Dissertation Submitted to the University of Delhi
In Partial Fulfilment of Requirement
For the Degree of
BY
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
DELHI-110007
2018
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Pranshu Samdarshi, a Ph.D. Scholar in the Department of
History, University of Delhi, has satisfactorily prepared his thesis entitled ‘Sacred
Feminine Imagery in Tantric Buddhism: Text and Practice’ under my
supervision and guidance. The present work incorporates the result of his
independent study and embodies his own research. This work to the best of my
knowledge and belief is original and the contents of the thesis have not been
presented before to form the basis of the award of any previous degree in any
university. The present work is up to the mark and is worthy of presentation for
examination.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many that, without their guidance and support, this research would not
have been made possible. First of all, sincere thanks to my Ph.D. research
supervisors Dr. Shonaleeka Kaul and Prof. Jaya S. Tyagi. They offered genuine
guidance and gave a space, a freedom, and an emotional security to develop and
express my difficult ideas that have taken some shape in this research. I am
immensely grateful for their insight, wisdom and tutelage.
All the teachers and staff of Department of History were always a source
of assistance and their moral support has been a blessing. I respectfully offer my
deep reverence and gratefulness to them.
The strength of presence of friends, Anil Kumar Maurya, Vikram
Bhardwaj, Dinesh Singh, Sunil Kumar, Narender, Ven. Tashi Dorje, Pooja Dabral,
Karma Rinchen Sonam, Nelja Wangmo and all other friends from various
departments of Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, does not go
unnoticed.
I am grateful to Thomas Cruijsen, of 84000.co translation project and Dr.
Manik Bajracharya of Lotus Research Centre, Kathmandu. Their inputs on
Nepalese Buddhist traditions and reading the Buddhist terminologies have
benefitted a lot for this research. I am also grateful to Dr. Balaram Shukla of
Sanskrit department, University of Delhi, who helped with the English translations
of Sanskrit passages used in this research.
The informal interactions with Prof. Ram Shankar Tripathi, Geshe Yeshe
Thabkhey, Dr. Wangchuk Dorje Negi and other scholars of Central University of
Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, have made me aware of the vast and profound textual
legacy of Buddhist tantra.
Studying the texts of Kashmir Shaivism with Prof. Bettina Baumer and Dr.
Aleksandra Wenta and, attending the Sanskrit classes of Prof. V. N. Jha and Dr.
Sadananda Das were some of the valuable addendums to my understanding of
compositeness of Indic-scholasticism.
Finally, I offer my profound gratitude to Geshe Dorji Damdul. I feel
fortunate to have the access to his vast knowledge of traditional Buddhist
philosophy and his insightful teachings given at Tibet House, Delhi. I
acknowledge the financial support of Senior Research Fellowship provided by
UGC.
ii
PREFACE
In the process of writing this dissertation, I also produced the following
publications. Some contents of this dissertation, therefore, may overlap with these
publications:
1. 2019 (Upcoming) ‘Spatial and Architectural Constructs of Tantric
Buddhist Mandalas: A Cognitive Approach’, in Eloquent Spaces: Meaning,
Monuments and Communities in Early India, Ed. Shonaleeka Kaul,
Routledge, London and New York.
2. 2018 ‘Book Review’ in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, National
University of Singapore, Vol. 49. No. 2, (Book Review of Nalanda
Srivijaya and Beyond: Re-exploring Buddhist Art in Asia, Edited by Gauri
Parimoo Krishnan, Singapore: Asian Civilisation Museum, 2017).
3. 2017 ‘ह िं दी साह त्य पर बौद्ध धर्म-दर्मन का प्रभाव’ (Buddhist Influence on
Modern Hindi Literature), Vol. 4, Issue. 26, अपनी र्ाटी ई-पहिका, Web
magazine, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan.
4. 2017 ‘Female Buddhas: Sacred Feminine Imagery in Buddhist Tantra’,
Rachna Publishers, New Delhi.
5. 2016 ‘Yoginis as Goddesses’ Frontline, Vol. 32, Issue 26, Jan.08, 2016:
86-87. (Book Review of Anamika Roy’s Sixty-Four Yoginis: Cult, Icons
and Goddesses, Primus Books, 2015).
6. 2014 ‘Concept of Goddesses in Buddhist Tantra Tradition’, The Delhi
University Journal of the Humanities and the Social Sciences, University
of Delhi, Vol. 1, Issue 1: 83-96.
ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS
- Romanization of Sanskrit follows the International Alphabet of Sanskrit
Transliteration.
- All Sanskrit and Tibetan pre-modern names are given name first followed by the
surname.
- There is no present consensus concerning the terms: Vajrayana, Mantrayana,
Esoteric Buddhism, and Tantric Buddhism. Therefore, these various terms are
used interchangeably.
iv
DESCRIPTION OF DIACRITICS
long a
ā
retroflex d
ḍ
long A
Ā
retroflex D
Ḍ
long i
ī
retroflex n
ṇ
long I
Ī
retroflex N
Ṇ
long u
ū
palatal s
ś
long U
Ū
palatal S
Ś
vocalic r
ṛ
retroflex s
ṣ
vocalic R
Ṛ
retroflex S
Ṣ
long vocalic r
ṝ
anusvara
ṃ
vocalic l
ḷ
visarga
ḥ
vocalic L
Ḷ
long e
ē
long vocalic l
ḹ
long o
ō
velar n
ṅ
l underbar
ḻ
velar N
Ṅ
r underbar
ṟ
palatal n
ñ
n underbar
ṉ
palatal N
Ñ
k underbar
ḵ
retroflex t
ṭ
t underbar
ṯ
retroflex T
Ṭ
Unless indicated otherwise, accents have been dropped in order to facilitate word search.
v
SUMMARY IN HINDI
स्त्री-रूप र्ें हदव्य-र्क्ति की आराधना हवहभन्न धर्ों का एक अहभन्न अिंग र ा ै . भारतीय उपर् ाद्वीप
हवकहसत हवहभन्न धाहर्मक सिंप्रदाय िं तथा ल ग िं के सार्ाहिक िीवन र्ें भी दे वी-पूिा का प्रर्ुख स्थान र ा
ै . अन्य भारतीय धर्ों की तर बौद्ध धर्म के हवहभन्न सिंप्रदाय िं र्े प्रज्ञा के रूप र्ें स्त्री-दे वता के उपासना
प्रचहलत र ी ै . बौद्ध धर्म र्ें बुद्धत्व सह त उच्चतर् आध्याक्तिक आदर्ों एविं लक्ष् िं की अहभव्यक्ति स्त्रीदे वता के रूप र्े भी हनरूहपत हुई ै .
भारत र्ें उद् भूत प्रायः सभी धर्ों र्ें तिंि-साधना की भी अहवहिन्न परिं परा हवद्यर्ान र ी ै . बौद्ध
धर्म के परवती काल र्ें िब बौद्ध-तिंि की धारा का िन-सार्ान्य के बीच प्रचार-प्रसार हुआ तब बुद्धत्व
की अवधारणा एक व्यक्ति हवर्ेष के रूप र्ें न
कर वणम-हलिंग से परे , एक चैतन्य िाग्रत सत्ता के
र्ानवकृत स्वरुप र्ें हनरुहपत हुई. इसी क्रर् र्ें हवहभन्न स्त्री-दे वताओिं के साधना परिं परा का हवकास हुआ.
पारर्ाहथमक सत्य और प्रज्ञा रूप र्ें अहभव्यि ये तािं हिक दे हवयााँ बौद्ध आदर्ों एविं उच्यतर् धाहर्मक लक्ष्
क हनरुहपत करती ैं .
ध्यातव्य ै हक र्ाि-र्ैव तिंि और बौद्ध तिंि र्ें सिंवृहतक एविं परर्ाथम-सत्य की अवधारणा एक
सार्ान न ीिं
ने से बौद्ध तिंि िं की अपनी हवहर्ष्ट परम्परा र ी ै . अनाि एविं र्ून्यता के हसद्धािं त की
पृष्ठभूहर् पर आधाररत बौद्ध तिंि र्ें वहणमत बौद्ध दे वीय िं की प्रतीकािकता परर्ाथम और सिंवृहत की
एकािकता पर केक्तित ैं तथा बौद्ध तिंि के साधन-हसद्धािं त पराथम-ह त क
ी अपना उद्दे श्य लहित करते
ैं .
इस र् ध र्ें तािं हिक बौद्ध परिं परा के हवहभन्न ग्रिंथ िं र्ें उल्लेक्तखत तािं हिक दे हवय िं की उपासना एविं
ध्यान-परिं परा के ऐहत ाहसक हवकास का क्रर्-बद्ध सवेिण हकया गया ै . औपहनवेहर्क-काल के और
वतमर्ान इहत ासकार के द्वारा की गयी तिंि-सम्बिंहधत असिंगत व्याख्याओिं की सर्ाल चना की गयी ै ,
साथ ीिं तथा नेपाल और हतब्बत र्ें प्रचहलत बौद्ध दे वीय िं के तािं हिक परिं पराओिं का साधानर्ाला तथा
हनष्पन्नय गावली इत्याहद तिंि ग्रिंथ िं के आधार पर एक र् धपूणम अध्ययन प्रस्तुत हकया गया ै . पररहर्ष्ट के
रूप र्ें बौद्ध-तिंि की दे हवय िं से सम्बिंहधत कुि सिंस्कृत श्ल क िं के र्ौहलक अिंग्रेिी अनुवाद भी सिंलग्न ै .
vi
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I
PREFACE
III
ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS
IV
DESCRIPTION OF DIACRITICS
V
SUMMARY IN HINDI
VI
INTRODUCTION
1
CHAPTER 1
9
I. BUDDHIST TANTRA: METHODOLOGICAL, TEXTUAL AND HISTORICAL ISSUES
Unargued preference and presumptions
Orientalism and Romanticism
The prototype of the European concept of Buddhism
European scholars and Sanskrit Buddhist texts
The colonial project of discovering the ‘original Buddhism’
Presuppositions and academic appropriation of tantric Buddhism
Conclusion (I)
II. Transcultural Encounters: Western influence on Indian Scholars
Tantric Buddhism and the Orientalist tropes
Extra-Indian origin theory of Buddhist tantra
The portrayal of Buddhist Tantra in Hindi Literature
Corrective Voices
Conclusion (II)
13
18
21
25
28
29
46
48
50
57
61
65
67
CHAPTER – 2
69
THE CONCEPT OF SACRED FEMININE IN BUDDHIST TANTRA
Early tantra traditions
Esotericism and misunderstanding of tantra and its practices
72
85
Interpretation of Tantra by Western scholars
Feminine deities in the modern feminist framework
Research on goddesses of early Buddhism
Ḍākinī and Yakṣiṇī in Buddhism
Female deities in non-Buddhist tantric systems
Divine feminine and Female Buddhas
Buddhist ideals and their female personification
Goddesses in the historical sources
Feminine form of Dhāraṇī
Contemplative practices and female tantric deities
Conclusion
CHAPTER 3
86
91
93
96
98
101
105
106
110
113
118
119
PAÑCARAKṢĀ: THE FIVE-PROTECTION DEITIES OF KRIYĀ-TANTRA
Classification of Buddhist tantra
Antiquity of Pañcarakṣā practice
Pañcarakṣā practice in Kathmandu valley
Pañcarakṣā in Central and Southeast Asia
Pañcarakṣā tradition in ancient India
Pañcarakṣā in texts
Pañcarakṣā Mandala
Pañcarakṣā-sūtra
Pañcarakṣā in Arts
Pañcarakṣā Carya-nŗitya
Conclusion
CHAPTER 4
121
130
130
133
138
145
151
155
160
166
167
169
VAJRAYOGINĪ: SYMBOLISM OF YOGIC PRACTICES IN BUDDHIST-TANTRA
Vajrayoginī in tantra texts
Portrayal of enlightenment in female form
Icon of Trikāya-vajrayoginī and yogic practice
Vajravārāhī and Vajrayoginī
Visualization practices of Vajrayoginī in texts
Vajrayoginī in the popular religion of Tibet and Nepal
Vajrayoginī temple at Sankhu
Vajrayoginī temple at Pharping
Conclusion
CONCLUSION
169
173
176
181
186
189
191
197
200
203
APPENDIX
210
BIBLIOGRAPHY
224
INDEX
255
INTRODUCTION
The worship of the goddess, the feminine-divine, has been an integral part of all
religions that developed in India. Like other religious traditions, there exists a live
engagement of Buddhism with feminine divinities. The modern studies on
Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist arts reveal that tantric Buddhist pantheon is
incredibly rich with a diverse array of fascinating female figures. A number of
studies in recent years have pointed out to a paradigmatic shift in the epistemology
of feminine worship in the socio-religious life of the people in the Indian
subcontinent.
It has been commonly observed that diverse traditions of goddesses, in their
many forms and features, pervade the historical development of Indic religions at
multiple levels. These figures correspond to multiple levels of divinity. They range
from tree spirits to wrathful protectors and compassionate healers to mother
figures of liberation. Some of them bestow the mundane accomplishments
(sāmānya-siddhi) to their practitioners while others confer the supreme
accomplishments (uttama-siddhi) to the supplicants of Buddhahood.1 The
ṣṭ
1
canonical Buddhist texts, which mention these goddesses, suggest that peaceful or
wrathful appearance of goddesses depend on the particular qualities embodied by
these goddesses. From the iconographic perspective, the Buddhist goddesses have
key identifiers such as postures, hand gestures, or symbols and colour to tell who
they are or what they represent.
A deeper understanding of tantric imagery reveals that much of the
iconographic aspects of these Buddhist divinities have been derived from
pragmatic visualization practices of Buddhist tantra. Such practices are
soteriological in their aim but cryptic in their expression and esoteric in nature.2
However, most often, the researchers, as they are unaware of these veiled
and esoteric concepts and symbolism of tantric Buddhism, fail to give cognizance
to their significance and end up with an improper assessment of tantric
iconography.
