Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement

by Ronald M. Davidson

Despite the rapid spread of Buddhism -- especially the esoteric system of Tantra, one of its most popular yet most misunderstood forms -- the historical origins of Buddhist thought and practice remain obscure. This groundbreaking work describes the genesis of the Tantric movement in early medieval India, where it developed as a response to, and in some ways an example of, the feudalization of Indian society. Drawing on primary documents -- many translated for the first time -- from Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tibetan, Bengali, and Chinese, Ronald Davidson shows how changes in medieval Indian society, including economic and patronage crises, a decline in women's participation, and the formation of large monastic orders, led to the rise of the esoteric tradition in India that became the model for Buddhist cultures in China, Tibet, and Japan.

Genres: Buddhism, History, Religion, India, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2002

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing analysis of the historical social milieu in which Buddhist Tantrik emerged. Davidson does a great job of showing the tensions Buddhism had with the political elites due to the decline of the Gupta Empire and the rise of self-aggrandizing rulers over smaller-scale regional kingdoms. The constant warfare among these kingdoms had the religious sects competing with each other for patronage.

Due to the influence of Alexis Sanderson's work, we tend to get the picture of the Sivaite and Sakti sects running roughshod over the other groups and thusly Buddhist tantra is often protrayed as a wholesale lifting of the Siva-Sakti practices; Davidson makes a compelling argument that it was, in reality, a more back and forth development between these two strands, as well as, an appropriation by both of indigenous tribal practices and worship by those groups that were part of the colonizing ambitions of the larger competing regional rulers.

Despite chapter two being one of the most boring chapters I have ever read in any book, this work is an easy recommendation for anyone that is interested in the development of Buddhist tantra during the Indian medevial period when tantra in general was spreading throughout the Indian subcontinant .

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Полезное дополнение к "Истории Тибета" Сэма ван Шайка, конечно, и "Истории буддистской мысли" Эдварда Томаса. Чтения источников не заменит, но контекст даст.

Погачалу это прекрасный урок смирения - читать краткий очерк средневековой истории Индии: имена и географические названия западному читателю не сообщают совершенно ничего, запомнить их все равно невозможно, а на даты у меня очень плохая память. Пии этом на протяжении многих столетий они там на своем полуострове постоянно рубились друг с другом и арабами, скакали на верблюдах и топтали слонами (про вихары умалчивается), гоняясь за белыми  зонтиками - штандартами царской власти. Представлять себе воинственные орды средневековых индийцев ("sorry, madam") отдельно потешно. ...А смирение в том, что эта громадная история с географией совершенно никак не соотносится с нашими представлениями о мировой (читай, европейской и североамериканской). Даже Африку мы себе представляем все-таки получше - из-за ее колониального прошлого. Но стоит преодолеть этот рубеж хроник, и начнется рок-н-ролл.

Про парономасию (игру слов, если проще), которой проникнуто примерно все в средневековом индийском буддизме, я даже заикаться не буду - сами для себя откроете эти чудеса. Надо знать лишь то, что существовали поэмы, в которых одними и теми же словами излагались сюжеты и "Рамаяны", и "Махабхараты". Одновременно. А над мантрами можно было искрометно шутить. (Кодированный этот поэтический язык, кстати, назывался "сумеречным".) Кроме того, не стоит недооценивать пародию в буддийской литературе, хотя ее чаще принимают по номиналу (но вычленять ее лично мне заслуг не хватит, так что это вы сами как-нибудь).

Про ритуализацию тоже стало понятнее: это продолжение и расширительное применение поэтических тропов, с помощью которых некоторые отвлеченные понятия мироустройства объяснялись экзотерически граду и миру. Но метонимии и метафоры свернулись на себя и стали иметь значение скорее эзотерически (а окружающим понятнее, если взглянуть на историю, не стало).

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tantric current, comprising initiation into a corpus of ostensibly secret ritual methods for attaining metaphysical liberation, has been one of the most influential schools of thought in Buddhism's propagation throughout Asia and beyond. In terms of both praxes and iconography, the latter most notably in the form of elaborate mandalas arranging buddhas and subordinate beings within a terrestrial microcosm, the esoteric paradigm has, ironically, left highly visible marks upon Buddhism's public image. In this book, Ronald Davidson examines the social context in which this approach to enlightenment arose.

Rather than a purely endogenous involution of Buddhist thought, or a wholesale incorporation of an alien system, Davidson sees tantric Buddhism as a response to the dramatic sociopolitical reconfiguration of India following the dissolution of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century. With the loss of Imperial and guild patronage, Buddhist monasteries turned to regional kings whose self-aggrandizing ideology and frequent military engagements were difficult to reconcile with the Dharma. In order to render the reality in which they found themselves coherent with their existing beliefs, some within the Buddhist community appropriated that reality as the very model for dominating and transcending it; the feudal state became the spiritual state depicted in the mandala.

Not only monks, but lay Buddhist mystics as well reflected their circumstances in their practices. These non-institutional siddhas incorporated Saivist and tribal deities into their mandalas, and transgressed the dietary and sexual norms of Brahmanic society in a quest to attain the magical powers that would free them from mere mortality. Inevitably, these ideas were encountered, interpreted - often with some difficulty and tortuous hermeneutic feats - and to one degree or another adopted by monastic Buddhist institutions as well.

Davidson convincingly argues that the composition and reception of the Buddhist esoteric canon was an essentially social, locally particular process, in which Buddhism made sense of its changing world.

[Thomas Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although an academic work, this book is essential reading for anyone who practises Buddhism of any strand, but particularly Tantric Buddhism. Only 4 stars because of some of the author's slightly odd conclusions, opinions sometimes stated as fact, but it's packed full of so much important information. This book has added new depths to my understanding of Buddhism.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a master piece. I'll give it a 10 star if I can. This is the first time esoteric Buddhism ever makes sense to me.
Ronald Davidson is now in the center of my academic pantheon.

[Madhavan N · Rating 4 out of 5]

siddhas from every level brought both strengths and weaknesses, so the emerging culture of the perfected was constituted by a series of ritual engagements and personal skills, in which charisma and devotion played as important a part as intelligence and naturalness.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhist history and development. Or religious development period. It is probably fair to say early Tantric Buddhism was the most antinomian religious tradition to ever win broad appeal anywhere in the world. This book gives all the salacious details and explains their context and the dialectic that "tamed" these new scriptures. All of this sourced and dispassionate. Having read the book I still have questions and confusions about tantra. That said, I suppose it's unfair to expect complete explicability from something which is, after all, esoteric.

[Marcus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that the practices in transgressive tantras cannot be explained by things like poor discipline, lack of education, or outcaste status. I know a lot of people like that and none of them wear human skulls or ritually drink blood/semen. That said, this work explains well the role of Indias political structure in certain other tantric rituals.