History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.25

v7.c92.25

There is hardly any evidence of the translations of Chinese or Tibetan works into Sanskrit. Besides, the three great Chinese travellers never refer to the study of Buddhist Tantras in India. Watters on 'Yuan Chwang's Travels in India' vol. I p. 360 narrates a story from the pilgrim's life that when he left Ayodhyā in a boat and proceeded east down the Ganges, thugs that looted the boat decided to sacrifice him to Durgā but that the Chinese pilgrim was saved by a hurricane which put the thugs in terror, who released him and treated him with reverence Vide also 'In the Footsteps of Buddha' by René Grousset pp 133-135 for this incident. We see that there is evidence of the prevalence of Tāntrik and Śākta worship in India long before the 7th century A. D. There is hardly any evidence of any Buddhist Tāntrik work before 650 A D. except perhaps the Guhyasamājatantra and Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, both of which contain late elements. In this way, presumption and chronology are both against borrowing by Hinduism from Buddhist Tibetan or Chinese Tāntrik works Vide 'Tibet past and present' by Sir Charles Bell (1924) pp 23, 25, 29, Sardar K. M. Panikkar's work 'India and China' (1957) p. 70, 'Introduction of the alphabet in Tibet' by M M Dr Satischandra who holds that it was borrowed from Magadha in 7th Century A. D., that show that a written script based on an Indian alphabet as prevalent in Kashmir was first introduced about 640 A. D., that the Tāntrik Buddhist Padmasambhava was summoned from Uddiyāna by a Tibetan king Ti-son De-tson (749-786 A. D ) on the recommendation of Sāntaraksita Bodhisattva and was induced to settle in Tibet Bunjiu Nanjio's 'Catalogue of Tripitaka' (Oxford, 1883), appendix II. p. 445 No 155 shows that Amoghavajra translated many works between 746 and 771 A. D., died in 774 A D. and that it was under his influence that Tantra doctrines gained currency in China. It is clear from the works of Bāṇa as detailed later on that worship of Caṇḍikā with wine and flesh was prevalent in India long before 600 A. D, that Śrīparvata was famed for its tāntrik *siddhis*, that Śivasamhitās existed, that japa of mantras a crore of times in a cemetery was supposed to confer *siddhis*, that he 14th of the dark half of a month was deemed the proper *tithi* for japa and black magic. Therefore, it is most likely that Śākta or Tāntrik doctrines were taken to China and Tibet from India and not *vice versa* Prof P. V Bapat in '2500 years of Buddhism' (pp. 360-376) follows (at p. 363) Dr. B. Bhattacharya and tries to prove that Tibetan Tāntrism is earlier than Hindu Tāntrism, but his arguments like those of Dr. Bhattacharya do not carry conviction at all. Dr. A. S. Altekar in his paper on Sanskrit Literature in Tibet (ABORI. vol. 35 pp. 54-66) shows how Buddhism entered into Tibet in the reign of Strong-Tsan-Gampo (637-693 A. D.), that about 750 A D :Padmasambhava from Orissa and Vairocana from Kashmir were pioneers and how about 4500 works were translated into Tibetan.