supposed failure. The Buddha never speaks. His answer is silence, stillness, and awakening.
The author is Pramuditadeva (Tib. རབ་དགའི་ལྷ, rab dga'i lha, "God of Supreme Joy"), otherwise unknown. No Sanskrit original survives. The text is preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon as Tohoku 1117 in the Dege Tengyur, Volume 1 (Collected Praises, bsTod tshogs), folios 63a.7–63b.5. No translator colophon survives. No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to the Three Jewels.
I
"What is he contemplating in his crooked meditation? In an instant he opens his eyes to look!
Us — beings struck by the Bodiless One's arrows — the Protector does not even shield!
O Compassionate One gone astray, there is no person more unworthy than you!"
Though the jealous daughters of Mara spoke thus, the Victorious Protector attained awakening.
II
Moreover, other Maras drew their bows of desire with swift hands, crashing the pataha drums.
The hero raised not an eyebrow — neither coquetry, nor smiles, nor dalliance moved him.
Seeing that the Lord of Sages could not be stirred from meditation until awakening was found,
The siddhas, in wonder, their hair standing on end, bowed down with their finest limbs.
III
Demons with tangled hair and flickering tongues, swarming from every direction — his mind was not disturbed.
Radiant Maras of the desire realm, bearing supreme weapons, mounted on elephants and horses, with lion faces,
Tiger faces, numberless as blades of grass, swarming in their host — he was not intimidated.
That one — unmixed with any aspect of harm toward any being — is the Protector Buddha, Lord of Sages, Guardian of the World.
The Praise of the Mara-Subduer, composed by the venerable Pramuditadeva, is complete.
Colophon
Pramuditadeva (Tib. རབ་དགའི་ལྷ, rab dga'i lha, "God of Supreme Joy") is identified only in the author colophon. No other works by this author survive in the Tibetan canon. The name Pramudita means "supreme joy" — the first of the ten bodhisattva stages (bhumis), the stage of great gladness at entering the path. Whether this is a personal name or a title is unknown.
The poem consists of three verses in a long meter corresponding to the sragdhara or sardhulavikridita meters of Sanskrit prosody — the longest standard verse forms, capable of holding a complete scene in a single stanza. Each verse is effectively a miniature narrative painting of the awakening night:
Verse I gives voice to Mara's daughters. Their taunt is psychologically precise: they accuse the Buddha of abandoning his bodhisattva vow ("the Protector does not even shield us"), call his meditation "perverted" (phyin ci log), and declare him the most unworthy of beings. The "Bodiless One" (lusmed, Ananga) is Kamadeva, the god of desire, identified in Buddhist tradition with Mara. The irony: what the daughters call "perverted" meditation is the meditation that produces awakening.
Verse II adds the military assault — bows, drums, swift-handed demons — and then the seductive attempt: coquetry, smiles, dalliance. The hero does not raise an eyebrow. The verse pivots from attack to wonder: the siddhas, watching the immovable sage, bow in astonishment.
Verse III catalogs the full demon host — tangled hair, flickering tongues, lion-faces, tiger-faces, numberless as grass — and ends with the identification: "That one, unmixed with any aspect of harm toward any being, is the Protector Buddha." The contrast is total: the army that embodies every form of harm, and the one being in whom no harm exists.
No translator colophon survives. The absence is itself unusual in the Dege Tengyur, where most texts record the names of both the Indian and Tibetan translators. The text survives in Volume 1 (bsTod tshogs, ka), Tohoku 1117, folios 63a.7–63b.5.
Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Tenzin (Tibetan Translator tulku), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Dege Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). No external English translation was consulted — the text was translated directly from the Tibetan by the tulku. The syntactically dense sragdhara-length lines required careful reconstruction; the translation gives the best available reading.
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Source Text: བདུད་བཏུལ་བ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Dege Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས ཀ), folios 63a.7–63b.5. Folio markers removed; text presented continuously.
༄། །བདུད་བཏུལ་བ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་བཞུགས།
༄༅༅། །དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
བསམ་གཏན་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་གིས་ཅི་ཞིག་དགོངས་མཛད་སྐད་ཅིག་ལེགས་པར་སྤྱན་དབྱེ་གཟིགས། །ལུས་མེད་མདའ་ཡིས་གཟིར་བའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་བདག་ཅག་སྐྱོབ་པས་ཀྱང་ནི་བསྲུང་བར་མི་མཛད་ན། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་ལྡན་པ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་གྱུར་ཁྱོད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་མ་རུང་སྐྱེས་བུ་གཞན་མ་མཆིས། །ཕྲག་དོག་ལྡན་པ་བདུད་ཀྱི་བུད་མེད་དེ་སྐད་སྨྲ་ཡང་རྒྱལ་བ་སྐྱོབ་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་གྱུར།
གཞན་ཡང་འདོད་དབང་གིས་ནི་ཀུན་དུ་གཞུ་བཀང་བདུད་གཞན་ལག་པ་མྱུར་པ་པ་ཊ་ཧ་སྒྲ་འཇེབས་དང་ལྡན། །དཔའ་བོ་སྨིན་མ་བསྐྱོད་དང་ཉེར་གཡོ་ལྟ་བུར་སྒེག་དང་འཛུམ་དང་རོལ་པ་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། །ཐུབ་དབང་སྐྱོབ་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མ་བརྙེས་པར་དུ་བསམ་གཏན་ལས་ནི་བསྐྱོད་མ་ནུས་པ་མཐོང་གྱུར་ནས། །ངོ་མཚར་གྱུར་པས་བ་སྤུ་ལངས་པའི་ལུས་ཀྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་རྣམས་དང་ཡན་ལག་མཆོག་རྣམས་འདུད།
རལ་པ་འཁྲུགས་ཤིང་ལྕེ་རྣམས་གཡོགས་ལ་ཀུན་དུ་བལྟམས་པས་གང་གི་ཐུགས་རྣམས་འཁྲུལ་པར་མ་གྱུར་ཅིང་། །རབ་གསལ་འདོད་ལྷའི་བདུད་རྣམས་རྩེ་མོ་མཆོག་དག་ལག་ཐོགས་གླང་པོ་རྟ་རྣམས་གདོང་ལྡན་སེང་གེ་དང་། །སྟག་གི་གདོང་རྣམས་རྩྭ་བཞིན་གྲངས་མེད་གྱུར་པ་འཁོར་བ་ཡིས་ནི་གང་ཞིག་བསྙེངས་པར་མ་གྱུར་པ། །དེ་ནི་ཀུན་ལ་གནོད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་འདྲེས་པ་མེད་པར་སྐྱོབ་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐུབ་དབང་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན།
བདུད་བཏུལ་བ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ། རབ་དགའི་ལྷའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Dege Tengyur digital edition, maintained by Esukhia (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Licensed CC0 (public domain). The Dege Tengyur is the standard critical edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur, originally printed from woodblocks at Dege Parkhang, Kham, Tibet. The digital text was transcribed and proofread by Esukhia under the direction of Emilie Arrago-Boruah.
No translator colophon survives. The author colophon states: "The Praise of the Mara-Subduer, composed by the venerable Pramuditadeva, is complete."
This is the first English translation of this text.
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