A significant part of this research involves the analysis of the central
characteristics of Buddhist tantra. This analysis has a multi-layered approach and
involves a variety of sources, considering the two sides of religion, the theory that
2
is presented in canonical texts and in the lineage-teachings of monks, and the
praxis, the actual practices and rituals of the lay adherents.
This research delineates the process of development of the tradition of
goddesses and their practices within Buddhism in general and Buddhist tantra in
particular. It is done by examining the canonical texts and ritual compendia of
Buddhist tantra tradition for its symbolism, iconography, and visualization rituals.
The functional aspects of rituals related to worldly or soteriological goals are also
enquired into. The materials and information gathered for research work done for
this research have been done through visiting monasteries, staying with lay
Buddhist communities in Himalayan Buddhist regions, and conducting a series of
formal and informal interactions with lineage-holder Tibetan Buddhist monks,
reincarnated Lamas, Newari Vajracharyas, and the ordinary devotees who go on
pilgrimage to the shrines of Buddhist deities.
A part of this research also contrasts the classical form of esoteric religious
practices as prescribed in tantric texts that are preserved mainly by the monastics,
with the popular traditions that play in the hearts and minds of the lay adherents of
Buddhism. Though this research incorporates the tantric Buddhist tradition in
general, it is centred on the tantric traditions and practices of goddesses that have
been an integral part of Buddhism that still survives in the Himalayan regions. The
area of investigation is positioned on two specific practices of Buddhist goddesses:
the Pañcarakṣā and the Vajrayoginī practice. The postulation done in is largely
3
based upon the first-hand information obtained from fieldwork and primary textual
sources.
This research, although, is more concerned with the philological analysis
of Buddhist tantra texts, nevertheless, it has benefitted a lot from extensive
travelling and fieldwork around the Himalayan region of India which includes
Ladakh, Spiti and Sikkim, where the tantric form of Buddhism is still a vibrant
living practice. This research also draws on from my M.Phil. research, which
consisted of fieldwork on the shrines of Buddhist Goddesses in Kathmandu valley
in Nepal.
In the last few decades, the increasing curiosity about Buddhist tantra has
resulted in the production of a number of volumes related to goddesses. Some of
these books have drawn on feminist ideas related to tantric sources to pursue
questions related to the construction of women and women's subjectivity within
the South Asian religious culture. Although these books do provide significant
insight towards an understanding of feminine aspects of the Indo-Tibetan culture
of Buddhism, however as Rita M. Gross points out, ‘...such discussions cannot be
4
done by outsiders, no matter how knowledgeable and sympathetic they may be.’3
An attempt has been made in this research to bring in the insider’s perspective.
This research is divided into four chapters. The first chapter critically
analyses the historiography of Buddhism in general and Buddhist tantra in
particular. The first part involves a critical analysis of the historiography of
Buddhism and enquires into the larger contours of issues and the possible motives
and reasons behind particular approaches as taken up by Buddhist scholars
working under the British rulers of India who were responsible for creating general
perceptions about the history of Buddhism that is still prevalent today.
The chapter takes up how the colonial interpretation of Buddhist history
influenced Indian historians and how they responded towards the conceptual
models and narrative forms developed by their Western counterparts. A diverse
range of texts produced in the colonial and post-colonial period are analysed in
this chapter. The concern is not with the chronological periodization of texts but
with the ideological orientations underlying these textual productions.
This chapter looks into the details of the conventional mode of looking at
Buddhism as it has been developed in the departments of religious and Asian
5
studies of Western universities and how the models that were developed for
European studies and Biblical studies have been deployed to interpret Buddhism.
Many such models that still dominate the historical imagination of Buddhist
studies have been examined in this chapter. This chapter also proposes an
alternative approach for Buddhist studies and advocates incorporating the critical
study of the tantra texts from the perspective of traditional accounts.
The second chapter explores the progression of tantra in the religious
sphere of ancient India in general. The focal point of the discussion is the goddess
of Buddhist tantra. The interaction and influence of other religious traditions visa-vis Buddhism have been discussed. This chapter explores the placement of
goddesses in the Buddhist framework and their symbolic importance. The different
strata of goddesses are delineated and the personification in Buddhist ideas and the
deifications of protective incantations, which has been an important aspect of Sutra
and Tantra literature, are highlighted.
The third chapter deals with Pañcarakṣā goddesses. Their practice is
classified under Kriyā-tantra of four classes of Buddhist tantra.4 This chapter
6
investigates these goddesses with a two-tiered approach. It enquires into the
explanation about the abstractness of their appearance and rituals through a brief
overview of esoteric practices explained in some of the ancient tantric texts. The
archaeological and textual pieces of evidence found in India, Central, and
Southeast Asia have been examined in this chapter. Then the functional aspect of
these goddesses found in the contemporary religious sphere of Nepal is also
explored.
The fourth chapter consists of an explanation about the rationale behind the
rituals and practices associated with Anuttarayoga-tantra through the
visualizations practices related to a tutelary deity Vajrayoginī. The name
Vajrayoginī is a generic name for a set of tantric goddesses who have a prominent
presence in the tantric texts and therefore several forms of ritualistic visualization
forms and yogic practices have developed around these goddesses. This chapter
also explores the popular religious traditions associated with different Vajrayoginī
,
7
temples located in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal, which happens to a significant
part of this tradition but has been mostly neglected by the researchers.5
The conclusion points to the importance of proper tantric semiotics and
hermeneutics for making sense of tantric texts, iconography and associated
practices so that they can be interpreted within the context and in emic ways.
An English translation of a small text, which is a collection of twenty-five
praise-verses (Snk. stuti) of Pañcarakṣā, has been added as an appendix. This is to
give an idea of how such arcane practices of Buddhist goddesses, embedded within
spiritual and philosophical doctrines, become the expression of popular religion
and devotion.
8
CHAPTER 1
BUDDHIST TANTRA: METHODOLOGICAL, TEXTUAL AND
HISTORICAL ISSUES
श्वा-खरोष्ट्र-गजाद्य-अस्र्क् पित्वा माांसेन भोजनम् पनत्यम् |
Drink the blood of dog, donkey, camel, and elephant; thereafter feed on their flesh,
regularly.
इष्ट्ां सर्वपर्शेष रक्त-पर्पिप्त-महामाांसां समस्त-कुत्सितमाांसां प्राणक-शत-िक्ष-सम्युक्तम्-पिव्यम् |
Desired is the very special, smeared with the blood, the human flesh, awful meat of
all species, full of millions of maggots, is divine.
र्ैरोचनेनापत-िूतम् कीट-शतैह् पसपमपस-मायमानम् श्वान-नर-च्छपिव त-पमश्रम् माांसां र्ज्राम्बुमपजवका-युक्तम् र्ैरोचन-सत्सिश्रम् भोक्तव्यम् योपगनोिाहै: ||
Meat solidified by rotten excrement, mixed with the dog and human vomit,
simmering with hundreds of worms, with a coating of urine mixed with excrement; [it
should be] consumed by the yogi with delight.
− सिंपुट द्भवस्वर-तिंि-हनदान-र् ाकल्प-राि
− Sampuṭodbhava-svara-tantra-nidāna-mahākalpa-rāja 1
,
9
‘Well, traditionally it would be better not to publish it [tantra scripture] at all;
but if it is going to be published inevitably anyway, it is important to explain it
clearly and authoritatively so as to avoid damaging misunderstandings.’
-
H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama 2
For the readers outside of the tantra tradition, it is not an easy task to shed their
dispassion while reading a tantric text. To the scholars of comparative religion, the
tantra scriptures and their doctrines have represented the ultimate challenge. The
deliberate use of the antinomian in the tantric religious system makes its ritualistic
presentations, the language, and its semantics so offensive and repulsive that even
if the reader is sympathetic to the tradition, it is not an easy task to get away from
the distaste. The distaste, however, has been the creation of cursory and superficial
readings of tantric texts.3
Any such reader is bound to be astounded by the characteristics and the
discussion of these tantric treatises when they unfold. They have an
unconventional tone of language, a different tenor of their expositions, and
persuasion for a radical approach towards the practice for achieving the highest
state of wisdom, what these texts refer as ‘unsurpassable knowledge’ (anuttara-
10
jñana). The tantra texts present an altogether different category of epistemic place
and subjectivization. And they purposely and overwhelmingly urge their readers
to be well aware of the technicalities of the inherent cryptic language (sandhyābhāṣā), the hermeneutical renditions (nītārtha-neyārtha), and the appropriations
of intention-intended (abhiprāya-icchataḥ), in the prescribed rituals; failing
which, the whole tantric liturgy would just remain as an objectionable and
nonsensical subject.4
A century ago, when the modern studies on Indology were in their
premature stage, many Western explorers, who came across the tantric traditions
in general and Buddhist tantra in particular, had to wrestle with the issue of this
issue of tantra antinomianism. The normative rendering of Sanskrit textual
lexicons, and other philological tools, which were helpful for the understanding of
other scriptures in Sanskrit, did not provide any help, and these texts were
incomprehensible even to the greatest of Sanskrit scholars of that time, (both
Indian as well as Western.)
11
As most of the scholars failed to make much sense out of the
unconventional rhetoric presented in the texts; they concluded the tantric form of
Buddhism to be a disgusting form of some primitive religion. Nonetheless, it was
evidently puzzling for these scholars, to fathom the widespread popularity of the
tantric form of Buddhism that was still predominant in the vast range of the
Himalayan region of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and in the trans-Himalayan
regions of Asia such as China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.
Since late 19th century, we find that protestant Britain, having India and
Sri Lanka as its colonies, was putting in effort for promoting Pali based Theravada
Buddhism, while Catholic France, having influence over Indo-china, looked for
Buddhist scholasticism in the Sanskrit Mahayana Sutras. This resulted in the
development of the two European schools of Buddhist studies. The Anglo-German
school and the Franco-Belgian school. The Anglo-German school almost
exclusively emphasized the Pali literary tradition. Scholars such as Thomas
William Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenburg were amongst the main proponents
of this school. The Franco-Belgian school utilized the Sanskrit textual tradition of
Buddhism. Many eminent French scholars such as Sylvain Levi, De-la Valle
Poussin and Jean Przylusky represented this school.
Thus, the texts of two traditions of Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana,
started being translated into the European languages by scholars. However,
Western scholars started studying these texts from the point of view of Biblical
12
studies and Christian theology. Initially, the effort of these studies was motivated
by the aim of drawing some parallels between Buddhism and Christianity so that
European Christian missionaries could have some grounding in the religious
systems of Asia so that Christianity could be introduced in the Asian countries.
Though these scholars were partially successful in their endeavour of
comprehending the literature of Buddhist Sutra, when it came to the Buddhist
tantra, the texts did not make any sense to them. Although a tantric form of
Buddhism was surviving in Tibet, it was a forbidden land for Europeans, as at the
end of 18th century the Tibetan government closed its border to them. Thus, the
proper exposure for reading and interpretation of tantra texts was missing, which
made it virtually impossible for those scholars to recognize the importance of the
tantric Buddhist principles, especially when they compared it with the theology of
Judeo-Christian religions.
Unargued preference and presumptions
When India formally became a British colony in the late 19th century, the
reformative agenda of British rulers of India became of utmost importance. In
order to justify the exploitation of their colonized subjects, the reinterpretation of
Indian customs and the religious traditions was an essential need. British rulers
could figure out that in ancient India, Buddhism had enjoyed a distinct identity as
an institution. Moreover, as the traditional masters of Buddhism were virtually
13
absent in the mainland of India, there was an opportunity to tweak its doctrine,
reinvent it, and use it a means to introduce their own agenda in the disguise of
Buddhism to their Indian subjects.
This endeavour of British colonizers of India led to interpreting the Pali or
Theravada form of Buddhism in a particular way. Primacy was given to Pali and
it was propagated as the ‘original’ language of Buddhism and the language of
Buddha as well as the language of common masses in ancient India.5 In addition,
the Buddha was presented as the supreme reformer of India. This celebration was
of a specific form of Buddhism was deliberately done in such a way that all other
forms of religious tradition, including the Mahayana and Tantra traditions of
Buddhism, could be deprecated. This presentation was an outcome of the
European imagination, which presented Buddhism as a religion compatible with
rationalistic Western science. It was in stark contrast to Hinduism, which was
considered mythological and superstitious religion.
The 19th century was the period when the investigation of Buddhism was
taken up as a leisure activity by enthusiasts such as Alexander Cunningham (1814-
14
1893). Cunningham, who was trained as a military engineer, somehow managed
to combine his military official work with his antiquarian interests in his young
age and eventually became archaeological surveyor after his retirement. The
unpublished archival materials related to him reveal the fact of the colonial
mindset playing its role in distorting the archaeological source materials and
presenting it in a decidedly peculiar fashion for which there is no obvious scholarly
justification. Cunningham has been criticized for his ‘bias’ and his over fascination
for Buddhism.
Cunningham’s preference for Buddhism, which was seemingly inoffensive
until the recent research shows that the larger part of his writings has conspicuous
rhetoric that sought to read Indian history in terms of deteriorating, a progressing
decay from a distant but having a glorious past. This rhetoric was purposely
created to pave the way for the British to colonize India so that in the disguise of
reformist actions, their colonial project was executed.
In the writings of Cunningham and his contemporaries, there are various
examples of the faulty interpretations of the findings of the early archaeological
period. Recent research reveal that there have been many cases of racist attacks on
native Indian scholars and they were discredited for their findings.6 A typical
15
example of this case was the dispute between James Fergusson, an indigo merchant
turned architect, and Rajendra Lal Mitra. An analysis of James Fergusson’s book
in which he responds to Rajendra Lal Mitra provides clear and direct evidence of
the political ramifications of architectural debates that happened in 19th century
India, which shows that the Indian scholars were univocally denied agency in the
field of scholarship.7
This style of ‘cherry-picking’ approach for historiography was evident as
the preference for a particular kind of source-materials was shown while
neglecting others. The analysis of reports of Cunningham reveals that his
descriptions about the motifs of Sanchi do not take the presence of Mahayana
Buddhist traditions into consideration. For example, in his report, Cunningham
does not give importance to motifs of Yakṣiṇi or Gaja-lakṣmi figures of Sanchi
and mentions the Vajrapaṇi capital as a mere decorative figure. Nevertheless, the
Vajrapani is amongst the three main Bodhisattva figure in Mahayana Buddhism,
symbolic form of power of the Buddha, and the chief compiler of the tantra texts
preached by the Buddha.8
.
