1900.] H iivvi])r?LS?id ShRsiii—^ Antiquities of the Tantras. 101 



Buddhists. This is Hindu and tantra written in verse and that is 

 Buddhistic sutra work written in verbose prose and verse. 



I examined another work entitled Niyvasa-tattva-samhita at the 

 same Library, written in a Gupta character older than tlie proceeding". 

 This is perhaps the first time that an important original tantrik work 

 has been found complete. It bears no date but it must be more tlian a 

 century older than the other. Tlie scene is laid in the Naimisaranya the 

 traditional home of the Puranas and tlie interlocutors are Rsis or Ancient 

 Indian Sages. The subject of their conversation is the dlhsa or initiation 

 other than Yaidic. The Rsis wonder how can there be such a thing as 

 dll^a without any reference to the Yedas. But the eldest among them 

 explains to them that even the great Gods like Brahma, Visnu and others 

 received non-Yedic diksa at the very spot they were sitting upon. 



The third Tantrik work in Gupta character has been very recently 

 acquired for the Asiatic Society. It is a fragment written in character 

 older than the preceeding. It is a portion of tlie Kulalikamuaya which 

 again is a part of a much larger work entitled Kubjikamata. I exhibit- 

 ed this work at the April meeting of the Asiatic Society which was pre- 

 sided over by His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. 



The discovery of these three works pushes back the antiquity of the 

 tantras to about the fifth or sixth century A. D., the time of Asaijga, 

 credited by the Buddhists with the introduction of Tantra into their 

 religion (see page 208 Buddhism by Rhys Davis). 



(2). The other discovery I have made is not so much from books 

 and MSS. as from actual observation in Nepal. It was always a puzzle 

 to me that the pure metaphysical religion of Buddha could be made the 

 medium of practising immoral and obscene rites. The Buddhist Trinity 

 Dharma (ReUgion) Buddha and Sangha (Buddhist monastic congre- 

 gation) are merely abstract ideas personified. All Ihe three words are 

 in masculine gender. How can there be the introduction of female divi- 

 nities and subsequent obscene rites ? But on entering the Holiest of 

 the Great places of Pilgrimage in Nepal, the Svambhu Ksetra, I was 

 struck with a female figure labelled or inscribed as Namo dharmaya. 

 I at once enquired from the Residency Pandit, a Buddhist high-priest 

 himself and the descendant of the most learned of Buddhist Pandits ever 

 met with by the English in Nepal. He coolly said Dharma is nothing else 

 but Prajnct. I had often read in Buddhist works the phrase Prajno- 

 payasvarupinim or svarupaya. I know that Buddha is never an object 

 of worship. His image is kept in monasteries simply for the purpose 

 of keeping his noble example always present before the aspirers to 

 Nirvana, and so he is the Upaya or means to Nirvana. I also knew 

 that Prajna or true knowledge is the great gaol of those who aspired to 

 Nirvana. But none ever suspected that Dharma and Prajna are 



