Buddhism
Author(s): Christian K. Wedemeyer
Source: History of Religions, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Feb., 2001), pp. 223-259
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176698
Accessed: 29-09-2015 12:09 UTC
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Christian K. Wedemeyer TROPES, TYPOLOGIES,
AND TURNAROUNDS:
A BRIEF GENEALOGY
OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY
OF TANTRIC BUDDHISM
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224 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
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History of Religions 225
history-the "coin of the realm" among modem scholars for almost two
hundred years-is in need of serious, sustained reconsideration.While
there have been scatteredresearches,which suggest that the conventional
view (i.e., that Tantrismwas the "final, decadent phase" of Indian Bud-
dhism that only emerged after the seventh century) is inadequateto the
facts at our disposal, therehas never been sustainedcriticism of the origins
of this view.2 It is my intentionhere to provoke such a debate, in the hope
that-whether or not the received view is ultimately rejected-it will re-
sult in a clarificationand renewed self-consciousness of why we think we
know what we "know" about this most obscure province of Indian reli-
gious history.
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226 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
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History of Religions 227
8 RonaldInden's
ImaginingIndia (Cambridge:Blackwell, 1992) has nicely discernedsome
of the discourses throughwhich India has been representedas a timeless, changeless world.
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228 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
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History of Religions 229
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History of Religions 231
21
Comparethe comment of Hayden White, who states that "the normallyeducatedhisto-
rianof the nineteenthcenturywould have been raisedon a staple of classical and Christianlit-
erature.The mythoicontainedin this literaturewould have providedhim with a fund of story
forms on which he could have drawnfor narrativepurposes"(White [n. 7 above], p. 8, n. 6).
22 R. A. L.
Fell, Etruriaand Rome (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1924), p. 139.
23
And, in the typical style of the Abrahamictraditionsof one-upping each others'narra-
tives, this trope was later turned on the Catholic Church itself by the vigorously youthful
Reformation schools.
24 EdwardJ. Thomas, The History of Buddhist Thought(1933; reprint,New York:Barnes
& Noble, 1951), p. 246.
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232 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
25 Alexander
Cunningham,The Bhilsa Topes(London:Smith, Elder, 1854), pp. 2-3.
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History of Religions 233
26 T. W.
Rhys Davids, Buddhist India (1903; reprint,Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993),
p. 320 (emphasis mine).
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234 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
27 Alex
Wayman, "Observationson the History and Influence of the Buddhist Tantrain
India and Tibet,"in Studies in the History of Buddhism,ed. A. K. Narain (Delhi: B. R. Pub-
lishing, 1980), p. 361 (emphasis mine).
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History of Religions 235
that these ideas are very much the product of the contingent historical
circumstances and evolution of the modem traditionof interpretation,a
tradition whose origins, development, and progress will be seen to be
highly problematical. I will describe the origination of the first theoreti-
cal hypotheses concerning the typology of Indian religions and demon-
strate the manner in which these hypotheses became the foundation for
furtherhypotheses, historical in nature.
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236 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
28 William
Erskine, "Accountof the Cave-Templeof Elephanta,"in Transactionsof the
LiterarySociety of Bombay(1819) 1:203.
29
Ibid., p. 202.
30 Ibid., 203.
p.
31
Ibid., p. 206.
32 Simon de La
Loubere, cited in William Erskine, "Observationson the Remains of the
Bouddhists in India,"Transactionsof the Literary Society of Bombay (1823; reprint, 1877),
3:529. This work of La Loubere was a deeply influentialaccount of the coastal Theravada
Buddhismencounteredby late-seventeenth-centuryEuropeans.It was also for many years the
primaryaccount of the Pali language-only supersededby Eugene Burouf and Christian
Lassen'sEssai sur le Pali (Paris:Soci6t6 Asiatique), publishedin 1826. Comparethe Oxford
UniversityPress facsimile reprintof the English edition: Simon de La Loubere, TheKingdom
of Siam (KualaLumpur:Oxford University Press, 1969).