ṣ
16
Similar to the approach of Cunningham, the records of Brain H. Hodgson
(1801-1894), a British resident of Kathmandu, tell us about the presence of rich
Mahayana Buddhist philosophical traditions along with the systems of tantra and
its deities in the Himalayan regions of Nepal. However, like most of English
proconsuls of his time, Hodgson rejected the traditional viewpoints of Buddhist
philosophy as ‘interminable absurdities of Buddha system.’9
In 1824, when Hodgson began his mission of accumulating the Buddhist
Sanskrit manuscripts of Tantra and Mahayana, he also started dispatching them to
his friends in India and France. Hodgson in one of the letters to his French scholar
E. Burnouf writes, ‘Tantrika [sic] works are very numerous. They are in general
disgraced by obscenity and by all sorts of magic and demonology. But they are
frequently redeemed by unusually explicit assertions of a supreme Godhead.’10 It
is not difficult to recognize there was a deliberate attempt made by Hodgson to
correlate tantra to the Western magical tradition and his own imaginative
constructs of Buddhist godhead and then projecting it as tantric Buddhism.11
17
Most of these theories that were propagated by scholars such as
Cunningham and Hodgson to disparage the Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist
tradition were closely intertwined with the history of political relationships
between India and the West. These theories suffer from epistemological
assumptions of British officers that are highly biased. It is not so difficult to infer
that those assumptions and appropriations of archaeological findings were framed
according to the concerns of racial superiority and their imperialist vision in
colonial India. Through this sort of propagandist scholarship, the theory of ‘decline
of Indian wisdom’ was devised and the need of a revival of ‘once-great
civilization’ was often necessitated to impose the reformist agenda and in order to
justify the British colonial presence in India as a civilizing force.
Orientalism and Romanticism
Much prior to the endeavours of Cunningham and Hodgson, the interest of
Western scholars in Buddhism developed around the 17th century CE. Initially, it
was because of their curiosity in the probable influence of Indian thought on
Christianity.12 Some of the irrational speculations were presented by the scholars
18
of this era. To scholars such as Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician and
explorer (1651-1716), Buddhism was mere ‘the pagan doctrine of the
Brahmanas.’13
By early 18th century CE, most of the European scholars were convinced
about the historicity of Buddha and the spread of his doctrine across Asia,
however, according to the Western historical principles, it was not sure where he
lived or where he was from. The absence of living Buddhism and its practices from
the non-Himalayan regions of India led them to the speculation that they had to
search for Buddha’s religion elsewhere from India. This resulted in ‘extra Indian
origin theory’ of Buddhism. This led to the theory of Buddha having an ‘African
origin,’ as he is depicted with the ‘thick Ethiopian lips’ and ‘woolly curls of
Negro.’ This theory was initially developed by Edward Moor (1771-1848) and
later on supported by Sir William Jones (1746-1794), who supported these theories
in ‘The Third Anniversary Discourse’ delivered in Calcutta to the Asiatic Society
of Bengal in February 1786. The ‘African origin’ hypothesis continued to hold
,
19
sway and evolve into the ‘two Buddha’ hypothesis; the second Buddha was
speculated to have come from Scythia.
Around the mid of 19th century, when British explorers started discovering
Buddha statues in Gandhara region, from that point onwards, ‘the Buddha curls
would look Greek rather than African to the European eye.’14 Such imaginative
constructs were unjustifiable to the people who were concerned about this
misrepresentation and scholars such as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947),
who abandoned his scientific career and devoted his life to art as a full-time art
historian.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, while ‘The Great Game’ was
happening in the trans-Himalayan regions,15 some enthusiastic explorers, who
initially had almost no interest in Buddhism, accidentally discovered the great
wealth of Buddhist wisdom. One such scholar was Alexander Csoma De-Coros
(1784-1842), who is considered as the founding figure of Tibetology. Alexander
Csoma hailed from a small village of Coros of Hungary. In his romantic quest to
locate the linguistic origins of the Hungarian language and people, Csoma wanted
to visit Tibet and search for his ancestral history. As the Tibetan government had
20
closed its border for Europeans at the end of the 18th century, Csoma chose to settle
down in the Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Kinnaur. These regions had a close
affiliation with the Tibetan language and culture and they were under British
control so they were relatively accessible to European scholars. Csoma De-Coros
was able to compile and publish the first Tibetan-English dictionary.16
The efforts of scholars such as Csoma De-Coros paved the way for some
serious research and textual studies related to tantra texts and iconography through
the Tibetan texts. Although, at the beginning, the research work based on Sanskrit
textual sources on Buddhism has been ascribed to Hodgson who was on mission
to acquire the antiquarian artefacts and manuscripts from Himalayan regions since
1824, it was scholars such as Csoma who immersed himself in an intense study of
Tibetan language and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at the core of its literature. This was
the beginning of a serious effort for making tantric Buddhism intelligible for their
fellow Europeans.
The prototype of the European concept of Buddhism
Most research work conducted in this era was intended to make Buddhism more
plausible to European audiences, suffered from certain rhetorical tropes. This
21
rhetoric eventually led to creating the European concept of Buddhism. Much
responsibility goes to Eugene Burnouf (1774- 1844) for creating this modern
Eurocentric understanding of Buddhism.
Burnouf was one of the first French to work on the manuscripts brought
by Hodgson from Kathmandu to the Societe Asiatique of Kolkata. He was
fascinated by Buddhism because of ‘the realistic spirit of this doctrine, its
materialism and even its ordinariness.’17
Burnouf, in his monumental text
Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme (1844), managed to impose the Western
notion of rationality on this fresh field of unexamined texts of Buddhism, and
constructed an intelligible scheme of ideas in his book, which has been described
by Max Muller as ‘the most influential scholarly work on Buddhism in the
nineteenth century’.18
In his book, Burnouf devotes a chapter on Buddhist tantra, in which he
treats this subject with full disdain. He could not comprehend how scholars such
as Alexander Csoma de Kőrös could find ‘some of the tantras beautiful’.19 Burnouf
writes:
22
[These] tantras are indeed treatises with a very special character, where
the cult of bizarre or terrible gods and goddesses is combined with a
monotheistic system and other developments of Northern Buddhism.
He further states:
It is not my intention to long dwell on this part of the Nepalese
collection [of texts on Buddhist tantra], which I am inclined to
regard as the most modern of all, and whose importance for the
history of human superstitions does not compensate for its
mediocrity and vapidity. It is certainly not without interest to see
Buddhism, which in its first organization had so little of what makes
a religion, end in the most puerile practices and the most
exaggerated superstitions.
Burnouf’s approach led to the radical reframing of some basic ideas of Buddhist
doctrines and presented it as a ‘rational,’ ‘scientific’ and ‘reformative’ tradition.
Burnouf did a French translation one of the most popular Mahayana Sutras that is
also rich with the contents of tantric elements, the Saddharmapunḍarīka-sūtra, and
published it in 1844. The presentation of this text rendered by Burnouf had an
overall Western-orientation and although this translation had some flawed
23
understanding, the text had a good reception and big impact on contemporary
scholarship on Buddhism.20 Through his later works too, many misunderstandings
found their way to the contemporary common knowledge of Mahayana Buddhist
texts.
A typical example of factual mistake could be found in Burnouf’s
description of Mahāvāstu, where Burnouf presented truncated title and
erroneously presented the text Mahāvāstu as a non-canonical text.21 In addition,
he mistakenly mentions about Suvarṇaprabhasa, a Mahayana Sutra, as a tantra
scripture.22
While the Franco–Belgian Pali scholars were editing the Sanskrit Buddhist
texts, the scholars of the Anglo-German school of Buddhist studies started paying
some attention to the Sanskrit Buddhist texts and propounded their own views.
The German Indologist Hermann Oldenburg (1854-1920), declared that the works
of Buddhist Sanskrit literature were by-products of the earlier Pali texts. This was
a common tendency of scholars of the British-German school to present the Pali
24
canon as the original one, and the Sanskrit Buddhist literature as later fabricated.23
24
European scholars and Sanskrit Buddhist texts
In the late 19th century, some foremost European scholars of Franco–Belgian
school of European Buddhist Studies focused their research on Buddhist texts in
Sanskrit. Paul Pelliot (1878-1945) was one such scholar who worked on the
Sanskrit manuscripts of Buddhism and published the La Mission Pelliot en Asie
Centrale in 1924. Louse de La Vallee Poussin’s (1869-1938), translations took the
Franco–Belgian school to another height. By his comprehensive study, Poussin’s
efforts led to the publication of many French translations of Buddhist texts, such
as Abhidharmakoṣa of Vasubandhu, (La’ Abhidharmakoṣa de Vasubandhu)
published in 1923 and Vijñaptimātrtatā-siddhi of Hiuen-tang (La Siddhi de Hiuentang) in 1928. In his initial works, Louse de La Vallee Poussin did an extensive
25
study of Mahayana Buddhism and the texts on Buddhist tantra. He ventured into
challenging the view that considered Theravada Buddhism as ‘original’ and ‘pure’
form of Buddhism. He vouched for the equal importance of the study of Mahayana
and Pali Buddhism. He writes:
The Indologist must study with equal interest the Hinayana (the
vehicle of the rationalist monks of which the Pali canon, itself
composite, allows us to know only part of the history and the sects)
and the diverse churches of the Mahayana, which covered India and all
the Orient with a luxuriant profusion of their theologies and rites. One
commonly regards idolatrous and superstitious Tantrism as ‘no longer
Buddhism’; one forgets that Buddhism is not separable from
Buddhists…’25
However, Poussin was forced to change his position under the pressure of his
fellow scholars.26 We find, Louis de la Vale Poussin drastically changed his
opinion and discarded tantric Buddhism as religion full of ‘disgusting practices
26
both obscene and criminal, including incest’.27 He later concluded Buddhist tantra
to be a form of ‘Hinduism …in Buddhist garb’.28 Such approaches and
misevaluations at the beginning of studies on Buddhism in Europe resulted in
neglect and discouragement for any further research or attempt to translate the
available materials on Buddhist tantra.
Austine Waddell (1854–1938), another amateur archaeologist and scholar,
dismissed tantric form of Tibetan Buddhism as a degeneration of the ‘original
Buddhism’ and coined the term Lamaism. In Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism
(1895) Waddle writes:
But the bulk of the Lamaist cults comprise much deep-rooted devil
worship and sorcery… For Lamaism is only thinly and imperfectly
varnished over with Buddhist symbolism, beneath which the sinister
growth of poly-demonist superstitious darkly appears.29
As a son of Protestant clergy and a missionary himself, Waddell was
conditioned to see all other non-Christian forms of religion as devil worship. While
his posting as a British functionary in Sikkim during 1885 to 1895, without
27
undergoing any training of understanding the metaphors of Vajrayana Buddhism,
he just accumulated a vast amount of information on Tibetan Buddhism, especially
on ritual practice and popular belief and catalogued it in such a way that his
description would only tend to condemn those practices and reinforce the view that
Tibetan Buddhism is cultic in nature and obsessed with black magic.
The colonial project of discovering the ‘original Buddhism’
The British colonizers strategically encouraged by their administrative servants
and scholars, European as well as Indian, to look for the ‘original’ and ‘pure’
gospel of Buddhism. This ‘pure’ form of religion was meant to be the Pali
Tripitaka imported from Ceylon. Several efforts were made to establish the ‘pure’
order’ of Buddhism. The editing and English translation of this pure gospel was
the next GOAL that led them to establish the Pali Text Society, founded in London
in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843-1922), a British Civil Servant in
Foreign Service who served in Ceylon prior to his retirement.
The selective readings of Pali canonical works were so designed as to
affirm its reformative temperament suitable to the Protestant theology. The book
of Rhys Davids, Buddhism was published by The Society for Promoting Christian
Language in 1877. It contained the very similar historical criticism about the life
of historical Buddha, which was developed by scholars of theological departments
for European universities for studying the life of Jesus Christ in the New
28
Testament.30 On similar lines, another scholar, Albert Joseph Edmunds, published
his ‘Buddhist and Christian Gospels now first compared from the originals: being
Gospels Parallels from Pali Texts, in 1908.31
This phase was the beginning of the rhetoric that espoused certain
discourses. One such discourse, which got prominence in the field of Buddhist
studies, was advocating the Theravada Buddhism as the original one and
denouncing the Mahayana and Vajrayana, as a later degraded offshoot of
Buddhism.
Presuppositions and academic appropriation of tantric Buddhism
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, some of the scholars who were well
versed in the classical languages of Greek and Latin, endeavoured and self-trained
themselves in the classical languages of Asia, especially Sanskrit and Chinese.
Thus, they began to read Buddhist texts in the original languages. This was the
period when certain stereotypes were developed and deployed to present the East
to the West in familiar themes in the European historical and cultural imagination.
Nevertheless, the texts of Tantra were seen as a big challenge and for these
ā
29
scholars. This was the beginning of the quest for making some sense of Tantric
Buddhism.
For the sake of appropriating tantric Buddhism in contemporary academic
settings, various models have been deployed and developed in the last century.
Characteristically, most of these models have postulated the tantric Buddhism to
be a disjuncture from what the early research purported as the ‘original Buddhism’.
The academic writings that are based on these models give an ‘outcaste’ treatment
to Buddhist tantra. Even the adherent scholars cannot get out of the cliché of
European-prototype of Buddhism. The scholars are still grappling with the issue
of what they call ‘antinomian aspects’ of Buddhist tantra and therefore, cannot
make much sense of this form of religion that advocates the ‘dreadful’ practices.
