【Abstract】 Cundā in the Sādhanamālā

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 59. 1996, pp. 472-493, 1996

The Delhi University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2014

Tantra has been integral part of several ancient Indic–religious traditions. Its roots are very old, presumably as old as the Mohenjodaro civilization. All of the tantra traditions had a live engagement with the feminine divine. Like other religions in India, Buddhism too has an affiliation with female divinities. The Vajrayāna tradition especially is pervaded with a diverse range of feminine imagery. In Buddhist tantra the symbolism of tantric goddesses and their practices is backed by profound philosophical doctrines. However, unlike other religious tradition, the non–theistic framework of Buddhism does not consider the intrinsic existence of tantric goddesses and their appearance and practices are meant to serve the purpose of transcending all sorts of dualistic thoughts for attaining enlightenment. This paper inquires into the evolution of tantra in different religious traditions in general, and in Buddhism in particular. The focal point of the discussion is the practices of goddesses in Buddhist tantra. The interaction and influence of other religious traditions on Buddhism too is pointed out. On the one hand this paper explores textual sources for explaining abstract appearances and unusual practices associated with tantric goddesses and on the other, the functional aspects of tantric goddesses in ancient religious settings. The neo–orientalist interpretation of tantra as given by Western scholars is examined to point out their misinterpretations of tantric symbols and rituals. After documenting some of the diverse traditions of goddesses within tantric cults, this paper makes an effort to find harmony between the overlapping layers of popular belief– and the profound philosophy of Buddhist tantrism.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Delhi, Delhi, 2018

Our present understanding of Buddhist tantra, which has been handed down to us through the university courses, expresses several pathetic fallacies about its doctrines. These fallacies exist mostly because of the prevalent ignorance about insider's perspective on Buddhists tantra. It is not by just scholarly speculations and assumptions − ignoring the rhetoric presented by the tradition itself − we can hope to understand the erudite hermeneutics and sophisticated tenets of Buddhism. At the most, a superficial grasp of Buddhist doctrine has been achieved in the past research conducted in the field of Buddhist Studies. Generally, these studies have approached Buddhism with non-committal and frivolous objectivity. This paper aims to raise some crucial issues related to the colonial interpretation of the scholastic doctrines of Mahayana and Tantra systems of Buddhism and its present-day socio-religious implications. It discusses at length how the problematic periodization of Buddhist tantric texts and the frivolous interpretation of practices of tantra have crept into the academia, first through the Orientalist scholars and later on by their Indian adherents, who approached to it either with ulterior motives or with their outsiders’ version of onlooker scholarship. It must be noted that the all-embracing nature of Buddhism has always allowed different world-views under its overarching canopy. We need to recognize that it has never been a question of Buddhist schools competing with one another or with other philosophical systems; rather they convey different orders of world-view based on the practitioners’ capacity and aspirations. Further, it is absurd to contemplate the legends and fables of the tantric treatise that are set in the environs of the Buddha’s teachings as mere “literature”. As Ananda K. Coomaraswamy has pointed out, “the Dhamma cannot be understood apart from its application.”

智山学報（Journal of Chisan Buddhist Studies）, 2019

Kambala＇s Sādhananidhi ("An Ocean of Sādhana Practices") is a commentary on the Herukābhidhānatantra, the oldest tantra (compiled sometime between the 9th and 10th centuries) of the Buddhist Cakrasaṃvara (or -śaṃvara) tradition.

Proceedings of the 17th World Sanskrit Conference (Vancouver, 2018), 2020

Buddhist-Christian Studies, 2018

Journal of Hindu Studies, 2024

The incorporation of the goddess Tārā into the Hindu pantheon appears to have begun around the turn of the first millennium, a couple of centuries after her first mentions in Buddhist sources. The earliest Hindu texts concerned with Tārā tend to acknowledge this through a narrative wherein the Vedic sage Vasiṣṭha must travel to 'Greater China' to learn from the Buddha how to propitiate the goddess properly through the violation of brāhmaṇical purity codes for which Indian tantric traditions are infamous. Over time her 'foreign' associations faded, narratives linking Tārā to sites in Assam and Bengal became more prominent, and her worship drew closer to regional Hindu orthopraxy. This essay tracks the latter stages of that process especially through a reading of early modern ritual manuals in Sanskrit before considering a more recent revival of interest in the Hindu Tārā's Buddhist connections as shown in Bengali sources and fieldwork.

