An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism c3: Preface
An Introduction to Tāntric Buddhism c3
- Language
- English
Preface
c3.1
The present work embodies substantially the thesis submitted by the author, and approved, for the Premchand Roychand Studentship of the University of Calcutta in 1937. Due to the abnormal conditions prevailing in the Country during and after the World War II, the author could not arrange to have his work published earlier, it is being published after a lapse of twelve years—an Indian Yuga. Though very late, the author feels it a duty to bring before the reading public the fruits of his labour in the hope that they may be of some use and interest to those who find pleasure in making an academic study of a religious subject.
c3.2
Whether Vedic or Non-Vedic in origin, Tāntricism, both Brahmanical and Buddhistic, represents a special aspect of the religious and cultural life of India. A thorough study of Tāntricism is, therefore, indispensable for a close acquaintance with the special quality of the Indian mind. For a long time it was customary to hold that Tāntricism is an off-shoot of Hinduism, or that it constitutes only a particular phase of Hindu Sādhanā; but researches in later Buddhism have now brought home that, so far as the extant literature is concerned, the stock of Tāntric literature is richer and more varied in the domain of Buddhism than in that of Hinduism. Much more, it is hoped, may be recovered or reconstructed from the Tibetan and Chinese sources. Thanks to the scholarly endeavour of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, which has published a number of important Buddhist Tāntric texts and made them available to the scholar and the general reader.
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Tāntricism, whether Hindu or Buddhistic, (and we shall presently see that they are fundamentally the same) has been the target of all sorts of criticism, charitable and uncharitable, from scholars, both Oriental and Occidental. It has often been styled as a school of religious mysticism, where the word mysticism is taken, more often than not, as a loose synonym for puzzling obscurity. The present author has, however, tried to keep his mind open as far as practicable throughout the whole study. His interest has mainly been academic and cultural. He has studied a considerable number of texts, both published and unpublished, gathered information, analysed and classified them and has then tried to give a correct exposition on textual basis, avoiding personal observations and judgment as far as possible. There are many things in the practices of the Tāntrikas which are undoubtedly unconventional; the author has tried to exhibit them without offering any apology or advocacy. If errors have crept in, in the form of mis-statement or misinterpretation, they are due mainly to the fact that ancient religious literature, embodying complicated practices and subtle realisation, may not be deciphered properly by "our modern spectacled eyes."
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The inspiration of the author came from another source. It is known to all students of the Modern Indian Languages that the literature of the early period—particularly in Bengali—comprises a number of songs and Dohās, dealing with the tenets of the Tāntric Buddhists. To understand and appreciate the meaning of these songs and Dohās the Tāntric background must be clearly understood. The present study was an attempt towards that direction. This study brought to the notice of the author many new and interesting facts which led him to pursue his study further and the findings of further researches in this direction have been incorporated in his book, *Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature* (published in 1946 by the University of Calcutta).
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As the number of published texts on Tāntric
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Buddhism is very scanty, the author had to collect his materials mainly from unpublished manuscripts. As there is no possibility of many of these texts being published in the near future, the author has deemed it proper to quote copiously from these manuscripts to illustrate his points and to substantiate his generalisations. This, the author hopes, will give the reader a better opportunity for making his own judgment and also for testing the validity of the statements made and conclusions arrived at. Because of the obscure nature of the topics discussed the author had to re-introduce some of them in different contexts, which made some amount of repetition unavoidable.
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A few words should be said about the manuscripts, most of which are preserved in the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, some in the Central Library, Boroda, some in the library of the Cambridge University, some in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Except the manuscripts preserved in the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, all the other manuscripts were available to the present writer in rotograph through the courtesy of Dr. S. N. Dasgupta, M.A., Ph.D. (Cal. & Cantab.), D. Lit. (Rome), the then Principal of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta. Apart from the fact that the manuscripts, scribed on palm-leaves, or indigenous hand-made paper in Newari (old Nepalese script), the texts are full of corruptions. Further, the texts were not composed in strictly correct and elegant Sanskrit. The metre is often defective; words are sometimes used without proper suffix; wrong forms are used in analogy; *sandhi* is not treated as essential; pseudo-Sanskritic words have crept in due probably to the influence of the Vernaculars. Because of all these the author has not thought it wise to tamper with the reading of the manuscripts in the form of corrections. Corrections have been made or suggested only in cases where the mistake or the corruption has been palpable. As for transcription, the author has experienced some typographical difficulty and a few words had to be left unmarked or without proper marking.
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The author acknowledges his indebtedness to his predecessors, who have worked in the field. The nature and extent of such indebtedness have always been indicated in foot-notes. Reference of manuscripts include the folio number and the serial number in the libraries or institutions where they are preserved.
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THE AUTHOR.