BUDDHIST DEITIES AND "MANTRAS" IN THE HINDU TANTRAS

(TANTRASARASAMGRAHA AND ISANASIVA GURUDEVA PADDHATI)

Author(s): Sanchita Ghosh
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2013, Vol. 74 (2013), pp. 110-114
Published by: Indian History Congress

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158805

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 BUDDHIST DEITIES AND MANTRAS IN
THE HINDU TANTRAS
(TANTRASARASAMGRAHA AND
ISANASIVA GURUDEVA PADDHATI)
Sanchita Ghosh

At various stages in its development Buddhism incorporated

Brahmanical and Hindu deities, but in its tantric form Buddhism has
also influenced the Hindu pantheon. The tantric period is characterized
by mutual influences between the two religions.
A. Sanderson has provided evidence for the influence of the tantric
Saiva canon on the Buddhist Yoganuttantras or Yoginitantra
demonstrates that passage. Brahmaya-mala (Picumata) the Tantras
Sadbhava the Yoginisam cara of the Jayadra thaya-mala and
Siddhayoges, varimata were incorporated with little or no modification
into the Buddhist Tantras of Samvara, such as the Laghu Samvara
(Herukabidhana) and Abhidhanottra the Samputodbhava, the
Samvarodaya, Vajradaka and Dakarvarnas.1
The influence of Brahmanical iconography on Buddhist tantric
iconography highlights similarities between the form of Siva and
Boddhisatva Simhanada Nikantha and others. As the well known
Buddhist tantric texts such as Abhayakara Gupta's eleventh century
Nispannayogavali include Brahmanical deities such as Ganesa,
Kartikeya, the directional guardians and heavenly bodies in the
periphery of the deity marídalas they describe.2
The reverse, mainly the influence of Tantric Buddhism on the later
Hindu tantric pantheon has been studied by B. Bhattacharya.3 It is
difficult to state who were the first to write the Tantric texts and who
borrowed it from whom. But after the study of iconography along with
deity mantras on the basis of Sadhanmala we can say that the Buddhists
were the first to write the Tantric texts and the Hindu Tantras borrowed
them. The best example is of Chinnmasta and the eight manifestations
of Tara known as Tara, Ugna, Mahogra, Vajraakali, (The Tantric)
Saras wati, Kameswari and Bhadrakali were adopted by the Hindu
pantheon from Buddhist Tantric sources.4 The Phetkarimitantra's
description of the goddess as Ugratara along with her surrounding
deities and elements of Buddhist Tantric worship procedures and
mantras became the authoritative description of the goddess and was
incorporated into many Hindu tantric texts such as Krasanda's
Tantrasara which traces the adoption of Bhutadamara into the Hindu

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 Ancient India 111

Pantheon by examining the two ext

belonging to the Buddhists and the oth
It is usually not easy to determine
adapted from one pantheon to another
Bhutadamara and Ugratara lay in the cl
process of adoption of a deity from the B
Tantras was possible.5
This paper of mine deals only with
tantricism on Hindu Tantras as evident
deities' mantras and elements of typic
procedure, Often we have no informa
they were written, nor who their auth
There are various sources which have shown these influences but
the important among them is Tantra Sara Samgraha (TSS) which is a
compilation of mantras sastra by Narayana, a Keralite Brahman. This
work is the colophons of chapters of the texts and is divided into thirty
two chapters written in Sanskrit and is popularly known as the
Visanaraniya (2- 1 0). It deals mainly with mantras to counter the effects
of poison (vis). Tantrasara Samgraha has an anonymous commentary
( vkahya ) which cites the Mantrapada of Isanagurudeva Paddhati. This
Mantrapada (MP) forms pada and patalas of Isansasiva gurudeva-
amisra's Isanasiva gurudeva padhati which is also known as
Tantrapadhati. The I.S.P. ( Isanagurudeva Paddhati) is a Saiva manual
of temple worship in four padas and is assigned to the last part of the
eleventh or early twelfth century. Most of the chapters in the M.P.
correspond to chapters in the TSS.6 My paper only deals with the deity
Yamantaka. The Isanagurudeva Paddhati (ISP) cites the mantra of
Yamantaka.7

Moreover, it is only one of the two mantras of Yamantaka found

in the M.P. which are borrowed from the Buddhist sources. In the M.P.
and the TSS the second mantra is identified as a mantra of Yama not
Yamantaka. The Buddhist mantras appears in the section of the M.P.,
which promotes the rites of black magic ( Abhicara ) which are said to
be revealed for the sake of the protection of (Vedic) dharma from the
enemies of the dharma and the Veda, which include the Buddhists.
Both the TSS8 and the M.P.9 address these issues.