33 Erskine, "Observations,"p. 531.
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History of Religions 237
Thus, we can see that alreadyby 1813, with roots perhapsas early as the
late seventeenth century,there is unmistakableevidence of the construc-
tion of an essentialized concept of Buddhism. This construct was based
largely on the TheravadaBuddhistswho inhabitedthe coastal areas famil-
iar to Europeancolonialists. Furthermore,this essentialized Buddhismwas
constructedprecisely for the practical,typological activity of distinguish-
ing Buddhist from non-Buddhistphenomena.That it soon found employ-
ment in relegatingTantricBuddhisttraditionsto the lattercategory should
come as no surprise.
With the benefit of hindsight, one can immediately foresee the prob-
lems this template would raise when, soon after, Hodgson was confronted
with the evidence not only of Sanskritic Buddhism, but of TantricBud-
dhism with its multilimbed and semibestial "monsters."As we shall see,
this model did in fact directly influence Hodgson, and, more important,it
required him to make importantinterpretativedecisions in order to ac-
commodate the anomalous data he encountered on reaching the Kath-
mandu Valley. I am quite deliberately using the terminology of Thomas
Kuhnhere, as I feel that one can rightly understandHodgson'sposition as
one of a researcherwho, under the influence of the paradigmof a "nor-
mal science" (created by Erskine'stypology of Indian religions), is faced
with unexpected anomalies-evidence that does not fit neatly within the
currentparadigm.Indeed, Hodgson could not have avoided the conclusion
that Erskine'sparadigmwas inadequateas it stood. He was, however, as
we shall see presently, able to tweak the paradigm with the conceptual
tools available to him such that a "scientific revolution"was avoided.
Most illuminating is Hodgson's explanation of his initial hesitation to
publish plates depicting the Buddhist art he had encounteredin Nepal. He
informs us that, "For years... I had been in possession of hundredsof
drawings, made from the Buddhist pictures and sculptures with which
this land is saturated... [but had not published them] ... owing to the
delay incident to procuringauthenticexplanations of them from original
sources."34 Why did Hodgson feel it necessary to search out an explana-
tion of these "Buddhist"images before publishing them? He continues,
"These images are to be met with everywhere,and of all sizes and shapes,
very many of them endowed with a multiplicity of members sufficientto
satisfy the teeming fancy of any Brahmanof MadhyaDesa! Startnot, gen-
tle reader, for it is literally thus, and not otherwise. Buddhas with three
heads instead of one-six or ten arms in place of two! The necessity of
reconciling these things with the so-called first principles of Buddhism,
may reasonably account for delay in the production of my pictorial
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238 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
35 Ibid., p. 103.
36 Even if he were not so
explicit, this referentialityis clearly implicit in his use of the ex-
pression "teeming fancy of any Brahmanof MadhyaDesa," which echoes the idiom used by
Erskine.
37 Erskine, "Observations,"p. 557.
38 Hodgson, pp. 15, 40, 59, and 29.
39 He thus initiated the ratherunfortunateuse of such terms as sakti in reference to Bud-
dhist Tantricconsorts (more accurately described as mudrdor vidya).
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History of Religions 239
40 H. H.
Wilson, "Notice of Three Tracts Received from Nepal,"Asiatic Researches 16
(1828): 451.
41
Ibid., p. 452.
42
Ibid., p. 468.
43 Ibid., pp. 470-71.
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History of Religions 241
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242 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
49 Consider the
following statementin regardto the Lotus Sutra (Saddharma-pundarika):
"If we did not know that it had already been translatedinto Chinese between 255 and 316
A.D., we should not consider it as so ancient."G. K. Nariman,Literary History of Sanskrit
Buddhism(1919; reprint,Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992), p. 71.