Most of the studies on Buddhist tantra presume that Tantric Buddhism is
incompatible with its preceding Buddhist doctrines. The adherence to the
purported theories of the ‘non-Buddhist origin’ of Buddhist tantra, creates this
misconception. These theories still predominate over the fields of Buddhist
studies.
Some of these ‘origin of Buddhist tantra’ theories, which have become a kind of
methodological cliché have been discussed and examined here.
Tantra originating from tribal or primitive religious cults
30
Many scholars have purported that Buddhist tantra was borrowed from tribal or
primitive societies of India.32 It should be noted that contemporary notions about
tribes in India are quite vague and overburdened with European cultural
imaginations. The typified categorization of tribal community done by British
rulers during the colonial period has largely contributed to the distortion of our
ideas about Indian tribes. The notion of social and cultural backwardness of the
tribal community, which is inherently attached to the modern political sense, is not
quite applicable to the traditional structure of the Indian social system.
The textual evidence shows that these so-called tribal people – they are
thought to be outside of the Brahmanical community − have not been just some
autochthonous people living in the primitive state. They rather carried on their
sophisticated cultural and diplomatic intercourse with neighbouring Brahmanical
polities. Śārdulakarṇāvadāna, a narrative from Divyāvadāna, which was
translated into Chinese by early 2nd century CE, contains a detailed debate between
a learned Brāhmaṇa Puṣkarasāriṇī and a tribal Māntanga King named Triśanku.
Apart from the scathing criticism of the caste system, the text posits the Māntanga
King and his son Śārdulakarṇa, to be well versed in all the Vedas and all other
branches of learning. At the end of the story, the tribal king wins the debate, his
31
son marries the daughter of Brāhmaṇa Puṣkarasāriṇī, and Buddha declares that he
himself was the tribal king in his previous birth.33
Considering the acquaintances of Buddhist Siddhas with tribal people’s
costumes and language, some scholars have postulated the tribal origin theory of
Buddhist tantra.34 However, the strong affinity with outcaste groups affirmed by
the Buddhist Siddhas was because of their Buddhist anti-caste stand. Their
biographical record states that many of them came from the royal families and they
composed in vernaculars as well as Sanskrit.
Thus based on the spectrum of specifics such as caste, language, affiliation,
and other variables, this model cannot be accountable for the origin of Buddhist
tantra.
Did Buddhist tantra originate in medieval India?
This notion is accepted by many contemporary researchers including David
Suleiman, Ronald Davidson and others. They extend their line of argument by
describing the origin of tantric systems in mediaeval India feudal polity. In their
assumptions, these scholars have theorised the tantric practices related to the
ṇ
32
sacred Mandala illustrations as a reflection of decentralised medieval Indian polity
of Samanta feudalism.
In his works, Ronald Davidson ascertains that there are political
ramifications in the usage of the Mandala in tantric rituals. He draws parallels
between the structures of spatial allocation for the cosmological deities in the
tantric Mandala and power allocation in a feudal state. From his perspective, the
Tantric Mandala reflects how, in mediaeval India, Buddhism adopted political
imperialism and expressed it into the language of ritual through the lexicons of
Tantric Mandala empowerments. He posits the tantra deities and their semiology
as an indication for the emergence of Buddhist polity in medieval India and Tibet.
As it has been pointed out by David Gellner, Davidson conspicuously does not
mention Nepalese Buddhism, which also shared the same tantric Buddhist
tradition, as it goes against his hypothesis.35
Moreover, as Christian Wedemeyer has noted, in most researches on Indian
feudalism it is observed that there is an apparent attempt to find elements which
fit a preconceived picture of what should have happened in India because it
33
happened in Europe.’36 Also, Giovanni Verardi has rightly pointed out that the
category “feudalism”, which is the object of reconsideration even in Europe, is
probably not a structural component of medieval India and thus is not of much
help to understand medieval Indian polity.37
The various misconceptions in Davidson’s work are largely due to a lack
of awareness of the actual practices, philosophy, and the doctrinal history of
Buddhist tantra.38 Moreover, scholars such as Davidson have used tantric textual
material extensively. They are well aware of the difficulties of interpreting the
religious hagiographical material to a historical fact. However, their hermeneutical
biases are clearly visible in their research work. In certain contexts, when the
textual material suits their hypothesis, they use them selectively, and when it does
not, they playfully discard such materials as fictive and contrived texts.39
Religious animosity/rivalry
34
It is not unusual to encounter such iconographic representations in the Buddhist
tantra where Buddhist deities are shown to be trampling over non-Buddhist deities.
For example, Sādhanamālā mentions Buddhist goddess Aparājitā tramples Gaṇeśa
and we have several such sculptured images of her. Similarly, Heruka or
Cakrasamvara can be seen trampling Rudra and Umā in Tibetan thangkas. In some
of the texts, such as Udbhaṭṭa Swami’s Viśeṣtava, we do find the proclamation of
Buddha to be superior to non-Buddhist divinities, such as Viṣṇu and Shiva, and
these mentions apparently support this rivalry hypothesis.40 Based on such
evidence, many scholars have interpreted the iconography of some tantric deities
as expressions of religious animosity and interpreted these tantric icons to be an
outcome of the rivalry of Hinduism and Buddhism in ancient India.
It should be remembered that it is in the non-tantric non-canonical literature
of Buddhism (mostly Buddhist epics), in which we find the arguments that hold
the Buddha superior to the worldly (sāmsāric) deities such as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and
Rudra. Such representations have been a common feature of kinds of literature that
were meant to build a strong faith amongst the followers of a particular tradition.
The approach of tantric texts cannot be regarded as the same.
ṣ
ṣ
35
In tantric literature, be it Shaiva or Buddhist, we come across several
references, where the violent subjugation of the deities of the ‘other’ tradition is
mentioned. However, when seen from the insider’s perspective, these allegorical
stories of subjugation of the ‘other’ are strategically designed to denote the
supremacy of higher tantric concepts or stages. Some tantra scriptures use it as a
strategic style to posit their efficacy. In order to show the infallibility of the power
of a mantra, the tantra text such as Guhyasamāja and Hevajra often use the
portrayal of subjugation of Buddhas or killing of Buddhas. The fourteenth Chapter
of Guhyasamāja-tantra states about a mantra recitation that ‘makes the Buddhas
faint out of fear’, ‘destroys the Buddha’, and ‘subjugates even the Vajrasattva’.
These texts do not do so to denigrate the Buddhas but to posit the supremacy of
the methods of tantra.41
Such descriptions indicate that as the practitioners gradually make headway
in their practices, they had to step over their previous stage, without which the
ṣṭ
ṣ
ḥ
36
progression is not possible. These progressions are essentially in the internalized
mode of some yogic practice or metaphysical principles (Snk. tattvas); they are
codified in a hierarchic manner and depicted through these deities.
The non-Buddhist tantras also apply a similar strategy. For example in a
Shaiva tantra named Svachhanda-tantra, a prominent text of Kashmir Shaivism
existing since 7th-8th century CE, Svachhanda Bhairava, who represents a higher
form of Shiva, ‘stands upon the prostrated corpse of ‘sadā-śiva’.42 Similarly, the
well-known depiction of Kāli trampling over Shiva is another example of the
supremacy of higher principles over the lower one. Therefore, from the insider’s
perspective, this notion of rivalry or religious animosity has altogether a different
dimension.
Shaivite origin theory
Another major historical narrative that been developed over time presents the
Buddhist tantra as a mutated offshoot of Buddhism that developed because of the
slavish imitations of competing Shaiva traditions. This purports that tantric
Buddhism is ‘Shivaism in the garb of Buddhism.’43
37
Early scholars such as Burnouf have expressed their disappointment at
Buddhist tantra. They thought it to be an unfortunate ‘alliance’ of Buddhism with
Shaivism
44
He posited the origins of tantric Buddhism to be the ‘obvious
borrowings that the Buddhists make from the language and practices of the
Shivaites.’45
In contemporary academia, this ostensible notion of ‘Shaiva origin’ of
Buddhist tantras has been re-propagated through Alexis Sanderson’s writings.
Because of his meticulous philological skills, his commanding scholarship over
Shaivaite sources, and his continuous blaming of the Buddhists for ‘piously
plagiarising’ the Shaiva-Āgama, many modern-day academicians have fallen into
this trap of methodological solipsism.
Because of the scholarly repetition of this well-trodden theory, most
scholars are conditioned to see the Shaiva and Shakta influence on tantric Buddhist
literature and hence this discourse pervades extensively in the secondary literature
on Buddhist tantra.
Sanderson has developed his hypothesis by quoting some selective
passages from Buddhist Tantric literature that appears to be verbatim repetitions
38
of a Shaiva tantra text.46 He also cites some Buddhist legends that point towards
the Shaiva influence on Buddhism.47 However, he fails to recognize that such onesided, elusive and exaggerated tales are common features of texts that are written
when the motive is to establish a certain religious standpoint. As it has been
discussed before, these narratives are frequently found in different Shaiva as well
as Buddhist literature in order to proclaim the superiority of one tradition over the
other. These narratives reflect the enthusiasm for convincing followers and
installing the conviction about the practices. Traditional hermeneutics do not
suggest that these tales can be taken as a definitive account.48
It is also interesting to note that scholars such as Swami Vivekananda, P.
V. Kane and Binoytosh Bhattacharya, based on the very similar facts, as cited by
Sanderson, argued just the opposite of the hypothesis presented by Sanderson.
They asserted that ‘defiled and downgraded tantra practices’ have Buddhist origin
39
and it was later borrowed by Shaiva-Shakta tantra practitioners from the Buddhist
tradition.49
Largely, Sanderson’s interpretation of Tantra literature is philological in
nature and his understanding is devoid of any philosophical precedent of Buddhist
tenets, which has been a prerequisite for any traditional monastic tantric systems.
When it comes to the interpretation of tantric iconography, like his preceding
European scholars, he has ignored the intricacies of symbolism and hermeneutics.
According to Sanderson, one can trace the origins of practices and orientations
considered quintessentially “Tantric” to early Saivism. To put it in other words,
Sanderson's writings account for the hypothesis that Tantric Saivism developed
organically from a primitive form of Saivism and this primitive theme that
pervades the non-dualist Śaiva traditions caused the development of tantric
Buddhism. His works also fail to recognize the theoretical soteriological basis of
Buddhist Tantra that is the underlining feature of Buddhism.
40
Sanderson’s hypothesis supports the borrowing theory by assigning an
early date for Shaiva tantra. However, as far as Buddhist tantric elements are
concerned, they are very much present in the Buddhist Sutra texts as well which
have been dated far older than any Shaiva tantra.50 51
Of course, it is not suggested here that one can rule out the interaction
between Shiva and Buddhist tantra traditions. There exists substantial evidence to
show the reciprocal exchanges between Shaiva and Buddhist communities, but one
also cannot neglect the fact that the philosophical world-views posited by Shaiva
and Buddhist tantra and are quite different. While the Shaiva tantra system posits
the permanent existence of absolute Shiva consciousness, the Buddhist tantra
ṛ
ṣṭ
41
suggests the impermanence of all composite phenomena and posits emptiness as
the ultimate truth.
Though the tantra tradition of Buddhism and Shaivism have some similar
structural assumptions, and they share a variety of ritual forms, yet both these
traditions have a perennial dissimilar basis which has been reflected in their vast
amount of scholastic material that was composed in order to debate with the other
tradition and to defend one’s own position. The commonalities found are because
of sharing of common historical time and socio-cultural space by these two
traditions ‒ both were vibrantly alive in ancient India. Therefore, it is not cogent
to speak of esoteric Buddhism having originated in esoteric Shaivism.
Several Buddhist Sutras have a rich content of Tantric elements and that is
already seen in Chinese translations by the 2nd century CE.52 Moreover, in the
recent findings from Bamiyan, we have come across some very early forms of
Mahayana Sutra literature in Prakrit. These early Sutras frequently mention the
uses of incantations (Snk. dhārṇi) and mantra for Buddhist rituals. In opposition
to Sanderson’s theory of ‘Pious Plagiarism’, it is pertinent to note that while the
Shaiva tantra texts, in most cases, have been placed around the 8th century to 10th
ṇ
ṇ
42
century, from Vasugupta (CE 800-850), the founding figure of non-dual Shaivism
in Kashmir, to the prolific Kashmiri tantric scholar Abhinavagupta (CE 975-1025).
Common substratum theory
Another popular hypothesis that has been developed to explain the commonalities
of the Shaiva and Buddhist tantric icons postulates that the Buddhist tantra figures
have been ‘derived from the same cultic stock that produced Shaiva figure’.53
Stephen Beyer, based on his findings in Tibet where the indigenous
cultic traditions have been well synchronized with Buddhist traditions, speculated
on this concept of the existence of ‘common religious substratum’. He suggested
that Buddhism and Shaivism borrowed the tantra tradition from some pre-existing
common primitive substratum of ancient India.
This theory, which has been further developed by David Seyfort Ruegg,
has been derived from the premise that the icons and motifs that Shaivite and
Buddhists tantra practitioners have been using are still existent in practice in those
tribal parts of India that are not affected by religious and cultural influences.54 This
43
‘autochthonous’ hypothesis proposed by Ruegg gives a plausible explanation for
the appearance of common notions and practices in the Buddhist and Saivite tantra,
by proposing them to have their origin in the common substratum of aboriginal
and tribal cults of India. The oversight in this argument is rooted in the
overemphasized endeavour to find the ‘origins’.
It is evident from available biographical narratives of Buddhist
Mahasiddhas that because of their altruistic intention (Bodhicitta), these
Mahasiddhas choose to renounce the monastic establishments and strived for
reaching out to common people in the remotest places, and composed their
teachings in vernaculars. They used the motifs and symbols that were familiar to
common masses. In their tantric teachings, they successfully articulated the basic
doctrinal principles of Buddhism in a non-intricate way, without compromising
the nuances and uncommon philosophical worldviews of Buddhism. Therefore
their tantric teaching cannot be ascribed to be of ‘primitive’ or having nonBuddhist tribal origin, as they consist of overwhelming doctrinal sophistication of
Buddhist philosophy expressed through semiology and poetic metaphors.
