The University of Nalanda c10.180

c10.180

With a view to find easy acceptance among the people for these views—which were in a sense against the teaching of primaeval Buddhism—their propounders found out a novel way. They preached them in the form of Saṅgītis.³ Almost all Tantras are in this form and are said to have been delivered by Buddha in an Assembly of the Faithful. Thus in a secret yet in a way that was believed to be authoritative, the Tantras and their many practices—good and bad—were handed down from the guru to the śiṣya, till they gradually crept in among the people.