– N.K. Singh
Was Tantra originally Brahminical or Buddhist? Before we proceed further, the question of whether or not Tantra was introduced in Buddhism as a result of the Brahminical influence may briefly be discussed. According to Austin Waddell, Buddhist Tantra is nothing but Shaiva idolatry, Shakti worship, and demonology. On the other hand, B Bhattacharya, in his introduction to Buddhist Esoterism, has concluded 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.
Gōpīnātha Kavirāja believes that Tantric mantra-śāstra is rooted in Vedic religion. According to G C Pande: “the earliest religion of man was more or less Tantric in nature. He has pointed out that a large number of Tantric elements may be traced in the pre-Buddhist religion in India”. L M Joshi follows him closely. It has rightly been pointed out by modern scholars that the most important aspect of Tantra is the dogma of Shaktisāhacarya which has always been closely related with the cult of the Mother Goddess on the one hand and the linga worship and the Shaiva cult, on the other. As we have seen, both these elements were present in the Indus religion which consisted of the cult of the Mother Goddess, worship of linga and yoni, the concept of the duality of the Male and Female principles of creation, and the practice of Yoga. All these elements were components of an undifferentiated religious and ritualistic complex, which subsequently came to be known as Tantra, already existed, many others were successfully absorbed and some others unsuccessfully tried to become legitimized by the sacred texts. Numerous rituals mainly sexual in character, designed to secure the fertility of fields, are recognized in the Vedas. For them, ingenious explanations were offered later on. Practices like māraṇa, vaśīkaraṇa, etc. are distinctly mentioned in the different parts of the Vedic literature. Many of the ātharvaṇika practices of witchcraft are almost identical to similar practices of the Tantras.
According to Anāgārika Govinda also, the influence of Tantric Buddhism upon Hinduism was so profound that up to the present day the majority of Western scholars have labored under the impression that Tantra is a Hinduistic creation which was taken over later by more or less decadent Buddhist schools. He asserts: “To declare Buddhist Tantra as an offshoot of Shaivism is only possible for those who have no first-hand knowledge of Tantric literature.”
The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, possibly the earliest Vaipulyasūtra, which contains many elements of the Mantrayāna, does not know the third turning of the Wheel of Law, although it is aware of śrīparvata and Dhānyakaṭaka as the centers for earliest known Buddhist Tantra. The Tantric Buddhists attribute a number of sādhanās and mantras to Gautama Buddha and make a Tantrika of the first order going to the extent that he had discovered himself the great truth that the Buddhahood abides in the female organ and had delivered the secret discourse while enjoying the blissful state with the vajrayoginI. But the Tantric sādhanās cannot be regarded as Buddha’s creations or revelations. As pointed out by Wintemitz there is no proof to believe in the existence of Tantras, maṇḍalas, and dhāraṇīs in the age of Buddha. The Buddha discouraged superstition and blind faith and encouraged the spirit of critical inquiry. The Kēvaṭṭa Sutta shows that he was not in favor of magical and superhuman feats, and regarded these as black arts. In the Brahmajāla Sutta, a long list of pseudo-sciences is given which the Buddha apparently condemned as low arts.
A comparison of the Hindu Tantras with those of Buddhism not only shows an astonishing divergence of methods and aims, in spite of both these views. We feel that the question of the priority of Buddhist Tantra over Brahminical Tantra should not be raised at all because both of them developed concomitantly out of the seeds which are traced to the religious ideas of the pre-Buddhist period.
The first main characteristic feature of Tantric Buddhism is the use of mantras. Actually, mantras are so fundamental for Tantric Buddhism that in its primary it is often called Mantrayāna. The term mantra means a hymn or prayer sacred to a deity; it is also understood to mean a spell, a charm or an incantation. A mantra is a symbol. This pram symbolizes the Prajñāpāramitā. A mantra often symbolically represents a deity or even Reality. The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa is full of mantras and their merits. The Guhyasamāja and the Hēvajra Tantra each devote a whole chapter to mantracaryā.
The mantras appear to have developed from dhāraṇīs. The dhāraṇīs are found quoted in several early Mahāyāna texts. A number of manuscripts discovered in Gilgit and assignable on paleographical grounds to A.D. five and six centuries contain dhāraṇīs and mantras. The contents of the texts are obviously older than their script. The Karaṇḍavyūha attributes a dhāraṇī to the Buddha. The Laṅkāvatāra contains many magical and mystic aspects of the syllables.
Besides the mantras, a vast and varied pantheon is another characteristic feature of Tantric Buddhism. Although the Mahāyānists had been worshipping Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, some demi-gods, and a number of deified sages since long, yet the further evolution of a well-classified Buddhist pantheon may well be attributed to the Tantric phase of Buddhism. In the Tantric Buddhist texts is usually given an elaborate discussion on complex liturgy, iconography, and theology of the Dhyānī Buddhas (Akṣōbhya, Vairōcana, Amitābha, Ratnasambhava, and Amōghasiddhi). Each of them is associated with one śakti or female counterpart with a color, a skandha, a vehicle, a particular direction, and location in the human body.