50 This change is primarilydue to claims made by Toganoo Sh6un in his 1933 work Hi-
mitsu bukkyo-shi(reprintedin Gendai BukkyoMeicho Zenshu, ed. H. Nakamura,F Masu-
tani, and J. M. Kitagawa [Tokyo:Ryubunkan,1964], 9:1-200); cf. Huntington(n. 2 above),
pp. 89-90 and 97. Note, however, that while Huntingtonis probablyright thatthe "scientific"
legitimationof this view derives primarilyfrom Toganoo'swork (and the equally problemat-
ical work of Benoytosh Bhattacharyya),the seventh-centurydate had already been asserted
by La Vallee Poussin in 1909 (cf. ChristianK. Wedemeyer, Vajrayanaand Its Doubles: A
Critical Historiography,Exposition, and Translationof the TantricWorksof Aryadeva [Ann
Arbor, Mich.: University MicrofilmsInternational,1999], and below).
51 Louis de La Vallee Poussin, "Note sur le Paficakrama,"in Proceedings of the Tenth
International Congress of Orientalists (Geneva, 1894), pt. 1:137-46. This article was sub-
sequently reprinted(with the revision of the brief introductorysection) as the introduction
to the Pancakramaedition of 1896. See also his Etudes et textes Tantriques:"Pancakrama"
(Gand: H. Engelcke; Louvain:J.-B. Istas, 1896.
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History of Religions 243
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244 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
books of the Mahayana,if not written and in their actual form, at least in
effect and in an embryonic form."55And, furthermore,that "it is permis-
sible to suppose the ancient existence of Mahayana and Tantrayana:in
any case, it is hazardousto place the Hindu and Tantricschools 'upstage'
of our researches,in the dark,like parasiticalgroups without historical or
doctrinal importance. The scope of research enlarges at the same time
that the official frameworkof Buddhist history is broken."56This "official
framework,"it should be apparent,was the paradigmof most of his con-
temporaries:the modern, "scientific,"secularizationof the orthodox doc-
trinal history of the Theravadamonastic cartel that interpretsBuddhist
history throughthe lenses of Buddhaghosa's"Reformation"and precisely
considers the Mahayanaand Vajrayanaschools as "late degenerations."
Interestingly,much of La Vallee Poussin'scriticism has since been vin-
dicated in the interim by the Buddhological community, and no doubt
some improvementis evident in the methodof late twentieth-centurystud-
ies on Buddhism. However, even these improvementstook some time to
blossom and were not accepted in their fullest form in his lifetime.57His
radicalrevisioning of Tantrichistory,on the other hand, was immediately
and efficiently snuffed out. For within ten years (by 1909), La Valle
Poussin himself was compelled to renounce his view that TantricBud-
dhism could have existed before the seventh century, and he thenceforth
consistently espoused the views of the "officialframework"he had previ-
ously (and so devastatingly) critiqued. Subsequent to his capitulation in
this regard,this received view was to become (and remain) an absolutely
unquestionedorthodoxy.
How did this happen? How is it possible that the Louis de La Valle
Poussin who so courageously questioned the methodological and doc-
trinal orthodoxy of the Buddhological community of his time with his
groundbreakingstudies of the long-ignored Tantric literature could so
quickly (in the space of merely a few years) capitulateto this same ortho-
doxy? The record indicates that this reversal was not due to any further
data coming to light but was, rather,the issue of what can only be called
intense academic "peer pressure."As noted above, his initial work in
Buddhist literaturewas concerned with the central text of the Arya Tra-
dition of the GuhyasamajaTantra-a brief analysis and edition of Nagar-
juna's Pancakrama.In this early work, based on his own firsthandstudy
of the text itself, La Vallee Poussin writes that the Pancakramahas as its
author "the celebrated Nagarjuna,probable initiator of great schools of
metaphysics and, definitely, the head of the Madhyamikaschool."58
55 Ibid.,
p. 72 (my translation).
56
Ibid., p. 5 (my translation).
