Tantric Buddhism Uddiyana And Odisha: Foreword By Lama Tenzin Samphel 476wk

Abstract

The Tibetan form of Vajrayana Buddhism is currently popular, but the period of the genesis of this tradition in South Asia hardly attracts the attention of the general public. To contribute to the study of this field, we gather here the clues which tend to show that the priviledged area of the development of Vajrayana in South Asia was the region which corresponds to the present Indian State of Odisha. To this end, we resort to archeology, linguistics and philology. Furthermore, the choice is made to take into the discourses ot the Tantric tradition itself, whenever they help making sense out of, at times, puzzling material data. The long impregnation of Northeastern India by Vajrayana explains the survival of Buddhist ideas and practices in local religious traditions to this day, some of them having largely exceeded the frame of Eastern India, or even of India. This local heritage of Tantric Buddhism, in particular in its final form, Vajrayana, is the subject of the last part of our study. This book is resolutely aimed at a large spectrum of readers, which is why an important part of the text is devoted to situating Tantric Buddhism within the history of Buddhism in general, as well as to clarifying its relationships with Hinduism.

Table of Contents

Table of Figures

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Preface

Maps

Introduction

1 The diffusion of Buddhism

1.1 The beginnings in the kingdom of Magadha

1.1.1 The Buddha

1.1.2 The main disciples and the compilation of the teachings

1.2 Towards Sri Lanka in the South, hellenized Afghanistan in the West, and Central Asia and China by the Northern route

1.3 Towards Eastern India

1.4 Towards Nepal and Tibet in the North, and Southeast Asia and China by the Southern sea route

1.5 Towards the Western world

2 The Buddhist philosophical schools

2.1 The fundamental teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path

2.2 Theravada

2.3 Mahayana

2.3.1 The View of emptiness of the Middle Way

2.3.2 The Middle Way and the View of Mind Only

2.3.3 Bodhisattvas and Buddhas

2.3.4 The Pure Lands

2.3.5 Comion

2.4 Tantric Buddhism

2.4.1 Mantrayana

2.4.2 Yoga Tantras

2.4.3 Vajrayana, the Diamond Way

2.4.4 Yogini Tantras alias Prajna Tantras

2.4.5 Sahajayana, the Way of the Natural State

2.4.6 The Great Union, Mahasandhi, or Great Perfection

3 Buddhism and Hinduism

3.1 Vedism, Brahmanism and Hinduism

3.2 How Brahmins attempted to appropriate the Buddha

3.2.1 The Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu

3.2.2 The Buddha as a member of the Warrior caste

3.3 The extension of Brahmanism through the conversion of kings

3.4 The brahmanization of the populations

3.5 The reference to the Vedas

3.6 The religions of Greater Magadha

3.7 The first philosophical offensives of the Brahmins: the Upanishads and the

Bhagavad Gita

3.8 Shankaracharya and his Advaita Vedanta

3.9 The Sadhus

3.9.1 The Dashanami Sannyasi of Shankara

3.9.2 The Vaishnava ascetic orders

3.9.3 The armed ascetics

3.9.4 The ascetic practices of the Sadhus

3.10 The Ayurvedic medicine

3.11 Religious art

3.12 Non-violence

3.13 Devotion

3.14 Sanskritization and brahmanization

3.15 An incomplete assimilation

4 Uddiyana, cradle of Vajrayana

4.1 Uddiyana, the celebrated place of origin of Vajrayana Tantras

4.2 The hypothesis of the Swat Valley

4.2.1 The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang

4.2.2 The Chinese pilgrim Song Yun

4.2.3 The Tibetan pilgrim Orgyenpa

4.2.4 The mythologization of Uddiyana by the Tibetans

4.3 Odisha, cradle of Vajrayana

4.3.1 The variants of the name “Odisha”

4.3.2 An early presence of Buddhism

4.3.3 The first dynasties

4.3.4 The Bhaumakara dynasty

4.3.5 The Somavamshi, Colaganga and Suryavamshi dynasties

4.3.6 Uddiyana Pitha, a major Tantric holy site

4.3.7 Sambalpur and Shambhala

4.3.8 Sonepur and Lankapuri

4.3.9 Cuttack and Dhanyakataka

4.3.10 The deity Jagannath of Puri

4.3.11 Buddhist sites and images in plenty

4.3.12 The temple of the 64 Yoginis of Hirapur

4.3.13 Villages with evocative names

4.3.14 The languages spoken by the founding masters of Vajrayana

5 The Mahasiddhas, the Great Accomplished Ones, in Odisha

5.1 Indrabodhi of Uddiyana

5.1.1 King and Yogi

5.1.2 The Accomplishment of Wisdom, Jnanasiddhi

5.2 Lakshminkara of Uddiyana

5.2.1 Princess and yogini

5.2.2 The Accomplishment of Non-Duality, Advayasiddhi

5.2.3 Lakshminkara and the other Great Accomplished Ones

5.3 Prahevajra alias Garab Dorje

5.4 The master Pasambhava of Uddiyana

5.5 Princess Mandarava of Zahor

6 The practice of union

6.1 Tantric deities in sexual embrace

6.2 Sexuality in Buddhism at the time of the Buddha

6.3 The symbol of sexual union in the Tantras

6.4 The encounter of the masculine and the feminine in the biographies of the Great Accomplished Ones

6.5 The instructions in the Tantras

6.6 The Candamaharoshana Tantra

6.7 A perilous method

6.8 One way among others

7 The songs of Realization of the Great Accomplished Ones

7.1 The songs of Kanha

7.2 The songs of Saraha

8 The vanishing of Buddhism in India

8.1 The oversight of Buddhism

8.2 The Hindu appropriation of Buddhist sanctuaries and images

9 The heritage of Tantric Buddhism in India

9.1 The anteriority of Buddhist Tantrism

9.2 Charnel grounds and bone ornaments in Tantric Buddhism

9.3 Shaivites sects of skull-bearers

9.4 The Nath Yogis

9.4.1 The Mahasiddhas at the origin of the Nath Yogis lineage

9.4.2 The Buddhist origin of hatha yoga

9.4.3 The appropriation of the treatise Amritasiddhi and of the figure of Virupa by the Nath Yogis

9.4.4 The transition from Buddhism to Shaivism through teachings and conversions

9.4.5 The diffusion of Nathism in the Indian subcontinent

9.4.6 Traces of Tantric Buddhism in some current practices of the Naths

9.5 The Vaisnavism of the Pancaskhas of Odisha

9.5.1 The Bengali Vaishnavism of Caitanya

9.5.2 The originality of the Sahajiya Vaishnavism of Odisha

9.5.3 Emptiness in the Sahajiya Vaishnavism and the cult of Jagannath

9.5.4 Hidden Buddhists

9.6 The cult of Dharma Thakur and the Mahima Dharma of Odisha

9.7 The Bauls and Fakirs of Bengal

9.7.1 A pragmatic mysticism repressed by the established religions

9.7.2 The Woman Divine

9.7.3 The songs of the Baul-Fakirs

9.7.4 A Buddhist heritage

Conclusion

Glossary

Index

Bibliography

Table of Figures

Map 1: South Asia

Map 2: Bihar (India)

Map 3: Odisha (India)

Map 4: West Bengal (India)

Map 5: Bangladesh

Photo 1: Vajrasattva (Newar art)

Photo 2: Kurukulla of Uddiyana, a female expression of Enlightenment (Newar art)

Photo 3: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 4: Votive stupas (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 5: Marici of Uddiyana, a wrathful female manifestation of wisdom (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 6: The Bodhisattva Vajrapani (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 7: The Dakini Krodhi Kali, the Wrathful Dark One (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 8: King Indrabodhi and visitors (Tibetan art)

Photo 9: The Great Accomplished One Lakshminkara (Tibetan art)

Photo 10: Pasambhava of Uddiyana (Newar art)

Photo 11: The Mahasiddha Saraha (Tibetan art)

Photo 12: Rice fields in Odisha (view from Lalitgiri)

Sources of figures

All maps by the Author.

Photo of Lama Tenzin and photos 1, 2, 10, 11 by the Author.

Photos 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12 by courtesy of Dr. Martine Poumeyrol.

Photo 8 by courtesy of Dr. Matthieu Ricard.

Photo 9 by courtesy of Shechen Archives / Matthieu Ricard.

Lama Tenzin Samphel, of Tibetan descent, grew up in Odisha. He became a holder of the Dudjom Tersar lineage of the Tibetan Nyingmapa Tantric tradition, founded by Pasambhava of Oddiyana. Lama Tenzin holds a Postgraduate Degree from the INALCO, Paris. He teaches at Shedup Kunsang Chöling, Septvaux ().

Foreword by Lama Tenzin Samphel

Namo Shri Jagannath Puri!

In August 2016, with a group of French students, I made a Dharmayatra pilgrimage through India. During that time, we visited Bodhgaya, Varanasi, Ajanta, Ellora, Nagarjunakonda, and Odisha. Such magical places! Especially, when we were in Odisha, we discovered Ratnagiri, Udayagiri, Lalitgiri, and other places whose impact was palpable with powerful blessings and vibrations of Buddhist Tantra. Some of these locations had been Buddhist from the 3rd century continuously until the 16th century and we could still feel the presence of that millennium and a half of practice and devotion.

We saw some unbelievable monuments all clearly related to Buddhist Tantra. On the back of one such stone statue of Avalokiteshvara, it mentions the name of Pasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, in a script dating from the 8th century of our era. The Buddha statues are attended only by Mahayana sangha figures, such as Manjushri, Vajrapani and others. While several stupas indicated that they contained the Buddha’s relics, all the stupas we saw had written inside them the five great mantras of consecration used even in present times in Tibetan Buddhism [Tib. gzungs chen sde lnga], such as om ye dharma hetu…. Perhaps most astonishing was that under most of the tantric statues, you can see a tripod upon which are triangular offering cakes [Tib. gtor ma] and a conch shell with ablution water inside [Tib. dri’i dung zhal]. Until now, many scholars have argued that these offering cakes are a Tibetan invention and not originating from India. Generally, in India, scholars discuss only the type of offering cake that is made by squeezing the hand around a ball of dough [Tib. chang bu], but not the typical triangular cake found in Tibetan Tantric rituals. These surviving stone images talk clearly about how strongly Tantric Buddhism was flourishing at that time in Odisha.

Because of seeing all those wonderful places, I asked Dr. Frédéric Moronval, who was on the pilgrimage with us, to research more on these sites. I could see that there was a great deal more to understand and learn and it could be very

beneficial.

This book represents countless hours of research and work, nonetheless it is still just like a seed for further investigation. Dr. Moronval has created here a lengthy survey of the research and study of countless other scholars, historians, and religious texts. I hope he will continue with a second volume based on fieldwork and delve deeper into the archeology, society, language and culture, religion, history and so on of the great region of the Diamond Triangle in Odisha, providing even more evidence for his theories. I am so happy of his work, and it is with much encouragement that I am hoping he will continue and go even further in this research.

May Buddhist Tantra reflourish in India and spread throughout the entire world for the benefit of all beings.

Lama Tenzin Samphel

, Day of Buddha, November 15, 2020

To Lama Tenzin Sampel, who drew my attention to the importance of Odisha in the history of Buddhism, and of Vajrayana in particular.

To my friend Ilkka, a Finnish Buddhist, whose wish to understand my French essay prompted me to write an English version.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Lama Tenzin Samphel, who kindly wrote the foreword; he inspired this book and provided encouragements and help at every step.

Dr. Umakanta Mishra (PhD) is a leading scholar in the fields of the history and archeology of Odisha; following in the footsteps of late Dr. N.K. Sahu, he regularly publishes very informative and painstaking research papers to which I am indebted; I thank him for his kindness and friendship.

My thanks also go to my friends Dr. Venerable Matthieu Ricard (ScD) and Dr. Martine Poumeyrol (ScD) for courteously providing photographs to illustrate this book, and to Mr. Kishor Manandhar (MA), for his precious and longlasting friendship.

The encouragements and of my relatives were, needless to say, essential.

Finally, I would like to pay homage to my university professors, especially Prof. Dr. Gérard Toffin (PhD) and Dr. Salih Akin (PhD), whose teachings and advices will remain life-long guidelines.

Preface

In spite of the current popularity of Tibetan Vajrayana, the period of the genesis of Tantric Buddhism in South Asia seldom attracts the attention of the general public. On the other hand, researchers are now more active in the field of the Tantric branch of what is called Indian Buddhism. David Snellgrove's masterpiece Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (1987) is an unrivaled reference to date. Since then, translations of Tantric texts written in Indian languages, mainly Sanskrit, have multiplied, but synthesis are rare and necessarily tend to “explain” Tantric Buddhism by resorting to analytical grids familiar to the Moderns, as did Ronald Davidson for Vajrayana in his Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (2002). We are still awaiting a presentation of Buddhism, particularly Tantric Buddhism, which would bring to light its inner logic without reductionism, in the vein of Mircea Eliade’s Chamanisme: techniques archaïques de l’extase (1950).

Our approach here is both geographic and historical. It consists in collecting the clues that tend to show that the priviledged area of the development of the Vajrayana form of Tantric Buddhism in South Asia was the region which corresponds to the present Indian State of Odisha. To this end, we resort to archeology, linguistics and philology. Furthermore, the choice is made to take into the discourses ot the Tantric tradition itself, whenever they help making sense out of at times puzzling material data. In so doing, we are somehow transposing to the history of Buddhism the idea of Durkheim (1912: 604), according to whom “a society [is constituted], before anything else, by the idea that she has of herself.” The long impregnation of Northeastern India by Vajrayana explains the survival of Buddhist ideas and practices in local religious traditions to this day, some of them having largely exceeded the frame of Eastern India, or even of India proper. This local heritage of Tantric Buddhism forms the subject of the last part of our study.

Finally, this book is resolutely aimed at a wide audience, ranging from students

and specialists of Asian cultures to any interested readers. The latter might include some of our contemporaries who have adopted a form of Tantric Buddhism as their personal spiritual practice, most of time Tibetan Vajrayana, but also Japanese Shingon Buddhism. For this reason, an important part of our text is devoted to situating Vajrayana within the history of Buddhism in general, as well as to clarifying the relationships beween Buddhism and Hinduism, in the light of the findings of Johannes Bronkhorst in particular¹. For various reasons, research works seldom reach the general audience. We hope studies like the present one can contribute to filling the gap.

¹ I would like to thank here my professor Dr. Philippe Cornu (PhD), from whom I heard about the work of J. Bronkhorst for the first time.

Maps

The maps given below aim solely at helping to locate the places mentioned in the book. They show some cities, archeological sites and rivers, as well as capital cities, either of countries or of States of the Indian Union. Line drawings are simplified and don’t claim geographical or political accuracy. Maps are followed by comments underlying the importance of certain places in relation to our topic.

Map 1: South Asia

On this map of South Asia (above) is indicated Patna, capital city of the State of Bihar in the Gangetic plain. Under the name of Pataliputra, it was the capital city of Magadha in the 5th century BCE, and thereafter became the capital city of the Maurya Empire till circa 150 BCE. Bhubaneshwar is the capital city of Odisha. West Bengal (capital: Kolkata) and Bangladesh (capital: Dhaka) correspond to the ancient Bengal. The area constitued by Bihar, Odisha and Bengal witnessed the most intense activity of Tantric Buddhism in India.

The locality of Kadri, in Karnataka on the South-Western coast of India, hosts an ancient Buddhist monastery eventually appropriated by the Shaiva² Nath Yogis, and today istrated by Vaishnava Sadhus. There, the temple of Manjunath still contains statues of Buddhist deities, now known with Hindu names.

Map 2: Bihar (India)

On this map of the State of Bihar, traversed by the Ganges River, six cities are indicated. First Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha gained Englightenment. Then Rajgir which, under the name of Rajagriha, was the capital city of the kingdom of Magadha at the time of the Buddha. That is where the Enlightened One delivered the teaching of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Patna, under the name of Pataliputra, had been the capital city of the Maurya Empire (4th- 2nd century BCE). The Greek ambassador Megasthenes sojourned there around 303 BCE. Nalanda, Odantapuri and Vikramashila had been major centers of study and teaching of Buddhism as well as of other subjects until they were destroyed at the very beginning of the 13th century CE.

Map 3: Odisha (India)

On this map of Odisha (above) are shown two towns located upstream of the Mahanadi River, viz. Sambalpur, the possible capital city of Indrabodhi, king of Uddiyana in the 8th century CE, and Lanka, today Sonepur, the capital city of a neighboring kingdom. In the East, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, we find two cities: Puri with its famous Jagannath temple, and Cuttack, which could be the ancient Dhanyakataka, the place where the Buddha revealed the Kalacakra Tantra. The sites of Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri, rich with stupas and statues, were important centers of study and practice of Tantras. Jajpur, under the name of Viranja Nagara was, from the 8th to the 10th century CE, the capital city of the Bhaumakara dynasty, patron of Buddhism.

Maps 4 and 5 (below) show the Indian State of West Bengal, and Bangladesh, which together correspond to the Greater Bengal cultural area. They are surrounded by other Indian States with which they constitute the Northeastern India where Tantric Buddhism was born and flourished for almost a millenium. Kamakhya in Assam and Sylhet (formerly Srihatta) in Bangladesh are major Tantric power places. Jagaddala and Somapuri were two of the main monastic universities. At Vikrampur, South of Dhaka, have been recently spotted the remains of the monastery attached to the village of Vajrayogini, the birth place of Atisha Dipamkara Srijnana (982-1054). This famous abbot was invited to teach by the king of Western Tibet, and contributed to a revitalization of monastic life in Tibet.

Map 4: West Bengal (India)

Map 5: Bangladesh

Resorting to the wisdom of non-duality One reaps the accomplishment of Buddhahood What need is there for a long discourse?

Lakshminkara

² Shaiva is the Sanskrit adjective derived from the name of the god Shiva.

Introduction

Buddhism is a religion whose founder is identified. Its doctrine and ascetic practices are transmitted since 25 centuries. It is a philosophy which has produced a greater amount of literature than any other religion in the world. It is a metaphysical system which has long been flourishing in Asia, until materialism made it ebb by fair means or foul in the 20th century. But again, unexpectedly, Buddhism gained a rapid success in the Western world, then at the peak of its frenetic consumerism and development. For all these reasons, and considering its enduring vitality, Buddhism seems very well to be a unique case in the adventure of human spirituality.

It is thus all the more surprising that key-informations about the history and principles of Buddhism are not part of the cultural background of the average educated modern people. Even among the irers and followers of Buddhism, such a knowledge is unequally spread. The subject is vast indeed, and any tentative attempt to sketch a history of Buddhism, of the life story of its founder or of the diverse philosophical schools which developed along the centuries, soon takes an encyclopedic turn.

Therefore, one has to chose a line of investigation and show its consistency and relevance with regard to this field of study. Our angle of approch is, to some extent, a territorial one. We intend to show the fundamental role played by an area of South-Asia, corresponding to the current Indian State of Odisha, in the development of Tantric Buddhism. We will aslo show that the deep rooting of Tantric Buddhism, particularly of Vajrayana type, in the land of Odisha has allowed the durability of Buddhist ideas and practices in India far beyond the disappearance of Buddhist institutions as such.

Our reflection started at the sight of the enthousiasm the Tibetan Vajrayana

tradition met with in the Western world and elsewhere. The exile of many Tibetans after the annexation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China in 1959 had the unexpected result of spreading this form of Buddhism in the rest of the world. This tradition has been brutally uprooted some 60 years ago and, since then, survives above the ground, so to speak. The s between Tibetan masters and their disciples on the five continents depend on the continuity of air links and internet networks. In Tibet, long established centers of teaching and hermitages are, for most of them, no more than a memory. India, the holy land of which the Tibetan tradition kept an idyllic picture, hardly looks like the Buddhist India of one or two millenia ago anymore. Hence, if modern adepts of Tantric Buddhism can only imagine the traditional Buddhist Tibet, how could they relate to the more remote period when the Tantras were revealed and spread in South Asia? Some of the new recruits of this ancient tradition are rightly eager to learn where they come from, spiritually speaking. To provide them with such informations is the purpose of this book. On top of being a historical investigation, the author hopes that this work can contribute to help modern adepts of Vajrayana Buddhism to feel closer to their spiritual forefathers, starting with the founders of the transmission lineages they are d with. Practitioners could even wish to increase their inspiration by visiting and paying homage to the land where these teachings have first been practiced and transmitted.

Buddhists who follow the Theravada Buddhist school of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia attach the greatest importance to the historical life of the Buddha. It is therefore but natural that they contributed to a great amount to restoring, and rehabilitating as pilgrimage destinations, sites such as Lumbini, in Southern Nepal, where the prince Siddhartha Gautama was born. They did the same at Bodhgaya, in the Indian Gangetic plain, where Siddhartha reached Enlightenment and became the Buddha, the Awakened or Enlightened One. The followers of Vajrayana Buddhism, however, adhere to meditative methods which have been exponed by diverse emanations of the Buddha, particularly in the kingdom of Uddiyana. Uddiyana, just like Dhanyakataka, where the Buddha revealed the Tantra of the deity Kalacakra, displaying himself in the form of Kalacakra, and Shambhala, the famous spiritual kingdom, are today commonly considered as purely mythical. And yet...

There is a State of the Indian Union where visitors come across Buddhist archeological remains at every step. Moreover, nowhere in the world is found such a high number of images and symbols dating back to the beginnings of Tantric Buddhism up to the final period of its Vajrayana form. This is the State of Odisha, previously called Orissa, in Eastern India, on the shore of the Bay of Bengal.

At first, we will set some chronological and doctrinal milestones related to the development of Buddhism, but also dispell some deeply rooted misconceptions about the relationships between Buddhism and Hinduism. After having thus set the scene, we will highlight the central yet little known role that Odisha played in the history of Buddhism, in particular Vajrayana Buddhism. In the end, we will follow the traces of Buddhism up to some contemporary Indian religious groups, in Odisha and around. Future will tell what the coming generations will do out of this incredible heritage.

1 The diffusion of Buddhism

Buddhism did not exist before the Buddha himself, in the sense that the Buddha was not a figure whose coming would had been prophesied or expected by a religious community. Neither was he part of a human spiritual lineage within which he would have been trained and which he would have contributed to perpetuate, was it through reforming it. It does not mean, however, that the spiritual genius he displayed appeared ex nihilo. The Buddha himself told the didactic stories of some of his previous lifetimes, where various events exemplify the chain of intentions and actions which can lead a sentient being to Englightenment at the end of a long succession of reincarnations. During his last lifetime on earth, some 25 centuries ago, the Buddha contributed to the first dissemination of his teachings on an extended territory which he tirelessly traveled at the invitation of his contemporaries.

1.1 The beginnings in the kingdom of Magadha

Although the Buddha traveled extensively thoughout his life, some of the major events of his life and work were set in Magadha, one of the 16 kingdoms and republics historically attested in the lower Gangetic valley, in Eastern India, around 500 BCE. At that time, the capital city of Magadha was Rajagriha, today Rajgir. It was then moved to Pataliputra, today Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Magadha gave its name to Magadhi, the Indo-european language which the Buddha spoke. At the time of the Buddha, that cultural area had not yet been “brahmanized”. Brahmins as such were part of the social landscape, performing various duties, but the caste society had not yet been imposed on the tribal kingdoms of the region. Magadha and its neighboring political entities belonged to an original cultural area, inhabited by Indo-european tribes, dintinct from the Brahmin tribe whose territory was lying outside of it, to the West. That cultural area centered on Magadha has been named “Greater Magadha” by the indologist Johannes Bronkhorst (2007). The contributions of this cultural hub to South Asian civilizations and beyond are immense, since it developed metaphysical notions and ascetic practices which came eventually to characterize Indian religious identity as a whole. Reincarnation, karma, non-violence, renunciation to the world, liberation from the cycle of reincarnation, for instance, are some of the contributions of the religious and philosophical currents of Greater Magadha. The surviving sources allow us to know mainly about two of these systems of thought. One of them is Jainism, founded by Mahavira, more or less contemporaneous with the Buddha, and the other one is Buddhism.

1.1.1 The Buddha

Siddhartha, the son of Shuddhodhana, chief of the Shakya clan, and of Mayadevi, was born in the park of Lumbini, in Southern Nepal, while his mother was on her way to her parental home. Mayadevi ed away a week later, and her sister, herself one of the wives of Shuddhodhana, raised the child. The astrologer Asita predicted the great destiny of Siddhartha, either as a great king or as a saint. Shuddhodhana wanted to see his son succeed him at the head of the kingdom. Shuddhodhana made great efforts to prevent his son from seeing the sufferings of life, knowing that it could trigger Siddhartha’s religious propensities. The prince was kept in the capital city, Kapilavastu, surrounded with all the possible courtly pleasures of the time. But one day, as his young wife Yashodhara had just given birth to their son Rahula, Siddhartha, aged 29, escaped the vigilance of his guardians and explored the surroundings. On his way, he met successively an old man with a wringkled face, walking with difficulty, a sick person with an emaciated face, who could not stand up, and a funeral procession with the weeping relatives surrounding the corpse. It was a shock fot the young man raised in the illusion of a permanently youthful and pleasurable life. When, on the next occasion, he met with a wandering ascetic whose face was radiant with serenity, Siddhartha soon made his decision to go in search of a happiness which would not depend of fleeting circumstances.

Despite the opposition of his father, the prince left home and took up the school of spiritual masters of his time. Although he soon mastered each of their methods, Siddhartha did not find the answer he was looking for. In the company of five fellow ascetics, he decided to sit in meditation until he reached his goal. Weakened by starvation, he understood that excessive austerity hindered his concentration. He then accepted the bowl of food offered by the cowherd Sujata. The relaxing of his discipline discredited him in the eyes of his comrades, who left him. After 49 days of a solitary seated meditation, on one last night, he underwent a final outburst of ions such as desire, doubt, anger, fear, pride and discouragement. In the representation of this scene, visual and narrative arts personify these storms of the human heart by the insidious tempter Mara and his terrifying warriors and lascivious beauties. But Siddhartha stood firm and was

not fooled. At dawn, the way sentient beings bind themselves to suffering appeared clearly to his mind. He realized that each phenomenon is part of a web of interdependence, and that in this ever changing fantasy, deprieved of any limit or separation, no phenomenon ultimately exists in itself. He was established in a fundamental state of peace and freedom.

1.1.2 The main disciples and the compilation of the teachings

Siddhartha, now Shakyamuni, the sage of the Shakya clan, had thus awakened to the Real, beyond the deceptive play of appearances. The illusion of being a separate individual having vanished, the agitated and confused mental activity had ceased too. That liberation is called bodhi in Sanskrit, the definitive awakening, the recovery of the natural state of mind, without origin nor cause, nor depending on anything. In the Lalitavistara Sutra, the Buddha himself described his experience as being “profound, peaceful, simple, luminous”, as well as “uncompounded”, i.e. which cannot be divided into compounding parts, having neither a center nor a circumference. The prince Siddhartha had therefore become a Buddha, an Awakened or Enlightened One. A few weeks later, in the Deer Park at Sarnath, he met his five ascetic companions, who required from him his first teaching. Hence were expounded the Four Noble Truths: suffering is everywhere indeed, but it has a cause, so it is possible to get rid of it, and there exists a path leading to this freedom. This first expression of what the Buddha had found out is the foundation of the Dharma, a Sanskrit term which, in Buddhism, refers to both the correct presentation of reality, and the path to be followed in order to actualize this understanding for oneself. Soon, more disciples started to gather, and the Buddha described the twelve links of the chain of suffering, starting from the emergence of dualistic concepts of “I” and “other” in the mind, up to the actions resulting from this fundamental delusion. The feelings of pain or pleasure resulting from these actions call for more actions in turn, and that is how the dream-like individual feels to be trapped in a nightmare of ephemeral and tormented existences. At the request of his disciples, the Buddha enacted rules of conduct aiming at helping them to channel their mind-streams towards the understanding of these truths. Thus the Buddhist monastic rules were established.

As Buddhism is a path to tread, the presentation of Dharma is compared to the movement of a wheel. The aforementioned initial teachings constitute the first “turning of the wheel” of Dharma. These teachings of “the first wheel” are the doctrinal basis of all Buddhist philosophical schools. On hearing these teachings, the first sixty disciples of the Buddha got rid of the “ions”, the frustrations

or torments of the mind. They reached the state of Arhats, and started to spread the words of the Buddha. The following year, at Rajgir, on the Vulture’s Peak, the Buddha taught on Emptiness, the absence of independant existence of any phenomena, including the conscious individual himself. These are the teachings of the “second wheel”. At last, according to the Mahayana school, the Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma at a third level of understanding when he asserted that the Buddha-nature dwells at the core of each and every living being, waiting to be revealed, like a diamond within a veinstone. The Buddha and his disciples travelled extensively, while often retreating for the rainy season at Shravasti, in the Jetavana Park belonging to a merchant relative of the Buddha. It is the place where, a few years after the Enlightnement, the Buddha displayed the “miracles of Shravasti”. He thus belittled the pride of six non-Buddhist religious leaders who had challenged him on the ground of magical powers.

The king of Magadha, Bimbisara, his son Ajatashatru, and Prasenajit the king of Kosala were among the benefactors and disciples of the Buddha. Among the of the monastic community, the most famous ones were Shariputra, Maudgalyayana renowned for his magical powers, Mahakashyapa, Ananda the faithful assistant who could keep into memory all the teachings of his master, and the son of the Buddha, Rahula. At the insistent request of his maternal aunt Mahaprajapati, who had raised him, the Buddha granted women access to ordination. The Buddha taught anyone who came to him, without distinction, including non-human beings that only few people among the audience could perceive. Even after his Enlightenment, the Buddha had to endure the consequences of mistakes he committed in some past lives. He himself gave them as illustrations of the law of karma, the chain of actions and reactions. For instance, for all his life he was the object of the hainous jealousy of his cousin Devadatta, who tried to murder him several times. He also witnessed the extermination of his clan at the hands of a rival clan. The Buddha died from disease at more than 80 years old. His body was cremated, and his relics were distributed to eight clan kings, who erected eight circular burial mounds to house his remains. Three successive councils were convened to compile the Buddha’s teachings, to clarify the monastic rules and to define the qualities of an Arhat, respectively. The first of these conciles took place at Rajgir, on the initiative of Mahakashyapa and under the patronage of king Ajatashatru. This was a year after the Parinirvana, the “complete extinction” of the Buddha. On that occasion, Ananda recited from his unfailing memory the words of the Buddha, which were

then written down as the first Sutras. Upali recited the Vinaya, the rules of monastic discipline. Mahakashyapa reported some Buddha’s teachings on metaphysics, cosmology and psychology which, together with their commentaries, make the Abhidharma collection. These three collections of teachings during this first Buddhist concile are called the Three Baskets of the teachings, the Tripitaka. A the end ot this concile, Ananda succeeded Mahakashyapa as the head of the community. The convocation of the second concile was motivated by the offenses committed by some monks. It was organized at Vaishali, 110 years after the Parinirvana. The third concile took place at Pataliputra according to the Theravada school, or in Kashmir for the Mahayana school. There might have been several “third concile”, Buddhist philosophical schools having started to multiply and spread in diverse regions by that time. The earliest known written versions of the Buddha’s teachings date from the first century CE.

1.2 Towards Sri Lanka in the South, hellenized Afghanistan in the West, and Central Asia and China by the Northern route

Modelled on the lifestyle of the Buddha and his direct dsciples, the study and practice of the Buddhist Dharma takes place mainly in the context of celibate monastic life. But monks attached to a Buddhist monastery are not cloistered like, for instance, catholic monks, nor are their monastic vows taken for life. Monks freely go out, visit their relatives, travel, receive visitors, and can renounce their vows and return to laylife. In monasteries monks study, teach, and endeavour to progress spiritually. They also prepare themselves to teach and advise lay followers. Monasteries are not economically productive. Their foundation, their funding, the maintenance of the buildings and facilities, the of their and of their activities rely entirely on the benevolence of the surrounding lay population. Since the very time of the Buddha, the merchants, and even more the kings have been instrumental in securing the existence of the Buddhist monastic community, hence ensuring the transmission and spread of the Buddha’s words. Over the centuries which followed the Parinirvana, Buddhism reached areas more and more distant from its native place, Greater Magadha.

Emperor Ashoka, of the Maurya dynasty, lived in the 3rd century BCE. He gave a decisive impulse to the implantation of Buddhism in the four corners of India. Remorseful after his bloody conquest of Kalinga, today’s Odisha in Eastern India, he set out to promote non-violence. He had pillar stelae erected all over India, bearing inscriptions in various languages, including Greek. Indeed, in the Western borders of his empire, in Gandhara, which more or less corresponds to present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, Greek influence had replaced Persian domination following the conquests of Alexander the Great. In the Southern direction, Ashoka sent his own son to lead a religious delegation to Sri Lanka, laying the groundwork fot what would become the Theravada Buddhist school. The sovereign also launched the construction of the great stupa of Sanchi, in the Western part of Central India. The building was intended to shelter relics of

Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, the two famous disciples of the Buddha. The Maurya Empire covered most of today’s India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the 2nd century BCE., the immense empire fell apart, and the Kushan ruled over the North-West, in the regions of Gandhara and Kashmir. Their king Kanishka, towards the end of the 1st century BCE, installed its capital in Purushapura, currently Peshawar in Afghanistan. He promoted Buddhism in the area, therefore paving the way for its spread in Central Asia and China via the silk roads. This circulation of people, goods and ideas from India to China by the Northern land route came to a halt with the destructive invasions of the Hephtalites Huns in the middle of the 5th century CE. Buddhist Gandhara was in ruins and was never to recover from the cataclysm. However, the Buddhist kingdoms of Central Asia, like Kucha, Turfan and especially Khotan, lasted for several centuries, and played an important role in the diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet.

The Tibetan Empire, from the mid-7th to the mid-9th century CE, was in a permanent state of war with its neighbors. In the South, crossing the Himalayas, the Tibetans invaded the Kathmandu valley and reached the Gangetic plain. To their East, they took over the Chinese capital Changan, and both the Newars of the Kathmandu valley and the Chinese emperor had to offer princesses as brides to the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo. In the West, the Tibetans, who were not yet Buddhist, first ravaged the Buddhist kingdoms of Central Asia, and allied for a time with the Arab conquerors against intruding Turkish tribes. But quite suprisingly, the Tibetan sovereigns quickly turned to become patrons of Buddhism in the same Central Asian region they had first terrorised. Out of all the Buddhist oasis existing there, the kingdom of Khotan lasted the longest and remained a flourishing Buddhist society until the 11th century. Although the religious exchanges between Tibetans and Khotanese are attested by writings found in the region, they were soon forgotten, and Tibetan historiography totally ignored the point (Snellgrove 1987: IV.2).

1.3 Towards Eastern India

Meanwhile, from Magadha, once again, an empire blossomed. Succeeding that of Ashoka, the Gupta Empire, although extending less far to the South, covered most of the Northern part of the Indian subcontinent, from the Indus valley in the West to the Ganges delta in the Bay of Bengal in the East. It lasted from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. During the succession of these various dynasties, the foundations of Buddhist monasteries continued in the North, center and South of India. For example, the beginning of the Christian era witnessed the excavation of the rock temples of Ajanta in the Western part of Central India, and the construction of the monasteries of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda in the SouthEast.

At the same time, in the North-East of India, the rise of the philosophical schools which would constitute the Great Vehicle inspired the creation of monastic universities. The first of them was Nalanda, near Rajgir, where the Buddha had delivered the founding teaching of the Mahayana, viz. the Sutra of the Prajnaparamita. The site where Nalanda was erected already sheltered the funeral stupas of Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, and a temple built by Ashoka. In the 2nd century CE, a first monastery was built, accomodating Mahayanist monks, along with eight new temples. The tradition of public debate between ers of rival doctrines, which continues today in some schools of Tibetan Buddhism, already existed at the time, and it is said that during a verbal contest organized in this first monastery of Nalanda, the Buddhist philosopher Aryadeva triumphed over his non-Buddhist adversary. Under the Gupta dynasty favorable to Buddhism, the university continued to grow. After the Gupta, other rulers contributed to the and development of activites of study and practice in Nalanda. One famous example is given by King Harshavardhana, a Mahayanist practicioner himself, in the 7th century. Then came the Pala dynasty, ruling from the 8th to the 12th century.

The Pala dynasty, the last one in the region to have ed Buddhism on a

large scale, reigned over the regions of the Eastern course of the Ganges and up to the lower course of the Brahmanpoutre, which corresponds to the present Indian states of Bihar³, Bengal and Assam, as well as in Bangladesh. The most renowned scholars of Mahayana philosophy spread the fame of the university of Nalanda throughout the Buddhist world, as far as to Central Asia and China. The Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang (602-664) and Yijing (635-713) are famous representatives of these international exchanges, and their travel s are unique testimonies of the state of Buddhism during this period. In addition to Buddhism and other philosophies, many sciences of the time were taught at the University of Nalanda, which at its peak represented a huge residential campus of 10,000 souls.

Other monastic universities appeared and allowed the development and the sustainability of the Mahayana school, and later of its Tantric branch. These included the monastic complexes of Odantapuri and Vikramashila, built further down the Ganges, Somapuri and Jagaddala in present-day Bangladesh. There were also renowned monasteries in Odisha such as those of Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri, collectively known as the Diamond Triangle with reference to their reputation as teaching centers of the Diamond Path (or Way), Vajrayana. Among these last great centers of Buddhism in India, and the lesser ones, those located in the lower Gangetic valley were destroyed one after the other in the interval of a few years, following the raids carried out at the beginning of the 13th century by the Muslim Ghurid dynasty from Afghanistan.

Subsequently, small groups of practitioners, as well as more or less itinerant individuals, continued to maintain Buddhist practices on Indian soil for some time. But it is especially in later Indian mystical currents, although not claiming Buddhist descent, that one can detect a Buddhist heritage in the form of concepts from the Mahayana and esoteric practices from the Vajrayana. Buddhism proper did not regain a foothold on Indian soil until the 20th century. Then came teachers from the Theravada school, such as S. N. Goenka, an Indian trained in Burma, who popularized Viana meditation and, from 1959 on, Tibetan Tantric Buddhists fleeing communist China started to gather in refugee camps in India and Nepal.

³ The very name of that Indian State, Bihar, is witness to the long monastic history of the area, since Bihar is the local prononciation of vihara, meaning “monastery.”

1.4 Towards Nepal and Tibet in the North, and Southeast Asia and China by the Southern sea route

During the first millennium following the demise of the Buddha, a period of intense philosophical and ascetic creativity in South Asia, other countries became interested in the teachings of the Awakened One. Buddhism had already entered Northern China by the silk routes ing through Central Asia. As a result of the spread of Buddhist ideas and practices in these areas, translations of Buddhist texts into Chinese are attested in the 1st century CE. From there, Buddhism reached Korea in the 4th century and Japan in the 5th. Closer to Magadha, Nepal, a term which, until the end of the 18th century, refers to the Kathmandu valley, domain of the kingdoms of the Newar ethnic group, has been a center of Mahayana Buddhism since the 7th century. Then the Newar civilization became imbued with Tantric Buddhist values until the conquest of the valley by Prithivi Narayan Shah in 1768, which marked the entry of the small Newar kingdoms into modern Nepal, occupying a much wider territory. Modern historiography describes the transmission of Tantric Buddhism from India to Tibet from the 8th century as an exchange between Indian and Tibetan scholars, translators and practitioners. However, by so doing we ignore the central role played by the Newars. As erudites, translators and practictioners, they were an essential link between Buddhist India and a Buddhist Tibet in the making. As a symbol of the strong Buddhist identity of the Newars, let us remind here that as early as in the 7th century, for her marriage with the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, the Newar princess Bhrikuti, of Licchavi dynasty, brought in her dowry several Buddhist statues of great value, including the Jowo, an image of the Buddha child, which was to remain the most revered one in the city of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

In the 8th century, two main actors of the first large-scale implantation of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet, the Tantric scholar and master Pasambhava and the abbot of Nalanda Shantarakshita, sojourned in Nepal. During the second period of Tantra dissemination in Tibet, from the 10th to the 12th centuries, prominent Indian and Tibetan practitioners and translators

worked in Nepal with Nepalese masters, including direct disciples of the famous Naropa. Then, when in the 13th century the monks of Nalanda and of the other monasteries of the Ganges valley fled to escape the swords of the Afghan raiders, some moved South to Odisha, others went North towards the Himalayan foothills. Many, bringing with them as much precious scriptures as they could carry, found asylum in the Kathmandu valley.

Subsequently, once the translations into Tibetan were completed, the monasteries of Tibet became in turn great centers of Buddhism, and the bond with the Newars loosened. During the following centuries, the pressure of the Hindu caste system ed by Newar kings gradually changed the Buddhist Newar society into a hybrid socio-religious organisation. The status of Tantric master turned into an inherited family privilege, while the last Newar Buddhist monk disappeared in the 15th century. Not only the great Indian centers had disappeared forever, but the with the flourishing Tibetan spiritual lineages became impeded by linguistic differences and the vagaries of political relations between Nepal and Tibet. Newar Buddhism then survived by adapting to the dominating caste system, its practice became sclerotic, and the level of learning and of spiritual achievements of its followers gradually decreased.

Nevertheless, this Newar Tantric culture remains a testimony absolutely unique in the world, allowing us to guess what could have been Buddhist societies imbued with Tantric Buddhism in South Asia before the Muslim invasions of the 13th century, both in of beliefs, rituals and social organization. Furthermore, modern Buddhist philology owes much to private and public libraries of the Kathmandu valley. Since the 19th century, hundreds of Buddhist manuscripts on palm leaves, among the thousands preserved or copied over the centuries by the Newars, have been used by researchers around the world. Written in Sanskrit, or in vernacular languages of Northeastern India, Old Bengali, Maithili and Oriya (the language of Odisha), they represent the only direct vestiges of the immense scriptural heritage of the monasteries and universities of Buddhist India. The other countries which inherited Mahayana Buddhism translated the texts into their own languages, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and generally did not keep the original Sanskrit texts.

Buddhism has also spread to Southeast Asia. Among these countries, today only Vietnam, which had received Buddhism mainly through China since the 3rd century, professes Mahayana Buddhism. Other countries follow Theravada. But Mahayana, including in its Tantric form, flourished in Cambodia⁴ until its persecution by Shaivite Hinduism in the 13th century. Burma, which had already received the visit of two monks sent by Ashoka, hosted Mahayanist activity from the 8th to the 9th century, and Thailand did the same until the 13th century. In Indonesia, Buddhism appeared in the 3rd century, and Mahayana became a royal religion in the 6th century. Borobudur, the immense stupa in the shape of a mandala, on the island of Java, built around 800 CE, testifies to the presence of Vajrayana. In the 14th century, Indonesia had a king considered as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and he practiced the Tantra of Kalacakra, like later the Dalai Lamas of Tibet. The spread of Islam put an end to the presence of Buddhism in Indonesia in the 15th century, as well as in Malaysia. The sea route ing through the Indonesian islands also played a role in the spread of Buddhism to China and beyond to Japan.

1.5 Towards the Western world

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek kingdoms endured in Western India until the early years of the Christian era, and Greek language was in use in the Kushan Empire. Philosophical exchanges between Greeks and Indian Buddhists are attested in the 2nd century BCE by the Milinda Panha⁵, a dialogue which took place during the encounter of the Indo-Greek king of Punjab Menander and the Buddhist master Nagasena. On the iconographic side, around five centuries after the demise of the Buddha appeared the first anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha in Gandhara. The Greek influence is obvious in the aquiline nose and the drapery of the garments. At the same time, Saint Clement of Alexandria, who lived in Greece at the end of the 2nd century CE, mentioned the existence of the teachings of “Boutta”.

A thousand years later, in the 13th century, Jacobus de Varagine composed his Legenda Aurea, The Golden Legend, in the Italian city of Genoa. In this collection of hagiographies of Christian saints written in Latin language, we can read the life story of the Buddha under the name of Saint Josaphat, a distortion of the Sanskrit term Bodhisattva, i.e. a being engaged on the path to Enlightenment. At the same time, Marco Polo met Tibetan Lamas at the court of the Mongolian Emperor Kubilai Khan, patron of Buddhism. Polo related the life of the Buddha in his Devisement du monde, which his scribe wrote in French language. In the following centuries, depictions of Buddhist activities were made by Catholic missionaries in China and Sri Lanka. Simon de La Loubère, envoy of the Fench monarch Louis XIV to Thailand in 1687-1688, reported his observations of the Buddhist clergy and wrote a biography of the Buddha in his detailed report Du royaume de Siam.

In the following century, the iration for Buddhism expressed by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) aroused interest for this exotic religion in European intellectual circles. In the 19th century, translations of Buddhist texts, from Chinese as well as from Sanskrit, multiplied under the pens

of Abel Rémusat, Eugène Burnouf, Stanislas Julien, Egard Quinet and Ernest Renan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the works of scholars such as Louis de La Vallée Poussin, Louis Finot and Sylvain Lévi, bear witness to a time when French-speaking orientalist research was still predominant. Field investigations began with the Hungarian Csoma de Körös, who stayed in the Himalayas from 1823 to 1831 and published a Tibetan-English dictionary and other studies. Brian Houghton Hodgson, a British resident in Nepal in the 1830s, collected a great deal of informations on both Buddhism in the Kathmandu valley and Tibetan Buddhism. He provided Eugène Burnouf with a Sanskrit version of the Lotus Sutra, and he donated a copy of the Tibetan Buddhist canon to the British Asiatic Society. Buddhist vocations appeared in the English-speaking world after Edwin Arnold published in Great Britain, in the year 1879, his Light of Asia, an tale inspired by a Sanskrit biography of the Buddha, the Lalitavistara.

In , the travel s of the female explorer Alexandra David-Néel, who arrived in Tibet in 1916, fueled the fantasy of a mysterious Tibet. The documentary that Arnaud Desjardins filmed for the French television in the 1960s, featuring Tibetan masters exiled in India, also sparked vocations, including that of Matthieu Ricard, son of a famous journalist, who became a monk and has long been the French interpreter of the Dalai Lama. Consequently, the invitations of Tibetan masters multiplied in the West, and today there are numerous centers of study and practice linked to the various Tibetan Buddhist lineages in Europe, America, Russia and Australia, as well as in other industrialized countries in Asia such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Zen Buddhism of Japan also aroused interest and vocations, from the beginning of the 20th century in the United States, with the publications by D. T. Suzuki. In , it is another film by Arnaud Desjardins, shot in Japan, which revealed, first to the French speaking audience, the charismatic Taisen Deshimaru. Immediately following the screening of the documentary, this zen master was invited to Paris in 1967 and founded over a hundred meditation centers in Western Europe within 15 years. Theravada Buddhism, for its part, met its audience mainly in the United States, Great Britain and . Today, Buddhism is undeniably an integral part of the spiritual life of the West, yet reaching a tiny minority of the population.

⁴ In the Khmer world, i.e. Cambodia and Thailand, the practice of Vajrayana is attested from the 10th to the 13rd century by inscriptions and statues of Vajrapani, Vajrasattva and Hevajra. See for instance the temple of Phimai dedicated to Hevajra, in Eastern Thailand, built in the 11th century.

⁵ Preserved in Pali language in the Theravada Canon, and partially in Chinese translations.

2 The Buddhist philosophical schools

2.1 The fundamental teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path

The first teaching delivered by the Buddha consists in the exposition of the Four Noble Truths, viz. the omnipresence of suffering, its cause, the possibility to free oneself from it, and the path which leads to this liberation. The first truth is the observation of the frustrating, and often tragic nature of existence as we usually experience it. Joys are rare, insufficient and fleeting. Disappointments and tragedies, on the other hand, are common. The second truth is that, for lack of anything better, we exhaust ourselves in the pursuit of a perfect and definitive satisfaction which eludes us incessantly, like Sisyphus pushing his rock. The third noble truth is good news: this vicious cycle only lasts as long as we sustain it. Liberation from suffering is therefore in our hands. The fourth truth guarantees that we will achieve this liberation if we reform our habits in the eight following domains.

First, our philosophical view, i.e. our conception of reality, then our way of reasoning which underlies our actions. We also have to be careful about how we use our speech and body, including our means of living. Then the determination to persevere until we reach Enlightenment, and last, sharpening our awareness and training in meditative concentration. This “Eightfold Noble Path” is characteristically followed in the Theravada monasteries of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. In this tradition, the primary goal is to achieve the state of an Arhat. Once the illusion of individuality is dispelled, the greedy pursuit of gratification loses its meaning and the source of suffering is no longer sustained. It is the state of nirvana.

2.2 Theravada

The term Theravada is the equivalent, in Pali language, of the Sanskrit compound Sthaviravada, “the words of the Elders.” Pali is an ancient IndoEuropean vernacular related to Sanskrit, which has become the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. This Buddhist school is today the dominant religion in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. By contrast, Vietnamese Buddhism, established during the first centuries of the Christian era by Indian and Chinese monks, is of the Mahayana type. The Theravada distinguishes itself from the Mahayana by important doctrinal features.

First, according to the Theravada school, there can be only one Buddha at a time in our universe. One becomes a Buddha only after numerous existences devoted to training in comion and contemplation. This constitutes the path of the Bodhisattva, as shown in the previous lives of the Buddha narrated in the Jataka tales. These stories, told by the Buddha himself, include anecdotes from past lives of the Buddha but also of other individuals and are intended to illustrate the law of karma and the benefits of practicing Dharma. They constitute a literary heritage common to all of Buddhist schools, but particularly cherished in the Theravada school, both in the teachings and in the iconography.

Theravada first encourages practitioners to aim at reaching the state of an Arhat, a word meaning “deserving”, “venerable”. This state can be reached by two paths. One can listen to the teachings of a Buddha. That is the case of the main direct disciples of the Buddha Shakyamuni. In this case, the disciple is a “listener”, Shravaka. Or one can put the teachings into practice by oneself. He can then become a “Buddha by oneself”, Pratyekabuddha. Whatever the path trodden, on reaching Arhathood one is established in the peace of the cessation of ions, nirvana. But this does not give the ability to help and teach others as a Buddha can do. To acquire these qualities, the Arhat will have to leave his contemplative state and enter the path of the Bodhisattva to arrive, at the end of a long spiritual career, to the state of a perfect Buddha, a Samyaksambuddha.

Among the other differences between the Theravada and the Mahayana, we can point out the fact that, according to the Theravada, a Bodhisattva does not have the power to choose his rebirth. The Theravada also considers that, at death, the consciousness experiences directly its next existence, without going through an intermediate state, while the Vajrayana, even more than the Mahayana, describes this intermediate state in great detail and even includes it among the many opportunities to attain Enlightenment.

The engagement on the path of the Theravada implies to follow the monastic rules, and to practice the two stages of meditation, the mental calm, shamatha, and the discriminating awareness, viana (in Pali), which lead by stages to the realization of the emptiness of the meditator himself. Lay people having little leisure to indulge in study and meditation, they can only pretend to a rebirth in a divine world where, temporarily, they will be able to experience a greater intensity of worldly happiness. These higher rebirths are obtained by a virtuous meritorous life, which includes making offerings to the Three Jewels, viz. the Buddha, the teacher, the Dharma, his teachings, and the Sangha, the monastic community. These are the three “objects of refuge” of the profession of faith of Buddhists from all schools. On the other hand, the Theravada accepts only the Tripitaka in the Pali language, from which the Mahayana Sutras, written in Sanskrit, are excluded, and a fortiori the Tantras, since these are not attributed to Buddha Shakyamuni in his human form. The Theravada insists that the Buddha was a comionate human being, who did not teach anything other than the words heard by his human listeners and recorded in the Pali canon.

2.3 Mahayana

At the dawn of the Christian era, a Buddhist school of thought came to be known as the Great Way or Great Vehicle, Mahayana. It was a new development of previously attested ideas. This school professes the emptiness of both the subject and the object, as exposed in the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom, Prajnaparamita Sutra. These teachings were collected by some disciples during the second turning of the wheel of Dharma, the year following the Enlightenment, in Rajgir in Magadha, at the Vulture’s Peak. To the concept of emptiness, Mahayana associates another idea, that of the presence of the Buddha-nature, Tathagatagarbha, in every living being. This teaching was delivered during the third setting in motion of the wheel of Dharma, carried out at different times and places and exposed in Sutras such as the Avatamsaka, the Samadhiraja and the Lankavatara. This school differs from those which eventually evolved into the Theravada school, which stick exclusively to the teachings of the First Wheel. This fact brought the proponents of the Great Vehicle to consider the schools of the Theravada type as a Small Vehicle, Hinayana.

2.3.1 The View of emptiness of the Middle Way

Concerning the View, the Madhyamika branch of the Mahayana expresses in more depth the discovery of the emptiness of the observer and the observed, which therefore are no longer separate. This liberation from duality does not result in annihilation but in a clear and boundless consciousness. This oneness devoid of separations is called shunyata, which is translated in English as emptiness. The suffix -ta makes shunya an abstract substantive, like the suffix ness in the English emptiness, the fact or the state of being empty. However, in the Indian decimal system, shunya means zero. Of course, zero does not represent a quantity, but the zero is not nothing either. As Tandra Patnaik (2005: 104) points out, shunya derives from the verbal root SHVI-, which means to swell. The ancient Indian mathematicians used the word shunya to refer to infinity, ananta, the matrix and developer of all numbers. On the other hand, this infinity itself cannot be modified by anything , neither by addition nor by subtraction.

No Brahminical school of philosophy ever used the word shunya to characterize the ultimate reality. It is Nagarjuna, the great philosopher of Mahayana Buddhism and theoricist of Madhyamika, who spread the use of this mathematical term to refer to the unspeakable oneness of reality. At this stage, discursive mind and speech subside, having become pointless. Then, only metaphors such as the ocean and its waves, or the sun and its rays, can be used to evoke this discovery of the fundamental unity of phenomena. By realizing this emptiness, or absence of separation, it is seen that samsara, the vicious cycle of suffering, the product of ignorance, had never really existed. Therefore, the idea of a state of peace opposed to samsara, viz. nirvana, is no more justified. This realization is Buddhahood. With this awareness spontaneously arises comion for all beings who struggle in the net of illusion. That is why all the thoughts, words and deeds of the buddhas are actually as many skillful means, upaya, comionate actions intended to guide beings towards their own freedom. Among these skillful means are the various levels of spiritual teachings delivered by the Buddhas, as well as the corresponding meditative methods.

2.3.2 The Middle Way and the View of Mind Only

Inspired by the the concept of the Tathagatagarbha, the Buddha-nature already perfect as the ultimate reality of every sentient being, a View slightly different from the Madhyamika of Nagarjuna gained numerous proponents, the View of the “mind only” sub-school, Cittamatra. This View asserts that the subject as well as the object of perception exist only in the mind. In its meditative applications, the Cittamatra approach takes the name of “yoga practice”, Yogacara⁷. Although there have been plenty of theoretical debates opposing the Madhyamika View to the Cittamatra, in practice the realization of the common mental nature of the subject and the object leads to the impossibility to define the mind as being either existent or non-existent. This is literaly the “middle way”. As Shantideva taught at the monastery of Nalanda in the 8th century, “when neither reality nor non-reality presents itself to the mind, then, in the absence of any other possible approach, the mind freed from concepts subsides⁸”, and the Buddha-nature, which had always been there, is realized.

Whenever the word “view” stands alone for “philosophical view”, it will be given a capital initial.

⁷ Several writers saw a hint to this school in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, a famous Brahmanic text (Renou & Filliozat 1996: § 1448.).

⁸ We translate from the French version given in Shantideva 1992: 94.

2.3.3 Bodhisattvas and Buddhas

But the View of emptiness as exposed in the Mahayana, and the Buddha-nature ever present in each individual are not the only features of the Great Vehicle. As the Kandavyuha Sutra explains, the Buddha is not limited to his individual history on earth, which is only one of the multiple manifestations of his comion, one among various occurrences of his Manifestation Body, Nirmanakaya, which helps beings in inconceivable ways in countless universes. His wisdom is not just the peaceful and free state of mind that he achieved through his meditation, but it corresponds to the very essence of reality, the Dharmakaya, the Dharma Body of the Buddha. This dimension of emptiness, of absence of separation and opposition, allows the display of various aspects of the fundamental wisdom, in the form of various Buddhas appearing in a dimension, some would say a level of vibrations, imperceptible in our habitual earthly experience. In this dimension endowed with all the qualities of wisdom, the Body of Complete Enjoyment or Sambhogakaya, Buddhas and great Bodhisattvas manifest their Pure Lands. There are therefore countless Buddhas simultaneously and in all directions. There are equally innumerable Bodhisattvas, individuals engaged on the path of Buddhahood and who strive to dispel their mental obscurations, obstacles to the realization of their Buddhanature.

2.3.4 The Pure Lands

The great Bodhisattvas were once, like all living beings, prisoners in the cycle of painful ions, samsara. By their aspirations and their altruistic acts accomplished during many cycles of the universe, some of these acts depicted in the Sutras, they acquired the capacity to display Pure Lands. There, they continuously deliver liberating teachings to those who have sufficiently purified their mind stream to be reborn in these privileged environments, where they will be able to quickly traverse great stages of spiritual progress. Among these great Bodhisattvas are Tara, the famous female Buddha, Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezi in Tibetan, Guanyin in Chinese, Kannon in Japanese), the Bodhisattva of comion, and Manjushri, the personification of wisdom.

Different Buddhas also manifest a Pure Land, like Amitabha, on which the Pure Land tradition, popular in China and Japan, is centered. The dividing line between this Bodhisattva's use of comion to hasten our own progression to Enlightenment, and a theistic posture as it exists in many religions, lies in maintaining the View of emptiness. These manifestations of the comion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are apparent, efficient according to a dualistic perception, but ultimately non-existent, like all phenomena. In addition, there is no difference in nature between the beings: whether they are temporarily enduring intense suffering, or even malevolent, or whether they are Bodhisattvas of different levels, all have the nature of a Buddha.

2.3.5 Comion

The driving force behind this long march towards Enlightenment is not the sole desire to save oneself from suffering, as is the case with the followers of the Hinayana schools. What inspires the practitioner of the Mahayana is the aspiration to become a Buddha in order to lead others to Enlightenment in turn. This intention is called the thought or mind of Enlightenment, one of the meanings of the Sanskrit term bodhicitta. To adopt this altruistic attitude of bodhicitta corresponds to the Bodhisattva vow which, in the Mahayana, follows immediately the initial vow of refuge in the Three Jewels. Let us listen to Shantideva (p. 11):

Whoever forms the benevolent project of curing a few men from their headaches gains immense merit: how much more does he who wants to free them all from infinite sufferings and endow them with infinite qualities! Which mother, which father is capable of such a generous wish? Which god, which Rishi , which Brahmin? None of them ever formed, even in dreams, such a desire for themselves; how would they do it for others?