The śakti-worship is the raison d’etre of Tantra. According to some scholars, the main difference between Brahminical and Buddhist Tantra is that the latter is not Shaktism. The concept of divine power, of the creative female aspect of Shiva, does not play any role in Buddhism. To the Buddhists, śakti is māyā, the illusion from which only prajnā can liberate us. But we fail to agree with this observation. The Buddhists emphasize śakti-sāhacarya as much as the Hindus do and even believe that the Sakyamuni had himself discovered that the Buddhahood abides in the female and had delivered the secret doctrine while in the blissful state with the Vajrayōginī.
In Tantric Buddhism, the supreme Reality is often described as the Unity of prajnā (Wisdom) and upāya (Means); it is the Non-Dual, Two-in-One, the state of final realization. Prajnā is the same as śūnyatā (voidness) and upāya is the same as karuṇā (compassion); these two terms are very well-known to Mahāyāna sūtra. Bodhisattva is the embodiment of both wisdom and compassion; by means of Prajnāpāramitā or Transcendental Gnosis, he realizes the voidness of the phenomenal things and knows that this samsāra is ephemeral and miserable. Out of karuṇā or compassion, he endeavors for the salvation of suffering beings.
In Tantric Buddhism, nirvāṇa is envisaged as Mahāsukha. That is to say, the ultimate Reality is of the nature of Great Bliss – supreme bliss among all forms of bliss. Mahāsukha is the essential nature of the final Truth. It is the state of unity of śūnyatā and karuṇā or prajnā and upāya; Mahāsukha is prajnōpāya, the non-dual fusion of wisdom and means. Mahāsukha is the wisdom of all the Tathāgatas, and by nature is self-knowable (sva-samvēdya). It is described negatively also. Thus Saraha says that Mahāsukha is essenceless (niḥsvabhāva), indescribable (akatha), and devoid of self and not-self.
Tantric Buddhism assumed several forms and produced several schools. As noted above its earliest stage is usually called Mantrayāna. Strictly speaking, the Mantrayāna concerns itself with mantras and yantras and includes such things as dhāranīs (memorized prayers), mAlA mantras (garland of charms), hr̥daya mantras (short charms), etc. It believes that mystic forces are generated by the recitation of mantras and that, with the help of these mystic forces, the worshipper can obtain whatever he desires, such as wealth, victory, siddhis, and even mukti.
The yantras are related to mantras because a yantra cannot bestow any power unless the akṣaras of appropriate mantras are placed at their appropriate places in it. The āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa, the Guhyasamāja Tantra and the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka are full of mantras and dharaṇīs and as these were composed in the second or third century A.D. or thereabouts, as a school Mantrayāna is regarded as old as the time of Nāgārjuna.
In the Guhyasamāja, there is an account of the phenomenal world, which is said to have emanated from the original Tathāgata. The five skandhas of the early Buddhists, as also the impurities, like rāga, dvēṣa, and moha, are personified as so many Buddhas, issuing out of the original Tathāgata. Hence the source of all the Buddhas is the vajra, which is identical with śūnyatā or the Reality. But in the Vajrayāna, śūnaytā is something positive (which Indrabhūti takes as Mahāsukha, while Anaṅgavajra defines it as prajnōpāya). Being characterless, the vajra is incapable of leading us to the Truth; therefore from time to time it converts itself into kāya-vāk-citta-vajra and teaches the way that is Vajrayāna (the adamantine or diamond path).
Thus, the Vajrayānists accept the Yōgācāra view about the three kāyas of the Buddha and like the Mādhyamikas, identify śūnyatā or Vajra with samsāra. The Vajrayāna sādhakas were taught that excreta, urine, etc. are not different from any good food; nor any woman, whether woman or a sister or other’s wife or a girl of low caste, from any other enjoyable woman. Though hideous in many respects, the Vajrayāna made many contributions to Buddhism. Some Hindus were also impressed by its doctrines, deities, mantras, sādhanās, etc. It introduced elements of yoga into ordinary worship, gave a regular system of mantras and produced an exquisite art.
The idea of Siddhi (psychic and supernatural power) is common to all Indian religious systems. The Brahminical texts speak of eight siddhis. The Buddhist texts speak of ten kinds of powers (iddhi, rddhi, or abhijnā) such as to project a mind-made image of oneself, to become invisible, to pass through solid things such as a wall, to penetrate solid ground as if it were water, to walk on water, to fly through the air, to touch sun and moon, to ascend into the highest heavens, etc.
The Buddhist Tantrics, who flourished between the eighth and twelfth centuries, developed the theory of eighty-four Siddhas, who had attained supernatural powers through the practice of yoga. The Varṇāratnākara of fourteenth-century mentions them while the Tibetan sources give a systematic biographical sketch of each of them. According to some scholars, the list of eighty-four Siddhas has no historical value. They argue that on account of the mystic implication of the number eighty-four so many names, whether fictitious or historical, have been put together to make up a list. But it is also a fact that many teachers mentioned in this list were actual personages, known in the Buddhist world of those days for their learning and spiritual attainments.
