Vajrayana form of Buddhism

[Full title: Tantric Buddhism in Orissa (Introduction) (1): Vajrayana form of Buddhism]

Literally the term Vajrayana means “an adamantine path or vehicle, but technically it means “Sunya vehicle” where Sunya is used in a special sense to represent Vajra. Sunya is the synonym used for Vajra for it is firm, sound, unaltered, impenetrable, incombustible and indestructible (Shastri 1927:37). The sunya used by the Vajrayanists is not the same sunya in essence and to them neither the mind nor the external world bear any reality (Shastri 1927:19). This acuity was not acceptable to the Vajrayanist, for they looked for positive aspect in the sunyata. According to the Sadhanamala, Vajrayana is described as the ‘path that leads to perfect enlightenment’ which is termed in Sanskrit as Anuttara Samyaka Sambodhi (Bhattacharaya: XXIV).

In Vajrayana, instead of the Dharmayakaya Buddha, Vajrasattva is generally considered as the Supreme Being and most of the tantras start with salutations to the Lord supreme. Along with Vajrasattva, the theory of the five Dhyani Buddhas also evolved. The Dhyani Buddhas belonged to five different families (kulas) with their associated Saktis. Therefore for the first time, worship of female Goddess in Buddhism was introduced by the Vajrayanists. The Vajrayanists also introduced into Buddhism a host of other elements including large number of Gods and Goddesses, their Sadhanas etc (Bhattacharya 1958: II).

Siddha Indrabhuti, the king of Uddiyana is regarded as the profounder of Vajrayana and to his authorship several Tantric works of Vajrayanic importance are attributed; of these 23 are believed to have been preserved in the translated pages of Tibetan Tangyur. The Tantric text Janasiddhi composed by him in Sanskrit contains 22 chapters. This work starts with an invocation to Lord Jagannath, where Jagannath is being prayed as Buddha and he is referred to as such in four other verses (Maharana 1995:152).