By practicing comion from the beginning of the path, we initiate the transformation of our mind stream, and we come closer to gaining the ability a Bodhisattva has to help others. In striving to acquire the View of emptiness, we deliver fatal blows to our own ignorance and emotional and conceptual obscurations, and we approach the wisdom of a Buddha. In this endeavor, it is coherent to invoke the help of the great Bodhisattvas, whose capacities of perception and action, from the dimension of the Sambhogakaya, are free from the limitations of our habitual state. Our goal being to develop the same qualities as them, we appeal to their comion by requesting them to intensify our aspirations, to us in keeping to our commitments, and to make circumstances favorable to our spiritual progress. It is within this conceptual framework of the Mahayana that painted or sculpted representations of various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas find their place, as well as eulogies, formulae and

prayers of aspiration invoking their wisdom and their comion.

In Mahayana, the monastic life is valued as being most favorable to spiritual practice, since it offers priviledged conditions to devote oneself entirely to study and practice. But everyone, being ordained monk or nun, or lay practitioner, always has, in himself, the nature of a Buddha. He is also reminded that he can, at any moment, decide to embark on the path of the Bodhisattvas, and that many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will unfailingly perceive and his aspiration for Enlightenment. In the history of Buddhism, one of the very concrete ways through which this has been manifested is the diffusion of a set of various methods combining the View, meditation and action. Taught by the Buddha and some of the Great Bodhisattvas, these instructions were then written down in a specific format regarding the style, content and internal arrangement called Tantras. In consequence, the modern scholars named Tantric Buddhism this branch of the Great Vehicle.

The Rishis, “seers”, are considered by the Brahmins as having received in visions, or authored, the Vedas, the reference texts of Brahmanism.

2.4 Tantric Buddhism

The Prajnaparamita Sutra, the founding teaching of the Mahayana, exposes wisdom, prajna, which consists in the recognition of emptiness, shunyata. This recognition is the ultimate goal. The Sutra of the Lotus of the True Dharma, Saddharmapundarika Sutra¹ , was also taught on the Vultures Peak at Rajgir. It oldest written version dates from the first century of the Christian era. It contains a discourse of the Buddha on the skillful means, upaya, used by the Buddhas to lead people out of confusion and help them to realize emptiness. In the 2nd century, the Sutra of Vimalakirti's Teaching, Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra¹¹ is unique in that it depicts a layman who teaches monks and shows a wisdom that confuses even the Bodhisattvas. For Vimalakirti, freedom is a state of spontaneity where each action arises from the View of emptiness as a skillful means in the service of others. This state is achieved through the instructions of the spiritual master, the guru.

The Tantras thus find logically their place in the line of such Sutras of the Great Vehicle, as they are a set of skillful means aiming at the actual realization of emptiness. As Vimalakirti does, Tantrism gives a central role to the guru. And, just as any action of the guru can contribute to awakening the disciple, the disciple should be able to bring on his sprititual path any situation he encounters. To this end, the Tantras provide their own methods.

2.4.1 Mantrayana

While in the pre-Tantric Mahayana the recitation of invocations, such as dharanis, is incidental, in Tantric Buddhism the repetition of generally shorter formulae, the mantras, is at the core of the ascetic practice, so much so that this Buddhist school calls itself Mantrayana, the Way or the Vehicle of Mantras. The Manjushrimulakalpa Sutra, the writing of which dates from around 200 CE, is the first text to mention the term Mantrayana. Before suddenly disappearing from India around the year 1200, the Mantrayana therefore flourished in the subcontinent for a millennium, spreading to various countries at different periods, in South-East Asia, in China. and as far as Japan, and of course beyond the Himalayas, first in Central Asia, then in Tibet and Mongolia.

Depending both on the specialisation of the gurus and on the propensities of the disciples, emphasis can be put on this or that aspect of the practice. Thus, beside the recitation of mantras, some masters have presented the stabilization of the View as the essential factor of liberation, while others have insisted on the mastery of subtle energies as a prerequisite. This has given rise to diverse practice lineages, but all of them take the visualization of deities as a , and are philosophically grounded on the View of the Mahayana in its two aspects which are the Madhyamika of Nagarjuna and the Cittamatra Yogacara of Asanga.

Those familiar with Tibetan Buddhism know that the Tibetans classify the Tantras into either four or nine groups. Such classifications, however, were made outside and after Indian Buddhism. Buddhist Indians of the time spoke of Yoga Tantras, where the word yoga reminds of the Cittamatra Yogacara View. The term Mahayoga Tantra, Great Yoga Tantra, was at times used to qualify particulartly esteemed texts. Mahayoga Tantras also refer to the Tantras from which was developed the View of the Great Union, Mahasandhi. Another category of Tantras whose denomination dates back to the Indian period are the Yogini Tantras, also called Prajna Tantras, i.e. Wisdom Tantra. Sahajayana, the

Path of the Natural State, does not derive its name from particular Tantras, but refers to a way to teach and train on the spiritual path by focusing of certain principles of the Yogini Tantras¹².

2.4.2 Yoga Tantras

As their are based on the Mahayana View in both its Madhyamika and Cittamatra Yogacara approaches, the Tantras consider that the Buddha-nature is already perfect within every sentient being. Therefore, any obscuration is due to a misconception. In order to discover the hidden purity of ions, one must not run away from them but experience them consciously. This Tantric approach takes the opposite stance of the avoidance of ions that prevailed in other Buddhist schools. Asanga includes sexual union, maithuna, among the methods of “reversing” the usual downward course of ions (Snellgrove 1987: 127). Because of this use of techniques involving all the faculties of the practitioner and aiming at their reunification or yoga, the methods of the Cittamatra View were called Yogacara, “yogic practice”, and the Tantras were called Yoga Tantras.

In the first Yoga Tantras, the introductory chapter imitates that of the Sutras, in which an entourage of Bodhisattvas solicits the Buddha's clarifications on the doctrine and its implementation. The scene is set in an enchanting place, a park, the summit of a mountain, or a pure land of a Buddha. Assuming that the philosophy of Mahayana is known to their practitioners, these Tantras do not bother to restate it. (Snellgrove 1987: 270) They prescribe rituals, mantra recitations and visualization of a Buddha or a great Bodhisattva. Because of their strong praise of the practice of mantras, these texts can be considered as having founded Mantrayana as a distinct path. They are based on the conception of three and then five Buddha families, embodiments of the five wisdoms, the pure aspects of the five ions.

Some other Yoga Tantras differ more from the Sutra model. In the introductory lines of these texts, the Buddha, or a Buddha, with a body, speech and mind referred to as “vajra”, that is, adamantine, is surrounded by other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. He makes manifest to them the mandala of Vairocana and the other Buddhas of the five families, then he lectures the audience on the

adamantine nature of reality. Some of these texts have the word sutra in their title, instead of the word tantra but, like the previous category, they are called Yoga Tantras by their practitioners. The Sutra Gathering the Truth of All the Buddhas,

Sarvatathagata Tattvasamgraha Sutra, or simply Tattvasamgraha, is a famous specimen of such texts. It was greatly appreciated in China itself, where it was translated in 753 by Amoghavajra, then again in 1015 by Shin-huo. The introduction of the Tattvasamgraha features the Buddha Vairocana in a celestial world, surrounded by great Bodhisattvas such as Manjushri, Vajrapani, Avalokiteshvara and Akashagarbha. Texts of this sort are still connected with the Sutras through the presence of the Buddha surrounded by an assembly of Bodhisattvas. But they differ in that Shakyamuni Buddha now takes on the form of another Buddha in order to introduce his disciples to the meditation on the mandala of that Buddha. However, the great frequency of the term vajra in these category of Yoga Tantras was somehow announcing the spread of a new type of Tantras.

Photo 1: Vajrasattva (Newar art)

¹ Eugène Burnouf made the first translation of the Sanskrit version of this Sutra into a European language (French), published in 1852 (see bibliography).

¹¹ Etienne Lamotte made the first translation of this Sutra in a European language (French) from the Tibetan and Chinese versions, published in 1962 (see bibliography).

¹² Among which principles is the vision of women as embodiying prajna, i.e. wisdom. Lakshminkara, an emblematic master of the Sahajayana, states in her Accomplishment of Non-Dality (stanza 21): “the woman [...] is the divine wisdom that has taken shape.”

2.4.3 Vajrayana, the Diamond Way

It is in the Guhyasamaja Tantra, received in the 8th century by King Indrabodhi of Uddiyana, that the term Vajrayana appears for the first time. Vajrayana means the Path of the Diamond, the hardest of all stones, symbolizing the realization of emptiness which shatters all and every mental rigidities. The Tantras that appeared at this time were still commonly labelled as Yoga Tantras, some being praised by their proponents as Maha Yoga Tantras, as has been the case with the Guhyasamaja. But these newly transmitted Tantras definitely break with the textual model of the Sutras. Moreover, instead of assuming that the philosophy of the Great vehicle is known to the listeners, as was the case with the previous Yoga Tantras, here the specific Tantric View is expounded by the meditational deity in person, or by Vajrasattva, the adamantine Being, the essence of all Tantric deities. Nevertheless, the Vajrayana principles and methods remain grounded on the View of emptiness of the Mahayana, like all other Tantric practices, as well as on the conviction that the Buddha-nature is, from all eternity, present and perfect in every living being. It is only temporarily covered by obscurations, which veil it to the eyes of non-enligthened beings. And the motivation of the adept of the Vajrayana must be that of bodhicitta, the aspiration to attain Enlightenment in order to become able to help other beings to walk the path. That is the attitude of the Bodhisattvas.

In order to achieve Enlightenment for the good of all beings, the practitioner starts by imbibing himself with the idea of emptiness. He then engages in Vajrayana practice under the guidance of his guru. The skillful means of these Tantras include the recitation of mantras to weaken the mental tensions linked to sounds, and to establish an increasingly harmonious circulation of subtle energies in the body. But one of the main differences with the previous Tantras of the Mantrayana is that here, the practitioner visualizes himself in the form of a Buddha, a Bodhisattva or some other “deity” symbolizing the qualities of Enlightenment. This aspect of the practice helps to get rid of the identification with our appearance and the ideas we have attached to it. The meditator also visualizes his environment as a mandala, a Pure Land, that of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva or the deity that he is meditating on. This also helps at alleviating,

simplifying a perception distorted by prejudices accumulated over the course of life.

By mentally transforming into an enlightened being during meditation sessions, the practitioner anticipates his own Enlightenment. The concepts and the emotional habits start to loosen their grip. The original dualistic attitude itself is undermined. Ultimately, phenomena are seen as a phantasmagoria in the open dimension of emptiness. Fear and frustration make way for relaxation and joy, and comion blossoms. Saraha, considered by some to be the first Mahasiddha, i.e. master of Vajrayana, sums up this process of liberation with a metaphor:

First, appearance is experienced as bein open, This is like knowing ice to be water. Then, while the appearance of ‘memory’ does not stop, Its openness becomes indistinguishable from bliss, This is the stage when ice turns into water. When ‘memory’ dissolves into ‘non-memory’, and this into ‘unorigination’ and Everything has turned indistinguishably into bliss supreme, This is like ice having turned into water¹³.

Among its multiple skillful means, Vajrayana comprehends yogic exercises, including sexual union, based on the correspondences between the circulation of energy in the subtle channels of the body on one side, and thoughts and emotions on the other. The practices are exposed in the Tantras and particularly in the

sadhanas¹⁴, ritualistic and meditative texts received in visions, discovered or composed by Tantric masters. They include a renewal of the vows of refuge and bodhicitta, a reminder of the View of emptiness, offerings, visualization, meditation and recitation of mantras, and a dedication of the merits to the Enligthenment of all living beings. All these technics presuppose that the follower develops “adamantine pride”, his identification with the form of his meditational deity, at once apparent and unsubstantial. Tantras also include magical practices to remove obstacles and attract favorable circumstances. Some Indian adepts used to refer to the Tantras of the Vajrayana with an eloquent term, viz. Yogini Tantras, or Prajna Tantras. This choice is based of some prominent philosophical and practical features of the Diamond Way.

¹³ Guenther 1976: 153, n. 79.

¹⁴ Derived from the Sanskrit verb root SADH- meaning “to go straight to the point”, “to succeed”, or “to strive towards the goal”, “to practice”, the feminine name sadhana indicates the action, the means of action or the result itself. In Tantric Buddhism, each meditation on a form of a Buddha is a complete means of attaining Enlightenment, hence a sadhana. The word siddhi, accomplishment, has the same root, as does Siddha, an Accomplished One.

2.4.4 Yogini Tantras alias Prajna Tantras

The Sutras promote comion, and the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra defines as “skillful means,” upaya-kaushalya¹⁵, the various ways in which Buddhas comionately work for the happiness of sentient beings. And in the Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra we read that “pure Bodhisattvas have Perfection of wisdom as their mother and skill in means as their father” (Snellgrove 1987: 67). This formulation anticipates an essential point of the View and means of the Vajrayana Tantras: the dialectic of the wisdom of emptiness as the feminine polarity, and the skillful means of comion as the masculine one.

The peculiarity of these Tantras is not only philosophical. There are new deities to be visualized, often related to the Vajra family of Buddhas, thus making Vajrayana a definitely appropriate name for this branch of the Mantrayana. These deities are, in the first place, Vajrasattva, the Adamantine Being, alias Vajrapani¹ or Vajradhara, Bearer of the Vajra, and Hevajra, Cakrasamvara, Kalacakra, with a wrathful countenance but a slender body. As for Vajrakila¹⁷, Hayagriva, Yamantaka, Mahakala, among other “heroes”, Dakas, they are most wrathful and their bodies are massive. Heruka is the generic name for these masculine emanations of the comion of the Buddhas.

As embodiments of the union of means and wisdom, these male deities are mostly described as ionately embracing their consort, the Adamantine Yogini, Vajrayogini. Vajrayogini embodies wisdom, in other words the absence of ego, hence another of her names, Nairatmya. In some Tantras, the Yogini, who later will also be referred to as Dakini, “the one who moves in space”, stands alone as the main deity of the mandala, surrounded by secondary Dakinis. Such is the case of various forms of Tara as well as Kurukulla, Krodhi Kali, Marici, and Vajrayogini or Vajravarahi, among others.

This importance given to the feminine representation of wisdom, as well as to the actual practice of ritual union with a yogini, is the prominent feature of the Vajrayana Tantras, so much so that some of their Indian adepts called them Yogini Tantras¹⁸, or Prajna Tantras, i.e. Wisdom Tantras. Here, wisdom is the nature of both the female practitioner and the deity she embodies. These Tantras grew steadily in popularity in India, and then came to characterize much of Tibetan Buddhism, while the ancient Yoga Tantras remained dominant in distant countries, such as Japan. Lets us note, however, that their practice continued in the Kathmandu valley, where the Newars received and maintained the practice of Tantras belonging to all the currents that had developed in India. It is noteworthy that, with the Yogini Tantras, female adepts appeared who became full-fledged spiritual masters.

¹⁵ Literally: skill in means.

¹ The Tantric deity Vajrapani has the form of a Bodhisattva in the iconography of the Mahayana.

¹⁷ The Sanskrit dative form of Vajrakila, the Adamantine dagger, viz. Vajrakilâya, eventually replaced the nominative case in the Tibetan use of this Indian name, and is even sometimes shortened as Kilâya. Originally, in compliance with the Sanskrit grammar, the dative case was used in prayers to indicate the object of devotion, e.g. Namo Buddhâya, Homage to the Buddha!

¹⁸ Yogini Tantras as a category of Buddhist Tantras from the first millennium AD is not to be confused with the title of a late text of Hindu Tantrism, Yogini Tantra, written in Assam in the 16th or 17th century.

2.4.5 Sahajayana, the Way of the Natural State

Some say that Mantrayana has revived a Mahayana Buddhism that what getting lost in the routine of monastic life and the intellectualism of debates on emptiness. However, Tantric practice can in turn be threatened by ritualism or by the quest for supernatural powers. Certain Mahasiddhas have therefore delivering a more radical discourse, inciting aspirants to liberation to go even more straightforwardly to the goal, beyond the protocol of meditative rituals. The seemingly peaceful or angry deities with which yogis identify themselves in meditaion are manifestations of Enlightenment in Sambhogakaya, the union of luminosity and emptiness, the very nature of our mind. Such deities are therefore more “true” than the conceptual and emotional rigidities that constitute our samsaric state. This understanding which justifies and accompanies the practice, this View, aims at transforming the practitioner's consciousness. By resolutely engaging in this practice without making any more distinctions between times, places, etc., the meditator accelerates the dissipation of his mental obscurations.

Many instructions from the Mahasiddhas recall this View and invite to simplify one’s spiritual practice. Some modern scholars¹ have named this type of teachings as Sahajayana, the Way of the Innate, or the Way of the Natural State. The point of arrival, the natural state, sahaja, is affirmed from the start as the only reality. To keep this in mind through all and every experience of life constitues the spiritual practice. At the end, the obscurations disappear, and the initial affirmation is validated by the experience of the yogi: the whole universe has never been anything other than the natural and spontaneous radiance of awareness. An eminent representative of this path, the princess turned yogini, Lakshminkara, declares in The Accomplishment of Non-Duality, Advayasiddhi:

Resorting to rules, vows, fasting, discourses or reflections, even for millions of eras, the yogi who doesn’t hold the View cannot achieve the Accomplishment. […] As much as there are inanimate or animate phenomena, anywhere in the triple world, all of them, by the yoga of the View they must be considered as

adamantine in nature. […] Having experienced all the phenomena arising from the absence of self as being of one taste, the Mantrika constantly considers the body as pure by nature. […] He should not worship idols of wood or stone, […] he should worship only his own body. […] Let’s not devote oneself to the construction of stupas [nor] of mandalas. […] Neither should the Mantrika conceive of disgust towards anything whatsoever: he should see Vajrasattva himself, present right here, in this form. Similarly, the distinction between people who are to be associated with and those who are not, food edible or not, drinkable or not, the Mantrika, well concentrated, will not take it into . […] Resorting to the wisdom of non-duality, one reaps the accomplishment of Buddhahood. What need is there for a long discourse? What is perceived, everything, is to be seen through the yoga of emptiness. […] The irvana without , devoid of cause, residing nowhere, inherent to all beings, this is Enlightenment, the final step. Knowing this, the intelligent yogi who meditates continuously achieves the goal, no doubt, even if he is a person of little merit.²

This condensed presentation of radical instructions corresponds to a certain level of practice and does not invalidate the rest of the Vajrayana. The same masters who at times taught in the sahaja style also continued to teach and practice the other Tantric methods.

2.4.6 The Great Union, Mahasandhi, or Great Perfection

There is also a particular Tantric lineage, called the Great Union, Mahasandhi, of which the View developed on the basis of the Guhyagarbha Tantra. As for many texts of the first period of a massive diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, from the middle of the 8th to the middle of the 9th century, the original treatises of the Great Union written in Indian languages, Sanskrit or others, once translated into Tibetan, have not been preserved. The translators favored the meaning over the letter, and rendered Mahasandhi by Dzogchen, Great Perfection, the Tibetan term dzog meaning “completion”. When one realizes the single nature of all that exists, any phenomenon is seen as being emptiness and luminosity inseparable, devoid of any individual autonomy. From then on, frustration cannot occur anymore, no need is there, satisfaction is total. By definition, the totality is complete and perfect from the start, hence the term Great Perfection, in Tibetan Dzogpa-chenpo, Dzogchen in abbreviated form. In certain Tibetan texts, one also meets the Sanskrit formulation Atiyoga²¹, the Supreme Yoga. Let us note here that the guru Pasambhava defines the Great union as an approach, in other words a View, for the practice of the Tantras, and he calls “Mahayoga Tantras” the texts used in that school (Schaik 2008: 18).

The Tantra of the Secret Matrix, Guhyagarbha Tantra, expresses the founding View of the Great Union as follows: “The nature of the mind is the perfectly awakened Buddha, so do not look for the Buddha elsewhere!” (Chonam & Khandro 2011: 85) One of the skillful means of the school of the Great Union is the initial recognition, by the disciple, of the infinite and luminous nature of his mind, the Dharmakaya. To this end, the master provokes the disciple's sudden perception of this nature of the mind, like a sudden breach in the dark clouds of incessant cogitations. Various meditative procedures are then used to develop this experience and bring about the dissolution of the obscurations. This method which literally takes the fruit as the basis and as the path goes against the progressive approach of Mahayana and classic Mantrayana. Its lineage, originating in Uddiyana like many other Tantric lineages, was subsequently transmitted from India to Tibet in the 8th century by Pasambhava and Vimalamitra.

In most cases, the Yogini Tantras, the Sahajayana approach of the Yogini Tantras, and the Mahayoga Tantras of the Great Union, as well as the masters who spread those texts and Views, are attributed the same place of origine, viz. Uddiyana. In spite of their originality, all Tantric methods are based on the philosophical View of emptiness characterising Mahayana, and the followers of the Mahayana, like all Buddhists, take refuge in the Three jewels. These principles distinguish Buddhists from the followers ot the other religions that have existed side by side with Buddhism, in India and elsewhere.

¹ Dasgupta (1969) and then R. Mishra (1991).

² The translation of the full text will be given below.

²¹ The term appears in the Indian Tantric literature in the 8th century, in the Sarvabuddha Samayoga Tantra and in the Kirshnayamari Tantra, where Atiyoga refers to the realization of the nature of reality, at the climax of the practice of union (Scaik 2004: 179-180).

3 Buddhism and Hinduism

History is written by the victors.

Today, Hinduism is commonly presented as the “immemorial” religion of India. Its proponents conceive history as a cycle of periodic creations and destructions of the universe. They cremate their dead on the bank of the Ganges, they believe in reincarnation and karma, preach non-violence and vegetarianism, and practice yoga. Ayurvedic medicine is presented as being part of the corpus of knowledge contained in the Vedas, the revealed Scriptures that Brahmin priests have been transmitting to each other for millennia. To consider a posteriori the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu would be a mark of the tolerance and the capacity of assimilation of Hinduism. Several centuries after the disappearance of Buddhism in India and the triumph of the socio-religious system of the castes dominated by the Brahmins, the picture which has just been sketched illustrates the fact that “history is written by the victors”. Credit is due to the Swiss Indianist Johannes Bronkhorst (1989) for having uncovered this “Brahmanic bias” that Western researchers had themselves adopted and, generation after generation, ed on to their audience.

3.1 Vedism, Brahmanism and Hinduism

During the first millennium BCE, a number of religious movements existed in the “Greater Magadha”. Johannes Bronkhorst (2007) thus named a cultural area extending East and South to the historic Magadha (region of present-day Patna in the state of Bihar), and composed of clanic chiefdoms, kingdoms and republics. Two of these religions have persisted until today, Buddhism and Jainism which, appearing at the same time and presenting philosophical similarities, have long coexisted. Their ascetics occupied simultaneously or successively sites suitable for meditation, such as the caves of Barabar near Bodhgaya, and their monasteries shared the generosity of the sovereigns and the of the faithful.

To the West of this Greater Magadha, the region between the Ganges and the Yamuna Rivers, the Doab²², was home to a society structured in hereditary castes, the most prestigious of which was that of the Brahmins. These were originally part of the tribes that made up the Arya people, a laudatory selfattributed term that can be translated as “noble” or “pure”. The territory occupied by the Aryas, and which has shifted over time, is named by them Aryavarta. The texts called the Vedas constitute the basis of their religion, and contain mainly ritual prescriptions. The worldview specific to the Vedas, and the rituals they prescribe, aimed at preserving the order of this world, constitute what can be called Vedism. Nowadays, in India, only a minority of Brahmins, who could be labelled as traditionalists, are committed to the exclusive practice of this ancient form of their religion. The beliefs and practices of the majority of Brahmins have been enriched by successive contributions from neighboring cultures and internal transformations. Transmitted in priority orally and devoid of identifiable historical references, the Vedic corpus can only be dated by its written versions. Extracts from Vedic texts quoted by Panini, the famous grammarian of the middle of the second century BCE, show that various versions and states of language of the Vedas were in use at that time. The oldest written version of these texts available to us dates from the end of the 2nd century BCE. Subsequently, the Brahmin community produced other texts: the Aranyakas and the Brahmanas are directly related to the Vedic doctrine; as for

the Upanishads, some have contents that match Vedism, some others do not.

Subsequently were developed two great epics, the Mahabharata and then the Ramayana, whose contents have evolved over several centuries, incorporating new elements and giving birth to local versions. Their popularity has spread from India to Southeast Asia including Indonesia. These epics are originaly built on local pre-Brahmanic stories but, as they were rewritten again and again by Brahmin scribes, many reminders of the socio-religious vision of the Brahmins were added to the texts.

The creation of stories called Puranas, depicting post-Vedic deities such as Shiva and Vishnu, spanned several centuries beyond the stabilization of the epics. They provide tales of the creation of the world involving these deities, present the successive incarnations of the god Vishnu, and explain the origin of various holy places. Written and promoted by Brahmins, these texts validate their socioreligious doctrine. We can therefore describe this corpus from the Vedas to the Puranas as Brahmanic.

From the beginning of the second millennium of the Christian era, a devotional literature was developed to eulogize the deities introduced by the epics and popularized by the Puranas. These deities are still very much venerated today and constitute the religious identity of India in the eyes of the international public. Shiva, Rama, Krishna, the ape-god Hanuman and the elephant-god Ganesh have long eclipsed the ancient Vedic gods in the religious life of many Indians. This popular devotion was fueled by mystical currents which, for some of them tended to break free from caste barriers, or even interacted with Islam. For these reasons, one can no longer speak here of Brahmanism. We can then conveniently group under the name of Hinduism all of these religious manifestations ranging from Vedism to modern devotion.

Vedism which became Brahmanism and then Hinduism has thus evolved over the centuries. Initially practiced in a restricted territory, it became the majority

faith on the gigantic territory of contemporary India. The history of Hinduism as well as his geographic expansion took place in interaction with other religious currents of the area. Among these currents, the one that has experienced the longest and widest development, and whose influence on the development of Hinduism has undoubtedly been the most important, is Buddhism.

3.2 How Brahmins attempted to appropriate the Buddha

To understand the relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism, one must first dispel a Brahmanic bias which aims at integrating Buddhism into Hinduism. This prejudice is twofold. On the one hand, the Buddha would have belonged to the warrior caste, the Kshatriyas, the second in prestige after that of the Brahmins, in the Brahmanic social system. On the other hand, the Buddha would be an embodiment of the Hindu god Vishnu, and Buddhism would therefore be a branch of Hinduism.

3.2.1 The Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu

This thesis was born in the 11th century under the pen of a Brahmin, Kshemendra, a former student of Abhinavagupta, the theoretician of Kashmir Shaivism²³. We then find the same idea in the writings of the Oriya²⁴ poet Jayadeva Goswami. Born in Odisha at the end of the 12th century in a Brahmin family, he is the author of a famous Krishnaite poem entitled Gita Govinda, in which he praises the Buddha as being Vishnu incarnated on earth to preach comion towards animals, particularly those killed during the Brahmanic sacrifices (Chakrabarti 2001: 153). Such a presentation indicates a weak knowledge of Buddhism. In any case, it would have been difficult to Buddhism for a Brahmanic religion while presenting it as it is: a religion which ignores the distinction of castes. Jayadeva was active at the court of the last king of the Sena dynasty of Bengal, around the year 1200, while Buddhism, like the Sena dynasty for that matter, was being eradicated from the Ganges valley by the Afghan conquerors. Varaha Purana and Matsya Purana also conveyed this idea of Buddha being an avatar of Vishnu. By making the Buddha a gentle figure teaching the abandonment of animal sacrifices, these texts also contributed to the appropriation, by the Brahmins, of the idea of non-violence stemming from the religions of Greater Magadha. The integration of the Buddha into Vaishnavism²⁵ has also taken a more negative turn: the Vishnu Purana presents the Buddha as being created by Vishnu to mislead demonic people by teaching them to reject the Vedas. His pernicious teaching would thus accelerate the degeneration of the world and consequently the next incarnation of Vishnu would come sooner to reinstate the ideal Brahmanic society.

²² Doab is a term of North-Indian languages referring to a territory circumscribed by two (do) rivers (ab). The same word ab is found in Punjab, the land of the five (panc) rivers (ab). Used without any other territory specification, the term Doab conventionally refers to this region between the Ganges and the Yamuna.

²³ We call Shaivism the religious school centered on the god Shiva, from whose name derives the Sanskrit adjective shaiva.

²⁴ Oriya or Orissi is the adjective corresponding to the Indian State officially called, since 2011, Odisha (previously Orissa). Oriya and Odiya are alternative pronunciations and spellings of Odisha.

²⁵ We call Vaishnavism the religious school centered on the god Vishnu, from whose name derives the Sanskrit adjective vaishnava.

3.2.2 The Buddha as a member of the Warrior caste

Another way of integrating Buddhism into Hinduism has been to suggest that the society where the Buddha was born was already brahmanized. The biographies of the Buddha or the s of his previous lives, the Jatakas, were written down, in Sanskrit or Pali language, by literate Buddhists from Brahmanic families. These authors tended to evolve their characters in an ideal Brahmanic society, and the future Buddha, in his incarnations as a Bodhisattva, is at times Kshatriya or Brahmin, because an excellent person could not originate but from a good caste. In reality, the Buddha Shakyamuni could not have been a member of the warrior caste, the Kshatriyas, because he was born into a non-Brahmanic culture. Brahmins were present in Greater Magadha, where they practiced some of their skills, as did the astrologer Asita who predicted the great destiny of the new-born Siddhartha. Some even succeeded to be hired as advisers by political leaders. But their caste system was not yet dominant, the society remained organized in tribal clans, and the cultures of Magadha practiced religions of their own.

Several centuries after the Buddha, the grammarian Patanjali wrote around 150 BCE that, in his times, the Aryavarta, i.e. the Brahmins-dominated territory, covered only the part of North-West India extending from the Thar Desert, on the Indo-Pakistan border, to the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganges Rivers, West of Magadha. Patanjali severely denigrates the populations surrounding this area: the people of Punjab, located in the North, a former Brahmanic territory then lost, and the inhabitants of Gandhara in the West, a region then Buddhist. In the East, the Magadha, more than three centuries after the demise of the Buddha, was still not brahmanized. From Magadha, Jainism and Buddhism spread in all directions. Buddhism for its part had already reached the island of Ceylon. It took almost five more centuries, around the year 300 CE, to learn from a Brahmanic treaty, the Manava Dharmashastra, that Aryavarta, from then on, was extending from the Western to the Eastern coasts of India.

3.3 The extension of Brahmanism through the conversion of kings

Therefore, Brahmanism is not the immemorial indigenous religion of the Indian subcontinent. The granted by the royal dynasties played a primordial role in the destinies of the religions in presence. From the kings of Greater Magadha contemporaries of the Buddha in the 6th century BCE, until the Maurya emperors who ruled from the 4th to the 2nd century BCE, including Ashoka who extended the borders of his empire from Bengal to Afghanistan, none of those sovereigns ever held the Brahmins in high esteem. They all ed the religions of their region of origin, Buddhism, Jainism, as well as a religion which has disappeared today, that of the Ajivika. It is possible that by expanding their territory, the Mauryas have caused the disappearance of local kings who ed the Brahmins and their caste system. Besides, the Maurya emperors relied on a network of governors, and not on Brahmin advisers, a practice which did not favor the prosperity of the Brahmins and their families. In any event, the last Maurya emperor was assassinated in 185 BCE by one of his generals, the Brahmin Pushyamitra Shunga, who then founded his own dynasty. This Shunga Empire covered a Northeastern third of India for a century, despite an incursion in Pataliputra by the Greek satrap of Bactria, Demetrios, in 180 BCE² . The Shungas are the first known dynasty to have shown the Brahmins the respect to which they aspired, and to have adopted the socio-religious organization which they promoted. Thanks to this , the Brahmins were able to spread East towards the Bay of Bengal, and South-East in Andhra Pradesh, where Buddhists and Jainas were established.

Whatever the personal religious preferences of subsequent rulers and emperors of the Gangetic plain and in the South of India, the influence of the Brahmins has grown, and the caste system has become the norm. Originally mere specialists in Vedic rituals, the Brahmins, starting from the Shunga Empire, developed a strategy of conquering social power via kings using two means. On the one hand, they posed as the exclusive holders of the art of Vedic spells, the magical power of which could promote victory over enemies, grant male

offsrping and other desired benefits highly wished for at the time. To attach kings to them, they granted them some access to Vedic education and knowledge, but a limited access only so as not to create an elite capable of shading the prestige of the Brahmins.

On the other hand, they developed a neo-Brahmanism, consisting of treatises on political science and the organization of society, as well as of epic and mythological literatures. Political treatises emphasize the importance of the divinely instituted division of labor into hereditary castes to ensure the prosperity and stability of the kingdoms. The epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana depict kings of divine descent whose behavior must be taken as a model to be emulated by human kings. Then, as the Brahmanic zone of influence expanded, flattering genealogies were opportunely drawn up to incite new sovereigns to the cast system. Brahmins thus added the influential functions of panegyrists and ministers to their role of royal chaplains endowed with magical powers. Being now in a position to rewrite history, they could claim, for example, that the founder of the Maurya dynasty owed his success to a Brahmin minister.

3.4 The brahmanization of the populations

The multi-secular process of the elaboration of the Puranas and its implications for the acculturation of non-Aryan tribes in Northeastern India have been described in detail by Vijay Nath (2001). The word purana means “ancient”, and the choice of this term to name texts whose writing started only in the 7th century CE is indicative of the intention of their authors. In addition to legitimizing the power of political leaders favorable to Brahmanism, the myths spread by the Puranas aimed at popularizing, among tribal populations in the process of being brahmanized, the new Hindu cults which were gradually to replace the existing cults. These texts stage local deities to which the Brahmins assign cosmogonic roles and victorious struggles against the demons who threaten the smooth running of the Brahmanic world.

In the same way as they did with kings, the Brahmins pose to the people as the essential intermediaries between the faithful and these powerful gods. The Puranas also introduce the Brahmanic version of religious practices that had first developed in Buddhism and Jainism, such as temporary vows, collective devotional rituals and chants, and book worship. The copying of the texts is sacred, they are led in procession before to be ceremonially offered and to become themselves objects of offerings and worship. These various means have enabled Brahmanism to progressively gain ground.

Regarding Odisha in particular, Umankanta Mishra (2018) gives an example of how Brahmanic ambition, politics, religion and ethnic identities were articulated there. He illustrates by archeology and epigraphy the great Brahmanic offensive to supplant Buddhism in Odisha from the 9th to the 11th centuries. The Bhaumakara dynasty (8th to 10th centuries), originating from Assam and whose first sovereigns were Buddhists, governed directly the coast of Odisha, and indirectly inland via its vassals, the kings of Bhanja, Shulki, Tunga and Varaha tribes. The names of donors and the location of certain monasteries also attest to the presence of Buddhism among the Gond, Naga, and Shabara people, the latter

being in majority in the area surrounding the monastery of Udayagiri for example. But then, under the Somavamshi dynasty (10th to 11th centuries), the invitation of thousands of Brahmins to settle in the inland and the royal attribution of incomes from villages for sustaining the Brahmins families thwarted the Buddhist faith of the tribal kings who were vassals of the Bhaumakaras, and spoiled them from parts of their territories. This Brahmanic offensive is reflected in religious art, where some artists pictured the wrathful Shaiva deity Bhairava trampling on figures who sometimes represent tribal kings, sometimes the Buddha recognizable by his curly hair with a summit bun and his elongated lobes without earrings.

Whether through the penetration of circles of power or the appropriation of places of worship, the persistence of the Brahmins has paid off. The observation made by the Indian researcher Kunal Chakrabarti for Bengal also applies to Odisha and for India in general: “However, by the twelfth century, Buddhism had ceased to be a serious threat to Brahmanism, and the appropriation of the Buddha [equated to Vishnu] symbolizes the final success of the brahmanic bid to outdo Buddhism in Bengal.” (Chakrabarti 2001: 154) Indeed, the religions of Greater Magadha did not have the political genius of Brahmanism, probably because they did not share the same concerns. Hence the definitive disappearance of the Ajivikas in the middle of the second millennium CE, the long eclipse of the Buddhists, and the very minority presence of the Jainas today. On the other hand, the contributions of the religions of Greater Magadha in the fields of philosophy and asceticism are considerable, including to Hinduism. To appreciate the true value of these contributions, it is necessary to dispel another prejudice of Brahmanic origin, that of the seniority of the Vedas.

² The entire period is marked by the political legacy of Alexander the Great. After his death in 323 BCE and the rapid dislocation of his empire which extended from Greece to the west of India, Indo-Greek kingdoms persisted in India until circa 150 BCE. The Greek Megasthenes was, around 303 BCE, ambassador to the Maurya emperor in the latter’s capital Pataliputra, located East of Benares.

3.5 The reference to the Vedas

The belief in the great antiquity of the Vedas results from the conjunction of two factors. In the 18th and 19th centuries, European intellectuals, including Voltaire and Schlegel, in their speculations on the Eastern origin of the languages and religions of humanity, placed great hopes on the study of Vedic literature. Brahmins affirmed that the Vedas had been revealed in an immemorial past, and some specified that these same Vedas date back as far as 3000 years BCE, at the beginning of the fourth and last age of the current cycle of the universe (the cyclic conception of time being, by the way, another borrowing the Brahmins made from the religions of Greater Magadha.) The combination of this strong expectations on the part of Westerners on the one hand, with the discourse of the Brahmins on the other hand, aroused in the West an intellectual excitement leading to this proposition: the Vedas are the oldest texts of humanity, Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, Sanskrit is therefore at the origin of all languages, and Vedism, or Brahmanism, are the matrix of all religions. Alexandre Langlois, first translator into French of the Rig Veda, supposed to be the oldest Vedic text, wrote in 1848 that this text, “composed at a time immemorial, is the oldest literary monument which has been preserved²⁷.”

Even if later researches could not confirm this hypothesis, this belief influenced all of Indianism until recently. The Brahmins obviously did not expect to receive such a of their views from those enthusiastic Westerners. Among them Emile Burnouf, inaugurating the chair of Sanskrit in Paris in 1833, itted that “it is as by an act of faith that we believe that [the political history of the India] is ancient²⁸.” However, some more convincing arguments were searched for. The history of Buddhism has elements that can be dated, since the Buddha interacted with political figures for whom we can give dates by cross-checking. This more tangible chronology has then been used to ascertain the precedence of the religion of the Brahmins, including its precedence over Buddhism, by means of the following reasoning.

The first argument was that the earliest Buddhist texts mention the existence of the Vedas. The Buddha lived around 500 BCE, so the Vedas must precede this date. The second argument was ed by two facts. First, Buddhism accepts the idea of reincarnation, and the idea of karma, the retribution in one life of the actions committed in a previous life, since it teaches how to break free from this chain. Second, beside the Vedas, Brahmins accept other texts in the Vedic corpus understood in the broader sense. Among these texts are the Upanishads, in which mention is made of the same ideas of reincarnation and karma. Then comes a demonstration in three points. One, the Vedas predate the Buddha since the Buddha is said to have mentioned them. Two, the Upanishads also predate the Buddha since they are part of the Vedic corpus. Three, since the Upanishads, part of the Vedic corpus, accept the notions of reincarnation and karma, Buddhism learnt these notions from the Vedic corpus. Various dates have therefore been proposed for the diverse Vedic texts, going back more or less far in a past preceding the time of the Buddha.

This whole demonstration is false for the following reasons. The oldest available version of the Rig Veda dates back to the end of the 2nd century BCE. The oldest Buddhist texts at our disposal, dating from the 1st century CE, do not mention the main texts of the Vedic corpus² , nor do they mention the Upanishads. Moreover, some Upanishads state that the Vedic orthodox Brahmins did not accept the ideas of reincarnation and karma. In the Chandogya Upanishad (V.3-10), we even see a member of the Kshatriyas, the warriors, the second caste of Brahmanic society, disclosing these ideas to a Brahmin. There is therefore no indication that the Vedic corpus currently known is prior to the Buddha, since the latter does not mention it. The oldest part of this corpus, the Vedas, ignore the ideas of reincarnation and karma. Furthermore, these ideas did not come from the Brahmins, who often ignored or even strongly opposed them, they came to the Brahmins through Kshatriyas, at a time which can then be considered as postadating the Buddha.

One can therefore hardly the claim to the anteriority of the heterogeneous literature of Brahmanism and, a fortiori, of the subsequent Hinduism, on the basis of an imaginary Vedic filiation. On the contrary, as we will see, Hinduism, as the last religious creation of the Brahmins, is in fact the

most recent cult among the indigenous religions of the Indian subcontinent³ . Now that this chronological distortion has been corrected, let us consider the subsequent evolvement of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices stemming from Greater Magadha and their impact on Brahmanism and then Hinduism.

3.6 The religions of Greater Magadha

The people who lived in Greater Magadha at the time of the Buddha belonged, by their languages, including Magadhi, to the Indo-European family. The same was true for their Vedic neighbors living in the Doab, West of Greater Magadha: the Sanskrit language of their later writings also belongs to the Indo-European linguistic family. It is not known how and when these groups, and many others, moved from one part to another of the Eurasian continent. Johannes Bronkhorst (2011) researched about the religious cultures of Greater Magadha societies and their interactions with Vedic culture. He conducted a meticulous and unprecedented study of the earliest Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanic texts, which are all posterior by centuries to the time of the Buddha and his Jaina contemporary, Mahavira. This study sheds light on the history of religious ideas which had an amazing impact, and which had been attributed until now with some vagueness to “Hinduism”.

Several important ideas originated from the cultures of Greater Magadha. In cosmogony, the cyclical conception of the history of the universe and its measurement in units such as the kalpas and the yugas. This concept will be introduced into Brahmanism only by late inserts in the Mahabharata, the final drafting of which dates from the end of the Gupta period, in the 5th-6th centuries. In soteriology, the notions of a causal chain of experiences for each individual, karma, which involves the succession of incarnations, then the idea of freeing oneself from this chain, and the elaboration of means to achieve this liberation. In this cultural environment of Greater Magadha has also been developed the conception of an individual “Self”, prisoner of this cycle by his identification with the mental and bodily complex of the individual. The opposite idea, that of the non-existence of this Self, was also proclaimed in the philosophical circles of Greater Magadha. These diverse ideas were conveyed by at least three identified schools of thought, namely the philosophy of the Ajivikas, Jainism, and Buddhism.

The interactions between proponents of these three currents are illustrated in ancient Buddhist texts. According to the Buddhist canon in Pali language, among the six “heretical masters” whom the future Buddha followed during his initial period of asceticism, Nigantha Nataputta, or Mahavira, is the founder of Jainism for the historians, although the Jaina tradition will consider him a posteriori as the last of its instructors to come in this era. Another of the six masters, Makkhali Gosala, was a disciple of Mahavira, whom he left to found his own sect, Ajivikism. A third of these first six teachers of the Buddha was called Purana Kassapa, and was later also claimed by the Ajivika tradition.

The Ajivikas were naked ascetics. They considered that the Self of each individual is, by nature, charged with karma that forces him to incarnate for several millions of existences before he can be released from it. Any tentative attempt to modify this destiny by any action, or abstention of action, is of no avail, because they, too, are destined to happen anyway. That is why the Ajivikas did not deliver moral prescriptions. One should only attach oneself to the Self and await the exhaustion of this imposed karma.

Ancient Jainism shared with Ajivikism this idea of karmic weight attached to the individual, but proposed to exhaust it faster by two means. In order not to add to the already created karma, it is necessary to avoid any new action, because the action generates a dynamism which will bring about a new situation, in turn entailing a reaction, and so on. Besides avoiding new actions, one can exhaust the pre-existing karma faster through self-imposed physical sufferings and deprivations. The combination of these two means on the part of the Ajivika ascetics took the form, for example, of prolonged uncomfortable postures, and even fasting to death.

While itting the problem of the karmic prison, Buddhism differs in of the analysis of the cause and of the ensuing solution. The experiences are not so much caused by the actions themselves but by the intention behind them. It is therefore not a question of renouncing to act as in Jainism, nor of seeking a Self which would be inaccessible to suffering as in Ajivikism. One has to undergo a

psychological transformation leading to the extinction of trishna, the “thirst” for existential experiences.

These ascetic ideas and methods elaborated by the religions of Greater Magadha have been deliberately ignored, or difamed, but also adapted and adopted, by Brahmins and of other castes of the Brahmanic society. These processes contributed to the apparition of new schools of spiritual ideas and practices out of the original Vedism.

²⁷ Among other revealing quotes in Bronkhorst 1989: 119-136 (this quote p. 6-7 from the online pdf version on idoc-pub.mejorapp.org).

²⁸ Idem.

² Viz. the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Brahmana and Aranyaka genres of literature.

³ We don’t take here into Sikhism, because its holy Scriptures contain a certain amount of Muslim texts.

3.7 The first philosophical offensives of the Brahmins: the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita

The success of Buddhism and Jainism, which, two centuries after the Buddha, spread throughout the Indian subcontinent thanks to the rapid extension of the Maurya Empire, attracted certain Brahmins. Other Brahmins, attached to their Vedic heritage, which justifies the eminent place they claim in society, felt compelled to respond. They endeavored to develop philosophical responses which are sufficiently similar to the rival religions to be attractive, without however calling into question the caste system. The Upanishads testify to an acclimatization of the ideas of reincarnation, karma and spiritual liberation in the Brahmanic milieu. Many Upanishads teach the liberation of the individual soul, the Self, or atman, by the realization of its identity with the soul of the world, the Brahman. It was a complete novelty compared to Vedism, and consecrated the entry of ideas of Greater Magadha religious milieu into Brahmanism. But this philosophical view incited to renounce the world, and therefore the caste society. ages from the Mahabharata, written by Brahmins of various tendencies, testify to the confrontation between, on the one hand, the ancient Vedic ideal of a family life devoted to rituals to ensure well-being both on earth and in the hereafter, and, on the other hand, detachment from the world by individual asceticism leading to liberation from the cycle of incarnations.

The Bhagavad Gita was inserted in the epic at the end of the period of writing of the Mahabharata, i.e. towards the 6th century CE, at the end of the Gupta Empire. The “Song of the Lord” represents an attempt to integrate disparate ideas in a grand synthesis. It portrays the hero Arjuna, trapped in a family blood feud that forces him to take up arms against his cousins. This prospect disturbs him because, he says, “how can we indeed be happy, O Mâdhava (Sri Krishna), by killing our own people³¹?” (I.37) It is not a question of feelings, however, because:

With the destruction of the family, the time-honoured family traditions are lost; and when the traditions are lost, unrighteousness overtakes the whole family. When unrighteousness prevails, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt, and when women are corrupt, O descendant of the Vrishnis (Krishna), there arises a mixture of castes. The mixture of castes in the family only leads its destroyers to hell; their ancestors fall (from heaven), for they are deprived of the offerings of funeral cakes and drink. (I.40-42)

Then Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, intervernes to restaure the courage of Arjuna. The author of the Bhagavad Gita included in a single eclectic discourse all the spiritual ideas which were surrounding and penetrating the Brahmanic environment at that time. Here are a few. “The wise look with equal eye on a Brâhmana endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcast.” (V.18) To achieve this wisdom, “established in Yoga, O Dhananjaya (Arjuna), perform actions, giving up attachment, and unconcerned as to success or failure: this equanimity is called Yoga.” (II.48) Once “endowed with wisdom, giving up the fruit resulting from action, attaining self-realization, and freed from the bondage of birth, verily, they go to that abode which is free from evil.” (II.51) We must renounce the fruits of action, but not action itself, because “the renunciation of obligatory work is not proper.” (XVIII.7) And the actions are prescribed to each individual according to his own nature, which is indicated by his caste of birth. “The duties of the Brâhmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, as also of the Sudras, are clearly divided, O scorcher of foes, according to the disposition born of their own nature.” (XVIII.41) We must therefore be indifferent to the fruits of the action, while acting with a view to the goal, which is to preserve caste society and to continue to feed the ancestral spirits. This state of “yoga” also makes it possible to realize the Self, to no longer reincarnate, and to go where there is no more evil. Krishna claims that his teaching “has been sung differently by the sages (Rishis) and variously in different Vedic hymns, as also in ages indicative and descriptive of Brahman, furnished with reason and decisive.” (XIII.4)

Three points emerge from the study of the various texts produced by the Brahmanic milieu, starting with the oldest document, the grammar of Panini dating to around 150 BCE, up to the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita in the

5th and 6th centuries CE, through the Upanishads elaborated in between. The philosophical ideas prevalent in the cultures of Greater Magadha and the practices which are their ascetic transcription have provoked, on the part of the Brahmins, first a reaction of criticism, then a strategy of assimilation through adaptation. For example, the idea of retribution for the actions committed in past lives, karma, gives everyone the responsibility to build his future. But, taken up by the proponents of the caste system, the same principle of karma is used in a fatalistic sense to justify the inequality of social conditions and to make everyone accept his fate. This confrontation with the religions of Greater Magadha thus provoked the evolution of Vedism into Brahmanism.

Faced with the sustained success of the religions of Greater Magadha, Brahmanism, which aims above all at structuring society according to his view, felt therefore compelled to elaborate philosophical constructions. He also had to accept, within it, the development of ascetic practices. However, these ideas and practices, once borrowed, adapted or imitated by the Brahmins, could not compete with the consistency of the original productions of Buddhism and Jainism. The reason is that these ideas and practices, once brahmanized, were cut off from their original purpose, viz. the spiritual salvation of the sentient beings, humans and others, trapped in the cycle of reincarnations. In the second half of the 8th century CE, however, a personality emerged whose philosophical and ascetic work was to anchor, throughout India, a Brahmanic spirituality of unprecedented consistency.

3.8 Shankaracharya and his Advaita Vedanta

One part of Brahmanism had integrated the ideas of an unaffected Self, atman, an idea inherited from the Ajivikas, as well as the concept of a painful cycle of incarnations and the possibility to free oneself from it. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad its that “it is this âtman, I say, which when they know, Brahmins abjure the desire for sons, the desire for possessions, the desire for [heavenly³²] worlds, and take up the begging ascetic’s life.” (Bronkhorst 1998: 49) Various cosmogonies and cosmologies were also tested. For example, in response to the Sarvastivada Buddhist philosophy which demonstrates the unreality, or unessentiality, of phenomena by considering them as a succession of moments, the Brahmins of the Vaisheshika school replied that a phenomon should be considered as real as far as it is named by a Sanskrit word, for Sanskrit language, identified with the Vedas, is the highest reality. But in the 2nd century CE and the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, the Mahayana View of the Madhyamika, the Middle Way, had proclaimed the interdependence and, ultimately, the emptiness of all phenomena, even of the Enlightenment or of the Buddha himself. Powerfully argued, this statement triumphed over opposing thesis. Therefore, Brahmanism not having the intellectual means to convincingly contradict the Madhyamika View, had to accept the impossibility of an independant existence of phenomena, but not to the point of questioning his own foundations, viz. the sacredness of the Vedas and of the caste social system.

The architect of this new synthesis was, in the 8th century, a Brahmin named Shankaracharya, Master Shankara. He was well acquainted with Brahmanic but also Buddhist philosophical schools. He had been Gaudapada's disciple, or at least inspired by him. Gaudapada was a Brahmin who, in his work Gaudapadakarika or Agama-shastra, had invoked the authority of the Buddha and demonstrated that it was impossible for anything to happen in reality. The rumor of this Buddhist source of inspiration led Brahmins who opposed Shankara to call him a “crypto-Buddhist” (Das 1988: 9). Anyway, Shankara embraced the non-dualistic vision of Madhyamika³³, using the definition that some Upanishads, on the model of Madhyamika, give of the absolute: “neither this nor that”. But he moves away from Madhyamika by defining all phenomena

like the magic deployment, the Maya, of a positively conceived unmanifest reality, the Brahman. Shankara identifies the Brahman with Shiva, a deity who is also endowed with various forms and numerous mythological episodes in Hinduism. He describes this philosophical view as Non-duality, Advaita, synonymous with the term Advaya which had then already been in use for several centuries in Tantric Buddhism. He also claims that the Vedic rites purify the practitioner and prepare him to receive the teachings on Brahman delivered in the Upanishads. He established the ritual reading of certain Upanishads after the recitation of Vedic texts, of which the Upanishads constitute a kind of achievement. He therefore describes this “Upanishadic corpus” as the “End of the Veda”, or Vedanta. Hence his school will be called Advaita Vedanta. As is the case for the Bhagavad Gita, the reference to the Vedas is considered as being sufficient to guarantee the orthodoxy of the doctrine exposed by the Advaita Vedanta. However, Shankara somewhat understates the importance of the Vedas by making their reading a propaedeutic that a particularly gifted individual can do without.

The birth of this new Brahmanic philosophical school would perhaps have been of little consequence, as had been the case for many other theories of that time. But what made the difference is that Shankara set up a large-scale ascetic organization intended to cover the whole territory of India. He thus gave a decisive impulse to a mode of life characteristic of Hindu India, that of the Sadhus³⁴. By this audacious initiative of Shankara, Brahmanism acquired the means to assert itself in the face of Buddhism and Jainism in the field of soteriological asceticism. By legitimizing the possibility of living outside caste obligations, as well as by encouraging devotion to a single god, and moreover a non-Vedic one such as Shiva, the Advaita Vedanta stands out from Brahmanism, at least on these points. Notwithstanding the claims of Shankara to Vedic orthodoxy, Advaita Vedanta greatly contributed to the development of Hinduism as we know it today.

3.9 The Sadhus

In the Vedas, religion consists of sacrifices, offerings to the fire and invocation to deities linked to natural elements, Vayu the wind, Agni the fire, Varuna, a god of the sky who became god of the oceans, Indra the warrior god, etc. The incantations are aimed in particular at ensuring the health of the cattle, obtaining male offspring and other boons essential to survival. The normative texts elaborated by Brahmins at the beginning of the Christian era gradually ended up in proposing a way of life in four successive states, four ashramas. The first two are compulsory, viz. that of a celibate student of the Vedas, the brahmacarin, and that of the householder performing the ritual sacrifices, the grihastha. The next two are optional. One is the chaste couple life of husband and wife maintaining together the Vedic ritual fire in the forest. The followers of this particular hermit life are called vanaprasthas, “forest dwellers”. The last option is the wandering life of the renouncing beggar, the sannyasin. This theoretical scheme in four stages, well known to Indianists, has remained a little-followed model. And most importantly, it illustrates the slow, reluctant assimilation, by Brahmanism, of ascetic practices based on non-Brahmanic philosophies.

In fact, the oldest Vedic literature mentions only the state of a sacrificing householder. The state of the celibate teenager dedicated to memorizing the Vedas at the feet of his guru, remained more a recurrent motive in normative Brahmanic texts than a reality. The reason is that the learning of Vedic texts was part of the family education of young householders anyway. It is the Brahmanic literature of the Upanishads which started to depict the life of forest-dweller ascetics. In the Mahabharata, the status of asceticism varies depending on the ages considered. At times, the text depicts bodily austerities and the supernatural powers one can gain through their practice. But elsewhere the legitimacy of renunciation is harshly challenged and condemned as being contradictory to the Vedic prescriptions. An emblematic example is that of the Rishi Agastya. Agastya is often said to follow an ascetic lifestyle then already integrated into Brahmanic literature, that of the hermit with hair tied in a bun at the top of the head, and practicing austerities seated on an antelope skin. But in one episode of the Mahabharata, Agastya is the object of such pressure from the

purist Vedic party that he is forced to accept mating for the sake of procreation. According to Vedism, the happiness of a man’s ancestors in the afterlife requires that he produces a son able to continue the offerings to the manes. As the doctrinal basis of Vedism and that of the religions of Greater Magadha are diametrically opposed, Brahmanism will take several centuries to develop its own ascetic options. Their institutionalization and integration into Brahmanism was done by Shankaracharya, who founded brotherhoods of ascetics Sadhus and philosophically justified their approach by his Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

3.9.1 The Dashanami Sannyasi of Shankara

Before Shankara, it is likely that Brahmanic ascetics used to receive instructions from their masters, but there is no indication that they had ever formed monastic communities similar to those of the Buddhists and the Jainas, or that they had organized themselves into networks of brotherhoods. In the 8th century, Buddhist monasteries have long existed in all regions of India. Shankara, or his immediate successors, set out to implant their own ascetic order throughout the subcontinent. A main monastery was then founded at each of the four cardinal points, with four main disciples of Shankara at their heads. The locations were, and still are, the towns of Badrinath near the sources of the Ganges in the North, Jagannath-Puri in Odisha in the East, Rameshwaram at the meridional tip of India, and Dwarka in the State of Gujarat in the West. Each of these monasteries has been assigned a clan line, gotra in Sanskrit, going back to a founding ancestor in the form of a Vedic Rishi. Each monastery is also associated in particular with one of the four main Vedas, with a mantra, maha vakya, as well as with a male and a female deities. The four initial great disciples were succeeded by ten new disciples, who reorganized the order into ten sects, each of them being linked to one of the four original monasteries. The of these ten sects are collectively called Dashanami Sannyasis, “renouncers of the ten [suborders]”. The term “monastery” should not suggest that the monks live there in closure. Although some do live there, especially those in charge of the management and finances of the order, most follow an itinerant way of life, generally in groups although periods of solitary practice are not rare. It is noteworthy that access to the order is restricted to Brahmins.

3.9.2 The Vaishnava ascetic orders

The Sampradayas, the orders of Vaishnava Sadhus, appeared three centuries after the Shaiva order of Shankara. Shankara based his Advaita philosophy on certain Upanishads and likened the figure of the god Shiva to the manifested aspect of the Nirguna Brahman, the Brahman “without characteristics”. As to the four main Vaishnava orders, they have their origins in the commentaries that some Brahmins wrote on devotional Hindu texts devoted to specific manifestations of the god Vishnu. The oldest known order, the Shrivaishnava, was founded by the Tamil³⁵ Ramanuja in the 11th-12th centuries in reaction to Shankara’s nondualistic teaching. The philosophical view defended by Ramanuja is called Vishishtadvaita, “monism with characteristic”. It focuses on the devotion to Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi. It also incorporates earlier devotional hymns composed by the Alvars, a locally celebrated lineage of Tamil Vaishnava poets, who counted one female guru in their ranks. The order of the Shrivaishnavas has the remarkable characteristic of accepting of all castes.

