Aspects of Hindu and Buddhist Tantra

Author(s): Alex Wayman

Source: The Tibet Journal , Autumn 1976, Vol. 1, No. 3/4, Special Issue : “Tibet: A
Living Tradition”: Proceedings of a Symposium held at The Newark Museum (Autumn
1976), pp. 32-44
Published by: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43299822

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 Aspects of Hindu and Buddhist Tantra

Alex Wayman

I. Age of the Tantra

TH can E can
R hardly
hardlyE beis little
placedbeearlier
placedthan
doubttheearlier
Guptathat
era (late
the than
3rd A.D.)
present
andthe
areGupta texts of era India (late called 3rd A.D.) tantric and texts are
frequently much later; and also little doubt that the practices found in the
Tantras are often of great antiquity, in some cases certainly to be traced
back to the Vedic period. For example, the great emphasis on mantras in this
literature, doubtless goes back to the Vedic literature. Recently, I worked
out this case in an article, "The Significance of Mantras, from the Veda
down to Buddhist Tantric Practice" for the centenary issue of Braymavidyã;
the Adyar Library Bulletin. In this article I traced the so-called male mantra,
called simply 'mantra', back to the Veda; and the so-called female mantra,
frequently called 'vidyä', back to the old Upanisads. The mantras, or magical
speech, doubtless appealed to peoples far and wide in the ancient world,
on account of the belief that these could fulfil certain very human desires,
such as to appease the deities, get rid of illnesses, bring the rain down from
the sky and otherwise produce prosperity, and even to put a hex on enemies.
There are suggestions from a few Indus Valley seals that the ritualistic
postures of the body and tfre methodical attainment by the mind of superior
states of consciousness are, at least, as old as the oldest Veda. Both the Hindu
and the Buddhist Tantras inherit certain features of old Brahmanical religion,
for example, the burnt offerings called homa.
But then when we turn to the actual texts called Tantra, which are not
to be termed ancient, we find a situation explainable by the course of Indian
religious literature. Just as there is no understanding without a person to
understand, so there were no Tantras without an Indian sect to compose
them, copy them, and thus preserve them. Now, in order for a sect to be
convinced that it should honour such a work and accordingly keep on
copying it, such a work must be composed as though inspired by the deities
honoured by that sect, and bring in the technical terms and symbols of that
sect, so that followers of the sect will feel at ease in their religious sensibilities
on reading such a text. This accounts for the different Tantras in terms of
broad sects, as when we speak of Hindu Tantra or Buddhist Tantra; or
among Hindu Tantras, speaking of Šaivitic Tantra or Vaisņava Tantra.
That is to say, when persons in each of these sects, composed Tantras, they
took an affcient lore and practice of magic that were much older than the

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 ASPECTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 33

particular sect and then wrote up the material in a syncretism with the
terminology of the sect. Thus, in a Hindu Tantra one may expect to find
such matters as the duties of the four classes, sometimes castes; and in a
Buddhist Tantra one will find various typical Buddhist concepts, such as the
theory of dependent origination (pratîtyasamutpâda) and the peculiarly
Buddhist manner of referring to the Void or Voids (Šūnyatā).
The foregoing considerations lead me to agree with Kane1 that probably
the Hindu and Buddhist Tantras arose at the same time, since there is a
certain time when this process of integrating a more ancient lore with their
respective sectarian terminology would have taken place. The only difficulty
is to establish the beginnings of this integration or syncretism; and I have
suggested above that it is laid in the early Gupta.
Now, as is well-known, one frequently finds in the Tantras, whether
Hindu or Buddhist, certain contents that one might find objectionable.
This is sometimes a type of sensualism in symbols or practices, and generally
associated with what ordinary society takes as dirty or prohibited things,
such as the various body excretions. There seems to be in some of these texts
a kind of calculated avoidance of the normal discriminations of the pure
and the impure. Now, this cannot be credited to a 'primitive' thinking,
since the people or tribes which the so-called 'civilised' peoples consider
to be primitive or backward also have their versions of the pure and the
impure. Rather, the tantric position seems to involve a thorough-going rejec-
tion of the values of the ordinary man. Such an attitude again cannot be
assigned to a particular historical period, because at any time, before or
during the Vedic age, or nowadays, the mass of people would have certain
values of propriety, and some person or persons could reject those values.
Just at this point it is easy to misunderstand the tantric position. So far
as I have studied these texts I see no reason why a tantric adept would not
share the usual distaste at the piled-up garbage during a strike of the sanita-
tion men ! The tantric link with the unclean or prohibited entities is purely
ritual. It is a matter of how the candidate is supposed to orient his mind in
certain phases of the praxis which, taken in its full extent, may be quite
difficult or formidable. In contrast, the person who is bent on defying the
norms of society, whether in past ages or nowadays, usually does so without
benefit of ritual or the ascetic life.