A typical example of uses of tribal metaphor can be observed in the uses of
tantric-yogic practices formulated by Mahasiddhas. In different tantric manuals
44
compiled around 8th to 12th century CE, while naming the bodily Central windchannel, the names used are of low-caste or women, such as Dombī and
Chānḍālī.55 The manuals of tantric-yogic practices where these names are used do
not use these names in the context of any tribal totem. These Mahasiddhas
purposely choose the tribal women names for denoting the highest order of tantric
practices. These names reflect the Buddhist doctrine that denies the caste or gender
hegemony. Within the non-Buddhist yogic tradition, the term used for Central
wind-channel is Suṣumnā and Sarasvati, the names that are more conventional to
the Vedic tradition.
Therefore, the tribal motifs and semiology appear in the tantric teachings
because shared the same time and space with the tribal people, to whom the
practitioners of tantric Buddhism were communicating these teachings. They
choose motifs and language that was familiar to the tribal people culture but the
denotative meaning expressed by these metaphorical teachings had their origin,
not in the primitive culture but characteristically connected to the philosophical
and doctrinal system of Buddhism.
Moreover, as has been discussed earlier, the philosophical exegeses of
Shaiva and Buddhist tantra are not common, therefore the same motifs and
45
symbols have different connotations and their function character changes from one
tradition to another.56
Conclusion (I)
Through the investigative study of different theories, this work seeks to dispel the
misconceived notions that exist on Buddhist tantra. The lack of contextualised
narrations and assumptions has led to a damaging misunderstanding of tantric
Buddhism. In contemporary studies and research on Buddhist tantra, many such
theories have been overly repeated without any in-depth analysis of the context in
which tantric Buddhist system existed.
Many such theories that persist in the current academia have not paid
attention to the traditional historical accounts. The tantric Buddhist tradition has
its own way narratives about their texts, the way they have been compiled or
discovered, preserved, interpreted, and their chronological records of lineagetransmissions. Due to their inherent esotericism and cryptic linguistic expressions,
these tantric texts cannot be treated at par of the simple and ordinarily
compositions. They have undergone an elaborate process of formation for many
centuries, a process which has many nuances, and ignoring this fact has led to the
46
diverse and somewhat absurd conclusions that we have re-examined in this
chapter.
47
(Part II)
Transcultural Encounters: Western influence on Indian Scholars
India was in my blood and there was much in her that instinctively
thrilled me. Yet I approached her almost as an alien critic, full of
dislike for the present as well as for many of the relics of the past
that I saw. To some extent, I came to her via the West, and looked
at her as a friendly Westerner might have done. I was eager and
anxious to change her outlook and appearance and give her the garb
of modernity. Yet doubt arose within me. Did I know India? – I,
who presumed to scrap much of her past heritage?
- Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India 57
In the modern planetary situation, Eastern and Western
‘cultures’ can no longer meet one another as equal partners.
They meet in a Westernized world, under conditions
shaped by Western ways of thinking.
- W. Halbfass, India and Europe 58
48
The acknowledgement of Western mindset as confessed by the first prime minister
of India, who also happened to be one of the finest scholars and a great supporter
of Buddhism reflects that majority of Indian scholars of the 19th and 20th century,
came to know their own country and tradition via the West. They inherited the
same erroneous theoretical frameworks about their culture and religion that
represented the European imaginations. This was a reason why many Indian
scholars could hardly be appreciative of their own past heritage. They approached
it with the curiosity of an impulsive onlooker − they failed to understand their own
culture in terms of revere.
When Orientalist discourse was formulated in the 19th century, it was the
Western view of Orient. It was the wisdom of European enlightenment, under
which the Western explorers were bringing the ‘exotic’ findings to light – finds
that belonged to the ‘mysterious’ and ‘endarkened’ Eastern world. The Oriental
discourse was designed in such a way that it could only support those sensibilities
that were Western in their orientation. Moreover, for the Easterners, the
forgetfulness of their self-historicity and acknowledgement of pervasive
endarkenment in their own historical time and cultural space was obligatory so that
they could partake in this ‘Oriental Renaissance’.
49
Tantric Buddhism and the Orientalist tropes
As discussed earlier, within the colonial paradigms, the Buddha and his Dharma
were seen from a Western historical perspective. European scholars fashioned the
Buddhist doctrines largely in their own image. According to their conceptual
frameworks, the idea of objectivity, rationality, scientific temperament, linear
progress, and development; all these qualities were shown to be deficient or
degraded in the form of Buddhism that was surviving in different parts of the Asian
subcontinent.
The famous German-Swiss writer, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was
disgusted with Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka, ‘where the beautiful and bright
Buddhism has degenerated into a true rarity of idolatry’, and L. Austine Waddell’s
Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism (1895), declared that in Tibet Mahayana has been
reduced to a cult of demonical Buddha.59 60 Therefore, the quest of discovering the
‘original’ Buddhism’ was crucial for oriental studies. Indeed, this quest was
heavily biased and had its grounding in racial prejudices. In order to establish
colonial hegemony, the oriental scholars devised the mechanism of advocacy for
50
‘scientific truth’ and ‘objectivity’ in their own terms and often deprecated the
indigenous traditions and principles.
Exasperated with this purported ‘scientific approach’ of European scholars,
Coomaraswamy, a foremost scholar of 20th century observed:
It has been said “the prostitution of scientific truth may lead to word
catastrophe” and that “responsibility for this problem in a peculiar
sense lies within the domain of Oriental studies”; but it is a question
whether much can be expected from passionless reason of our
objective scholarship, which concerns itself so much rather with what
men have believed than what should be believed.61
A vast amount of archaeological and textual sources of Buddhism that were newly
discovered by the Oriental scholars, generated a new interest in the Indian scholars
about their past Buddhist heritage. At the beginning of the 19th century, we see a
generation of English educated Indian scholars who were also well equipped with
the Western mode of philological training Sanskrit studies. They were inspired by
51
the magnanimity of Buddhism which produced monuments such as Sanchi,
Ajanta, Ellora, and the highly righteous Pali texts and the scholastic treatises of
Mahayana. These scholars had genuine admiration for Buddhist traditions and
texts.
It is interesting to note that the in the 19th century, before the Pali sources
were brought to India by British, Rajendra Lal Mitra (1824-91) from Kolkata,
worked on Sanskrit Buddhist literature of Nepal. Though he faced ‘racist bashings’
from his Western counterparts, his concern for Buddhist studies and its neglected
texts led him to collaborate with another Bengali colleague, Haraprasad Shastri.
Their pursuit was for Indic and Buddhist studies, a field that was mostly dominated
by European scholars.
Though these scholars had a sympathetic view towards Buddhism and its
philosophy, however, when it came to the tantric tradition of Buddhism, the
sources available to them were largely researched and presented from the Western
point of view and scarcely represented the traditional perspective. Moreover, these
texts were heavily infused with words having multivalent meanings, and in the
52
absence of hermeneutical renderings, as done by the traditional commentaries,
these texts were incomprehensible for these Sanskrit scholars.62
Due to the lack of traditional knowledge and understanding, these scholars
went for the over-literal interpretation of the texts and failed to apprehend the
meaning in practices of Buddhist tantra. Rajendra Lal Mitra was troubled by his
findings of ‘most revolting and horrible practices’ in the Guhyasamāja-tantra.63
In his Introduction of Sanskrit Buddhist Literature (1882), he propounded that the
tantric practices are, ‘the most revolting and horrible that human depravity could
think of…. would doubtless, be best treated as the ravings of a madman.’64
Similarly, P. V. Kane (1880-1927), another foremost Sanskritist, expressed
a disapproving outburst against Buddhist tantra. Kane, in his fifth volume of
53
History of Dharmashastra, wrote a full chapter on Buddhism; he writes, ‘It has
become a fashion to praise Buddha and his doctrines to the skies’. He adds that ‘as
a counterblast to what modern economists often say about Buddhism the present
author will quote a strongly-worded (but not unjust) passage from Swami
Vivekananda’. Kane approvingly quotes Vivekananda:
I smile when I read books written by some modern people who ought
to have known better, that the Buddha was the destroyer of
Brahmanical idolatry in India….in spite of the preaching of mercy to
animals, in spite of the sublime ethical religion and hair-splitting
discussions about the existence and non-existence of permanent soul,
the whole building of Buddhism tumbled down piecemeal; and the ruin
was simply hideous. I have neither the time nor the inclination to
describe to you the hideousness that came in the wake of Buddhism.
The most hideous ceremonies, the most horrible, the most obscene
books that human hands have ever written or the human brain ever
conceived, the most bestial forms that ever passed under the name of
religion, have all been creation of degraded Buddhism.65
54
Vivekananda has remarked, ‘They [tantric Buddhists] believed in nothing but the
enjoyment of the moment, which eventually resulted in the most revolting orgies.
That, however, is not the doctrine of Buddha, but a horrible degeneration of it, and
honour to the Hindoo nation, who stood up and drove it out.’66
For the Indian scholars, it was not just the case of Buddhist tantra, even the
scholastic works of Mahayana philosophy, such as works of Nagarjuna or
Dignaga, did not make much sense. Due to their training under the European
pedagogy, they often unconsciously shaped their ideas according to the Western
thought-process. This negligence was so pervasive that even the scholars from
traditional centres of learning were deeply affected.
In the middle of the 20th century, scholars such as D. N. Shastri made some
unsuccessful attempt to find Indian scholars in Varanasi, who could interpret the
nuances of debate between the Buddhists and Naiyāyikas in the philosophical
treatises of these traditions. As the traditional Indian scholars could not render the
intricacies of the doctrinal differences of Buddhism satisfactorily, he finally had
55
to follow these trails through the works of a well-known Russian Indologist,
Stcherbatsky.67
Another scholar, Benoytosh Bhattacharya, who is considered an authority
on Buddhist tantra iconography acknowledged his limitation about his ignorance
of the practical aspects of Buddhist tantra. He, in his essay published in 1964,
writes:
Before I describe the process of visualizations of [Buddhist]
divinities, I must clearly mention that I am not a tantra practitioner
myself and I have no experience of any spiritual realization.
Therefore, whatever I am mentioning here is just based on the books
that I have consulted.68
56
Extra-Indian origin theory of Buddhist tantra
In the 20th-century Indian scholars, under the influence of the West, found tantra
texts to be offensive. The interpretive conundrums presented by the European
scholars lead them to develop a discourse that advocated for the non-Indian origin
of Buddhist tantra.
Saint-scholars such as Swami Vivekananda was unable to comprehend
tantric antinomianism. He emphasized that tantra came from Mongols and
Tibetan.69 He states, ‘Indian Buddhists imitated the Tibetan and other barbarous
customs of religion and assimilated their corruption, and then introduced them into
India.’70
Harprasad Shastri also proposed the non-Indian origin theory of tantra.71
This extra-Indian-origin theory was later on propounded in a more scholarly
manner by P. C. Bagchi. He writes:
[A] number of foreign elements were introduced in the tantra, most
probably, between the 8th to 12th century, when communication with
57
Tibet, China, and Mongolia became brisk. But these cults lost their
exotic character, as they fitted well, in the logical sequence, into a
completely integrated system.72
This extra origin theory of Buddhist tantra was continued by Harprasad Shastri’s
son, Binoytosh Bhattacharya. His works on Buddhist iconography reflect that he
derived his epistemological assumptions from Western scholars such as William
A. Foucher.73 In his remarkable compendium on Buddhist tantra iconography,
which later became a guiding text for the next generation of scholars, he has treated
tantric tradition as ‘magical ritualism’ and ‘sorcery’.74 He unhesitatingly accepted
that Tantrism was of foreign origin. In his famous work on the history of Esoteric
Buddhism, he declared, ‘the introduction of the Shakti worship in religion [of
Buddhism] is so un-Indian that we are constrained to admit it as an external or
foreign influence.’75
58
Binoytosh Bhattacharya also ridiculed the possibility of Shaiva influence
on Buddhist tantra. He posited that is was Hindus who borrowed the tantra from
Buddhists. He remarked, ‘it is idle to say that later Buddhism was an outcome of
Shaivism’. He further confirmed, ‘it is also possible to declare without fear of
contradiction that it was the Buddhists who were the first to introduce the Tantras
into their religion …Hindus borrowed them from the Buddhists in later times.’76
Scholars such as P. C. Bagchi have pointed out to the terminology such as
Cīna in Mahācīna-tārā and a sādhana of Ekajaṭā-tārā brought by Nagarjuna from
Tibet.77 This is mentioned in the 12th century text Sādhanamālā that quotes āryanāgarjuna-pādair-bhőṭeṣu-uddhŗitam.78 However, as it has been pointed out that
this mistaken interpretation of ‘bringing from Tibet’, is due to lack of thoughtful
analysis of Case Structure (Śabda-rūpa) of Sanskrit grammar.79
ṣ
59
Likewise, the reductionist approach of N. N. Bhattacharyya posited the
Hindu and Buddhist tantra to be a ‘fertility cult’ based on religion which is centred
on worship of ‘the Female Principle’ who in turn stood for the oppressed people,
symbolizing all the liberating potentialities in the class divided, patriarchal and
authoritarian social set up of India.80 He advocated the foreign origin theory and
proposed that Buddhist tantra texts were fake creations and were not part of ‘the
Original Buddhism’. In his judgmental opinions, he writes, ‘Within their
monasteries, they [Buddhists] formed secret societies of their own, composed texts
dealing with their ideas and practices and got them sanctioned as Buddha
Vacanas.’81 Based on the fourfold divisions of Buddhist tantra classification, he
erroneously assumes the same system of classification for Shakta Tantra.82
On the very similar lines, the advocates of modern Hinduism could not
conceive the philosophical profundity of surviving Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta
tantra. They blamed this ’degeneration’ of their ‘pure religion’ to Buddhism.