A few decades after Ramanuja, at the end of the 12th century, Nimbarka founded another Vaishnava order in Vrindavan, in North India, devoted to Krishna, an incarnation, avatara, of Vishnu, and his consort Radha. The third Vaishnava order, the Brahma Sampradaya, dedicated to Laskhmi and Narayana³ , was founded in the 13th century by Madhvacharya, a former Dashanami Sannyasi. The Gaudiya Sampradaya founded in the 16th by the Bengali Chaitanya, a devotee of the divine couple Radha and Krishna, was related to the Brahma Sampradaya. The last of the four initial orders is the Rudra Sampradaya, founded in the 13th-14th centuries by Vishnuswami. The largest group of Vaishnava ascetics today is that of the Ramanandi, founded in the 14th century by Ramananda who came from the region of Benares, in North India. The Ramanandis are stemming from the Srivaishnavas of Ramanuja. Ramananda was distinguished by focussing his devotion on the divine couple Sita and Rama³⁷, and by emphasizing openness to all castes as well as to women. His main disciple was actually a woman. He did not elaborate a philosophical view distinct from that of Ramanuja, but emphasized the idea that the Lord, Bhagavan, and his devotee, the bhakta, are of the same nature. This principle

invalidates any discrimination based on caste or sex. Ramananda was one of the inspirers of Kabir, the famous ecumenical mystic of the 15th century. The ascetic of the Vaishnava orders, whose are in majority lay followers, are called Vairagi or Tyagi, two words evoking renunciation or detachment.

3.9.3 The armed ascetics

Ascetics carrying spears or swords are mentioned here and there in Indian literature from the 7th century CE, without it being known whether the use of these weapons was ritual or warlike. From the 13th century, there are undoubtful evidences of the existence of armed ascetics. First the Dashanami Nagas, the warrior-like branch of the Shaiva Dashanami Sannyasi founded by Shankara. Among other functions, they protected Shaiva ascetics threatened by Muslims. They received military training, although practicing yoga in times of peace. In battles, the Nagas impressed their enemies with their naked and painted bodies, their disproportionate mustaches and their state of intoxication with alcohol or hashish. Some other Shaiva ascetic warriors belonged to the order of the Kanphata Yogis³⁸.

Vaishnava armed ascetics then appeared, first with the initial purpose of defending their holy places against gangs of ascetic Shaiva warriors who terrorized the pilgrims and attempted to seize lands. Whatever their side, these groups could engage in four types of violent activities. They hired themselves as mercenaries to kings whether Hindu or Muslim, who rewarded them in particular by the donation of lands and the income generated by the peasants. With a more religious motivation, some ed forces with Hindu kings against the Muslim kings who, from the 12th century onwards, dominated North India. Sections of such militarized ascetics fought against each other, notably Shaivas against Vaishnavas. Such a violent encounter which remained famous took place in 1266 at the time of the great periodic gathering of the Kumbha Mela in Haridwar, a holy Hindu city in the high valley of the Ganges. Armed ascetics could also seize lands, either to appropriate the incomes or to become farmers themselves. Among the non-violent mundane activities of these groups were trading and money lending. Groups of Muslim mystics called fakirs³ fought alongside Muslim leaders.

According to the French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, in the 17th century

India counted about a million Hindu warlike ascetics and as many on the Muslim side. This is the reason for the partial opening of the ranks of the Dashami Sannyasis to non-Brahmins, because the order lacked war personnel. Kept by the rules of the order, those Brahmin Sadhus had to initiate their new non-Brahmin recruits. However they still maintained a distinction of purity between their according to their caste of origin. The Dashanami Sannyasis of South India, less subject to the Muslim threat, did not have to integrate non-Brahmins into their ranks and are proud of it even today. Such gangs of religious bandits had become a nuisance in Bengal. Under the name of Sannyasi Fakirs⁴ , under the pretense of going on pilgrimages they levied wild taxes on peasants, going so far as to plunder temples. But when, in the 18th century, they attacked the tax collectors of the East India Company, the British hired soldiers to drive these brigands beyond the Nepalese border.

Was Buddhism, during its presence in India, the target of such armed ascetics? There is no evidence so far concerning Indian territory proper, but iconoclastic anti-Buddhist activities of Shaiva sects are attested in Cambodia for a brief period. During the second half of the 12th century, the Khmer king Jayavarman VII had covered his territory with temples dedicated to the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle and hosting numerous statues of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The royal temple of Bayon, in the capital Angkor Tom, is a famous testimony of that period. Jayavarman VII also attempted to reduce the influence of dynasties of court Brahmins who had become king makers (Dagens 2013: 211). Thirty years after the death of this sovereign, in the middle of the 13th century, the situation changed. The new king, Jayavarman VIII, was a devotee of the Hindu god Shiva and was surrounded by Brahmin advisers. Then, a violent Shaiva sect, perhaps led by an Indian preacher (Dagens 2013: 179180⁴¹), undertook in Cambodia

the systematic destruction of images of Buddha and Avalokiteshvara, accompanied or not by their transformation (generally coarse)⁴² into Shaiva representations […] We will mention the examples of the Buddha of Bayon crushed and precipitated in the foundation well of the temple, hundreds of Buddha beheaded or mutilated recently found in Banteay Kdei or statues of Jayavarman VII more or less mutilated and discovered long ago not far from the

Prah Khan of Angkor: indeed, the iconoclasm has also extended to portraits of the king and his family⁴³.

This happened a few decades after the Afghan raiders smashed the main Mahayanist monastic universities of the Gangetic plains. In India and Nepal, Buddhist temples and images recycled by Hinduism are numerous, although it is unclear under what circumstances these reappropriations were carried out. Likewise, many vandalized Buddhist statues have been, and are still found off the roads traversed by Muslim armies in the Medieval times.

³¹ All quotations from Vireswarananda 1988. Brackets are in the original.

³² Word between square brackets added by Bronkhorst.

³³ Like several modern researchers since Sylvain Lévi, Lorenzen (2012: 19) recognizes that “Shankara, for instance, borrowed key ideas from Madhyamika Buddhism.”

³⁴ Derived from the Sanskrit verb root SADH- meaning “to go straight to the point”, “to succeed”, or “to strive towards the goal”, “to practice”, the feminine name sadhana, in Hinduism, refers to the spiritual practice as a whole, and a Sadhu is a holy man, both morally “right” and who went “straight to the point”.

³⁵ i.e. he was from Tamil Nadu, a state in South-East India, where the main language, Tamil, is not Indo-European but Dravidian.

³ Another name for Vishnu.

³⁷ An incarnation of Vishnu, just like Krishna.

³⁸ Also called Nath Yogis, they constitute an order resulting from the hinduization of a lineage of Tantric Buddhism.

³ Distinct from the Baul-Fakirs, the ecumenical minstrels of Greater Bengal.

⁴ Id.

⁴¹ We translate from the French original.

⁴² Brackets by Dagens.

⁴³ This episode was short-lived, and followed by the domination of Theravada Buddhism, under the reign of kings surrounded by Brahmin advisers, the bakus, until the 20th century.

3.9.4 The ascetic practices of the Sadhus

Practically speaking, it happens that individuals enter a Sadhu order for nonreligious motives, such as seeking a livelihood, or fleeing lawsuits or unbearable family situations. But normally, one becomes a renunciant to achieve spiritual liberation. The ascetic practices of the Sadhus may be based on two different philosophical views. For the Shaivas who follow Shankara's Advaita Vedanta, the goal is to realize the identical nature of the individual Self and the universal and undifferentiated Brahman. The intellectual tools for one to approach this realization, is to consider that everything one perceives, i.e. the manifest world, is an illusion, maya. The Vaishnavas, on the other hand, view the manifest world positively: they strive to see it as the “play”, lila, of the only one god, or even as the frolicking of the divine couple, and the devotee, bhakta, aspires to remain eternally in the ecstatic contemplation of his god.

To achieve either goal, viz. the goal of the Shaiva Sadhus or of the Vaishnavas, a practice common to all initiated ascetics is the recitation of the mantras transmitted by the gurus at the various levels of initiation. In addition, there are yogic breathing and body control exercises including the taking of postures for a long time, visualizations, and specific diets. There are also extreme practices of mortification, such as standing with one arm above the head until the arm’s muscles are atrophied, or inflicting trauma to the genitals to cause impotence, with the intention to get rid of sexual desire. Most of Sadhus live an itinerant life in small groups. When they stop, they light the dhuni, the sacrificial fire. Around the fire they practice yogic exercises, sing devotional songs, and perform ritual offerings. These gatherings are also the occasion of a ritual use of hashish, opium and other intoxicants such as datura. The justification of these consumptions, and often addictions, is that such intoxications would facilitate the perception of the illusory nature of the phenomena, or favor the vision of the deity. These practices, very common among the Sadhus, sometimes with fatal outcomes, are not, however, approved by all⁴⁴.

Their visit to temples and places of pilgrimage, and their attendance at religious festivals are opportunities for the Sadhus to receive offerings in kind or in money, to deliver public sermons, and to guide lay disciples when required. The bond is particularly strong between lay Brahmins and their Dashanami Sannyasi gurus, since the latter come from Brahmin families too. The pilgrimage routes traveled by the various orders of Sadhus are defined and regular, as are the periods and durations of their stays, so as to maximize the opportunities to meet with the lay devotees. Some ascetics are sedentary, either because they are in a period of spiritual retreat, or because they have responsibilities in the management of their order. Certain orders are involved in commercial, banking, real estate, or medical activities such as Ayurvedic consultation centers.

Sadhu orders also organize theatrical performances of mythical tales, for which they hire professional actors⁴⁵. For the Vaishnava Sadhus, the epic of the Ramayana is particularly meaningful, and its episodes are used as a basis for spiritual teachings, intented for ascetics as well as for the laity⁴ . In a more general sense, these periodic meetings with devotees are an opportunity to maintain and develop Hindu religious culture throughout the territory of India. In regular with the lay devotees, some Sadhus deliver not only spiritual instructions and words of comfort, but also advice for private or professional life. If necessary, they use their connections to help their disciples including, for the most influential ones, in the judicial and political fields, at the local as well as at the national levels. In modern India, where traditional roles tend to be disrupted by the rapid development of urbanization, modern economy and consumption, the lifestyle of the Sadhus is considered by some to be archaic and unproductive, while for others it is a salutary reminder of the spiritual dimension of existence. Nevertheless, proponents of both opinions often call upon the supernatural powers of the Sadhus to further their own worldly goals.

With rare exceptions, the anthropologist Robert Gross its he could not collect any integral philosophical discourse from the part of the Sadhus he frequented, nor any coherent presentation of how the philosophical concepts they mention are articulated with their ascetic practices. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that their discourses and practices contain fragments of the religions of Greater Magadha already met with in previous Brahmanic religious creations,

but enriched with elements coming from Tantric Buddhism. For instance, the mortifications practiced by some Sadhus correspond to those which the Ajivika invented to accelerate the exhaustion of karma. Shaiva Sadhus hold phenomena as illusory, as does the Buddhist Madhyamika View, but these Sadhus consider phenomena as undesirable, and resort to concrete means to stop perceiving them. Among such means are the excessive consumption of hashish and other drugs, extreme mortifications, and even suicide by drowning in watercourse. The three methods are sometimes combined. Vaishnava Sadhus say they refuse to push their spiritual liberation to the point of realizing non-duality because they wish to enjoy endlessly a dualistic love relationship with their god. This could somehow remind us of the Bodhisattvas of the Great Vehicle of Buddhism, as they also form the wish to reincarnate in samsara, but the motivation differs: the Bodhisattvas wish to continue helping beings who are trapped in suffering.

Therefore, ideas and practices inherited from the cultures of Greater Magadha abound in the Brahmanic and Hindu ascetic corpus, from their mention in the Upanishads and the Mahabharata up to the current traditions of the Sadhus. However, they are not part of coherent theoretical and practical systems. The reason is that they are elements of religions of renunciation, borrowed by a Brahmanic community whose values are Vedic. Vedism aims at securing material prosperty here and now, in a terrestrial world considered as desirable. The supernatural means to fulfil these natural desires is the propitiation of gods who are conceived of as supermen. The after-death is the abode of ancestors who can also influence the fate of the living and who must therefore also be propitiated. There isn’t the idea of liberating the soul from the bonds of the manifest world, and hence no quest for it. A fortiori, we don’t find here the alstruistic aspiration to relieve all living beings from their suffering by guiding them towards this liberation. That is why the aspirations of the Sadhus oscillate between the nihilistic negation of the body and desires, for the Shaivas, and the eternal face-to-face with a god for the Vaishnavas.

3.10 The Ayurvedic medicine

There is a domain, less spiritual than the previous ones, which we associate all the more easily with Hindu India since Brahmins have appropriated it, once again by affixing the legitimizing seal of Vedism to it. That is “Ayurvedic” medicine. The qualifier of “Vedic” applied by the Brahmins to these therapeutic practices has two benefits. It values this medicine by relating it to the Vedic corpus, and it reciprocally values this corpus by making it covering a new field of knowledge. It also allows the Brahmins to claim an additional skill, since their quality of Veda connoisseurs supposedly extends their expertise to the Ayur Veda too. However, Ayurvedic medicine is not of Brahmanic origin, but constitutes another trait of the cultures of Greater Magadha. The ancient Brahmanic text describing therapeutic procedures, as for it, is the Atharva Veda.

The difference between the medical approach of the Atharva Veda and that of Greater Magadha has been mentioned in ancient times by the Greek Megasthenes, envoy of Seleucos I to Magadha, in Pataliputra, the capital of Chandragupta Maurya, around 303 BCE. His descriptions were reported by the Greek historian Strabo. According to Megasthenes, there were Brahmanic ascetics, and two types of non-Brahmanic ascetics, or Shramans. He defines the first type of non-Brahmanic ascetics as being fond of philosophical argumentation. They could have been Buddhist monks. The other type of Shramans was renowned for their skills in pharmaceutical preparations, which is why Megasthenes called them “physicians”, iatrikoi in Greek. Some of them begged for food and spent long periods in ascetic immobility. Here we recognize the ancient Jaina asceticism.

The medical science of these Shramans of Greater Magadha is known in more detail by the Buddhist canon in the Pali language. It included a theory of three humors, viz. bile, phlegm and wind. The ingestion of improper food causes the imbalance of these humors, and this in turn affects the five elements constituting the body. These imbalances can be cured by diets and purges. Medication and

external treatments such as the application of balms and poultices were also resorted to. This therapeutic approach can be described as empirical-rational. It corresponds completely to the current medicine known as Ayurvedic, and comes from Greater Magadha, not from the Brahmanic world. As for the medicine of Atharva Veda, it attributes the diseases to the violation of taboos or to curses against the gods, to the intrusion of evil spirits in the body, or to sorcery. In of treatment, Atharvavedic healers resort to magic, spells and amulets. Megasthenes describes Brahmanic ascetics, typically dressed in antelope skins, wearing long hair and chignon like the hermits described in the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, and engaged in witchcraft, the use of plants, astrology and a “natural philosophy”.

⁴⁴ For more details on the ascetic methods of the Sadhus, see Gross 1992. This doctorate thesis in Anthropology is base on its author's immersion in the world of Indian Sadhus from 1969 to 1973.

⁴⁵ Or so was it at the time of the field research done by Gross some 50 years ago.

⁴ According to some, the writing of the first Ramayana, by Valmiki, could have started in the 2nd century CE. However, the Vairagi Sadhus rely on the Ramayana version composed around 1547 by Tulsidas in Benares under the title Ramacarita Manas.

3.11 Religious art

India’s oldest statuary and religious monuments belong to the religions of Greater Magadha. In architecture they are, first of all, the stupas, the burial mounds of the Buddha and his disciples. They are difficult to date because they have underwent several successive enlargements. There are no traces of other erected monuments before Ashoka’s time (3rd century BCE). There are indications that the constructions were made of wood and bricks, which are perishable materials. But more resistant monuments have come down to us, “hollow” monuments so to speak, i.e. the cave-sanctuaries excavated during the Ashokan period. Their surface carved in rock imitates the appearance of wooden architecture with beams, lintels, etc. The earliest specimens are the caves excavated during the reigns of Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha, in the hills of Barabar and Nagarjuni, near Bodhgaya, in Magadha. Inscriptions attest to the attribution by Dasharatha of two of the Nagarjuni caves for the use of Ajivika ascetics. This excavated architecture then spread to areas where the stone, softer, is easier to work on, such as the Buddhist caves of Ajanta, to the North-East of Mumbai. These also contain beautifully painted figurative frescoes, well preserved in spite of the humid climate of West-Central India. In Odisha, in the East, the caves of Khandagiri and Udayagiri⁴⁷, in the vicinity of Bhubaneshwar, were occupied by Jaina ascetics. The Hindu cave temples appeared later, from the 6th century CE onward (Srinivasan 1972: 30).

The oldest identified Indian religious statuary art actually consists of the first representations of the Buddha, the fruit of the encounter with the Greek cultural area in the North-West. Previously, the presence of the Buddha in the narrative low reliefs was indicated by his meditation cushion under the tree of Enlightenment, by the horse with which he left the paternal palace, or by the imprint of his feet. The earliest Buddhas in Gandhara art look like Apollo dressed in a Roman toga. More Indian-style Buddhas appeared at the same time in Mathura, located between the present cities of Agra and Delhi. The meditative practices of Mahayana and then Vajrayana Buddhism soon provided artists with the opportunity to represent an increasing number of expressions of Enlightenment, e.g. Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Tantric deities in peaceful or

wrathful forms. As the Indian scholar Benoytosh Bhattacharyya wrote, this “pantheon became extremely attractive, and all, including Hindus and Jainas, started building their pantheons and adding to their gods and goddesses.” (Bhattacharyya 1958: 385⁴⁸)

⁴⁷ Not to be mistaken for the built Buddhist monastic complex of Udayagiri, some 60 km to the North-East of Bhubaneshwar, to which refer all other mentions of Udayagiri in this book.

⁴⁸ Page 454 in the 2013 edition (see bibliography).

3.12 Non-violence

“Non-violence” in the context of South Asian religions translates the Sanskrit word ahimsa, literally “no intention to kill.” The abandonment of violence against humans and animals was encouraged by the edicts carved on stone throughout the Maurya Empire by the emperor Ashoka, remorseful after his bloody conquest of Kalinga (Odisha). This notion comes from the native Magadha of Ashoka, where Ajivikism and Jainism considered that any new action must be avoided in order not to feed karma, and where Buddhism taught that suffering results from the bad intention of an action. Vedism, on the other hand, is a religion of sacrifices, including human ones. When the Brahmin general of the Mauryas, Pushyamitra, assassinated the last Maurya Emperor and took his place, he re-honored ancient Vedic sacrifices, including that of horses. He also mistreated the Buddhist institutions, going as far as to behead monks⁴ .

3.13 Devotion

Personal devotion to a god has come to characterize Hinduism, following the dissemination of texts like the Bhagavad Gita and some Puranas. There is nothing Vedic about this type of religious attitude. It is recuperated from a form of Buddhist asceticism mentioned in the Mahayana Sutras, which were written down in the first three centuries of the Christian era. The emblematic example is the devotion to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and especially the recitation of his mantra, a practice much praised in the Kandavyuha Sutra.

There are three essential differences between devotion to a Buddha or a Bodhisattva and devotion to a Hindu god. The first difference is the Buddhist idea of emptiness, which characterizes all phenomena, including the Bodhisattvas themselves as well as the Pure Lands which they temporarily manifest to contribute to the spiritual progress of sentient beings. The second difference is that a Buddhist practitioner places his trust in a being who is temporarily more advanced than him, but who is not different from him with regard to his intrinsic nature. And thirdly, in Buddhism, the intention of any practice is altruistic. We wish that all beings access the Pure Lands and their privileged conditions of spiritual progress, and we aspire ourselves to equal the prowess of the great Bodhisattvas so that we can in turn help all living beings. Each and every sentient being may have had positive or negative relationships with us, in many different ways, during an unknown number of reincarnations. Hence we understand that aversion and attachment are impermanent. Therefore, the only appropriate feeling to develop towards these tormented beings, as well as towards ourselves, is comion.

Vedic thought, for its part, makes distinctions of nature between human beings, the outcasts being considered as subhumans whose is polluting. For the Brahmins, earthly happiness is to be optimized by satisfying the gods in a transactional relationship of reciprocity, humans making offerings and gods granting boons. Post mortem life is expected to prolong earthly relationships,

with each deceased individual meeting his ancestors in the hereafter. Once incorporated into this frame of thought, the devotional attitude, originally directed towards Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, became an appeal to the leniency and power of a new set of gods, heroes or local deities. Hence was developed the worship of the Hindu pantheon, comprehending gods such as Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Ganesh, Hanuman, Kali and others, originally non-Aryan local tribal gods, for most of them. In line with the Vedic values, this call to the power of divine beings has two main aims, viz. solving concrete problems of the present life, and obtaining to remain eternally, after death, in the benevolent presence of the god.

3.14 Sanskritization and brahmanization

Certainly, many Brahmins, from the time of the Buddha onward, adhered to Buddhism and also entered monastic life. It is in particular to curb this phenomenon that other Brahmins endeavored to offer alternatives to Buddhist spirituality, alternatives which do not threaten the caste system. The only influence Brahmanism exerted on Buddhism has been to make Mahayana Buddhists write or rewrite their texts in Sanskrit⁵ . In the Kushan Empire, Buddhists used local languages, such as the Gandhari in the North-West. Starting from the Shunga Empire, and then under the Gupta rulers, the Brahmins made Sanskrit the prestige language of the learned ones in royal courts. The Buddhists had developed their public speaking skills at the of the Greeks in Gandhara, but when they were challenged to defend their ideas in public in brahmanized royal courts, they had to do so in Sanskrit. At the same time, the Brahmins who became Buddhists, through their family linguistic training, put their skills in Sanskrit at the service of writing Buddhist stories, such as the Jatakas or the life of Buddha Shakyamuni. They also rewrote in Sanskrit some Buddhist texts previously written in other languages. Finally, they composed new texts directly in Sanskrit. This may have served the spread and understanding of Buddhism among the intellectual elite of the courts, but these scribes have also, perhaps unintentionally, brahmanized the narratives. They tended to evolve the characters in an ideal Brahmanic society, an anachronism which ends up modifying the vision that the Buddhists themselves had of the religious history of the subcontinent.

⁴ According to the Manjushrimulakalpa Sutra, a Buddhist text of an intermediary type between Sutras and Tantras, dating from the 2nd century CE.

⁵ The schools from which the Theravada comes from, due to their geographical distribution, especially in Sri Lanka, have been spared by the sanskritization which started in the Gangetic valley. They used the Pali language.

3.15 An incomplete assimilation

Vedism evolved into Brahmanism under the influence of the doctrines of liberation born in Greater Magadha and the ascetic practices they inspired. Then Brahmanism became Hinduism by embracing the personal devotional practices of non-Vedic deities. These practices aim at the liberation from individual existence, and may tend, in certain Vaishnava sects, towards a transgression of caste segregation. In all these cases, the Brahmanic and then Hindu versions of these practices appear historically after their Ajivika, Jaina or Buddhist models, in a context of rivalry. We can assume that the former are tentative attempts to appropriate the latter.

Another fact which militates in favor of this thesis lies in the articulation between philosophical principles and ascetic practices. This articulation, or coherence, is explicit in the case of the religions of Greater Magadha, while it is often incomplete in Brahmanism and Hinduism. It is even incoherent, in texts as famous as they are eclectic, such as the Bhagavad Gita, which compiles irreconcilable Views. Elaborated in the 10th century, the so-called “Kashmir” Shaivism theorized by Abhinavagupta is a compilation of ideas from Mahayana Buddhism such as emptiness (the impossibility to prove neither the existence nor the non-existence of phenomena), associated with Shaiva theism, reminding of Shankara’s ideas. Later, the Yoga Vashishtha, a treatise in the form of a narrative, features a warrior, Rama, another incarnation of Vishnu. The hero feels dejected by his way of life and wishes to renounce the world. His father king, who wanted his son to succeed him, sent him the Rishi Vashishtha, who finally convinces the prince to do his caste duty, in this case killing the demon Ravana. In the same way, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna convinces Arjuna to fight his cousins. Both texts state that the hero combines obedience to his caste duty and his liberation from samsara⁵¹. By contrast, the Buddha had definitely turned his back to worldly life to become an ascetic, first to free himself from samsara and then to be able to teach the path to all sentient beings without discrimination.

The difference thus lies in the doctrinal basis which constitutes the common thread of the whole history of Brahmanic culture, namely the absolute necessity of maintaining the caste system dominated by the Brahmins. With this social doctrine, Vedic thought combined ritual interactions with the gods to promote happiness on earth, with offerings to the ancestors to secure a place with them in an eternal paradise after death. Even in the remarkable case of Vaishnava ascetic orders open to all castes, offerings to the ancestors are still performed daily, and the prospect of a liberation from the cycle of reincarnations, an extra-Vedic concept that is difficult to accept, is explicitly refused in favor of an eternal idyll with the deity. The ideas and spiritual practices of Greater Magadha have influenced the Vedic religious culture to the point of making it evolve into Brahmanism and then Hinduism. But, because they contradict the foundations of Vedism, the latter, despite important evolutions, has never been able to really understand them, let alone assimilate them. After Mahayana Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, particularly Vajrayana, will also deeply mark the religious life of the Indian subcontinent.

Photo 2: Kurukulla of Uddiyana, a female expression of Enlightenment (Newar art)

⁵¹ The introduction to a modern Indian edition of the Yoga Vashistha lists the systems that can be recognized in this text in the following : Jainism, Mahayana Buddhism, Mahayana Yogachara, Samkhya, Vedanta and ShaivaSiddhanta. The Western author of this introduction praises this “fascinating confluence”, this “amalgam, similar to a mosaic of diverse and sometimes opposing traditions.” (Shane: 2)

4 Uddiyana, cradle of Vajrayana

4.1 Uddiyana, the celebrated place of origin of Vajrayana Tantras

It is customary, in the Western research circles, atheist by principle, to seek the origin of an idea in an earlier one, or the model of a cultural trait in a neighboring culture. In so doing, the responsibility for finding the origin of the element in question is transferred to specialists of the neighboring culture or of an earlier period. In turn, the latter do the same every time they cannot explain a fact through their own criteria of what is possible and what is not, discarding as “legendary” the discourse of the culture or tradition they are studying. In some cases, however, one has to accept the limits of this method. In the present case, the materialistic historical approach fails to attribute the genesis of the Tantric tradition to imitators of previous cultural products. It is then possible that, as the Buddhist erudite and realized adepts themselves state, the Buddhist Tantras have been transmitted in this world via certain gifted adepts who were granted the Tantras during meditative visions.

Regarding Vajrayana, the most frequently cited place of the appearance of Tantras, as well as the birthplace of the founding masters of the transmission lineages of these Tantras, is Uddiyana⁵². Let us take the example of the Guhyagarbha Tantra. This Tantra, once transmitted to Tibet, constituted the main doctrinal foundations of the school of the Ancients or Nyingmapas. On its apparition in India, it was first transmitted by Vajrapani, a manifestation of the Buddha in a Sambhogakaya⁵³ form, to Indrabodhi⁵⁴, king of Uddiyana. The Guhyasamaja Tantra, sometimes considered to be the oldest, has been one of the most widely practiced and commented on until today. He was also initially received by Indrabodhi, in a direct vision of Buddha Shakyamuni.

The Garland of Sadhanas, Sadhanamala⁵⁵, is a collection of meditation manuals devoted to the various Tantric deities. As is the case with so many other Indian Buddhist texts, this Sanskrit manuscript has been preserved by the Nepalese

Newars. It contains several references to Uddiyana, either as the birth place of visionary masters who revealed the Tantric texts, or as the place of origin of the deities themselves, for example the female deities named Kurukulla of Uddiyana and Marici of Uddiyana. Prahevajra, Garab Dorje in Tibetan, known for his contribution to the elaboration of the View of the Great Union, was the grandson of Uparaja, a king⁵ of Uddiyana. It was in this kingdom that he transmitted his teachings to his disciple Manjushrimitra, who in turn taught them to Pasambhava, as well as to Shri Simha, “the Lion”, a silk trader from Central Asia⁵⁷. Manjushrimitra was succeeded by Jnanasutra, and the latter by Vimalamitra, who taught Indrabodhi in Uddiyana. Vimalamitra then traveled to Tibet, where he worked, along with Pasambhava and others, at establishing the teachings of the Great Union. Pasambhava was himself born in Uddiyana and was adopted by King Indrabodhi. The centrality of Uddiyana in the birth of Vajrayana is indisputable. But its geographic location is debated.

⁵² In the texts we find the spellings Oddiyana, Uddiyana and Odiyana. In any case, the dental consonant d is retroflexe, the first a vowel is long, and the initial vowel is either o or u. French speaking authors seem to favor the o, while English speakers usually write u.

⁵³ Tantric deities are often defined as Sambhogakaya forms of the Buddha. Here the Buddha is not specifically Shakyamuni, the historical terrestrial Buddha of our times, but the very wisdom of emptiness and comion inseparable. The ornaments covering the body of most of Tantric deities as well as of the great Bodhisattvas are symbols of the qualities attached to this wisdom. Enjoying these qualities, these enlightened beings thus express the dimension or the “body” of “complete enjoyment” of Buddhahood, in Sanskrit: Sambhogakaya.

⁵⁴ Both names, Indrabodhi and Indrabhuti, are met with in Sanskrit texts. The Indian word bodhi, which means spiritual awakening, is already familiar to English-speaking readers, especially in such as the Bodhi tree, Bodhisattva or bodhicitta. We will therefore use the name Indrabodhi here.

⁵⁵ The oldest known manuscript of this collection, discovered in the Kathmandu Valley, is written in Sanskrit language and Newar alphabet. It it dated from 1165. It contains the visualization instructions for meditation on 312 Tantric Buddhist deities.

⁵ An uparaja might as well be a vassal king or the regent of a king.

⁵⁷ That part of the world is called in the Sanskrit texts Maha Cina, Greater China, i.e. “enlarged China”, the peripheral regions to the West that China disputed with the Arab invaders and the Turkish tribes.

4.2 The hypothesis of the Swat Valley

There is a phonetic proximity between the Uddiyana of the Tantric literature on the one hand, and the name of an ancient region in Northern Pakistan, Udyana, mentioned by a 7th century Chinese pilgrim. This resemblance prompted a 13th century Tibetan pilgrim, and then 20th century European scholars, to locate the Tantric kingdom of Oddiyana in Kashmir.

4.2.1 The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang

In Sanskrit we find the word uddiyâna⁵⁸, with two retroflex dental consonants, meaning “a flight”. Another word is udyâna, “garden”, with only one dental, non-retroflex (Monier-Williams 2002). The Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang, Xuanzang in pinyin, visited India, ing via Central Asia and Gandhara, from 629 to 645 CE. He was unaware of the existence of Mantrayana, or at least he never mentioned it. Moreover, he could not encounter Vajrayana practices since his long sojourn in India preceded by a century the time of King Indrabodhi of Uddiyana. However, it is on his that the modern hypothesis of the identification of Uddiyana with the valley of the Swat River in the current Pakistani Kashmir was originally based.

Xuanzang wrote his travel journal in Sanskrit and then translated it into Chinese. The Chinese version was translated into French by Stanislas Julien and published in 1858. Xuanzang declares that most of the Buddhist monasteries in North-Western India, i.e. Gandhara and Kashmir, had not recovered from the raids of the Hephthalite Huns which took place two centuries earlier. He then writes (p. 131-132):

In the kingdom of Ou-tchang-na, [men] like to study, but do not show any zeal. The science of magic formulae has become an art and a profession with them […] They value the Law of the Buddha⁵ and believe, with respect, in the doctrine of the Great Vehicle. […] All these ordained people study the doctrine of the Great Vehicle, and devote themselves particularly to the practice of meditation. They like to read the texts that deal with this doctrine; but they are unable to delve into its meaning. They maintain pure conduct, and above all cultivate the science of magic formulae .

S. Julien follows the name of Ou-tchang-na, the Chinese phonetic transcription,

with Oudyâna, supposed to be the original Indian name, in parentheses. To make this reconstruction, Julien used the transcription system created by Xuanzang. So, at the time of Xuanzang, there would have been a small kingdom named Oudyâna in the region of the Swat River. Indeed, several places were, at times, called “garden”, Oudyâna, in the region of the Kabul River ¹, of which the Swat is a tributary. Another element of Xuanzang’s text has attracted attention: the mention of “magic formulae”. Could these refer to the mantras of Tantric Buddhism? In this respect, an observation made by another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Song Yun, is worth considering.

4.2.2 The Chinese pilgrim Song Yun

Song Yun preceded Xuanzang by a century. His was translated into French by Edouard Chavannes (1903). Sent in a quest for Buddhist texts, along with three other Chinese monks, by the Empress of the Northern Wei dynasty, Song Yun visited Central Asia and the North-West of India from 518 to 522, i.e. a century before Xuanzang. Song Yun reports a myth of origin of a ruling dynasty of Central Asia, in the region of Kashgar, today situated in Xinjiang, China. This area is to the North of Kashmir. The myth states as follows. Once upon a time, a dragon living in a lake killed a merchant by using magic formulae. Determined to chastise the dragon, the king “went to the kingdom of Woutch’ang to learn the magic incantations of the P’o-lo-men.” After the word Wou-tch'ang, the translator E. Chavannes indicates Udyâna in brackets. He comments that this term of Wou-tch'ang is, in Chinese spelling, very close to the Wou-cha of Xuanzang (but written Ou-tchang-na by Stanislas Julien in his translation of Xuanzang.) He also indicates that P'o-lo-men corresponds to the Chinese pronunciation of “Brahmin”. As for Xuanzang, he states that P'o-lo-men refers to Indians in general. The “magic formulae” mentioned by both Chinese pilgrims could very well refer to the Vedic incantations used by the Brahmins. The supposed potency of Brahmanic magic spells was one of the main reasons why Brahmins counselors or chaplains were resorted to by kings, in India as well as in Southeast Asia.

Moreover, when Xuanzang reports the use of magic formulae by the monks of Ou-tchang-na, it is difficult to see in it the recitation of mantras of Tantric Buddhism. The Tantric Buddhist methods are based on the Mahayana View of emptiness, as are the meditations of the monks of the Great Vechicle. But the practice of sexual union being part of these methods from the very beginning of Mantrayana, i.e. in the Yoga Tantras (Snellgrove 1987: 266-268), Tantric practices are incompatible with the monastic rules. That is why the Tantras were initially practiced and transmitted outside of the monasteries. The first adepts were either lay people, like King Indrabodhi, or former monks of the monasteries of Northeastern India (Nalanda, etc.), like the master Virupa. Regarding the time, King Indrabodhi belonged to the 8th century, as he was the

adopting father of Pasambhava who was invited to Tibet by the king Trisong Detsen towards the end of that same century. It took several centuries for Tantric methods to be adapted in order to fit monastic curricula. It would therefore be surprising that Tantric practices, in this case the recitation of mantras, were openly practiced by monks in a locality of North-Western India at the time of Xuanzang, in the 7th century. It is no less true that Buddhist monks, besides their practice of Buddhism stricto sensu, can make use of charms and spells according to local customs and at the request of the inhabitants, as Theravadin monks of Southeast Asia still do today. This is nothing new, and the Buddha himself has displayed magical powers and taught formulae aimed at diverse results, called dharanis. This does not, however, constitute the Tantric path.

Thus, the argument of the “magic formulae” cannot the hypothesis of the identity of Oudyâna in the Swat Valley with the Uddiyana as the place of origin of the Tantras of the Vajrayana. There remains the graphical and phonological resemblance between, on the one hand, Oudyâna (Udyâna in Chavannes), as a Sanskrit word reconstructed from Chinese, and on the other hand the Sanskrit Oddiyana or Uddiyana of Buddhist Tantras, rendered by Orgyen or Urgyen in Tibetan pronunciation and transcription (the retroflex d being close to the r). The first textual identification of the Oudyâna of North-Western India with the Tantric Uddiyana is due to a Tibetan pilgrim of the 13e siècle, aptly named Orgyenpa.

4.2.3 The Tibetan pilgrim Orgyenpa

For Giuseppe Tucci, the famous pioneer of Western Tibetology in the 20th century, Uddiyana was to be located in the Swat Valley, and his statement has been taken up by most of Western scholars and authors since then. In 1940, Tucci published the translation of two pilgrimage s made by Tibetans in “Uddiyâna”. Those pilgrims were Orgyenpa, who tried to reiterate the journey made by his master Gö Tsangpa at the beginning of the 13th century, and Tak Tsang Repa, who tried to walk in their footsteps three centuries later, around the year 1600. Tak Tsang Repa founded the famous Hemis monastery in Ladakh, the culturally Tibetan region of Indian Kashmir. Apart from the “pure vision” of Orgyenpa, who perceives certain women as Dakinis endowed with magical powers, nothing in these testimonies objectively attests to the presence of Buddhist practices or even of Buddhist architectural vestiges in the region in the 13th century nor, a fortiori, at the beginning of the 17th century. No Buddhist ritual activities, no monks nor nuns, buildings or statues. As for the toponyms, the article by Tucci does not specify to what extent the term “Orgyen”, a Tibetan pronunciation of Uddiyana, was used or understood by the locals addressed by the pilgrims. The latter, it seems, could not speak the local languages either. Furthermore, the hydrography of this mountainous and arid area does not match with the of the meeting of the king of Uddiyana, Indrabodhi, with Pasambhava as narrated in the latter's biographies. Indrabodhi set off on a boat in search of an island rich in jewels, and discovered Pasambhava on a lotus flower in the middle of a lake. Kashmir does not provide such a combination of sailing opportunities, islands, lakes, diamonds and lotus flowers. On the other hand, the Northeastern regions of India bordering the Bay of Bengal, such as the State of Odisha, do.

4.2.4 The mythologization of Uddiyana by the Tibetans

The fact is that after the historical period of Uddiyana, the kingdom of Indrabodhi and his adopted son Pasambhava in the 7th and 8th centuries, began a mythologization of Uddiyana in the Tibetan world (Bogin 2014). Once the active center of Tantric Buddhism had moved from the Indian plains to the North of the Himalayan range, the sacred topography seems to have followed. The historical Uddiyana having long been lost of sight, we then see Tibetan adepts of the meditation on Cakrasamvara, one of the main deities of the Yogini Tantras, equating Mount Tsari in Tibet with the kingdom of Uddiyana. The same phenomenon of transposition for ultimately practical reasons may have been at work in the localization of Uddiyana in Kashmir by the pilgrims of Western Tibet.

In search of Uddiyana, after phonetics and toponymy, one must consider archeology. To date, no archaeological discovery attests to the practice of Tantric Buddhism in the region of the Swat River in Pakistan, despite very recent and thorough investigations (Filigenzi 2015). On the other hand, the architectural vestiges, the statuary, the languages of the emblematic songs of the Indian Vajrayana, the biography of many of the main masters and revealers of Tantras, as well as the location of other holy places mentioned in Indian Tantric Buddhist literature, make Eastern India, primarily Odisha and Bengal, the privileged area for the development of Vajrayana.

Photo 3: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 4: Votive stupas (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 5: Marici of Uddiyana, a wrathful female manifestation of wisdom (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 6: The Bodhisattva Vajrapani (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

Photo 7: The Dakini Krodhi Kali, the Wrathful Dark One (Ratnagiri, Odisha)

⁵⁸ In this section and the following ones, which deal with phonetics, long vowels are indicated by a circumflex accent, as the quoted authors do.

⁵ i.e. the Buddhist Dharma.

We translate from the French original of S. Julien.

¹ According to the local cartographer subordinate to William Anderson, a British officer stationed in Bengal who published in 1847 “An Attempt to identify some of the places mentioned in the itinerary of Hiuan Thsang” (see bibliography).

4.3 Odisha, cradle of Vajrayana

The development and transmission of Buddhist philosophy and monastic lifestyle in India has been ed by many monasteries over the centuries. The destruction caused by the White Huns' incursions in North-Western India in the 5th century CE ruined the monateries of the Gandhara region and disrupted the exchanges between Buddhists from India and those from Central Asia. Buddhist kingdoms in Central Asia continued their activities for several centuries, maintained communication with China and directly inspired the very first adoption of Buddhism by the Tibetans. In the 8th century, the Tibetans were better informed and they decided to turn their attention towards the land of origin of Buddhism. During this period, the various schools of Indian Buddhism remained flourishing in the Kathmandu valley, as well as in the lower valley of the Ganges, particularly in the Magadha, the birth place of Buddhism, in Odisha, in the Greater Bengal which included present-day Bangladesh and, beyond, in Southeast Asia. Buddhism also remained alive in Central and Southern India and in Sri Lanka. In Northeastern India, some of the most famous Mahayana monasteries that remained active until their destruction around the year 1200 were Nalanda, Odantapuri, Vikramashila, Somapuri, Jagaddala, and the network of monasteries in Odisha (Pushpagiri, Udayagiri, Ratnagiri and Lalitgiri among others).

The progressive adoption of the main principles and practices of Tantrism in these Mahayanist monastic universities gave birth to the Tantric tradition as it took root in Tibet, to flourish there for another thousand years. Under the reign of the Pala dynasty, who dominated the Magadha, the current Bihar, as well as Bengal, a beautiful Buddhist statuary art developed. Its aesthetic was brilliantly taken to perfection by the Newar artists of the Kathmandu valley, whose works were always in great demand in Tibet, and even at the Chinese imperial courts. But, throughout South Asia, it is in Odisha that architecture and statuary profusely testify to the earliest and longest vitality of Tantric Buddhism. Several deities represented in Odisha are not attested in the art of other regions. Some are, by name, exclusively linked to Uddiyana, and their location in Odisha strengthens the identification Uddiyana with Odisha. These include two female

deities, Marici of Uddiyana and Kurukulla of Uddiyana, as they are named in the Sadhanamala. There are many other indications of the very close bond that Tantric Buddhism has had with Odisha.

4.3.1 The variants of the name “Odisha”

Phonetically, Xuanzang's travelogue provides other toponyms whose proximity to the word Uddiyana can be noted. We thus find the kingdom of Ou-che-yen-na. The translator S. Julien adds in brackets the Indian form Oudjdjayana (Julien 1858 Tome II: 167), i.e. Ujjain, today in the State of Madhya Pradesh, in the center of India. Ujjain might have already existed during the Buddha’s period, and was a secondary capital of the Maurya Empire of Ashoka. Today it is one of the main holy places of the Shaiva ascetics. Xuanzang also describes the kingdom of Ou-tch'a, which S. Julien (p. 88) identifies with Ouda, i.e. the current State of Odisha, pronounced locally Odiya. In the names Ouda and Odiya in latin alphabet, the d transcribes a retroflex rolled r, which explains why in the Latin alphabet we find the spelling Oriya, generally for the name of the inhabitants and their language, as much as Odiya. This retroflex rolled r is rendered by a r in the Tibetan equivalents Orgyan or Urgyen Furthermore, the name of the modern political entity, Orissa or Odisha, results from the contraction of Odra, the old form of Oriya, and of visaya or vishaya, meaning “territorial division” (Patel 2014). It is therefore possible that one of the forms of the name of Odisha corresponds to the name Uddiyana. In addition, the presence of Tantric Buddhism in Odisha for many centuries is concretely attested at the same time by the monuments, the statuary, the toponymy, the biographies of the masters, the language and the content of those of their texts which have reached us.

4.3.2 An early presence of Buddhism

Odisha has long been predominantly populated by the Shabara ethnic group, now known as Saora. Their non-Indo-European language belongs to the Munda group of Austro-Asiatic languages. Aside from the wooden idols of their local deities, the religious representations found in the region indicate the anteriority of the presence of Buddhism and Jainism over Brahmanism. On the textual side, the oldest version of Buddhist monastic rules, the Vinaya in the Pali language, depicts Tau and Bhallika, two merchants from Utkal principality in the North-East of Odisha. We learn that Tau and Bhallika met the Buddha fortynine days after the Enlightenment. They presented him with rice cakes with honey, and in return the Buddha gave them several of his hair. The two merchants brought these relics back to their country of origin and enshrined them in a stupa which they had built for this purpose.

In the 3rd century BCE, the emperor Ashoka had a monastery built in Kalinga where his brother wanted to devote himself to religious life. Again on the subject of relics, a Sinhalese chronicle states that when the relics of the Buddha were shared, one of his teeth fell to Kalinga, a region covering Southern Odisha and Northern Andhra Pradesh. The relic was placed in a stupa and gave its name to the city that developed there, Dantapura, “the city of the tooth.” It has been suggested that Dantapura was the ancient name for the city of Puri ², famous for its most venerated temple of Jagannath. Anyway, in the 4th century CE, to save the relic from the abuses perpetrated by a fanatic Hindu king, it was sent to Sri Lanka. At the same time, families of Brahmins began to settle in Eastern India, invited by local kings attracted by the Brahmanic political-religious model.

Besides, according to the Tibetan historian of the early 17th century Taranatha ³, Odisha is the land of the first dissemination of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eight Thousand Lines. Taranatha reports that it was the Bodhisattva Manjushri himself who, in the guise of a monk, transmitted this Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra, during a visit to Chandarakshita, king of Odisha, in the 1st

century CE. Shortly after that, the Mahayana erudite, Nagarjuna, a native of Andhra Pradesh, popularized this Buddhist school in Odisha among the Shabara ethnic group from the beginning of the 2nd century CE. A copper plate was found in the district of Balasore attesting to the donation of land to the Noble community of Monks of the Great Vehicle, Arya Bhikshu Sangha, to finance the construction of a monastery and the worship of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

4.3.3 The first dynasties

The first royal dynasty in Odisha whose dates are attested is the Mathara dynasty, who reigned from around 350 to 500 CE. Her territory covered Kalinga, the Southern region of present-day Odisha, and the North of present-day Andhra Pradesh, from the Mahanadi River in the North to the Krishna River in the South. Her capital was called Simhapura. Local chronicles present the Mathara kings as devotees of Narayana, a name corresponding to the Brahmanic deity Vishnu. They had good relations with Sri Lanka, and the Sinhalese chronicles present them as protectors of Buddhism. In the center of their territory, on Mount Mahendra, they had erected a miniature temple made of seven stones, still visible, in honor of their lineage deity (photo in Mishra K. C. 1971, plate n ° 1). It bears a small engraved inscription mentioning the name of Dharmakirti, Glory of Dharma. He can be the famous logician of the Cittamatra Yogacara school of Mahayana; native of this area, he studied in Nalanda in Magadha before returning to end his life in Kalinga. The hill where this edicule is located had the reputation of being frequented by many ascetics.

The next dynasty, the Shailobhava, reigned from circa 500 to 750. The Shailobhava venerated their lineage deity in the same miniature temple. Today it houses a lingam, the phallic stone emblematic of Shaivism. The Shailobhava said they were descended from a king of the Shabara ethnic group named Udayana. We can note a resemblance of this name with Uddiyana. Towards the end of the 7th century, the queen of Shailobhava, Kalyanadevi, wife of King Dharmaraja, granted land to the Buddhist master Ekajata Prabuddha Chandra. It was at the beginning of this same 7th century that a Hindu king of Bengal, Shasanka, led a persecution of Buddhism in the lower Ganges valley and Northern Odisha. A neighboring dynasty, the Ganga, appeared in the 7th century too. Successor to the Shailobhava dynasty, the Ganga worshiped in the same edifice of Mount Mahendra their chosen deity whose name, Gokarneshvar, refers to the Brahmanic god Shiva.

4.3.4 The Bhaumakara dynasty

Then came from Assam, in the North-East of Bengal, the Bhaumakara dynasty ⁴, who reigned in Odisha from 736 to 940. The titles of her first sovereigns reveal their veneration for the Buddha: Parama Saugata and Parama Tathagata can both be translated as Supreme Buddhist. Unlike the three previous dynasties, the Bhaumakara had not installed their lineage idol in the small temple of Mount Mahendra but in the village of Guheshwara Pataka, near their capital Viranja Nagara, today Jajpur, in the district of Cuttack. The name of this deity, Guheshwara, the Secret Lord, echoes the contemporary expansion of Tantrism, the way of the Secret Mantras, Guhya Mantra, in the area. The adjective guha or guhya, “secret”, is found in the name of Buddhist Tantras such as the Tantra of the Secret Matrix, Guhyagarbha Tantra, and the Tantra of the Secret Assembly, Guhyasamaja Tantra. Dating from this period are some Tantric metal statues found in the bed of the Salia River in Banpur, in the district of Puri, and preserved in the Bhubaneshwar State Museum. In the 9th century, the titles of the Bhaumakara kings indicate a new religious preference: Parama Maheshwara and Parama Vaishnava can be translated as Supreme Shaiva and Supreme Vaishnava, respectively.

4.3.5 The Somavamshi, Colaganga and Suryavamshi dynasties

The Somavamshi dynasty, who reigned in Odisha from 882 to 1110, venerated Jagannath. The Somavamshi continued the movement of inviting Brahmin families to settle in Odisha. During the last years of the Somavamshi, the Eastern Ganga dynasty, also called Colaganga and Imperial Ganga (10771434), worshiped in Puri the god Jagannath as Vishnu under the name of Purushottama, Supreme Being. In the 12th century, as the Muslim threat became more pressing in Bengal, to the North of Odisha, Buddhists and Hindus found refuge in Odisha. In the 1140s, the Colaganga king strove to make the proponents of both religions cohabit in harmony. From this time on the temple of Jagannath in Puri is stated to be the fourth of the great Brahmanic holy places located at the cardinal points of the subcontinent. This same Colaganga sovereign encouraged matrimonial alliances between his court and Ceylon, and his visit to Ceylon is recounted with praise in the Sinhalese chronicles.

After the extinction of the great centers of Buddhism at the beginning of the 13th century, some of the concepts of Mahayana and symbols of Vajrayana penetrated the Hindu worship of Jagannath. Since the time of the Suryavamshi dynasty, also called Gajapati, who reigned from 1434 to 1541, Jagannath is considered to be the Buddha as a manifestation of Vishnu. If Buddhism has left a lasting mark on the religiosity of this region, it is undoubtedly because, according first to Tantric Buddhist texts followed by Hindu texts, Odisha corresponds to the main Tantric holy place, Uddiyana Pitha.

4.3.6 Uddiyana Pitha, a major Tantric holy site

Indian Buddhist literature reveals that the seats of Tantric revelation are not the monasteries but places considered as being favorable to the success of Tantric practice. These are the pithas, a word meaning “seat”, but whose religious use can best be rendered by “holy place”. Tantras, and particularly Yogini Tantras such as Hevajra, mention four eminent pithas, and other secondary ones. The four main pithas are, according to the Hevajra Tantra, Uddiyana, Kamarupa, Purnagiri and Jalandhara. In the Sadhanamala, the four eminent pithas are named Uddiyana, Purnagiri, Kamarupa and Srihatta. Kamakhya, still frequented, is a holy place in Kamarupa, an ancient kingdom of Assam, and Srihatta is now the village of Sylhet in Bangladesh.

The location of two of these sites in Northeastern India is confirmed by a text from Shaktism, the Kalika Purana. Shaktism is an Indian religious form incorporating principles and practices of Vajrayana. In Shaktism the feminine principle is personalized under the name of Shakti, “energy”. This Shakti was then deified by Brahmins who assimilated her in their set of beliefs according to their usual strategy. In this case, Shakti was declared to be the consort of a male deity then in an advanced stage of brahmanization: Shiva. Some mythological adventures created for the occasion give life to this relationship and legitimize the introduction of a Brahmanic cult in holy places of Tantric Buddhism. And indeed, we read in the Kalika Purana that Odra (an ancient name of Odisha), called on some pages Uddiyana, is located to the West and is the seat of the god Jagannath (whose main temple is in Puri in Odisha). The Hindu Tantric text Brihannila Tantra assigned Jagannath a consort named “Bhairavi, goddess of Uddiyana” (Donaldson 2001: 11). The Kalika Purana adds that Jalandhara, sometimes called Jalashala, is to the North, Purnashala (i.e. Purnagiri, of the same meaning) is to the South, and Kamarupa to the East. Uddiyana in the West and Kamarupa in the East therefore circumscribe in Northeastern India the perimeter of the development of Vajrayana.

4.3.7 Sambalpur and Shambhala

According to the Tibetan translation of the biography of King Indrabodhi (Abhayadatta 2003: 133), the country of Uddiyana at his time comprehended two kingdoms, that of “Sambhola”, ruled by the Buddhist king Indrabodhi, and that of Lanka, with its capital Lankapuri, led by the non-Buddhist king Jalendra. In the colophon of his treatise The Accomplishment of Wisdom, Jnanasiddhi, Indrabodhi indicates that he composed this text in Uddiyana. Likewise, his sister Lakshminkara writes that she composed her Accomplishment of Non-Duality, Advayasiddhi, in Uddiyana, “holy place of the Great Yoga”, Mahayoga Pitha. The Kalacakra Tantra was revealed at the stupa of Dhanyakataka by an emanation of the Buddha to “a king of Shambhala”. At the beginning of the 10th century, Pitopa, according to Taranatha, or Cilupa according to Gö Lotsawa ⁵, taught the Kalacakra Tantra to Avadhutipa, Naropa and Bodhishri at Ratnagiri monastery in Odisha.

Sambhola is a Tibetan transcription of the name of the still existing city of Sambalpur in Western Odisha (the suffix -pur is used to form names of cities in Indian languages), about 250 km West-North-West to Ratnagiri and Cuttack. Claude Ptolemy, the Greek geographer of the 1st century, rightly located “Sambalak” on the left bank of the river “Manada”, i.e. Mahanadi, the main river of Odisha. Sambalpur diamonds were famous as far as in the Roman Empire. Still in the 17th century, the French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier reported that the diamond mines of “Sumelpur” were very reputed. The kingdom of Sambalpur was also called Hirakhand, “diamond region”. Diamonds were extracted from the sandy shores of the Mahanadi at a place called Hirakud, which means “diamond island.”

The s of the apparition of Pasambhava say that King Indrabodhi, who had no sons, went to “the island of jewels”, in order to find a magic jewel which could fulfil his wish to have a heir. There he discovered the young Pasambhava sitting on a lotus flower on the pond “Treasure of riches”,

Dhanakosha. It may have been a creek on the shore of the Mahanadi, or a natural cove on one of the islands of the river. In one of the biographies of Pasambhava (Cornu 1997: 60), the lake is located “South-West of the Diamond Throne”, the place of the Buddha's Enlightenment, in Bodhgaya, and “in the North-West of the country of Uddiyana”. Indeed, the Sambalpur region is in the North-Western part of Odisha, and to the South-South-Western direction of Bodhgaya. Today, Hirakud is a locality near Sambalpur, and gave its name to a hydroelectric dam built in 1967 on the Mahanadi. The dam lake, some 50 km long, completely submerged the ancient village of Papur and its dozens of Buddhist and Hindu temples. The very name of Papur, City of the Lotus, is likely to be of Buddhist origin.

4.3.8 Sonepur and Lankapuri

At 80 km to the South of Sambalpur is Sonepur, the vernacular form of Sanskrit Suvarnapur, the “golden city”. The designation of the region of Sonepur by the name of Lanka is attested in the 10th century (Sahu 1958: 148-189). Lanka is a common place name in the Indian subcontinent, and spread as far South as to the country of Sri Lanka. We find in Sonepur a rock on the bank of the Mahanadi which is still venerated as representing the “Lady of Lanka”, Lankeshwari. Lakshminkara, the sister of the king of Sambala, had been engaged to the son of Jalendra, king of Lankapuri, in Uddiyana. The Lady of Lanka can be the deified form of Princess Lakshminkara, the great accomplished adept of the Vajrayana.

4.3.9 Cuttack and Dhanyakataka

Finally, the “Fort of Prosperity”, Dhanyakataka, where the Buddha appeared to reveal the Tantra of the Wheel of Time, Kalacakra, to a king of Shambhala, can be identified to Katak, on the bank of the Mahanadi. Katak, possibly an abbreviated form of Dhanyakataka, transcribed Cuttack by the British, was the capital of Odisha until 1948, at the mouth of the Mahanadi. Some suggest that the great stupa of Amaravati, further South in the state of Andhra Pradesh, be considered as the place of transmission of the Kalacakra Tantra. There was indeed a city called Dhanyakataka, capital of the Satavahana Dynasty from the 1st to the 3rd centuries. Although today a village named Dharanikota, the Village of the Magic Formulae, is found there, so far the site has provided only sculptures representing the life of Buddha Shakyamuni.

On the other hand, 80 km South of Cuttack is the Konarak temple. The site, monumental and covered with numerous sculptures, has been added a temple dedicated to the sun-god Surya in the 13th century, a rare initiative in India, especially at such a late time in Indian religious history. The building’s carved frescoes abund in symbols, notably astrological ones. It may allow us to suppose that the sanctuary originally expressed the astronomical and yogic teachings of the Tantra of the Wheel of time. For instance, the sculptures circular in shape, commonly presented as figuring the wheels of the chariot of the solar deity, are actually representations of the twelve-ray zodiac as it is described in the Kalacakra Tantra.

4.3.10 The deity Jagannath of Puri

Some 30 km from Konarak, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal to the SoutEast, is the city of Puri and its great temple of Jagannath. Puri may be the short form of the “City of the Tooth”, Dantapuri, or Dantapura, where a tooth relic of the Buddha was kept before being transferred to Kandy in Sri Lanka in the early 4th century CE. A local opinion claims that an image of Buddha “Lord of the universe”, Jagannath, was originally worshiped by the kings of Sambalpur in the city of the same name. At the beginning of the 7th century, in his treatise Jnanasiddhi, Indrabodhi, king of Uddiyana, invokes the Buddha under the name of Jagannath: “I bow down before the Lord of the universe, who is praised by all the Buddhas” (I, 1). He also states that “the spiritual master, genuinely devoted to his disciples, is the emulator of all the Buddhas, thus says the Lord of the universe” (I, 27 ). The Buddha-Jagannath statue would then have been taken to Puri, where Jagannath would have been likened to Purushottama. This epithet sometimes qualifies the Buddha Shakyamuni and translates as “the best of men”. But it also sometimes refers to the Brahmanic god Vishnu, and is then better translated as “the Supreme Being”.

In the 19th century, the British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham (Mishra K. C. 1971: 16) reported a description he had been given of a statue preserved in the sanctuary of Puri, in the temple of the deity Shabari Narayana, which means the Vishnu of the Shabara ethnic group. This black stone statue, called Rajivalocana, represents a Buddha sitting cross-legged and making the canonical gesture of “calling the earth to witness”, bhumisparsha mudra, i.e. with the right hand placed on the knee and the fingers touching the ground. Is this statue still extant? It is locally said that a Buddhist statue is currently walled somewhere in the sanctuary of Jagannath of Puri (there are other less important Jagannath temples in other localities of Odisha). Some others even declare that, on the occasion of repair work the image was destroyed by Hindu occupants of the sancturary, and its broken pieces were thrown into the sea. Any verification of these rumors is hampered by the fact that the entry of the Jagannath sanctuary of Puri is prohibited to non-Hindus.

