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The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c16.t1: 1. Mahācīnatārā

The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c16.t1

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1. Mahācīnatārā

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Asana—Pratyālīḍha Vāhana—Corpse Appearance—Terrible Arms—Four

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Two Sādhanas are devoted to the worship of Mahācīnatārā or Tārā of Mahācīna (Great China) and two Dhyānas, one in prose and the other in verse describe one and the same form of the goddess. She is also known in Buddhist Tāntric literature as Ugratārā, and the Vajrayogini temple at Śāṅku in Nepal, contains in the sanctum a figure of Ugratārā. This Ugratārā or Mahācīnatārā of the Buddhists has been incorporated in the Hindu pantheon under the name of Tārā, and is now regarded as one of the ten Mahāvidyā goddesses. The Dhyāna in the Sādhanamālā describes her form in the following verses:

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“Pratyālīḍhapadāṁ ghorāṁ muṇḍamālāpralambitāṁ I
Kharvalambodarāṁ bhīmāṁ nīlanīrajarājitāṁ II
Tryambakaikamukhāṁ divyāṁ ghorāṭṭahāsabhāsurāṁ I
Suprahṛṣṭāṁ śavārūḍhāṁ nāgāṣṭakavibhūṣitāṁ II
Raktavarttutanetrāñca vyāghracarmāvṛtāṁ kaṭau I
Navayauvanasampannāṁ pañcamudrāvibhūṣitāṁ II
Lalajjihvāṁ mahābhīmāṁ sadamṣṭroṭkaṭabhīṣaṇāṁ I
Khaḍgakartrikarāṁ savye vāmotpalkapaladhāṁ II
Piṅgograikaṭaṭāṁ dhyāyāt maulāv-Akṣobhyabhūṣitāṁ II
Mahācīnatārā-Sādhanam”. Sādhanamālā, p. 210

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“The worshipper should conceive himself as (Mahācīna-Tārā) who stands in the Pratyālīḍha attitude, and is awe-inspiring with a garland of heads hanging from the neck. She is short and has a protruding belly, and her looks are terrible. Her complexion is like that of the blue lotus, and she is three-eyed, one-faced, celestial and laughs horribly. She is in an intensely pleasant mood, stands on a corpse, is decked in ornaments of snakes, has red and round eyes, wears the garments of tiger-skin round her loins, is in youthful bloom, is endowed with the five suspicious symbols, and has a protruding tongue. She is most terrible, appears fierce, with bare canine fangs, carries the sword and the Kartri in the two right hands and the Uptala and the Kapāla in the two left. Her Jaṭāmukuṭa of one coil is brown and fiery and bears the image of Akṣobhya within it.”

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This is the Dhyāna in the Sādhanamālā, the earliest manuscript of which belongs to A. D. 1165. According to the colophon, the Sādhana for Mahācīnatārā has been restored from the Mahācīna-Tantra, which should therefore be earlier than the earliest extant manuscript of the Sādhanamālā. As the Sādhana in verse is attributed to Śāśvatavajra it is certain that the Dhyāna, just quoted, was not in existence before Śāśvatavajra. Now, in the Tārārahasya of Brahmānanda, who flourished in the middle of the 16th century and in the Tantrasāra of Kṛṣṇānanda Āgamavāgīśa an almost identical Dhyāna is stated describing a goddess of the name of Tārā :

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“Pratyālīḍhapadāṁ muṇḍamālāvibhūṣitāṁ I
Kharvāṁ lambodarīṁ bhīmāṁ vyāghracarmāvṛtāṁ kaṭau II
Navayauvanasampannāṁ pañcamudrāvibhūṣitāṁ I
Chaturbhujāṁ lolajihvāṁ mahābhīmāṁ varapradāṁ II
Khaḍgakartrisāmyukta-savyetarabhujadvayāṁ I
Kapālotpalasamyuktasavyapāṇiyugānvitāṁ II
Piṅgoraikajaṭāṁ dhyāyenmaulāv-Akṣobhyabhūṣitāṁ I
Bālārkamaṇḍalākāralocanatrayabhūṣitāṁ II
Jalaccitāmadhyagatāṁ ghoradaṁṣṭrāṁ karālinīṁ I
Sāveśasmeravadanāṁ stryalaṅkāravibhūṣitāṁ II
Viśvavyāpakatoyāntaḥ śvetapadmoparisthitāṁ I
Akṣobhyadevīmūrdhanyastrīmūrtināgarūpadhṛk” II

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Tantrasāra, p. 415 et sqq.

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A comparison of the two Dhyānas will at once reveal how the original composition of Śāśvatavajra has been modified in the Tantrasāra by a Hindu Tāntric author. Some lines have been added to the original Dhyāna and all grammatical errors are rectified. This is evidently the recognized method of Hinduizing a Buddhist Tāntric deity.

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It is remarkable that the Hindus retained in their Dhyāna the effigy of Akṣobhya bespeaking as it does, the Buddhist origin of the goddess, for it is well known that the Hindu gods or goddesses are not in the habit of wearing a miniature figure of their sires on the crown. Moreover, Akṣobhya is unknown in the Hindu pantheon except when he is borrowed from the Buddhists, and the Hindus fail to explain the desirability of putting his figure on the crown of Tārā.

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Figs. 135, 136 illustrate the Buddhist form of Tārā or Mahācīnatārā, and shows in what different forms she is represented in Nepal in modern times. It may be pointed out that the corpse under the feet of the Hindu Tārā is not a corpse properly speaking, but it is the prostrate form of Mahādeva to whom she is attached as a Śakti.

Cites (3)