Indo Nordic Author's Collective, 2021

The sages of India conceived a comprehensive picture of the reality of all forms of creation which are also manifestations of the Supreme Consciousness. They also understood that the almighty consciousness gave birth in the process of creation to numerous gods and goddesses. Each god has a distinct purpose to fulfill. The tantra sastra similarly, teaches that apart from the material world in which we live, there exist other worlds and universe. The Supreme Godhead controls these systems through the medium of a hierarchy of gods and goddesses (devatas). These entities exist in various planes on the rising tier of consciousness. These devatas help man in his uphill journey of liberation. The tantra developed this line with an eye on practical utility and this spiritual science is acclaimed as a great sadhana sastra or practical science. The concept of Sri Chakra Though the Supreme Consciousness is formless, nameless or timeless, in manifestation it has to limit itself to a form. The formless great radiance has to radiate rays of definite forms and channels them as the various gods thus creating out of ONE, MANY with specific and distinguishable forms ad features. These lines of light create the form-patterns of the goods which are known as yantra or charkas. A yantra is an instrument, a machine or a storehouse of power. It contains rather, in itself in a controlled form, the uncontrollable power of the deity. Tantrics believe that by worshipping the charka of a deity, the worshipper realizes the same deity or in other words he merges with it. Mandala an important aspect of a yantra which is frequently drawn or made with powders of various colours. The mandala is used in the case of any deity whereas the charka is intended for a specific deity. In south India it is a practice in most of the homes to draw a mandala in front of the house every morning to bring in auspiciousness and to ward off evil. The Tamil word for mandala is kolam (guise), as it contains in disguise the divine power. The mandala employed in tantra is no decorative imagery for a ritual. It provides a potent Pages 289 - 291 material focus for the operation of subtler forces within and without. The Chakra like the mantra leads one to direct perception of the Divine form and that is the reason why so much emphasis is given to the Chakra in tantric worship. In the Chakra are caught the lines of beauty, harmony and symmetry on which the eternal geometrician fashions the universe. And they are therefore, drawn with lines, triangles, circles and squares. All these are symbolic. The Symbolism The circle represents the principles with no beginning and no end. The triangle represents the triple principles of creation, the lower triple worlds as well as higher. It points out to the one that is threefold, the yoni, the origin of all matter. A triangle with apex turned up indicates a broad – based one – pointed aspiration rising from the depths to the heights. In tantric paralance it is called vahni kona, the cone of fire. This is the fire of aspiration which is ever burning in the heart of the worshipper and which carries (vah=to bear) on its crest his surrender to the Divine. The triangle with apex downwards in Sakti, the grace of the Divine Mother. The well-known satkona formed by superimposition of a triangle with apex downwards over a triangle with apex upwards signifies a rising aspiration and a responding grace, the ascent of the being and the descent of the deity or in other words the dynamic Sakti superimposing on the heart of the static and supine Siva. The lotus flower signifies the gradual unfolding of the latent powers in the being. When the Chakra is conceived as the material manifestation of the Deity, all the emanations of the Deity are also conceived as stationed in the Chakra. The main deity (pradhan) takes abode in the centre of the Chakra while its emanations gather round the pradhana as the parivara devats. Worship is done to the parivars and then to the pradhana. The Sri Chakra is a configuration of nine triangles, five triangles with apex downwards superimposed on four triangles with apex upwards. It consists of nine chakras. There are nine Chakreshwaris, nine classes of yoginis and nine mudras. Like the ninefold of Sri Chakra, the mantra is also nine fold as it contains only nine letters. The masters are nine in number. The human body has nine apertures. Therefore, an identity is sought to be established between Pages 289 - 291 the Chakra, Deity, Mantra, Guru and the sadhaka’s body. Sri Chakra is most auspicious and worshipped to get all the auspicious things in life, finally culminating in the attainment of liberation. It is also worshipped for the “six acts” viz., appeasement, attraction, stoppage, enemity, removal and death. The techniques for these specialized acts are described in various tantric texts. CONCLUSION The tantra deems it essential to inculcate the doctrine that no worship of the Deity is complete without the worship of the Deity’s body in a material image-an idol or a picture or some symbol in the physical world. Inner worship leads one on the path of yoga and knowledge.