4.3.11 Buddhist sites and images in plenty

Buddhist ancient monastic sites are being unearthed in Odisha in an increasing number. Karuma Monastery, some 10 km North of Konarak Temple, was once on the very shore of the Bay of Bengal, and probably played a role in accomodating monks and merchants arrivng from China by sea. The reputation of the Pushpagiri Buddhist university was well established at the time of Xuanzang's visit to the region. Some monastic complexes are large and now better known, such as the sites of Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udayagiri, located close to each other to the North of Bhubaneshwar, and Langudi, a little further North.

One can see in situ monumental statues of the Buddha and the main Bodhisattvas as venerated in Mahayana and in Vajrayana. So far, spread over several dozen sites in Odisha, specialists have identified 178 statues of Tara in 12 different forms, 130 statues of 14 different forms of Avalokiteshvara, and 88 statues of Manjushri in 10 different forms (Mishra U. 2012). There is also a concentration, unique in India, of smaller statues of Tantric Buddhist deities such as Vajrasattva, Marici, and the extremely rare Dark Wrathful One, Krodhi Kali ⁷ (in Tibetan Tröma Nakmo). These bas-relief images often adorn small votive stupas. Some are even small enough to be carried as amulets. Several hundreds of such images have been found in Ratnagiri.

4.3.12 The temple of the 64 Yoginis of Hirapur

At the level of the town of Cuttack, one of the arms of the Mahanadi delta heads South and takes the name of the Kuakhai river. After 30 km, on the left bank, facing Bhubaneshwar, the new capital of Odisha, is a hamlet called “the City of Diamonds”, Hirapur. There is a hypedra stone temple, dedicated to the 64 yogini, Chausathi Yoginis. It is the most complete of the very rare circular open-air temples of India, which all predate the 10th century. It is the only one still having all its statues of female deites of Vajrayana, called Yoginis or Dakinis, each in one of the niches which punctuate the internal face of the circular enclosing wall. The central deity is Mahamaya.

A few meters from the temple is a pond covered with red lotuses. Hirapur's name echoes another “city of diamonds”, Hirakud, near Sambalpur, further upstream on the Mahanadi. The Hirapur lotus pond may have been on an island at a time when the course of the Kuakhai followed a different course. The shore of the Bay of Bengal was certainly closer to it at that time. Nearby, the temple of Konarak, whose current buildings date from the 13th century, was then at the water's edge and served as a landmark for sea sailors. Today, the shore is several kilometers far. The lotus pond of Hirapur and the circle of Yogini statues remind us of the invocation of Pasambhava known as the Seven Line Prayer, most famous in the Tibetan world, in which Pasambhava is described as “born on a lotus” and “surrounded by a circle of numerous Dakinis.”

4.3.13 Villages with evocative names

If we look at a modern map of Odisha, we are struck by the names of localities evoking Buddhism, and especially Vajrayana. Innumerable Buddhist statues have also been discovered there, some of which are still in place and revered. Let us mention some places with an evocative name: Dakineshwari Pitha, the Holy Place of the Dakini Goddess; Tarapur, the City of Tara, the great female Bodhisattva; Papur, the City of Pa or lotus ⁸; Kurukulla, where were found two statues of the female deity Kurukulla; Maricipur, where has been discovered a statue of Marici, a female deity whose stone images abound in Odisha; Vajragiri, the “Adamantine Hill”, Bidhyarpur, i.e. Vidyadharapur, the City of the Wise Ones ; the hilly range of Budha Bahal, meaning Buddhist Monastery⁷ , North of the Rengali dam; and the villages of Buddhakol, Baudh or Boudh⁷¹, all words formed on Buddha⁷². A few kilometers away from Cuttack flows a river bearing the name of a very famous Mahasiddha, Virupa (also pronounced Birupa).

Another village has a particularly suggestive name for anyone interested in the history of Tantric Buddhism in India and beyond: Chaurasi, which means “eighty-four”. The 84 Mahasiddhas, or Great Accomplished Ones, are the source of most of the transmission lineages of the Yogini Tantras, and their biographies are an invaluable source of information and inspiration. We do not know what is the link, if any, between the Chaurasi village and the list of 84 Vajrayana adepts. We notice the presence, in this village, of a temple dedicated to Varahi. This name means female boar, and the black stone statue that the cella houses represents a sow-headed, pot-bellied woman, holding a fish in the right hand and a bowl in the left. The fish is a widespread Tantric and yogic image, whose symbolism refers, among other things, to the control of the energies of the subtle yogic body. The Mahasiddha Tilopa is frequently depicted brandishing a fish. In addition, the Adamantine Sow, Vajravarahi, is the central deity of important Yogini Tantras. The images on the walls of the Varahi temple of Chaurasi feature couples in sexual union. Today, the deity of this temple is presented as the consort of Varaha, incarnation of the Brahmanic god Vishnu in the form of a boar.

Images of divine couples as well as Tantric practices such as the mandalas were introduced in Hinduism, and in particular in Vaishnavism, much after the rise of Tantric Buddhism, and often after its disappearance. Such is the case, for instance, with the Tantric rituals of the worship of Jagannath in Puri. It is possible that the essential elements of the iconography or even the whole of the sanctuary of Varahi in Chaurasi were inherited from the Buddhist worship of Vajravarahi or another of the many animal-headed Dakinis who fill the mandalas of the Yogini Tantras.

² The suffixes -pura, -puri, or -pur in modern languages, mean city.

³ Mentions of Taranatha refer to Chattopadhyaya 1970, except otherwise stated.

⁴ The Bhaumakaras can be considered to have come from Assam to Odisha, if we accept that they are identical with (or related to) the contemporary Bhauma dynasty, vassal of the Mleccha of Kamarupa in Assam.

⁵ Gö Lotsawa is a famous Tibetan historian who lived from 1392 to 1481. See his history of Tibet in Roerich & Choepel 1949.

Alexander Cunningham (814-1893) was a British archaeologist. By using the s of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, he was able to contribute brilliantly to the rediscovery of the Indian Buddhist sites of Sarnath, Sanchi and Bodhgaya.

⁷ The Sanskrit adjectives kala (m.) and kali (f.), as well as krishna, denote the

darkest color, a blue turning to black. Buddhist deities in any case are never black, but dark blue.

⁸ Beside the possibility of a simply botanical origin of this toponym, let us remind here that the lotus flower is a Buddhist symbol par excellence, and also that the master Pasambhava of Uddiyana is often called Pa in his biographies and prayers of invocation.

Vidyadhara, Knowledge-holder, is a term specific to Tantric Buddhism, where it is synonymous with Enlightened One.

⁷ If the dropping of the first d reflects an evolution of the pronunciation, the original name was Buddha Vihara, “Buddhist monastery”. It might also be the adjective budha, with a single retroflex d, meaning old, then the name would be “Old monastery”.

⁷¹ The spellings Baudh, Baud, Boudh and Boud are found. The name of the current district, in Devanagari script, corresponds to Baudh.

⁷² A detailed description of the statues found in Odisha, village by village, is given, with many photographs, in Donaldson 2001.

4.3.14 The languages spoken by the founding masters of Vajrayana

A significant part of Indian Tantric literature presents itself as having been written in Uddiyana, and a number of the authors of this literature are said to have been born or to have been particularly active in Uddiyana. For instance, Prahevajra, Garab Dorje in Tibetan, considered as the first teacher of the Great Union school, Mahasandhi, was born on an island of the pond (or lake) Dhanakosha, as was Padamsambhava. The writings of these first masters of the Great Union, as well as the other Tantric writings that Pasambhava, Vimalamitra, Buddhaguhya and their colleagues helped translating into Tibetan, have been preserved only in their resulting Tibetan versions. For the Sutras and Tantras translated in Tibet at the request of king Trisong Detsen during what is today called the first period of translation, only the Sanskrit title is reproduced, in the Nepalese ornamental ranjana alphabet (pronounced lantsa by the Tibetans.) The title is followed by a Tibetan phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit title. Thereafter comes the Tibetan version of the text. Within the text, only the mantras and certain syllables or mystical formulae are in phonetic transcription of Sanskrit or consist of syllables of unknown origin. The names of the translators are duly mentioned. The colophon of the Guhyagarbha Tantra tells us that “in the presence of the Indian pandita⁷³ Vimalamitra, this was translated by the Tibetan lotsâwas⁷⁴ Nyak Jnânakumara and Ma Rinchen Chok.” (Chonam & Khandro 2011 : 119) However, the Indian originals of these first translated texts, whatever their languages were, are no longer available.

Fortunately, the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley have preserved numerous manuscripts in Indian languages. These are Tantras, commentaries on Tantras, manuals for meditating on deities, as well as versified teachings which are often called in English “Songs of Realization”. Some Tantras, such as the Guhyagarbha or the Vajrakila Tantras, can consist in very voluminous texts. They follow more or less a standardized set of ordained chapters. After a presentation of the adopted philosophical view, there is a sadhana or method of meditation leading to the realization of the universe as the pure field of the deity, the instructions on the ritual of initiation, and various practices aimed at promoting the success of the practice, in particular the removing of obstacles.

Others Tantras seem to be collections of notes taken by disciples, their internal arrangement is motley, and they are sometimes presented as summaries of lost longer versions. The syllables of the mantras, to prevent their misuse by noninitiates, are given in reverse order, coded by numbers, or hidden in charades. The Tantras were written down while Sanskrit was becoming the prestigious written language of India, due to the successful efforts of the Brahmins. Tantras were therefore either written directly in Sanskrit, or translated from other Indian languages into Sanskrit. In this second case, the influence of the original language is reflected in the syntax and grammar of the Sanskrit version, for example in the Hevajra Tantra.

We must distinguish the question of language, Sanskritic or Northeastern, and that of explicit or enigmatic language. “Enigmatic language”, whatever the language, is a way of coding the text of certain yogic or ritual instructions. This is the language called “twilight language⁷⁵”, sandhya-bhasha, in several Indian commentaries on Tantras. The languages of the North-East were not yet, at the time of Indian Vajrayana, differentiated into Maithili, Bengali, Oriya (the language of Odisha) and Assamese. Non-Buddhist Sanskrit texts sometimes refer to them collectively as “the language of strangers”, or of the “barbarians”, mleccha bhasha, i.e. the languages of the tribes not yet brahmanized. The Mahabharata qualifies the Shabara and Kirat tribes in such derogatory . D. Gray noted in his Cakrasamvara Tantra (2007: 68, n. 185) that the expression “foreign language”, mleccha-bhasha, which refers to the language spoken by yoginis, has been translated into Tibetan by “symbolic language”. It could however be precisely a Northeastern language, because Mleccha is also the name of the third historic dynasty of Kamarupa, reigning from 650 to 900, before Kamarupa was integrated into the empire of the Pala Buddhist dynasty of BiharBengal⁷ . We even have a Tantra entirely written in a Northeastern language, the Dakarnava Tantra (Snellgrove 1987: 181, n. 115). In addition to the mention of Uddiyana as the place of writing of several Tantras, botany provides clues as to the region from where a Tantra originated, or at least where it was practiced. For instance, the Cakrasamvara Tantra prescribes the use, in offerings, of karavira and champaka flowers, which unsurprisingly are endemic in Northeastern India.

The languages used are themselves even more reliable indicators. In certain

Yogini Tantras, like the Hevajra, we read extracts of songs of Realization in their original language, i.e. a regional language alive at that time, and not in Sanskrit, the language of the learned. This is confirmed by the reading of more extensive versions of songs of Realization of the Indian masters of the Vajrayana. In 1907, the Bengali scholar Haraprasad Sastri discovered, in the archives of the Royal Library of Nepal, a palm leaf manuscript gathering 47 stanzas of such songs, written in vernacular languages of the North-East, accompanied by a commentary in Sanskrit⁷⁷. This document contains indications as to the musical modes to be used to sing these poems, a fact which confirms that they were intended to be sung. It is in this musical form that the Nepalese Newar Buddhists have engaged in the recitation of these poems until today in their collective Tantric rituals⁷⁸. The 47 stanzas from the Royal Library of Nepal are the work of 22 Mahasiddhas, accomplished adepts of Indian Vajrayana.

The vernacular languages used in these songs are variants of the linguistic corpus which will give various modern languages of Northeastern India such as Maithili, Bengali, Oriya, and Assamese. By reading these poems along with the biographies of the Mahasiddhas translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan, we see that the places of origin of these mystics, the languages they spoke and wrote, the places and names of some sovereigns they mention in their texts and, as in Tantras, the names of certain plants, all belong to the part of India comprised between Magadha in the West, Odisha in the South and Assam in the East. References to navigation and sea fishing, as well as to the great monastic universities of the Tantric era, all located between the Ganges, the Mahanadi and the Brahmaputra, confirm this location in the most redundant way. In these texts, one cannot find any reference to the North-West, to Kashmir or to the Swat valley. This point too s the thesis that the historic Uddiyana of king Indrabodhi was located in Odisha and not in Pakistani Kashmir.

⁷³ i.e. erudite.

⁷⁴ i.e. translators.

⁷⁵ We might as well say “auroral language”. The word sandhya refers to the age from night to day and vice versa, and hence can be used to refer to this ambivalent, two-way language. In its general sense, sandhya expresses the intermediate nature of what makes the link, the junction, the union. It is synonymous with sandhi, as in Mahasandhi, the Great Union.

⁷ Let us note here that the Mleccha were neighbors to the Bhauma. Both dynasties shared a common origin. It is possible that the Bhaumakara who settled in Odisha were related to these Bhauma of Kamarupa.

⁷⁷ An early translation of some of these songs into French was done by Shahidullah (1928).

⁷⁸ For the topicality of this practice among the Newar, see Moronval 2018a: 360362, and 2018b: 95-103.

5 The Mahasiddhas, the Great Accomplished Ones, in Odisha

Many of the most famous masters of Mahayana, and particularly of Vajrayana, were born or have been active in Odisha. There, they studied, or taught, they founded monasteries, revealed Tantras or wrote Tantric commentaries and treatises⁷ . For the Mahayana, mention should be made of Nagarjuna, who founded monasteries in the 2nd century, and Vasumitra who converted the nonBuddhist philosopher Makshika in the 5th century. A disciple of Vasumitra, Triratnadasa, founded many centers of study and practice, and his friend the logician Dignaga, lived in a monastery in Odisha. Dharmapala, disciple of Dignaga, spread the philosophy of the Practice of Yoga, Yogacara, and Dharmakirti, continuator of Dignaga, taught and founded a monastery. Among the masters of Vajrayana, let us quote Vajraghanta; Darikapa, disciple of Lilavajra himself disciple of Lakshminkara the sister of Indrabodhi; Virupa; Kanhapa alias Krishnacharin⁸ , to whom the Tibetan canon attributes more than 150 written works; Sahajalalita, author of a manual of meditation on the deity Marici of Uddiyana; Jnanavajra of Uddiyana alias Advaya Jnanavajra; Shavaripa⁸¹, who converted a king and a minister of Odisha; Saraha, who introduced among others texts the Kapala Tantra; Kambalapada and Pavajra (Hevajra Tantra); Luipa⁸² (Samputatilaka Tantra); Lalitavajra (Krishnayamari Tantra); Kukuripa (Mahamaya Tantra); Gambhiravajra (Vajramrita Tantra); Pitopa, master of yoga at Ratnagiri monastery, and revealer of the famous Kalacakra Tantra; Abhayakaragupta, born in the North of Odisha and who became abbot of Vikramashila monastery in Bihar; and Avadhutipa, Bodhishri and Naropa, who all studied at Ratnagiri.

Any spiritually accomplished follower of Tantric Buddhism can be called Mahasiddha in Sanskrit (Drupchen in Tibetan). The text entitled Life of 84 mahasiddhas, Caturasiti Siddha Pravritti, was written in Sanskrit in the 11th-12th centuries by Abhayadatta Shri, a native of Bihar, and was thereafter translated into Tibetan. It is a selection of short biographies of some of the masters who

have played a vital role in the transmission of Yogini Tantras, in India and beyond. Some of these gurus are well known, such as Saraha, Virupa, Tilopa or Naropa. The text also presents us with practitioners from all walks of life. Among those whose social origin is mentioned, more than 30 were engaged in activities of the lowest kind, according to the social prejudices of the time. They were blacksmiths, laundresses, ragpickers, shoemakers, deadwood gatherers, thieves or beggars. The second most represented category, which includes the great adept Lakshminkara, is that of kings, princes and other of the warrior class, 16 in number in this collection. One of them, despite his birth, finds himself destitute and survives by selling lotus roots. Then come 11 Brahmins, and seven monks. The latter left their monasteries to devote themselves fully to the Tantric way. Among the masters of bourgeois origin, we find three women: a disciple of Kukuripa named Manibhadra, who practiced secretly for 12 years while fulfilling her duties as a wife and mother, and the two sisters Mekhala and Kanakhala who left their husbands to follow Kanhapa.

All these adepts have awakened to their fundamental innate freedom thanks to the benevolence of their master and their sustained use of the skillful means of Vajrayana. In these 84 biographies, the master of the Mahasiddha-to-be is, in more than half of the cases, a yogi, often anonymous, “a yogi who was ing by”. Sometimes the guru is a monk (12 occurrences), also “ing by”. Seven times the master is a Dakini, including, once, the mother of the practitioner. The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is the master of three Mahasiddhas, once in the guise of a monk. The deity of meditation to which the disciple is initiated is not always identified. It is mostly Hevajra (16 occurrences) and Cakrasamvara (14), then Vajravarahi (3) and Vajrayogini (1), Avalokiteshvara (2) and Manjushri (1). Sometimes there is not even the usual laconic mention of a Tantric initiation, viz. “he blessed him with an initiation.” King Kankanapa, who did not want to give up his mundane pleasures, was told to focus his attention on the precious stone of his finger ring, and then to consider his mind and phenomena as being similar to the jewel and its brilliance. By so doing, he cleared his mind from attachment to his sensory perceptions within six months. Two other Mahasiddhas reached their goal in the same time span, but the most frequent duration of practice is 12 years (30 occurrences), then nine years (nine times). In one case, a week was sufficient. After their Enlightenment, the Mahasiddhas devoted themselves to teaching the spiritual path, but some others continued to perform their functions as kings or as head of family. The stories are remarkable for their conciseness

(no more than a few pages, sometimes only one page), their colorful scenes and the flavor of their dialogues⁸³. The reader is also struck by both the simplicity and profundity of the spiritual instructions delivered by the gurus, and the variety and realism of the situations to which the disciples are confronted.

Among the most famous Mahasiddhas, King Indrabodhi and his sister Lakshminkara are the most obviously related to Uddiyana. They initiated the dissemination of the concepts and practices of Vajrayana and Sahajayana. The Mahasiddha Pasambhava of Uddiyana is known for his pioneering role in the establishment of Vajrayana in the Himalayas and Tibet. We often ignore his activities in India, which he carried out in association with Mandarava, another major female master.

Photo 8: King Indrabodhi and visitors (Tibetan art)

5.1 Indrabodhi of Uddiyana

Indrabodhi, also called in Tibetan texts King Ja (pronounced Dja or Dza), played a central role in the initial transmission of the Mahayoga Tantras, which will be translated in Tibet during the first wave of translation in the 8th century and on the basis of which the View of the Great Perfection developed. He has also composed practice guides and treatises.

5.1.1 King and Yogi

Indrabodhi received the Mahayoga Tantras directly from Vajrapani, deciphered them and wrote them down with the help of the Mahasiddha Kukuripa, the Dog master. The root text of these Mahayoga Tantras is the Tantra of the Secret Matrix, Guhyagarbha Tantra, accompanied by the Tantra of the Illusory Net of Vajrasattva, Vajrasattva Mayajala Tantra. Associated with the latter are the sadhanas of the main wrathful deities such as Yangdak Heruka, Yamantaka, Hayagriva and Vajrakila, as well as the mandala of the one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities. All the deities of these Mahayoga mandalas are represented and visualized in sexual union with their female counterparts.

The hundred peaceful and wrathful deities are equated with the hundred syllables of the long mantra of Vajrasattva, which is at the heart of the mandala. The yogi recites this mantra in order to purify his body-mind complex from his conceptual and karmic obscurations as well as from the impediments to the circulation of his subtle energy. In so doing, the yogi visualizes Vajrasattva above his head. A white nectar of wisdom flows from Vajrasattva's body and purifies the mind and body of the meditator. When Vajrasattva is visualized in union with his consort, the nectar flows from the point of their union. We can see how, in Tantrism, the symbols and the philosophical concepts are put in correspondence with the concrete methods of visualization, recitation, control of the subtle body and the practice of union.

The recitation of the one hundred syllable mantra of Vajrasattva is considered as a powerful means of transformation by itself, but the mantra is also an invocation and prayer in Sanskrit language⁸⁴. The transcription given below separates the words with a space except when, following the rules of Sanskrit phonetics, a final vowel blends with the initial vowel of the next word, as in tena and upatishtha thus giving tenopatishtha. The retroflex consonant sh can alternatively be pronounced as kh, so sutoshyo is often pronounced as “sutokhyo” or even “sutokhayo”. Samayam has the ending -m of the accusative

case and is followed by the imperative anupalaya, altough when the mantra is uttered consonants and vowels naturally connect to each other in a chain of syllables, and we then hear sa-ma-ya-ma-nu-pa-la-ya. The suffix -tva is pronounced “to”, as in modern Indian languages, in the same way as, in other mantras, svaha is pronounced “soha”. The following transcription gives one Sanskrit sentence per line, and an English translation is proposed next to it.

Om Vajrasattva

Om Vajrasattva, keep your

samayam anupalaya

promise!

Vajrasattva tenopatishtha

Vajrasattva, remain thus

dridho me bhava

inseparable from me,

Sutoshyo me bhava

Make me happy,

Suposhyo me bhava

Make me fulfilled

Anurakto me bhava

Make me loving,

Sarva-siddhim me

And grant me all

prayaccha

accomplishments

Sarva-karmasu ca me

In all my actions!

Cittam shriyam kuru

Make my mind resplendent!

Hum ha ha ha ha ho

Hum ha ha ha ha ho Lord,

Bhagavan

Vajra of all the Buddhas,

Sarva-tathagata vajra

Don't abandon me,

Ma me munca

Turn me into a Vajra-holder!

Vajri bhava

O Being of the Great Samaya

Maha-samaya sattva Ah

Ah

Indrabodhi also contributed, with Kambalapada, the Master with the shawl, to the spread of the Cakrasamvara Tantra, which was transmitted to Tibet for the first time in the 8th century, then again translated into Tibetan during the second wave of translations that started in the 10th century. The royal line of Indrabodhi is involved in the spread of the Kalacakra Tantra too. Indrabodhi also received from Vimalamitra the teachings of the Great Union. Indrabodhi's entourage was also active in the practice and teaching of the Tantras. His younger sister Lakshminkara, who was engaged, still a child, to the non-Buddhist prince of the neighboring kingdom of Lanka, renounced everything on the eve of her wedding to devote herself to Tantric asceticism. A daughter of Indrabodhi, Gomadevi, was also a noted master. She transmitted the cycle of the Guhyagarbha Tantra to the Mahasiddha Lilavajra, alias Lalitavajra and Vilasavajra, who was also accomplished in the practices related to the Bodhisattva Manjushri.

One day, Indrabodhi set off for one of the islands of the Mahanadi River in order to collect precious stones. There, he discovered among the lotus flowers a small child whom he adopted. Some years later, the young Lotus-Born, Pasambhava, left the court life to follow his own extraordinary destiny. Indrabodhi later entrusted the kingdom to one of his sons and retired to his apartments to devote himself solely to spiritual practice. A hill named King Buddha, Buddha Raja⁸⁵, still stands in Sambalpur. Today the hill is topped with a Shaiva temple.

About 30 Tantric works written by Indrabodhi are included in the Tibetan canon. Among these are meditation manuals on the deities Cakrasamvara, Vajrayogini, the Dakini Vajrapanjara, Vajrasattva, Aparajita, Kurukulla and Ganapati⁸ . He also left instructions on the practice of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, instructions on attaining the natural state titled Sahajasiddhi, and an of the Tantric path, Jnanasiddhi.

⁷ The following authorships of Tantras are based on Chattopadhyaya 1970: 399-

432 and Donaldson 2001: 25-26.

⁸ Also called Kanha, Kahanapa and Krishnacarya.

⁸¹ The name of this adept evokes the Shabaras, an important ethnic group of Odisha.

⁸² The fact that Luipa lived in Odisha is argued by Mishra R. 1991: 122-123. Luipa was the scribe of a king of Uddiyana, possibly Shivananda, vassal of the kings of Odisha of the Bhaumakara dynasty.

⁸³ In the French translation of Editions Pakara (Abhayadatta 2003).

⁸⁴ I thank here Narayan P. Rijal (M.Sc), from whom I first heard of the literal meaning of the Hundred-syllable mantra.

⁸⁵ Spelled today Budha Raja, with a single d. This either reflects an evolution in pronunciation, or is the result of the desire to erase the trace of the old Buddhist identity of the site. The disguise of names, like that of statues, is frequently used in order to “hinduize” Buddhist temples.

⁸ Ganapati or Ganesha, Ganesh in modern languages, is an Indian protective deity of Buddhism.

5.1.2 The Accomplishment of Wisdom, Jnanasiddhi

In the preamble to his treatise, Indrabodhi pays tribute to Vajrasattva, the Adamantine Being. Here, “diamond”, vajra, means emptiness, and the term Vajrasattva alone sums up the philosophical view of Vajrayana, which is based on that of Mahayana: phenomena and emptiness are inseparable. Indrabodhi applies to Vajrasattva the epithet “Lord of the Universe”, Jagannath, which will be used in turn by Brahmanism a few centuries later and applied to a Vaishnava⁸⁷ deity of the temple of Puri. Then Indrabodhi praised the “unsurable Vajrayana”, vajrayanam anuttaram, warning against a purely ritualistic practice of the earlier Yoga Tantras, then at the height of their popularity. The Buddhist Newar people of Nepal can still be seen today making flower offerings to stoneengraved mandalas as taught in the Yoga Tantras. The Victorious Ones, or the Victors, Jinas in Sanskrit, are the Buddhas, the Conquerors who vainquished suffering. These are synonymous to the name Tathagatas, those Gone to the truth, the Buddhas having merged with the Real beyond the confusing appearances. Here are some salient ages of this text⁸⁸, translated for the first time from Sanskrit and commented. Roman numerals refer to chapters of the Sanskrit text, Arabic numerals to stanzas.

Homage to Vajrasattva! I bow down to the Lord of the Universe⁸ , who is praised by all the Victorious Ones! (I.1). Having honored him with all my being, I will expound his supreme sadhana (I.2). [...] This unsurable Vajrayana enunciated by all the Yoga Tantras, those who do not know it are lost, they wander in the ocean of existence (I.3). On the other hand, the practitioners who follow it, free from any concept, attain unsurable Enlightenment in this very life (I.4). [...] Through mudras, mandalas, mantras, recitations, visualizations, etc., one does not achieve the supreme accomplishment, even during one hundred million immeasurable eras! (I.5)

This does not prevent Indrabodhi, in another chapter, from describing deities and explaining the philosophical meaning of their colors and attributes. What is appropriate for a disciple or at a certain stage of practice may become an obstacle at another time. An exclusive attachment to rituals, or the reifying of the deity in a dualistic View, for example, are hindrances to the discovery of nonduality. In all cases, the altruistic attitude forms the basis of any practice of the Great Vehicle, including the use of the skillful means exposed in the Tantras. All beings having the same nature, the practitioner must get rid of all pride or contempt. On the contrary, he must consider everyone with the mind of Enlightenment. This bodhicitta, the intention to reach Enlightenment in order to be able to guide all beings on the path, characterizes the Bodhisattva, the practitioner of Mahayana, and therefore the adept of Vajrayana too.

Enjoying beauty, youth, fortune, strength or noble birth, do not arouse pride in your mind (I.6). “I'm intelligent! I am an erudite! In all sciences I am versed! I am a prince!” Do not cling to these thoughts (I.7). Permeating the minds of all beings, Vajrasattva happens to be [also] myself. Concentrate on this without being distracted in any way (I.9). Children, idiots, destitutes, evil persons or people tormented by diseases, those who are thus afflicted, and the many others of the same kind, let’s not despise them (I.10). The practitioner who has faith in the Three Jewels is adorned with bodhicitta, he has sympathy for the sentient beings, he keeps his commitments and shows restraint (I.11). All beings are truly our parents, there is no stranger here, in the six destinies! (XVI.11)

To become a Holder of the vajra, a Vajradhara, implies to get rid of dualistic concepts that nurture attachment and aversion and perpetuate the series of painful experiences. Vajra here means at the same time the philosophical postulate of emptiness, the omnipresent emptiness itself, and the direct perception of emptiness through experience. To visualize oneself in the form of the deity Vajrasattva is a means, both visual and intellectual, to keep in mind the truth of emptiness. Thanks to this, the concepts that veil the actual perception of

emptiness will eventually dissipate.

The Holder of the Vajra, transformed into Vajrasattva (I.17), is freed from the [notions of] edible and inedible food, drinkable and undrinkable beverages, people commendable or not. The yogi remains attentive (I.18). He considers that, by nature, all phenomena are equally produced by causes. They are without birth or death. No inherent reality can be found in them, because they simply do not have any! (I.19) They appear as magical illusions, and yet it is because of them that we are chained to rebirths! Let the true connoisseur of yoga not form a notion of “me” or “mine” (I.20). Omnipresent, the Great Vajra permeates all the space and the minds of all beings, and is the source of all good (I.21).

Alone, without an experienced guide, there is little chance of reaching the goal. Indrabodhi recalls what qualities a trustworthy master should have:

Being yourself ignorant of the way, how can you guide someone else efficiently? In this case, both of you would get lost, no doubt. [It would be] like the conduct of a man blind from birth engaged in the middle of the forest: how would he guide some companion like him to the village? Likewise, the beings, [like someone] blind from birth, do not see the perfect wisdom. Unable to find the way, how would they guide others? So, all things considered, devout disciples must put themselves to the service of a guru, as the supreme Victors declare. The mind inseparable from the Three Jewels, comionate towards all beings, detached, self-controlled, stable, rich in all merits, having developed the bodhicitta, benevolent, full of qualities, discerning, without anger, energetic, of deep certainty regarding the Dharma, bestowing the Dharma, devoid of pretenses, resolved, having very few needs, endowed with the double accumulation [of merits and widsom], such is the guru as described by all the Buddhas holders of the vajra. He is the teacher of all beings, the guide of the world (XIII.5-12).

Once such a master has been found, he should be honored to the extent of his

qualities:

All the Tantras declare that the kindness of the master is equal to that of Vajradhara, the Buddha as the teacher of the Tantras. Let this truth be taken as supreme, otherwise one will remain immature, lost and tormented for a long time to come (I.22-23). The guru is the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha themselves, his kindness is that of the Three Sublime Jewels, keep this in mind (I.24). Guide on the path of those who are blinded by the darkness of ignorance, he is the greatest of all benefits, he who grants all desires (I.25). No being is known to equal him in the world of the three spheres of existence, he is Vajrasattva himself and embodies all perfection in this world (I.29). He sould be venerated in every way by the disciples who aspire to the realization of the truth, to the infallible accumulation of merits and to the removal of all obstacles. This is the unsured samaya (I.30-31). He who breaks the samaya reaps physical and mental suffering, ruin, and soon death itself (I.34), and once dead, hell and suffering for a hundred times ten million eras! Then, having endured all this, he will be reborn in the despised family of a Candala ¹, he will be born as a simpleton, deaf-mute, disabled or blind person, and this in every existence, no doubt (I.35-36).

Nevertheless, one must be discerning in choosing his master, because:

On the other hand, some who are [also] called guru falsely pretend to have wisdom. Driven by covetousness, they make out another Dharma. Friends of sins, these immature individuals are attached to the destruction of sentient beings. Parents and partisans of demons, they are the destroyers of the soul of others. Those people are to be avoided, and should not be served. It is not about obstructing them, but neither should they be honored (XIII.13-15).

The offerings to be made to the teachers are described in the instructions concerning the formal course of initiations. Generally speaking, offering what is dear to us is a valuable offering, but ultimately, says Indrabodhi, “the highest

offering for a master is that [the disciple] achieves the goal” (XVII.15). What are the characteristics of this wisdom that the disciple seeks to achieve?

Like space, baseless, omnipresent, devoid of characteristics, such is the supreme reality, the unsured adamantine wisdom called Samantabhadra, Mahamudra and [also] Dharmakaya ². We speak of the “wisdom similar to a mirror”, because just as we inevitably see ourselves when we stand in front of a mirror, the Dharmakaya reflects the other wisdoms. Because the wisdom of all the Awakened Ones belongs equally to all creatures as well, the realization of this single nature is called the “wisdom of equality”. To see that this wisdom, pure from the beginning, unborn and by nature luminous is present in all things, is called “discriminating wisdom”. We speak of the “all-accomplishing wisdom” because wisdom is the source of all that must be accomplished, that is, the achievements of the Buddhas and Buddhahood itself (I.47-52).

The path might seem simple to expose, but the practitioner must apply persistant efforts to make his adamantine View shine forth:

May the yogi, everywhere and at all times, make shine forth this incredible ³ universal Vajra ⁴, which is inherent to him, and which has always been there. This realization of all the Tathagatas, this beneficent universal Vajra, we must contemplate it everywhere and in all the three times. Transcending all domains of discourse, free of all characteristics, and granting Buddhahood to all, this is how the yogi must consider [this vajra]. Free from all [notions of] lands ⁵, free [of the notions] of cause and effect, the yogi who has discernment achieves the Accomplishment in this very lifetime. For the yogi who knows all the skillful means and the adamantine nature of all things, the unsurable reality is realized, such is the word of Vajrasattva. According to these adamantine words, whether one is standing, lying down, sitting or even walking, he arrives at the state of Vajrasattva. Anyone who constantly sticks to this commitment can deliberately enjoy the shapes, sounds, tastes and textures, [thinking] “I really make it an offering to all the Buddhas”. He can offer food, clothing and so on in the same way (I.61-68).

The practitioner embarks upon a complete reshaping of his relation to the world. The radicality of this approach is only matched by its unconditionality. Tantric asceticism is not intended exclusively to people of a particular state of life, nor any state of life is to be considered as an obstacle to the spiritual practice either.

Through dances, songs, music, garlands of flowers as well as flower crowns, flywhisks and parasols ⁷, let’s honor others as well as ourselves. By applying fragrant ointments, the yogi should honor himself by considering himself like all the Buddhas. Ascetic, monk, head of family, servant, king or intendant, may the one who keeps his vows be thus resplendant! The yogi should do so, without fail, free from any other precept, doing what he feels like. This nature of all beings is the ubiquitous mother of all the Buddhas, spontaneous and free, dwelling in the heart of every sentient being. Being one with this truth, let us live by keeping in mind the nature of all things, and we will quickly reach the realization of emptiness, the adamantine nature of everything. Then all obstacles and demons will be subdued. By keeping this commitment, one achieves the liberation from suffering and reaches the state of all the Buddhas on the very same day. Freed from the rules, the one who has kept the great commitment sees that he is always connected to everything (I.69-76).

Openness to people of all conditions is a characteristic of Buddhism. In Vajrayana, frequenting places and people who were not commendable in the eyes of the society of the time is in itself a practice aimed at loosening the grip of prejudices. This is combined with the simple humanity advocated by all of Buddhism towards all beings, particularly the most miserable ones.

[The yogi] should not show contempt for those who are vile in any respect whatsoever. He must honor the women of all extraction [as being] Vajradharini ⁸, endowed with the unborn flower and provided with bodhicitta. He should serve her for the purpose of realizing the truth, without concept or prejudice. In particular, the Dombikas born in the lowest castes, coming from despised communities, by serving them one achieves accomplishment (I.70-82).

Dombikas are women from ethnic groups in Northeastern India who have been degraded to the rank of untouchables in the process of brahmanization. These populations have been and are still exploited and abused in various ways by the so-called high castes. Showing respect to persons of such low extraction and associating with them in spiritual practice certainly requires a huge effort on the part of practitioners coming from the Brahmin caste. As a precaution on these subjects, the Tantras use a double meaning language when they deal with practices contrary to the prevailing morals, as Indrabodhi explains:

In the Kings of Tantras, things such as the aggregates, the sensory perceptions, etc., are called by names which belong to the same language. The semen is called Vairocana, or alternatively “vajra water”. Likewise, the female organ is the “lotus” and the male organ is the “vajra” (II.10-11).

Ultimately, it's all about the mind itself:

The immense ocean of samsara overflows with the waves of cogitations! Who, having entered the Vajrayana, will cross over it? In possession of the appropriate instructions, one will gradually dismiss all the misconceptions, these mines of nuisances (XI.8-9).

These instructions are, in short, the following:

On a throne or in the mire, honor yourself as being Vajrasattva, with a mind devoid of concepts. With such an intention, by acting in this way, by this marvelous behavior, one reaches the state of Vajrasattava. Otherwise, one suffers ceaselessly (I.85).

This is the most radical Tantric approach. It consists of seizing from the start the fruit of the path, and sticking to it, not merely during rituals and meditation sessions, but constantly and in every circumstances. Then, the erroneous mental habits previously accumulated, because they are not sustained anymore, desintegrate by themselves. It is in this sense that certain Buddhist historians, such as the Bengali Dasgupta (1969) and then R. Mishra (1991) spoke of the “path of the natural state”, Sahajayana. The sister of King Indrabodhi, Princess Lakshminkara, brilliantly illustrated this approach with her asceticism and her following career as a spiritual master.

Photo 9: The Great Accomplished One Lakshminkara (Tibetan art)

⁸⁷ Vaishnava is the Sanskrit adjective derived from the name of the god Vishnu.

⁸⁸ An edition of the Sanskrit text based on Nepalese manuscripts is presented in Bhattacharyya 1929.

⁸ Jagannath.

The Tantric commitment.

¹ A caste of untouchables in brahmanized society.

² Samantabhadra means Universally good, Mahamudra is the Great seal, i.e. emptiness which is the hallmark of all phenomena, and the Dharmakaya is the Dharma Body of the Buddha, the absolute. The three are here equated with wisdom.

³ The literal sense of the original word is “never seen before”.

⁴ Here, the View of emptiness.

⁵ The Sanskrit word bhumi here refers to the ten successive lands reached by the Bodhisattva in his progression, according to the Mahayana.

i.e. to maintain the View of emptiness.

⁷ Fly-whisks and parasols are traditional royal attributes in South Asia.

⁸ i.e. a female Vajra holder, endowed with the wisdom of the realization of emptiness.

i.e. emptiness.

5.2 Lakshminkara of Uddiyana

In the Tantric milieu of Odisha, many followers had the word “vajra” in their religious name. Indrabodhi in his treatise on the natural state, Sahajasiddhi, pays homage to yogis named: Heroic Diamond, Viravajra, Diamond of the Natural State, Sahajavajra, Diamond of Homage, Namavajra, Diamond of Accomplishment, Siddhivajra, and Diamond of the Mind, Cittavajra. He also salutes the master Diamond of the Lotus, Pavajra, whom the Tibetan historian Taranatha calls Diamond of the Lotus Born from the Lake, Saroruha Pavajra, commonly called in Tibetan Diamond Born from the Lake, Tsokye Dorje, i.e. Pasambhava, the Lotus-Born. Indrabodhi also presents his respects to his sister, the Glorious One, Laksminkara, and to the Goddess of the Great Illusion, Mahaliladevi.

5.2.1 Princess and yogini

Adepts of the Vajrayana where numerous in the kingdom of Sambala in Uddiyana, starting with King Indrabodhi himself and his daughter Gomadevi. The king's younger sister, Lakshminkara, had already received teachings from Mahasiddhas such as the Master with the shawl, Kambalapada, and Rahulabhadra alias Saraha. It is reported that after meeting Saraha she had a vision of several Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and received their instructions (Torricelli 2019: 204, n.10). One day, the sovereign of the neighboring kingdom of Lanka asked for Lakshminkara's hand for his son Jalendra. It was agreed that the wedding would take place when the princess turns sixteen. When time came, as the wedding procession was approaching the capital, Lankapuri, Lakshminkara saw her future husband returning from a hunting trip, loaded with carcasses dripping with blood. At the sight of such a cruel behaviour toward sentient beings, she felt a deep disgust for the prince, and she instantly lost any interest for worldly life. Her decision was made. On the spot, she distributed all her dowry to the inhabitants of Lankapuri, offered her jewelry to her attendants and sent them back to Sambala.

She then settled in a cave, ordering that no one disturbs her for ten days. She anointed her whole body with sesame oil and charcoal, cut her hair and remained naked, simulating madness. Her fiancé's father sent her doctors, whom she punched and kicked, leaping like a fury. Indrabodhi, on the other hand, was delighted to see that his little sister had given up samsara. Practicing the yoga of madness, Lakshminkara fed on leftovers and slept in the charnel grounds, never deviating from the quintessential meaning, i.e. the union of appearances and emptiness. Later on she took as a disciple a sweeper of the king, who developed spiritual qualities unbeknown to all. When Prince Jalendra begged Lakshminkara to teach him Dharma, she sent him to the sweeper, encouraging him with these words (Abhayadatta 2003: 223):

All beings in samsara suffer

And never experience the slightest happiness. Birth, age, sickness, death and the rest: These afflict even the best of beings, Men and gods.

And the three lower destinies are suffering itself: Devouring each other, enduring hunger, heat Or cold - the dangers are endless¹ . So, king, seek the great happiness of liberation!

A sweeper handles the waste and possibly cleans the latrines. In that society in the process of brahmanization, the impurity attached to a profession stigmatizes the professional himself. We can see how daring Lakshminkara was to take a sweeper as a practice partner, and how determined Jalendra was to accept the humblest of his servants as his master.

Lakshminkara gathered numerous teachings which she ed on to many disciples. Several of her writings have come down to us, including her commentary on a text written by her brother Indrabodhi titled The Accomplishment of the Natural State, Sahajasiddhi, and a sadhana of the Eleven-faced Avalokiteshvara. Her most famous text remains the Accomplishment of Non-Duality, Advayasiddhi.

5.2.2 The Accomplishment of Non-Duality, Advayasiddhi

This brief treatise by Lakshminkara is included by the Tibetan Buddhist historiography in a collection of seven treaties with the term “accomplishment”, siddhi, in their titles. One of these texts, The Secret Accomplishment, Guhyasiddhi, is the work of the Mahasiddha Lake-Born Diamond, Saroruha Vajra, i.e. Pasambhava. The others are written by the Mahasiddhas Indrabodhi (Jnanasiddhi), Ananga Vajra, Dombi Heruka, Darikapa, and Yogini Cinta. The oldest available Sanskrit version of Lakshminkara’s text is a manuscript in the Newar alphabet dated to the 14th century, of which the Oriental Institute of Baroda, India, has a photograph. Its full title is: Instructions for the Practice of the Inconceivable Non-Duality, the Accomplishment of NonDuality, Acintyâdvaya Kramopadesha Advaya Siddhi. The Sanskrit version was edited and published under the title of Advayasiddhi by Malati Shendge (1964), along with its canonic Tibetan version and an English translation. The Sanskrit text has been reproduced, accompanied by a new translation and a commentary in English by Ramprasad Mishra (1993). A French translation from the Tibetan version has been published recently (Vriens 2017). As is often the case, the classic Sanskrit verse of sixteen feet is rendered in Tibetan by two verses of seven feet each. The stanzas, perhaps arranged by a disciple of the master Lakshminkara, are not always immediately related to each other. These aphorisms might have been used as s for memorization and oral and written developments and commentaries.

Certain Tantric instructions, at first sight confusing, must be interpreted in their context, like any custom. For example, the Brahmins, whose ancestors were cattle breeders who migrated from the North-West of India down to the Ganges valley, deify the cow, on the basis of certain myths. They use the five “products of the cow”, viz. milk, curd, clarified butter, urine and dung, for various purposes. In the texts of Tantric Buddhism, certain ages prescribe the ingestion of preparations containing animal and human flesh and bodily products. Such is the case with the “the five lamps”, i.e. the meat of five quadrupeds, and “the great lamp”, human meat, according to several commentaries of Tantras. The text presented here also mentions the human

genital secretions, the male one, “the milk at the origin of all things”, and the female one, “the flower which flows naturally”.

Like other tantric practices, the use of these substances takes place in a context sacralized by the visualization of the partners in divine form along with the View of emptiness. The meaning is rarely made explicit in the texts. It can be inferred from what is known elsewhere of the Tantric approach. First, we can assume that the prospect of ingesting a substance commonly regarded as repulsive challenges the practitioner's resolve to consider all things with an equal eye. Then, the meeting of male and female secretions during ritual mating constitutes the meeting of male and female polarities in their most concrete aspect. According to traditional analogical reasoning, the physical level is inseparable from the more subtle levels, up to the metaphysical one. Meditative sexual union can thus lead to the experience of non-duality. With the appropriate state of mind, ingesting a drop of the secretions that got mixed up in this union can cause the same experience. If the substances come from an accomplished master and his consort, the devotion of the disciple, combined with the View of emptiness and the visualization, makes this gesture a religious act, consistent with his ascetic program.

The Tantras also instruct the male adepts to consider with the same kindness women of all social and physical conditions. This may imply that any of them can be a fit partner for the practice of union because, as Lakshminkara states (stanza 21), all women are “the divine wisdom that has taken shape.” As for the female relatives mentioned in these instructions, we would tend to consider their mention as having a hidden meaning. Some commentaries equate them to the two lateral channels and the central channel of the subtle body. The injunctions of stanza 17 are commonly translated as “steal, commit adultery, lie and kill all Buddhas!” As early as the Indian era, practitioners offered astute interpretations of what appears to be going against the basic tenets of Buddhist morals. We notice that the antithesis of the fifth precept (condemning the use of intoxicants) is missing in this provocative line.

It is possible that the ambiguity was aimed at driving away the prudish people, whom their rigidity of mind did not make fit for the Tantric path. However, the meaning we chosed for our translation follows the interpretation proposed by R. Mishra (1993: 76-77). Let us accept that certain concepts and practices developed in a confidential environment thirteen centuries ago may not reveal their secrets to us so easily. As a whole, the text by Lakshminkara illustrates in the clearest manner the very straightforward nature of this path. We could define it as the path of visualization for the reconquest of the natural state. To bear the expected results, this spiritual program needs to be solidly grounded in the altruistic intention and the View of the emptiness of the Mahayana, and the confidence in the Tantric master. One must also adopt the premise that the enlightened consciousness is his own innermost and inalienable nature, already present and perfect within him. He must also think, and wish to actually see, that whatever he perceives, outside as well as within himself, cannot be anything else that the luminous and uncreated radiance of the Enlightened mind, as is typically taught in the school of the Great Union. Finally, one must be determined to embark on this audacious adventure, where turning back is not an option.

Here is an integral English version of the Accomplishment of Non-Duality, translated exclusively from the Sanskrit original text of Lakshminkara for the first time:

Om Obeisance to the resplendent Vajrasattva!

To the Protector, luminous by nature, omniscient¹ ¹, source of the three worlds¹ ²,

The wish-fulfilling Vajra, I bow my head.

Regardless of location, period, time, date, constellations or assembly,

I will briefly explain the ultimate practice of Vajrasattva. | 1 | Resorting to rules, vows, fasting, discourses or reflections, Even for millions of eras, the yogi who doesn’t hold the View can not achieve the Accomplishment. | 2 |

With stool, urine, semen, nasal mucus, etc.,

Let the Mantrika constantly pay homage to himself, established in the View. | 3 |

Mother, sister, daughter or niece, let him who knows yoga always honor them according to the prescriptions of wisdom and means. | 4 |

Whether they are physically disadvantaged, or fallen, craftswomen or women of low castes,

One must constantly revere women by the methods of the wisdom vajra. | 5 |

The germ syllables of the emptiness mantra are Om Ah Hum.

The horrific behaviors by which beings are chained¹ ³,

By these very actions, through skillful means, they can free themselves from the bonds of existence. | 6 |

Let’s hold the divine samayas arising from the five families,

Let’s make the offerings with the lamps and the milk which are at the origin of all things. | 7 |

May the Mantrika, with open eyes and a cheerful countenance, the mind focused on Enlightenment, contemplate the ocean of wisdom. | 8 |

As much as there are inanimate or animate phenomena, anywhere in the triple world,

All of them, by the yoga of the View they must be considered as adamantine in nature. | 9 |

Those of different Views, whatever their distinctive signs¹ ⁴,

Those, here, should not be despised, in the transmutation into Vajrasattva. | 10 |

Having experienced all the phenomena arising from the absence of self as being of one taste,

The Mantrika constantly considers the body as pure by nature. | 11 |

First perfumes, garlands, clothes, as well as incense, food, Songs, music and dance, the Omnipresent enjoys all. | 12 |

He doesn't have to do strenuous practices, there’s no need to observe fasting

Neither ablutions nor purification. Village practices are to be avoided. | 13 |

Likewise, he should not worship idols of wood, stone or terracotta.

He should worship only his own body, always well focused. | 14 |

Mixed with honey, associated with stool and urine,

With the five lamps, honor the Holder of the Vajra. | 15 |

With the naturally flowing flower of the women, and the milk that is the source of everything,

Let’s pay homage to the deity in the body, with the View of emptiness. | 16 |

Annihilate “mine” and “hers”, unite with the transcendent woman,

Speak with discretion, and multiply the Buddhas. | 17 |

Let’s not devote oneself to the construction of stone or earthen stupas, nor to the pleasures of reading

Or [building] mandalas, even in dreams, by the action of the body, speech or mind. | 18 |

Neither should the Mantrika conceive of disgust towards anything whatsoever:

He should see Vajrasattva himself, present right here, in this form.

Similarly, the distinction between people who are to be associated with and those who are not, food edible or not,

Drinkable or not, the Mantrika, well concentrated, will not take it into . | 19 |

From Vairocana, inherent in the body of all beings,

The vital [functions], the connoisseur of the hidden essence enjoys them, intent on the Accomplishment. | 20 |

Born in any caste, the woman is not to denigrate,

For she is the divine wisdom that has taken shape. | 21 |

Neither the dates, nor the constellations, nor the fastings are to be followed;

Resorting to the wisdom of non-duality, one reaps the accomplishment of Buddhahood. | 22 |

What need is there for a long discourse? What is perceived,

Everything, is to be seen through the yoga of emptiness, by one who knows reality. | 23 |

Meats of elephant, horse, donkey, cow, buffalo, and dog,

Associated with the large lamp, one who knows yoga must always consume them. | 24 |

Besides, one who knows yoga should not have a great attachment, even for a single thing;

The ocean of existence must be viewed with equanimity. | 25 |

Appearing, remaining and disappearing are perceived by ordinary people;

In this case, there is samsara; otherwise, there is neither destruction nor birth. | 26 |

The day is seen as the Vajra-holding Lord, and the night as Wisdom;

If the yogi meditates in this way, he will quickly achieve the Accomplishment. | 27 |

This hidden splendor itself, which stands in all beings, this supreme essence, is obtained from the mouth of the master, there is no doubt. | 28 |

The nirvana without , devoid of cause, residing nowhere,

Inherent to all beings, this is Enlightenment, the final step. | 29 |

Knowing this, the intelligent yogi who meditates continuously, He achieves the goal, no doubt, even if he is a person of little merit. | 30 |

Among all the animate and inanimate beings of the three worlds, none is greater

than the master.

It is thanks to his kindness that, through various means, accomplishments are obtained by wise people. | 31 |

He who is omniscient, like Vajrasattva himself, and honored by all the Buddhas,

The master is the supreme deity, and must be venerated with zeal. | 32 |

Although his form is reality itself, with the intention to help the world

He manifests himself in a body and dwells in the yogic holy places. | 33 |

Death, this mistaken thought, does not exist for any phenomenon.

One torments oneself with this idea [similar to] the yawning of vulgar people. | 34 |

Arisen from the wonderful Odiyana¹ ⁵, the seat of Mahayoga, Matrix of all the principles of Yoga Tantras without exception, Emanated from the lotus-like mouth of the glorious Lakshmi And belonging to the stage of visualization¹ ,

The practice instruction entitled “The Accomplishment of Non-Duality” is

completed.

¹ With these few words, Lakshminkara sums up the specific sufferings of each of the “six destinies”: the fleeting nature of happiness in the divine and human worlds, the permanent insecurity of the animal world, the intense frustration of the hungry ghosts, a condition resulting from greed, and the painful hallucinations of the hot and cold hells, retributing violence and hostility.

¹ ¹ Rather than referring to the supranormal faculty of clairvoyance, here omniscience is the knowledge of the sole nature of all phenomena, viz. emptiness.

¹ ² All levels of existence have emptiness as their nature and therefore, one might say, as their source.

¹ ³ i.e.: they condemn themselves to painful rebirths.

¹ ⁴ The signs that indicate their sectarian affiliation.

¹ ⁵ We can observe that here, Odiyana takes a single d.

¹ We use here “visualization” to render the Sanskrit compound svâdishthâna. In his treatise Pancakrama, the Mahasiddha Nagarjunapada defines svâdhishthâna as “the true perception of phenomena”, samvriteh satyadarshanam (Shendge 1964: 7). The Guhyasamaja Tantra employs a more explicit term: svâdhidaivata yoga, “the yoga of oneself as divine” (Mallinson 2020 : 420). Torricelli (2018)

renders svâdhishthâna by “sef-consecration” while translating King Indrabodhi’s and Tilopa’s versions of instructions related to the control of the energies and essences of the subtle body in the context of sexual yoga. The Amritasiddhi, the Buddhist treatise on yoga which is at the source of the Hindu hatha yoga literature, mentions the “svâdhishthâna yoga” but affirms the superiority of the yogic method of the Amritasiddhi (Mallinson 2020 : 420).

5.2.3 Lakshminkara and the other Great Accomplished Ones

A very recent study of the Tibetan biographies of the Mahasiddha Tilopa (Torricelli 2019) shows that the lives of most of the famous Mahasiddhas took place within a relatively short period of the history of Tantric Buddhism: two centuries at the most, from the mid-8th to the mid-9th centuries. They studied and taught in the same network of monastic universities and Tantric holy places. They circulated on the same territory, the North-East of the Indian subcontinent, from Odisha in the South to the Kathmandu valley in the North, and from the Bodhgaya area in the West to Assam and today’s Bangladesh in the East. Those who were contemporaries knew each other personally or through their respective colleagues or disciples. They received the Tantras and methods in the same direct or indirect ways. Several generations later, their Tibetan heirs meticulously kept record of the history of the transmission lineages to which they belonged, from the life story of the founder Mahasiddhas to the first Tibetan lineage-holders.

Here are some of the transmissions which emerge from the comprehensive study by Fabrizio Torricelli. Indrabodhi received instructions to practice the yoga of the Clear Light originating from Virupa via the following lineage: the disciple of Virupa, Dombi Heruka, ed the teaching on to his female fellow disciple the beer seller, who in turned taught Kambalapada. Kambalapada transmitted the practice to Indrabodhi, and both of them ed it down to Jalandharipa. Through the lineage of Kanhapa alias Krishnacarya, disciple of Jalandharipa, these instructions reached Tilopa. Naga Yogini received some teachings from Indrabodhi, and then instructed her disciple King Visukalpa to transmit them to Saraha. As her name suggests, Naga Yogini was a great practitioner from the Naga ethnic group, whose appellation comes from his totem animal, the snake. The Nagas, widely spread in the extreme North East of India and even in Myanmar (Burma), gave they name to the Indian State of Nagaland. It should be kept in mind that, when the texts declare that a practitioner received teachings from a prestigious master, in some cases it simply means that the teachings originated from that master, and were then transmitted by a third person, during the lifetime of the initial master or later on. For example, Shavaripa received

teachings “from” Saraha through a disciple of the latter, who was named after the great promoter of the Madhyamika philosophy, Nagarjuna.

Nevertheless, from this network of transmissions clarified by Torricelli, it appears that several of those masters, acquaintances or disciples of King Indrabodhi were therefore contemporaries of Indrabodhi's sister, Lakshminkara, of the kings’ adopted son, Pasambhava, of Pasambhava’s masters, viz. Humkara, Prabhahasti and Manjushrimitra, and of Pasambhavas’s disciple Mandarava. In addition, the philosophical view exposed in Saraha's songs is identical to that expressed by Saraha’s contemporary Lakshminkara in her Accomplishment of Non-Duality. These masters were also contemporaries of those who, with Pasambhava, transmitted to Tibet the monastic precepts, the Tantras, and the teachings of the Great Union, such as Shantarakshita and Vimalamitra.

The fact that all these names are rarely mentioned together in later Tibetan Buddhist historiography results from three successive events. First, the interruption of the dynastic succession of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-9th century, which also put historiographic recording at a halt. Simultaneously, there seems to have been a persecution of Buddhist establishments, or at least they did not receive State patronage anymore and could not survive. This too might have caused a loss of religious historical data. The third event was to have farreaching consequences: the start of a new work of translation of Tantric texts into Tibetan language, a process initiated by the king of Western Tibet at the turn of the 11th century. Contrary to the first wave of translations of the time of Pasambhava, this transmission of new lineages, if not new Tantras, gave birth to distinct Tibetan lineages. With the development of extended networks of monasteries d to those Tantric lineages, some economic and political rivalries came up. To claims to lineage purity or exclusivity, it is possible that the close relationships of all those Indian, Nepalese and early Tibetan masters have been purposely forgotten. In addition, the geographic and temporal distance between the Tibetan tradition and the origins of Vajrayana favored legendary deformations and geographic transpositions which obscured the original historical data, as in the cases of Shambhala and Uddiyana.

Another fact has contributed to keep this Mahasiddhas milieu difficult to apprehend. In traditional cultures of South Asia, it is normal for people to bear several names during their lifetime, simultaneously or successively. In addition to a secret name linked to the vitality of the baby and communicated confidentially to the parents by the astrologer consulted at birth, as is the case among the Buddhist Newars of the Kathmandu valley in Nepal, the child receives from his entourage a first name, and often a nickname to be used with relatives and friends. Generally speaking, among Tantric Buddhists, a first auspicious religious name is given during the initial Refuge ceremony. Then, other names might be received during Tantric initiations, as well as in honor of subsequent spiritual achievements, not to mention various titles and epithets by which one will be addressed by some persons and in various contexts. Therefore, when studying the history of Tantric Buddhism, to be able to identify a person under her diverse names obviously helps a lot clarifying the relationships between the various protagonists.