II. Claimed Superiority of the Tantra

Chakravarti2 cites various Hindu Tantras for their emphatic claim
that the Tantras are far superior to the Vedas. One reason given (in the
Kākacaņdešvarīmatam ) is that the Vedas are too old to yield perfection;
and this seems to imply that the Tantras are meant for younger persons
who neglect to follow the four Hindu stages of life, while the Veda is meant
for persons who go seriously for it only when they are so elderly in terms of
the stages of life (i.e. after the loosening of social duties) that there is little
hope of success at that point. Another reason is suggested by one Tantra

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34 THE TIBET JOURNAL

(the Kulārņava) comparing the Tantras to high-born women and the Vedas
to public women. This amounts to a claim that as texts (since in India books
are considered feminine) the Tantras are meant for, i.e. give their precious
love to the rare aspirants of superior faculty (hence the 'elect'); while the
Veda are meant for, i.e., give their sullied love to any and all Hindus. But
long before these Hindu Tantras were written, the Muņdaka Upanisad
(I, 1, 4-5) spoke of a higher and a lower knowledge (vidyâ). The lower
knowledge was described as the four Vedas, and certain profane sciences
such as Grammar. The higher kind was said to be the one that understands
the imperishable (aksara). Therefore, it is not remarkable that these Tantras
would put the Veda on a lower level; and there seems here to be a certain
amount of give-and-take, because the Tantras themselves have often been
severely criticised by orthodox Hindus, especially in certain Purāņas, such
as the Varãpurãna and the Kūrmapurāņa.
There is a comparable view in the Buddhist Tantras, which are frequently
referred to in this literature as the 'diamond vehicle' (vajrayâna) or the
'mantra vehicle' (mantrâyana), namely, that this vehicle is superior to the
non-tantric Mahâyâna path, frequently called the Pāramitā path. Thus
Tzong-k'a-pa ( Tzong-kha-pa ), founder of the Ge-lug-pa (dGe-lugs-pa) order
of Tibet, writes in his Dun leg-ma (mDun legs-ma) :3

Now, for guidance to Complete Buddhahood, there are both the

profound Diamond Vehicle and Pāramitā Vehicle. It is well-known
that the Mantra path far surpasses the Pāramitā path, like the
sun and moon. Some respect this as a true word, but do not try
to find out what the Diamond Vehcile is, while posing as wise men.
If in such manner they are wise men, who then are the more stupid
ones? It is most surprising that one should cast aside this sort of
highest path so difficult to encounter. Therefore, I entered and
exercised myself with many endeavours in that Deep which is the
highest vehicle of the Jina and even more rare than a Buddha and
which is the treasure of the two occult successes.

By the two occult successes he means mundane siddhi (i.e. the eight great
siddhis) and supramundane siddhi (Complete Buddhahood).
According to K'ä-drub je {nKhas-grub rjeý what establishes the superi-
ority of the mantra-mahâyâna over the pāramitā-mahāyāna is the affiliation
(tulya-jatlya-hetu) with the Formal Body (rūpa-kāya) of the Buddha,
involving the contemplation of oneself as a god. This contemplation of one-
self as a god takes place during the initiation (abhiseka). Elsewhere it is made
clear that this amounts to affiliation of the candidate's body, speech and
mind, by means of gesture (mudrā), incantation (mantra), and deep concen-
tration (samādhi), with the three mysteries of the Buddha, his glorious
Body, Speech and Mind. And the superiority is often referred to by the
quickness of achieving the religious goal. That is, the Pāramitā vehicle took

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 ASPECTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 35

the Bodhisattva three incalculable aeons to get to the last life when he could
be fully enlightened; while the Tantras claim that their methods, requiring
the guru's guidance on account of their danger, enable the adept to achieve
the goal of Buddhahood in one life.

