The Life of Buddhagupta-ntha

Submitted by Michael R. Sheehy on Wed, 2009-04-08 11:05

The following post is titled, A Brief Sketch of the Life of Buddhagupta-ntha. By Thomas
Roth, a contributing author to the Jonangpa blog.

Jonang Jetsun Rinpoche, better known as Jonang Trantha (1575-1635), is well known for
the many histories that he authored. Especially his famous History of Buddhism in India, The
Seven Instruction Lineages and the Origin of the Tr-Tantras, as well as his Klacakra and
Vajrabhairava histories, give us a fairly good idea of the development of many siddha
lineages in India and their continuation onto Tibetan soil. The source for many of these
accounts was an Indian master whom Trantha met around the year 1594 near Narthang in
Central Tibet, while he himself stayed in a hermitage called Mahbodhi. That master was
none other than the Mahsiddha Buddhagupta-ntha, who was a disciple of the very famous
Mahsiddha Shanti-Gupta. Shanti-Guptas biography is added as an appendix to Tranthas
Seven Instruction Lineages, whereas his biography of Buddhagupta-ntha appears as a
separate text.[1]
Buddhagupta-ntha, known as Sangs rgyas Sbas pai mgon (16th/17th cent.) in Tibetan, was
probably the last Indian siddha of whom we have a detailed account. His two main teachers
were Tirtha-ntha and the Mahsiddha Shanti-Gupta, though he studied under many others.
The fact that an Indian siddha should appear so late in Tibet, shows clearly that the often
repeated statement of Buddhism, having become completely extinct in India after the 12th
century Muslim invasions, is quite incorrect.
Also the famous scholar and yogin Vana-Ratna (Nags kyi Rin chen, 1384-1468), the teacher
to such famous Tibetan masters as G Lotsawa Shnu Pal (Gos Lo ts ba Gzhon nu dpal,
1392-1481) who was the author of the Blue Annals, and Thrimkhang Lotsawa Snam Gyatso

(Khrims khang Lo ts ba Bsod nams rgya mtsho, 1424-1482), who traveled to Tibet three
times in the 15th century, is further proof of the ongoing practice and study of Buddhism in
India after the onslaught of these invaders.
Vana-Ratna was known as "the last great Indian Pan dita" to visit Tibet. Therefore one could
certainly say that Buddhagupta-ntha was "the last great Indian Mahsiddha" to do so.
Buddhagupta-ntha was the youngest of eight sons of a rich merchant. Already as a child he
attended upon his guru Tirtha-ntha and soon resolved to become a yogin himself. He
received many empowerments, oral transmissions and liberating instructions from him and
spent many years in solitary retreats, focusing particularly on the practices various of
Vajrayogin and Tr. Later in his life, he also studied under the famous Mahsiddha ShantiGupta. Thus he became an expert in many tantras, their exposition and practice.
He traveled all over India repeatedly, always in search of masters and teachings. Whenever he
had received new empowerments and instructions, he undertook intensive solitary retreats in
order to master the associated practices. His travels took him as far as Shri Lanka in the
south, Indonesia in the southeast and Uddiyana in the northwest.
Buddhagupta-ntha also traveled to many of the small islands off the southern and eastern
coasts of India. There he visited Mt. Potalaka where he beheld visions of rya Tr,
Avalokitevara and Manjuri.
He then describes the Indonesian archipelago as a thriving center of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Trantha writes:
From this island (Potalaka) he embarked again and went over a great distance north, till he
reached Java-dvipa, Barley island. On that island there are numerous san gha communities
belonging to the Sendhava Shravaka (i.e. Theravadin) class. He did not stay among them.
Also there, in the center of a small lake, was a tiny island by name of Vanadvipa, Forest
Island, on which is located a sacred spot blessed by Master Saruroha-Vajra; on the outside
appearing like a rocky mountain, and as a square shaped temple within. At its center there is a
naturally formed stone image of a two-armed Hevajra.[2]

In one (other) cave there are numerous volumes of Secret Mantra, and it is further stated that
it contains copies of five hundred thousand tantras. It is known as an extremely turbulent
(place) and hence impossible to inspect, so he told me.
Also Buddhagupta-nthas account of his visit to Uddiyana is of great interest, being in all
likelihood the last eyewitness account of this fabled land. Trantha writes:
Next he moved east to Uddiyana, in the Sanskrit language Omdiyana, in our (Tibetan)
language Orgyen (Or gyan). Since in their pronunciation there is no distinction between DA
and SA, it sounds like Oryana. This has been a source of major confusion in Tibetan
writings. Yet since (here is a case of someone) who personally traveled to Orgyen, it is out of
the question to counter (his statements) by any compulsive reference to arguments existing in
Tibetan. Moreover, in that area itself, the country, in the barbarian language understood there
by all, is known as Gadzani. There he reached the great sacred spots: the cave that still

contains the robe of Lawa(pa), the ruins of King Indrabhutis palace, and Ilo-parvata. Next he
resided for one month at Dhuma-sthira, in the very heart of sacred Uddiyana, a town literally
meaning "Residence of Smoke."