For instance, under several designations of female masters and Dakinis mentioned in the biographies of the Mahasiddhas, the figure of Lakshminkara is recurrent. It confirms that she played a central role in the development of Vajrayana (Torricelli 2019: 158-170). The biographical sources related to the Mahasiddha Tilopa reveal the variety of names designating Lakshminkara. Tilopa, born near Chittagong, in present-day Bangladesh, is himself known by various names such as Antarapa, Antaracarya, Caryapa, Vijayarakshita and Vijayapada. The master who will have the most decisive influence on his spiritual life by initiating him into Vajrayana, is a yogini called Dakini Sukhaprada. She transmitted to Tilopa the practices of Cakrasamvara and Hevajra which she had received from Luipa¹ ⁷. According to the biographies of Tilopa, Dakini Sukhaprada is also called Subhagini, Subhaga, Yogini Samantabhadri, Sumati, Shrimati, and Sister Lakshminkara¹ ⁸. Under the name of Subhagini, she was a disciple of Pavajra, alias Pasambhava. The Mahasiddha Virupa received the teachings of the Samvararnava Tantra from Devi Shrimati, precisely referred to as the sister of King Indrabodhi. Among the six Vajravarahi sadhanas based on the Samvararnava Tantra and very popular among the Tibetan yogis, the Sadhana of the Severed-Headed Adamantine Sow, Cinnamunda Vajravarahi Sadhana, or Cinnamasta Vajravarahi Sadhana, was

composed by Devi Shrimati, one of the names of Lakshminkara. These examples show the scope of the teaching activities carried out by Indrabodhi's sister. In the spiritual line of Lakshminkara, Sahaja Yogini Cinta, or just Yogini Cinta, alias Vilasavajra, is another eminent woman¹ . She also received teachings from Darikapa, and taught to Dombi Heruka and Vajraghantapa. She is the author of the tantric treatise Vyakta Bhavanugata Tattva Siddhi.

¹ ⁷ Given that Tilopa might have lived around a century and a half after Lakshminkara, the latter undoubtedly transmitted these initiations to him in vision, as suggested by the biography of Tilopa (supernatural appearance and disappearance of Lakshminkara).

¹ ⁸ Like most Indian names, these are epithets, for example Sukhaprada, Subhagini, Samantabhadri and Sumati can be translated as Pleasant, Fortunate, All Excellent and Kind respectively.

¹ Vajrayana produced many female spritiual masters who authored commentaries and meditation handbooks. A recension of such surviving texts is given in Kragh 2017. In this respect too, Hinduism followed in the footsteps of Buddhism, with an increasing number of mystical female writers from the 13th century onwards.

5.3 Prahevajra alias Garab Dorje

Sudharma was the daughter of an uparaja, a vassal prince or a regent of a king of Uddiyana, probably Indrabodhi¹¹ . Inspired by the Mahasiddha Kukuripa, the princess was ordained a nun and started a spiritual retreat on an island on the Dhanakosha lake, the same lake where the child Pasambhava was discovered. Vajrasattva appeared to Sudharma and told her that a Bodhisattva would be born from her. She soon found herself inexplicably pregnant, and gave birth to a boy. Fearing for her reputation, she abandoned the baby on a heap of ashes. Three days later, overcome with remorse, she retraced her steps. Far from having perished, the child was playing in the ashes, and she nicknamed him Revenant Joy, Vetalasukha. The child was accepted by the family and named Diamond [Fallen] from the Sky, Akashavajra. When he was still very young, his spontaneous erudition and his astounding skills in philosophical debates aroused the iration of Buddhist scholars who named him Source of Wisdom, Prajnabhava. Delighted, the prince his grandfather renamed him Diamond of Joy, Pramodavajra or Prahevajra¹¹¹, a name which will be rendered later in Tibetan by Garab Dorje.

He took the monastic vows, and was initiated into the Guhyagarbha Tantra by Kukuripa, the Mahasiddha who had helped Indrabodhi to decipher the Mahayoga Tantras received from the Bodhisattva Vajrapani. Prahevajra went to meditate in a hut of leaves. The essential instructions he had received from Kukuripa were to visualize himself as Vajrasattva and to consider all his perceptions, whether they were forms, sounds or thoughts, as being nothing other than the body, speech and mind of Vajrasattva, the Being of the open dimension, the Adamantine emptiness. He obtain a first hand experience of the non-dual nature of reality. His formulation of his spiritual realization will later on contribute to define the View of the Dzogchen, the Tibetan tradition of the Great Union. After escaping an assassination attempt, he lived as a wandering yogi. He practiced with his consort at the charnel Ground of the Cool Grove, Shitavana, near Bodhgaya. The scholar Manjushrimitra became his spiritual heir and taught to Shri Simha and Pasambhava (Cornu 2001; Vallabha Vedic Research 2016).

Photo 10: Pasambhava of Uddiyana (Newar art)

¹¹ Since Kukuripa taught Lakshminkara the sister of Indrabodhi, and Sudharma was the daughter of a vassal of an Uddiyana king, it is likely that the latter was no other than Indrabodhi.

¹¹¹ As with many names and texts translated into Tibetan in the 8th-9th centuries, the original form is lost. Pramodavajra and Prahevajra are late tentative reconstructions into Sanskrit from the Tibetan name.

5.4 The master Pasambhava of Uddiyana

In one of the major texts of the Mahayana, the Sutra of the Lotus of the Sublime Dharma, Saddharmapundarika Sutra, the Buddha Shakyamuni prophesies to his disciple Shariputra that a certain Lotus Light, Paprabha, will attain Enlightenement in Viraja, today Jajpur in Odisha. A statue of the Great Comionate One, Mahakarunika, i.e. Avalokiteshvara, discovered in Udayagiri, a few kilometers South of Jajpur, bears on its backside an inscription. It mentions a certain Lotus-Born, Pasambhava, and also indicates that the stupa in its vicinity contains relics of an Enlightened one (Mishra U. 2016). Could the enlightened Paprabha expected to appear at Viraja, the Pasambhava mentioned in the inscription of Udayagiri near Viraja, and the Enlightened One whose relics, according to the same inscription, were kept in the nearby stupa, be the one and same person? There are currently no other texts in Indian languages testifying to the activities of Pasambhava.

On the other hand, in Tibetan sources, Pasambhava is no doubt the most recurrent South-Asian Buddhist figure after the Buddha himself, whether in texts translated from Indian languages or composed directly in Tibetan. The texts attesting of the life of Pasambhava were written either by himself, by his Indian consort Mandarava, by his Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal, or by his companions and disciples in Tibet. Pasambhava is indeed known in Tibetan historiography for having been invited from India to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen in the 8th century. The king had been recommended to do so by a brother-in-law of Psambhava, Shantarakshita, brother of Mandarava and an abbot at the monastic university of Nalanda.

Pasambhava directed the construction of the first Tibetan monastery in Samye, helped translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit and other Indian languages into Tibetan, and taught King Trisong Detsen himself. Since the dates of Trison Detsen are known thanks to Tibetan historiography, we can quite confidently situate the existence of Pasambhava in the second half of the 8th

century. All of his biographical s relate his birth in India and some of his remarkable achievements in the subcontinent before his arrival in Tibet.

The oldest available biography of Pasambhava is a Tibetan text written by Nyang Rel Nyima Özer in the 12th century, titled Sanglingma (English translation in Tsogyal 2004), which transcribes the life of Pasambhava as told by his Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal. The first chapter shows Pasambhava as a child appearing seated on a lotus on an island of Lake Dhanakosha in the kingdom of Uddiyana. Minister Krishnadhara discovers him and brings him to his sovereign Indrabodhi, who adopts the child¹¹². He baptized him Diamond on the Lotus, Pavajra. The names which are given to Pasambhava in the different texts refer to the lotus or the lake on which he appeared: Born on a Lotus, Pasambhava, Made from a Lotus, Pakara, Diamond on the Lotus, Pavajra, and Diamond from the Lake, Saroruhavajra. His apparition on a lotus in Uddiyana is mentioned in the most famous praise that Tibetans address to Pasambhava for centuries. This invocation, called The Prayer in Seven Lines, was uttered for the first time by monks in Nalanda to implore the blessings and inspiration of Pasambhava in order to win over non-Buddhist adversaries in a debate. As with many texts transmitted to Tibet during the first wave of translation in the 8th and 9th centuries, the original in the Indian language has not been preserved. Here is an English translation made on the Tibetan:

Hung! Born in the North-West of the country of Uddiyana In the calyx of a lotus standing on its stem, You have gained all the accomplishments. You are known as The Lotus-Born, And you’re surrounded by a circle of many Dakinis. I who walk in your footsteps, I pray: Come near and bless me, please.

O Master Lotus, grant me the accomplishments¹¹³!

Note that the Tibetan text says “to the North-West of the country of Uddiyana”, or “in the North-West of the country of Uddiyana”, orgyen yül kyi nup chang sam. Grammatically, in no way could this verse mean that it is the country of Uddiyana which is located in (or to) the North-West. Hence this verse cannot be used to the opinion that Uddiyana would have been situated in the North-West of the Indian subcontinent, for example in Kashmir. On other hand, let us that Sambala, today Sambalpur, the former capital of Indrabodhi, the adopting father of Pasambhava, actually lies in the NorthWest of Odisha, this Indian State whose identity with Uddiyana is suggested by so many clues.

Like the lotus and the lake, the diamond, vajra, is closely associated with Pasambhava. We can also mention here that, in the history of Indian religions, the presence of the term vajra in the name of a deity, a temple, a character or a concept is the mark of its exclusive connection with Tantric Buddhism. Here are some coincidences: the abundance of diamonds on the banks of the Mahanadi River at Sambalpur; the name of the Tantric Vehicule, Vajrayana, the Diamond Path; the name of Garab Dorje, Diamond of Joy; some names of Pasambhava, like Diamond on the Lotus, Pavajra, and Diamond from the Lake, Saroruhavajra; and the fact that the Minister of Indrabodhi discovered Pa while searching for precious stones, possibly diamonds, in the Mahanadi. We can also observe that both Hirapur, where is found a hypohedral temple of the 64 yoginis, downstream of the Mahanadi River, and the locality of Hirakud, near Sambalpur, takes their names from hira. A word seldom used, hira has both meanings of diamond and lightning, just as vajra does, although vajra is well attested in Sanskrit literature.

Pasambhava studied successively all the levels of the Buddhist path practiced in his time. Under the name given to him by Indrabodhi, Pavajra, he is mentioned in a line of Tantric transmission running from Kukuripa up to Tilopa (Pennick 2011). He is particularly famous for having received the

practices taught by Dakinis in haunted charnel grounds, and other wild places conducive to the confrontation with strong emotions and all kinds of forces and creatures. He also received spiritual transmissions from great Tantric masters, including the practice of the deity Vajrakila from master Prabhahasti, and the practice of the Great Union from master Sri Simha. Pasambhava’s carrier as a spiritual master in India and Nepal was closely associated with that of his disciple and consort Mandarava of Zahor. Then, another part of Pasambhava’s life started when he was invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen, on the advice of the abbot Shantarakshita, brother of Mandarava.

5.5 Princess Mandarava of Zahor

The of Mandarava's life was told by Pasambhava to Yeshe Tsogyal, who wrote it down. A version of this text was discovered in 1885 by the Tibetan Samten Lingpa (English translation in Chonam & Khandro 1998). According to this biography, Mandarava was the daughter of Viharadhara, “ of the monasteries”, king of Zahor, in Bengal. The entire region is described precisely, from Magadha to the west, with the city of Bodhgaya, to Manika, the current state of Manipur, on the borders of India, Bangladesh and Burma, as well as Bengal, and Kamarupa in Assam. Kalinga, the Southern part of Odisha, and Uddiyana are mentioned too. A prince, ancestor of Viharadhara, had married a woman from Kapilavastu, the former capital of the Buddha’s clan, the Shakya, in Magadha. Later on, another man of this blood line married a princess of Rajagriha, the ancient capital of Magadha. In the youth of Mandarava, the kingdom of Zahor, covering a part of the delta common to the Ganges and the Brahmaputra Rivers, suffered from a flood with an upwelling of sea water from the Bay of Bengal in the inland. This disaster contributed to the outbreak of a war between the Zahor and the neighboring kingdom of Anga. All these indications set in Northeastern India the life of Mandarava, and so a good part of the life of Pasambhava as well.

When Mandarava reached the age of marriage, she was coveted by many a noble suitors, but the girl considered that marriage would be a hindrance to her spiritual path. A Dakini appeared to her and encouraged her religious aspirations, and announced that she would meet a certain Pasambhava. Later, Vajrasattva appeared to her and reinforced her resolve to devote her life to the spiritual practice. She then took religious vows from the Abbot Bodhisattva, a name for her brother Shantarakshita. When the king discovered that Mandarava had surreptitiously taken the ordination, he complied with her aspiration, without renouncing to protect, or control, the life of his daughter either. He had a convent constructed for her, in which he also installed the female entourage of the princess. When the time had come for Mandarava to enter the Tantric path, she had a dream announcing that she would meet Pasambhava the next day in the park of her monastery, and it so happened. Mandarava and her entourage

then requested Pasambhava to teach them the way of the Tantras.

After a while, Viharadhara was informed of what was going on in the monastery premises. He feared the reaction of the princes of the neighboring kingdoms, who had given up trying to marry the princess only because she had made the respectable decision to take the monastic vows. The king imprisoned Mandarava and tried to burn Pasambhava alive, but the latter remained unharmed by the flames. This miracle aroused the devotion of the king, who became the disciple of Pasambhava. The master spent three years there, teaching the Tantras of Mahayoga and the View of the Great Union to all, religious, king and subjects. Twelve disciples became Great Accomplished Ones. Then Pasambhava and Mandarava went to practice Tantric asceticism in cemeteries and other places. They also went to Eastern Nepal where, in the cave of Maratika, they attained the accomplishment of the Buddha of Infinite Life, Amitayus. They also sojourned in the Kathmandu valley. From then on, Mandarava was a higlhy accomplished and qualified master.

On the indications of Pasambhava, Mandarava went to various regions, Nepal, Magadha, Zahor, Uddiyana, Kalinga (Southern Odisha) to teach to beings who had a karmic connection with her. In a village where the slaughter of animals was practiced on a large scale, Mandarava resolved to get the butchers to change their ways. She sat by the side of the road in the guise of a pretty beggar. A group of butchers who ed by, seeing her defenseless and desirable, made explicit advances to her. Mandarava provoked them by replying, “I have no desire for an ordinary lover of this world – particularly any of you butchers who dwell there. In this world, there is nothing to be cherished more than life itself, yet in this demonic place there is needless killing and death! Any wife of you, malevolent flesh-eaters, would have to be an elemental¹¹⁴ from the sinister charnel grounds!” Angered to the highest point, some butchers wanted to kill her, while others started to rape her under the threat of cutting her arms and legs. Mandarava then took the form of a huge wrathful Dakini together with her six emanations. These figures seemed to fill the space. They announced in a terrifying voice that they were going to kill the butchers in order to free their souls. With supplicating voices, the terrified men promised to abandon on the spot their bloody profession, and expressed their intention to enter the path of

liberation from suffering. Mandarava taught the teachings of the Buddha to the reformed butchers and all the villagers for three months. As a result, all of them achieved liberation in that very lifetime (Chonam & Khandro 1998: 176).

Mandarava also visited her native kingdom of Zahor after a long absence. There, she taught her parents and their subjects for a year, and all of them soon attained the accomplishment of the rainbow body. It is the dissolution of the physical body into its five types of subtle components, under the effect of the complete realization, by the mind, of the luminous and empty nature of all phenomena. It is a sign of having achieved total freedom in this very life, according to the school of the Great Union. Thinking that she had accomplished all that she had to do in this life, Mandarava expressed to Pasambhava her intention to die out, as an individuality, in the absolute body of the Buddha, the Dharmakaya. But her master asked her to continue teaching and liberating beings for another fifteen years.

Mandarava taught beings according to their situations, their propensities and the karmic connections they had with her from former lives. One day when she was walking across a village, some men hailed her rudely, saying that such a pretty girl should definitely have a husband. To their surprise, Mandarava suddenly duplicated her own form in as many women as they were men coveting her. These multiple Mandaravas united with the men, granting them the secret wisdom initiation by the method of sexual union. Such is the power of the Tantric path that, says the text, all of them reached the rainbow body. At another time, Mandarava taught “wrathful mothers”, so to speak ghouls, in a charnel ground. We sometimes talk about worldly Dakinis, feminine beings who can be dangerous, unless they awaken, then turning into Wisdom Dakinis. In this episode of Mandarava’s life, these ogresses, also called Mamos, incarnate perfectly the greed and paranoia fueled by the dualistic illusion that constitutes samsara. By listening to the exhortation of Mandarava, the ogresses were freed from the vicious circle of illusion, anger and frustration. Mandarava delivered them, in a few sentences, a complete teaching on the bondage and liberation of the mind (Chonam & Khandro 1998 : 170-171):

Primordially, all of you are without confusion in your essential nature of original purity. Because of your temporary obscurations, however, you have created your present state of self-grasping and the suffering that accompanies it. You must come to recognize that your suffering is derived only from your own confusion.

Now, wrathful Mamos, do not be confused! Your own mind’s nature is Buddha. Do not disparage [it]¹¹⁵ because of this confusion, the nature of which is [also] Buddha!

Wrathful Mamos, do not grasp with compulsive attachment at this illusory play of appearances. Wrathful Mamos, do not hold to the objects of the conceptual mind as true. This habitual cycle of dualistic grasping and clinging must not be maintained. O wrathful Mamos, allow it to collapse! […]

Recognize the nature of your own mind to be none other than the original primordial Buddha. Knowing this, observe your own nature. O wrathful Dakinis, directly expose your own Dharmakaya nature that was previously unseen. O wrathful Mamos, accomplish the absolute state of the four Kayas¹¹ !

When the time came for Mandarava to leave this world, she gave her final instructions to her many disciples, men and women, on the occasion of moving farewells. As a result of her achievement of the Buddha of Limitless Life, Amitayus, Mandarava has became herself a meditational deity whose sadhana leads to Englightenment.

The archeology of the sites and the statuary, the toponymy, the informations contained in the biographies of the Great Accomplished Ones and the languages they used in their songs of Realization, all confirm this fact: Northeastern India has been the land par excellence of the development of Vajrayana. In particular, the State of Odisha can very much be identified with Uddiyana, the place of

origin of many masters, Tantras and deities of the Adamantine Vehicle.

The diamond path has pecularities of his own. It is open to men and women of all conditions. The Tantric teachings affirm that even the greatest sinners can reach the state of a Buddha in one lifetime. Whatever our background, the only three prerequisites for the practice of Tantras, are the conviction to have the nature of Buddha within ourselves, the aspiration to realize it in order to be able to guide others in turn, and the confidence in the ability of the guru to guide us to destination. Another feature of Tantric Buddhism distinguishes it from monastic Mahayana, and a fortiori from the ancient Hinayana schools and modern Theravada: Vajrayana does not disapprove of s between men and women. Moreover, relationships can even be an integral part of the spiritual practice. Few of the Mahasiddhas in India were initially monks or nuns. Those who were, had to abandon their vows in order to be able to fully engage in Tantric asceticism.

¹¹² In some other versions, the king finds himself the child among lotus flowers.

¹¹³ In the Tibetan text, this eighth line is not translated, but pronounced in Sanskrit. It corresponds to the last seven syllables of the main mantra of Pasambhava, which has twelve syllables. The complete mantra is: Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Pa Siddhi Hum. The Tibetans pronounce it “Om Ah Hung Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Hung” under the influence of the pronunciation and spelling of the Tibetan language. For example, in Tibetan spelling, ad is pronounced e, hence pa becomes “pema”.

¹¹⁴ i.e. a ghoul.

¹¹⁵ These and next bracketted words are ours.

¹¹ The Body of Emanations, Nirmanakaya, the Body of Perfect Enjoyment, Sambhogakaya, i.e. the phantasmagorical play of the deities, manifestations of the five wisdoms, and the Absolute Body, Dharmakaya, to which is sometimes added, in the Vajrayana, the Adamantine Body, Vajrakaya.

6 The practice of union

Mind is the Lord, Space is the Lady, Day and night ed In the natural state

Saraha¹¹⁷

6.1 Tantric deities in sexual embrace

In our time, it is mainly through Tibetan Buddhism that we come into with living Tantric Buddhism. However, a paradox is visible at a glance in Himalayan monasteries belonging to the Tibetan tradition (whether in Bhutan, Nepal or Indian Himalayas), or in the monasteries built recently by Tibetan refugees in Indian plains or elsewhere. The walls of the temples, where monks subjected to the rule of chastity evolve, are covered with frescoes representing Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and peaceful or wrathful deities in unequivocal sexual union. The same figures are represented in metal statues, as well as on the portable paintings called pauba among the Newars of the Kathmandu valley, and tangka in Tibetan circles. The male deity is seen standing or seated, from front, and the female, astride her partner, embraces him with her arms and legs. In other cases, it is the female deity who is seen from front, but then she is, with very rare exceptions, pictured alone.

These representations seem to have mainly developed in the Himalayan and Tibetan worlds, where Vajrayana met his second phase of success, after its initial spread in South and Southeast Asia. In India itself, no representation of deities in union is to be seen in the art works still in place, such as painted frescoes, high or low reliefs, and stone sculptures in the round. When a divine couple is represented in , the two figures are seen from the front, the female deity seated on the left thigh of his partner and resting her right arm over her partner’s shoulders¹¹⁸. In the Newar Tantric Buddhism of the Kathmandu valley, which represents in several respects an intermediate situation between the Tibetan world and the ancient Buddhism of the Indian plains, the metal statues of deities in union intended for worship are kept in the upper room of the temples. Only of the Bajracharya¹¹ caste, initiated into Yogini Tantras, can access it. The Bajracharya priests always officiate with their wives, who are initiates too. So the representation of deities in sexual embrace in Newar sanctuaries is hidden from the view of non-authorized persons. The specificity of Tibetan Tantric iconography in of its public display results from the fact that Tibetan Buddhism continued the process of integrating Tantric methods into the Mahayana monastic tradition, which had already been tested in India for several

centuries.

6.2 Sexuality in Buddhism at the time of the Buddha

Regarding the Buddha Shakyamuni, his biography shows that his spiritual aspiration and his comion for sentient beings were stronger than his attachment to the pleasures of a carefree princely life. What pushed Prince Siddhartha Gautama to radically change his way of life, when he was 29, was one last night of debaulchery. The party over, the prince alone remained awake, contemplating the banquet hall, which offered the spectacle of the greatest disorder. On the cushions laid the naked bodies of the dancers, courtesans and concubines, sprawled with vulgarity, sleeping their wine off. Siddhartha had a feeling of absurdity. After delicately kissing his wife Yashodhara and his son Rahula, careful not to wake them up, he had his horse saddled and taken out. Once outside the city, he let his jewely, silk dress and steed to his squire, cut off his princely plait, and sank into the night. After six years of asceticism, he reached Enlightenment. On the last night, shortly before dawn, the eight worldly concerns manifested in his mind, in a last attempt to keep him in confusion and suffering. Among them, glory and darkness, praise and contempt, etc., attachment to pleasure took the form of enticing ladies taking lascivious poses. But Siddhartha was already perceiving the fluidity of every phenomena, their lack any of separate reality. He saw temptations and fears following each other, transforming one into the other without his mind attempting to seize them, until they finally vanished.

The first disciples of the Buddha reached various levels of spiritual realization just on seeing him, or by simply hearing a few words of his teaching. We can therefore consider that they were ready and that they did not have to fight against their ions. In their case, putting on the monastic robes consecrated their inner freedom. For the next disciples, and a fortiori for the generations of monks who followed, becoming a monk no longer necessarily marked the end of the ions. On the contrary, it often meant the beginning of struggling over oneself. Hence, to guide the monks in their endeavour, rules multiplied, and that’s how the monastic discipline took form.

Some of the earliest monks were helped by the Buddha himself. His half-brother, the handsome Nanda, only had eyes for her equally delightful girlfriend. The Buddha urged him to take the monastic vows. Nanda accepted to please him, but his mind remained fascinated by his beloved one, and he was burning with desire. The Buddha then showed him a hideous female monkey guenon, and Nanda readily agreed that his lover was more beautiful than this unfortunate animal. Then the Buddha gave him a vision of young princesses of the divine worlds, and Nanda had to it that, compared to them, her fiancée was hardly more attractive than the monkey. Nanda then began to practice meditation and virtuous acts with the intention to gather enough spiritual merits to be reborn in the celestial spheres and enjoy the company of the divine damsels. The Buddha then showed him a vision of the tortures of hell, which await the gods once their merits are exhausted. Finally convinced of the absurdity of seeking evanescent sensory gratifications, Nanda became a determined practitioner and reached the state of an Arhat, freeing himself from the torments of samsara.

But this monastic life, where freedom from desire is saught for through the abandonment of sexual activiy, is not the only option on the Buddhist spiritual path. Although the prestige of the monk life is general in the Buddhist world, it is good to that on one occasion, the Buddha himself praised a layman, named Vimalakirti, as being greater in wisdom, not only than the ordained disciples of the Buddha, but than the great Bodhisattvas themselves. Only Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom, was able to debate with him on an equal footing, as related in the Sutra of the Teachings of Vimalakirti, Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra. The spiritual level reached by this merchant leading a family life, testifies to the fact that the philosophy of the Mahayana has the power to lead to Englightenment people from all walks of life. It also shows that the suppression of sexuality is not a prerequisite for the attainment of wisdom.

¹¹⁷ Rephrased, for the metric, from the English translation given along with the original Indian text in Jackson 2004: 135. We use alternative words proposed by Jackson himself, “mind”, “thought” and “consciousness” being possible equivalents in the context, as are “space” and “emptiness”, and “the innate” and “the natural state”.

¹¹⁸ An example in Odisha is a high relief statue of Halahala Lokeshwar (Avalokiteshvara) and his consort found in Bhubaneshwar (Donaldson 2001, volume II, figure 257).

¹¹ This caste name, with the initial B resulting from the local prononciation, is the association of the Sanskrit words vajra and acarya, then meaning Master of Vajra, i.e. Tantric master.

6.3 The symbol of sexual union in the Tantras

Emblematic of Tantric meditational technics and pictural arts, the mandalas represent the reality of the universe and of the meditator himself, seen without the distortions of individual emotions and concepts. In the mandalas, the sensory faculties and their objects, the five wisdoms, which are the original aspects of the five main emotions, as well as the five elements, and all the other components of reality, are pictured as pairs of male and female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. For a human consciousness free from delusion, these appearances are an objective reality, although not yet the ultimate one.

Why these complementary pairs have the form of anthropomorphic couples? We can suppose two reasons for it. Among humans beings, as among most of animals, the distribution of individuals in two groups, males and females, is the most obvious manifestation of duality. The dynamics of the initial duality, which is at the basis of the manifestation of phenomena, naturally tends to be resolved by reunification. The search for sexual union is the roughest expression of this tendency, and is sought after for the intense, albeit fleeting, pleasure it can provide. The posture of union of the deities, so common in Tantric iconography, explicitely expresses the possibility of reunification, and the resulting joy.

If this rediscovery of the fundamental unity could only be achieved through solitary meditation, one could consider the deities in embrace as purely symbolic representations, although non-sexual symbols would do the trick as well. But in Tantrism, since any phenomenon is, in actuality, the manifestation of the primordial consciousness, there is a way to make spiritual profit from any situation. The most concrete sexual activity, too, can be used to achieve inner reunification. Thus, this iconographic choice does not seem to result solely from an intellectual analysis. The relevance of representing the archetype of any phenomenon as deities in union is confirmed by the meditative visions of the Great Union or Great Perfection, where such pairs of deities are actually revealed as a deeper level of realty. The same visions are also said to appear

during the intermediate state, between death and the next incarnation. It is therefore with a pragmatic approach that the Tantras refer to, and sometimes describe, the process of meditative sexual union.

The tone is given from the very first lines of Vajrayana Tantras, which contrast with those of the Sutras and the first Yoga Tantras. The Sutras feature Ananda, a cousin of the Buddha, for the following reason. The monk Ananda was the second successor of the Buddha at the head of the community of monks, the sangha, after Mahakashyapa. The first Buddhist council was held after the death of the Buddha, in Rajagriha, in order to fix his teachings in writing. Ananda, gifted with extraordinary memory, was requested to repeat the words of the Buddha. He began with the phrase “So I heard. One day,… ”, in Sanskrit: evam maya shrutam ekamsin samaye¹² . These words, followed by the name of the place where the Buddha and his entourage were gathered on this occasion, became the introductory formula of all Sutras. We read at the beginning of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 10,000 verses: “So I heard. One day, the Lord was in the Vulture park near Rajagriha, with a large assembly of several thousand fully ordained monks.” By contrast, many Tantras, like the Guhyasamaja and the Hevajra, begin as follows: “So I heard. Once, the Lord stood¹²¹ in the vagina of the Adamantine Ladies, the essence of the Body, Speech and Mind of all the Awakened Ones”. And the Candamaharoshana Tantra reads: “So I heard. Once, Lord Vajrasattva stood in the vagina of Vajradhatvishvari [his consort], the essence of the Body, Speech and Mind of all the Awakened Ones, with large assemblies of adamantine yogis and yoginis¹²²”.

The Mahayana Sutras say that when the Buddha taught the double emptiness of the subject and the object, the listeners of the Hinayana school fainted. Similarly, the enunciator of the Guhyasamaja Tantra, called Diamond of the Mind of Enlightenment, Bodhicitta Vajra, declared in the introduction that the teachings included in this Tantra are so powerful, that they can liberate the most vicious, cruel beings, however immoral they might have been, and even the incestuous. On hearing these words for the first time, the Bodhisattvas who listened to him were so shocked that they fainted (Bhattacharyya 1967: 22; Snellgrove 1987: 171).

¹² Ekasmin samaye literally means “at a [certain] time”. Some alternative translations are “on a certain occasion”, “one day”, “once upon a time”.

¹²¹ The Sanskrit verbe used here actually means to enjoy oneself, to frolic.

¹²² In Sanskrit: evam maya shrutam ekasmin samaye bhagavan vajrasattvah sarva-tathagata-kaya-vak-citta-hridaya-vajradhatv-ishvari-bhage vijahara (Gray 2007: 29, n. 98).

6.4 The encounter of the masculine and the feminine in the biographies of the Great Accomplished Ones

The practitioner of the Tantric path sometimes experiences supernatural faculties, the siddhis. These can constitute encouraging signs of progress, and they can also be used to help others, but they are by no means the goal of the spiritual path. It is the attainment of the supreme accomplishment, viz. Enlightenment, that makes the Great Accomplished One. With this criterion, all the accomplished masters of the Vajrayana, Indian or others, men or women, are therefore Mahasiddhas.

Vajrayana, based on the non-dual philosophy of the Madhyamika Mahayana, is the path of the resolution of contradictions. Hence, relationships between practitioners of opposite sex can be very fruitful in of spiritual attainments. The Indian Mahasiddha Ghandika was initially a monk. During a trip, he refused the invitation of a king. Feeling offended, the king decided to take revenge on the monk by getting him to break his vow of chastity. Then, on a stormy night, a lovely young girl was sent to knock at the door of Ghandika. She pretended to have lost her way home and requested his hospitality. During the night, as if frightened by thunder, she came on the monk’s mat and hugged him. They finally united. Instead of feeling upset, Ghandika found that the experience had enhanced his spiritual realization. He then settled with his partner. Soon, a boy was born to them and was to become a great practitioner (Abhayadatta 2003: 153-158). Other Great Accomplished Ones led a family life. Some, like Lilapa or Babhahi, were princes attached to the pleasures of their condition. It is thanks to the skillful methods of the Adamantine Vehicle that they all could realize emptiness without having to leave their state of life.

Sometimes, the relationship with the other sex is even set as a prerequisite for the attainment of certain stages of the path. Even today, the Tantric priests of Newar Buddhism must necessarily be married to an initiate woman. In Tibetan

Tantric Buddhism, the practice of union is relevant for some non-celibate practitioners. In the 8th century, in anticipation of the persecutions that Buddhism was to undergo in the next century in Tibet, Pasambhava, his disciple Princess Yeshe Tsogyal and other masters concealed texts and ritual objects in many places in Tibet and the Himalayas. Subsequently appeared many tertöns, individuals destined to reveal these objects at appropriate times. To be able to make these discoveries, a tertön has first to meet the appropriate partner.

Apart from those specific purposes, viz. the valid performance of Newar Tantric rituals or the discovery of hidden teachings in the Tibeto-Himalayan world, to practice as a couple is also intended at promoting the respective spiritual progress of the partners. In some cases, the guru prophesises to the disciple his future encounter with his or her partner. Following the advice of Pasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal went to Nepal in search of a young Indian slave whom she bought and made a practitioner and a yogic partner¹²³. In India, Mandarava used the practice of union to transform the sexual urges of her aggressors into a means to free them from ions. In Nepal, she achieved the accomplishment of long life by doing the practice of Buddha Amitayus tly with Pasambhava. These practices are in line with the principles and methods of the original Indian Vajrayana.

In the biographies of the 84 Mahasiddhas of India, whether or not the practice of union is mentioned, we see that the feminine spiritual being, the Dakini, either of human or divine appearance, often plays a key role in the spiritual progress of the male adept. In some stories, her real nature and power remain hidden until the right time comes. Then, her words are decisive in guiding the practitioner who was in a danger of going astray. Naropa, who was teaching at the Nalanda monastic university, was studying in the library one night, when a very ugly old woman appeared suddenly, and tested his knowledge. She got upset when it appeared that Naropa's understanding of Dharma was merely intellectual. She ened him to seek the teaching of her brother¹²⁴, the yogi Tilopa. Then she vanished as inexplicably as she had appeared (Midal 1997: 47-48). Following this meaningful encounter, Naropa’s life took an entirely new turn, which was to lead him to become one of Tilopa’s distinguished disciples.

In the case of the Dog Master, Kukuripa, the Dakini first guided him in the guise of an animal. Born in Northeastern India, Kukuripa contributed with King Indrabodhi to the dissemination of many Tantras. He also taught to Pasambhava. Called Shantibhadra while studying in Nalanda, Kukuripa thereafter became a wandering yogi. He received his nickname after his meaningful encounter with a dog, the word kukur meaning “dog”. One day, on reaching Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, Kukuripa felt pity at he sight of a starving puppy covered with vermin. He groomed her and shared his food with her. The dog soon recovered. While meditating in a cave, Kukuripa found himself transported to the divine world of the god Indra, as a karmic result of his intense practice of meditation and his comionate attitude. There, he experienced what seemed to be years of happiness. But one day, he suddenly ed the dog he left alone in the cave, and was stricken with remorse. Unhesitatingly, he decided to go back on earth, much to the surprise of his divine companions. Instantly back in his cave, he found the animal unchanged, as if he had been away only for a moment. The dog turned into a Dakini and congratulated him in these :

Well done, you are worthy of your family, well done! You came to receive the supreme accomplishment Without having succumbed to obstacles. [...] Your mother will give you the ultimate accomplishment Of the highest bliss that nothing defiles.

The Dakini “then showed him the symbols of the union of skillful methods and transcendent knowledge.” (Abhayadatta 2003: 116). Kukuripa realized that, as we read in the Tantra of the Great Illusion, Mahamaya Tantra¹²⁵, in which he was particularly versed, “the phenomena are naturally luminous, primordially pure and undefiled.”

The expression “the union of skillful methods and transcendent knowledge”, or the union of skillful means and wisdom, often equates to “the union of the vajra and the lotus”, i.e., the practice of union. It is not so much a discrete allusion to sexual intercourse as the formulation of the meaning of sexual union as an ascetic practice. In many other biographies, and first of all in the Tantras themselves, sexual union as a medium for dynamic meditation is mentioned and taught, often in enigmatic language, sometimes in perfectly explicit .

6.5 The instructions in the Tantras

Some of the first Westerners who learned about Tantric texts and their practices, especially those involving sexual intercourses, were horrified. Being the heirs of a philosophical history which had opposed the spirit to the body¹² , early Western observers were ill-equipped to understand the coherence of the Tantric vision and practices. Mahayanist authors of the last centuries of Buddhism in India, on the contrary, were full of praise for the Tantric path. Taking efficiency as the criterion of excellence of a spiritual method, they were convinced that Vajrayana was the summit of the Buddha’s teachings (Snellgrove 1959: 40).

Although there have been female practitioners, some of them prominent, the Tantric prescriptions for choosing partners are primarily intended for men. Lakshminkara, in her Advayasiddhi, adopts the same convention when she ens practitioners to respect women of all conditions because they embody wisdom. The Guhyagarbha Tantra succinctly alludes to the practice of union in these (Chonam & Khandro 2011: 81):

Regarding the goddess, nâginî, and the female of low caste […]: through the approach, close approach, the accomplishment, and the great accomplishment in the lotus mandala of the female consort, the mandala of enlightened mind of exaltation emanates. […] The accomplishment essence of the sun and moon is received within the mandala by the vajra tongue.

In spite of its brevity, this evocation condenses essential points of the initiation and meditative practice of the Tantric union. By gradually imposing the Brahmanic structure on the tribal societies of Eastern India, the Brahmins included the of the local tribes in their ideal hierarchy. Accordingly, even when a tribal priest was granted the status of a Brahmanic priest for the sake of acculturation, his status remained inferior to that of a Brahmin whose

ancestors were native of the Doab region. A fortiori a tribal woman of low status was (and still is) regarded as highly despicable: as belonging to a non-Aryan tribe, as a woman, and as performing impure tasks. It is this very status that makes her a suitable partner for the yogi who seeks to overcome his own prejudices.

Other reasons may contribute to this choice, such as the greater sexual freedom generally granted to women in the tribal societies of the Himalayas and Eastern India. As for the Naginis, they are, in South Asian mythology, females of the supernatural category of the Nagas, half-human half-serpentine beings, who live in underwater palaces and frequently interact with human beings. However, the Nagas are also an important ethnic group of the Northeastern part of the subcontinent. The “goddesses” mentioned by the Guhyagarbha Tantra correspond, as can be inferred from other Tantras, to diverse categories of nonhuman beings, such as the Yakshinis, females of the Yakshas, forest-dwelling spirits, who can interact with humans too.

It was thus possible for yogis to unite with socially despised and even nonhuman partners. Presumably the same was true for yoginis. We can see yoginis taking as a partner a man of low caste, like Yeshe Tsogyal who bought a young slave in Nepal. Lakshminkara's privileged disciple was a sweeper. The female Mahasiddha Manibhadra, married at 13 in a good family, ran away and remained secretly for a week in a charnel ground with Kukuripa. Frequenting these impure places par excellence, Kukuripa had of course irremediably fallen from his original Brahmanic caste. Had Manibhadra been discovered in the company of Kukuripa, not only she would have been repudiated, but she would have been considered as an outcaste herself.

The Hevajra Tantra, confirming the Guhyagarbha, indicates that a non-human partner can also be solicited by the yogi, whether she is a goddess, a Yakshini, a Kinnari (a class of spirits fond of horse-riding and music), etc. In all cases, she must first be taught the Dharma, starting with the ten positive actions to be performed and the ten negative ones to be avoided, up to the Tantric art of

visualization.

To decipher the last sentence quoted above from the Guhyagarbha Tantra, one must consider the fact that, by the visualization of the yogi, his partner becomes a deity in his eyes. Therefore her lotus, i.e. her vulva, is a mandala, a magic display of the wisdom of emptiness. The adept’s tongue too is of vajra nature, i.e. adamantine, because he visualizes himself in the form of the deity, apparent but without any autonomous existence. The vajra scepter is moreover the male emblem of the skillful means of comion, hence its frequent use to refer to the penis in this context. At the end of the union, the partner’s vajra tongue collects, in the mandala of the lotus of his partner, “the essence of the accomplishment of the sun and moon”. The sun, considered to be red in color, is a metaphor for menstrual blood, rakta¹²⁷, and by extension all vaginal secretions. The moon, white in color, represents the sperm. The mixture of the two types of fluids at the end of sexual intercourse is an expression of the union of the opposites, the liberation from duality.

Bodhicitta, the thought of Enlightenment of the Mahayana, i.e. the altruistic intention and its implementation, also refers, in Tantric esoterism, to the semen and the subtle energy which corresponds to it. The mental manipulation of the movement of this energy through visualization is enhanced by the physical control of the flow of semen and ejaculation, including the emission and, it is said, the reabsorption, into the urethra, of semen – or, more likely, of the corresponding subtle energy. The rise of energy through the wheels, cakra, of the central channel of the subtle body allows the yogi to experience several levels of bliss, sukha. This practice was taught to the Mahasiddha Babhahi. He was a member of the royal caste “who was intoxicated with all the pleasures of his princely condition”. In other words, he used to indulge in carnal pleasure, a propensity that his master would use to help him to get rid of the dualistic illusion. His guru said to him (Abhayadatta 2003: 125-126):

The body of the partner is the of an extraordinary method: In the bhaga-shaped mandala

Is a huge ocean of rakta; Mix with it the milk of the Enlightened mind and re-extract it To bring it to the cakras and spread it everywhere in you: Your happiness will never end. When bliss will have overcome bliss, You will meditate on emptiness from which it is not distinct.

The age from the Guhyagarbha Tantra commented above is very concise. Later Tantras developed certain aspects of the practice of union, notably the Hevajra Tantra, translated into English in 1959 by D. Snellgrove. This Tantra was taught and commented upon by Mahasiddhas in the entourage of King Indrabodhi, such as Pavajra alias Pasambhava, and Kambala, then by Jalandharipa, Kanhapa, Bhadrapa, Tilopa and his disciple Naropa. In the beginning, the Hevajra Tantra remains general in its description of the ideal female partner. She must have fair skin, large eyes, be beautiful and young. The age of 16 seems to be canonical¹²⁸. Later in the text, questioned by the Dakini on the ideal characteristics of the partner, or mudra, Vajrasattva gives more details (Snellgrove 1959: 116):

She is neither too tall, nor too short, neither quite black nor quite white, but dark like a lotus leaf. Her breath is sweet, and her sweat has a pleasant smell like that of musk. Her pudenda give forth a scent from moment to moment like different kinds of lotuses or like sweet aloe wood. She is calm and resolute, pleasant in speech and altogether delightful, with beauteous hair and three wrinkles in the middle of her body. By vulgar men, if fact, she would be classed as first-rank. Having gained her, one gains that siddhi, the nature of which is the Joy Innate.

Conversely, here is how Yeshe Tsogyal describes with wonder the young slave Atsara Sale, in whom she recognizes her partner and disciple that

Pasambhava had prophesied to her (Tchangtchoub & Nyingpo 1995: 47):

There was, strolling around, a handsome and attractive young man; he approached me. His tanned skin shone with a coppery glow, his teeth looked like a row of white shells among which his four canines were oriented to the right. He had a sincere look, a little red vein in his eyes, an aquiline nose, and blue eyebrows. The twist of his bun would turn to the right side¹² .

The emotion aroused by the view of beauty is but natural. Nevertheless, it is the karmic criterion which governs the choice of the partner. Here is how, in the 11th century, the great Tibetan Accomplished female master Machik Lapdrön describes her first encounter with her destined partner, the Indian yogi Thöpa Bhadra: “There was a yogi with bloodshot eyes and a dark complexion who, with a fix gaze, was performing the initiation ritual of Cakrasamvara.” A little later, on the evening of the eighth day of the moon, Bhadra and Machik united, thus integrating the principles of knowledge and skillful means. The whole house was lit up, and the hostess, fearing that the offering lamps had set fire to the building, rushed upstairs to see what was going on. In a multicolored rainbow, she saw only two orbs of white and red light, like moon discs, uniting in the middle of the room and radiating throughout the house. Seeing no one, she got scared, left the room and went back to bed (Edou 2003: 6162). It was far from being love at first sight, and Machik felt very uncomfortable afterwards. It was only after her masters reassured her, announcing that this relationship would be a source of great benefits for the Dharma and living beings, that Machik resolved to live for some time with Thöpa Bhadra. Besides the spiritual benefit they gained from their practice of union and their relationship, they had children who became great practitioners too.

The practice of union is also taught, for instance, in another famous Tantra, devoted to the deity Cakrasamvara, which was already in vogue in the 8th century. The master Buddhaguhya, who participated in the transmission of Buddhism in central Tibet alongside Pasambhava and Vimalamitra, wrote a commentary on the Cakrasamvara Tantra. The text prescribes the ingestion, by

the yogi, of the female genital secretions by applying his mouth directly to the vulva. As for the kinship applied to the partners in this Tantra, an Indian commentator gives the following interpretation : the “mother” means the guru's partner, the “sister” is a fellow disciple, the “daughter” is a disciple, the “wife” is the partner that the guru assigns to the practitioner. This point of view is consistent with the para-familial character of the relationships of the guru and his disciples, who are sometimes described as constituting a clan, kula, in fact the same term which is used for the five “Buddha families” in the Tantric metaphysics. The hermitage of the Mahasiddha Naropa in Phullahari, in the current Purniya district of Bihar, was a well-known example of this familial atmosphere surrounding a guru.

These encounters of adepts, whether brief or lasting, had as their sole purpose the initiation to, and the practice of, Tantric methods. Therefore, their required that the participants were endowed with the proper motivation and training, perfect concentration, View and visualisation, as well as a total confidence in an authentic master. When these conditions are present, then, says the Hevajra Tantra, the yogi, “who becomes drunk with no other drink [than] the drink of yoga”, well collected, moves with joy like Hevajra himself; then his songs are mantras and his dance steps are meditation (Snellgrove 1959: 64). According to Snellgrove, the circular open-air temples dedicated to the 64 yoginis, like that of Hirapur in Odisha, could have housed such mystical assemblies.

One of the fundamental prerequisites for the practice of union, is for both partners to develop an attitude of deep mutual respect. This attitude is favored by the visualization of each other as deities, and by the conviction that this state is more real than our usual identity. On this condition of mutual trust and reverence, the Candaroshana Tantra is particularly explicit.

¹²³ Tchangchoub & Nyingpo 1995: 47-51. This autobiography, rich with many details, shows that Yeshe Tsogyal was a disciple and then a spiritual master endowed with high perseverance and modesty, and an extraordinary level of spiritual achievement.

¹²⁴ Tilopa’s biography states that this Dakini was his “spiritual sister”, i.e. a close fellow practitioner.

¹²⁵ Translated into English, along with many other Tantras and Sutras, in 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha [http:/ 84000.co].

¹² Under the combined influence of certain writings of Plato and the Biblical myth of the original sin (although the Assyrian prototype of the latter is of a very different tone – see Jovanovic 2007).

¹²⁷ This Sanskrit word for blood also means red, as well as excited or ionate.

¹²⁸ Other ages are mentioned too, up to 25.

¹² We translate from the French version.

6.6 The Candamaharoshana Tantra

There exists a Tantra which, more than any other one, clearly describes the practice of union and provides a glimpse into its psychological methods and efficacy. It is the Tantra of the Fierce Great Wrathful One, Candamaharoshana Tantra, or more briefly the Fierce Wrathful One, Candaroshana. The practice of this deity was already popular in the 8th century, and six Tantric texts devoted to Candaroshana were translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra at that time, while he is the object of meditation of four of the sadhanas in the Sadhanamala. Stones carvings of Candaroshana are found in Odisha, notably in one of the small votive stupas of Ratnagiri (Donaldson 2001: 220). His Tantra is one of the few Tantras still available in Sanskrit, mainly because it has been practiced until today by the Newars¹³ , who continue to use manuscripts in Sanskrit language. This wrathful form of the Buddha, or of enlightened wisdom, is also called the Immutable, or the Immovable, Acala. The union of bliss and emptiness, i.e. the bliss inherent to the awareness of emptiness, being ommnipresent, there can be no question of going anywhere, hence it is qualified as “immovable”. In the same way, it is uncreated, so it cannot be modified nor destroyed, it is “immutable”. In the city of Patan, in the Kathmandu valley, the Golden Temple, Hiranya Mahavihara, houses a chapel dedicated to Candaroshana. This deity also exists in Japanese Shingon Tantrism under the name of Fudo. The Candaroshana Tantra describes the practice of union in of experiencing four successive levels of bliss, the four joys, as many Tantras and biographies do¹³¹. But the Candaroshana stands out by two features: it shows the consistency of its psychological process through dialogues between the partners, and it teaches to the highest degree the absolute respect due to women, as well as to females of any kind, in the course of dialogues between the male and the female deities.

According to the View of the Buddhist Tantras, the division between female and male polarities is one of the expressions of the dualistic illusion, which results from the forgetfulness of fundamental unity. This error of division creates a tension calling for a reunion, especially in the form of the attraction between the sexes. At the indiviudal level, this global fundamental intention of reunification is particularized by superficial attractions, the fruit of social conditioning and

individual karmic dynamics. Because of the belief in duality, strongly rooted in the individual mind streams, the experience of unity felt in habitual sexual intercourse is incomplete and short lasting. This can only result in a desire to reiterate it, always in vain.

When a child is conceived, he, in turn, experiences his “otherness” to the world, and then to the opposite sex. Having a male or female body strengthens the identification with the corresponding type of behavior, but it is not the cause of that identity. On the contrary, it is the mental dynamism of gender identity that conditions the incarnation in a male or female form. This identity is defined, at the same time, by opposition to and by attraction for the opposite sex. The Candaroshana Tantra explains it in the following way. Tantric knowledge does not only deal with ascetic practices, they also describe, among other things, postmortem experiences. In the intermediate state between two bodily existences, the mind is endowed with clairvoyance. In the case of a future incarnation as a mammal, the disembodied consciousness sees her future parents, whether human or animal, in the process of mating. The future boy is attracted to his future mother and feels aversion for his future father. Eager to be in the father's place, but destined to enter into a new body, his consciousness enters the subtle body of the father through the fontanelle and descends through the central channel down to the genital area, from where it is then projected with the semen into the womb. The moment the ovum is fertilized, the erring consciousness faints, so to speak, and her identification with her new body will slowly develop during gestation. The process applies symmetrically to the female incarnations (XVI.13-17).

Whatever his sex, any individual has, in his subtle body, a concentration of the feminine and masculine essences received from his parents. The male essence is located in the skull, the female essence in the abdomen. The first is described as white, like the semen, the second as red, by analogy to menstrual blood (but the range of symbolic meanings attached to these colors is wider.) When an existence comes to an end, one of the stages of agony is the descent of the white essence into the heart, where it meets the red essence that rises from the abdomen. After a brief eclipse of consciousness at the moment of this encounter, the clarity of the fundamental unity radiates powerfully. There resides an

opportunity, for the experienced practitioner, to realize this unity, thereby gaining definitive freedom from dualistic wandering.

Because of the upheaval that agony causes in the mind, not everyone has the capacity to seize this opportunity for liberation. It is therefore wise, during one’s lifetime, to train oneself at experiencing this meeting of male and female polarities. This is the meaning of the omnipresent solar and lunar symbols in meditative visualization exercises, in the form of white and red discs superimposed on the lotus, standing for the matrix, the three forming altogether the seat of the deities. The same elements are also visualized in the heart, serving as a for the “seed-syllable”, the wisdom mind of the deity.

These visualizations have several related functions. By maintaining a clear but unsubstantial perception of the deities and keeping in mind the meaning of each symbol, we alleviate the strongly antagonistic perception we have of our body and his environment. In this repeated meditative process, we also weaken our propensity, born of repetition, to incarnate in a matrix. In these attempts at freeing our mind from dualistic propensities, in particular the primary emotional mechanism of attraction and repulsion, the combination of the physical act with the mental meditative effort can greatly accelerate the progress. This is where the practice of union finds its justification.

The mention of the fact that any woman, whether human or from a supernatural species, is suitable for the practice of union, is one of the striking features of Tantric literature. Another of its transgressive stands, at least in the eyes of the surrounding society of the time, concerns menstrual blood. The normative treatises of Brahmanic society contemporary to the development of Buddhist tantras command parents to give their daughters in marriage before the age of 12. Menstruating blood is taboo, and parents are warned: if the girl has her first periods while still living in her parental home, the whole family will be defiled. As for the girl, she would fall from her caste. In complete contrast to this belief, the Buddhist practice of sexual union values the woman's blood. In the description of the ritual of the meditative union, the substance flowing from the

vagina (bhaga in Sanskrit), is not considered only as blood or other secretions. It is also the of the wisdom of the Dakinis.

In almost every description of wrathful deities in union, the female deity, the Dakini, carries a skull cup filled with blood, and brings it to the mouth of her partner, the Heruka¹³². For the male practitioner coming from a culture where bodily substances, a fortiori those of women, are considered highly impure and ritually polluting, to bring female fluids to his mouth is certainly the greatest challenge. To encourage him to overcome this prejudice, the Tantra of Candaroshana teaches him the divine nature of women.

As is customary in the Vajrayana Tantras, the instructions are given in the form of a dialogue between the female and the male deities. The generic Sanskrit that often refer to them, Bhagavati and Bhagavan, or Ishvari and Ishvara, can be translated as “goddess” and “god”, or “the Lady” and “the Lord”. In the Candaroshana Tantra, the Lady is sometimes called Prajnaparamita, the personification of the wisdom of emptiness as expressed in the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom. So we read in the Candaroshana that “the Lord made full prostrations to the goddess and said¹³³: How should a yogin perceive your form, dear? And by what means should the goddess be honored by the yogins?” (VIII.1) The yogi should consider himself as “[his consort’s] slave in every respect, filled with ardent devotion” (VI.19), in an attitude of humility and deep reverence, because:

Women’s virtue, which embraces all beings, should be spoken of – be it the comion or the protectiveness, which is established in their minds. Whether one is a friend or a stranger, she nourishes one with alms. If she has such a nature, the woman is no other than Vajrayogini. (VI.35-36) […] The foulmouthed ones, steeped in evil acts, who out of enmity, revile, in this world, a woman, the sole mother of the three worlds, a gentle river of true pleasure, they, because of this alone, will remain in a far-off, deep hell. (VI.33-34) [...] Whenever a female form is seen in the world of the three abodes, it should be regarded as my form, be it of low or respectable family (VIII.2).

In a manner of illustration, the Lady then gives a non-exhaustive list of women of all social categories and professions, of diverse female relatives of the yogi, but also of all kinds of animal females and others, such as female hungry ghosts, Rakshasi ogresses, Nagini serpentine women, goddesses¹³⁴, and even the female beings haunting the various sorts of hells, because “these and all other women possess my form, they exist for the welfare of all beings, each identified by her own individual function.” (VIII.11)

The Goddess Prajnapramita concludes:

Worshiped by [the yogi], pleased, I shall grant complete attainment. I am none other than the form found in every woman’s body. Apart from worshipping women, there can be no other worship of me. [...] One should make love to one’s woman, visualizing her in my complete form. By the union of the vajra and lotus, I grant Awakening (VIII.21-26).

Either the text remains voluntarily discreet about it for some reasons, or women are not concerned by these requirements, but it is remarkable that no equally explicit warnings and injonctions are addressed to women. They only receive general recommendations such as: “In the same way, a woman should worship a man with respect, and with the mind filled with devotion, [...] as has been taught by the Victorious Ones.” (X.13) However, both man and woman have to develop an equally “pure vision” of their partner:

For a woman, the man is a deity; For a man, the woman is a deity. They should honor each other

By uniting the vajra and the lotus. No other god should one worship (X.9-10).

The main impression that emerges from the text is that all the sensory, verbal and mental faculties are gathered, coordinated and concentrated on the sacralized sexual union. Thus unified, the mind is able to perceive with a a sharper awareness the movements of internal energy. Approaching orgasm, the subtle body, its channels and energies, naturally but temporarily operate in their most healthy and non-conflicting way, hence the pleasant sensations anyone usually experiences. The erroneous tendencies produced by karma are temporarily erased, and the energies habitually circulating in the lateral channels enter the central channel, thus freeing the mind from its gross dualistic tensions. “Melt” by the heat of the red essence activated in the abdomen, the white essence in the skull drops down. The practitioner has to mentally accompany and control the descent of the essence, and then reverse its flow upwards to experience successive levels of bliss which correspond to the untying of dualistic knots.

Through this meeting, both external and internal, of the female and male poles, which constitute a particular duality, the fundamental duality of the subject and the object is resolved too. This is where the path of sexual union and the other Tantric methods meet. Significantly, the text of the Candaroshana Tantra does not explicitly refers to either the female or male deity as Candaroshana, but rather refers to the union of the two, the experience of oneness. Finally, the Lord declares to the Lady:

I am everyone, and I pervade everything [...]. I possess all forms […]. It is my mind that is perceived, nothing else exists at all. […] I can be categorized as a thing or a no-thing […]. I am an obstacle and I am an accomplishment, abiding in every form.

[…] This entire world consists of the Awakened One, and all these forms are of

myself. They should be known as forms, in essence the same, by the yogins reflecting on truth (XI.1-9).

Then the Lady asks, “Are these forms only of you?” and the Lord concludes:

Such forms are yourself, as well; All that has been explained. All this is permeated by you – The inanimate and the animate worlds (XI.10).

As summarized in the Guhyagarbha Tantra:

All phenomena, including body, speech and mind, do not abide anywhere; and there is nothing to conceptualize, like an optical illusion. Through union with space, meditate upon space (p. 71). The nature of the mind is the fully perfected Buddha. Hence, do not search for the Buddha elsewhere (p. 85). The spontaneously present great perfection […] is the primordial nature of all phenomena (p. 87). [That is] the definitive great secret that takes the result as the path. […] Thus the Tathagatha himself expresses the aphorism to the Tathagatha himself (p.89).

¹³ A unique and recent testimony of the practice of Candaroshana in the Newar context is given in the introduction of Chazot 2015, a book which offers the first integral French translation of this Tantra to date.

¹³¹ See the initiation of Yeshe Tsogyal to the practice of union by Pasambhava, where the primordial role of visualization is patent (Tchangtchoub and Nyingpo 1995: 38-41). Yeshe Tsogyal also succeeds in initiating and bringing to spiritual maturity some men who tried to rape her, by teaching them how to make use of their desire and of their union with her (p. 118-120). These two ages complement each other to describe the various aspects of the method of union.

¹³² Dakini and Heruka are the generic for wrathful or semi-wrathful deities, who also bear specific names according to the mandalas considered, like Vajrakila and his consort Diptacakra, or Hevajra and Nairatmya.

¹³³ All quotations from the Candaroshana Tantra here are taken from the English version given in Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2016.

¹³⁴ i.e. women of the divine worlds, which are particularly delightful spheres of samsara.