60
The portrayal of Buddhist Tantra in Hindi Literature
It is imperative to note that erroneous views about Buddhism and its tantric
traditions had their influences over other disciplines. At the beginning of the 20th
century, we find that some prominent scholars of Hindi who were writing on
different aspects of Indian culture, religion and literature, started incorporating
mistaken interpretations of the Buddhist Tantras. Ramachandra Shukla, a leading
scholar of Hindi literature in the early 20th century, in his book, Hindi Sāhitya kā
itihās (History of Hindi Literature), commented on the literature of Buddhist
Siddhas. These tantric Siddhas have been regarded as the earliest poets of
Apabhramsa, an older form of Hindi.
Ramachandra Shukla attributed the literature of Siddhas as a perverted and
degraded form of Buddhist writings. He criticized these Buddhist Siddhas for
‘taking the left-handed path of Hindu tantra to its extreme’. Shukla states, ‘by
writing their poetic works in vernaculars, they [Siddhas] not only fall down in the
degraded state themselves but also misled the common mass to fall down in the
dirty trench of Tantra.’83
61
Hazari Prasad Dwivedi (1907-1979) was another well-known scholar of
Hindi literature who wrote extensively on the Apabhramsa literature of Buddhist
Siddhas and Nathas. He considered the tantra texts to be the part of folk and tribal
superstitious literature.84 His successors, such as Dharamvir Bharti (1926–1997),
and Nagendranath Upadhyaya (1931-1999), in their writings, followed the same
pattern. Though, on the issue of antinomianism, these scholars propose the
simplistic theory that the Siddhas deliberately invoked such practices in their
poetry so that they could mock the rigidity of caste hierarchy and other orthodoxy
principles of non-Buddhist systems. Dwivedi admits, ‘these unusual Saints entered
into the field of practices with the great courage of rejecting all the external
ritualistic traits.’85 However, he fails to recognise the inherent metaphysical
principles behind all the tantric ritualistic systems. He speculates that these
Buddhist saints had a folkish background and therefore they had no familiarity
with the doctrinal and philosophical aspects of Buddhism. He writes, ‘if we start
collecting the antinomian verses of these Sahajayānis, Yogis and Tāntrics, it will
62
be a huge amount of literature, however, there is no need of it because it is not an
easy task to retain patience after looking at even few verses.’86
Dharamvir Bharti was another scholar of Hindi literature who researched
on Tantric Buddhist literature. His research was based on textual sources, mostly
the Apbhramsa literature of Siddhas. He writes:
The scholars of Hindi who have studied and interpreted these tantric
practices have not adequately analysed them in the context of its social
background. Either they have interpreted them in a pure spiritual
symbolical manner or they have interpreted them as a despicable rebel
against suppressed human nature. Some of them also believed that the
tantric master adopted such practices in order to gain influence over
people of lower strata. Most of the interpreters of Tantric literature
have these opinions.87
Like most of his contemporary scholars who wrote on Buddhism, the early
writings of Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) disparage the literature of Buddhist
63
tantra.88 However, in his later works, which he wrote after his three visits to Tibet,
after coming into direct contact with Tibetan tradition; he shifted his views.89 90
Indian archaeologists were also overburdened with the persuasive
Orientalist analysis of Buddhism, which treated it in a monolithic and mono-linear
fashion, devoid of any element of popular religion. As these Indian archaeologists
inherited the same notions from their British predecessors about a nonheterogeneous aspect of Buddhism, they too were willing to dismiss or make
excuses for evidence that did not conform to their preconceived notions.
The tantric deities or other folk icons, such as serpent idols, found in the
excavation were not acknowledged as a part Buddhist tradition. Archaeologists
such as Hiranand Sastri in his report Nalanda and Its Epigraphic Material (1942)
64
wrote, ‘Buddhists would not worship Nagas along with the deities of their own
faith.’91
These simplistic and teleological notions were challenged by A.
Coomaraswamy, who was in favour of seeing the synthesis between folk religion
and Buddhism. He advocated that these two traditions coexisted as siblings.
Corrective Voices
For centuries, Buddhism was not a living tradition in India and for this reason, the
Buddhist tantra texts were often subjected to misapprehensions and misquoted. In
the late 20th century, people such as Gopinath Kaviraj (1887-1976) and Thakur
Jaideva Singh (1893-1986) were some of the foremost Indian scholars who had
some respect for the tantric traditions of India and they endeavoured to work upon
some of the obscure tantra texts of Kashmir Shaivism. Gopinath Kaviraj
acknowledged that it was a mistake to treat Buddhist tantra as downgraded practice
and accepted it as a ‘spiritual tradition of a high order’. He cautioned the scholars
not to denounce its doctrine as hideous or immoral.92 Prior to these scholars,
Ananda Coomaraswamy considered tantra to be a topic worthy of its own study.
65
Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote in brief, but impressive articles on traditions
related to tantra. Despite the important insights that were being provided by
scholars like Coomaraswamy, his contemporaries such as Bitoytosh Bhattacharya
were not appreciative of those earnest efforts.93 Such attitude of pro-British
scholars failed to challenge the problematic assumptions of the 19th century, and
thereby our contemporary notions about Buddhist tantra still perpetuates with
some of the earlier unsubstantiated suppositions.
When the Pradīpodyotanaṭīkā, a Sanskrit commentary of Guhyasamājatantra, brought by Rahul Sankrityayana from Tibet was published in 1983, in its
introduction Suniti Kumar Pathak observed:
It does not mean that Guhyasmāja-tantra encourages to discard social
laws. Benoytosh Bhattacharya could not make sense of [its] verses as
he had no opportunity to have Pradipodyotana commentary of the
Guhyasamāja-tantra…What to speak of the Guhyasamāja-tantra or
the Hevajra-tantra, no tantra, whether Buddhist, Vaishnava, Shaiva,
Shakta or Jaina, ever teach any sort of immoral conduct contradictory
to the ethics and social laws… The commentary, therefore, warns again
66
and again that any amount of carelessness or failure on the part of a
practitioner will put him into utter ruin.94
Conclusion (II)
Invariably the traditional expressions of Buddhist tantra have been suppressed and
overly dominated by Eurocentric baggage. Most scholars have been preoccupied
with their own speculative notions and have ignored the voices in which the tantric
tradition has expressed itself, and it is unjust to identify a vibrantly living religion
apart from its traditional practitioners.
In order to overcome the damaging understanding of Buddhist tantric
system, the tantric treatise needs to be studied and analysed with a fresh
perspective. The gradual increase in the translations of commentaries of tantric
texts and the availability of traditional Tibetan monastic interpreters has opened
up new prospects for academicians to incorporate the traditional view in their
research. This could be useful for other traditions of tantra as well. Swami
Vivekananda has perceptively observed that in the contemporary sphere of Indic
religion, it is tantric traditions which is pervasive:
ṭ
67
To call ourselves in the sense of following the Karmakānḍa of the
Vedas, I do not think, would be proper…In our ordinary lives we are
mostly Paurāṇikas or Tāntrikas, and, even where some Vedic texts are
used by Brahmins of India, the adjustment of the texts is mostly not
according to the Vedas, but according to the Tantras and Purāṇas.95
Any discipline of the scholarship is not just concerned about just collecting the
data, but also understanding them in their own context. Besides the question of
‘what’ they represent, the question of ‘why’ and ‘how’ are equally important. As
Ananda Coomaraswamy has pointed out, ‘For as long as the work of art appears
to us in any way exotic, bizarre, quaint, or arbitrary, we cannot pretend to have
understood it.’96 Therefore, unless a discrete and unbiased study of the historicity
of Buddhist tantra, encompassing the perspective of tradition is not done, the
misconceptions discussed in this chapter are bound to persist in our academia.
68
CONCLUSION
Buddhist tantra places some of the female deities at the pinnacle of its pantheon.
These deities are female personification of supreme awakening and symbolize the
highest spiritual goals including Buddhahood. They are called Buddha-Dākinī or
Jina-jananī ‒ the female Buddhas ‒ regarded as an enlightened mind depicted in
female form. The word ‘Buddha’ is concerned with the concept of awakening and
therefore transcends the notion of gender, however, due to our cultural baggage, it
reflects a male figure in our minds.
This thesis advocates the necessity of exploring the nuances of
visualization of Tantric Buddhist imagery within the context of the texts and
practice of tradition. For a comprehensive understanding of the visual forms of
goddesses and other tantra deities, attention must be paid to the linguistic
expressions in the form of mantra, liturgical expositions, and the details of iconic
attributes. They all are equally important as they frame the systematic organization
of these visual forms, their specific concepts and the associated emotive
expressions.
Most of the studies on Buddhist tantra have identified tantric Buddhist
goddesses as either an import from the non-Buddhist tradition or the result of
aftermath development of primitive or tribal religion. Such scholarly habits are
203
Ph.D. T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
2018
difficult to change − they have yielded some plausible interpretative models that
we have been used consistently and not subjected to a critical analysis. Ascribing
Buddhist tantra to be of tribal origin is one such habit that can be seen within the
domain of studies on Indian religion. In order to contextualize tantric traditions in
their socio-political, cultural and material milieu, scholars often fixate on this welltrodden ‘tribal-origin’ theory, so that the traditions of Buddhist tantra can be
appropriated to justify the scholars’ ideology.
Readers of historical literature are familiar with this rhetoric of tribal origin,
which has been redeployed and reinforced for those religious traditions, which
were esoteric in nature and were not part of mainstream religion. Holding the
notion that the origins of a thing determine its fundamental nature, once a religious
practice is concluded to have a tribal origin, it can easily be designated as cultic,
marginal, and sometimes superstitious. Thus, such religious traditions become
exotic, primitive, and therefore rather nonsensical to historians. The historians
thereafter just have to construct paradigmatic socio-political context within which
associated motifs of deities and rituals can be appropriated.
204
Samdarshi P.
Conclusions
University of Delhi
Some researchers on Buddhist tantra have attempted to contextualize the
tantric deities by speculating on their non-Buddhist association.1 The hypothesis
built in the research presented here, on the other hand, exemplifies the manner in
which Buddhist tantra gradually developed from its Mahayana scholastic tradition
in the monastic settings and uses the symbolic visualization practices for achieving
pure gnosis or wisdom (prajñā). While wisdom is feminine aspect of the wisdom
of Emptiness (śūnyatā), it is also referred as the Ultimate Bodhicitta; the altruistic
intention (Upāya) is the male aspect and referred as conventional Bodhicitta.2 The
union of two, often depicted through the erotic union of tantric deities, is the
fundamental doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism.
While Emptiness negates the absolutist or intrinsic nature of material and
mental phenomena, altruistic intention provides the basis and guiding principle in
accordance with which the material and mental phenomena should be perceived
and acted upon. These two principals provide the theoretical bases for rituals and
practices for Buddhist tantra system.
1
postulate the
in the first chapter of this thesis.
2
Bodhicitta means a mind that possesses enlightenment; however, conventional Bodhicitta
connotes to an altruistic mind which aspirs to become Buddha to benefit sentient beings.
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Most of these practices were already part of earlier phases of Buddhism but
they remained esoteric and were not compiled and given a systematic form in the
early phase of Buddhism. Around 8th century CE, the literature and practices of
tantric form of Buddhism was made available for Buddhist monastics to discuss,
debate and to write commentarial literature and thus tantra tradition was accorded
with a formal institutionalized structure in the Vikramashila and Nalanda monastic
universities. These monastic universities were headed by the saint-scholars who
got their Buddhist ordination in one of the eighteen Nikāya schools of Buddhism
but followed the Mādhyamika or Yogācāra philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism
and successfully provided an adequate articulation of the tantric Buddhist
tradition. Their articulations not only encompassed the doctrinal and cultural
viewpoints but also employed the systematic use of scriptural injunctions and
hermeneutics.
The philosophical viewpoints in somewhat cryptic language in the tantric
texts were elucidated and interpreted in the commentaries authored by these
monastic scholars. These commentaries provide an insiders’ perspective and
provide rationale for the seemingly antinomian practices of Buddhist tantra.
From the analysis of these tantric texts, it can be observed that the
symbolism of tantra has a profound pragmatic basis inherent in it. Similar to any
scientific research procedure in which experimental facts are correlated with
mathematical symbols to work out a mathematical model, tantric masters also
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discover the practices by experimenting with their own psyche and the results
obtained from their experiments are given a schematic form. This scheme is
modelled as an anthropomorphic form and it symbolises some yogic practices in
an abstract manner. However, tantric texts are silent on or speak metaphorically
about these symbols in order to avoid their trivialization.
Whereas in the other Buddhist traditions, feminine imageries are almost
absent, or given an lesser position, Buddhist tantra is vibrantly rich with the
iconography of Female tantric deities. Their imagery may range from a goddess
depicting the emotion of blissful serenity of meditative concentration or an
enraged bloodthirsty goddess depicting the emotion of wrath and passion. A
deeper understanding of the feminine tantric iconography reveals that much of the
symbolic elements of tantra have been derived from an insightful pragmatic basis,
which is often esoteric in nature.
These female tantric deities symbolize the wisdom aspect of the
enlightened mind. The tantric manuals suggest that the figures are not icons of
beings, be it God or human, but that they are icons of ideas in a stylized mode.
While the depiction of peaceful and wrathful goddesses may have similar features,
there always exists some striking difference between the levels of potency in their
representations.
There are the particular details, such as their colour or the implements held
by these deities, which symbolically lead to a deeper understanding of what these
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female deities represent. However, with their literature encoded in symbolism and
their practices veiled in secrecy, the tantric iconography has been inappropriately
assessed by scholars who were unaware of the nuances and esoteric concepts of
the Buddhist tantra.
The case study of Buddhist tantra goddesses studied in this research tries
to contextualize their associated rituals, imagery, visualizations practices dealt in
in the traditional manuals that has evolved over the time. These elements have
remarkable religious significance as they propeled some specifics of tantra
tradition within the overarching canopy of Buddhism. These deities also present a
unique example of the composite culture of Hindu and Buddhist traditions of
Himalayan regions of Indian sub-continent.
