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The origin of Tārā

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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 One of the most popular of all the deities of Tibet is the female bodhisattva called Tārā. Her name is assumed to be the feminine form of the Sanskrit word Tāra, the literal meaning of which is “the star”. Buddhist lexicographers tend to disagree with that etymology and construe her name as deriving from the Sanskrit root √tṛi meaning “to carry across”. Hence we are told that her name implies “she who ferries one across the raging sea of samsara“, or to put it more simply, “savioress”. However, the practice of etymology in India and Tibet was to creatively reveal hidden meanings by word-play rather than to discover accurate word-histories.

It is worth noting that a goddess called Tārā is also known in Hinduism and even in Jainism, thus suggesting quite an ancient (perhaps even pre-Āryān) origin. In Tibet, most Buddhist families begin the day with a recitation of a hymn called the The Praise of Tārā in Twenty-one Verses. Despite it being an integral part of Tibetan Buddhist practice, the hymn clearly originated as a Hindu text.1 The hymn is replete with references which are unintelligible from a purely Buddhist viewpoint. These include allusions to Mt. Mandara (the churning-stick in the Hindu myth of the Churning of the Ocean), Kailaśa (Śiva’s mountain paradise), the myth of Śiva’s incineration of Kama (the Hindu god of love) with a glance, and explicit mentions of the gods Śiva, Brahma and Indra. A prime example is to be found in verse 12. A Hindu myth describes the River Ganges as flowing from Śiva’s hair. Accordingly, when verse 12 speaks of the “crescent moon” in Amitābha’s “matted locks” Prof. Wayman interprets this is as a clear reference to Śiva and, thus, sees the original participants in the verse as, not Tārā and Amitābha, but the River Ganges and Śiva.2

“The Praise of Tārā” is extracted from the Tārā Tāntra, and is essentially a hymn praising the various qualities of a single goddess. However, legend has it that during the 9th century a leper called Suryagupta had a vision of Tārā who cured him of his leprosy. He also composed a liturgy describing twenty-one different goddesses, all seen as aspects of Tārā.
Tārā and Ishtar

The provenance of Tārā and whether she was originally Buddhist or Hindu is the subject of some debate. My own guess is that she is older than either religion and was adopted (and adapted) by both. I deem it quite possible that her origins are to be found in the Sumerian goddess Ishtar. In her role as “the star”, in Hindu mythology and astrology she is the personification of the planet Venus, just as Ishtar was in Sumer. Also, both goddesses are associated with the acacia tree. So, if Tārā is an Indian importation of a Sumerian goddess, how would this have come about?

Many archeologists believe that the great Indus Valley cities such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were modeled on Sumerian originals. They have many similarities in construction but are laid out in a much more systematic fashion, suggesting that the cities’ builders were attempting to improve on the Sumerian originals.3 Also, some linguists have speculatively linked the Sumerian language with the non-Āryān, Dravidian, languages of India in a language-group called Elamo-Dravidian.

Even absent any ethnic or linguistic connections, it is known that there were trade connections as Harappan beads have been found in Mesopotamia. Merchants traveling between Mesopotamia and India may well have relied upon Ishtar/Tārā (i.e. “the stars”) for navigation and perhaps called upon her to save them from storms at sea, just as Buddhist travelers such as Tārānatha did in much later times. This could then also provide a basis for the secondary meaning of “the one who ferries us across” and would account for the popularity of Tārā among mariners and seafarers.
Āryā Tārā and the Tārā of the acacia grove

As with many popular deities, Tārā appears in various forms, each of which is distinguished from the others by some detail of iconography. For instance, the well-known and popular form called Āryā Tārā 4 may be recognized by the following characteristics: She is green in color, she sits with the left leg drawn up as in a meditation posture but with the right leg extended, the right foot often supported by a lotus. She wears the silk robes and jewelled ornaments of a peaceful bodhisattva, has one face with two eyes and is smiling. Her right hand makes the varada-mudra (“boon-granting gesture”) while her left holds the stem of an utpala (night-blooming lotus, Nymphaea stellata.) the bloom of which is level with her left ear.

There are other forms of the deity who closely resemble Āryā Tārā but who, in addition to the above attributes, carry a second utpala lotus in the right hand. One of these is Khadiravanī Tārā or “Tārā of the acacia grove” and her distinguishing feature is that she is invariably accompanied by her attendant goddesses, Aśokakāntā-Maricī and Ekajatā.

This name, Khadiravanī, is rather mysterious, though. In India, the acacia tree is sacred to Tārā, in Mesopotamia, Ishtar was worshiped in acacia groves. When I asked a learned Tibetan lama why the khadira tree is associated with Tārā, he told me that it is because these trees grow in her paradise. As I remain unconvinced of the physical existence of Tārā’s paradise, I was less than satisfied by this response. For one thing, there are many popular bodhisattvas but only Tārā has a special tree. Why so?

Mallar Ghosh has suggested that Khadiravana was the name of an actual location in Bengal though she admits that this is speculative as no such place-name is to be found, either in modern times or in the historical record.5A more plausible suggestion from Dr. Ghosh is that the name is corruption of khadiravarna (“acacia-colored”)6 which would thus derive the color of Green Tārā from her association with the acacia tree. Some credence must be given to such alternative translations of the name, as “acacia grove” is, correctly, khadira-vaṇa with a palatal ṇ. If interpreted literally, the name Khadira-vanī implies khadira-vana, “acacia-sound” but that makes least sense of all. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the first element in her name is khadira. So, I ask once more, why the khadira and not some other tree?

Perhaps we may find a clue in the frequent occurrence of amŗita and other magical potions in the legends associated with Tārā. As for instance in these passages:

Source

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