57 He died in 1939.
58 La Vallee
Poussin, "Note sur le Paficakrama,"p. 139 (my translation).
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History of Religions 245
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250 Tropes, Typologies, and Turnarounds
74 Tucci, p. 141.
75 In fact, it is not
significantlymore helpful than (and very similar in form to) the earlier
"contribution"of P. L. Vaidya(a studentof La Vallee Poussin),who is quotedas an authority
on the same questionby P. B. Patel in the introductionto his edition of Aryadeva'sCittavisud-
dhi-prakarana(Santiniketan:Visva-Bharati,1949). The work of Vaidyato which Patel refers
is his ttudes sur Aryadeva et son "Catuhsataka"(Paris:LibrairieOrientalistePaul Guenther,
1923). Besides the fact that this work is almost completely devoted to (and largely based on)
an explorationof the exoteric literatureattributedto Aryadeva (chiefly, in fact-as is clear
from the title-just one work, the Catuhsataka),this study cannot be consideredto have ad-
vanced inquiryinto the question of the attributionof Tantricworks to this writer.Indeed, it is
somewhatstrangethatPatel includes him as an independentvoice on the matter.In raisingthe
question of the Cittavisuddhi-prakaranaand Aryadeva'srelationship to Tantricismin this
work, Vaidya contents himself with merely mentioning that Louis de La Vallee Poussin
believes that Aryadeva could not have writtenTantrictreatises and states, "Je suis d'accord
avec lui et pense que c'est un autreAryadeva"(I am in agreementwith him and thinkthatit is
anotherAryadeva) (Etudes, p. 64). In addition-true to a venerablerhetoricaltradition-he
consistently (indeed, almost reflexively) qualifies the noun tantrisme with the adjective
degenere.
76 In brief, Benoytosh Bhattacharyya'sargumentis based on two Tantriclineage lists-
"one given in the Tangyurcatalogueof P. Cordierand anotherin the Pag Sam Jon Zan quoted
in the edition of the Chakra Sambhdra [sic] Tantraby the late Kazi Dawasam Dup [sic]"
(Sadhanamala [Baroda:Oriental Institute, 1968], 2:xl-xli). These lists are as follows: the
first list runs Padmavajra,Anafigavajra,Indrabhuti,Bhagavati Laksmi, Lilavajra,Darikapa,
SahajayoginiCinta, and Dombi Heruka;the second list reads Saraha,Nagarjuna,Sabaripa,
Luipa, Vajraghanta,Kacchapa, Jalandharipa,Krsnacarya,Guhya, Vijayapa, Tailopa, and
Naropa.Assuming thatthe "Indrabhuti" in the firstlist is the Indrabhutiwho was the fatherof
Padmasambhava(a figure whose date is fairly certain due to his involvement with Tibetan
royalty),Bhattacharyyaassigns him the date 717 C.E.He then makes the assumptionthatthere
would be a twelve-yeargap between masterand disciple. He then assigns correspondingdates
to the other figures in this list. The coup de grace comes when he can then link this list with
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History of Religions 251
We are left, then, with the supportof the "comparativestudy of the ma-
terial at our disposal."I have no doubt that Tucci undertooksuch a study,
and we see the valuable results of it elsewhere, but in the absence of his
explicit sharingof the steps of his reasoning, it boils down to a matterof
Tucci'sopinion.77One must certainlyrespecthis opinion, but I believe that
we may take a suspicion of mere opinion as a fundamentalmethodologi-
cal premise of modern humanistic study. Indeed, it is precisely the lack
of such suspicion that, it appears, has allowed a largely unsubstantiated
historicalhypothesis to be perpetuatedfor the betterpartof this centuryas
the "scientific results"of researchon Indian Buddhism.
