The Vedic god of fire.

Lit. “Not Disturbed” or “Immovable One.” The buddha in the eastern realm of Abhirati. A well-known buddha in Mahāyāna, regarded in the higher tantras as the head of one of the five buddha families, the vajra family in the east.

A goddess.

A type of nonhuman being whose precise status is subject to different views, but is included as one of the six classes of beings in the sixfold classification of realms of rebirth. In the Buddhist context, asuras are powerful beings said to be dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility. They are also known in the pre-Buddhist and pre-Vedic mythologies of India and Iran, and feature prominently in Vedic and post-Vedic Brahmanical mythology, as well as in the Buddhist tradition. In these traditions, asuras are often described as being engaged in interminable conflict with the devas (gods).

A type of ritual action.

A type of ritual action.

A type of ritual action.

This term refers to a wide variety of offering practices and substances. In most cases in which a bali offering is prescribed for a particular rite, it is accompanied by a clear description of the form and function of the offering.

An epithet meaning “noble lady” commonly associated with the goddess Tārā in Buddhist literature, it is also applied to other goddesses in the Buddhist and Hindu pantheons. In The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī, the term appears as either an epithet of the goddess Durgā or perhaps Mārīcī.

A type of ritual action.

The name of a text mentioned in The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī. The name of this text appears as the source for an excerpted chapter titled “The Mantra Wheel: A Jewel That Fulfills Every Wish.”

In The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī, this term refers to the transformation of a practitioner’s body into the body of a deity through adopting a particular hand mudrā and affixing the syllables of the deity’s mantra on the body.

A hand gesture associated with the bestowal of gifts.

The Tibetan translates both stūpa and caitya with the same word, mchod rten, meaning “basis” or “recipient” of “offerings” or “veneration.” Pali: cetiya.

A caitya, although often synonymous with stūpa, can also refer to any site, sanctuary or shrine that is made for veneration, and may or may not contain relics.

A stūpa, literally “heap” or “mound,” is a mounded or circular structure usually containing relics of the Buddha or the masters of the past. It is considered to be a sacred object representing the awakened mind of a buddha, but the symbolism of the stūpa is complex, and its design varies throughout the Buddhist world. Stūpas continue to be erected today as objects of veneration and merit making.

A location where dead bodies are burned, buried, or left to decay.

An ointment or concoction that is applied to the eyes. This is also the name of a type of siddhi that includes applying ointments of various ritually prepared substances to the eyes.

Literally “the agent who enacts the regional laws,” this term refers to the court of a king or any governing body.

A writing implement made from some part of a crow, presumably one of its feathers.

A measure of length. One unit is the distance from the elbow to the tips of the fingers, about eighteen inches.

The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings‍—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula‍—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.

A term for a magical spell or formula.

Cynodon dactylon. A species of grass commonly known as Bermuda grass or dhub grass.

A set of eight vidyādharas mentioned in The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī. The identities of these eight vidyādharas are not specified.

A type of ritual action.

A power that advanced practitioners gain by reciting the six-syllable Mārīcī mantra. It is not clear whether this term refers to the ability to enter doors to the hidden chambers of deities and nonhuman beings, to entering the bodies of other beings, or to both.

A type of ritual action.

A type of ritual action.

A unit of measurement that is roughly equal to one inch.

See “fire that consumes the world at the end of an eon.”

Perfumes, flowers, incense, lamps, and food.

Corn (dhānya), sesame (tila), mung beans (mudga), barley (yava), and white mustard (śvetasarṣapa) or māṣa beans (māṣa).

The five are either gold, diamond, sapphire, ruby, and pearl or gold, silver, coral, pearl, and rāgapaṭṭa.

A fever that returns every four days.

The name of the famous elephant-headed deity, a protector deity common to Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.

See “Mārīcī.”

This phrase literally means “sun, moon, and fire,” but these three terms are correlated to the precious metals gold, silver, and copper, respectively.

In The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī, the goddess Mārīcī is said to be Vairocana’s “great consort.”

The name of a wrathful being (krodha) in The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī .

An array of symbolic hand gestures, which range from the gesture of touching the earth displayed by the Buddha upon attaining awakening to the numerous gestures used in tantric rituals to symbolize offerings, consecrations, etc. Iconographically, mudrās are used as a way of communicating an action performed by the deity or a specific aspect a deity or buddha is displaying, in which case the same figure can be depicted using different hand gestures to signify that they are either meditating, teaching, granting freedom from fear, and so forth.

One of the many names of the Hindu god Śiva.

A name associated with the wrathful form of Vajrasattva and the wrathful forms of several male deities in the Vajrayāna Buddhist pantheon.

A type of ritual action.

This phrase appears in The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī in conjunction for ritual actions that allow one to gain the favor of or enthrall kings.

The lord of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven on the summit of Mount Sumeru. As one of the eight guardians of the directions, Indra guards the eastern quarter. In Buddhist sūtras, he is a disciple of the Buddha and protector of the Dharma and its practitioners. He is often referred to by the epithets Śatakratu, Śakra, and Kauśika.

The name of a river believed to flow from the golden juice of the fruits of the great Jambu tree on Mount Meru.

The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can signify either the known human world, or more specifically the Indian subcontinent, literally “the jambu island/continent.” Jambu is the name used for a range of plum-like fruits from trees belonging to the genus Szygium, particularly Szygium jambos and Szygium cumini, and it has commonly been rendered “rose apple,” although “black plum” may be a less misleading term. Among various explanations given for the continent being so named, one (in the Abhidharmakośa) is that a jambu tree grows in its northern mountains beside Lake Anavatapta, mythically considered the source of the four great rivers of India, and that the continent is therefore named from the tree or the fruit. Jambudvīpa has the Vajrāsana at its center and is the only continent upon which buddhas attain awakening.

A nāga king.

An iconographic or real implement in the form of a staff with a trident ending; it may have human skulls impaled on it.