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The Life of Buddhagupta-ntha

Submitted by Michael R. Sheehy on Wed, 2009-04-08
10:05.

The following post is titled, A Brief Sketch of the Life

of Buddhagupta-ntha.
By
Thomas
Roth, a
contributing author to the Jonangpa blog.
Jonang
Jetsun
Rinpoche,
better known
as
Jonang
Trantha
(1575-1635),
is well known
for the many
histories that
he authored.
Especially his
famous
History
of
Buddhism in
India,
The
Seven
Instruction
Buddhagupta
Lineages and
the Origin of the Tr-Tantras, as well as his
Klacakra and Vajrabhairava histories, give us a
fairly good idea of the development of many siddha
lineages in India and their continuation onto Tibetan
soil. The source for many of these accounts was an
Indian master whom Trantha met around the year
1594 near Narthang in Central Tibet, while he himself
stayed in a hermitage called Mahbodhi. That
master was none other than the Mahsiddha
Buddhagupta-ntha, who was a disciple of the very
famous Mahsiddha Shanti-Gupta. Shanti-Guptas
biography is added as an appendix to Tranthas
Seven Instruction Lineages, whereas his biography of

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Buddhagupta-ntha appears as a separate text. [1]

Buddhagupta-ntha, known as Sangs rgyas Sbas pai
mgon (16th/17th cent.) in Tibetan, was probably the
last Indian siddha of whom we have a detailed
account. His two main teachers were Tirtha-ntha
and the Mahsiddha Shanti-Gupta, though he studied
under many others. The fact that an Indian siddha
should appear so late in Tibet, shows clearly that the
often repeated statement of Buddhism, having
become completely extinct in India after the 12th
century Muslim invasions, is quite incorrect.
Also the famous scholar and yogin Vana-Ratna (Nags
kyi Rin chen, 1384-1468), the teacher to such
famous Tibetan masters as G Lotsawa Shnu Pal
(Gos Lo ts ba Gzhon nu dpal, 1392-1481) who was
the author of the Blue Annals, and Thrimkhang
Lotsawa Snam Gyatso (Khrims khang Lo ts ba
Bsod nams rgya mtsho, 1424-1482), who traveled to
Tibet three times in the 15th century, is further proof
of the ongoing practice and study of Buddhism in
India after the onslaught of these invaders.

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Vana-Ratna was known as "the last great Indian

Padita" to visit Tibet. Therefore one could certainly
say that Buddhagupta-ntha was "the last great
Indian Mahsiddha" to do so.
Buddhagupta-ntha was the youngest of eight sons
of a rich merchant. Already as a child he attended
upon his guru Tirtha-ntha and soon resolved to
become a yogin himself. He received many
empowerments, oral transmissions and liberating
instructions from him and spent many years in
solitary retreats, focusing particularly on the
practices various of Vajrayogin and Tr. Later in his
life, he also studied under the famous Mahsiddha
Shanti-Gupta. Thus he became an expert in many
tantras, their exposition and practice.
He traveled all over India repeatedly, always in
search of masters and teachings. Whenever he had
received new empowerments and instructions, he
undertook intensive solitary retreats in order to
master the associated practices. His travels took him
as far as Shri Lanka in the south, Indonesia in the
southeast and Uddiyana in the northwest.
Buddhagupta-ntha also traveled to many of the
small islands off the southern and eastern coasts of
India. There he visited Mt. Potalaka where he beheld
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visions of rya Tr, Avalokitevara and Manjuri.

He then describes the Indonesian archipelago as a
thriving center of Vajrayana Buddhism. Trantha
writes:
From this island (Potalaka) he embarked again
and went over a great distance north, till he
reached Java-dvipa, Barley island. On that island
there are numerous sagha communities
belonging to the Sendhava Shravaka (i.e.
Theravadin) class. He did not stay among them.
Also there, in the center of a small lake, was a
tiny island by name of Vanadvipa, Forest Island,
on which is located a sacred spot blessed by
Master
Saruroha-Vajra;
on
the
outside
appearing like a rocky mountain, and as a
square shaped temple within. At its center there
is a naturally formed stone image of a twoarmed Hevajra. [2]
In one (other) cave there are numerous volumes
of Secret Mantra, and it is further stated that it
contains copies of five hundred thousand
tantras. It is known as an extremely turbulent
(place) and hence impossible to inspect, so he
told me.
Also Buddhagupta-nthas account of his visit to
Uddiyana is of great interest, being in all likelihood
the last eyewitness account of this fabled land.
Trantha writes:
Next he moved east to Uddiyana, in the Sanskrit
language Omdiyana, in our (Tibetan) language
Orgyen (Or gyan). Since in their pronunciation
there is no distinction between DA and SA, it
sounds like Oryana. This has been a source of
major confusion in Tibetan writings. Yet since
(here is a case of someone) who personally
traveled to Orgyen, it is out of the question to
counter (his statements) by any compulsive
reference to arguments existing in Tibetan.
Moreover, in that area itself, the country, in the
barbarian language understood there by all, is
known as Gadzani. There he reached the great
sacred spots: the cave that still contains the
robe of Lawa(pa), the ruins of King Indrabhutis
palace, and Ilo-parvata. Next he resided for one
month at Dhuma-sthira, in the very heart of
sacred Uddiyana, a town literally meaning
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"Residence of Smoke."
Generally speaking, the heartland of Uddiyana,
entirely surrounded as it is by mountains,
valleys and thick forests, at its center from east
to west takes two days to cross, and four from
south to north; having Dhuma-sthira for its only
town. By Indian standards it is to be viewed as
a small town. He (Guru Buddhagupta) further
stated that it is similar to Ghama-ghama (?).
Not counting the center of the sacred area, its
four approaches (gates) as well as the outer
regions of Uddiyana are extremely vast.
Although they are all barbarian regions, even
including the center of the sacred land, and
although there are no sagha communities there
at present, there are groups of yogins without
any fixed residence, also lay practitioners,
trthikas, barbarians and so forth. It further
appears that the majority of the women belong
to the kin class, some of whom have
achieved great magic power by means of
mantra, both for helping and for harming. They
assume all kinds of shapes and possess the
magical gazes. As they display their miraculous
interventions, one notices that those of the bird
class are extremely numerous. He further said
that in lands such as the former Upper Hor,
Akaparawa and elsewhere, there are still some
people with the magic power for protecting
people and transmigrators (in general) by
mantra.
In his mid-seventies Buddhagupta-ntha traveled to
Tibet where he met the young Trantha, upon
whom he conferred many transmissions of teachings
and tantras which had until then been unknown in
the land of snows. Among them were the
transmission of the tantras and instructions of
Tryogin, the Guhyasamaja according to the
tradition of Jana-pada, the Dohas of Jalandhara,
Varah according to the tradition of Jalandhara, the
oral instructions of Kusali and its six branches on the
perfection
process
for Hevajra,
and several
heretofore unknown Mahmudr instructions, to
name just a very few. Trantha composed a
wonderful biography of this master. It ends with his
leaving Tibet again via the Kyirong area, where he
spent about three months in retreat, and Dolakha in
Nepal, back to India.
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Trantha adds how he later heard from travelers