the other. On the principle that Padmavajra(who is reputed to have introduced the Heva-
jra Tantra)must be one generation earlier than Jalandhari (who is reputed to have been
"the first to profess the Hevajratantraand to compose a work on the subject"), he assigns
the date 705 to Jalandhari.It is then a simple matter to count back to Nagarjuna who, he
concludes, lived around 645 C.E. A very neat argument this makes on some levels; nev-
ertheless, it should be obvious that there are major problems with it. In brief, it makes so
many assumptions and uses such problematical data that, in the end, it would take noth-
ing less than a fantastic stroke of luck for it actually to be correct. This is not the place
to dilate on the shortcomings of Bhattacharyya'smethod. Suffice it to say that there are
three principal assumptions on which this argument relies. For one, the identity of this
"Indrabhuiti"is by no means as clear as he would like. Second, there is the highly arbi-
trary twelve-year gap he assumes between master and disciple (a gap of at least thirty
years would seem more likely). And finally, and most important, is his assumption that
these lists themselves are free of gaps. Based entirely on these (highly problematical)
arguments, Bhattacharyyaclaimed to have "dated"the chief authors of the Tantric com-
mentaries and began to enable and popularize a discourse that spoke in terms of two
Nagarjunas-one could now refer to a "Siddha Nagarjuna"(of the 84 Mahasiddhas text)
in contradistinction to a "Madhyamik Nagarjuna" and cite the authority of concrete
dates. The complete discussion by Bhattacharyyamay be found in the introduction to his
edition of the Sadhanamdld, 2:xl-xliii. My detailed analysis is to be found in Wede-
meyer (n. 50 above), pp. 50-57. I am not alone in making this claim. Bhattacharyya's
conclusions came under heavy criticism soon after he published them. Even his close
contemporary and fellow scholar of Tantricism, S. B. Dasgupta, said of his work (in An
Introduction to Tantric Buddhism [Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1950], p. 60) that
"so vast and confused is the field and so scanty and doubtful are the materials that the
structure [of his history] does not seem to be very well built." More recently, he has been
sharply criticized by Ronald Davidson, who has accused him of using "very unhistorical
methods." Compare his "The Litany of Names of Maijusri: Text and Translation of the
Maijusrindmasamgiti,"in Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques (Brussels: Institut Belge des
Hautes ltudes Chinoises, 1981), 20:4-5.
77 Tucci adds the following argument. The
biographies of the 84 Mahasiddhas (a Ti-
betan work) gives the succession: Nagarjuna,Vyadi, Kambala, Indrabhuti.There is an In-
drabhutiwho is connected with Padmasambhava,who lived in the eighth century (a major
premise in Bhattacharyya'sargument). Vyadi was an alchemist. Therefore, "we can safely
assume with Doctor Benoytosh Bhattacaryathat the Alchemist or Siddha Nagarjunalived
in the VII century A.D." (Tucci, p. 142). He gives the furtherargumentthat there is a suc-
cession that reads Nagarjuna,Sabara,Advayavajra.This Advayavajrawas connected with
Naropa, and so "the Nagarjunahere referred to must have flourished about the beginning
of the X century A.D." (p. 143). And this seems to agree with Alberuni. The reader, again,
may draw her or his own conclusion, but in my opinion there are glaring problems with
this method of argument.It is certainly not an advance on that of Bhattacharyya.The same
problems with such lineage lists and claims of succession that render the conclusions of
Bhattacharyyaso dubious apply equally to the nearly identical claims of Tucci.
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85 Ibid.
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86
Mimaki Katsumi, "Aryadeva,"in Encyclopedia of Religion, ed., M. Eliade (New York:
Macmillan, 1987), 1:431.
87 Ibid.
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88
Sanjukta Gupta, Laksmi Tantra:A PanicardtraText (Leiden and Cologne: E. J. Brill,
1972), p. xx.
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History of Religions 259
University of Copenhagen
89 Verardi
(n. 2 above), p. 3.
90 An
important difference is that, in the case of Indian history, there are many more
than two possible interpretations.
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