III. Secrecy of the Tantra

Here, I appeal on the Hindu side to two excellent Šaiva classics, the
Šivasamhitā 5 and the Šivasvarodaya.6 Šivasvara (v. 139,/140B-141A) :
"Great Lord! god of the gods! in thy heart is the great secret (rahasya)
which gives salvation to the world; tell me it." Said the god (to the goddess
Parvatï) : "The yogi who is devoted to the knowledge of the breath is the
supreme yogi; there is none higher. Creation takes place from the five tattvas;
the tattva dissolves in the tattva." There are a number of places in the
Šivasamhitā (tr. p. 31) : "the secret is about attaining the vāyu-siddhi (occult
power over the winds)." (tr. pp. 34-5) : "the secret (to be kept with the
greatest care) is the Mahāmudrā, which means closing the nine gates of the
body." (tr. p. 35, bottom) : "the secrecy is the piercing of the knot, again
having to do with gaining vāyu-siddhi (which destroys decay and death)."
(tr. pp. 44-5) : "pressing the two vijnāna-nādīs with his two fingers" (the
translator was not sure what was meant)... "This Yoga is a great secret, and
not to be given to everybody; it might be revealed to him only, in whom
all the qualifications of a yogi are perceived." (tr. p. 50-1) : re the flame in
the heart lotus : even the gods Brahmā, etc., keep the method of its con-
templation secret, (cf. p. 57) "Brahmā and the gods can hardly obtain this
knowledge." (tr. p. 51) : the višuddha cakra (the throat) is the secret spot,
(tr. p. 53) : re the ĀjSā lotus (middle of forehead) : "He who secretly always
contemplates on the Ājnā lotus, at once destroys all the karma of his past
life, without any opposition." (p. 61) : practising in secrecy : (p. 64) : even a
householder can practice Yoga in secrecy, (p. 56), the conjunction of the
three rivers (triveņi) : "There is no greater secret than this throughout the
three worlds. This should be kept secret with great care. It ought never to be
revealed." (p. 59) : the rāja-yoga "is kept secret in all the Tantras." (p. 62):
the three kinds of seed should be kept secret, (p. 64) : "O great goddess,
the science of Šiva is a great science (mahävidyä), it should be kept most
secret - this science revealed by me, the wise should keep secret." (p. 64) :
Hatha Yoga loses its power when revealed.
In these Šaiva texts, we can observe how the word 'secret' is employed :
1) There are secret things, like the internal 'winds'. They are secret because
not accessible to ordinary senses. 2) The yogi should practice in secrecy;
so doing he destroys all the karma of his past lives. 3) The yogi should keep
these mysterious facts secret from most persons, only communicate them
to one who has the characteristics of a yogi.
In the chapter "The Nature of Buddhist Esotericism" in my book
The Buddhist Tantras ,7 there is data on secrecy in the Buddhist Tantras that
is consistent with the foregoing. There is the use of the word 'secret' for the

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36 THE TIBET JOURNAL

tantric teachings to be kept secret from those who have not been initiated,
hence have not had their eyes opened in the sense of yoga. There is the use of
the word 'secret' for certain things which owe their secrecy to being inward,
like the secret of female sex. And I give there a list of seven secret topics,
in each case amounting to states of yoga, the circle of deities, and so on
that are not accessible to ordinary consciousness, and cannot be appreciated
by persons whose minds are thoroughly given over to mundane pursuits.
As to the Hindu yogi - usually Šaivitic - practicing in secrecy, this
apparently means the lay tantric operator. There were also many lay Buddhist
tantrics; and besides there is the tantrism of the Buddhist monasteries,
historically first in North India and then in Tibet. Sometimes a Western
writer will say that the 'cleaned-up' type of Tantra is the consequence of
being tied up with Buddhist monasteries, for example the 'Reformed' Yellow-
cap sect of Tibet; in short, that the monks re-evaluated the symbols to make
them more compatible with non-tantric Buddhism. This challenge amounts
to interpreting the tantric secrecy as having something to hide, because
offensive to people at large. But this type of challenge assumes facts not in
evidence, to wit, those so-called 'secrets' themselves. The person making
this challenge would have us believe he knows the secrets, but most likely
he does not know that kind of secrecy which is the inaccessibility to normal
senses, and probably has not been in a position to compare the 'reformed'
with the 'unreformed'.