The mantras of Yama / Yamantaka are to be inscribed in a yantra

which is employed in black magic (Abhicara). According to ST this is
a Yantra of Pretraj' i.e. Yama, the god of death which specifies its use
in the rite of liquidation.10 But the anonymous commentary on the TSS
states that the Yantra is perhaps to be used in the rite of causing
dissension since the TSS does not give precise information, whereas

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 1 12 IHC : Proceedings, 74th Session , 2013

the Buddhist sources say that these two mantras do occur in the squares
of a y antra.11
The mantra known in Buddhist tantrism as the mantra of Yamantaka
especially of the form Vahrabhairva and continues to be recited up to
the present.12 Vajrabhairva cycle continues to be practised under the
name Mahi SaSamvara in Nepal.13
This tantra is also referred along with the Trikalpa and Saptkalpa.
Tarantha credits Lalita Vajra with this tantra of 10th century.14 The
mantra is also referred to in Krsnayamaritantra 16-13 in an encoded
form and appears in full in 6. 1 3 ; 15 this mantra is also referred in
Vimalaprabha in the introduction to the Krsnayamaritantra on
Kalacakra tantra with a variant at the fourth quarter.16 The various
mantras found with different syllables in different texts of Hinduism
and Buddhism say that these mantras are the root mantra of the deity
Yamantaka.

These verses appear in Buddhist texts from Bali, but ironically no

iconographie descriptions of Yama/ Yamantaka occur in the TSS or the
M.P.17 Commenting on the thirty two syllable mantras , it is said that
the visualization of the deity should be learnt from one's preceptor.
The mantras of the deity's (Anga) organ found in M.P.18 refer to the
deity's deformed face, his dark ( Krsna ) colour speak of his nine faces
and reddish brown hair mass.19 In addition to the above mantras the
TSS and the M.P. include a few other mantras of Buddhist origin. These
mantras include fragments of typically Buddhist tantric offering
mantras. Invocation such as Namo Ratnarayana 's (Salution to the three
jewels) i.e., to the Buddha, the dharma, the Sangha, as well as epithets
employing the prefix Vajra indicate their Buddhist origin.
The Candasidhara mantra is for the destruction of evil demons
(Graha) which attack children. It is also inserted in MP in between
43.52 ab and ed. Its name itself denotes the edge of fierce sword. This
mantra is followed by another tantra Khadgaravana who is known as a
form of Siva, who is also addressed as Candesvara, Rudra. In Buddhist
texts this mantra invokes 'Candavajrapani', a fierce form of the Yaksa
Vajrapani.
Both the M.P. inserted into the ISP and the TSS incorporate
descriptions of Yamantaka originially as Buddhist deities along with
the procedures for their ritual worship which are included in Hindu
Tantra and Buddhist Tantrayana.
The mantras of Yamantaka appears in connection with a Yantra of
Yama used in the rites of black magic ( abhicara ), most likely the rite
of liquidation (marana). In the ritual applications of the MP and the
TSS both the names Yama and Yamantaka (elsewhere known as Yamari)

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 Ancient India 113

appear. Yamantaka and Kalantaka, "Deat

epithets of Yama, which were then transf
as "The ender of death." The cause of this confusion is that mantras of
the Buddhist Yamantaka were incorporated into a Yantra of Yama. The
first mantra is thirty-two syllable and the second twelve-fourteen or
ten syllable. -While the texts of the Yamantaka cycle of the Tibetan
Buddhist Tradition employ both of these mantras as mantras of
Yamantaka/ Yamari, the Hindu Tantric texts examined in this paper
identify the second mantra as mantra of Yama. The wording of the two
mantras , which continue to be recited by Tibetan Buddhists up to the
present do not indicate a connection to Tantric Buddhism. The first
one seems to be in praise of the enemy of Yama, who could be identified
either as Siva in his manifestation as Kalari (for the Hindus) or as
Vajrabhairava (for the Buddhists). The second mantra addresses the
(deity) with a face deformed (by fangs). The main texts of the
Yamantaka cycle in which these two mantras appear, are said to have
originated in Uddiyana. Uddhyana/ Oddiyana is normally identified
with a province in the Swat Valley in the north-west of the subcontinent,
present-day Pakistan, where tantrism once flourished. According to
the Hindu Tantras, the two mantras are said to be inscribed in the yantra
along with a third eight-syllabled mantra which cannot be identified in
the Buddhist texts examined in this paper. The third mantra is identified
as mantra of Yama. It appears in the texts such as the MP and the TSS
that they did not borrow the three mantras directly from Buddhist
Tantric texts, for example the Krsnayamaritantra , but rather from
another source which included their mantra.