6.7 A perilous method

If you don’t grasp everything as it is¹³⁵, How, in the midst of sex, will you perfect great bliss? Like a thirsty deer who chases a mirage, You’ll die of thirst and never find the celestial waters.

Saraha¹³

The path of the Tantric yogis, far from being a compromise dispensing the practitioner from the rigor of monastic discipline, is even more demanding. Required to maintain constantly the View of the enlightened nature of the whole universe as well as of oneself, the Tantric adept has no choice but to bring on the path any encounter, action, and movement of his mind, however pleasant or unpleasant. In a monastery, monks and nuns are surrounded by reminders of the Dharmic values at every step: the religious art, whether visual or musical, the rituals, the studies, the religious festivals, the rules of discipline, the wearing of the robes, the teachings of resident and visiting masters, the respect shown by the lay devotees, etc. The yogic practitioner, especially if he leads a family life or has a job, must be vigilant at all times. In every situation he must keep in mind the View, the method and the goal, and act accordingly. In this, beside meetings with his guru or periods of collective rituals or retreats, he can only count on his faith, determination, and the blessings of the Enlightened beings. Even on meeting the master, distraction is not allowed. The disciple must perceive his guru as identical with the Buddha or the meditation deity. When not in his presence, he must invoke him often, take his instructions to heart and them at the right time. Here we can guess how much the life stories of emblematic masters of the Tantric tradition can be inspiring and encouraging for the practitioners engaged on such a demanding adventure.

Establishing one’s mind in the right View, and sticking to it through the ups and downs of everyday life, is certainly not an easy task. In fact, the gradual adoption of this new state of mind represents a large part of the path itself. That being said, far from being perceived as a heavy constraint, Tantric asceticism removes all limits to spiritual practice. In all circumstances, the deliberate application of the instructions is entirely up to the adept. This is why it is said that the Tantric path followed with intensity can lead to Enlightenment in a single lifetime. But the Tantric yogi is also compared to a snake who has ventured into the hollow trunk of a bamboo: he can only come out of it by the top or by the bottom, i.e. by gaining Enlightenment, or by dramatically losing his way. All the more so in the practice of union, which plays with the all-powerful energy of the attraction of the feminine and the masculine.

The biographies of some accomplished adepts have the great advantage to show us how, like most practitioners, they endeavoured, went astray, then got back on the right track and persisted until gaining success. Machik Lapdrön, the 11th12th century Tibetan yogini, was renowned for her expertise in the visualized offering of one’s body to one’s karmic creditors, a ritual called chö in Tibetan. Her lineage had spread throughout the Himalayas and even in India, an exception at a time when the transmission of Buddhist teachings was flowing from India to Tibet. When she was a young nun, she broke her vow of chastity. She then went to live with her companion. For that reason she got mocked and nicknamed “the defrocked nun”. Then, weary of this worldly life, she became a disciple and companion of the translator Ma Chöbar, to whom the Indian master Abhayakaragupta had predicted his meeting with Machik.

They stayed together for four years, practicing union. During this period, she made many mistakes. She failed to donate when Ma Chöbar initiated her. She neglected to take part in the offering feast. Sometimes she sat casually on the master’s seat. She contravened the commitment to keep her practice secret. She shared the food of practitioners who had broken their Tantric vows. She was jealous of the other women with whom Ma Chöbar practiced union, and she herself had other partners without having first discussed it with her master. After

four years of cohabitation with Machik, Ma Chöbar took monastic vows and died shortly after, in 1090, when he was 46 years old. Then Machik started to suffer the consequences of her errors. She was afflicted with sexual obsession and permanent vaginal discharges. In addition to general physical discomfort, her body became covered with abscesses. The other yoginis were fleeing her company. When she wanted to make the fire offering, homa, the wood would not catch fire. Even birds and other animals refused the food she offered them.

In great distress, she went to the Indian master Padampa Sangye, then sojourning in Tingri, near Mount Everest, on the Nepalese border. Padampa identified the symptoms peculiar to sexual yoga practitioners who behave carelessly. He prescribed a ritual of remediation. Thanks to this ritual and after having maintained the stupa containing the relics of Ma Chöbar, Machik was cured. She became an exemplary practitioner and a great teacher (Snellgrove 1987: 468469).

The man practicing the union is just as subject to downfalls, especially if he lacks respect towards his partner. If she is his initiator, he must revere her all the more as she is his guru. The main partner and disciple of Yeshe Tsogyal, the Indian Atsara Sale, at times failed to keep this commitment. Yeshe Tsogyal predicted the consequences for him (Tsogyal, 1995: 171):

You and I have combined method and knowledge¹³⁷. […] Thanks to this blessing, you have conquered Liberation. […] However, you sometimes saw me as your equal; at other times, you underestimated me, you made fun of me, or you doubted me. Therefore, in all the succession of your future lives, although you have reached the accomplishment, you will meet with obstacles. There will be gossips, slander, criticism about you. Sometimes you will help others, sometimes you will encounter difficulties. Whatever happens, know that this is due to your past actions. Pray Pa and Tsogyal indivisible.

¹³⁵ i.e. as being the union of appearance and emptiness.

¹³ Jackson 2004: 105.

¹³⁷ i.e. the skillful means of comion and the wisdom of emptiness, here combined through the practice of union.

6.8 One way among others

It’s for the sake of insatiable lovers That I, the Buddha, taught it.

Candaroshana Tantra¹³⁸

Most of the Mahasiddhas, among the 84 whose life stories are told by Abhayadatta, pursued their Tantric careers as yogis or, for those who were monks, after leaving their monastery. The majority were initiated into the Hevajra and Cakrasamvara Tantras, which teach the method of sexual yoga. However, only the biographies of four men unquestionably attest to this practice. Like all skillful means, the practice of union is not an end in itself. Practicing with a partner initiates the perception of the circulation of subtle energies and their control. Afterwards, this mastery can be enhanced individually (Snellgrove 1987: 287). After her initiatory union with Pasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal continued for six months to intensify her awareness of the movement of subtle energy, and to direct its circulation through her channels and cakras at will. She describes in details how her emotional and conceptual obscurations, viz. anger, desire and ignorance, dissolved by stages. She also tells about the subsequent visions of deities as the stupendous radiance of the empty and luminous nature of the mind (Tsogyal, 1995: 4041).

On the other hand, as can be read in Indian commentaries like that of the Mahasiddha Kahanapa on the Hevajra Tantra, the practice of union can be visualized, instead of being actually performed. However, whether there is an actual partner or not, the visualization of the deities and the View of emptiness are essential. These skillful means aroused the iration of the Indian researcher Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (1958: 393), for whom this concept of

deities in union “is even more sublime” than the other features of Tantric Buddhism. He continues:

The god Heruka, the embodiment of Shunya, carrying weapons [which are] the embodiments of bodhicitta also of the nature of Shunya, is embraced by Nairatm[y]a, whose essence is Shunya, [herself] carrying weapons also of the nature of Shunya. Thus the Infinite with the Infinite commingles. In Involution, the Many becomes One. This is the highest state.

Tantrism distinguishes itself by an abundance of various methods, and hence the internal yoga of the manipulation of channels and energies is not the only option. Bodily practice derives its value from the connection between subtle energies on the one hand, and thoughts and emotions on the other. Reciprocally the direct work on thoughts and emotions automatically affects the circulation of subtle energies. This is why not only the recitation of mantras and the visualization of deities, but also the simple concentration on a particularly inspiring line of the teachings, can suffice to free the practitioner from his obscurations and lead him to Enlightenment. To this end, many teachers have adapted a general statement to the particular case of a disciple. Vinapa was a prince who only had it for the sound of the lute, vina, that he used to play constantly. This obsession made him deaf to the general teaching of the unity of consciousness and phenomena. His master then ened him to consider his mind as being one with his music. After nine years, he realized the unity of his mind and phenomena without having to give up his ion (Abhayadatta 2003: 49-50). In the tradition of the Great Union, or Great Perfection, the master can even, in some cases, bring about the realization of the empty and luminous nature in the mind of the disciple. It is up to the disciple, thereafter, to cultivate this vision until the conflictive dynamics of his mind, not sustained anymore, naturally come to exhaustion.

Whatever the method, the result is joy, inner freedom, and infinite comion for all beings. This is what all masters in the history of Tantrism bear witness to, whether their hagiographs have called them Great Accomplished Ones, i.e. Mahasiddhas, Knowledge-holders, i.e. Vidyadharas, or Awakened or

Enlightened Ones, i.e. Buddhas. Here are a few aphorisms from two of these masters, whose inspiring life stories and songs of Realization have been ired and transmitted to this day in the Tantric circles of the Kathmandu valley, Himalayas and Tibet.

Photo 11: The Mahasiddha Saraha (Tibetan art)

¹³⁸ Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2016 : VI.9.

7 The songs of Realization of the Great Accomplished Ones

Within the genre of South-Asian Vajrayanic sung poetry is the sub-genre of “adamantine songs”. These vajragiti are intended to be chanted collectively during assemblies of initiates, ganacakra, which consist of feasts of offerings and other rituals. In another sub-genre, the “action songs”, caryagiti, each song constitute an independent narrative unit. These songs are generally performed in public. In of metrics, these two sub-genres of sung literature take the form called doha. In addition to being a poetic meter, the doha constitutes a third subgenre of sung poems, consisting of aphorisms. A doha is often concluded by a verse where the author speaks of himself at the third person, as here: “Then, says Kânha, delighting in existence, you’ll still perfect nirvâna¹³ !”

¹³ Jackson 2004: 124.

7.1 The songs of Kanha

Kanha is also known as Kahanapa, Krishnavajra, Krishnacarya and Caryapa. According to the Tibetan historian of the early 17th century, Taranatha, Kanha was born in Northern Odisha (Templeman 1989). In the beginning of his spiritual career, he received in vision the blessings of Princess Lakshminkara. Later on, some Dakinis revealed to him that his predestined master was Jalandharipa, disciple of King Indrabodhi. His biography generously recounts his mistakes, which are lessons for disciples of the following generations. A gifted practitioner, his attainment of worldly siddhis, that is, of supernatural powers, stirred his pride. It disrupted his relationships with his masters, he experienced tribulations and his Enlightenment was equally delayed. He nevertheless became a Great Accomplished One, and had numerous spiritual descendants.

Kanha composed commentaries of Tantras as well as songs of Realization. As for the latter, translations into European languages were made from the originals in Northeastern Indian vernacular, or on the basis of their Tibetan translations. In any case, these texts convey esoteric teachings in a very condensed way, with several layers of meaning that make their translation a difficult task. A recurring concept is that of the consort, often called Dombi, from the name of a low caste who, apparently, provided a certain number of female practitioners. The Dombi of the songs of Kanha refers to his partner in sexual yoga, and in some lines he teases her in an amorous manner. But in other verses, the Dombi refers to the subtle air or energy which circulates in the central channel, as well as to the bliss experienced during this practice. Again, at other places, the Dombi in Kanha’s songs is both emptiness and the overwhelming experience of fulfilment that arises from the realization of this emptiness.

Outside the town, O Dombi, is your hut. The shaven headed (brahmin boy)¹⁴ goes constantly touching you.

Ho Dombi! I shall associate with you, I, Kanha, a kapali-yogin, shameless and naked. One is the lotus, sixty-four its petals. Having mounted on it, the poor Dombi dances. [...] Ho! You are a Dombi, I a kapali. For your sake I have put on the garland of bones¹⁴¹.

The lotus flower standing on a stem, itself emerging from a pond, is a frequent metaphor for the central channel ing through the wheels or cakras of the yogi’s subtle body.

Space is the water, Infinite light the mud – it’s without a root; The central channel’s the basic stalk, The syllable Ham The blossom.

The left and right channels, The sun and moon, Are stopped on either side; The four leaves,

And the four roots:

Great bliss resides within¹⁴²!

Immobilize your thought jewel, Embrace your inmost mistress, In this very place – And you’ll be a vajra-bearing master. Hey! I sing the ultimate.

Like salt dissolved into water Is mind in the mistress’s embrace; They taste the same in that moment, And they’ll be the same forever¹⁴³!

7.2 The songs of Saraha

Born from Brahmin parents, Saraha was irresistibly attracted to Buddhism and became a monk. One day, as he was looking at a woman making arrows, he experienced a spiritual awakening. He saw that the lady was endowed with the distinctive marks of a Dakini in human form. He then left his monastic condition to live with her. One day, he requested her to go and fetch radishes mixed with buffalo milk yogurt. But when she came back with the delicacy, Saraha was deeply absorbed in contemplation. It lasted for weeks, and when he regained his ordinary consciousness, he asked for the radishes. The radishes had of course disappeared since a long time. The maiden laughed at him: of what good is meditation if one remains attached to something as trivial as radishes? Saraha had to it she was right. He gave up all fabricated meditations, and realized the natural state, sahaja. He became known by the name of Rahulabhadra.

Saraha, or Rahulabhadra, played an important role in the transmission of several Tantric lineages. Since he met Lakshminkara, he was contemporary with Pasambhava, and lived somewhere in the 8th century. Under the title of “Rahularuci, Supreme Guru, Great Master of the Mandala”, Paramaguru Mahamandalâcarya Rahularuci, he is mentioned on the pedestal of a statue of Avalokiteshvara found in Balasore, Odisha. The inscription mentions King Subhakaradeva I, of the Bhaumakara dynasty, whose capital was at Jajpur, which confirms the period of the 8th century for the life of Saraha. This king had a manuscript of the Avatamsaka Sutra sent to the Chinese emperor Te-tsong in 795. This gift was conveyed by the monk Prajna, who studied at the Ratnagiri monastery in Odisha (Mishra R. 1991: 119). Saraha's dohas in Eastern Indian language are famous, and several dozen of his chants, sadhanas, and Tantra commentaries are kept in the Tibetan canon.

If to be free means to be unconstrained, it follows from Saraha's aphorisms that freedom cannot consist in obeying our desires or our disgusts. There is freedom once all phenomena, including oneself, are seen as having the same nature.

Then, the inner tension of desire and aversion does not have any any more. The inexpressible extase of fulfilment, to which temporary satisfactions cannot compare in any respect, is definitively recovered. With no one left to experience a dilemma, the action, as the adequate response to the situation as a whole, is spontaneous and tension-free. The following stanzas are independant of each other and are arranged here arbitrarily.

Seeing, hearing, touching, thinking, Eating, smelling, running, walking, sitting, Idly talking, talking back – Know all this to be the mind And do not run from this oneness¹⁴⁴.

Hey! Unify, don’t divide – Don’t make distinctions in knowing; In this triple world There’s one color, one: great delight¹⁴⁵!

Whatever appears in the mind Is the mind itself. Is the wave other than water¹⁴ ? It's all the same, identical, Like space.

Just like water poured into water, Everything tastes the same. Vices and virtues are the mind itself. Fool! There is no conflict at all¹⁴⁷.

The verses of the Mahasiddhas undoubtedly constitute an unequaled way of pointing to the natural state beyond words, the realization of which is the ultimate goal of the whole edifice of tantric practices. After its eclipse in India, the Diamond Way continued to flourish in neighboring countries, and it can be said that it reached its full bloom in the Tibetan area, until the 20th century.

¹⁴ Brackets from Snellgrove.

¹⁴¹ Snellgrove 1987: 158-159.

¹⁴² Jackson 2004: 118.

¹⁴³ Jackson 2004: 128.

¹⁴⁴ Guenther 1976: 93.

¹⁴⁵ Jackson 2004: 67.

¹⁴ The metaphor of the waves and the water, or the waves and the ocean, referring to the relationship between the mind and its perceptions, is typical of the Cittamatra Yogacara philosophy.

¹⁴⁷ Rephrased from Jackson 2004: 95.

8 The vanishing of Buddhism in India

For centuries, the Brahmins have undertaken, with perseverance and success, the conversion of the populations and of their leaders to the worship of new Hindu deities and to the caste system. Besides, whatever the reason of their abandon, countless Buddhist images and temples have been reconverted into Hindu objects of worship by their new Brahmin priests. This processes started at the beginning of the Christian era, and continued beyond the collapse of the great centers of transmission of Buddhism in and around the Ganges Valley, to the point of erasing within a few centuries any memory of Buddhism in Indian society.

8.1 The oversight of Buddhism

The archeology of shrines and statues reveals the ancient and ubiquitous presence of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. Similarly, by engaging in an archeology of religions, so to speak, one can follow the subsistence of many elements of Buddhism in the religions which succeeded it. But surprisingly, Indians forgot, or have been made forgetful of Buddhism as such, although Buddhism is the intellectual and religious Indian creation¹⁴⁸ which has been exported in the most durable way and in the most distant regions. The great indianist and buddhologist Sylvain Lévi, in 1928, recalled it as follows, in this beautiful language which served French scientific literature so well at that time¹⁴ . Here is an English translation:

India had forgotten the greatest of her sons, the Buddha […]. The name of the Buddha, firstly doomed to execration by triumphant Brahmanism, had soon disappeared into universal indifference, without once provoking an effort of sympathy or curiosity. It was Europe that returned the Buddha to India. By her travelers, by her missionaries, by her scholars, Europe had found from the Tibetan plateau to the Pacific coast the brilliant traces of Buddhist activity […]. And an amazed India knew, by the iration of the world, the greatness of the son whom she had disdained.

This amnesia of India vis-à-vis Buddhism resulted from many centuries of relentless efforts of Brahmanism to combat the installed religions of that time, viz. Jainism and Buddhism. By partially appropriating their ideas and sanctuaries, the Brahmins also sought to attract the patrons and the followers of their rivals too.

8.2 The Hindu appropriation of Buddhist sanctuaries and images

The stupas are the oldest religious monuments in India, and the Buddha statues are the oldest anthropomorphic representations belonging to an identified religion in the Indian world. Vedic worship was carried out around an open-air sacrificial fire. It was only in the wave of Buddhism and Jainism that the Brahmins instituted cults in fixed places, where they in turn erected temples and statues of deities. They went beyond a simple imitation of practices. When the opportunity arose, they appropriated sanctuaries and replaced their officiants by priests of their own.

The great historian of Buddhist art, Alfred Foucher, a contemporary of Sylvain Lévi, devotes several pages at the beginning of his study on Indian Buddhist art (1900: 8-9), to denounce the impostures which have been, and still are, carried out by Brahmins to maintain or increase their economic and religious power. He writes:

Many Buddhist images are still venerated in India today, but under Hindu disguise. The Buddha of the sanctuary of Mahâbodhi could keep his name only thanks to the theory which makes him an avatar of Visnu. That’s why [his image] bears on the forehead the sectarian mark of the Vaisnavas, each morning renewed by his Brahmanic officiant. […] In one of the small chapels near the temple, a Buddha, dressed in a robe, has become a representation of Annapûrnâ, the Hindu goddess of abundance. Next to it, seven Buddhas, one Vajrapani and one Tara received the names of the five sons of Pându, their two mothers Kuntî and Mâdrî, their wife Draupadi and their cousin Krisna¹⁵ .

Haraprasad Sastri (1897: 21) reveals a subterfuge repeated in many other places. In the now Shaiva temple of Lokeshwar in Moynagarh, in the State of West

Bengal and a few kilometers from Odisha, there is a linga representing Shiva Lord of the World, Lokeshwar. Next to it we see a statue with four arms presented as its consort Kali. For Sastri, it was originally a statue of Lokeshwar, another common name of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with four arms. In the process of brahmanization of the sanctuary, or of the statue if it was brought from another place, a linga, the Shaiva phallic symbol, was installed and the name of Lokeshwar, presented as an epithet of Shiva, was transferred to it. As for the statue of the Bodhisattva, it has been covered with the Hindu ritual vermilion color and clothes, and renamed Kali.

Regarding the place of the Buddha's Enlightenment, Bodhgaya, in present-day Bihar, Foucher adds in a note about the temple of the Mahabodhi:

We know that, following the restorations which were carried out at great expense on behalf of the government of Bengal, the temple of Bodh-Gayâ has just been the subject of a resounding trial between the “Mahâbodhi Society” and the superior of the neighboring Shaiva convent: the Mahant has remained the owner of the temple, and there celebrates, by a Brahmin at his wages, a semblance of Hindu worship, while continuing to receive the offerings of Buddhist pilgrims¹⁵¹.

It took more than 50 years of legal proceedings for Buddhists to the management committee of the Mahabodhi temple. Umakanta Mishra (2009) shows how the intrusion of Brahmanic cults into Bodhgaya took place during the Buddhist era itself. He gives the example of a Shiva statue found in Bodhgaya, bearing an inscription dating from the 8th century which report that the statue as well as a basin filled with Ganges water were created in the sanctuary of Mahabodhi for the spiritual benefit of a Brahmanic family. Here is another example. Long before the idea of Buddha being an incarnation of Vishnu was launched, manuscripts of Vaishnava pilgrimage guide-books for the Bodhgaya region were already circulating. The earliest ones were inciting pilgrims to worship the Buddhist Tree of Enlightenment as being an abode of the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and claimed that this cult would benefit the ancestors of the devotees in the celestial realm where they are supposed to dwell. After the

eclipse of Buddhism, the competition between Vaishnavas and Shaivas for the appropriation of the Mahabodhi temple eventually saw the triumph of the Shaivas.

According to Panigrahi (1986: 310), the linga of the temple of Bhaskareswara in Bhubanehswar in Odisha is the broken part of an ancient pillar of the emperor Ashoka, which was transformed into a linga in the 8th or 9th century. Similar researches conducted throughout India would no doubt be equally revealing. In Uttar Pradesh, in Varanasi (Benares), another pillar of Ashoka was transformed into a linga during the riots of 1809, in the temple of Lâth. Dedicated to Bhairom, i.e. Bhairav, the Shaiva form of wrathful male deities of Tantric Buddhism, this temple was the property of the Nath Yogis until is was sold around 1860 (Briggs 1938: 83).

In the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Western Himalayas, in the valley of Kullu, we find the deity Bijali Mahadeva, where Mahadeva, the Great God, is a name of the Hindu god Shiva. Here bijali, lightning, replaces vajra, which means diamond as well as lightning, and which is the infallible marker of the deities of Tantric Buddhism. In the same way, in the neighboring district of Shimla, we find the temple of Bijat Devata, a name where devata means god, and bijat plays the same role as does bijali. In Himachal Pradesh again, is the temple of Vajreshwari, i.e. vajra, lightning, and ishwari, goddess, the result of the hinduization of the Buddhist Vajrayogini. We should also mention, in the same region, the shrine dedicated to Shirgul, a trace of Shri Guru, the Noble Master, i.e. Pasambhava (Handa 2001: 35-36).

The religious Indian life has thus been profoundly influenced by Tantric Buddhism, and its traces are still perceptible. Whether their are aware of it or not, and whether they would it it or not, several spiritual movements born in the North-East of the Indian subcontinent have integrated concepts, practices, or ascetic ways of life inherited from the Great Accomplished Ones of the Vajrayana.

¹⁴⁸ To speak of an “Indian” creation about Buddhism is, of course, a shorcut. Strictly speaking, it is an anachronism, considering that India as a State exists only since 1947. In the same way, the present State of Nepal, on which territory is situated the birth place of the Buddha (at Lumbini), did not exist as such before 1788, when the Hindu Shah dynasty conquered the Newar kingdoms of the Kathmandu valley. That’s why we try to use, as often as possible, the geographic expression of “the Indian subcontinent”.

¹⁴ “Le plus grand de ses fils, le Bouddha, [l’Inde] l'avait oublié. […] Le nom du Bouddha, voué d'abord à l'exécration par le brahmanisme triomphant, avait bientôt disparu dans l'universelle indifférence, sans provoquer une seule fois un effort de sympathie ou de curiosité. C'est l'Europe qui a rendu le Bouddha à l'Inde. Par ses voyageurs, par ses missionnaires, par ses savants, l'Europe avait retrouvé du plateau tibétain au littoral du Pacifique les traces éclatantes de l'activité bouddhique […]. Et l'Inde stupéfaite connut, par l'iration du monde, la grandeur du fils qu'elle avait dédaigné.” (p. 11-12 of the electronic online version indicated in the bibliography)..

¹⁵ We translate from the French original.

¹⁵¹ Id.

9 The heritage of Tantric Buddhism in India

Brahmanic reactions to the philosophical views and ascetic methods native of Greater Magadha were of two kinds. On the one hand, the foundation of religious orders such as those of the Shaiva and Vaishnava Sadhus. On the other hand, the creation of philosophical systems, such as the Advaita Vedanta designed to respond to the spiritual aspirations of the Brahmins and their royal and merchant patrons, without however questioning the social order that the Brahmins were implementing to their advantage. In the absence of opponents, Brahmins today present Hinduism as the immemorial religion of all of India. In this picture, Buddhism can only appear as an inexplicable intruder, heresy or, when its qualities or success can not be denied, as a pale offshoot of Hinduism.

Such a stand hides the fact that, at the time when Buddhism and the other philosophical currents of Greater Magadha were florishing, the Brahmins, heirs of Vedism and future creators of Hinduism, dominated only in the region between the Ganges and the Yamuna, to the South-West of Magadha. When forced to recognize the precedence of a Buddhist text, concept or practice over late Hindu productions, the partisans of the anteriority of Hinduism resort to a single method: to claim that all of Hinduism constitutes a development of older Vedic texts. However, an attentive scrutiny of the texts, such as carried out by Johannes Bronkhorst (2007, 2011) contradicts this thesis. If the Brahmins have not kept a chronology of their religious history, it is quite probably not so much out of detachment from human contingencies. Such a chronology would simply not be to the advantage of their claims.

Tantric Buddhism took a particularly strong hold in the initially little brahmanized zones of Northeastern India, viz. the current Indian States of Odisha and Bengal, and Bangladesh. Tantric Buddhist ideas and practices deeply permeated the mentality of the local populations, and influenced their later religious productions. The current Hindu nationalists take as their reference the Brahmanic version of Indian history and society, i.e. a weakly substantiated

historical discourse, and a socio-religious organisation which is a long denounced oppressive system. By contrast, Buddhism is the philosophy that has produced, by far, the largest amount of writings in all of human religious history. It has taken root in most of India's neighboring countries, and its moral and practical merits find an echo worldwide, even today. It is Buddhism which could, for better reasons than Hinduism, arouse the pride of the Indian people. The same applies to the Nepalese and other peoples whose culture is indebted, in one way or another, to Buddhism.

9.1 The anteriority of Buddhist Tantrism

To speak of the heritage of Tantric Buddhism in India implies that Tantric Buddhism predates the non-Buddhist religious forms which resemble it. According to David Snellgrove (1959: 7), it is quite possible that the practitioners of Hindu Tantrism were inspired by Buddhist Tantrism, just as the creators of the Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic Hindu philosophical school, were inspired by the Madhyamika philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism. According to the Indian scholar Benoytosh Bhattacharyya¹⁵² (2009: 147), “it is possible to declare, without fear of contradiction, that the Buddhists were the first to introduce the Tantras into their religion, and that the Hindus borrowed them from the Buddhists in later times, and that it is idle to say that later Buddhism was an outcome of Shaivaism.”

Bhattacharyya (1925) gives several arguments to this thesis. According to him, one can easily trace the development of mantras in Tantric Buddhism. The Prajnaparamita Sutra is an emblematic example of this process. First there was a Sutra in 8000 stanzas, then a 100 stanzas version, followed by the Heart Sutra, Hridaya Prajnaparamita Sutra, which summarizes in a few stanzas the heart of this philosophical view. As a next step, the discursive statements of these Sutras were then condensed into a formula of the dharani type, then into a mantra¹⁵³ of which the oldest surviving mention in a Sanskrit text is found in the Sadhanamala. With this mantra we reach straight into the Tantric method, whose follower aims at realizing, in his very perceptions, the truth stated in the Sutras of the Perfection of Wisdom, viz. the inseparability of appearances and emptiness. The whole text of the Sutras in condensed into a single mantra, and the statement of the illusory nature of appearances takes shape, so to speak, through the visualization of the Perfection of Wisdom as the female deity called Prajnaparamita. The whole visualization of the deity and her complete mandala unfolds, by the concentration of the meditator, from the seed syllable Pham visualised in his heart. Since the seed-syllable, the very essence of the mantra, which itself condenses the Sutras, is produced mentally as the union of emptiness and consciousness, the meditator is constantly aware of the fact that the whole meditative process appears but does not have any independant

existence. To realize that such is the case with anything else in our life, is one of the expected results of Tantric meditation. Such a coherent progression, viz. from the reflections of the Sutras to the meditative practices of the Tantras, is lacking in Hindu Tantrism. This seems to result from the borrowing of Tantric Buddhist practices by individuals who did not master the philosophical basis of these practices.

Bhattacharyya makes a similar demonstration about the iconography of the female Buddhist deity Tara and shows that she has been the model of the Hindu Tara. He analyzes in the same way the mantra of the “Severed Head” Hindu deity Cinnamasta¹⁵⁴. In Buddhism, Cinnamasta Vajravarahi, the Severed Head Adamantine Sow, was the meditational deity of the Mahasiddhas Mekhala and Kanakhala, female disciples of Kanha (Abhayadatta 2003: 187-189). Bhattacharyya likewise argues that the Tantric worship received by the goddesses Sarasvati, Ugra Tara and Kali in Bengal was originally Buddhist. Another exclusive creation of Tantric Buddhism is the representation of deities in sexual union face to face, yuganaddha in Sanskrit, then yab yum, “father and mother”, in Tibetan. This type of union of deities does not exist in Hindu Tantrism, which does not have the conceptual tools to integrate such representations.

Among the frequent, and exclusive, features of a Buddhist Tantric deity, is a small image of a Buddha above the head of the deity, sometimes in the upper part of his hair. The mudras, the positions of the hands of that Buddha, indicates the kula, or Buddha family, to which the deity belongs. The motif of three, then five Buddha families dates back to the oldest Buddhist Tantras¹⁵⁵, which preceded any Hindu Tantra. The motif was taken up by the later Buddhist Tantras, although the diamond family, vajra kula, predominates among the wrathful deities, characteristic of the Adamantine Vehicle. The Great Accomplished One Dombi Heruka, contemporary of Lakshminkara, defined the five kulas in a manner at the same time precise and consistent with previous Buddhist persentations of the kula concept. By contrast, notes Bhattacharyya, the notion of kula is very incompletely defined in the Kaulacara tradition of Hindu Tantrism. We are probably, here again, in the presence of an imitation of religious features lacking philosophical ground and coherence, as is the case

with mantras, sadhanas and iconography.

9.2 Charnel grounds and bone ornaments in Tantric Buddhism

Iconography and meditation handbooks depict wrathful deities as standing in the midst of a fiery blaze compared to the cosmic fire raging at the end of a cycle of the universe. Their palace is made of human bones adorned with viscera, and scavenger animals roam around. The faces of the deities show their fangs and their three eyes roll and cast furious glances around. Their adornments are garlands of skulls and freshly collected human and animal skins. These fantastic and stupefying scenes and features help to liberate the meditator from the stream of habitual discursive thoughts, and make his mind refreshed and aware. At the same time, each detail refers to components of the Tantric philosophical view, and hence serve as a reminder of the whole path. The process of visualization allows one to understand the relativity of perceptions, whether ordinary or sacred. Another point is that peaceful or wrathful deities, and their respectively attractive or repulsive visualized Pure Lands, are related to the archetypal ions. The angry attitude of the deity in the form of which one visualizes oneself also corresponds to the dynamism of anger. By ing the unreal nature of the deity that one has brought up from one's mind, one thus trains oneself to experience the ions without being fooled by them. The correspondence between the peaceful and wrathful deities and the psyche goes beyond the present life, and is not created by meditation either, because any deceased persons perceive these deities during their crossing of the intermediate state between two incarnations.

These are only some of the effects of the Tantric meditation on deities, that Buddhist psychology calls with the general expression of the “purification of the psyche.” However, the scope of this Buddhist Tantric psychology goes much beyond modern Western atheistic psychology. Here, the sense of individuality of the innumerable sentient beings is but a temporary obscuration in the limitless, luminous and empty nature of reality. The conflicting ions are nothing else than the tormented dualistic misperception of the five aspects of the impersonal wisdom. And the individual body is a temporary means of experiencing the

ions, reinforcing them or, on the contrary, freeing oneself from their tyranny.

The macabre character of many Tantric mandalas must, to be apprehended correctly, be put in the perspective of the View and the intention which underlie it. Kapali, one of the Mahasiddhas whose lives are told by Abhayadatta, put on macabre ornaments at the request of his guru. The instructions given to him show the master’s psychological skills, as he enabled the disciple to transcend his depression into spiritual realization. The future master “with a skullcap”, kapala in Sanskrit, was a man of low caste whose wife died prematurely. Shortly after, it was the turn of his five children. It was too much for the miserable fellow. He was staying in the charnel ground where the remains of his relatives were exposed¹⁵ . Inconsolable, he could not detach himself from them. A yogi came by and told him that, if he was tired of the endless chain of births and deaths, he could teach him a way to get out of it. He initiated him to Hevajra, and instructed him in the two phases of meditation on Tantric deities according to the View of the Adamantine Vehicle.

During the creation phase, with the View of emptiness, we deploy the visualization of ourselves and our environment as being the deity and its mandala. Concepts and attachments are no longer maintained and eventually dissipate. Reality then reveals itself as having never been anything other than the spontaneous radiance of the five wisdoms. The yogic practice of directing the lateral breaths towards the central channel can contribute to this realization: by mixing the breaths, the energetic s of the two main emotions, we come to feel that attraction and aversion have the same taste. And by making this energy through the central channels of the coupling deities, whether the union is real or visualized, we work at dissolving the concepts attached to the various wheels (cakra) of the channels. Then, during the perfection or completion phase, the visualization itself is dissolved and the risk of reifying the appearance of the deity is eliminated. Finally, without being attached to the state of luminous emptiness which is the very essence of reality, phenomena are left free to manifest. They are henceforth seen as a phantasmagoria that there is no reason to fear.

This is how the adept Kapali was to meditate on the deity Hevajra. Along with these instructions, his master took into the widower's extreme attachment to his deceased family. The guru ened him to make, with the bones of his own children, adornments similar to those of his deity of meditation. He was then directed to cut off the skullcap of his wife’s corpse and make a bowl of it. As a practical training in the View, he had to keep in mind that this skull cup, as a container, was an image of the phase of creation, and that the empty space inside, the content, illustrated the phase of perfection. The dynamism of his attachment to his family was thus turned as a for his concentration on the two phases of meditation. After nine years of practice, he realized the inseparability of appearances and emptiness (Abhayadatta 2003: 198).

Pasambhava of Uddiyana, in its most common representation, holds a skull cup and a trident with three severed heads impaled through its shaft. Many Tantric deities, notably the wrathful Dakinis, are endowed with these same two attributes¹⁵⁷, whose symbolism is abundantly and consistently attested in Tantric Buddhist literature. The same kind of accessories have been, in whole or in part, taken up by Shaiva sects, who endowed them with different meanings.

9.3 Shaivites sects of skull-bearers

In Vedism, the religion of the pastoral ancestors of the Brahmins, Rudra represents a violent force associated sometimes with atmospheric phenomena, at other times with wild animals and cattle, a function which is evoked by his epithet of Master of Cattle, Pashupati. As such, offerings were made to him, to obtain his favors (Renou & Filliozat 1985: §637). In Buddhism, Rudra is a spirit of the Himalayan mountains, and is one of the many local spirits that powerful Tantric masters convinced to be the protectors of Buddhist practitioners in exchange for regular ritual offerings. Rudra later became Shiva whom, as a character of the Puranic literature, was gradually endowed with a divine family, and staged in mythological episodes.

It is in this context that Shiva was adopted by two religious sects. He was taken as the personification of the absolute in a Brahmanic adaptation of the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle, viz. the Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracharya. He also became the tutelary deity and the model of ascetic sects like the Kapalikas. The term “skull bearer”, kapalika, is the name of a profession, that of cemetery clerk. But in Indian religious literature, it refers to a particular Shaiva sect. By extension, it has been used to refer to various kinds of adepts of transgressive behavior, who had in common the use of a bowl made of a skull. These are in particular the Pashupatas, the Lakulas, the Kalamukhas, the Mahavratas, with some of these categories overlapping each other, as well as the followers of Tantras of the Bhairava and Shakta types.

Existing knowledge on the Kapalikas proper was summarized in an article by J. Torzsok (2011: 355-361). Like other ancient sects, the Kapalikas have not left writings of their own. They can only be apprehended indirectly, through what external sources tell about them. The Kapalikas were present both in the North of the subcontinent, in Kashmir and Nepal, and in the South, in Tamil Nadu. The various texts which mention the Kapalikas range from the 7th to the 12th century, which may correspond to the period of popularity of the sect. The

Lakulas were also known as the Black Faces, Kalamukhas, because of the ashes they used to apply on their bodies. Pashupatas, Lakulas and Kapalikas, all claimed as their founder Lakulisha, a wrathful form of Shiva, also called Rudra and Bhairava.

The Kapalikas were applying themselves to the “great vow”, mahavrata. It is an imitation of the penance to which, according to the mythological literature of the Puranas, the god Shiva himself had to undertake after he had cut off one of the five heads of the god Brahma. This episode features a specific form of Shiva, called Bhairava. Brahma being the prototype of the Brahmins, the punishment which struck Shiva echoes the severity with which Brahmanic legislators wished to see the aggressors of Brahmins be punished, at least in the ideal society that they have always worked at promoting. Just as, in this episode, Shiva was forced to carry for twelve years the head which he had deprived Brahma of, the human murderer of a Brahmin should be excluded from society for twelve years, use a skull cup as an alms bowl, and carry a stick surmounted by a skull. In addition to the bowl and the stick, of which they sometimes made a trident, the Kapalikas and other Shaiva ascetics, who engaged in this penance by identification with Shiva Bhairava, wore a tiara, a necklace and earrings, all made of bones, preferably human ones. As a part of their training, they used to receive cosmological teachings describing the universe as comprising successive levels, and as being dominated by Shiva.

The principle of their asceticism was to consider all phenomena and themselves as Bhairava, and to recite his mantra. Absorbed in this contemplation, they had to abandon all discriminations concerning their diet and the places they frequented. They therefore had to be indifferent to ingesting meat or the remains of the meal of others, or to stay in charnel grounds. These are the impure places par excellence in a brahmanized society, where everything related to bodily products, a fortiori corpses, whether human or animal ones, are considererd as religiously defiling to the highest degree. The ultimate goal of this practice was to become one with Shiva himself. The signs of success were the demonstration of supernatural powers, such as being able to change form at will, or to have visions of the different levels of existence, from hell to the supreme level of Shiva.

As is always the case when Hindu practices were borrowed from Buddhism without their original philosophical view being understood, the goal remains mundane: the revered deity does not transcend samsara. The god is similar to a human being as he is driven by emotions and has a limited lifespan, although he lives incomparably longer. By virtue of their power of action, those deities are superhuman beings, similar in this respect to gods of other mythologies, such as those of ancient Greece. Other Kapalika practices too are reminiscent of Tantric Buddhism, for example the play of the damaru, an hourglass drum with whipping balls, the offering of alcohol or of mixed sexual fluids, or the visualization of deities within the practitioner's body.

Whether they result from an imitation of Buddhist practices observed from the outside, or whether they were instituted by an initiate Buddhist who decided to found his own sect, these practices lack a coherent philosophical justification, and above all they fail to integrate the View of emptiness. In Buddhism, it is this View which protects the practitioner from reifying the deity or his meditative experiences. The reification is the very cause of the torments of samsara. The non-integration of the View of emptiness explains why the adherents of Hindu sects, notably Shaivas, could often fall into intolerance or even violence, towards Buddhists¹⁵⁸ but also towards rival Hindu sects.

¹⁵² Bhattacharyya had studied Sanskrit with his father Haraprasad Sastri, and the history of Buddhist art with Alfred Foucher. His book referred to here was first published in 1931 (see bibliography).

¹⁵³ Mantras are generally shorter than dharanis.

¹⁵⁴ Almost a century after Bhattacharyya, Western historians of Shaiva Tantrism have shown that the female deity Cinnamasta is of Buddhsit origin (Sanderson

2009: 240-241) and does not appear in non-Buddhist texts before the 16th century (Bühnermann 2000: 37), as reported by Mallinson (2020: 417).

¹⁵⁵ B. Bhattacharyya refers here, in particular, to the Guhyasamaja Tantra, that he dates to the 3rd century CE. The Manjushrimulakalpa Sutra, the earliest Buddhist text with definitely Tantric features, dates from the 2nd century.

¹⁵ Regarding funeral practices in India, in addition to cremation, burial, exposure of the body to the open air in dedicated places and immersion in waterways have also been resorted to. (Renou & Filliozat 1985 :§ 1197).

¹⁵⁷ Most of Dakinis hold, in addition, a curved knife in the right hand. As an example of the rich and precise Tantric symbolism, it can be said that the curved knife represents the skillful means of “cutting”, i.e. the radical separation of the mind from its obsessional and painful attachment to perceptions. Particularizing outer as well as inner perceptions and believing in their durability generate attachment to them, through hope for happiness and fear of suffering. This mistake is paralleled by the idea that one exists separately from the rest of the universe, an idea which causes a permanent feeling of imbalance and frustration. The mutual reinforcement of these two kinds of beliefs constitutes the vicious circle of samsara. As says the widely quoted instruction that the Mahasiddha Tilopa gave to his famous disciple Naropa: “What torments you is not the phenomena, but your grasping at them.” (for instance in Thrangu 2019: 131).

¹⁵⁸ In India and Nepal, but also in Southeast Asia, in the Khmer Empire after Jayavarman VII for example.

9.4 The Nath Yogis

Sylvain Lévi, a fine connoisseur of Nepal at the turn of the 20th century, denounced “the insinuating action of these Shaiva yogis, who long seemed to be at the service of Buddhism, but who worked with as much consistency as success to disorganize it, to bring it closer to Shaivism, and to end up absorbing and destroying it¹⁵ .” (1986: 357) These words are perhaps an echo of the grievances which the Newar people still make of the Mahasiddha Gorakhnath for having, around a thousand years ago, given a Shaiva orientation to his transmission of Tantric Buddhism to his disciples. Whether this was so, or whether the deviation was the result of a later generation in his spiritual lineage, it is remarkable that Gorakhnath is regarded by the tradition of the Nath Yogis as their chief human founder. Here is what Mircea Eliade (2004: 153-154) wrote about him:

The appearance of Hathayoga is linked to the name of an ascetic, Gorakhnâth, founder of an order, the Kânphata-yogî. He might have lived in the 12th century, perhaps even earlier. Everything we know about this Goraknâth is disfigured by sectarian mythology and abundant magical folklore; but quite reliable indications make it possible to suppose that he had been in close with the Vajrayâna. […] Buddhist influences are easily recognizable. Vedanta is mixed with Yoga, but philosophical justifications occupy very little space in these brief writings, dedicated almost entirely to technical recipes¹ .

¹⁵ We translate from the French original.

¹ Id.

9.4.1 The Mahasiddhas at the origin of the Nath Yogis lineage

The first element which links the Naths to the Vajrayana is the line of their first gurus which begins with Matsyendranath also called Minapa, then Gorakhnath, Jalandharnath, Kanhapa and Caurangi. Matsyendranath is also considered to be at the origin of the non-Buddhist Kaula Tantric tradition, whose practices were absorbed by the Naths later on (Mallinson 2011). The names and biographical details of these early Nath gurus correspond to five of the 84 Mahasiddhas of the Vajrayana presented by Abhayadatta. Matsyendranath, the Lord of fishes is, in Buddhism, Minapa, the Master with the fish¹ ¹. In the same way, Gorakhnath is the Buddhist cowherd Goraksha, Jalandharnath is the “Net Bearer” Jalandhara. Kanhapa and Caurangi bear the same name in both traditions.

The first statues related to the Nath tradition date from the 12th century, and the first inscription dates from 1279 and concerns the present Indian state of Karnataka, on the Western coast (Bouillier 2009). The biography of Minapa given by Abhayadatta makes Minapa the disciple of the god Shiva during an extraordinary episode. The fisherman Minapa found himself in the belly of a huge fish that had swallowed him. He then inadvertently heard the god Shiva giving a yogic teaching to his consort Uma. Through the practice of these instructions, Minapa obtained the mundane accomplishments, i.e. supernatural powers. He thereafter progressed on the path until Enlightenment, but the text does not elaborate on the spiritual practice he followed. As for his disciple, the young cowherd Goraksha, he is said to have realized Mahamudra, the Great Seal of universal emptiness, which indicates that the lineage was still Buddhist at that stage.

9.4.2 The Buddhist origin of hatha yoga

The god Shiva, and yoga, especially hatha yoga, are no strangers to Buddhism. Brahma, Indra, Vishnu, Shiva and the other major gods who are considered emblematic of Hinduism are, for Buddhism, inhabitants of the divine worlds of samsara. Their future, like that of all beings, is governed by the law of karma. Thanks to the accumulation of powerful positive actions, they enjoy long lives in dimensions of samsara which are privileged but in no way immutable. They received teachings from the Buddha¹ ² and are among the protectors of Buddhism. As such, they receive offerings during rituals of Tantric Buddhism.

In Nepal, the Buddhist Newars say that it was the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara who taught yoga to Shiva (Briggs 1938: 231). The Buddhist Tantra Candamaharoshana, in vogue in India and beyond from the 8th century onward, says that gods such as Shiva and Vishnu were liberated by practicing the yoga of sexual union.

Recently, James Mallinson (2019) demonstrated the Buddhist origin of hatha yoga through the study of an old Buddhist monastery where the Nath Yogis had settled and rewritten a Buddhist text relating to yoga by adapting it to their Shaiva View. In the Konkan, the coastline of the present states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, on the Western coast of India, the presence of Mahayana Buddhism is attested by statues of Tara and Avalokiteshvara dated as far back as the 6th century, as well as by the observations of the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang in the 7th century. Tantric Buddhism lasted in this area at least until the 13th century. The Panhale Kaji caves, between Mumbai and Goa, house a sculpture representing Acala, another name of the wrathful deity Candamaharoshana, as well as representations of Matsyendranath and other Mahasiddhas. A statue of Manjughosha, a form of Manjushri, found in Kadri and kept in the Mangalore museum, dates back to at least the 9th century, when the Buddhist master Jnanapada composed a sadhana of Manjughosha in Kadri. The Manjushri temple was renamed Manjunath by the Nath Yogis.

The full name of this ancient Buddhist monastic complex was Kadali Vihara, vihara meaning a Buddhist monastery. The practice of Tantric Buddhism is attested there until the 11th century. From around the 14th century, Shaiva yogis of the Nath tradition settled there. From the 17th century, parts of the buildings were occupied by a community of the Madhva Vaishnava sect. The Manjunath temple still contains three Buddhist bronze statues. The first one represents the Buddha. The second one, installed in the 11th century, is the Bodhisattva Lokeshwar, i.e Avalokiteshvara. The third one is the Bodhisattva Manjushri. But these three statues are today venerated as Hindu deities, respectively the rishi Vyasa and the gods Vishnu and Brahma.

The very term of hatha yoga appeared as early as the 3rd century CE in a text of the Mahayana, The Lands of the Bodhisattvas, Bodhisattvabhumi¹ ³. Then it appeared in the literature of Tantric Buddhism, from the Guhyasamaja¹ ⁴ to the Kalacakra Tantras¹ ⁵. Finally, it entered the literature of the Nath tradition. Although the term hatha yoga appeared early in Buddhist literature, the first text describing hatha yoga techniques, titled The Accomplishment of Immortality, Amritasiddhi, dates from the 11th century. At the end of the same century, this text was translated into Tibetan, and the oldest available copy of the Amritasiddhi is a bilingual manuscript in Sanskrit and Tibetan, with the Sanskrit text written in an Northeaster Indian alphabet. In India and Nepal, further manuscripts of the Amritasiddhi were made, and Mallinson (2020: 416, 419) has shown very precisely how the text had been hinduized throughout the successive copies. At the same time, in India too, the Amritasiddhi, was copied and modified to be integrated into non-Buddhist books. Among them, the text which copies or rewords the longest part of the original Buddhist Amritasiddhi is a Shaivite hatha yoga treatise from the 14th century, titled The Awakening in the Flow of Immortality, Amaraugha Prabodha. Mallinson (2019) has demonstrated that this adaptation was made by the Naths, and carried out in Kadri.

¹ ¹ Both matsya and mina mean “fish”.

¹ ² See, for instance, the god Brahma requesting teachings from the Buddha in the Sutra of the Questions of Brahma, or the Sutra requested by Brahma, Brahmaparipriccha Sutra.

¹ ³ This is a chapter from Yogacarabhumi Shastra, a Buddhist treatise of the school of the Cittamatra Yogacara (Mallinson 2019: 2, n. 7).

¹ ⁴ In the Guhyasamaja Tantra, hatha yoga is prescribed for the practitioner who fails to obtain a vision of his meditational deity (Bhattacharyya 1967: XVI).

¹ ⁵ The Vimalaprabha, a commentary on the Kalacakra Tantra by Pundarika, gives a formulation of the goal of hatha yoga, which will be taken up by Naropa in his Sekoddeshatika. It involves retaining both the breath in the central channel and the semen at the extremity of the phallus to experience emptiness (Birch 2011: 535).

9.4.3 The appropriation of the treatise Amritasiddhi and of the figure of Virupa by the Nath Yogis

Although Amritasiddhi was adapted by Nath Yogis, it does not mention Matsyendranath nor Goraksha whom the Naths consider as their first two gurus. In the Amritasiddhi, the transmission of the techniques described therein is attributed to another famous Mahasiddha, Virupaksha, the “Cross-eyed”. His name, often abbreviated as Virupa, the “Misshapen” or the “Hunchback”, is also found to be written as Birua in songs of Realization written in the 11th century in languages of Northeastern India. A river of Odisha bears his name. We find representations of Virupa in the statuary of several regions of Western and Southern India, from Gujarat in the West to Arunachala mountain¹ in the South-East, and at the Tantric shrine of Kamakhya in Assam, in the far NorthEast (Mallinson 2019: 4). Virupa is depicted seating with crossed legs restrained by a meditation belt, and a woman at his side pours him beer, or his streched out arm points his fingers towards the sun to stop the course of the star during the episode of the tavern¹ ⁷.

Virupa will be cited in lists of eight, nine or 84 Mahasiddhas given in texts belonging to the Naths or other traditions, several centuries after the extinction of Buddhism in India. The Tararahasya, a Bengali text from the 16th century devoted to the worship of the Hindu form of the Buddhist deity Tara, mentions Virupa as one of the eight human masters of that lineage. And in the 17th century, the history of the sanctuary of Kadri rewritten by its new Vaishnava occupants, made Virupa one of the nine main Naths and reported several anecdotes about him. After the translation of the Amritasiddhi into Tibetan, the posterity of Virupa's hatha yoga will be important in Tibet through the Sakyapa lineage.

The case of Kadri and the Amritasiddhi manuscript studied by Mallinson attests to the influence, in India, of hatha yoga as transmitted by Virupa. The same yogis who transformed the Amritasiddhi into a Shaiva text in Kadri, erected

statues of Goraksha in that same sanctuary. When they transformed the Buddhist text Amritasiddhi into the Shaivite Amaraugha Prabodha, the Naths removed elements that were too obviously Buddhist. They retained concepts that did not contradict their own ideas or practices, either replacing them by equivalent Sanskrit or keeping the original Buddhist terminology. We therefore meet with four types of bliss such as the “extreme joy”, paramananda, and the “innate joy”, sahajananda. The term used by the Buddhists, sukha, is simply replaced by its synonym ananda. The word sahaja, the innate or natural state, is found unchanged, as are atishunya, supreme emptiness, and mahashunya, great emptiness¹ ⁸. On the other hand, the authors of the Amaraugha Prabodha interpreted in their own way some words of the Amritasiddhi that they found obscure. For instance, the “multicolored moment”, vicitrakshana, is one of the four successive types of bliss felt during the sexual union. In the Shaiva version it becomes “[the sound] with various tones”, vicitrakvanaka, and is assimilated to the mysterious “not emitted [sound]” , anahata, which the yogi can hear internally. This last expression is another transposition of a Buddhist concept, misunderstood or non-integrable, encountered in a song by Saraha: the “unissued sound”, a paradoxical metaphor for the indescribable empty nature of phenomena (Jackson 2004: 104).

A major difference between the yoga of Matsyendranath received by the Kaulas, and the yoga of Gorakhnath whose Naths claim to be the spiritual heirs, is the abandonment, attributed to Gorakhnath, of the yogic sexual union. It is, in of bodily practice, the most blatant break between Buddhist yoga and its Hindu adaptation by the Naths. A famous episode in the life of Matsyendranath and his disciple Gorakhnath according to the Nath Yogis tradition is the “rescue”, by Gorakhnath, of his master who had gone astray and, carefree, was enjoying pleasures at the palace of the queen of Kamakhya. We can see here a mythical justification for the devaluation by the Naths of the practice of sexual yoga, a devaluation taken up by most of the later Nath literary production. It is said, however, that some lay Nath adepts still engage in this practice.

9.4.4 The transition from Buddhism to Shaivism through teachings and conversions

We don’t know how the transition took place in Kadri monastery, between the Buddhist occupation and the installation of the Naths. Generally speaking, we can imagine that, in some instances, practices and concepts were ed from one spiritual school to another in the same way it can be observed today: someone receives teachings from a master of a certain tradition, then integrates these teachings into his own previous tradition, or he founds a new one altogether. The literatures of the Kaulas and the Naths naturally tend to mention Buddhists who have converted to Shaivism. Thus, according to the Lilacaritra, Gorakhnath converted Virupa, who in turn converted a group of monks, Buddhist or Jaina, and “restored the Vedic religion in Ellora” (Mallinson 2019: 25). This quote denotes Brahmanic activism, since yoga, Tantrism and even the god Shiva have actually little to do with Vedism.

These stories attest in any case to the precedence of Buddhist yoga. A text from the Pascimanaya Kaula Tantra Shaiva school, the Shatsahasra Samhita, is more explicit on this subject. It describes a group of eight Naths being taught by a man called Adamantine Enlightenment, Vajrabodhi, a Tantric Buddhist name if any (Mallinson 2019: 26). Another text, the Kubjikânityâhnitilaka, present nine Buddhist monks as being the first human masters of the Kaula sect. The text says that the primordial Lord, Adinath, or Shrinath, identified with Shiva, collapsed the roof of their monastery. Impressed by the power of the god, the monks converted to his doctrine, thus becoming the nine patriarchs of this lineage. The Kaulas are one of the sources of Nathism, and the Naths are often defined as “the disciples of the nine Naths and the 84 Siddhas.” (Bouillier 2009: 6)

As Mallinson himself suggests, his historical survey of the Manjunath Monastery in Kadri could inspire future studies of other sites and texts. These could help to understand how the transition between Buddhist and Hindu yogic and Tantric traditions took place in the Indian subcontinent. In particular, the

Shambhava and Siddha traditions of Tamil-nadu bear similarities to several aspects of Buddhist Tantrism. In Southeastern India again, the Tamil Tantric text Tirumantiram, dated from the 11th century, prescribes sexual yoga without ejaculation, like most of Buddhist Tantras. It is also remarkable that this text mentions the Kalacakra Tantra. At the same time, it praises Cidambaram as an important Shaiva holy place in Tamil Nadu (Mallinson 2019: 27, n. 157).

9.4.5 The diffusion of Nathism in the Indian subcontinent

On the ascetic scene of Hindu India but also in the Mughal Muslim India, the yogis of the Nath tradition were, and still are, prominent actors. Alternatively, they have been called Gorakhpanthis, i.e. followers of the path of Gorakhnath. They also received the nickname of Kanphata Yogis, “yogis with split ears¹ ”. One of the attributes of Nath ascetics is indeed a pair of large earrings, made of materials ranging from terracotta to metal to wood. They don’t through the lobe but the cartilage of the ears, which is ritually perforated. It was however mainly under the name of yogis, also pronounced jogis, that the Nath order spread throughout South Asia, from the end of the Buddhist era up to the present day. They are found in greater numbers in the North and North-West of India. During the British era, they were met as far West as Kabul in Afghanistan. Their largest monastery was, on the eve of the Partition, Tilla, in the now Pakistani part of Punjab.

The original stronghold of the Naths is, not surprisingly, Gorakhpur, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh on the border with Bihar, between Benares and the Nepalese border. There, their sanctuary was rebuilt in two other successive locations, after having been forcibly transformed twice into mosques. The Naths can be seen as an ascetic interface between the Hindu Sadhus and the various types of wandering mystics who came from Muslim Persia, with whom they had many s, often visiting the same sanctuaries, especially in North-Western India and Pakistan¹⁷ . Hing Laj, in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, was one of these landmarks before the Partition. The Muslim mystic Shah Abdul Latif (1689-1752), a great poet of the Sindhi language spoken in Southern Pakistan, expressed his iration for those he called Kapata Jogis: “Let us visit the abode of these ascetics who are in trance. O Sisters! I am extremely beholden to these lobed Jogis. Their patronage has reformed my heart.” (Bouillier 2009: 13, n. 28)

Aside from their heavy earrings, the appearance of many Nath ascetics is similar to that of the Sadhus. The bodies of the Naths are often smeared with ashes.

Their hair is gathered in a bun at the top of the head, but can alternatively be shaved. They tie a cloth around their waist, or just a loincloth. When they are on the move, they gather around their sacrificial fire, dhuni, to sing devotional songs in honor of the founding human masters of their lineage and of Shiva, the original master, Adinath. Their taste for hashish is another of their common points with the Shaiva sadhus.

Today, the number of Nath ascetics in India and Nepal amount approximately to one hundred thousands. These are the renunciants only, but the order has a much larger number of lay devotees. Some among the latter say they are descended from Nath ascetics who broke their vow of chastity. In some states, such as Uttar Pradesh in the North and Karnataka in the South-West, lay Naths may be Hindu scholars versed in Sanskrit Scriptures. The pressure of the Brahmanic social model in India has not ceased for two millennia, and this can explain why groups of lay Naths now claim the status of a high caste¹⁷¹. In the Indian state of Rajasthan, many Naths are bards belonging to lower Muslim castes. They originally belonged to low Hindu castes who converted to Islam and, therefore, were given a lower status than Muslims of Afghan or, a fortiori, Arabic origins.

9.4.6 Traces of Tantric Buddhism in some current practices of the Naths

After the Buddhists, the Naths were responsible for a new spread of hatha yoga throughout South Asia. Hatha yoga itself is the source of today's yogic physical exercises, worldwide famous. In addition to the large earrings, they wear around the neck a thread holding a small ring and a whistle. The ring represents the yoni, the vulva which, in statuary, forms the pedestal of the linga, the Shaiva phallic symbol. It may be the trace of the Tantric sexual practice theoretically abandoned since the time of Gorakhnath. The whistle is played ritually, for example before eating and, according to some informants, the sound thus emitted represents the whistling of the snake.