The symbolism and iconographic elements inherent in their imagery have
been a vital communicative device for Buddhist practitioners as they convey the
abstractness of some profound tantric-yogic practices. Moreover, the proliferation
of local narratives and associated with these goddesses and pilgrimage palaces
signify the fact that they play an important role within the common masses as well
as the monastic practitioners.
At present the Buddhist communities in the Himalayan regions of India and
across the Asia are experimenting with constructive ritualism and carrying their
religious heritage and keeping alive a centuries-old tradition of Buddhism. These
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practices related to tantra goddesses can be considered as a potential resource for
better understanding Buddhist rituals that might have prevailed in ancient India.
Also, one should also keep in mind that in tantric Buddhism, the concept
of a goddess appears in the framework of non-theism, which means that there is
no external supreme being, and hence all religious symbols of a divinity, rituals,
and doctrines have just conventionaliy existence (samvriti-satya) rather than being
the ultimate truth (paramārtha-stya).
209
APPENDIX
पञ्चरक्षादे वीस्तोत्राणि 1
(PAÑCARAKṢĀDEVĪSTOTRĀNI)
(THE HYMNS OF PANCARAKṢĀ GODDESSES)
१ महाप्रणिसरास्तोत्रम्
1 mahāpratisarāstotram
(Hymn of Mahāpratisarā)
नमः श्रीमहाप्रतिसरायै
om namah śrīmahāpratisarāyai
(Salutation to Śri-mahāpratisarā)
िथागिाद्या
थिाां ित्त्वमापुममहत्तरम्
धारणीधारणाद्य
1
ाः प्रतिसराां नमातम िाम्
T he Sanskrit version of these hymns is taken from Bauddha-stötra-
of Janardan
Shastri Pandey, (J. S. Pandey 1994, 112-114). T his English translation is done by the
author.
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tathāgatādyāstathatām tattvamāpurmahattaram |
Dhāraṇīdhāranādyasyāh pratisarām namāmi tām || 1 ||
(Through possession of her Dhāraṇi, the Tathāgatas attained their tathatā
(enlightenment) and [realization of] the tattva (superlative reality), prostrations to that
Pratisarā.)
रणे शक्रोऽजयद्दै त्यान् धारणीध्वजधृग् बहून्
सांग्रामजयदाां भीमाां प्रतिसराां नमातम िाम्
rane śakro'jayaddaityān Dhāraṇīdhvajadhrg bahūn |
samgrāmajayadām bhīmām pratisarām namāmi tām || 2 ||
(In the war against various demons, the Dhāraṇi [written] on the flag bestowed the
victory upon the king of gods, salutation to that gigantic Pratisarā.)
यत्प्रभावाद् ब्र दत्तोऽलभद् राज्यमकण्टकम्
सावमभौमप्रदाां दे वीां प्रतिसराां नमातम िाम्
yatprabhāvād brahmadatto'labhad rājyamakantakam |
sārvabhaumapradām devīm pratisarām namāmi tām || 3 ||
(The efficacy of which caused the Braḥmadatta to gain his kingdom back, salutations to
that Pratisarā, the granter of all kinds of auspiciousness.)
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ब पराधोऽतप यद्भक्तो राज्यातधकारमा वान्
श
ातदभीतिसांहत्ीां प्रतिसराां नमातम िाम्
bahvaparādho'pi yadbhakto rājyādhikāramāptavān |
śastrādibhītisamhatrīm pratisarām namāmi tām || 4 ||
(Salutations to that Pratisarā, whose devotees are freed from the fears of weapons and
numerous offences and attain the authority statesmanship.)
रत्ना वापुवमतणजो याां
ृत्वोदतधतनगमिाः
सवमबाधाप्रशमनीां प्रतिसराां नमातम िाम्
ratnānyavāpurvanijo yām smrtvodadhinirgatāh |
sarvabādhāpraśamanīm pratisarām namāmi tām || 5 ||
(Recollecting her [Dhāraṇi], the merchant sailors sail [safely] with their jewels through
the oceans, the subduer of all the obstacles, salutations to that Pratisarā.)
श्रीमहाप्रतिसरारक्षादे वी
ोत्ां समा म्
śrīmahāpratisarārakshādevīstotram samāptam |
(Here ends the hymn of protector goddess Śri-mahāpratisarā.)
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२ महामन्त्रानुसाररिीस्तोत्रम्
2 mahāmantrānusāriṇīstotram
(Hymn of Mahāmantrānusariṇī)
नमः श्रीमहाम ानुसाररण्यै
om namah śrīmahāmantrānusārinyai
Om salutations to Mahāmantrānusariṇī
बुद्धातध ानिो बुद्धाभयदाां भयनातशनीम्
भवा ुतधतनमग्नानाां नमो म ानुसाररणीम्
buddhādhishthānato buddhābhayadām bhayanāśinīm |
bhavāmbudhinimagnānām namo mantrānusāriṇīm || 1 ||
(Salutations to that Mantrānusariṇī, [she is] the abode of enlightenment of Buddhas,
granter of fearlessness to the Buddhas, annihilator of frights of those who are sunk into
the oceans of samsāra.)
य
ोच्चारणादे व षडीियः सुदारुणाः
नाशां प्रयान्ति वरदाां नमो म ामुसाररणीम्
yanmantroccāranādeva shadītayah sudārunāh |
nāśam prayānti varadām namo mantrāmusāriṇīm || 2 ||
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(By just chanting of the mantra, the six- epidemics 2 are vanquished, salutations to that
Mantrānusariṇī who grants the blessing.)
म ानुसाररणो लोकान् ना े म ादयो ग्रहाः
पीडयन्ति तप्रयाां ातप नमो म ानुसाररणीम्
mantrānusārino lokān nānye mantrādayo grahāh |
pīdayanti priyāmścāpi namo mantrānusāriṇīm || 3 ||
(Those who follow the mantra of Mantrānusariṇi, need no other mantras, they are never
harmed by the malicious-planets and they become beloved of every one, salutations to
that Mantrānusariṇi.)
बुद्धोऽ
भाषद् गाथा
यातभः सवमत्
न्त
ाय
कथनािरम्
ा मो म ानुसाररणीम्
buddho'bhyabhāshad gāthāstā yanmantrakathanāntaram | yābhih sarvatra svasti
syānnamo mantrānusāriṇīm || 4 ||
2
T he six
(disasters or epidemics) are: 1. Excessive rain; 2. Drought; 3. Locusts; 4. Rats;
5. Parrots; and 6. Foreign invasion.
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(After the narration of her mantra, the Buddha gives his teaching; it (her mantra) causes
everything to become auspicious, salutations to that Mantrānusariṇī.)
कलौ बुद्धतवहीनेऽन्त
न् लोकानाां तहिमाचरे ि्
पापोत्पािप्रशमनीां नमो म ानुसाररणीम्
kalau buddhavihīne'smin lokānām hitamācaret |
pāpotpātapraśamanīm namo mantrānusāriṇīm || 5 ||
(In the age of Kali, in the absence of the Buddha, we act for the benefit of the world; the
subduer of all the havoc caused by non-virtues, salutations to that Mantrānusariṇī.)
श्रीमहाम ानुसाररणी
ोत्ां समा म्
śrīmahāmantrānusāriṇīstotram samāptam |
(This is the end of the hymn of Mahā-mantrānusariṇī.)
३ महामायूरीस्तोत्रम्
3 mahāmāyūrīstotram
(The Hymn of Mahāmāyūrī)
नमः श्रीमहामायूयै
om namah śrīmahāmāyūryai
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(OM Salutations to Śri-mahāmāyūryaī)
दु ां कृ
य
भुजङ्गां च नरः
ान्तिकां पालयेि्
ा म ानुभावेन मायूरीां प्रणमातम िाम्
dushtam krshnabhujangam ca narah svāntikam pālayet |
yasyā mantrānubhāvena māyūrīm praṇamāmi tām || 1 ||
(Through the efficacy of that mantra, the wicked black serpent can be tamed by men
and be protected, prostrations to that Māyūrī.)
ब्र ादयो लोकपाला यद्धारण्या समा ुवन्
ातन
ा तधकारातण मायूरीां प्रणमातम िाम्
brahmādayo lokapālā yaddhāranyā samāpnuvan |
svāni svānyadhikārāni māyūrīm praṇamāmi tām || 2 ||
(By employment of that Dhāraṇi, the Brahma and the realm-protectors are endowed
with their own attainments, prostrations to that Māyūrī.)
णाम वभासां तशन्तिनां नालभज्जतपनां कुधीः
अमोघेनातप पाशेन मायूरीां प्रणमातम िाम्
svarnāvabhāsam śikhinam nālabhajjapinam kudhīh |
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amoghenāpi pāśena māyūrīm praṇamāmi tām || 3 ||
(The wicked could not have access to the reciter [as he is protected] by the infallible
hook of golden light, prostration to that Māyūrī.)
य
जपिो जीवाः प्राजीवञ्छु
पादपाः
मृिसांजीतवनीां दे वीां मायूरीां प्रणमातम िाम्
yanmantrajapato jīvāh prājīvañchushkapādapāh |
mrtasamjīvinīm devīm māyūrīm praṇamāmi tām || 4 ||
(Through recitation of that mantra, the sentient beings and dry plants got became alive,
the goddess who bestows the elixir of deathlessness, prostrations to that Maha-māyūrī.)
य न्त सङ्गाि् पवनो महोपद्रवशान्तिकृि्
बुद्धानाां बोतधदाां तनत्यां मायूरीां प्रणमातम िाम्
yanmantrisangāt pavano mahopadravaśāntikrt |
buddhānām bodhidām nityam māyūrīm praṇamāmi tām || 5 |
(The big havoc causing winds, when contacted with that mantra, got satiated, the ever
granter of enlightenment to the Buddhas, prostrations to that Māyūrī.)
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ोत्ां समा म्
śrīmahāmāyūrīrakshādevīstotram samāptam |
(Here ends the hymn of Śri-mahāmāyūrī protector goddess.)
४ महाशीिविीरक्षादे वीस्तोत्रम्
4 mahāśītavatīrakshādevīstotram
(Hymn of Maha-śītavatī)
नमो महाशीिवत्यै
om namo mahāśītavatyai
(OM Salutations to Maha-śītavatī)
यद्धारणीमनुजपन् राहुलो भद्रमा वान्
तवहे तििो ग्रहै ः सवैः शीिविीां नमा
हम्
yadDhāraṇīmanujapan rāhulo bhadramāptavān |
vihethito grahaih sarvaih śītavatīm namāmyaham || 1 ||
(Through the recitations of that Dhāraṇi, the Rahula was able to attain honourableness,
the demolisher of all the malicious planets, my prostrations to that Śītavatī.)
पापिापे शीिकरीां शीिलाद् युपसगमिः
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दु ःिशमनीां शीिविीां नमा
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हम्
pāpatāpe śītakarīm śītalādyupasargatah |
śītoshnaduhkhaśamanīm śītavatīm namāmyaham || 2 ||
(The pacifier of the heat of non-virtues and the disease of chickenpox; the annihilator of
the sufferings from summers and winters, my prostrations to that Śītavatī.)
म ग्रन्त िसूत्ाणाां धारणा
क्षयोजनम्
पतथकानाां पालतयत्ीां शीिविीां नमा
हम्
mantragranthitasūtrānām dhāranāllakshayojanam |
pathikānām pālayitrīm śītavatīm namāmyaham || 3 ||
(The mantra knotted in a thread when employed [in amulets] by the travellers, she
protects the travellers for millions of miles, my salutations to Śītavatī.)
शान थेन मुतनना या समुच्चाररिा पुरा
ग्रहोपद्रवशान्त्यथं शीिविीां नमा
हम्
śmaśānasthena muninā yā samuccāritā purā |
grahopadravaśāntyartham śītavatīm namāmyaham || 4 ||
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(In the past, the subduers (Muni) residing in the charnel ground recited her [mantra] for
the pacification of havoc created by the Graha (evil spirits), my salutations to that
Śītavatī.)
ग्रहातभभूिवािानाां ग्रन्त पदतवधाररणाम्
ग्रहभीतिप्रशमनीां शीिविीां नमा हम्
grahābhibhūtavātānām granthipadavidhārinām |
grahabhītipraśamanīm śītavatīm namāmyaham || 5 ||
(Those who are possessed by the Graha (evil spirits), [they should] hold the stanza [of
her mantra] in the amulets, the subjugator of fears of Garha, my salutations to that
Śītavatī.)
श्री महाशीिविीरक्षादे वी
ोत्ां समा म्
śrī mahāśītavatīrakshādevīstotram samāptam |
(Here ends the hymn of Śri-mahā-śītavatī protector goddess.)
५ महासाहस्रप्रमणदि नीस्तोत्रम्
5 mahāsāhasrapramardinīstotram
(Hymn of Mahāsāhasrapramardinī)
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नमः श्रीमहासाहस्रप्रमतदम े
om namah śrīmahāsāhasrapramardinye
(OM salutations to Śri-mahāsāhasrapramardinī.)
महासाहतस्रके लोके साहस्रतहिकाररणाम्
सहस्रसत्त्वजननीां नौतम साहस्रमतदम नीम्
mahāsāhasrike loke sāhasrahitakārinām |
sahasrasattvajananīm naumi sāhasramardinīm || 1 ||
(In the great thousand world realms, she bestows the thousands of fortunes, prostrations
to the Sāhasramardinī, the mother of thousands of sentient beings.)
सोपद्रवायाां वैशा
ाां महोत्सवो यिः सदा
महोपसगमशमनीां नौतम साहस्रमतदम नीम्
sopadravāyām vaiśālyām mahotsavo yatah sadā |
mahopasargaśamanīm naumi sāhasramardinīm || 2 ||
(She vanquished the disturbances in the festival of Vaiśāli forever, the pacifier of chronic
disease, salutations to that Sāhasramardinī.)
