Prostrations to Śrī Deveśvara!
If a yogin of Śrī Mahākāla desires to rule over a royal government, etc., then of the two [parts of the process], the part of entry into the performance of this ancient subject and the method of carrying out its realization, the first, the ancient subject, [is as follows]:
When a yogin of eastern India was carrying out the practices of Cakrasaṃvara, for thirteen months there was no rain in that country. Then the king of the country, one called Śaṅkarasiddha, said “As (it is because) this yogin has taken up meditation in this country, he shall be expelled and not remain in residence here.” His servants held the yogin; the yogin was angry and so out of consideration that he would have to kill the king and the doubts [about doing so] occasioned by his bodhisattva mind, he made a plan to usurp the royal government. And thus he took over the royal government and after dwelling the court of the king he said “I will build.” And he said “I will also have a blessed clay image of Mahākāla.” Then, at the time he was dwelling (there), he heard tell of a king in the land called Kosala who adhered to heterodox doctrines, one who had harmed and oppressed the Buddhist doctrines and destroyed many vihāra. Thereupon he performed the act of reducing him into submission; thus the king was reduced to submission and all the vihāra repaired. He said “In this land too I will erect and have an image of Mahākāla.” As for the doing of these things thusly, it is ancient.
Now, the method of carrying out the realization [is as follows]:
Of the three parts, veneration, implementation and applying oneself to the task, veneration can be known elsewhere. As for implementation, if a yogin abandons self-interest and desires to rule over a royal government in order to protect the doctrine, he should go to a solitary place and the special task, the reduction of the king into submission, should be done by one who thoroughly venerates the seven letters (Oṁ Mahākāla huṁ phaṭ?).
Having made a model of the king’s form with the three sorts of lower body excretions from the king, whomsoever he may be, to whom this is to be done, and with bee’s wax or wheat flour and earth left behind [from the king’s passage over it], one should put a circle in the heart. This form is wrapped in silk and placed in the skull of a monkey or a horse. The holes (in the skull) are plugged with bee’s wax or dough. Rice, wheat and millet are scattered. Until conjured, one should recite this mantra: Oṁ Ma-hā-kā-la Rā-dza khug [i.e., “Oṁ Summon Mahākāla Rāja!”], Tsi-ti-khug, Tsa-dur khug, Chum phob, Ra-tsa phob — which is to say Tsar-na phog — La-lo phob, Dza-ba-tre Rā-dza, Dza-du-tri, Che-ge-la-du-na phob-ya.
As a sign the king bodily appears,
So too, the skull shakes and throbs,
Lights and sounds then also arise.
At these signs, make a scattering upon the skull,
It should be kept under one when sleeping;
It should be securely hidden!
On each day of the latter part of the month, one should mix food with the scattering materials and make them like victuals.
One should always prepare a support for the skull;
As the king then works like a subject
And listens to whatever the master says.
These are particularly exalted instructions!
This very profound counsel of the lama
Is an object of practice for those who are fit;
Those who are not fit, though they be desirous,
Will not encounter it!
As for applying oneself to the task: with the intention of bringing forth and subjugating [the king in question], one should take up some earth that is red in color and in the middle of a maṇḍala halfmoon made of twenty-seven sor, … [three syllables written below the line are indistinct here] … within a circumference of seven sor, having applied a half-moon shaped fire hole of approximately equal depth, and within that having made a half-moon come into the middle of a demon’s mouth and drawn inside it, with safron and visceral stones, 108 linga for the realization process; then, through the realization process, one does the summoning again and again. Red-colored wood should be stacked up into a half moon, and having made oneself into the very personification of one’s own deity, one should generate Mahākāla as the fire deity within the fire hole and present offering water and the five essentials for practice; with the linga and the fire oblations utter each of these mantra, offering up the linga and the fire oblations. The mantras Oṁ Ma-hā-kā-la gu-ṇa hri-da badza kro-ta ma-hā-ku-ka huṁ phaṭ, Rā-dza-ho, Ba-sham-ku-ru-ho, Huṁ huṁ swā-hā, are intoned. Together with the mantras, lights emitted from one’s own mouth and that of Mahākāla strike the [implements of the] realization process. [At this time] one should be thinking of bending and subjugating [the king in question].
As for the fire oblations:
Red flowers and red sandalwood;
Together, safron, visceral stones, and salt;
Together, auspicious grasses, rice, and beans;
Together, sesame and melted butter.
Should be offered through clear samādhi.
Four sessions in seven days will subjugate the king!
“The Instructions of Śrī Mahākāla: The Usurpation of Royal Government,” very precisely translated and written down by the great lama Me-nyag lo-tsa-ba, is concluded.
From Bya rog ma bstan srung bcas kyi chos tshan pod lnga bzhugs pa las mgon po’i rgyud dang sgrub thbs man ngag skor [Collected Tantras and Related Texts Concerned with the Propitiation of Mahākāla and his Retinue]. Palampur: Sungrab nyamso gyunphel parkhang [Tibetan Craft Community], 1973–1979. Via Sperling, Elliot. “Rtsa-mi lo-tsā-ba Sangs-rgyas grags-pa and the Tangut Background of Early Mongol-Tibetan Relations.” In Tibetan Studies, Proceedings of the 6th International Association for Tibetan Studies, vol. 3, edited by Per Kwaerne, 801–825. Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994.