The mantras of Yamanntaka's limbs ( anga ) listed in MP 47.11 +

address a dark deity with nine faces and reddish-brown hair. This
description suggests nine-faced form of the dark Yamantaka (cf. also
the references to his faces in MP 47.23+) who is identified as
Vajrabhairava. This nine-faced form of Yamantaka is not described in
the Krsnayamaritantra but in chapter 4 of the Vajramahabhairvatantra.
The question that arises is what attitudes the compilers of the MP
and the TSS had towards the Buddhist material they included. The
compilers of the MP and the TSS seem to have had an ambivalent
attitude. On the one hand, they describe the rites of black magic
( abhicara ) for use against the enemies of the (Vedic) dharma and Veda.
On the other hand, they incorporate mantras from these very enemies.
Unlike other groups in Hinduism who included the Buddha among
Visnu's aviaras , the compilers of these two texts made a distinction
between their own tradition and that of the Buddhists. The two
Yamantaka mantras are inscribed in Yantras. Since they were
transmitted as part of a ritual procedure which included the drawing of

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 1 14 IHC: Proceedings, 74th Session, 2013

a powerful yantra, they could not easily be omitted. In the case of the
other mantras to cure diseases, the compilers apparently did not want
to exclude popular mantras , which were believed to be powerful, even
though they carried traces of the Buddhist context from which they
were taken. Other mantras were inserted between descriptions of ritual
procedures for similar Hindu deities for the sake of completeness. The
description of Vasudhara, for example, precedes that of different forms
of Durga and is directly followed by the presentation of the mantras of
the traditional Hindu earth goddess Bhudevi. The description of
Jambhala is followed by that of Kubera. In the above discussed texts
the Buddhist deities do not occupy the positions of major deities.
Jambhala, Vasudhara and Yama are all associated with the Yaksa cult
as well as Vajragandhari, Vajrapani and possibly Vajrasrnkhala (if he
is the male counterpart of Vajrasrnkhala), whose names are invoked in
some of the mantras of Buddhist origin. Some of the mantras explicitly
invoke the lord of the Yaksas. In their subordinate positions they were
apparently not felt to interfere with the compilers' sectarian affiliation.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 . A. Sanderson, Saivism and Tantric traditions ( Proceedings of world Relig

ed. S. Sutherland, P. Clarke and F. Hardy, Routledge, London, pp. 128-1 72.
2. M. de Mallmann, The Hindu Deities in Tantric Buddhism , Maisonneuve, Par
3. B. Bhattacharya, Buddhist Deities in Hindu Garb, Proceeding and Transactio
Indian Oriental Conference , University of Punjab, Lahore, 1930, 1277-1298
4. B. Bhattacharya, The Indian Buddhist Iconograpny , Based on Sadhanm
Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals , Firma K.L.M., Calcutta, 1958, p.349.
5 . B. Bhattacharya, The Cult of Bhuttadharma, Proceedings and Transactions o
India Oriental Conference (Bihar and Orissa Research Society), Patna, 1 993
6. ISP Insansi vag G uru de v a Paddhati, Insansivag Gurudeva Paddhati by Insansiv
Mishra , edited by T. Ganapati Sastri. 4 Parts, Trivandrum University Press,
1920-1925.

7. Tantras Sara Sangraha (With Commentary) ed. by M.D. Aiyangar, Govt. Oriental
Manuscripts Library, Madras, 1950, 17.129). Mantrapada47; l-39(I'sanagurudevaPaddhti).
Agni Purana , 306.
8. Ibid.

9. Mantrapada 47: 1-39 ( Isanagurudeva Padhati).

10. Agni Purna 306.
11. TSS p.238 pg.lO.
12. Hookyas; op. cit., pp.204-205.
13. Decleer, 1998, p.296.
14. Taranatha, History of Buddhism ; Chattopadhyaya 170, p.243.
15. Krsnayamari tantra, p. 749.
16. Kolakra tantra 4.1 18.

17. Raghava Bhatta, p. 866. 25.

18. MP47.11 + .

19. Dwivedi, 1992, p. 42.

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