Oddiyana

Uddiyana (Skt. Uḍḍiyāna; Tib. ཨུ་རྒྱན་, Orgyen, Wyl. u rgyan) — often described as the ‘Land of the Dakinis’, once a historical place has transformed over time into a mythical pure land in which the tantric teachings blossom and thrive. Based on its profound religious significance and mythological associations, the accounts of Uddiyana often involve a captivating combination of myth and history. Almost every great Indian Buddhist master who had any significant influence on the development of tantra is associated with Uddiyana. In many cases Uddiyana is said to have been visited physically by these masters, however throughout history Buddhist masters also recounted to have visited Uddiyana in pure visions and dreams. Uddiyana thus had a deep impact on the tantric traditions of both Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

Name

Uddiyana in Sanskrit is referred to by various names. Besides U/Oḍḍiyāna we also find the mentions of U/Oḍḍiyāna, U/Oḍḍayana, U/Oḍiyāna, U/Oḍyāna, and Ōṭiyana. To Tibetans it is known as O/Urgyen Yul (Tib. o/u rgyan yul) Urgyen (Tib. u rgyan), Odiyana (Tib. o ddi ya na) and sometimes also Oyen (Tib. o yan). The Tibetan words are an attempt to render the Sanskrit in Tibetan. Thus they convey no meaning, except for Urgyen Yul. According to Gendün Chöpel (Tib. dge 'dun chos 'phel, 1903-1951) Urgyen Yul could be translated as ‘the land or country adorned with Udumbara lotuses.’ Though these words look similar, the differences in spelling convey a different meaning. Thus, U/Oḍḍiyāna and U/Oḍḍayana are derived from the Sanskrit root ḍī and are translated as flying or soaring. U/Oḍḍiyāna in South Indian languages and in the yoga tradition refers to a belt worn by a woman either as jewelry or as a support for meditation. In Hata Yoga Uḍḍīyana is a term employed referring to the abdominal area. U/Oḍyāna translates as garden or royal garden. Ōṭiyana, Gendün Chöpel explains, could refer to the inhabitants known as the ‘Ōṭi tribe’. Due to the many variations it is quite likely that the different names are the result of an adoption and adaption of the original name from either a dialect or another language spoken in the area.

Significance

Uddiyana is also a place of inspiration for composition. Several sadhanas, of which the Sanskrit original text still exists, like the Sadhanamala (Skt. sādhanamālā), or which are found in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, either bear the name Uddiyana in their title or mention Uddiyana as the place of composition in their colophons. Particularly noticeable is the reoccurrence of various dakini sadhanas invoking either Kurukulla or Marichi. Ronald Davidson explains: “The aura Oḍiyāna obtained, as the esoteric canon itself, really passed through three stages: the early collection of spells evident from the sixth century forward, the development of the Indrabhuti myth in the eighth century, and the extensive mythologization of Oḍiyāna in the yoginī tantras beginning in the ninth century.” Benjamin Bogin states, that it is particularly the last stage that had the greatest impact on the Tibetan conception of Uddiyana as a source for tantra, a sacred site and a land of the ḍākinīs.

The reason why Uddiyana played such a crucial role in the development of the Buddhist tantric teachings is described in the tantras. The origin of the tantric teachings in various versions both common to Nyingma and Sarma tantras is recounted in the Rudra subjugation. Rudra, symbolising the embodiment of egohood, is subjugated by a wrathful manifestation of an enlightened being. Rudra’s consciousness is ejected resulting in Rudra’s attainment of enlightenment. The remains of his body were blessed and scattered over the earth. Wherever his body parts fell, became a sacred area in which the tantric teachings spread. Rudra’s body parts are said to have fallen into eight places, which became known as the eight great charnel grounds. The Le'u Dünma recounts: “His heart fell in the land of Uddiyana.” Rudra’s heart falling into the land of Uddiyana created the auspicious circumstances for the arising of the tantric teachings. The tantric teachings also map the sacred sites onto the human body. Thus, while Uddiyana is said to be the external location where Rudra’s heart fell, internally Uddiyana, resides in our hearts. Similarly, Zangdokpalri, the heaven of Padmasambhava, outwardly is associated with various locations including Uddiyana. Inwardly Zangdokpalri is said to reside in the heart. The pure realm of Zangdokpalri is often described as having the shape of the heart. Padmasambhava’s subjugation of the Rakshasa king, can be seen as a re-enactment of the Rudra subjugation myth.