This comparison has a yogic sense. In hatha yoga, the subtle energy one has to make move upward, from the base of the body to the top of the skull, is called kundalini, a term popularized in the West by John Woodroffe¹⁷² in his book The Serpent Power, published in 1919. Kundalini is the feminine of kundalin. One of the meanings of the latter word, “serpent”, comes from the idea of circularity conveyed by the noun kunda. However, kundalin as a word for serpent is little attested in Sanskrit literature. It is only found in the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, the Rajatarangini, dated from the 12th century. Kunda means above all a circular recipient, such as a bowl, a jar, and particularly a recipient or a whole in the ground where coal is burned for a ritual. The most common meaning of kundala is, by far, that of earrings or bracelets, and kundalin (masculine) or kundalini (feminine) almost always describes a person wearing earrings (Monier-Williams 2002).

Now, these two meanings of “fireplace” on the one hand, and “person adorned with earrings” on the other, are present in the Candali of the Buddhist Mahasiddhas. As Kanha sings, through the union with the Candali, a woman of low caste wearing large earrings¹⁷³, the flame of the abdominal fire, also called candali¹⁷⁴, rises within the central channel and provokes ecstasy. The researcher Hatley Shaman (2015) also speaks of “kundalini or, in Buddhist Tantric yoga,

the fiery energy called Candali, the partner”, and declares that “such techniques to force, hatha¹⁷⁵, the rise of the life energy is prefigured in the Vajrayana Buddhist yoga texts.” Despite this heritage, Naths, like Sadhus, do very little yoga practice today.

Naths have nonetheless played a major role in the religious history of the Indian subcontinent, from Afghanistan to Bengal via the Malabar coast and Nepal. Counselors of Hindu as well as Muslim kings, ascetics or householders, erudites or common people, they also entered folklore as characters such as magicians or sorcerers. Their s belonging to minstrel castes have long sung the gestures of heroic yogis and renouncing kings, and they are credited with epics such as that of Puran Bhagat, inspired by the figure of Caurangi, one of the Mahasiddhas disciples of Gorakhnath. They also kept a repertoire of ballads, where the amorous metaphor of the soul in search of her god reminds of the sufiinspired romances. Véronique Bouillier adds that “even a corpus as particular as that of Manasâ, the serpent-goddess of the Bengali sung cycle, testifies to this nâth influence.” ¹⁷ (2009: 12)

Therefore, the posterity of Tantric Buddhism in Indian religiosity and popular culture is vast. In the domain of concepts, the Nath spiritual literature attributed to Gorakhnath has taken from Buddhism the notion of various levels of bliss experienced in yoga, only replacing sukha by its synonym ananda. Their corpus also mentions different types of emptiness, shunya, and a natural or spontaneous state, sahaja (Lorenzen 2012: 32). Some traditions other than Nathism have preserved these concepts too, on the very land where Buddhists forged them, viz. the North-East. These are Vaishnava mystical traditions.

9.5 The Vaisnavism of the Pancaskhas of Odisha

After the disappearance of the Buddhist monastic universities of the Ganges valley, in Bihar and in Bengal, and of the Mahanadi valley in Odisha, the Buddhist ideas and practices that had developed in these regions and had permeated minds and culture for more than a millennium did not disappeared immediately. As the transmission of a coherent philosophical system was no longer ensured by the monastic institutions, certain key concepts of the Mahayana and Vajrayana, detached from their context, helped to shape local mysticism, particularly in Odisha. Such is the case of shunyata, emptiness, and sahaja, the natural state. The moral of altruism and equality of the Buddhism of the Great vehicle had been easily integrated by the tribes of Northeastern India, in which mutual assistance is valued, and where women have more power than in the patriarchal Brahmanic society. This undoubtedly contributed to the rise, in Bengal and in Odisha, of Vaishnava movements more egalitarian than others.

For the same reasons, the yogic practice of sexual union initiated by Tantric Buddhism, implying a certain sexual freedom of women, inspired non-Buddhist sects during and after the presence of Buddhism. Given this pervasiveness of Buddhism in local cultures, it is not surprising that once all Buddhist institutions disappeared, the lay followers ed the ranks of these now dominant Hindu movements. They found there certain ideas and practices which had long been part of their Buddhist culture.

9.5.1 The Bengali Vaishnavism of Caitanya

At the beginning of the 7th century, the sovereigns of the Ganga dynasty, coming from the South, seized Kalinga, the Southern part of Odisha, and developed their cult of Vishnu in his form of the “bearer of the disc” (cakra¹⁷⁷), Cakradhara Madhava, to whom they identified the deity Jagannath venerated at Puri. During the reign of Codaganga (1077-1150), of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, Jagannath was definitively assimilated to Vishnu. Its worship will however preserve a heterogeneous character testifying to the various traditions active in the area: local cults, Buddhism, and various Shaiva currents such as Shaktism, i.e. Tantric Shaivism centered on the female principle. The appearance of Muslim warlords in the lower Gangetic plains around 1200 did not only put an end to Buddhist institutions, it also halted the progress of the then triumphant caste society. This resulted in the conversion of a section of the population, which could find in Islam a way to escape the domination of the Brahmins.

From this cultural confrontation emerged around the year 1500 a new form of devotion to Vishnu. The Bengali mystic Caitanya professed a devotional path of immersing oneself in the love of and for Vishnu in the form of Krishna. This tradition was very successful in Bengal, hence its denomination of Gaudiya, from Gaud, the name of an ancient kingdom of Bengal. Many residents who had long maintained, more or less confidentially, Buddhist values and practices, such as the altruism of the Mahayana and devotion to the great Bodhisattvas, ed this movement. During the lifetime of Caitanya, a great ceremony of collective conversion to Vaishnavism was held, in which 2,500 Buddhist men and women participated (Das 1988: 68).

At the invitation of the local king, Caitanya settled for the last part of his life in Odisha, in the city of Puri, where the main sanctuary of Jagannath is located. There, his doctrine took root in an land just as permeated with Buddhism as was Bengal, but less affected than the latter by the wars and upheavals of the previous three centuries. The aspiration to develop Radha's love for Krishna in

one’s heart could find a favorable ground among those of the ancient Buddhists who maintained the practice, or at least the memory, of the union of the feminine and the masculine through Buddhist sexual yoga. However, in addition to the abandonment of the sexual act, at least in the doctrine of Caitanya, there is a significant inversion: in the Buddhist practice of union, actual or visualized, the practitioner most of the time identifies himself with the male deity. As for the Dakini, she represents at the same time the means and the goal of the practice, the great bliss of the realization of emptiness, mahasukha. In the cult of Radha and Krishna, the practitioner is feminized by identifying himself with Radha. Krishna represents the means, in the sense that he arouses love in the heart of the devotee. The eternal enjoyment of Krishna’s presence represents the goal, which therefore remains in the dualistic dimension.

The transition from one View to the other was only made possible by centuries of interruption in the teaching and practice of the Buddhist View. The initial sense of union is only recalled by the persistence of a concept directly inherited from the Great Accomplished Ones of the Adamantine Vehicle, the concept of the natural state, sahaja. Among the Buddhists most recently converted to Vaishnavism, the union of the masculine and the feminine, however internalized and theistic, still evokes the recovery of the natural state. Hence, a part of these new Vaishnavas of Eastern India, and especially in Odisha, came to be called Sahajiyas, viz. the adepts of the natural state.

9.5.2 The originality of the Sahajiya Vaishnavism of Odisha

Caitanya had five great disciples in Odisha who a gained longterm fame. These were Balarama, Jagannatha, Yashovanta, Ananta and Acyuta alias Acyutananda¹⁷⁸, collectively referred to as the Five Companions, Pancasakhas. Their tradition, specific to Odisha, differs from Gaudiya Vaishnavism in that, alongside devotion, they used to encourage philosophical reflection and yogic practices. The Pancaskhas contributed so well to the development of the current theology of Jagannath worship, that their irers equate them with five aspects of the deity Jagannath. One of the main contributions of the Pancasakhas to Jagannath theology is the revival of the Buddhist concept of emptiness, shunya¹⁷ (Mishra K. C. 1971: 158).

In his elaboration of the non-dualistic Vedanta, Advaita Vedanta, in the 8th century, the Brahmin Shankara had taken up the idea of emptiness, shunyata. He had replaced the term emptiness with that of “absolute without attributes”, Nirguna Brahman, with a corresponding manifested aspect, endowed with qualities or characteristics, called Saguna Brahman. But the Pancasakhas of Odisha, born in the mother land of Vajrayana, remained closer to Tantric Buddhism and its philosophical basis of the Great Vehicle. They made emptiness the essence of all things and called it the “Being¹⁸ of Emptiness”, Shunya Purusha. This name echoes the “Adamantine Being”, Vajrasattva, at the same time the fundamental deity of Vajrayana, and the reminder of the apparent and empty character (vajra) of reality (sattva). According to the Pancasakhas, Shunya Purusha creates everything, is at the heart of all things, but nothing can affect it. We are here half-way between the emptiness of Buddhism, i.e. the absence of characteristics of phenomena, and the personification of the absolute through the image of a creating god. The nuance can be expressed in English by the choice of the verb: emptiness “allows” the appearance of phenomena, while the creating god “causes” it. The second formulation is a concession to ordinary dualistic perception, while the first one points towards an achievement beyond the reach of the dualistic discursive mind.

This difference in philosophical view has important consequences. In Buddhism, even when some Mahayana Sutras encourage devotion to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and confidence in his comionate power, devotees are always reminded, not only that the comion of the Bodhisattva is to be invoked for the spiritual progress of all living beings, but also that all phenomena, including Buddha and Buddhism, are impermanent and devoid of any individual essence. Conversely, the Gaudiya Vaishnavism of Caitanya, for example, personalizes the ultimate reality, described as a divine interlocutor, radically superior to the devotee. This mystical path directs its followers to see the manifestation of the divine love in all events and phenomena, and to aspire to remain eternally in this amorous face-to-face encounter with the god. This reification of phenomena, even if those are considered as divine, corresponds to the extreme of eternalism against which Buddhism warns, because it obstructs the discovery of the ultimate essencelessness of reality. The other extreme, nihilism, refers to philosophical views such as those denying causation, i.e. karma.

In a more subtle way, the abstract Shaivism of the non-dualistic Vedanta of Shankara is also a nihilism, in that it treats the manifested world with contempt. This approach justifies, in the eyes of some Shaiva ascetics, to mistreat their own body since it is considered as the cause of desires and attachments. These two forms of nihilism, viz. the denial of causation and the contempt for phenomena, are both equally inconsistent. The first one is impracticable because if we deny causation, then no action, word or thought has any meaning, neither to live, nor to cease to live, nor to profess this philosophical view itself. The second one, which consists in rejecting the creation to turn exclusively to the creator, viewed as a god who is the only reality, invalidates itself for the following reason. If, at the time of creation, the god is the only reality, his creation is none other than himself, and there can be neither anything to despise, nor anyone who would reject one thing and aspire to another.

The fundamental error of these formulations is that they are both incomplete and uncompromising. Buddhism is more pragmatic and, therefore, more effective. It totally integrates the fact that there are different levels of spiritual progression, and does not compartmentalize them. At the same time, it constantly recalls the

ultimate View towards which one must strive. This no doubt explains the remarquable homogeneity of the Buddhism of the Greater Vehicle during its millennium of presence in India, although there was no central authority to define and control the dogma.

Conversely, the Brahmins, by developing Hinduism in order to compete with Jainism and even more with Buddhism, instituted the cults of disctinct gods by appropriating tribal deities, as well as Bodhisattvas of the Great Vehicle or wrathful deities of Tantric Buddhism. By composing puranic tales to increase the prestige of these gods, Brahmin writers pictured them as anthropomorphic heroes driven by human ions. In so doing, they sowed the seeds of sectarian rivalry, particularly between Shaivas and Vaishnavas. Three centuries after the disappearance of the great Buddhist monasteries in Northeastern India, it might be thanks to the survival of the notion of emptiness in the religious life of Odisha, that the Vaishnavas Pancasakhas avoided the sectarian bias.

9.5.3 Emptiness in the Sahajiya Vaishnavism and the cult of Jagannath

Caitanyadas, a contemporary and co-religionist of the Pancasakhas, wrote in his Ancient Tale of the Essence of Vishnu, Vishnugarbha Purana (Mishra K. C. 1971: 159):

The Incomprehensible Being has neither form nor colour; He is the great void and He has no existence; He is not a shape, and shapeless is His body and so he remains in Shunya with the Shunya. One who posseses a body cannot describe the secret of His form, because even Veda fails to depict His merit.

And in his Exaltation of the [One] Without Characteristics, Nirguna Mahatmya (Mishra K. C. 1971: 159):

The beginningless and the shapeless Lord fulfils the desire for emancipation of the living creatures. In the belief of the devotees He resides in all the material bodies, and so the merit of this Ishvara, who is for the well-being of the universe, is unknowable. For the good of the pious He assumes the comprehensible form of the void.

We find in all the Vaishnava writings of Odisha similar descriptions of the Being of emptiness, Shunya Purusha, also called Sovereign lord, Virat Purusha, the Uncompound, Nirakara, or even primordial Brahma, Adi Brahma, which recalls the expression of primordial Buddha, Adi Buddha (Mishra K. C. 1971: 157159). Like Vajrasttva, Shunya Purusha is defined as the union of emptiness, shunya or shunyata, and comion, karuna. In addition, the Vishnugarbha Purana of Caitanyadas takes up the mandala of the five primordial Buddhas or the Victorious Ones (Jinas), but replaces Vajrasattva with the Uncompound

Vishnu, Nirakara Vishnu, and the five Victorious Ones with a set of five Vishnus. The latter are assigned the same color code as their Buddhist counterparts, and are also provided with a seed syllable and the corresponding mantra, an animal vehicle, and correspondences with the vital breaths, prana, and the wheels, cakra, of the subtle body (Mishra K. C. 1971: 160).

However, at the beginning of the 16th century, like a thousand years earlier, the View of emptiness remained inaccessible to the Brahmin composers of Puranas. Attached to the universe as being undeniably real, they tell of its creation by a supreme being through entertaining mythological episodes. Besides, we read in those texts a materialistic conception of the world as being formed out of five elements and arising from a primordial ocean. In the Prembhakti Brahmagita (Mishra K. C. 1971: 161), a cosmogonic text related to the Jagannath deity of Puri, we thus find the emission, by Shunya Purusha, of an energy made up of five elements. In the beginning, these elements fell into the “causal sea”, which brought out the primordial energy, Adi Shakti, also called Yoga Maya. The time itself, Kalarupa, who was sleeping in the ocean, showed up but could not stand up. Yoga Maya told him to transform himself into an “adamantine phallus”, Vajrakila. When Kalarupa then rose as Vajrakila, he required Yoga Maya to become his consort, his shakti in Hindu terminology, and intented to penetrate her in order to gain stability.

One wonders if the authors of such stories intended to simplify such abstruse topics as the origin of space and time by narrating the play of Yoga Maya and Kalarupa, which results in this tale. Or were they themselves philosophically satisfied with this kind of explanations? In any case, we can recognize in the above story three Buddhist elements: the concept of the original five wisdoms, the sexual union of Tantric deities, and even the name of one of them, Vajrakila, although the adamantine character indicated by the word vajra would make sense only in the context of Tantric Buddhism. As for Yoga Maya, it is a Hindu term refering to the creative capacity of the god, who by his yogic powers emanates this illusory universe. However, the illusory nature of the universe too is an idea of Buddhist origin.

The Hindu theology of Jagannath involves also the god Krishna. Integrated in the cycle of incarnations of Vishnu, the character of the young attractive flute player seducing the cowherds may have had a tribal deity of fertility as his model. In the context of Jagannath, Krishna, the cowherd, and his partner Radha, here also called Jiva, the Life, eternally frolic in the center of the mandala of the World of Cows, Goloka. This mandala is also called “the mandala of emptiness”, and its structure reminds of the mandala of the Buddhist deity Hevajra. One of the Pancasakhas, Acyutananda, in his treatise on emptiness, Shunya Samhita, narrates a myth whose protagonists penetrate the mandala of emptiness, shunya mandala. To do this, they must recite the mantra of emptiness, shunya mantra, or the formless mantra, nirakara, which the Mother goddess of Buddha, Buddhamata, teaches out of comion. Buddhamata is one of the eight sisters of a primordial deity Adidurga, also called Mahamaya, the Great Illusion (Mishra K. C. 1971: 162). Mahamaya is actually the name of a Buddhist Tantra, whose main deity presides over the temple of the 64 Yoginis at Hirapur. It is also another name of Mayadevi, the mother of Buddha Shakyamuni.

Certainly, we would look in vain for a metaphysics comparable to that of Buddhism in narratives such as those met with in the Shunya Samhita which, moreover, present themselves as disparate myths and vary from one author to another. However, the fact that key- of the Mahayana and Vajrayana philosophies have survived is no less proof of the deep rooting of Buddhism in the minds of the inhabitants of Odisha, even after several centuries of Hindu theism. In Odisha, Caitanya was called the Primordial Buddha, Adibuddha, and considered to be a manifestation of Jagannath. In addition to the lexical traces of Buddhism, important aspects of spiritual practice individualize the Vaishnavism of Odisha within the wider frame of Indian Vaishnavism and even within Northeastern Vaishnava movements. Here, the spiritual master is the object of the greatest veneration. In his Chant of the Hidden, Gupta Gita, Balaramadas wrote: “Guru is Brahma, Hari and Hara¹⁸¹, and He is also the formless void himself.” (Mishra K. C. 1971: 167)

While Caitanya professes the exclusive devotion to Vishnu-Krishna, the Vaishnavism of Odisha encourages the yogic practice of pulling up the subtle energy through the central channel up to the vault of the skull. We recognize

here the practice that the Nath Yogis inherited from the Mahasiddhas. Acyutananda praised the body practice, kaya sadhana, called in Odisha ghata yoga, i.e. body yoga: “A person who has mastered the art of ghata yoga has no need of all that is contained in the Vedas and Shâstras. For such a person, the idols we worship are nothing more than just pieces of stone.” (Patnaik 2005: 182-183) To name the goal of the spiritual path, Acyutananda even uses a term specific to Buddhist yogis: mahasukha, the great bliss (Patnaik 2005: 179). K.C Mishra ( 1971: 167) further notes that:

The principle of identifying the human body with the universe is markedly present in the Yogic philosophy of the Jagannâtha cult. All the Oriya philosophers declare in almost the same voice that the entire universe is located within the body. […] In Saptânga Yogasâra Tika of Balarâmadâsa and Shîva Svarodaya of Yashovanta Dâsa, the various phases of time, i.e. day, night, week, month etc. are explained with reference to the functions of the vital winds in the nervous system, and it has also been repeatedly pointed out that by controlling the vital wind one might escape the malignant influence of the “Whirl of time” (Kâla Cakra). This concept in the cult of Jagannâtha might have also been partly due to the influence of the Yoga system of the Kâla Cakra Yâna of Tântric Buddhism.

This remark is all the more significant when we that a few kilometers from Puri is the so-called temple of the sun, Surya, with its astrological wheel, in the city of Cuttack, or Katak, possibly Dhanykataka where the Buddha revealed the Kalacakra Tantra.

¹ A hill, located in the Tamil Nadu State, famous for having been the abode of the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950).

¹ ⁷ This episode is narrated in Abhayadatta 2003: 21-25.

¹ ⁸ And other keywords of Buddhism such as : trivajra, the three vajra of the body, speech and mind, i.e. the perception of the emptiness of all forms, sounds and thoughts; Trikaya, i.e. Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya; Mahamudra, the Great seal of emptiness; the very name Buddha, and so on (Mallinson 2020: 416, 419).

¹ For a presentation of the Nath tradition and particularly of their organization at the present time, see Bouillier 2009.

¹⁷ For the same phenomenon in the Eastern end of India, see the presentation of a sufi yoga manual in Bhattacharya F. 2003.

¹⁷¹ The current abbot of the Nath monastery of Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath, is very much involved in Hindu nationalism, in particular in the state of Uttar Pradesh, of which he is currently (in 2020) the chief minister.

¹⁷² Sir John George Woodroffe (1865-1936) was a British jurist who practiced in Calcutta and died in . Under the name of Arthur Avalon he published commented translations of Tantric and Yogic Shaivite texts.

¹⁷³ Like all yogis and yoginis in Buddhist Tantric iconography.

¹⁷⁴ The “fiery”, tummo in Tibetan.

¹⁷⁵ Indeed, Hatha means violence, constraint, strength, perseverance.

¹⁷ We translate from the French original.

¹⁷⁷ Let us recall here that in the scholarly transcription system of Indian languages, the letter c renders the sound “tch”. For instance here in cakra, then in Cola and Caitanya.

¹⁷⁸ They all sometimes have the suffix -das, “servant”, added to their names, thus Balaramadas, etc.

¹⁷ Standing here for shunyata.

¹⁸ In the sense of “the person”, purusha meaning “man”.

¹⁸¹ The Creator, Vishnu and Shiva, respectively.

9.5.4 Hidden Buddhists

Thus, ideas and practices which were Buddhist in origin had survived for a few centuries in Odisha. But during the lifetime of Caitanya and the Pancasakhas, new violent events disrupted religious life. Prataprudra, who reigned over Odisha from 1497 to 1540, was urged by his Brahmanic court to persecute those who were identified as Buddhists, while he invited Caitanya to reside in Puri. In his Treatise on Emptiness, Shunya Samhita, the Pancasakha Acyutananda mentions various sects carrying on their practices in secrecy in order to escape persecution. He names the Nagantakas, who would draw their name from Nagarjuna, the famous exponent of the Mahayana Madhyamika philosophy, and the Yogantakas, related to the Mahayana Cittamatra Yogacara. He also mentions the followers of Gorakhnath, i.e. the Kanphata Yogis, as well as the male and female “shaven heads”, Nera Neri, maybe descended from Buddhist monks and nuns, and the Bauls. In the same text, Acyutananda gives the name of gurus that he presents as Buddhist, active in the 15th century in Odisha¹⁸²: Varanga Swami, Lohidas, and Virasimha. They taught yoga to their disciples in the caves of the wooded hills of Odisha.

Acyutananda himself declares that he received advices and teachings from the Buddha in vision. The Buddha would have transmitted to him the mantra of emptiness, and recommended

him to keep the practice of Buddhism hidden in this time of turmoil. Acyutananda said that he and the other four Pancasakhas used to visit the communities founded by Varanga Swami, Lohidas and Virasimha in their forest retreats. They also practiced a meditation on emptiness seen as the ultimate foundation of the apparent, but illusory, play of Krishna and Radha. It is perhaps the survival of these communities that made Buddhaguptanath, the Indian master of the Tibetan historian Taranatha, say that Buddhism still existed in Odisha in the 16th century. Anyway, from 1568, Odisha came under the sway of the Sultan of Bengal, whose general Kalapahar, a Hindu prince converted to Islam, attacked

the temples of Cuttack and Puri, persecuting both Hindus and Buddhists. From then on, the last crypto-Buddhists of Odisha were either converted to Islam, or they definitively ed Hinduism, particularly the cult of Jagannath (Das 1988: 180).

The worship of Jagannath and all of Odisha’s religious life are thus worthy objects of a religious archeology not only related to places, but to be extended to texts and practices. In his book published in 1911, The Modern Buddhism and its followers in Orissa, Nagendra Nath Vasu reports the existence, in the districts of Cuttack, Puri, Bankura and Burdwan, of the ethno-cultural group Saraki Tanti. Their name would be the contraction of Shravaka, meaning Buddhist monk, and Tantrika, Tantric practitioner. They worship images of the Buddha alongside Hindu gods. Vasu also heard local bards still singing the saga of the Pala kings of Bengal, protectors of Buddhism.

It further sees that today, in Odisha, certain populations of the Saora ethnic group, i.e. the Shavaras or Shabaras, resort to the therapeutic or exorcist use of mantras which come from Tantric Buddhism. The practice of Buddhism did not suddenly die out in Northeastern India when the monasteries of Bihar and Bengal were destroyed around 1200. For Tandra Patnaik (2005: 102), the school of the Pancasakhas transmitted its original metaphysics under a Vaishnava disguise until the 19th century. And at this very period the Mahima Dharma was born which, conversely, stripped the Shunya Purusha of its Vaishnava garnments.

9.6 The cult of Dharma Thakur and the Mahima Dharma of Odisha

Among the Indian religious traditions having inherited Buddhist concepts and practices, the best known are that of the Nath Yogis, appearing around the 13th century, and then the Sahajiya Vaishnavas and the Pancasakhas in Odisha, both starting at he end of the 15th century. Clues of genuinely Buddhist activities in the Indian plains during these periods are rare. Some hand copies of Buddhist manuscripts were made, and Buddhist individuals from neighboring countries came on pilgrimage tours. At the end of the 19th century, Haraprasad Sastri searched for such traces of Buddhist activity in India after 1200. He reports one or two per century.

In 1305, a king of Arakan, a region of the Burmese coast, financed repair works of the Mahabodhi temple, in present-day Bihar, where the presence of monks was still attested in 1331. A text of the Great Vehicle, the Shikshasamuccaya, by Shantideva (8th century), was copied into Bengali language in the 14th century. In Magadha again, in 1446, a scribe copied another Buddhist manuscript. In 1585, a Newar from Patan in the Kathmandu valley spent three months in Bodhgaya and, once back home, built on his property the temple of Mahabuddha, a reduced replica of the Mahabodhi temple. In 1608, Buddhaguptanath, whose name might indicate his affiliation to the Nath Yogis, visited Buddhist places such as Bodhgaya, Rajgir, the temple of Jagannath in Puri, the Tantric holy place of Devikota in Tripura (in Assam), and the chaitya of Haribhanja in Odisha (today in the new State of Jharkhand). Buddhaguptanath narrated his perigrinations to the Tibetan historian Taranatha. The presence of the word Buddha in his name, his visits to Indian Buddhist places and his s with a Tibetan monk suggest that in the 17th century the Nath Yogis had not completely forgotten their Buddhist ancestry. In 1777, a major Tibetan dignitary, the Tashi Lama, sent representatives to make offerings to the temple of Bodhgaya. A Burmese visitor came twice to Bodhgaya, in 1809 and 1823 (Sastri 1897: 3-6). For their part, from the 19th century onward, European s, archaeologists and scholars took interest in Buddhist sites, and

some of them even contributed to the reintroduction of Buddhist s in the management team of the Bodhgaya temple which, before that, was totally in the hands of Brahmins. So at least, the place of the Buddha’s Enlightenment has never been forgotten.

As for the practice of Buddhism, although, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Pancasakha Acyutananda received teachings on emptiness from the Buddha in vision, what he practices would not be considered as genuine Buddhism by the standards of Buddhist schools of the past and the present. First of all, the Pancasakhas did not take refuge in the Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and did not contemplate the Four noble truths of suffering, its cause, its cessation and the path. In their writings, the only indisputable Buddhist elements were two characteristic of the Great Vehicle, viz. emptiness, shunyata, and comion, karuna, and one term of the Adamantine Vehicle, sahaja, the natural state. For sure, values of universal and egalitarian altruism still permeated Odisha, but the absolute tended to be personalized in the form of the divine couple of Krishna and Radha.

Some rare texts show that in other circles, the Buddha was expected to return as an avatar of Vishnu-Krishna. He is pictured as a spiritual savior in this final stage of a cycle of the universe, the dark age, kali yuga. He is also a social activist figure, sometimes opposing the greedy and exploitive attitude of the Brahmins, sometime calling Hindus and others to rebel tly against the payment of the capitation imposed by Muslim rulers. Haraprasad Sastri found textual indications of this expectation for the Buddha to manifest again on earth. Between 1699 and 1711 was written in Benares, in a language mixing Sanskrit, Hindi and Bihari, a text entitled Buddhacaritra¹⁸³. Its author, Nathuram, claims that the gods Vishnu, Shiva, Ganapati (i.e. Ganesh), Shakti and Surya appeared to him and ened him to write the Mukhabhakha Grantha, which Nathuram will rename Buddhacaritra. In his text, Nathuram also expresses his wishes for peace between all living beings. He views the Buddha as an embodiment of Vishnu and attributes to him feats against demonic beings. He mentions a place dedicated to the 64 yoginis. Above all, his text announces the birth of a manifestation of the Buddha in 1699 in Badarikâshrama, and the return of a golden age, marking the end of this final period of degeneration. After writing

this book, Nathuram became a wandering ascetic by the name of Nathamala Brahmacari (Sastri 1897: 7).

At the same time, in 1710, was written in Bengal, under the patronage of the King of Burdwan (now Bardhaman), a text called Omen of Dharma, Dharma Mangal¹⁸⁴. The author, Ghanaram, was a lower-ranking Brahmin officiating for the untouchable caste of the Candalas. The text presents itself as an excerpt of the Hakanda Purana and traces the cult of Dharma back to King Dharmapala. This common qualifier Dharmapala, “Protector of Dharma”, has been applied to various sovereigns, and Sastri proposes to identify here Dharmapala, king of the Buddhist dynasty Pala of Bengal in the 9th century. Ghanaram writes that at the time of this king, on the banks of the Champa River, a tributary of the Ganges, lived a scholar belonging to the Baiti ethnic group, Ramai Pandit by name. He is the author of the Precepts of Dharma worship, Dharmapuja Vidhana, which he presents as an excerpt from the Hakanda Purana too, just like the later Dharma Mangal of Ghanaram.

The teaching of Ramai Pandit is believed to be the origin of Dharma worship. Sastri assumes this cult to result from a reduction of the Three jewels of Buddhism, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to only one: Dharma. Through either misunderstanding or complete forgetfulness of the concepts of Buddhism, Dharma, also called King Dharma, Dharma Raja or Lord Dharma, Dharma Thakur, has become over time a benevolent deity among others. Just like in the Vaishnavism of the Pancasakhas, one finds in the worship of Dharma by Ramai Pandit the concepts of comion, karuna, nirvana, emptiness, shunya, and great emptiness, maha shunya. The presence of these Buddhist words is so striking that researchers like N. N. Vasu renamed this text Shunya Purana. In it, we read the story of King Lohidas or Luhicandra and his renunciation of the throne. The practice of Tantric asceticism is called here “reverse practice”, ulto sadhana, which implements a View opposite to that of the surrounding institutionalized religions (Vasu 1911: 123, n.). It is specified there that this practice is made according to the Nagantaka principles, which the Pancasakha Acyutadas defines as the philosophy of Nagarjuna. It seems that this king Luhicandra is identical to the prince who renounced the throne to practice Tantric asceticism, named Luhipa in the Lives of the Mahasiddhas (Abhayadatta

2003: 17-18), the “eater of fish wastes”, a disciple of Saraha.

This cult of Dharma continued through the centuries, and in the 1900s, Vasu could hear people singing poems of the Dharma Mangal type, in the region of Mayurbhanja, also called Radha or Rarh, on the border between Odisha and West Bengal. An important temple of Dharma Thakur is found there too, and some individuals practice a meditation on the great emptiness, maha shunya. They address this prayer to Vishnu: “For the relief from all torments and miseries, we invoke the four-armed god. Clad in white, he has the color of the moon and a graceful appearance.” We are struck by the resemblance with the classic description of the four-armed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The prayer continues with the formula “Homage to the absolute which is emptiness”, Om Shunya-brahmane Namah. We find again the association of the Buddhist term of emptiness with the word brahman¹⁸⁵, as in the Pancasakha literature.

In the second half of the 19th century, the tradition of the Dharma cult received a new impulse with the guru Bhima Bhoi. According to the Mahima Dharma literature that Vasu was able to consult at the turn of the 20th century, the Buddha again appeared in this world in the 1850s, in the village of Golasinga, in the Baud region of Odisha. Then, Puri's deity Jagannath ed the Buddha, who sent him to meditate for twelve years in Kapilasa in the Dhenkanal region of Odisha. Jagannath appeared to the locals in the form of an ascetic named Govinda, who was living solely on water and milk. His disciple was Bhima Bhoi, who was blind from birth. Govinda instructed Bhima Boi to teach the Noble Dharma, Mahima Dharma. Bhima Boi started his preaching career in the mid-1870s. A text from the sect, the Yashomati Malika, announced that “the Lord of Dharma will send the four Vedas in hell, and will establish the Dharma of emptiness, devoid of rituals¹⁸ .” In an invocation, Bhima Bhoi addresses his master Jagannath-Govinda with the expression of Master Buddha, Buddha Swamin. We also find the title Noble Master, Mahima Swamin. The rapid development of this spiritual movement was reported by the press of the time¹⁸⁷. In his autobiography, entitled The Lord of Kali Yuga, Kali Bhagavata, Bhima Bhoi reports that, hostile to the worship of Jagannath which he considered as idolatry, he marched on Puri accompanied by the population of thirty villages. Preaching the contemplation of the Formless (or Uncompound), Nirakara, he

intended to destroy the idols of the sanctuary of Jagannath. But clashes occured on the way, resulting in arrests by the police forces, and Bhima Boi renounced his radical project. After this event, his followers withdrew to the wooded hills of the Utkal region, said to be conducive to contemplative life (Vasu 1911: 166).

Bhima Bhoi died around 1900, and his sons took charge of his seat, gadi, which became the center of Mahima Dharma. Other monasteries, mathas¹⁸⁸, were opened, first Badamatha in Golasingha, where Jagannath received instructions from the Buddha, then in Mayurbhanja, in Papur in Keonjhar, in the village of Baud, in Sambalpur and elsewhere in Odisha. Like other religious orders in India, the practitioners of Mahima Dharma are divided into two kinds of adepts, the laity, grihis, literally housholders, and the ascetics. The latter are called Sannyasins, a common term in Hinduism, or Udasins, which also refers to a class of Sikh ascetics. But interestingly enough, they are also called Bhikshus, the Sanskrit term for Buddhist monks. According to Vasu, in the beginning of the 20th century there were around 25,000 followers of Mahima Dharma, belonging to all social classes.

The rules enacted in the Yashomati Malika state that the ascetic of the Mahima Dharma must, first of all, renounce all family ties, and abandon any religious practice other than the contemplation of the Brahman and the praise of the Formless Noble One, Anakara Mahima, alias the Being of Emptiness, Shunya Purusha. Wearing long hair and clad in tree bark, the renunciant of the Mahima Dharma should pay homage only to the god of fire. This religion being aniconic, the fire deity is represented by the fire that the ascetic lights every morning in his fireplace, the dhuni kunda. This term evokes the fireplace around which the Nath Yogis, as well as the Sadhus, gather. The monk of the Mahima Dharma should live on alms provided exclusively by of the lowest caste, the Shudras. This precept is remarkable in that it overturns the Brahmanic hierarchy of the castes.

A new incarnation of the Buddha is awaited by the of the sect, and he will establish his spiritual seat in Bihar. We can note that, in the Buddhist

tradition of the Great Vehicle, it is said that every Buddha attains Enlightenment in Bodhgaya, in Bihar. It is perhaps one more element of Buddhist origin in this composite tradition. Although the Mahima Dharma is obviously of great interest for the study of history and actuality of religions, this tradition is little known, perhaps due to its limited geographic diffusion. Another religious group of the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent shows an even more patent Buddhist ascetic heritage, and now enjoys an international recognition as “mystical musicians”: the Bauls and Fakirs of Bengal.

9.7 The Bauls and Fakirs of Bengal

The Bengal of the second millennium of the Christian era was a huge languagebased cultural zone, until the Partition of 1947 cut it in two halves. Its Western part became the Indian State of West Bengal, to the North-East of Odisha, and its Eastert Part formed the Eastern Pakistan. Both States shared the delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. In 1971, despite fierce repression by Western Pakistan, Eastern Pakistan gained independence and became Bangladesh, the “country of the Bangla people”. In the former undivided Greater Bengal, Caitanya taught around the year 1500 his Gaudiya Vaishnavism, while his disciples of Odisha gave to his doctrine a turn more directly indebted to Tantric Buddhism, the Sahajiya Vaishnavism. It is in these circles that another mystical tradition took shape, known by a denomination already mentioned by the oriya poet Acyutananda at the beginning of the 16th century: the Baul singers.

9.7.1 A pragmatic mysticism repressed by the established religions

Acyutananda cites the name of the Bauls in the list of sects existing or having existed in Odisha, along with the sect of the Nera Neri, the “male and female shaven heads ones”, perhaps former Buddhist monks and nuns. The term Fakir, of Arabic origin and meaning “poor”, testifies to the ancient presence of Muslims in the Bay of Bengal, at least from the 10th century. Beside merchants, some Sufis and other spiritual seekers from the Muslim world were already attracted by the reputation of the Mahasiddhas and yogis, Buddhist and others, of this Northeastern India (Fakir 2007: 123). Soon, the same concepts, conveyed by Indian, Arabic or Persian words, circulated among practitioners. The Yoga Kalandar, a Bengali text from the 17th century, constitutes “an attempt to popularize the notions of yoga of the Naths for the benefit of beginners on the path of Sufi esoteric practice.” Indeed, “the science of the body, the dehatattva, is common to the Bâuls and the Fakirs, as well as to the Sufis of the medieval period, without forgetting the heterodox Vishnouites Sahajiyâ. This dehatattva is based largely on the theories of the Naths strongly influenced by Tantrism.” (Bhattacharya F. 2003: 71)

In the 19th century, as certain Hindu and Muslim elites were anxious to strengthen the “purity” of their respective camps, the Bauls and the Fakirs were expected to choose their side. Their situation worsened with the Partition between a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan, Western and Eastern, and intensified manipulations of religious affiliations for political ends. Since then, as they refuse to adhere to any fundamentalism, Bauls and Fakirs find themselves doubly trapped. On the one hand, they are accused to collude with the “enemy” because of their ecumenism, and on the other hand, they for apostates because they don’t follow the exoteric practices of the religion they are summoned to follow exclusively. Even today, ostracism and acts of violence against them are frequent (Lorea 2018: 7, n. 13). This hostility threatens the continuity of their tradition no less than the modernization of mentalities and the disintegration of the rural society to which they belong. For example, not so long ago, the voluntary poverty of the ascetics was still commanding respect as a sign of self restraint. In today’s consumerist society, this extreme simplicity is seen as

a failure, and the Fakirs, the “poors”, tend now to call themselves Baul-Fakirs, or just Bauls. The bauls, consistent with their philosophy, do not make any distinction either. Therefore, they can all be collectively refered to as BaulFakirs, although differences in lifestyle exist depending on the type of society that dominates locally.

The Baul-Fakirs do not believe in one or more gods outside of man, nor in post mortem paradises. They do not follow the prescriptions of the major religions of post-Buddhist India, viz. caste Hinduism and Islam. They deny any value to the worship of idols in temples, to ablutions in rivers, to prayers in mosques or to pilgrimages. These rural people claim a down-to-earth approach, bastuvada, a religion of the body, dehavada, for two reasons. Aside from their clay huts, their working tools, and sometimes their own fields, they rightly consider that the only thing they indeniably own is their body. But as to their philosophical view, they don’t oppose the body to the mind, they see them as the two poles of a single body-mind continuum, dehâtma¹⁸ . For the Baul-Fakirs, the so-called body and mind correspond to diversely dense or subtle states of the same materiality or individual reality. The identification with this individuality creates the illusion of separation, hence the torments of ions.

¹⁸² Or in the 14th century. Acyutananda refers to the writings of his predecessors. The masters he mentions being unknown from the lists of Indian masters kept by the Tibetans, they could have existed at the earliest in the 13th century, at the latest in the 15th. The title of “swami” granted to Varanga denotes a hinduized society.

¹⁸³ Not to be confused with the Buddhacarita (with no r in the last syllable), a versed biography of the Buddha written by Ashvaghosha in the 2nd century CE.

¹⁸⁴ Mangala, “auspicious”, also means an amulet.

¹⁸⁵ Not to be confused with the Brahmin caste name.

¹⁸ Asadhana, i.e. without sadhana or rituals (Vasu 1911: 170).

¹⁸⁷ In the daily newspaper Utkala Deepika for June 1, 1867, quoted in Lorenzen & Munoz 2012: 65.

¹⁸⁸ A matha is a place of spiritual assemblies and practices, but also a seat or istrative center of a religious organization.

¹⁸ Vadi means “who professes”, “who adheres to” a philosophical statement, vada. Deha is a word for “body”, vastu (pronounced “bastu” in Bengal) means “thing”, and atma is here the “mind”. The Baul-Fakirs are therefore proponents of the path of the body, of the concrete, of the body-mind continuum (Fakir 2007: 52).

9.7.2 The Woman Divine

For the Baul-Fakirs, humankind is one large species, jati, made of only two groups, women and men. As a result, the main ion is the mutual attraction between the of these two groups, desirous to experience their fundamental unity. This observation justifies the adoption of the practice of sexual union as a privileged method for the progressive refinement of lust into love, and of gross pleasure into bliss. This recovered plenitude eventually stabilizes, and ultimately physical union is no longer necessary. In the Baul-Fakir tradition, this transmutation therefore requires the company of the opposite sex, in different ways depending on whether the environment is Hindu or Muslim.

The Bauls, more readily than Fakirs, refer to the mystical state by the name of Krishna, which is wise to do in a Vaishnava environment. But the reference to Krishna, the young and handsome flute player who seduces the female cowherds, definitely makes sense too. The Bauls live in a rural environment, play music and do not engage in married life. Men and women choose freely each other. They often meet at the religious gatherings which are periodically held in places sanctified by practitioners of the past. The guru can also find suitable partners for his disciples. The two mystical lovers just exchange garlands of flowers to formalize their union. Everyone is free to quit his partner. Procreation is avoided: as a main part of his ascetic practice, the man has to master the circulation of the subtle energy attached to his semen, and make it move upward through his central chanel up to the brain. Ejaculation brings about a loss of this energy, and is considered as a failure. Conversely, the Fakir couple, living in a predominantly Muslim environment, practice the same sexual yoga but is united for life and bound to procreate.

In both traditions, the woman is venerated as a spiritual mother, because it is thanks to his intimacy with her that the man can achieve his blissful plenitude. This vision of the woman is reminiscent of the Dakini of Tantric Buddhism, the Dombi or the Candali with whom the male Mahasiddha practices union. In the

Baul-Fakir tradition too, the products of the human body, under the encrypted name of “the four moons”, are essential: urine, stool, semen, and especially menstrual blood, which is the of a powerful subtle energy required for the internal purificatory process. In the discourse of men, women have less spiritual efforts to make, because they are the very embodiment of the Divine, as evidenced by the generosity and tireless dedication with which they gratify all those around them¹ (Fakir 2007: 50). Some of them become gurus too. As much as the central role of women, what unites the Baul and Fakir practices is the unconditional devotion to the spiritual master. Thus the path of the BaulFakirs has three essential components: the master, who is the source of the teachings and of the blessings, the partner, thanks to whom the path is trodden, and the inner state of union as the goal. Any of these three elements can be refered to by the emblematic expression of the Baul-Fakir discourse: Moner Manush¹ ¹, often translated as “the Man of the Heart”, but literally “the Human Being of the Heart”, or “the Being of the Heart.” It naturally forms the theme of many songs of this tradition.

9.7.3 The songs of the Baul-Fakirs

Besides the theoretical and practical teachings on the mastery of the subtle body via the union of gross bodies, the Baul-Fakir way is characterized by the importance given to the sung expression of the path and its realization. Bauls are often described, in Western languages, as itinerant musicians or mendicant singers. It is true that, during their alms tours, they gratify the villagers with songs which deliver a spiritual message in the form of invocations to the guru, to the deified partner, to the divine which resides in the heart of everyone. Their lyrics can be humorous too while refering to the daily life of the audience, and even to social and political events of the area. Bauls thus deliver two-way messages that definitely contribute to the charm of their songs. In addition to the issue of marital life, the other point on which the Fakirs differ from the Bauls is that they usually perform their song not in public, but at home, with other practitioners, during meetings of spiritual discussions and practices.

The enigmatic language of the Baul-Fakir songs and their conciseness are reminiscent of the songs of Realization of the Buddhist Great Accomplished Ones. Possibly through the Naths, the Fakirs of Northern Bengal have, in their songs, retold the life stories and adventures of the Mahasiddhas Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, as well as those of Prince Gopicandra (Bhattacharya F. 2003), whose story can be inspired by that of the Mahasiddha Luipa, alias Luicandra. Sahaja, the natural state that the Buddhist Great Accomplished Ones strived to recover, is refered to in later traditions like those of the Naths, the Sahajiya Vaishnava of Odisha, and the Baul-Fakirs of Bengal. All of them declare that the human body contains everything necessary to realize the very essence of reality. The exoteric practices of institutional religions are considered as vain. The essential poles of human reality which are the masculine and the feminine are to be united within the subtle body of the practitioner. To do this, the concrete union of partners constitutes a privileged way, except for the Naths, who favor the solitary practice of the visualized union of breaths in the channels of the subtle body. Here is an English translation of some verses of Baul-Fakir songs¹ ². They urge the listeners to make the most meaningful use of this precious human existence, they recommand to ignore temple rituals and caste rules, and to

practice with one's body, which contains all required means for spiritual accomplishment. The last verse, in its conciseness, calls in the most direct way to experience reality, free from any delusion.

The road to you is blocked By temples and mosques. I hear your call, my lord, But I cannot advance –

Prophets and teachers Bar my way.

Madan (p. 24)

Those who judge by caste Practice evil, They find nothing. God is reached When caste has vanished. How can I boast of my caste If it spurns friendship? I could light a fire

And burn it.

Lalan (p. 127)

Forget not that your body Contains the whole of existence.

Gosain Gopal (p. 11)

The essence of love Lies in carnal lust, Bearing a deep secret. Only lovers Can unravel it.

Chandidas Gosain (p. 13)

Nothing has happened, And nothing will happen. What is there, Is there.

Anonymous (p. 54)

¹ This reminds us of the vision of women as divinities as expressed in the Candaroshana Tantra (VI.35-36): “Women’s virtue, which embraces all beings, should be spoken of – be it the comion or the protectiveness, which is established in their minds. Whether one is a friend or a stranger, she nourishes one with alms. If she has such a nature, the woman is no other than Vajrayogini.”

¹ ¹ Manush is the human being, man is the mind or the heart, mon and his genitive moner correspond to the pronunciation of Bengali speakers.

¹ ² From Bhattacharya D. 1999.

9.7.4 A Buddhist heritage

The film Lalon, made by the Bangladeshi director Tanveer Mokammel in 2004, tells the life of the famous Baul-Fakir master of the 19th century Lalon Shah, or Lalon Fakir. The movie shows or alludes to most of the aspects of the Baul path, either in pictures or through the songs’ lyrics¹ ³. Nowadays, the traditional rural environment in which the Baul-Fakir tradition had developed has almost disappeared. The entertainment industry takes hold of Baul music and drains part of the income that previously allowed ascetic musicians to survive. Baul asceticism is made of self-control and frugality that allows the revelation of natural joy, mahânanda, a term equivalent to the great bliss, mahasukha, of the Adamantine Vehicle. Today, the excessive consumption of alcohol and marijuana among the audience and certain musicians, during festive events or in everyday life, blurs the image of this tradition.

But for centuries, the Baul practice has brought mystical experience within the reach of illiterate and poor farmers. It also provided them with artistic experiences through songs that were both entertaining, touching and meaningful¹ ⁴. Singing is part of the Baul path, just as the yogic practice is. The means required to perform the Baul-Fakir practice, the sadhana (pronounced shadhon in Bengal) are reduced to the essentials: the human body and a knowledge of its subtle operation, a very simple food, confidence in the master, the union of man and woman, moral principles of universal tolerance, and the inner revelation of the innate and self-sufficient joy. No mythology, and a moderate use of mantras and visualizations: in addition to the subtle channels, a seed-syllable or the image of the guru is visualized in the heart. It is easy to recognize here core elements of the Buddhist path of the natural state, the Sahajayana. We cannot but think here of this verse of the Mahasiddha Saraha: “I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body!” (Snellgrove 1987: 289)

However, as is the case with the Pancasakhas and the followers of Dharma

Thakur and Mahima Dharma, in the Baul and Fakir tradition several essential Buddhist elements are absent, thus preventing us from considering the Baul way as a survival of Buddhism as such. These essential missing parts are the taking of refuge in the Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma and sangha, the statement of the Four Noble Truths concerning liberation from suffering, the affirmation of universal interdependence, the aspiration to attain Enlightenment in order to be able to free all beings from suffering, and at last, the View of the emptiness of the subject and the object. More generally, due to the absence of a philosophical corpus and of monastic institutions providing the means for the study, the practical experience and the transmission of this knowledge, the Baul tradition is ill-equipped to meet the demands of a modern educated public. For the same reasons, Baul-Fakirs can barely take a clearly defined position in relation to the organized religions around them, neither are they able to defend their doctine in compliance with the standard intellectual and theological methods of argumentation.

The main Hindu ascetic lineages thus derive from Buddhism in a way or another, be they the Naths, the Sahajiya and the adepts of Dharma Thakur, or the ascetic orders founded to counteract Buddhism like the Shaiva Sadhus, and the Vaishnava Sadhu orders which developed in imitation and reaction to the latter. However, they all lack the coherence and conceptual precision which would give a convincing idea of their path. The Baul tradition is no exception. For instance, there is no keeping of a historical record of their lineages, that would attest to the continuity of the transmission of dogma and spiritual realization from the founders of the lineages. There is no institution that would guarantee the authenticity of masters according to collegial checking based on defined criteria. This vagueness favors the appearance of charlatans, and dissuades a number of potential disciples from engaging on the path. For these reasons, and despite the existence of adepts who have reached certain levels of inner freedom, all of these Hindu traditions are less spiritually productive than they could be. The eclipse of Buddhism in India from the 13th to the 20th century was therefore a great loss for the spiritual life of India.

In spite of these shortcomings, the Baul-Fakir path, open to all, still has a lot to offer to humankind. On this subject, let us mention an original use of the practice

of union which is applied in certain rural localities of West Bengal. In the predominantly Muslim district of Murshidabad, most couples in the village of Kumirdaha are introduced to the bodily practice, deha sadhana, alias the practice of union, jugal sadhana, by the master Bajal Fakir. The yoga of union involves the retention of semen and the intensification of bliss. Consequently, in this economically poor environment, parents use this method as a natural means of contraception. By limiting the number of their children, they can therefore devote more of their resources to their education. In addition, by virtue of the values of equality and respect for women promoted by the Baul-Fakir tradition, many of the girls in the village go on to higher education, and some return as teachers to help raising the level of general education in their locality. As pregnancies rarely come to interrupt the couple's sexual life, polygamy has disappeared. Thanks to this method of egalitarian sexual union which gradually transforms pleasure into bliss, the couple's harmony is favored and the village no longer experiences any case of divorce (Lorea 2014: 10). Another teacher in a village in the Birbhum district of Indian Bengal rejoices at the disappearance of alcoholism, domestic violence and infidelity among his disciples who exert themselves to jugal sadhana (Lorea 2014: 18). The continuity and complementarity between these psycho-social effects of sexual asceticism, the morality that set guidelines for it, and its spiritual aim are among the remarkable features of this tradition. This is a perhaps an unexpected legacy of the first practitioners of Tantric Buddhism, pioneers of the practice of union.

The Adamantine Vehicle has durably permeated this Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, where it was born. Aside from this heritage, Vajrayana as such is not totally absent today in South Asia. First it continued to exist without interruption on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, in Nepal, Bhutan and in several mountainous states of the Indian Union. It also made a abrupt journey back home to various places of India and Nepal, following the annexation of Tibet by China in 1959 and the consecutive exile of many Tibetans.

Photo 12: Rice fields in Odisha (view from Lalitgiri)

¹ ³ The prior reading of Trottier 2009 helps considerably to identify these elements.

¹ ⁴ Among the available recordings, in addition to the CD accompanying Deben Bhattacharya's book The Mirror of the Sky, let us mention the following CDs: Prithwindra Mukherjee, 1992, Chants du Bengale, Paris, Arion; Deben Bhattacharya, 2014, Murshidi and Sufi Songs, East Grinstead (Great Britain), Arc Music; Parvathy Baul, 2002, Radha Bhava, Paris, Arion, coll. Ethnomad. The booklet of this last disc contains a biography of Parvathy Das Baul, a contemporary Baul female guru.

Conclusion

With the understanding of the major role Odisha played in the history of Buddhism, and above all in the history of the Adamantine Vehicle, this momentous episode of the adventure of human thought takes a more tangible dimension. By contemplating the numerous works of sacred art that are still regularly unearthed in Odisha, by reading the biographies and writings of the practitioners who kept Tantric Buddhism alive in India for several centuries, we get a fairer idea of the vitality Buddhism had in South-Asia, particularly in the North-East. Furthermore, our vision of the religious history of India is refreshed when we become aware of all that Indian religions and philosophies, past and present, including Ayurvedic medicine and yoga, owe to the religions and culture of Greater Magadha, and to Buddhism in the first place.

Since the mid-20th century, Tantric Buddhism has taken root again on the Indian soil thanks to Tibetan masters in exile. Odisha itself counts five Tibetan camps, with their temples and monastic colleges, where refugees strive to secure the transmission of the Tantric tradition. In parallel, the philosophy and the meditation methods of the Theravada tradition met with some success in Nepal and India, thanks to missionary monks from neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Some educated Indian individuals are eager to appropriate Buddhist spirituality, which appeals to them for several reasons. Buddhist philosophy is of Indian origin, but is free from the bias of the racial caste system so difficult to justify today. It is intellectually convincing, and it does not contradict modern science, which it has anticipated, which it confirms and even sures. Buddhism encourages the aspiration for universal generosity and respect for all that lives, and above all, it affirms the possibility of realizing the absolute in this very lifetime, and all these feelings have always moved the hearts of many Indians. Therefore, Buddhism has, once again, its place in India, where people from every continent can contribute to its revival.

To the delight of the visitors, when the setting sun shimmers on the irrigated

paddy fields of Odisha, the stone Buddhist remains scattered on the grassy hills take on a golden hue. Then, the smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara, Tara, Manjushri and Vajrapani, the imperious gazes of Krodhi Kali and Marici, seem to reiterate this exhortation of the Great Accomplished One Shantideva (1992: 75):

With futile goals in view We torment ourselves since a beginningless time. With incomparably fewer efforts We would have reached Enlightenment!

Glossary

Philosophical schools, concepts and technical of Buddhism as they are presented in the book. Words underlined in the definitions refer to glossary entries.

Accomplishment: see siddhi.

Adamantine Vehicle: see Vajrayana.

Adept: see yogi, yogini.

Arhat: a practitioner of the Theravada tradition who has reached nirvana.

Atiyoga: this term appears in the Indian Tantric literature in the 8th century, where it refers to the realization of the nature of reality, at the peak of yogic practice. In Tibet, it later became synonymous with Great Perfection (Dzogchen in Tibetan).

Bodhicitta: the “mind of Enlightenment” is the intent to reach Enlightenment in order to be able to guide all other beings to this realization too. Bodhicitta is the core moral value of the Bodhisattva, the practitioner of Mahayana.

Bodhisattva: although every individual commited to the Mahayana path can be called a Bodhisattva, i.e. a being endowed with bodhicitta, there are different stages on the path. The more advanced Bodhisattvas, being closer to the state of a Buddha, have an increased ability to rescue suffering beings.

Buddha families: three, and eventually five groups of meditational deities related to the Five Jinas or Victorious Ones.

Buddha Field: see Pure Land.

Buddha: a Sanskrit word meaning “awakened”, usually translated as “enlightened” in the spiritual context. It may refer to the prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha Gautama Shakyamuni, the Buddha of our era, or to any other enlightened person in the Buddhist context.

Charnel ground: burial place where corpses are exposed in open air or cremated. Because of the frightening presence of human corpses, scavengers and ghosts, charnel grounds are considered as places favorable to meditation on impermanence as well as on emotions.

Cittamatra Yogacara: the path of the mind (citta) only (matra) and of the practice (cara) of yoga is a sub-school of Mahayana. Here, the enlightened mind is considered to be the only reality, and the adept strives to dispel the obscurations which veil this reality to him. Cittamatra Yogacara and Madhyamika are the two branches of Mahayana philosophy on which the Tantric View is based.

Comion: the main moral value in the Mahayana and the essence of the

Bodhisattva attitude.

Dakini: female embodiment of wisdom in Tantrism. The name applies to any peaceful of wrathful female deity in a mandala. A times, Dakini refers to a female supernatural being, possibly haunting scary places like charnel grounds, but the term can also apply to a female enlightened adept of the Tantric path.

Deity, meditational deity: an anthropomorphic expression of wisdom, manifesting the luminous but empty nature of phenomena. The visualization of deities is central to the Tantric meditation. To realize or accomplish a deity means to realize the empty nature of phenomena through the meditation on a Tantric deity. Therefore, we are not talking here of the gods and goddesses of samsara, who enjoy intense but temporary happiness and power in celestial realms.

Dharma: the theoretical and practical teachings of the Buddha, starting with the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path.

Dharmakaya: among the three “bodies” (kaya) or dimensions of the Buddha’s wisdom, the Dharma Body is widsom itself.

Doha: initially a term of metrics, it came to be used as a name for the versified songs of Realization of the Great Accomplished Ones of Northeastern India.

Eightfold Noble Path: eight key points of our behavior to work on in order to free ourselves from suffering. These are: our philosophical view, our way of reasoning, our actions of speech and body, our livelihood, our diligence, awareness and meditative concentration.

Emptiness: it is the fact that no phenomenon whatsoever has any independant existence, whether in time or space.

Enlightenment: the realization of emptiness, i.e. the non-dual nature of reality. The resultant state is Buddhahood.

Five widsoms: refraction of the englightened mind of the Buddha, just like the colors produced by light ing through a cut cristal, the five wisdoms are five aspects of the primordial wisdom. In the Tantric View, the five wisdoms are equated to the Five Victorious Ones and the corresponding five families of meditational deities.

Four Noble Truths: the first teaching of the Buddha, expounding the pervasiveness of suffering, its causes, the definite possibility to free oneself from suffering, and the existence of a path leading to this liberation.

Great Accomplished One: see Mahasiddha.

Great Perfection: see Mahasandhi.

Great Union: see Mahasandhi.

Great Vehicle: see Mahayana.

Guru: the spiritual guide, the main of the practitioner in Tantric Buddhism, as well as in all the Indian religious traditions influenced by Buddhism.

Jina: the Victorious Ones are the Buddhas, who have overcome suffering. The Five Jinas personify the Five wisdoms. Some people use the term Dhyani Buddhas, of Western origin.