IV, Poison as the Antidote of Poison

Woodroffe8 cites a commentator, Jaganmohana Tarkālangkāra : "Let
us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget
his duty, sink into sin, and die an early death. First among these are wine
and women, fish, meat and mudrā, and accessories. By these things men
have lost their manhood. Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons
in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote
for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust
for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be
a mistake as to the application, the patient is like to die." Woodroffe
continues with various interpretations of those five things called the
pañcattva, also called the makāras since the Sanskrit names of the five each
begin with 'm'
Kane9 mentions that the tantric prescriptions for these five things had
shocked people and disgraced the Tantra, so late Hindu tantric works, e.g.,
the Šaktisaňgamatantra (between 1555-1607 A.D.) introduced symbolic
interpretations.
The Buddhist Tantra contains some like statements, such as the one
from the Dakiriī- vajrapañ jara :10 "By passion the world arises; downcast
by passion, it goes to its end. By thorough knowledge of the diamond passion,
the mind becomes Vajrasattva (the Diamond-Being)" If one can suspend
the natural temptation to denounce as degenerate the foregoing statements

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 ASPECTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 37

from the Hindu Tantra and the Buddhist Tantra, the real meaning may still
not come to the mind, However, at least there is a possibility of under-
standing the meaning. It has occurred to me that a kindly interpretation
of that passage from the Buddhist Tantra would be in terms of Buddhist
dependent origination, namely the member No. 8. 'craving', because it was
traditional to take the first seven members of dependent origination as re-
flecting causes from a previous life; and that No. 8 'craving' lays the ground
for the new bondage of a being. Thus, it is here that thinking beings have
their responsibility and what they take as freedom, even though it is usually
tainted by preceding defilements. Even though supporters of the early
Buddhist Pāli canon would be loath to agree, it still follows that in the
Buddhist dependent origination any vow or aspiration, such as the virtuous
one to pursue the religious goal of Nirvāņa or the vow of the Bodhisattva,
had no other member to be identified with than 'craving' in the sense of
man's freedom. Thus, in his desire man is free, just as in his feelings (No. 7 of
the Buddhist formula) he has the ancient bondage. In this sense, that very
'craving' which Buddhism assigns as the cause of 'cyclical flow' (samsāra)
can be a 'craving' for surmounting or ending the 'cyclical flow'. Thus the
world is promoted by passion and destroyed by passion, as was told in the
Tantra. In the Greek system there were two 'fatal passions ' - the first one,
Eros, love; and the second one, Elpis, hope.11 Both of these passions are
combined in the Indian 'craving' (trsņā. or Pāli taņhā)12. In the old Vedic
creation hymn it was called 'desire' (kāma), the bond of the existent in the
non-existent.

V. The Seventeenfold Rite in Tantric Buddhism

The seventeenfold (saptadašadhā) is a number important to the old
Vedic cult, for the seventeen important ritual verses, the seventeen-day rite,
the seventeen spokes of the upward ladder, and so on. Perhaps because
according to legend the Buddhist teacher Asanga had a Brahmana mother,
he extended some token of respect for the old tradition by having seventeen
bhūmis (stages) in the Bhūmivastu of his great work, the Yogãcõrabhúmi ,
from one (the stage associated with the set of five perceptions) to seventeen
(the stage of Nirvāņa without remainder).
But turning to the Buddhist Tantra, one gains an appreciation of how
these tantrics syncretise their practices with sectarian symbols, in how they
can find the number 'seventeen' in the old Buddhist dependent origination
(pratïyasamutpâda) ordinarily taken to have twelve numbers. I extract the
following from Buddhaguhya's commentary on the Sarvadurgatiparišodhana -
tantra :13

1 . nescience (avidyâ) (at the head, 'the basis of mind') has the nature
of all defilements (kleša), because by dint of ignorance it is the
original confusion (ādi-sammoha) concerning thusness, true end,
cause and effect. The mantra for destroying it is the upahrdaya