how Buddhagupta-ntha also visited many sacred
sites in the Kathmandu valley, before returning to
India. There, he was then reunited with his own Guru
Shanti-Gupta, staying with him for some time.
Buddhagupta-ntha then continued to travel,
together with his own students, all over Magadha
(present-day Bihar and Uttar-Kandh) and Bhangala
(present-day Bengal and Bangladesh). They then
moved on to the land of Tripura (present-day Assam
and northern Burma) where they stayed for many
years.
The last sentence of Tranthas in Buddhaguptanthas biography proper, composed in about 1601,
reads:
After that, and up to the present day, he took up
his residence in the vicinity of Devikota, so I
heard. There are many reports about the
wonders occurring on the occasion of (his visits
to) each of these countries; but as an
overlengthy sacred biography might become a
hindrance for ones understanding, I prefer not
to write about them here.
Earlier on Trantha describes the siddha thus:
The signs and marks of his accomplishment as a
yogin were plainly visible to ordinary eyes. Half
the day he remained (in a state) whereby he cut
off the flow of his breath, and at practically all
times he stayed naked (throughout his stay in
Tibet!). Not only did he not experience any harm
from this, but his immediate entourage, within a
two meter radius, could feel an intense heat, by
means of which he was able to protect others
from the cold. By cutting off the flow of his
breath through mouth and nostrils, he was able
to make appear to his eyes and ears whatever
he wanted. Also, his feet did not sink on water.
He was standing about two fingers above the
ground and his bodily splendor would touch
every object and remain there for a long time.
He possessed the power of seeing others secret
designs, in a supernatural way knowing others
minds. His body was light: he would jump down
from (a height of) two or three storeys, and like
a skin that had been flung down, he landed
gently like a feather. He would climb up a steep
mountain as if it were flat land. Poison,
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quicksilver and the like were unable to harm his

body. As his mind was abiding in steady loving
kindness, dogs and even ferocious carnivores
would lick his body and in other ways show their
affection. Ravens, little birds and so forth would
alight on his lap or onto the tips of his fingers.
They didnt flee when he patted them, but
remained where they were, obviously happy. At
the time of bestowing an empowerment, he was
able to make the wisdom actually descend. In
the presence of worthy candidates he would
show miraculous occurrences of various kinds,
such as radiating light into the maala. He
stood in no need for the food of (ordinary)
humans. He lived on (intangible) foods offered
to him by non-human beings. When he was
engaged in one-pointed deity yoga, the
appearances of the present were really cut off
and he was one endowed with the wisdom of at
all times viewing everything outer and inner as
devoid of any basis and as self-liberated. We
with the scope similar to that of mayflies, how
could we possibly evaluate the limit of his
outstanding qualities of body, speech and mind?

Endnotes:
1. The two versions at my disposal are titled, The Sacred Biography of
Mahsiddha Buddhagupta: A Straightforward Account Directly from the
Majestic Lords Own Lips, Unpolluted by Even a Whiff of Things MadeUp," Grub chen bud+dha guptai rnam thar rje btsun nyid kyi zhal lung
las gzhan du rang rtog gi dri mas ma sbags pai yi ge yang dag pa.
Included in the two available redaction of Jonang Tranthas Collected
Works: Dzam thang, 17, 279-320 and sTog, 17, 531-575. See also the
related posts, Trantha's Descriptions of Tr and Tryogni Tantra &
Practice and the short biography of Buddhagupta in the Masters
Database on the Jonang Foundation main site.

2. Most interestingly, such an image has relatively recently been

discovered in the course of archeological excavations. It is now kept in
a museum in Djakarta.

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