The University of Nalanda c10.200

c10.200

"The Mantras", as Dr. Bhattacharyya has rightly said, "constitute the back-bone of Tāntric worship and of Vajrayāna". They are of innumerable varieties, such as Bīja, Hṛdaya, Pūjā, etc. Mostly they are meaningless syllables. We can hardly say with certainty who introduced these in Buddhism, though Vajrayānists attribute their promulgation to Buddha himself. Whoever be the originator, it seems that the Mantras of Vajrayāna are a development of the Dhāraṇīs. According to Kern, these Dhāraṇīs seemed to have been introduced into Buddhism for the benefit of the less cultured followers who did not care so much for the Nirvāṇa as they did for the material prosperity in this world. We can trace the evolution of the Mantras from the Dhāraṇīs and even earlier works by examining only one Tāntric work, namely, Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. This voluminous work was first reduced to the Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra. The Sūtra was further reduced to the Prajñāpāramitā Dhāraṇī. From the Dhāraṇī we had a Prajñāpāramitā Mantra. But even this small Mantra was substituted by the conception of a Bīja in one syllable 'Pram' in response to which the Śūnya transformed itself in the form of the goddess Prajñāpāramitā. "The origin of the Tāntric Mantra thus" says Bhattacharyya,