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38 THE TIBET JOURNAL

(incantation) of Ratnaketu, OM SARVAVID HŪM PHAT' This

is to be applied to the head in the manner of a blessing
(adhistfiāna).
2. motivation (samskāra) (at the shoulders, 'which motivate action'),
because it instigates, gives rise to the defilements such as passion
for outer sense objects. To purify it, the upahrdaya of Šākyamuni,
OM SARAVID A, is placed on the shoulders. This is for the blessing
in non-duality.
3. perception (vijnāna) (at the heart, 'the special place of awareness'),
is aware of diverse manifestations, yet worships them in unmixed
manner since it adheres to a 'self'. The 'seal (mudrā) for overcoming
it is the hrdaya (incantation) of Vairocana, OM ŠODHANI
ŠODHANI SARVAPĀPAM VIŠODHANI/ŠUDDHE VIŠUDDHE
SARVAKARMA-ĀVARAŅA-VIŠUDDHE SVĀHĀ. One applies
this at the heart for blessing,
4. name-and-form (nāma-rūpa) (at the waist, 'the initial arising place
of the aggregates'), is the appropriating aggregate (upādāna-skandha)
imbued with the habit-energy (vāsanā) of karma. The mudrā for
overcoming it is the 'seed syllable' (bija) which generates the body
of Vairocana, OM SARVAVID OM. The aim of applying it at
the waist is blessing.
5. six sense bases (saçlâyatana) (at the ears, 'which are like twisted
birchbark') are each a basis for the occurrence of perception. To
overcome them, at the two ears one places Vairocana's upahrdaya,
OM SARAVIT SARVA-ĀVARAŅA-VIŠODHAYA HANA HŪM
PHAT. This is for the blessing in non-duality.
6. contact (sparsa) (at the nose, 'which is like a row of needles of
molten copper') : The sense bases, plus objects, and associated
perceptions, allow experience of sense objects. To overcome that,
at the nose one places the upahrdaya of Samkusumita, OM SARA-
VIT TRATH, which is for blessing in nonduality.
7. feelings (vedanā) (at the forehead, 'which is where the complexion
shines') means at the time of contact with sense objects one experi-
ences pain and pleasure. The mudrā for overcoming that is the
hrdaya of Samkusumita, OM SARVAVIT TRAT, which is placed
at the forehead for the purpose of blessing.
8. craving (trsņā) (at the mouth, 'where is the craving for food, etc.')
arises with attachment to the five personality aggregates after feelings
experience sensory objects. The mudrā for overcoming it is Šākya-
muni's hrdaya, OMSARVA-APĀYA-VIŠODHAYA HÜM PHAJ,
which is placed at the mouth for the purpose of blessing.
9. indulgence (upādāna) (at the knees, 'which permit extending and
retracting') arises with the condition of craving which enhances
the perception of sense objects, and is like picking flowers, i.e.
clings to objects as one's own. To overcome it, there is the bija for

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 ASPECTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 39

generating Durgatiparišodhana's body, OM SARVAVIT SA, which

is placed on the two knees for the sake of blessing.
10. gestation (bhava) (on the two legs, 'which enable one to run') after
the indulgence in sense objects, is the karma of seizing them as one's
own and emits the seed which accomplishes a re-existence (punar-
bhava) by being cast into the mother's womb. To overcome it, there
is the bïja which generates the body of Ratnaketu, OM SARAVID
A, which is placed on the two legs for the purpose of blessing into
non-duality.
11. birth (jāti) (on the genitals, 'where is the seed giving birth to sentient
beings'): To overcome it, there is the contemplation of Ratna,
OM BHA, placed on the genitals, for the purpose of blessing into
non-duality.
12. old age (jarā) (on the crown of the head, 'where is the white hair
as the sign of old age') : Thus, after being generated by the karma
of sentient beings, the personality aggregates reach old age. To
overcome that, there is the bija which generates the body of Sam-
kusumita, OM SARA VIT TRATH, placed at the crown of the
head, to bless into non-duality.
13. death (maraņa) (on the throat, 'through which the breathing started
when one was born') : Thus, through disintegration of the personality
aggregates, there are many pains and disease. The mudrā to over-
come that is the hrdaya of Ratnaketu, OM ŠODHANI ŠODHANI
SARVA-APÄYÄNI SARVA (A) DYEBHYA(S), placed at the
throat for blessing.
14. grief (šoka) (on the ankle-bone, 'which is the basic joint
of the leg'): Persons have it on account of the death. To over-
come that, there is a mudrā to generate the body of Šākyamuni,
OM SARVAVID HÜM, placed on the ankle-bone, to bless into
non-duality.
15. lamentation (parideva) (on the eye, 'from which tears flow') in
various utterances, is by reason of the intense sorrow. The mudrā
for overcoming that is the mantra which blesses into the Void,
OM SA, which is placed on the eye for blessing.
16. misery (duhkha) (on the ūrņa-koša at the middle of the forehead,
'source of brightness on the face') is the three (states of) misery (the
misery of pain, the misery of impermanent constructions, the misery
of change). The mudrā to overcome that is the upadrdaya of Durgati-
parišodhana, OM SARVAVID HÜM, which is placed on the ūrņa-
koša to bless into non-duality.
17. dissatisfaction (daurmanasya) (on the tip of the nose, 'where arises
perception') is when the mind is harassed by the misery of defilement.
The mudrā to overcome that is Durgatiparišodhana's hrdaya
(omitted in the text), which one places at the tip of the nose to bless
into non-duality.

