Tibetan Mandalas: Vajravali and Tantra-Samuccaya

This book comprises two major series of mandalas: (i) of the Vajravali, detailed in the Nispanna-yogavali, and (ii) of the Rgyud-sde kun-btus or Tantra-samuccaya. The first series goes back to Abhayakaragupta who lived in the eleventh century at the Vikramasila university. He wrote a general manual of tantric liturgy by the name of Vajravali where he referred to 26 main mandalas. They were later detailed by him in his Nispannayogavali in 26 chapters. This great siddha is practically unknown in India, but the Tibetans adore and venerate him as a saint of the first magnitude. The Blue Annals 2: 1046 record that, acarya Abhaya was endowed with a mind free of illusion in regard to any of the systems of the Prajna-paramita or Tantra, from the lesser sciences (rig-gnas phra-mo) to the anuttara-yoga-Tantra. In the fifteenth century, kun dgah bzan po, the founder of the Nor monastery invited Nepalese artists to embellish its chapels. His biography mentions that he had Nepalese iconographists delineate the complete mandalas of the Vajravali supplemented by the three mandalas described in the Kriyasamuccaya of Darpanacarya, besides a number of other series of thankas. The Vajravali mandalas have been painted on walls and canvasses for the last eight centuries. In the present volume the 26 mandalas are illustrated and identified. Their variations are also delineated. They are followed by eight more mandalas which are prevalent in Tibet. They were printed in Beijing in 1938 when the Panchen Lama Bio-bzan-thub-bstan-chos-kyi-ni-ma conducted ceremonies. These Beijing mandalas have been reproduced in this volume for the first time. The second series of mandalas pertaining to the Rgyud-sde kun-btus begins on page 115 and comprises 132 mandalas. It is classified as follows: Kriya tantras (bya rgyud)- 19 thankas; Carya tantras (spyod rgyud)-2 thankas;Yoga tantras (rnal hbyor rgyud)- 20 thankas; Anuttara (Yogi) tantras (bla med pha rgyud)- 19 thankas; Anuttara (Yogini) tantras (bla med pha rgyud)-37 thankas; Advaya tantras (gnis med rgyud)- 19 thankas; The Amnata cycle (gdams nag skor)- 14 thankas; Paryavasana-kalyana- 2 thankas. These line drawings of the mandalas are unique materials for the study of Buddhist art in Tibet, China, Japan, India and Indonesia. They are the basis of sadhana. The evocation of the Divine with liturgical instruments like the ghanta, vajra, etc. accompanied by mantras, dharanis, stotras, japas, dhyanas and bijas has been accomplished with the formantic aid of an image – a visible projection of the Spiritual. With the rise of the esoteric Tantras came into being their complex symbols – the mandalas with their iconographic affluence and with a cosmic multiplicity – a veritable psychocosmogram. Initiation (seka or abhiseka) into the mandala became the summum of the Tantric adept trying to identify himself with the Origin beyond time and space. This volume is of interest to specialists in the History of Art, Religion, Anthropology, Cultural Sciences, Indology, Buddhism, Tibetology, Mongolistics, Sinology, and allied fields.