Karma: this word means action and refers to the chain of actions, their consequences and the reactions they provoke under the influence of the dualistic illusion.

Liberation: Enlightenment, understood as freedom from ions, karma and the resulting torments.

Lineage: in Tantric Buddhism, the successive line of masters and disciples who hold the practice and realization of a method of meditation, especially the meditation on a Tantric deity.

Madhyamika: the Middle Way (or Path), a branch of the Mahayana, as expounded by the celebrated Nagarjuna, aims at realizing emptiness through freeing the mind from the extremes of nihilism and eternalism.

Maha Yoga Tantra: in Indian Buddhism, Great Yoga Tantra is a laudatory name for any particularly revered Yoga Tantra. It also refers to the Tantras from which the View of the Great Union developed.

Mahasandhi: the Great Union is a specific Tantric View along with its methods of meditation. The Great Union developed mainly in the Himalayas and the Tibetan world under its Tibetan name of Dzogpa-chenpo or Dzogchen, the Great Perfection.

Mahasiddha: a Great Accomplished One is an adept who has reached Enlightenment, the greatest accomplishment (siddhi).

Mahayana: a Buddhist tradition whose name means the Great Vehicle, or the Great Path or Way. Its main philosophical concept is that of shunyata. The practitioner of Mahayana intends to develop the qualities of a Bodhisattva, the altruistic being who is motivated by bodhicitta.

Mandala: the environment and entourage of a meditational deity. Described as a palace occupied by Tantric deities and located in the center of a Pure Land, peaceful of wrathful depending on the nature of the main deity, a mandala offers a vision of the world much closer to the reality of the primordial wisdom than does our usual vision distorted by the dualistic illusion, ions and their resulting karma.

Mantra: a formula made of a chain of syllables, generally three to around twenty. The recitation of mantras is the hallmark of Tantric meditations.

Meditation: in Tantrism, meditation means to direct the mind towards a spiritual object, be it mind itself or a concept, a visualization, a ritual, a mantra or even a yogic exercise.

Natural state: see sahaja.

Nirmanakaya: among the three “bodies” (kaya) or dimensions of the Buddha’s wisdom, the Body of Manifestation refers collectively to all the Buddhas, great Bodhisattvas and enlightened masters teaching the Dharma to living beings.

Nirvana: the extinction of ions, which characterizes the state of an Arhat in Theravada.

ions: these are the two basic emotions, viz. attraction and aversion, and their avatars such as pride and jealousy, all resulting from the belief in the separation between oneself and others.

Prajna Tantra: see Yogini Tantra.

Pure Land: an environment favorable for spiritual practice, produced by the altruistic aspiration of a great Bodhisattva or a Buddha in the dimension of Sambhogakaya. It is also called a Buddha Field.

Realization: see Enlightenment.

Sadhana: a Sanskrit name meaning a tool, and in the ascetic context, a means or a method. In Tantric Buddhsm a sadhana is a meditative ritual centered on a deity, while in Hinduism sadhana is the name of the spiritual practice as a whole.

Sahaja: in Indian languages, sahaja is the state of the mind free from the dualistic illusion. See also Sahajayana.

Sahajayana: not a separate school as such, the path of the natural state refers to the teachings of some masters who used to focus on the direct experience of the naturally free state of the mind, sahaja.

Sambhogakaya: among the three “bodies” (kaya) or dimensions of the Buddha’s wisdom, the Body of Enjoyment is the display of the deities, unsubstantial but enjoying all of the qualities and abilities of wisdom.

Samsara: the endless series of joys and sorrows generated by the dualistic illusion of the subject and the object. This fundamental misapprehension generates, outwardly, hallucinations taking the form of various conditions of existence, and inwardly, the ions and their vicious circle of actions and reactions.

Sangha: the community or brotherhood of all the Buddhist practitioners, past and present, from the novices to the Buddhas themselves.

Shunyata: see emptiness.

Siddhi: accomplishment gained through the spiritual practice. It can be either supernatural powers, indicative of progress in the practice, or the Great accomplishment, viz. Enlightenment. The enlightened adept can therefore be called a Mahasiddha, a Great Accomplished One.

Skillful means: see upaya.

Subtle channels and energies: the sublte energies and the channels where they circulate within the body are the vehicle of physical and emotional habits. For that reason, controlling the subtle energies can contribute to the realization of the emptiness of the subject and the object, non-duality.

Subtle energies: see subtle channels and energies.

Sutra: teachings given by the Buddha Shakyamuni.

Tantra: revealed text expounding the teachings delivered by the Buddha in the form of a meditational deity.

Tantrism: the View and the skillful means expounded in the Tantras. On the path of the Arhat, one aims at extinguishing the ions, and on the path of the Bodhisattva, one tries to counteract the ions by developing moral qualities and the View of emptiness. On the Tantric path, ions are not compelling anymore: as the adept gets accustomed to see appearances, sounds and thoughts as the enlightened body, speech and mind of the meditational deity, the display of the Sambhogakaya, he understands that the ions had never been anything else than the manifestation of the five wisdoms. Depending on the diligence of the practitioner, Tantrism promises liberation within a few or even a single lifetime.

Theravada : the Buddhist tradition today prevailing in Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, Theravada is present in Nepal, India and Bangladesh too. The Theravadin monks aim at reaching the state of an Arhat, i.e. nirvana. The state of a Bodhisattva and, a fortiori, Buddhahood, are considered as very distant objectives considering that,

according to Theravada Buddhism, only one Buddha can appear at a time in our universe. In our era, it was Gautama, called Shakyamuni in Mahayana Buddhism.

Three Buddha bodies: the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya are three aspects of the wisdom of the Buddhas.

Three Jewels: the three “objects of refuge” of every Buddhist, viz. the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, thanks to whom one can free oneself and others from suffering. The recitation of the refuge prayer is the profession of faith of the Buddhists, i.e. the acceptation of the Buddha as their instructor, and the commitment to study and practice the Dharma with the of the Sangha.

Union: the yogic practice of union is the use of sexual intercourse as a for the mastery of the subtle channels and energies of the body.

Upaya: the skillful means, i.e. the various ways by which enlightened beings help others out of comion. This name specially refers to the methods taughts in the Tantras.

Vajra: diamond, vajra in Sanskrit, is used a symbol of emptiness, since just as diamonds cut all sorts of hard materials, emptiness pervades each and every phenomena. Vajra is also a name for lightning, which suddenly illuminates a dark stormy night just as the realization of emptiness instantly frees the mind from its obscurations.

Vajrayana: the Adamantine Vehicle, i.e. the spriritual path taught by Vajrasattva

or another meditational deity in the Yogini Tantras.

Victorious One, Victor: see Jina.

Vidyadhara: meaning literaly a Knowledge-holder, it is one of the words used to refer to enlightened adepts of Vajrayana (see also Mahasiddha).

View: the View of a philosophical Buddhist school is the way this school describes the painful condition of existence, its causes, the means to free oneself from this suffering and the resulting state of liberation.

Visualization: a method central to Tantric Buddhism, it consists in training oneself to see the deity and her mandala in place of the usual conflicting perceptions born out of the dualistic error and fueled by karma. Of course, the visualization must be based on the View of emptiness in order to avoid a new reification.

Wisdom: see Enlightenment.

Yoga Tantra: in Indian Buddhism, Yoga Tantras refer to Tantras in general, but specially to those which appeared before the Yogini Tantras.

Yoga: in Tantrism, yoga, meditation and spiritual practice are synonymous. However, yoga often evoques the control of the subtle energies through visualization, concentration, postures and movements of the body performed on the basis of the Tantric View and the altruistic attitude of bodhicitta.

Yogi, yogini: male or female adept of yoga.

Yogini Tantra: the term refers to the Tantras of Vajrayana, the last type of Tantras to spread in India. They are so called because of the importance they give to the female deity as well as to the practice of union of the yogi with a yogini. They are also called Prajna Tantras, i.e. Wisdom Tantras, here again refering to the female aspect, which embodies wisdom in Tantric Buddhism.

Index

Names of places and rivers, people (including authors), deities as well as ancient and modern texts mentioned in the book.

A

Abhayadatta, 162, 178, 180, 198, 235, 238, 243, 260, 262, 285, 287, 289, 295, 299, 326

Abhayakaragupta, 178, 258

Abhinavagupta, 93, 134

Acala, 247, 297

Acintyâdvaya Kramopadesha Advaya Siddhi, 200

Acyuta, Acyutananda, 311, 317, 319, 320, 323, 330

Adibuddha, 318

Adidurga, 318

Adinath, 302

Advaya Jnanavajra, 178

Advayasiddhi, 84, 163, 199, 200, 240

Afghanistan, 48, 49, 50, 53, 96, 303, 307

Agama-shastra, 111

Agastya, 115

Agni, 113

Agra, 129

Ajanta, 51, 128

Ajatashatru, 46

Akashagarbha, 76

Akashavajra, 213

Alexander the Great, 49, 57, 97

Alvars, 117

Amaraugha Prabodha, 298, 300

Amaravati, 51, 165

America, 60

Amitabha, 69

Amitayus, 222, 225, 237

Amoghavajra, 76, 247

Amritasiddhi, 207, 298, 299, 300

Ananda, 46, 233

Ananga Vajra, 200

Ananta, 311

Anderson, 143

Andhra Pradesh, 97, 157, 158, 165

Anga, 221

Angkor, 120, 121

Antaracarya, 211

Antarapa, 211

Aparajita, 185

Apollo, 129

Arakan, 322

Arjuna, 108, 135

Arnold, 59

Arunachala, 299

Aryadeva, 51

Aryas, 90, 91

Aryavarta, 91, 95

Asanga, 73

Ashoka, 49, 51, 57, 96, 128, 130, 155, 157, 278

Ashvaghosha, 324

Asita, 43, 95

Assam, 32, 52, 82, 99, 159, 161, 176, 208, 220, 299, 323

Atharva Veda, 126, 127

Atisha, 32

Atsara Sale, 244, 259

Australia, 60

Avadhutipa, 163, 178

Avalokiteshvara, 57, 69, 76, 120, 121, 131, 149, 158, 168, 179, 199, 216, 228, 269, 276, 296, 297, 313, 327, 344

Avalon, 306

Avatamsaka Sutra, 65, 269

Ayur Veda, 126

B

Babhahi, 236, 243

Bactria, 97

Badarikâshrama, 325

Baiti, 325

Bajal Fakir, 340

Bajracharya, 229

Balarama, 311, 318

Baluchistan, 304

Bangladesh, 29, 32, 52, 53, 154, 161, 208, 211, 220, 282, 330

Bankura, 321

Banpur, 160

Banteay Kdei, 121

Barabar, 90, 128

Bardhaman, 325

Baroda, 200

Baudh, 170, 327, 328

Bay of Bengal, 221

Bayon, 120, 121

Benares, 97, 117, 124, 278, 304, 324

Bengal, 29, 31, 32, 33, 39, 51, 52, 94, 96, 97, 100, 120, 143, 147, 148, 154, 155, 159, 160, 166, 167, 169, 174, 220, 276, 277, 282, 285, 307, 308, 310, 321, 322, 325, 326, 329, 330, 332, 336, 340

Bhagavad Gita, 107, 108, 109, 112, 130, 134

Bhairav, 278

Bhairava, 100, 291, 292

Bhairavi, 162

Bhairom, 278

Bhallika, 156

Bhanjas, 99

Bhaskareswara, 278

Bhattacharya D., 336, 338

Bhattacharya F., 304, 331, 336

Bhattacharyya, 129, 186, 234, 261, 283, 284, 285, 298

Bhaumakara, 32, 99, 159, 174, 178, 269

Bhima Bhoi, 327, 328

Bhrikuti, 55

Bhubaneshwar, 29, 160, 168, 228, 278

Bhutan, 227, 341

Bidhyarpur, 170

Bihar, 29, 30, 42, 52, 90, 155, 174, 178, 246, 277, 304, 308, 322, 329

Bijali Mahadeva, 278

Bijat Devata, 278

Bimbisara, 46

Birbhum, 341

Birch, 298

Bodhgaya, 30, 39, 90, 128, 164, 167, 208, 214, 220, 277, 323, 329

Bodhisattvabhumi, 298

Bodhishri, 163, 178

Bogin, 147

Borobudur, 57

Bouillier, 295, 302, 303, 307

Brahma, 117, 277, 291, 296, 297, 315, 318

Brahmanpoutre, 52

Brahmaparipriccha Sutra, 296

Brahmaputra, 176, 221, 330

Briggs, 278, 296

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 111

Brihannila Tantra, 162

Bronkhorst, 26, 42, 89, 90, 101, 104, 111, 282

Buddha Raja, 185

Buddhacarita, 324

Buddhacaritra, 324

Buddhaguhya, 172, 245

Buddhaguptanath, 321, 323

Buddhakol, 170

Buddhamata, 317

Budha Bahal, 170

Bühnermann, 285

Burdwan, 321, 325

Burma, 53, 57, 62, 209, 220

Burnouf, 59, 72, 102

C

Caitanya, 309, 310, 311, 313, 318, 320, 330

Cakradhara Madhava, 309

Cakrasamvara, 81, 147, 179, 185, 211, 245

Cakrasamvara Tantra, 174, 175, 184, 245, 260

Calcutta, 306

Cambodia, 56, 62, 120

Candala, 190, 325

Candali, 306, 334

Candamaharoshana, 297

Candamaharoshana Tantra, 234, 247

Candamaharoshana Tantra, Candaroshana Tantra, 246, 247, 249, 251, 252, 254, 296, 334

Candamaharoshana, Candaroshana, 247

Caryapa, 211, 266

Caturasiti Siddha Pravritti, 178

Caurangi, 295, 307

Central Asia, 48, 50, 52, 54, 73, 141, 142, 144, 154

Ceylon, 96, 161

Chaitanya, 117

Chakrabarti, 94, 100

Chandarakshita, 157

Chandidas Gosain, 337

Chandogya Upanishad, 103

Chandragupta Maurya, 126

Changan, 50

Chattopadhyaya, 157, 177

Chaurasi, 170, 171

Chavannes, 144, 146

Chazot, 247

Chenrezi, 69

China, 38, 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 69, 73, 76, 141, 144, 154, 167, 342

Chittagong, 211

Choepel, 163

Chonam, 86, 172, 220, 224, 240

Cidambaram, 303

Cilupa, 163

Cinnamasta, 284

Cinnamasta Vajravarahi, 212

Cinnamunda Vajravarahi, 212

Cittavajra, 197

Codaganga, 309

Colaganga, 160

Cornu, 164, 214

Csoma de Körös, 59

Cunningham, 166

Cuttack, 32, 159, 163, 165, 168, 170, 319, 321

D

Dagens, 120

Dakarnava Tantra, 174

Dakineshwari Pitha, 169

Dakini Sukhaprada, 211

Dalai Lama, 57, 59

Dantapura, Dantapuri, 157, 166

Darikapa, 177, 200, 212

Das, 112, 310, 321

Dasgupta, 83, 195

Dasharatha, 128

David-Néel, 59

Davidson, 25

Deer Park, 45

Delhi, 129

Demetrios, 97

Deshimaru, 60

Desjardins, 59, 60

Devadatta, 47

Devi Shrimati, 212

Devikota, 323

Dhaka, 29, 32

Dhanakosha, 164, 172, 213, 217

Dhanyakataka, 32, 39, 163, 165

Dhanykataka, 319

Dharma Mangal, 325, 326

Dharma Raja, 326

Dharma Thakur, 322, 326, 339, 340

Dharmachakra Translation Committee, 252

Dharmakirti, 158, 177

Dharmapala, 177, 325

Dharmapuja Vidhana, 325

Dharmaraja, 159

Dhenkanal, 327

Dignaga, 177

Diptacakra, 251

Doab, 90, 104, 240

Dombi, 266, 267, 334

Dombi Heruka, 200, 208, 212, 285

Dombikas, 194

Donaldson, 162, 170, 177, 228, 247

Durkheim, 26

Dwarka, 116

Dzogchen, 85, 214

E

Edou, 245

Ekajata Prabuddha Chandra, 159

Eliade, 25, 294

Europe, 60, 274

F

Fakir (Rudrani), 331, 332, 334

Filigenzi, 148

Filliozat, 67, 288, 290

Finot, 58, 59

Foucher, 275, 277, 283

, 59, 60, 306

Fudo, 247

G

Gajapati, 161

Gambhiravajra, 178

Ganapati, 185, 324

Gandhara, 49, 58, 95, 129, 133, 142, 143, 154

Ganesh, 92, 132, 185, 296, 324

Ganga, 159, 160, 309

Ganges, 30, 50, 51, 52, 55, 89, 90, 94, 95, 116, 119, 154, 159, 176, 200, 220, 273, 277, 281, 308, 325, 330

Garab Dorje, 141, 172, 213, 219

Gaudapada, 111

Gaudapadakarika, 111

, 60

Ghanaram, 325

Ghandika, 235

Gita Govinda, 94

Gö Lotsawa, 163

Gö Tsangpa, 146

Goa, 297

Goenka, 53

Gokarneshvar, 159

Golasinga, 327

Golasingha, 328

Goloka, 317

Gomadevi, 184, 197

Gonds, 99

Gopicandra, 336

Gorakhnath, 294, 295, 301, 302, 303, 306, 307, 320, 336

Gorakhpur, 304, 305

Goraksha, 295, 296, 299, 300

Gosain Gopal, 337

Govinda, 327

Gray, 174, 234

Great Britain, 59, 60, 338

Greater Bengal, 32, 330

Greater Magadha, 42, 104, 105, 110, 127

Gross, 123, 124

Guanyin, 69

Guenther, 80, 270

Guheshwara, 159

Guheshwara Pataka, 159

Guhyagarbha Tantra, 86, 140, 160, 172, 173, 182, 185, 213, 240, 241, 242, 243, 255

Guhyasamaja Tantra, 78, 140, 160, 207, 234, 285, 298

Guhyasiddhi, 200

Gujarat, 116, 299

Gupta Empire, 51, 105, 108, 133

H

Hakanda Purana, 325

Handa, 278

Hanuman, 92, 132

Hara, 175, 318

Hari, 318

Haribhanja, 323

Haridwar, 119

Harshavardhana, 52

Hayagriva, 81, 182

Hemis, 146

Hevajra, 57, 81, 179, 211, 251, 288, 289, 317

Hevajra Tantra, 161, 173, 175, 178, 234, 241, 243, 246, 260, 261

Himachal Pradesh, 278

Himalayas, 50, 59, 73, 180, 236, 241, 258, 262, 278, 341

Hing Laj, 304

Hirakhand, 163

Hirakud, 163, 164, 169, 219

Hiranya Mahavihara, 247

Hirapur, 168, 169, 219, 246, 318

Hodgson, 59

Hong Kong, 60

Hridaya Prajnaparamita Sutra, 283

Hsuan-tsang, 142

Humkara, 209

I

Indonesia, 57, 91

Indra, 113, 238, 296

Indrabhuti, 140

Indrabodhi, 31, 78, 140, 141, 142, 145, 147, 162, 163, 166, 176, 177, 180, 181,

182, 184, 185, 186, 187, 189, 191, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 207, 208, 209, 212, 213, 217, 218, 219, 237, 243, 266

Indus, 51

J

Jackson, 227, 256, 265, 268, 270, 301

Jagaddala, 32, 52, 154

Jagannath, 32, 116, 157, 160, 161, 162, 166, 167, 171, 186, 187, 309, 310, 312, 315, 316, 317, 318, 321, 323, 327, 328

Jagannatha, 311

Jajpur, 32, 159, 216, 269

Jalandhara, 161, 162, 295

Jalandharipa, 208, 243, 266

Jalandharnath, 295

Jalashala, 162

Jalendra, 163, 164, 198, 199

Japan, 54, 57, 60, 69, 73, 82

Java, 57

Jayadeva, 93

Jayavarman VII, 120, 121, 293

Jayavarman VIII, 120

Jnanapada, 297

Jnanasiddhi, 163, 166, 185, 186, 200

Jnanasutra, 141

Jnanavajra, 178

Jovanovic, 239

Jowo, 55

Julien, 59, 143, 144, 155

K

Kabir, 118

Kabul, 143, 303

Kadali Vihara, 297

Kadri, 29, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302

Kahanapa, 261

Kalacakra, 81, 298

Kalacakra Tantra, 32, 39, 57, 163, 165, 166, 178, 184, 298, 303, 319

Kalapahar, 321

Kali, 132, 276, 285, 328

Kalika Purana, 162

Kalinga, 49, 130, 157, 158, 220, 309

Kalyanadevi, 159

Kamakhya, 32, 161, 299, 301

Kamarupa, 159, 161, 162, 174, 220

Kambala, Kambalapada, 178, 184, 197, 208, 243

Kanakhala, 179, 285

Kandavyuha Sutra, 68, 131

Kandy, 166

Kanha, Kanhapa, Kahanapa, Krishnacarya, 177, 179, 208, 243, 266, 267, 285, 295, 306

Kanishka, 49

Kankanapa, 179

Kannon, 69

Kapala Tantra, 178

Kapali, 287, 289

Kapilasa, 327

Kapilavastu, 43, 220

Karnataka, 29, 295, 297, 305

Karuma, 167

Kashgar, 144

Kashmir, 48, 49, 93, 134, 142, 143, 144, 146, 148, 176, 291, 306

Katak, 165, 319

Kathmandu, 50, 54, 55, 56, 59, 82, 141, 154, 155, 173, 208, 210, 222, 228, 247, 262, 274, 323

Keonjhar, 328

Khandagiri, 128

Khandro, 86, 172, 220, 224, 240

Khmer, 56, 120, 293

Khotan, 50

King Ja, 182

King Subhakaradeva I, 269

Kinnaris, 241

Kirats, 174

Kirshnayamari Tantra, 85

Kolkata, 29

Konarak, 165, 166, 167, 169

Konkan, 297

Korea, 54

Kosala, 46

Kragh, 212

Krishna, 92, 108, 109, 117, 118, 132, 135, 158, 310, 311, 317, 318, 321, 324, 333

Krishnadhara, 217

Krishnavajra, 266

Krishnayamari Tantra, 178

Krodhi Kali, 82, 153, 168, 344

Kshemendra, 93

Kuakhai, 168, 169

Kubilai Khan, 58

Kubjikânityâhnitilaka, 302

Kucha, 50

Kukuripa, 178, 179, 182, 213, 219, 237, 238, 241

Kullu, 278

Kumirdaha, 340

Kurukulla, 82, 137, 141, 155, 170, 185

Kushan, 49, 57, 133

L

La Loubère, 58

La Vallée Poussin, 59

Ladakh, 146

Lakshmi, 117, 207

Lakshminkara, 35, 74, 84, 163, 164, 177, 179, 180, 184, 195, 197, 198, 199, 202, 203, 208, 209, 211, 240, 241, 266, 269, 285

Lakulisha, 291

Lalitavajra, 178, 185

Lalitavistara Sutra, 45, 59

Lalitgiri, 32, 154, 168, 342

Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir, 337, 338

Lamotte, 72

Langlois, 101

Langudi, 168

Lanka, 31, 162, 164, 184, 197

Lankapuri, 163, 164, 198

Lankavatara Sutra, 65

Lankeshwari, 164

Lâth, 278

Lévi, 59, 112, 274, 275, 294

Lhasa,, 55

Licchavi, 55

Lilacaritra, 302

Lilavajra, 177, 185

Lohidas, 320, 321, 326

Lokeshwar, 228, 276, 297

Lorea, 331, 341

Lorenzen, 112, 308, 327

Louis XIV, 58

Luicandra, Luhicandra, 326, 336

Luipa, Luhipa, 178, 211, 326, 336

Lumbini, 39, 43, 238, 274

M

Ma Chöbar, 258, 259

Ma Rinchen Chok, 172

Machik Lapdrön, 244, 245, 257, 258, 259

Madan, 337

Madhvacharya, 117

Madhya Pradesh, 155

Magadha, 29, 30, 42, 46, 49, 51, 54, 90, 94, 95, 96, 100, 101, 104, 106, 107, 109, 110, 115, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 134, 135, 154, 155, 158, 176, 220, 222, 281, 323, 343

Mahabharata, 91, 98, 104, 107, 108, 109, 114, 115, 125, 174

Mahabodhi, 277, 322

Mahabuddha, 323

Mahadeva, 278

Mahakala, 81

Mahakarunika, 216

Mahakashyapa, 46, 233

Mahaliladevi, 197

Mahamaya, 169, 318

Mahamaya Tantra, 178, 238, 318

Mahanadi, 31, 158, 163, 164, 165, 168, 169, 176, 185, 219, 308

Mahaprajapati, 47

Maharashtra, 297

Mahavira, 43, 104, 105

Mahendra, 158, 159

Makkhali Gosala, 105

Makshika, 177

Malabar, 307

Malaysia, 57

Mallinson, 207, 295, 296, 298, 299, 300, 302

Manasâ, 307

Manava Dharmashastra, 96

Mandarava, 180, 209, 216, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 236

Mangalore, 297

Manibhadra, 179, 241

Manika, 220

Manipur, 220

Manjughosha, 297

Manjunath, 29, 297, 302

Manjushri, 69, 76, 157, 168, 179, 185, 231, 297, 344

Manjushrimitra, 141, 209, 214

Manjushrimulakalpa Sutra, 73, 130, 285

Mara, 44

Maratika, 222

Marco Polo, 58

Marici, 151, 155, 170, 178, 344

Maricipur, 170

Mathara, 158

Mathura, 129

Matsya Purana, 94

Matsyendranath, 295, 297, 299, 301, 336

Maudgalyayana, 46, 49, 51

Maurya Empire, 29, 30, 49, 96, 98, 107, 155

Mayadevi, 43, 318

Mayurbhanja, 326, 328

Megasthenes, 30, 97, 126, 127

Mekhala, 179, 285

Menander, 58

Midal, 237

Minapa, 295

Mishra K.C., 158, 166, 178, 312, 315, 316, 318, 319

Mishra R., 83, 195, 200, 202, 269

Mishra U., 99, 168, 216, 277

Mokammel, 338

Mongolia, 73

Monier-Williams, 142, 306

Moronval, 3, 175

Mukhabhakha Grantha, 324

Mukherjee, 338

Mumbai, 128, 297

Munda, 156

Munoz, 327

Murshidabad, 340

Myanmar, 209, 343

N

Naga Yogini, 208

Nagaland, 209

Nagarjuna, 66, 111, 157, 177, 209, 320, 326

Nagarjunakonda, 51

Nagarjunapada, 207

Nagarjuni, 128

Nagas, 99, 118, 209, 241

Nagasena, 58

Naginis, 241, 253

Nairatmya, 82, 251

Nalanda, 30, 51, 52, 55, 67, 145, 154, 158, 216, 217, 237, 238

Namavajra, 197

Nanda, 230

Narayana, 117, 158

Naropa, 55, 163, 178, 237, 243, 246, 289, 298

Nathamala Brahmacari, 325

Nathuram, 324

Nepal, 39, 43, 53, 54, 55, 59, 121, 175, 186, 210, 220, 222, 227, 236, 241, 274, 291, 293, 294, 296, 305, 307, 341, 343

Newars, 4, 50, 54, 55, 56, 82, 137, 140, 141, 155, 173, 175, 186, 196, 200, 210, 215, 228, 236, 247, 274, 294, 296, 323

Nigantha Nataputta, 105

Nirguna Mahatmya, 315

Nyak Jnânakumara, 172

Nyang Rel Nyima Özer, 217

Nyingpo, 236, 244, 248

O

Odantapuri, 30, 52, 154

Orgyenpa, 146

P

Padampa Sangye, 259

Pakara, 180, 217

Paprabha, 216

Papur, 164, 170, 328

Pasambhava, 4, 55, 86, 141, 145, 147, 163, 169, 170, 172, 180, 185, 197, 200, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 236, 238, 243, 244, 245, 248, 260, 269, 278, 289

Pavajra, 178, 197, 212, 217, 219, 243

Pakistan, 49, 95, 142, 148, 304, 330, 331

Pala, 52, 154, 174, 321, 325

Pancakrama, 207

Pancasakhas, 308, 311, 312, 315, 317, 320, 321, 322, 324, 326, 327, 339

Panhale Kaji, 297

Panigrahi, 278

Panini, 91, 109

Paris, 60, 102, 338

Parvathy Baul, 338

Pataliputra, 29, 30, 42, 48, 97, 126

Patan, 247, 323

Patanjali, 67, 95

Patel, 156

Patna, 29, 30, 42, 90

Patnaik, 66, 319, 322

Pennick, 219

Peshawar, 50

Phimai, 57

Phullahari, 246

Pitopa, 163, 178

Prabhahasti, 209, 219

Prahevajra, 141, 172, 213, 214

Prajnabhava, 213

Prajnaparamita, 252, 284

Prajnaparamita Sutra, 30, 51, 65, 72, 157, 283

Pramodavajra, 213

Prasenajit, 46

Prataprudra, 320

Prembhakti Brahmagita, 316

Prithivi Narayan Shah, 54

Ptolemy, 163

Pundarika, 298

Punjab, 58, 90, 95, 304

Puran Bhagat, 307

Purana Kassapa, 105

Puri, 32, 116, 157, 160, 162, 166, 167, 171, 186, 309, 310, 316, 319, 320, 321, 323, 327

Purnagiri, 161, 162

Purushapura, 49

Purushottama, 160, 166

Pushpagiri, 154, 167

Pushyamitra Shunga, 97, 130

Q

Quinet, 59

R

Radha, 117, 310, 311, 317, 321, 324, 338

Radha (region), 326

Rahula, 43, 47, 230

Rahulabhadra, 197, 269

Rahularuci, 269

Rajagriha, 30, 42, 220, 233

Rajatarangini, 306

Rajgir, 30, 42, 46, 47, 51, 65, 323

Rajivalocana, 167

Rakshasi, 252

Rama, 92, 118, 132, 134

Ramacarita Manas, 124

Ramai Pandit, 325

Ramananda, 117

Ramanuja, 117

Ramayana, 91, 98, 123, 124

Rameshwaram, 116

Rarh, 326

Ratnagiri, 32, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 163, 167, 168, 178, 247, 269

Rémusat, 59

Renan, 59

Rengali, 170

Renou, 67, 288, 290

Ricard, 15, 59

Rig Veda, 101, 103

Roerich, 163

Rudra, 117, 290, 291

Russia, 60

S

Saddharmapundarika Sutra, 72, 216

Sadhanamala, 140, 155, 161, 247, 284

Sahajalalita, 177

Sahajasiddhi, 185, 197, 199

Sahajavajra, 197

Sahu, 164

Saint Clement of Alexandria, 58

Saint Josaphat, 58

Sama Veda, 103

Samadhiraja Sutra, 65

Samantabhadra, 191

Sambalpur, 31, 162, 163, 164, 166, 169, 185, 218, 219, 328

Samputatilaka Tantra, 178

Samten Lingpa, 220

Samvararnava Tantra, 212

Samye, 217

Sanchi, 49, 167

Sanderson, 284

Sanglingma, 217

Saora, 156, 321

Saraha, 79, 178, 197, 209, 227, 263, 268, 269, 301, 326, 339

Saraki Tanti, 321

Sarasvati, 285

Sarnath, 45, 167

Saroruha Pavajra, 197

Saroruha Vajra, 200

Saroruhavajra, 217, 219

Sarvabuddha Samayoga Tantra, 85

Sarvatathagata Tattvasamgraha Sutra, 76

Sastri, 175, 276, 283, 322, 323, 324, 325

Schaik, 86

Schlegel, 101

Schopenhauer, 58

Sekoddeshatika, 298

Seleucos I, 126

Sena, 94

Shabaras, 99, 156, 157, 159, 167, 174, 178, 321

Shabari Narayana, 167

Shah Abdul Latif, 304

Shah dynasty, 274

Shahidullah, 175

Shailobhava, 158

Shakti, 162, 316, 324

Shakya, 43, 44, 220

Shakyamuni, 44, 63, 64, 133, 140, 165, 166, 216, 229, 318

Shaman, 307

Shane, 135

Shankaracharya, 110, 111, 112, 113, 115, 116, 118, 122, 134, 290, 312, 313

Shantarakshita, 55, 209, 216, 220, 221

Shantibhadra, 238

Shantideva, 67, 70, 323, 344

Shariputra, 46, 49, 51, 216

Shasanka, 159

Shavaras, 321

Shavaripa, 178, 209

Shendge, 200, 207

Shikshasamuccaya, 323

Shimla, 278

Shingon, 26, 247

Shirgul, 278

Shitavana, 214

Shiva, 29, 92, 93, 112, 113, 116, 120, 132, 159, 162, 276, 277, 278, 290, 291, 292, 295, 296, 302, 304, 318, 324

Shivananda, 178

Shri Guru, 278

Shri Simha, 141, 214

Shrimati, 211

Shrinath, 302

Shuddhodhana, 43

Shulkis, 99

Shunga Empire, 97

Shunya Purusha, 312, 315, 316, 322, 329

Shunya Samhita, 317, 318, 320

Siddhartha, 39, 43, 44, 95, 229

Siddhivajra, 197

Simhapura, 158

Sisyphus, 61

Sita, 118

Snellgrove, 25, 50, 75, 81, 145, 174, 234, 240, 243, 246, 259, 260, 267, 283, 339

Somapuri, 32, 52, 154

Somavamshi, 99, 160

Sonepur, 31, 164

Song Yun, 144

Songtsen Gampo, 50, 54

Sri Lanka, 39, 48, 49, 58, 62, 132, 154, 157, 158, 164, 166, 344

Srihatta, 32, 161

Srinivasan, 129

Strabo, 127

Subhaga, 211

Subhagini, 211, 212

Sudharma, 213

Sujata, 44

Sumati, 211, 212

Surya, 165, 319, 324

Suryavamshi, 160, 161

Suzuki, 60

Swat, 142, 143, 146, 148, 176

Sylhet, 32, 161

T

Taiwan, 60

Tak Tsang Repa, 146

Tamil Nadu, 117, 291, 299, 303

Tau, 156

Tara, 69, 82, 168, 169, 276, 284, 297, 299, 344

Taranatha, 157, 163, 197, 266, 321, 323

Tarapur, 169

Tararahasya, 299

Tashi Lama, 323

Tattvasamgraha, 76

Tavernier, 119, 163

Tchangchoub, 236

Tchangtchoub, 244, 248

Templeman, 266

Thailand, 56, 57, 58, 62, 343

Thar Desert, 95

The Modern Buddhism and its followers in Orissa, 321

The Serpent Power, 306

Thöpa Bhadra, 244, 245

Thrangu, 289

Tibet, 32, 38, 50, 54, 55, 57, 59, 73, 85, 86, 140, 141, 145, 148, 154, 163, 172, 180, 182, 184, 209, 210, 216, 218, 220, 236, 245, 258, 262, 300, 342

Tilla, 304

Tilopa, 171, 178, 207, 208, 211, 219, 237, 238, 243, 289

Tirumantiram, 303

Torricelli, 197, 207, 208, 209, 211

Torzsok, 291

Tripitaka, 47, 64

Tripura, 323

Triratnadasa, 177

Trisong Detsen, 145, 172, 216, 220

Tröma Nakmo, 168

Trottier, 338

Tsari, 148

Tsogyal, 217

Tsokye Dorje, 197

Tucci, 146

Tungas, 99

Turfan, 50

U

Udayagiri, 32, 99, 128, 154, 168, 216

Udayana, 159

Uddiyana Pitha, 161

Ugra Tara, 285

Ujjain, 155

Uma, 295

United States, 60

Upali, 47

Upanishads, 91, 102, 103, 107, 109, 112, 114, 116, 125

Uparaja, 141

Utkal, 156, 328

Utkala Deepika, 327

Uttar Pradesh, 278, 304, 305

V

Vaishali, 48

Vajradhatvishvari, 234

Vajraghanta, 177

Vajraghantapa, 212

Vajragiri, 170

Vajrakila, 81, 182, 219, 251, 316, 317

Vajrakila Tantra, 173

Vajramrita Tantra, 178

Vajrapani, 57, 76, 81, 140, 152, 182, 214, 276, 344

Vajrasattva, 57, 78, 81, 84, 168, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 192, 195, 203, 204, 205, 206, 213, 214, 221, 234, 244, 312, 316

Vajrasattva Mayajala Tantra, 182

Vajravarahi, 82, 171, 179, 212, 284

Vajrayogini, 32, 82, 179, 185, 252, 278, 334

Vajreshwari, 278

Vallabha Vedic Research, 214

Valmiki, 124

Varaha, 171

Varaha Purana, 94

Varahas, 99

Varahi, 171

Varanasi, 278

Varanga Swami, 320, 321

Varuna, 113

Vasu, 321, 326, 327, 328

Vasumitra, 177

Vayu, 113

Vedas, 70, 89, 91, 92, 94, 100, 101, 102, 103, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 319, 327

Vetalasukha, 213

Vietnam, 56

Viharadhara, 220, 221

Vijayapada, 211

Vijayarakshita, 211

Vikramashila, 30, 52, 154, 178

Vikrampur, 32

Vilasavajra, 185, 212

Vimalakirti, 72, 231

Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra, 72, 81, 231

Vimalamitra, 86, 141, 172, 184, 209, 245

Vimalaprabha, 298

Vinapa, 262

Viraja, 216

Viranja Nagara, 32, 159

Virasimha, 320, 321

Viravajra, 197

Vireswarananda, 108

Virupa, 145, 170, 177, 178, 208, 212, 299, 300, 302

Virupaksha, 299

Vishnu, 89, 92, 93, 94, 100, 108, 117, 118, 134, 158, 160, 161, 166, 167, 171, 186, 277, 296, 297, 309, 310, 315, 316, 317, 318, 324, 326

Vishnugarbha Purana, 315, 316

Vishnuswami, 117

Visukalpa, 209

Voltaire, 101

Vulture’s Peak, 46, 65

Vyasa, 297

W

Wei, 144

West Bengal, 330

Woodroffe, 306

X

Xuan Zang, 297

Xuanzang, 52, 142, 143, 144, 145, 155, 166, 167

Y

Yajur Veda, 103

Yakshas, 241

Yakshinis, 241

Yamantaka, 81, 182

Yamuna, 90, 95, 281

Yangdak Heruka, 182

Yashodhara, 43, 229

Yashomati Malika, 327, 329

Yashovanta, 311, 319

Yeshe Tsogyal, 216, 217, 220, 236, 241, 244, 248, 259, 260

Yijing, 52

Yoga Kalandar, 331

Yoga Sutras, 67

Yogacarabhumi Shastra, 298

Yogi Adityanath, 305

Yogini Cinta, 200, 212

Yogini Samantabhadri, 211

Z

Zahor, 220, 222, 223

Zen, 60

Bibliography

Sources refered to in the present book. Years between brackets are years of first editions.

ABHAYADATTA, 2003, Mahasiddhas, la vie de 84 sages de l’Inde, Saint Léon sur Vézère (), Editions Pakara.

ANDERSON, William, 1847, « An Attempt to identify some of the places mentioned in the itinerary of Hiuan Thsang » Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, n°180, July 1847, vol. 16, part 2, Calcutta (India), Asiatic Society of Bengal, p. 1194-1195 [https://archive.org].

AVALON, Arthur (pseud. for Woodroffe, John George), 1919, London (England), Luzac & Co.

BHATTACHARYA, Deben, 1999 (1969), The Mirror of the Sky, Songs of the Bauls of Bengal Prescott (USA), Hohm Press (with CD).

BHATTACHARYA, , 2003, « Un texte du Bengale médiéval : le yoga du kalandar (Yoga-Kalandar) » Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, tome 90-91, 2003, p. 69-99 [www.persee.fr].

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh (éd.), 1925, Sadhanamala, vol. II, Baroda (India), Gaekwad Oriental Series n° XLI [https://archive.org].

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh (éd.), 1929, Two Vajrayana Works, Baroda (India), Oriental Institute, Gaekwad’s Oriental Series n° XLIV [https://archive.org].

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh (éd.), 1967 (1931), Guhyasamaja Tantra or Tathagataguhyaka, Baroda (India), University of Baroda, Gaekwad’s Oriental Series n° LIII.

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh, 1958, The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals, Calcutta (India), Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay [https://archive.org].

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh, 2009 (1931), An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism, New Delhi (India), Motilal Banarsidass [https://archive.org] .

BHATTACHARYYA, Benoytosh, 2013 (1958), The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals, New Delhi (India), Cosmo Publications [https://archive.org].

BIRCH, Jason, 2011, « The Meaning of hatha in early Hathayoga Texts » Journal of the American Oriental Society 2011 [www.academia.edu]

BOGIN, Benjamin, 2014, « Locating the Copper-Colored Mountain : Buddhist Cosmology, Himalayan Geography, and Maps of Imagined Worlds » Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, vol. 34 n°2, [https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya].

BOUILLIER, Véronique, 2009, Itinérance et vie monastique : les ascètes Nâth Yogîs en Inde contemporaine, Paris (), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

BOUILLIER, Véronique, 2015 « Nath Yogis’ Encounters with Islam » South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal [www.academia.edu].

BRIGGS, George Weston, 1938, The Religious Life of India : Goraknath and the Kanphata Yogis, Calcutta (India), YMCA Publishing House.

BRONKHORST, Johannes, 1989, « L’indianisme et les préjugés occidentaux » Etudes de Lettres, avril-juin 1989, Lausanne (Switzerland), Université de Lausanne, p. 119-136 [idoc-pub.mejorapp.org].

BRONKHORST, Johannes, 1998, The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism, Delhi (India), Motilal Banarsidass [www.ahandfulofleaves.org] [idoc-pub.mejorapp.org].

BRONKHORST, Johannes, 2007, Greater Magadha, Studies in the Culture of Eearly India, Leiden (Netherland), Boston, (USA), Brill [www.ahandfulofleaves.org] [idoc-pub.mejorapp.org].

BRONKHORST, Johannes, 2011, Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, Leiden (Netherland), Boston, (USA), Brill [idoc-pub.mejorapp.org].

BÜHNEMANN, Gudrun, 2000, The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities,

volume I. The Pantheon of the Mantramahodadhi, Groningen, Egbert Forsten.

BURNOUF, Emile, 1852, Le Lotus de la bonne loi, Paris (), Imprimerie Impériale [https://archive.org].

CHAKRABARTI, Kunal, 2001, Religious Process : The Puranas and the Making of a Regional Tradition, New Delhi (India), Oxford University Press.

CHATTOPADHYAYA, Debiprasad (éd.), 1970, Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India, Delhi (India), Motilal Banarsidass [https://archive.org].

CHAVANNES, Edouard, 1903, « Voyage de Song Yun dans l’Udyâna et le Gandhâra », BEFEO, 1903, vol.3, p. 379-441, Paris (), Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient.

CHAZOT, Eric, CHAZOT, Pascal, DELAMOTTE, Evelyne (trad.), 2015, Tantra de Chandamahâroshana, Paris (), Editions du Rocher.

CHONAM, Lama, KHANDRO, Sangye (trad.), 2011, The Guhyagarbha Tantra, Secret Definitive Nature Just As It Is, New York (USA), Snow Lion Publications.

CHONAM, Lama, KHANDRO, Sangye (trads.), 1998, The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava, The Indian Consort of Pasambhava, Somerville (USA), Wisdom Publications.

CORNU, Philippe, 1997, Pasambhava, la magie de l’Eveil, Paris (), Seuil.

CORNU, Philippe, 2001, Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme, Paris () , Seuil.

DAGENS, Bruno, 2013 (2003), Les Khmers, Paris (), Les Belles Lettres.

DAS, Shri Paritosh, 1988, Sahajiya Cult of Bengal and Pancha Sakha Cult of Orissa, Calcutta (India), Firma KLM [https://archive.org].

DASGUPTA, Shashibhusan, 1995 (1969), Obscure Religious Cults, Calcutta (India), Firma KLM [https://archive.org].

DELAMOTTE, Evelyne (trad.), CHAZOT, Eric, CHAZOT, Pascal, 2015, Tantra de Chandamahâroshana, Paris (), Editions du Rocher.

DHARMACHAKRA TRANSLATION COMMITTEE, 2016, The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa (Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram), 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha [https://84000.co].

DONALDSON, Thomas E., 2001, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, New Delhi (India), Abhinav Publications (Volume : I text ; volume II : plates) [https://archive.org (for Volume I)].

DURKHEIM, Emile, 1912, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse : le système totémique en Australie, Paris (), Presses Universitaires de [https://archive.org].

EDOU, Jérôme,2003, Machik Labdrön, femme et dakini du Tibet, Paris (), Seuil.

ELIADE, Mircea, 2004 (1962), Patanjali et le yoga, Paris (), Seuil.

FAKIR, Rudrani (pseud. for Trottier, Marie-Hélène), 2007, La déesse et l’esclave, sagesse tantrique et pauvreté perdue des Fakir du Bengale, Paris (), Maisonneuve & Larose.

FILIGENZI, Anna, 2015, Art and Landscape, Buddhist Rock Sculptures of Late Swat/Uddiyana, Vienna (Austria), OAW.

FILLIOZAT, Jean, RENOU, Louis, 1985 (1947-1949), L’Inde classique, tome I, Paris (), Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient.

FILLIOZAT, Jean, RENOU, Louis, 1996 (1953), L’Inde classique, tome II, Paris (), Ecole Française d’Extrême Orient.

FINOT, Louis, 1992 (1923), Milinda-Panha, Les questions de Milinda, Paris (), Gallimard, collection Connaissance de l’Orient.

FOUCHER, Alfred, 1900, Etude sur l’iconographie bouddhique de l’Inde, d’après des documents nouveaux, Paris (), Ernest Leroux [https://archive.org].

GRAY, David B. (trad.), 2007, The Cakrasamvara Tantra, New York (USA), Columbia University, American Institute of Buddhist Studies.

GROSS, Robert Lewis, 1992, The Sadhus of India, Jaipur & New Delhi (India), Rawat Publications.

GUENTHER, Herbert V., 1976, The Tantric View of Life, London (UK), Shambhala Publications [https://archive.org (1952 ed.)]

HANDA, Omacanda, 2001, Buddhist Western Himalaya, New Delhi (India), Indus Publishing Company.

JACKSON, Roger R. (trad.) 2004, Tantric Treasures, Three Collections of Mystical Verses from Buddhist India, New York (USA), Oxford University Press.

JOVANOVIC, Pierre, 2007, Le mensonge universel, Paris (), Le jardin des livres.

JULIEN, Stanislas (trad.), 1858, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, traduits du sanscrit en chinois en l’an 648 par Hiouen-Thsang, et du chinois en français par M. Stanislas Julien, Tome Ier, Paris (), Imprimerie impériale

[https://gallica.bnf.fr].

KHANDRO, Sangye, CHONAM, Lama (trads.), 1998, The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava, The Indian Consort of Pasambhava, Somerville (USA), Wisdom Publications.

KHANDRO, Sangye, CHONAM, Lama, (trad.), 2011, The Guhyagarbha Tantra, Secret Definitive Nature Just As It Is, New York (USA), Snow Lion Publications.

KRAGH, Ulrich Timme, 2017, “Determining the Corpus of South Asian Female-Authored Buddhist Texts of the Ninth to the Eleventh Centuries” in SHEEL, Kamal (et al., eds), 2017, From Local to Global: Papers in Asian History and Culture, Prof. A.K. Narain Commemoration Volume, vol. 3, Delhi (India), Buddhist World Press [www.academia.edu].

KSHEMENDRA, La liane magique : les hauts faits du Bodhisattva, Saint-Léonsur-Vézère (), Pakara.

LA LOUBERE, Simon, 1691, Du Royaume de Siam, Paris (), JeanBaptiste Coignard (2 tomes) [https://gallica.bnf.fr].

LAMOTTE, Etienne, 1962, L’Enseignement de Vimalakirti (Vimalakirtinirdesa), Louvain-la-neuve (Belgium), Institut Orientaliste de l’Université Catholique de Louvain [https://archive.org].

LEVI, Sylvain, 1928, L’Inde et le monde, Paris (), Librairie ancienne Honoré Champion [http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/levi_sylvain/inde_et_le_monde/inde_et_le_monde.html].

LEVI, Sylvain, 1986 (1905), Le Népal, Etude historique d’un royaume hindou, tome I, Paris (), Ernest Leroux [https://gallica.bnf.fr].

LOREA, Carola Erika, 2014, « Why did you go swimming in the river full of algae? – Conception and contraception in Bauls’ songs and oral teachings » Folklore and Folkloristics, vol. 7, n° 1, June 2014 [www.academia.edu].

LOREA, Carola Erika, 2018, « ‘I’m Afraid ot Telling you This, Lest You’d Be Scared Shitless!’ : The Myth of Secrecy and the Study of the Esoteric Traditions of Bengal » Religions 2018, 9, 172 [https://www.mdpi.com].

LORENZEN, David N., 2012, « Religious identity in Gorakhnath and Kabir : Hindus, Muslims, Yogis, and Sants », in LORENZEN, David N., MUNOZ, Adrian (éds.), 2012, Yogis, Heroes and Poets : Histories and Legends of the Naths, New Delhi (India), Dev Publishers.

LORENZEN, David N., MUNOZ, Adrian (éds.), 2012, Yogis, Heroes and Poets : Histories and Legends of the Naths, New Delhi (India), Dev Publishers.

MALLINSON, James, 2011, « Nath Sampradaya » BEH vol. III, Leiden (Netherlands), Brill, article « Tantra » [www.academia.edu].

MALLINSON, James, 2019, « Kalavancana in the Konkan : How a Vajrayana Hathayoga Tradition cheated Buddhism’s Death in India » Religions 2019, 10, 273 [www.mdpi.com].

MALLINSON, James, 2020, “The Amritasiddhi: Hathayoga’s Tantric Buddhist Source Text”, in Goodall, Hatley (et al., eds), 2020, Saivism and the Tantric Traditions, Essays in Honour of Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, Leiden (Netherlands), Boston (USA), Brill, pp. 409-425 [www.academia.edu].

MIDAL, Fabrice, 1997, La pratique de l’éveil de Tilopa à Trungpa. L’école Kagyü du bouddhisme tibétain, Paris (), Seuil.

MISHRA, Kanhu Charan, 1971, The Cult of Jagannath, Calcutta (India), Firma K. L. Mudhopadyay [https://archive.org].

MISHRA, Ramprasad, 1991, Sahajayana, A Study of Tantric Buddhism, Calcutta (India), Punthi Pustak.

MISHRA, Ramprasad, 1993, Advaya Siddhi, The Tantric View of Lakshminkara, Delhi (India), Kant Publications.

MISHRA, Umakanta, 2009, « Imitation or Syncretism or Selective Appropriation? Studying Religious Equations between Brahmanical Religions and Buddhism in the poly-religious Landscape of Early Medieval India » Lokaratna, Oriya E-folklore Journal, vol. I, [http://indianfolklore.org/journals/index.php/Lok].

MISHRA, Umakanta, 2012, « Searching for the lotus pond of Dhanakosha of Guru Rinpoche Pasambhava : An Alternative Approach from the Archeology of Buddhism in Odisha » in MOHANTY, Bimalendu (éd), 2012, Pasambhava of Uddiyana-Odhisa, Bhubaneswar (India), KITT, p. 13-37 [www.academia.edu].

MISHRA, Umakanta, 2013, « Odisha: Cradle of Vajrayana Buddhism », The Souvenir of the Indian History Congress, 74th Session, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack 28-30 December 2013, Cuttack (India), Ravenshaw University, p. 79-87 [www.academia.edu].

MISHRA, Umakanta, 2016, « Dharanis from the Buddhist Sites of Orissa » Pratnatattva, Journal of the Dept. Of Archeology Jahangirnagar University, Vol. 22, June 2016, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Jahangirnagar University, p.73-84 [www.academia.edu].

MISHRA, Umakanta, 2018, « Inscribed Buddhist Images and Copperplates from Odisha : An Analysis of the Social Background of Donors and Issues of Brahmanical-Buddhist Relations » Pratna Samiksha A Journal of Archaeology New Series Volumes 9, 2018,

Kolkata (India), Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training Eastern India [www.academia.edu].

MOHANTY, Bimalendu (éd), 2012, Pasambhava of Uddiyana-Odhisa, Bhubaneswar (India), KITT.

MONIER-WILLIAMS, M., 2002 (1899) Sanscrit-English Dictionary, New Delhi

(India), Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.

MORONVAL, Frédéric, 2018a, Langue et religion au Népal, les Néwar bouddhistes de la Vallée de Kathmandu, Paris (), L’Harmattan.

MORONVAL, Frédéric, 2018b, The Mission of the Newars : Upholding Nepalbhasa and Buddhadharma, Kathmandu (Nepal) (Bilingual NewariEnglish).

MUNOZ, Adrian, LORENZEN, David N., (éds.), 2012, Yogis, Heroes and Poets : Histories and Legends of the Naths, New Delhi (India), Dev Publishers.

NATH, Vijay, 2001, Puranas and Acculturation, A Historico-Anthropological Perspective, New Delhi (India), Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.

NYINGPO, Namkhai, TCHANGCHOUB, Gyalwa, 1995, La vie de Yéshé Tsogyal, souveraine du Tibet, Peyzac-le-Moustier (), Editions Pakara.

PANIGRAHI, Krishna Chandra, 1986 (1961), Archaeological Remains in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack (India), Kitab Mahal [https://archive.org].

PATEL, C. B., 2014, « Origin and Evolution of the Name of Odisha », Odisha Review, March 2014, p. 61-63 [www.magazines.odisha.gov.in].

PATNAIK, Tandra, 2005, Sunya Purusa, Bauddha Vaisnavism of Orissa, New

Delhi (India), D. K. Printworld, Bhubaneswar (India), Department of Special Assistance in Philosophy, Utkal University.

PENNICK, Douglas J., 2011, The Brillance of Naked Mind : Secret Visions of Gesar, King of Ling, Boulder (USA), Mountain Treasury Press [http://levekunst.com/douglas-j-penick/].

RENOU, Louis, FILLIOZAT, Jean, 1985 (1947-1949), L’Inde classique, tome I, Paris (), Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient.

RENOU, Louis, FILLIOZAT, Jean, 1996 (1953), L’Inde classique, tome II, Paris (), Ecole Française d’Extrême Orient.

ROERICH, George N., CHOEPEL, Gedun (trads.), 1949, The Blue Annals, Calcutta (India), Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal [https://archive.org].

SAHU, N. K., 1958, Buddhism in Orissa, Utkal (India), Utkal University

SANDERSON, Alexis, 2009, “The Saiva Age” in EINOO, Shingo (ed.), 2009, Genesis and Development of Tantrism, Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, p. 41-349.

SASTRI, Haraprasad, 1897, Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal, Calcutta (India), Hare Press [https://archive.org].

SCHAIK, Sam van, 2004, “The Early Days of the Great Perfection” JIABS Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Volume 27, Number 1, 2004 [www.academia.edu].

SCHAIK, Sam van, 2008, « The Sweet Sage and The Four Yogas: A Lost Mahayoga Treatise from Dunhuang” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan, Issue 4, December 2008, [www.jiats.org].

SHAHIDULLAH, Muhammad (ed. & trad.), 1928, Les chants mystiques de Kanha et de Saraha, Paris (), Adrien-Maisonneuve [https://archive.org].

SHAMAN, Hatley (éd.), 2015, « Kundalini » Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, vol. 3, New-York (Etats-Unis), Springer [www.academia.edu].

SHANE, Dustin, (no date), « The Yogavasistha and Kashmiri Saivism » [www.academia.edu].

SHANTIDEVA, 1992, La marche vers l’Eveil, Peyzac-le-Moustier (), Editions Pakara.

SHEEL, Kamal (et al., eds), 2017, From Local to Global: Papers in Asian History and Culture, Prof. A.K. Narain Commemoration Volume, vol. 3, Delhi (India), Buddhist World Press [www.academia.edu] .

SHENGDE, Malati J. (éd. & trad.), 1964, Advaya Siddhi, Baroda (India), Oriental Institute [https://archive.org].

SNELLGROVE, David, 1959, The Hevajra Tantra, Oxford (UK), Oxford University Press.

SNELLGROVE, David, 1987, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, London (UK), Serindia Publications.

SRINIVASAN, K. R., 1972, Temples of South India, New Delhi (India), National Book Trust [https://archive.org].

TARANATHA, 2003, Le soleil de la confiance : la vie du Bouddha, Saint-Léonsur-Vézère (), Editions Pakara.

TCHANGCHOUB, Gyalwa, NYINGPO, Namkhai, 1995, La vie de Yéshé Tsogyal, souveraine du Tibet, Peyzac-le-Moustier (), Editions Pakara.

TEMPLEMAN, David, 1989, Taranatha’s Life of Krishnacarya/Kanha, Dharamsala (India), Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.

THRANGU, Khenchen, 2019, Tilopa’s Wisdom. His life and teachings on the Ganges Mahamudra, Boulder (USA), Snow Lion et Shambhala Publications.

TORRICELLI, Fabrizio, 2018, “Tilopâ Project 3 – SrîSahajasamvarasvâdhishtâna”, [www.academia.edu].

TORRICELLI, Fabrizio, 2019, Tilopa, A Buddhist Yogin of the Tenth Century, Dharmasala (India), Library of Tibetan Works and Archives [www.academia.edu].

TORZSOK, Judit, 2011, « Kâpâlikas » in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vol 3, [www.academia.edu].

TROTTIER, Marie-Hélène 2000, Fakir, La quête d’un Bâul musulman, Paris (), Montréal (Canada), L’Harmattan. [See also under the pseud. Fakir, Rudrani]

TSOGYAL, Yeshe, 2004, The Lotus-Born, the Life Story of Pasambhava, Hong Kong (China), Ranjung Yeshe Publications.

TUCCI, Giuseppe, 1940, Travels of Tibetan Pilgrims in the Swat Valley, Calcutta, (India), The Greater India Society [https://archive.org].

VALLABHA VEDIC RESEARCH, 2016, « Origin of Vajrayana Buddhism in Orissa », [https://jagannathavallabhavedicresearch.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/ origin-of-vajrayana-buddhism-in-orissa].

VASU, Nagendra Nath, 1911, The modern Buddhism and its followers in Orissa, Calcutta (India), Hare Press [https://archive.org].

VIRESWARANANDA, Swami, (trad.), 1988, Srimad Bhagavad-Gita, Madras (India), Sri Ramakrishna Math.

© 2021, Frédéric Moronval Email: [email protected]

Published by BoD - Books on Demand 12/14 rond-point des Champs-Elysées, 75008 Paris,

Printed by Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt,

ISBN: 978-2322249985 Legal deposit: April 2021

Front cover illustration: Kurukulla of Uddiyana, Newar art (photo by the Author).