Generally speaking, the heartland of Uddiyana, entirely surrounded as it is by mountains,

valleys and thick forests, at its center from east to west takes two days to cross, and four from
south to north; having Dhuma-sthira for its only town. By Indian standards it is to be viewed
as a small town. He (Guru Buddhagupta) further stated that it is similar to Ghama-ghama (?).
Not counting the center of the sacred area, its four approaches (gates) as well as the outer
regions of Uddiyana are extremely vast. Although they are all barbarian regions, even
including the center of the sacred land, and although there are no san gha communities there
at present, there are groups of yogins without any fixed residence, also lay practitioners,
trthikas, barbarians and so forth. It further appears that the majority of the women belong to
the d kin class, some of whom have achieved great magic power by means of mantra, both
for helping and for harming. They assume all kinds of shapes and possess the magical gazes.
As they display their miraculous interventions, one notices that those of the bird class are
extremely numerous. He further said that in lands such as the former Upper Hor, Akaparawa
and elsewhere, there are still some people with the magic power for protecting people and
transmigrators (in general) by mantra.
In his mid-seventies Buddhagupta-ntha traveled to Tibet where he met the young Trantha,
upon whom he conferred many transmissions of teachings and tantras which had until then
been unknown in the land of snows. Among them were the transmission of the tantras and
instructions of Tryogin, the Guhyasamaja according to the tradition of Jana-pada, the
Dohas of Jalandhara, Varah according to the tradition of Jalandhara, the oral instructions of
Kusali and its six branches on the perfection process for Hevajra, and several heretofore
unknown Mahmudr instructions, to name just a very few. Trantha composed a wonderful
biography of this master. It ends with his leaving Tibet again via the Kyirong area, where he
spent about three months in retreat, and Dolakha in Nepal, back to India.
Trantha adds how he later heard from travelers how Buddhagupta-ntha also visited many
sacred sites in the Kathmandu valley, before returning to India. There, he was then reunited
with his own Guru Shanti-Gupta, staying with him for some time. Buddhagupta-ntha then
continued to travel, together with his own students, all over Magadha (present-day Bihar and
Uttar-Kandh) and Bhangala (present-day Bengal and Bangladesh). They then moved on to the
land of Tripura (present-day Assam and northern Burma) where they stayed for many years.
The last sentence of Tranthas in Buddhagupta-nthas biography proper, composed in
about 1601, reads:
After that, and up to the present day, he took up his residence in the vicinity of Devikota, so I
heard. There are many reports about the wonders occurring on the occasion of (his visits to)
each of these countries; but as an overlengthy sacred biography might become a hindrance for
ones understanding, I prefer not to write about them here.
Earlier on Trantha describes the siddha thus:

The signs and marks of his accomplishment as a yogin were plainly visible to ordinary eyes.
Half the day he remained (in a state) whereby he cut off the flow of his breath, and at
practically all times he stayed naked (throughout his stay in Tibet!). Not only did he not
experience any harm from this, but his immediate entourage, within a two meter radius, could
feel an intense heat, by means of which he was able to protect others from the cold. By
cutting off the flow of his breath through mouth and nostrils, he was able to make appear to
his eyes and ears whatever he wanted. Also, his feet did not sink on water. He was standing
about two fingers above the ground and his bodily splendor would touch every object and
remain there for a long time. He possessed the power of seeing others secret designs, in a
supernatural way knowing others minds. His body was light: he would jump down from (a
height of) two or three storeys, and like a skin that had been flung down, he landed gently
like a feather. He would climb up a steep mountain as if it were flat land. Poison, quicksilver
and the like were unable to harm his body. As his mind was abiding in steady loving
kindness, dogs and even ferocious carnivores would lick his body and in other ways show
their affection. Ravens, little birds and so forth would alight on his lap or onto the tips of his
fingers. They didnt flee when he patted them, but remained where they were, obviously
happy. At the time of bestowing an empowerment, he was able to make the wisdom actually
descend. In the presence of worthy candidates he would show miraculous occurrences of
various kinds, such as radiating light into the man d ala. He stood in no need for the food of
(ordinary) humans. He lived on (intangible) foods offered to him by non-human beings.
When he was engaged in one-pointed deity yoga, the appearances of the present were really
cut off and he was one endowed with the wisdom of at all times viewing everything outer and
inner as devoid of any basis and as self-liberated. We with the scope similar to that of
mayflies, how could we possibly evaluate the limit of his outstanding qualities of body,
speech and mind?