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40 THE TIBET JOURNAL

The procedure of getting the number 'seventeen* here is certainly

intriguing. The early Buddhist Sūtra presentation of dependent origination
adds after twelve 'old age and death', the set 'grief* lamentation, misery,
dissatisfaction, perturbation'. Therefore, this tantric tradition could have
immediately achieved the number 'seventeen' by the standard twelve mem-
bers of dependent origination and the appendage of five terms. Instead,
'perturbation' (upäyäsa) was dropped, and 'old age and death' was divided
into two; and this is consistent with the ancient Buddhist scripture of the
Pāli canon (< Samyutta-Nikãya , nidāna book, ii, 2) where in the individual
descriptions of the members of dependent origination the Buddha separately
describes 'old age' and 'death'. However, in this sütta the Buddha does not
separately explain the terms 'grief, lamentation, misery, dissatisfaction,
perturbation', so the implication is that they are the emotions in the relatives
and friends of the deceased, or have an obvious meaning for people in
general.
It should be mentioned that this placement of mantras in different spots
of the body is also a frequent practice of the Hindu Tantra and usually
referred to as nyäsa. In the present case the mantras are of three kinds,
to go with the five Buddha families. The five hrdayas (placed at the heart,
forehead, mouth, throat, tip of nose) are explained to have the special action
of comprehending the mind of Enlightenment, and are basic causes (hetu).
The five upardayas (placed at the head, shoulders, ears, nose, middle of
forehead [urņa-koša]) serve for reaching and conferring the incomparable
fruit of Enlightenment, and are conditions (pratyaya). The five germ syl-
lables (bfja) that generate the bodies of the Buddhas (placed at the waist,
knees, two legs, crown of head, ankle-bone) serve to establish the true form
of the fruit, and are effects (phala). The five hrdayas are also said to be
mudrās which destroy the five kinds of defilement that lead to bad destiny
(durgati). The five upahrdayas are said to destroy the five paths for birth
in bad destinies. The five germ syllables are said to destroy the five per-
sonality aggregates that are the basis for bad destiny. The two mantra place-
ments that are not particularly mentioned, since they are outside the three
sets of five, are the OM BHA at the genitals, going with birth (jāti) and
OM SA on the eye, going with lamentation (parideva). The fact that these
correspondences have basic sets of 3 x 5 = 15, and yet two more items are
added, shows that there is a definite intention of preserving the number
'seventeen' which, as was mentioned above, descends from the Vedic world.
The Buddhist Tantra on which the above is based - the Sarvadurgati-
parišodhana - belongs to the division called Yogatantra among the four
classes, Kriyâ, Caryâ, Yoga, Anuttarayogatantra. The foregoing procedure
of assigning mantra letters to spots of the body generates the operator's
'mantra-body' (mantradeha) according to the terminology of the Guhyasamã -
jatantra (of the Anuttara-yoga class) where this is an achievement of the
Stage of Generation (utpatti-krama), and can serve to illustrate what was
earlier in this paper called the contemplation of oneself as a god.

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 ASPECTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 41

The foregoing also amounts to substantive material of the Tantras and

is presented here since the present writer holds that generalities about the
Tantras can never elucidate them as can a glimpse of the actual practice.

