Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 4.54
॥
Devanāgarī
महापद्मश्च शङ्खश्च गुलिकोऽष्टौ प्रकीर्तिताः । एवं मण्डलमालिख्य तस्य दिक्षु विदिक्षु च
Transliteration (IAST)
mahāpadmaśca śaṅkhaśca guliko'ṣṭau prakīrtitāḥ | evaṃ maṇḍalamālikhya tasya dikṣu vidikṣu ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
महापद्मः च शङ्खः चmahāpadmaḥ ca śaṅkhaḥ caMahāpadma and Śaṅkha; Mahāpadma with Śaṅkha
गुलिकः अष्टौ प्रकीर्तिताःgulikaḥ aṣṭau prakīrtitāḥGulika — eight are named; Gulika — so the eight are proclaimed
एवम् मण्डलम् आलिख्यevam maṇḍalam ālikhyahaving thus drawn the maṇḍala; having so traced the circle
तस्य दिक्षु विदिक्षु चtasya dikṣu vidikṣu cain its quarters and intermediate quarters; at its chief and corner directions
Translation
Mahāpadma, Śaṅkha and Gulika — so the eight are named; and, having thus drawn the maṇḍala, in its chief quarters and the intermediate ones…
Version
c30f1a19ca2e · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The eight serpents are counted out, and the diagram is named with the word maṇḍala — “circle”.
The word appears in the book for the first time, though the drawing has gone on since the fortieth verse. It is wider than “yantra”: a maṇḍala is an image of the universe, a circle into which everything is inscribed.
And indeed: by this point in the diagram stand the name of the Highest, His wife, the near ones, the allies, the servants, the ministers, all the letters of speech, the names of Viṣṇu, the thirty-three gods, the signs of the zodiac and the underworld serpents.
It remains to post the guards at the quarters, of which the next two verses will speak.
Note what is absent from this circle. There are no evil powers as a separate class: Rāvaṇa is not inscribed in the diagram, nor is Kumbhakarṇa. Only Vibhīṣaṇa is inscribed — the one who came.
And this is understandable. The diagram is the image of the world as it is held around Him; evil has no place of its own in it, because, as was said in the second verse of the first Upaniṣad, it perishes of itself.
The maṇḍala will end in ten verses, and the last of them will say what all this is for.