यक्षराक्षसभूिानाां दमनीां दु चेिसाम्
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दु ररिोपद्रवहिाां नौतम साहस्रमतदम नीम्
Yakṣharākṣhasabhūtānām damanīm dushtacetasām |
duritopadravahatām naumi sāhasramardinīm || 3 ||
(Prostrations to the Sāhasramardinī, who subjugates all wicked minded demigods,
demons, ghost and dispels all the troubles.)
यद्धारणीपिनिो रतक्षिः शाक्यकेशरी
तवषिो तवषतदग्ाां िाां नौतम साहस्रमतदम नीम्
yadDhāraṇīpathanato rakshitah śākyakeśarī |
vishato vishadigdhām tām naumi sāhasramardinīm || 4 ||
(By recitation of that dhāraṅī, the lion amongst the Śākyas was protected from the
poisons and the damages caused by poisons, salutations to that Sāhasramardinī.)
मधुतमतश्रिभैषज्यां सवमरोगतनवारणम्
मृिसञ्जीवनां लोके नौतम साहस्रमतदम नीम्
madhumiśritabhaishajyam sarvaroganivāranam |
mrtasañjīvanam loke naumi sāhasramardinīm || 5 ||
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(The medicines mixed with honey that removes all the disease, the elixir of this realm,
prostrations to that Sāhasramardinī.)
श्रीमहासाहस्रमतदम नीरक्षादे वी
ोत्ां समा म्
śrīmahāsāhasramardinīrakshādevīstotram samāptam |
(Here ends the hymns of protection goddess Śri-mahā-sāhasrapramardinī.)
223
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INDEX
A
Alexander Cunningham, 14
Alexis Sanderson, 38
,1
Amarawati, 103
Abhidharmakoṣa, 25
115
Abhinavagupta, 43
, 11
Abhisamaya-
Amoghavajra, 133
, 177 , 202
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, 20
Advayavajrasangraha, 75
Anglo-German school, 12
Adwaya-tantra, 170
antinomian, 10
antinomianism, 62
Ajanta, 52
anuttara-jñana, 11
Akṣobhya, 149
Anuttara-tantra, 200
Albert Joseph Edmunds, 29
Anuttarayoga-tantra, 88, 170
Alexander Csoma, 20
Apabhramsa, 61
255
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
, 85
2018
Barlam, 18
Benoytosh Bhattacharya, 56
-
, 99
Bhagavati, 173
ḥiḥ, 188
Bhaisajya-
, 147
, 130
Bhaktapur, 190
Asanga, 80
Bharhut, 103, 107
Asia, 19
Bhaviṣya-pur a, 99
Asiatic Society, 19
Bhutan, 12
ṭam trika, 190
, 100
ṣa, 35
biblical studies, 13
Aṭ n ṭiya Sutta, 76
Biblical studies, 6
, 77
, 72
Bodhicitta, 44
, 180
Bodhisattva, 79
Austine Waddell, 27
Boudhanath, 160
, 179
Brahma, 35
B
Brain H. Hodgson, 17
Bali, 130
, 127
Bamiyan, 42
, 129
Baṇabhatta, 139
Buddha Vacanas, 60
256
Bibliography
Samdarshi P.
Buddhacarita, 35
University of Delhi
Chakrasamvara, 183
, 186
Changunarayan, 190
Buddhaguhya, 121
Chapagaon, 190
Buddhavacana, 155
Chhinnamun ḍ , 181
Buddhist-renaissance, 87
China, 12
Burnouf, 38
Chinese, 29
Chinese T ripitaka. See
Bya rGyup, 127
Chinnamunḍ 184 190, 199
C
Chögyam T rungpa, 90
-
, 169
Christian missionaries, 13
caitya, 147
Christianity, 13
Cakrasamvara, 35
, 114
Cakrasamvaratantra, 100
Chusya Baha, 160
canonical literature, 35
, 59
-
Citta, 124
caste hierarchy, 62
clear-light mind, 170, 173
Catholic, 12
compassion, 115
Catur-
, 157
consort, 176
Ceylon, 28
Coomaraswamy, 51, 65
257
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
Dharmakoṣasaṇgrah, 152
Csoma De-Coros, 21
Buddhas, 174
-
, 76
, 85
D
Dignaga, 55
D. N. Shastri, 55
, 31 , 97
91, 96, 186
-Koṣa, 79
Dalai Lama, 10, 86 , 90
Dorje, 177
Dravidian language, 77
David Seyfort Ruegg, 43
Drub T ab Gyatso, 129
David Suleiman, 32
Dunhuang, 134
de La Vallee Poussin, 25
Dus-
, 199
, 173
E
, 173
Dharamvir Bharti, 62
Edward Conze, 17
, 77
Edward Moor, 19
Ekajaṭ -t r , 59
Ellora, 52
dharmacakra mudra, 149
Ellora Cave no VII, 141
, 188
emptiness, 174
Dharmakoṣa-samgraha, 146
258
2018
Samdarshi P.
Bibliography
University of Delhi
Engelbert Kaempfer, 19
Gñana-
epigraphical evidences, 134
Gñana-samuccaya, 122
Eugene Burnouf, 22
Gopinath Kaviraj, 65
European pedagogy, 55
Gospels, 29
graha-
, 158
F
Great Game, 20
Female Buddhas, 102, 106
Greek, 20, 29
feminine-divine, 1
, 117
feudal state, 33
ṭa hill, 76
four classes of Buddhist tantra, 6
gSang sngags rjes dzin chen mo, 129
Franco-Belgian school, 12
guhyakas, 186
Franco Belgian school, 25
, 84
Franco Belgian school, 25
-tantra, 53 , 66 , 82
G
Gurumanḍala p j , 131
Gaja-lakṣmi, 16
Gandhara, 20
H
gcan rim pa, 129
Halbfass, 48
generation stage, 189
Haraprasad Shastri, 52
Gilgit Manuscripts, 130
Haraṣadeva, 197
259
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
108, 161
Hindu tantra, 61
historicity, 19
Harivamsa-
, 99
Hodgson, 21
Harprasad Shastri, 57
Homa, 158
Harṣacarita, 139
Hungary, 20
Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, 62
I
Heart Sutra, 82
icchataḥ, 11
heritage, 48
idolatry, 54
Hermann Hess, 50
imperialism, 33
Hermann Oldenburg, 12
indigenous traditions, 51
hermeneutics, 39
Indo-china, 12
Heruka, 35, 176
Indology, 11
Hevajra T antra, 84
J
Hevajra-tantra, 70
hideousness, 54
J .W. de Jong, 119
Himalayan Buddhist arts, 1
Jaideva Singh, 65
Hinayana, 26
Jaina, 66
Hindi, 61
James Fergusson, 16
, 61
Hindoo nation, 55
260
2018
Bibliography
Samdarshi P.
, 187
University of Delhi
Karmakanda, 68
Japan, 12
Kashmir, 43
Java, 130
, 65
Jawaharlal Nehru, 48
Kathmandu, 4
, 124
Jean Przylusky, 12
, 182
jina-
Kegon, 138
, 105
Khadga-yogini, 190
Kinnaur, 21
Jñana-samuchchaya, 123
Kolkata, 52
Josaphat, 18
Korea, 12
Judeo-Christian religions, 13
Krama, 102
Kriya aspect of Lakṣmi, 101
K
Kriya-samgraha, 145
Kachoma, 183
-tantra, 121, 124
, 197
Kula, 102, 144 , 173
Kuñjara-kar a-dharma-kathana, 134
-
, 122
Kane, 53
261
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
2018
L
-tara, 192
La Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale, 25
Ladakh, 4, 21
Lakṣmi, 101
, 179
, 146
, 136
, 99
-
lalitasana, 149
, 106
126
Lalitavistar, 85
-
Lamaism, 27
-
Lamotte, 16
Mahasiddhas, 44
Latin, 29
Nandangarh, 93, 94
, 174
Lhasa, 191
, 158
lineage-teachings, 3, See
, 24
M
macrocosm-microcosm, 71
ṣin s, 103
Madhyamika, 206
Mahayana, 12
magic, 28
ǹk r, 80
262
, 119
Bibliography
Samdarshi P.
University of Delhi
monastic universities, 78
mandala, 33, 79
Mongolia, 53
manḍala, 115, 124
Mt. Shimen, Dazu, 137
Maṇic ḍa, 191
Muhammadans, 192
, 124
Mandasor inscription, 95
Maṇic da hill, 191
-
97,106
, 109 , 138
, 97
N
N. N. Bhattacharyya, 60, 86
mantra, 77
ḍ , 179
Mantrayana, 75
Naga, 65
, 170
Max Muller, 22
Nagarjuna, 55
, 138
Nagendranath Upadhyaya, 62
medieval India, 32
mental phenomena, 205
mGon po, 77
Nalanda, 64 , 78, 80
Milarepa, 96
Naro Khacho, 199
Mitra, 52
Naro-Ḍ kin , 198
modernity, 48
263
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
Naro-
orthodoxy, 62
Naropa, 96, 198
Osho, 90
2018
P
Natha, 62
P. C. Bagchi, 57, 86
neo tantra, 90
P. V. Kane, 39
Nepal-
, 191
, 148
New T estament, 29
pagan, 19
Nikaya schools, 206
Pala period, 143
Pali, 14
nirguṇa yajñya, 191
Pali T ext Society, 28
, 188
Pamthingpa brothers, 199
Niṣpannayog wali, 87
Pañcarakṣ
-
ḍala, 154
, 11
Pañcarakṣ -vidh na, 129
O
-
, 126
Oldenburg, 24
Oriental Renaissance, 49
Pañcrakṣ -dev -cary -n itya , 166
Oriental studies, 51
Paramitayana, 75
Orientalism, 18
Paritta, 76
Orient, 49
-stya, 209
264
Bibliography
Samdarshi P.
University of Delhi
Pratap Malla, 193
paryañka, 149
primitive, 12, 44
protective deity, 77
pauṣ
ṇika, 68
protestant, 12
Protestant theology, 28
,1
ṇa, 68
Phag-mo gZ-hung-drug, 189
Puṣkarasari i, 31
Pharping, 190, 197
philological, 11
R
Piprahwa, 93
Rahul Sankrityayan, 63
pith instructions, 187
, 170
Rajendra Lal Mitra, 16
post-colonial period, 5
Ramachandra Shukla, 61
, 179
-svara, 170
Ratan Sutta, 76
ṭ k , 66
Ratnasambhava, 151
prajña, 82 , 115, 172
Rdo-Rje rnal-byor ma, 190
, 171 , 205
religious substratum, 43
, 176
rhetorical tropes, 21
Rhys Davids, 12, 28
-s tra, 111
265
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
ritualism, 58
Saknda-
2018
ṇa, 191
rMa bya chen mo, 129
romanticism, 18
Ronald Davidson, 32
Rudra, 35
samadhi mudra, 149
Ruegg, 44
Samaya, 101
Sambhoga-
, 198
S
, 176
, 59
, 188
Sampuṭosbhava-svra-tantra, 9
Saddharma-punḍar ka, 77
samvriti, 209
Saddharmapunḍar ka-s tra, 23
Samya-
, 123
, 35 , 59, 95
Sanchi, 16, 103, 107
-
, 129
Sanderson, 38
-
, 174
Sahaja, 84
Sankhu, 191, 195
Sahajayani, 62
Sanskrit, 29
,1
, 97
, 31
266
Bibliography
Samdarshi P.
University of Delhi
, 129
sarva-buddha-
, 186
Societe Asiatique, 22
satvaparyañkasana, 147
Song dynsty, 133
saumya, 110
sorcery, 58
, 100
Southeast Asia, 7
Scythia, 20
Spiti, 4
semantics, 10
Sri Lanka, 12
semiology, 33, 45
-cakrasamvara-tantra, 10
Shankaracharaya, 196
-
Shantideva, 111
-nagara, 197
Shingon, 138
Stcherbatsky, 56
Siddha, 61, 76
Stephen Beyer, 43
Siddh , 113
, 129
Stupas, 160
Sikkim, 4, 27
sindura-
-
subjectivization, 11
, 140
substratum, 43
, 84
, 174
, 85
Siva's consort, 193
-
267
, 16
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
2018
Suvarṇa-prabh s, 77
T ibetan Buddhism, 77
ṣa, 24
T ibetan T ripitaka, 129
Svachhanda Bhairava, 37
T ilopa, 199
Svayambhu, 161
tribal, 62
-
-
, 123
, 201
-
Sylvain Levi, 12
-
T
tutelary deity, 7
U
T antra-samgraha, 172
Udabhaṭṭa Swami, 35
illustration, 112
-kula, 144
Ugra-
192
Ugra-
184, 92, 197
ultimate truth, 209
., 172
Unexcelled T antra, 170
tattvas, 37
T hangka, 175
, 82 , 115, 171
T heravada, 12, 26 , 29
, 11 , 176
U ṣ i avijay , 109
T ibet, 53
268
, 186
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Samdarshi P.
University of Delhi
Utpatti-krama, 189
, 192
uttama-siddhi, 1
varada mudra, 148
, 182
V
Vasanta-tilaka, 172
Vaiṣ ava, 60
Vasubandhu, 25
Vasugupta, 43
Vajracharya priest, 158
vernacular, 61
vajra-jñana, 172
-
ṅku i, 152
, 134
Vidyeshwari, 190
Vajrapani, 16
, 93
Vajrasphoṭa, 152
-siddhi, 25
vikalpa, 122
Vikramshila, 78, 80
See, See
Vinaya, 106
ṣtava, 35
Vajrayana, 29
Viṣṇu, 35
visualization, 70
-stotra, 202
Visualization, 114
, 124
Vivekananda, 39, 54, 57
269
PhD T hesis
Sacred Feminine Imagery in T antric Buddhism
Yakṣi -s dhana, 97
W
Waddell, 50
yidam, 171
West Champaran, 93
Yoga Sutra, 72
Yogacara, 206
William A. Foucher, 58
Yoga-tantra, 170
William Jones, 19
Yogi, 62
wind channels, 83, 179
wisdom, 115
-
-tantra, 187
Y
-tantra, 73
Yakṣ
, 104
Yuan period, 134
Yakṣiṇi, 16, 96
270
2018