The University of Nalanda c10.191

c10.191

Some scholars believe that *Sukhāvatīvyūha*, *Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa*, *Kāraṇḍavyūha*, etc., are the earliest works which speak of Tāntric practices.⁵ It is, however, in the *Guhyasamāja* that we find the full and complete statement of Tāntrism. It is here that we meet with a systematic treatment of the Mantras, with the theory of *Karuṇā* (and how it was used by the Bodhisattvas to get emancipation for the people by the practice of five *makāras* and other prohibited rites),—with a full explanation of the theory of Dhyāni Buddhas⁶—which was in a sense the central theme of Tāntrism,—and many other details which are associated with Tāntrism.