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The Goddess Mahā;cīnakrama-Tārā (Ugra-Tārā) In Buddhist And Hindu Tantrism1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Gudrun Bühnemann
Gudrun Bühnemann
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Extract

It is well known that some goddesses are worshipped in both the Buddhist and Hindu Tantric traditions. A form of the Buddhist Vajrayoginī, accompanied by Vajravarṇanī and Vajravairocanī, is the prototype of the Hindu Chinnamastā accompanied by Ḍākinī and Varṅinī. Forms of Ekajaṭā and Mañjughoṣa were adopted from the Buddhist pantheon into the Hindu and worshipped by the same name. Usually it is not easy to trace how and when these adaptations took place. In the case of Mahācīnakrama-Tārā, a special form of Tārā, it has long been suspected that the goddess was imported from the Buddhist Tantric pantheon into the Hindu pantheon. In this paper I demonstrate, on the basis of clear textual evidence, how the goddess's description in a Buddhist sādhana was incorporated into the Hindu Phetkāriṅītantra, which was then quoted as an authoritative source regarding the goddess by later Hindu Tantras. I further examine representations of the goddess in art, and provide a new edition and translation of two sādhanas of Mahācīnakrama-Tārā.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of SOAS , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , October 1996 , pp. 472 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1996

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