VI. Some Hindu Attitudes toward the Buddhist Tantra

It is well-known that Hindu writers in past centuries do not treat Bud-
dhism with kindness, while a different spirit has entered some modern
writers such as Radhakrishnan. In the case of the Buddhist Tantra it is
a different matter. There appears to be a regional difference of attitude toward
this topic. Most of the scholarly writings on the Buddhist Tantra in India
have been done by Bengalis, at or near Calcutta. These authors were inter-
ested in the Buddhist Tantra because they believed much of it had its source
in their own region of Bengal, and so to study it was in a way recovering
their own past. For elsewhere I particularly have in mind the Bombay-Poona
region (now in Maharashtra) since there Kane has devoted a large section of
his enormous History of Dharmasãstra to the Tantra. And in this 'elsewhere'
I find a condemnatory attitude toward the Tantra, both Hindu and Buddhist.
Therefore, I shall first consider Kane's treatment, since it represents
the outsider approach. Kane's work is always useful, because he deals with
many important books, and treats important topics. He takes the common-
sense viewpoint toward such books as the Guhyasamãjatantra, saying :14
"and, supposing that all the directions were meant for Yogis, why was it
necessary to say in a blatant manner and language that a Yogi practising
Vajrayâna may engage in what common and less sophisticated people deem
to be incest." What Kane means to say is : let us grant that the passage,
if one really understood it as it is supposed to be understood by the yogi,
knowing that one could not take it at face value, even so, why write it in the
objectionable manner; why not, if it really means something else, write it in
the other way that is not so objectionable ! Kane here makes a ridiculous
demand. It amounts to asking that when authors write books, whether or
not the material abides by the moral standard of society's elders, it should
not be written in a manner that is objectionable to "common and less sophis-
ticated people." Thus authors should always be bearing in mind the least
educated members of society when they write a book, in which case chemistry
books could not be written for chemists or students of chemistry, and so on,
including, Kane could not write his History of Dharmasãstra for university
libraries. So it turns out that Kane's "common and less sophisticated people"
were just himself. That is, he finds the material objectionable, because what
it says at face vaule is objectionable; and to admit that it means something
else than what it says and what he with his knowledge of Sanskrit thinks
it to mean would amount to concluding that he has no control over the text,
because he would not know what it means. And then how could be write
on the subject ! Thus, Kane is faced with two alternatives : either condemn
some of these tantric passages because the material at face value is blame-
worthy ; or else admit that he is not the one to write anything about it because

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42 THE TIBET JOURNAL

he is a rank outsider unable to decipher the mysterious words ! But those

were not the only alternatives. Thus, since Kane, convinced of his own
understanding as the basis of writing on the matter, accepted one of the
two alternatives that faced him, he was oblivous of the alternative of commen-
taries on the Tantra. In short, if it were true that Kane could understand
such a work as the Guhyasamãjatantra by virtue of reading it, how much
so would one proficient in the cult understand it, and then how silly it was
for all those big commentaries to have been written on the Guhyasamãja-
tantra that were translated into Tibetan ! Because even Kane, without being
one proficient in the cult, could understand the book without consultation
of commentaries !
Turning to the Bengal school of writers, with at least one foot inside,
certain ones have rendered great service to the topic of Buddhist Tantra,
especially Benoytosh Bhattacharya with his various editions of texts such
as the Sãdhanamãlã , the Guhyasamãjatantra , Nispannayogãvalí, and so on,
and his Indian Buddhist Iconography , and introductions thereto. I have
already referred to Chintaharan Chakravarti's book on the Tantras, dealing
especially with the Hindu Tantra, but having judicious observations on the
Tantra in general. Prabodh Chandra Bagchi collected some of his published
articles together in his Studies in the Tantra, Part I (1939). Of course there is
also Shashibhusan Dasgupta, An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism (1950) and
Obscure Religious Cults (1946, rev. ed., 1962) and these of course do not
exhaust the relevant authors. Taking them as a whole, it is easy to conclude
that they do not condemn the Tantra, but rather are fascinated by it. In
particular, the Bengali authors were extremely interested in the kind of
Buddhist Tantra text called the Doha-s or Dohakosa, mystic songs by Saraha
and other masters (siddha), because they were written in a language called
Apabhramša, which is known to constitute in its Bengali form the beginnings
of the modern Bengali language. Bagchi's work is mainly concerned with this.
Thus, these authors usually write in a reporting manner, mentioning pass-
ages of the texts and talking about them. If one were to object at all, admitting
at the same time the great value of this scholarly school, it would be on the
grounds of limitation by what they know. This comes out quite clearly in
Dasgupta's work An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism , since this author
consulted a number of Buddhist Tantra manuscripts that were accessible
in the manuscript libraries of Calcutta and plainly was not interested in much
of the content of these works. Indeed, what he was mainly interested in was
what he already knew. That is why he took out various passages about the
cakras imagined to be ranged along the spine, and all sorts of data about
experiences involved somehow with those cakras, such as the union of the
male and female energies. That is, because the Hindu Tantras or his Bengali
sources have a a lot on this subject, it must be that this is an important
part of the Buddhist Tantra. The corollary is that the part of the Buddhist
Tantra that is not obviously in common with his other sources is less worth-
while. Now, this takes care of the overwhelming content of the Buddhist

