History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.9

v7.c92.9

It is difficult to determine the exact¹⁶⁶⁴ time when the word tantra came to be employed in the sense in which it is used in the so-called tantra literature nor is it possible to decide what people first introduced tantra principles and practices or where they first arose M. M. Haraprasad Shastri was inclined to hold that the principles and practices of tantra came to India from outside and he relies mainly on a verse in the Kubjikāmatatantra¹⁶⁶⁵ which says 'go thou to the country of Bhārata for exercising dominance on all sides and bring about new creation in various ways in *pīṭhas*, *upapīṭhas* and *kṣetras*'. With all respect to that great scholar it has to be said that the passage does not affirm that tantra principles were then unknown in India and were first introduced in Bhārata after that verse was uttered. That passage could very well have been uttered even when tantra practices had already taken hold of people's minds in India and the reference to pithas and ksetras (in the verse) clearly indicates that what is meant is only a record of an existing fact, just as the Purāṇas speak in a prophetic vein about what is past. It is possible that a few mystic practices of *Kulācāra* or *Vāmācāra* owe their origin to foreign elements or sources But the one verse on which M. M. H. P Shastri relied is far too inadequate for proving this. The Rudrayāmala (ed. by Jīvananda, 1892) contains a panegyric of the Atharvaveda (17th patala, verse 4), saying that all gods, all beings (on land, in water and air), all sages, Kāmavidyā and Mahāvidyā dwell in it; verses 10-17 dwell upon the mysterious Kuṇḍalinī, verses 31 ff dilate upon Yogic practices and six *cakras* in the body, verses 51-53 mention Kāmarūpa, Jālandhara, Pūrṇagiri, Uddiyāna, and a few others as Kālikā pīṭhas. Bagchi (in 'Studies in Tantra' pp 45-55) adduces some evidence of foreign elements in the tāntrik doctrines. The Rudrayāmala¹⁶⁶⁶ (17th Patala, verses 119-125) states that Mahāvidyā appeared to sage Vasiṣṭha and asked him to go to Cīnadeśa and Buddha, who is said to have taught Vasiṣṭha the Kaula path, Yoga practices for the attainment of siddhis (extraordinary powers) and directed him to make use of five *makāras* (*madya* &c.) in his *sādhanā* for becoming a perfect Yogin. All this shows that pīṭhas flourished in India when the Rudrayāmala was composed, that Tāntrik practices had grown in China or Tibet and that Buddha was deemed to have taught those practices, which is a libel and a vile travesty of Buddha's noble teaching.