As regards the dates of the various Siddhas, the first of them namely Luhi-pa was, in all likelihood, the same as Matsyēndranātha of other traditions, who flourished about the beginning of the tenth century A.D. Siddha Nāgārjuna lived in the tenth century, as Charpaṭi also belonged to about the same time. Tilōpa was a contemporary of king Mahīpāla I of Bengal (988-1038) and Naropa was his disciple. Jalandhara-pa and Kanho-pa lived also about the middle of the eleventh century. Thus the most famous Siddhācāryas belonged to the tenth and eleventh centuries though some of them probably flourished in the twelfth.
The general trend of the teachings of the Siddhācāryas was Tantric. Nobody, except a qualified guru, was allowed to initiate the disciple in the mysteries of their sādhanā. The guru had to find out the special spiritual aptitude of the disciple and suggest to him the mode of sādhanā most suitable for him. Kula symbolized the special spiritual learning of a disciple. There were five such kulas, technically called ḍōmbī, Naṭī, Rajakī, Chāṇḍālī, and Brāhmaṇī. The nature of these kulas was determined by the five skandhas or the essences of the five basic elements (mahābhūtas). The five kulas are thus five aspects of prajnā. The śakti assumes five different forms according to the predominance of each of the five skandhas.
The Siddha sādhanā involved the practice of a new form of yoga developed by the Siddhācāryas. According to it, there are thirty-two nerve channels (nāḍī) within the body. The psychic energy, which has its seat below the nābhi, flows up into the top-most station within the head called Mahāsukhasthāna through these channels. Various names are given to the nāḍīs such as lalanā, rasanā, avadhūtī, pravaṇā, kṣaṇarūpiṇī, sāmānyā, pāvakī, sumanā, kāminī, etc. There are also a number of other stations, called either lotuses or wheels, within the body. They are compared with the places of pilgrimage like Uḍḍiyāna, Jālandhara, Pūrṇagiri, and Kāmarūpa.
The ultimate goal of sādhanā is the attainment of the state of Sahaja which is one of great blissfulness, without beginning and without end, free from duality. In this state the sādhaka finds himself to be the sole reality, identical with the universe, identical with the Buddha. The attainment of the highest goal also meant certain physical perfections. Therefore a good deal of emphasis was placed on the kāya-sādhanā involving trans-substantiation of the body.
Later followers of the Siddhācāryas carried it to the extreme and concerned themselves only with the means of attaining a perfect, changeless and imperishable body that would help them to live long. It could be attained in various ways, the most important of them being an upward movement of the Bodhichitta (semen virile).
The cultivation of the Bodhichitta was related to certain alchemical practices. Nāgārjuna was famous for introducing alchemy in matters of sādhanā. The Siddhācāryas introduced many other innovations in spiritual exercises, but at present, it is difficult to follow them on account of the symbolic character of the language in which they are described.
Nātha cult derived its inspiration from Vajrayāna and the eighty-four Siddhas. The propounders of the Nātha school seem to have adopted the teachings of the Buddhist Tantras into Hindu thought. Actually, Tantra proved to be a great synthesizing force and the synthesis of Shaivism and Buddhism is best reflected in the Nātha sect.
The Nāthas were originally nine in number. Sometimes they are included in the list of the eighty-four Siddhas of the Buddhists. The Nāthas introduced many new theories in the sphere of haṭha yoga and yoga which were different from those propounded in the Tantras. During the middle of the seventh-century Nātha sect became popular through the teaching and mystic songs of the eighty-four Siddhas. It traveled to Nepal and Tibet and tantric works were translated into Tibetan. Some of its works also traveled to China and are now found in their Chinese translations.
The Vajrayāna also gave rise to several later yānas such as the Sahajayāna and Kālacakrayāna. The Sahajayāna is believed to have started with Saraha. By Sahajayāna he meant easy path. According to him, perfection can be attained while eating, drinking, and merry-making. It implied rejection of religious formalities for attaining nirvāṇa.
Lakṣmīṅkarā Dēvī (729), the sister of King Indrabhūti of Uḍḍiyāna, was another famous Sahajayānist. She declared in her Advayasiddhi that no suffering, fasting, rites, bathing purification, or obedience to the rules of society are necessary for the purpose of obtaining emancipation. It is useless to bow down before the images of gods which are made of wood, stone or mud. The worshipper should offer worship only to his own body where all gods reside. The movement exerted great influence on Vaishnavism also.
The Kālacakrayāna seems to be a later development of the Vajrayāna. According to the Kālacakra Tantra and its commentary Vimalaprabhā written by Puṇḍarīka, kāla or time is a phenomenal expression of karuṇā and chakra is the world of objects. Kālacakra is a fierce deity, an embodiment of shūnyatā and karuṇā, embraced by the śakti or prajnā. Thus Kālacakrayāna represents the philosophical conception of advaya or non-duality, a union of prajnā and upāya.
Kālacakra is regarded as the ādibuddha or the progenitor even of the Buddhas, that is to say, the Dhyānī Buddhas. The doctrine that in one’s own body, the whole world is manifest has a resemblance with the doctrines of the Sahajayāna and Nātha sects. The system became popular in the eastern and Himalayan regions.