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 ASPFCTS OF HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRA 43

Tantras, because very little of it - if one takes into consideration the four
Tantra classes - is of the type which Dasgupta put into his book An Intro-
duction to Tantric Buddhism . In illustration, previously I presented the
seventeenfold rite in Tantric Buddhisn from the Sarvadurgatiparišodhana-
tantra and its tradition of commentaries. This Tantra is part of the Yoga-
tantra class, and in fact is part of the most geographically spread type of
Buddhist Tantras because his kind of Tantra was practised of yore in India
and in the old Golden Isles over to Java, and in China from where it went
to Japan and was preserved in the Shingon sect; while from Tibet it was
carried to Mongolia. And there is virtually not one sentence from this whole
class of literature in Dasgupta's so-called "Introduction". Besides, even
restricting ourselves to the kind of Tantra books consulted by Dasgupta
that were mainly of the Anuttarayoga class, his work conveys very little
of what is in those books, for example, the elaborate rituals of the mandala
that one finds in this class of Tantra.
In conclusion, while it is difficult to understand why the respective
partisans claim that the Hindu Tantras are superior to the Vedas and the
Buddhist Tantras superior to non-tantric Buddhism, there is one way these
Tantras are superior to the separate Hinduism and Buddhism; and that is,
while Hinduism and Buddhism keep at arms length, the Hindu Buddhist
Tantras will occasionally shake hands.

notes and references

1. P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasãstra, Vol. V (Part II) (Poona, Bhandar-

kar Oriental Research Institute, 1962), p. 1038.
2. Chintaharan Chakravarti, The Tantras ; Studies on their Religion and
Literature (Calcutta, Punthi Pustak, 1963), p. 31.
3. A. Wayman, "Observations on Translation from the Classical Tibetan
Language into European Languages", Indo-Iranian Journal , XIV : 3/4
(1972), p. 178.
4. Ferdinand D. Lessing and Alex Wayman, tr., Mkhas Grub Rje's Funda-
mentals of the Buddhist Tantras (The Hague, Mouton, 1968), p. 169.
5. Chandra Vasu, The Shiva Sanhita (Allahabad, The Imperial Press,
1905).
6. Šivasvarodaya (Bañaras, Bombay Press, n.d.).
7. A. Wayman, The Buddhist Tantras : Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism
(New York, Samuel Weiser, 1973).
8. Sir John Woodroffe, Introduction to Tantra Shastra (Madras, Ganesh
& Co., 1952), p. 117.
9. Op. cit., pp. 1080-81.
10. The Buddhist Tantras , p. 203.
11. Cf. F.M. Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy (New York, Harper
& Row, 1957), p. 181.

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44 THE TIBET JOURNAL

12. For the Indian identification of hope (āšā) with craving and desire,
cf. S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanisads (New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1953), p. 481.
13. Tibetan Tanjur, Japanese Photo edition of Peking version, Vol. 76,
pp. 30-4,5 to pp. 31-2,3,4. In this tantric tradition there are some
alternate names for the five Buddhas, to wit, Ratnaketu=Ratnasem-
bhava; Šākyamuni=Amitābha; Samkusumita-Amoghasiddhi; Durgati-
parisodhana=Aksobhya.
14. Kane, op. cit., p. 1078.

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