Another myth of ‘sacrifice and creation^’, which shares certain similarities with the Rudra subjugation myth and is closely related to the Buddhist tradition of the twenty-four sacred places is the shakti pitha (Skt. śakti pīṭha) creation myth. Accordingly, Shakti, the wife of Shiva, being extremely upset that her husband was not invited to a ritual feast performed by the other gods sacrificed herself. When Shiva finds the corpse of his wife, grief stricken, he begins to dance wildly with his wife’s body. This caused her body parts to fly off and scatter all over India. Wherever her body part fell, a sacred site arose in which the goddess is said to reside. Among them, Uddiyana is often regarded as one of the four great sacred sites (Skt. caturmahapīṭhas). Jnanestra (Skt. Jñānanetra), a great Shakti Shaiva saint is said to have traveled in the mid 9^th century to the charnel ground of Uddiyana. There he met Mangaladevi (Skt. Maṅgalādevī, aka Kālī) in a vision, who bestowed on him a special lineage of teachings on non-dualistic tantra, which later became known as the ‘Krama’. One of their commentaries, the Kalikulakramasadbhava (Skt. Kālīkulakramasadbhāva recounts: “In the external world it is Oḍyāna, the great pīṭha, the best of all pīṭhas, the resort of siddhas and yoginīs, located in the northern region, in which this great sequence of the circles that I am relating as it truly is was directly experienced by the Nātha of the Inner Eye [Jñānanetra]’.” Sanderson refers to the Krama as ‘a secret oral tradition concealed in the innermost awareness of the yoginīs of Uḍḍiyāna’.

In comparison, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions, association Uddiyana strongly with female divinities. Though non-Buddhists tantras speak of yoginis, Buddhist tantras use the terms yogini and dakini interchangeably. Thus yogini and dakini refer to the same class of female divinities. Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists regard Uddiyana as part of an external mandala of Vajrayogini or Shakti. Jnananetra, founder of the Krama, traveled to Uddiyana around the time Padmasambhava was possibly residing there. He received teachings as a result of having practiced on the charnel ground of Uddiyana. Therefore, both Buddhists and non-Buddhists regard Uddiyana’s charnel ground to be a key element in the revelation of their tantric lineages. Furthermore, Alexis Sanderson compares the teachings of the Krama with the Atiyoga teachings of the Nyingma tradition. He observes that both approaches present themselves as highest approaches to reality transcending all others. However, rather than disregarding the lower approaches they integrate them. Sanderson argues that both Krama and Atiyoga teach realization to be gained through recognition and subsequently remaining in a non-conceptual state of awareness.

Location

Uddiyana was probably first mentioned by Chinese pilgrims. Faxian (337 – c. 422), Song Yun (? - 528) and Xuanzang (602–664, India 629–641) travelled to an area they refer to as U-chang or U-chang-na, which is commonly agreed a transliteration of Udyana (Skt. Uḍyāna). Based on the accounts of these pilgrims, Udyana was thus identified with the Swat district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Sanderson mentions that likewise an inscription on the base of the Gaṇeśa statue from Gardēz as well as a the Kumārapālacaritasaṃgraha, a Jain text, confirm Uḍḍiyāna’s location in this area. Although identifying Uddiyana with Swat is nowadays agreed upon among most western scholars, some still doubt it.

Tibetan Pilgrims

Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal (1230-1309) is the most well known Tibetan pilgrim to have travelled to Uddiyana. However by the time he reached the Swat valley, Buddhism had already almost completely disappeared. His travel itinerary, ‘A Guide to Uddiyana’ (Tib. o rgyan lam yig), quickly became the main source of information on Uddiyana for the Tibetans. The accounts of his journey are of a rather mystical nature. His descriptions and encounters often involve dakinis and other divine beings. Nevertheless, based on them, one can gain a fairly accurate picture of his route as well as the cities and areas he visited. Orgyenpa depicts his journey to the center of Uddiyana with his travel companion as follows: “After half a day we reached Dhumathala. This is the heart of Uḍḍiyāna, the land of miraculous power. When we saw that place our cries were beyond counting. Before it there dwells a self-born [image] of the goddess Maṅgaladevī made of sandal-wood”

Historical Perspective

The Swat area, as a place of Buddhist practice gained already significant importance in the 3^rd century BCE under the rule of king Ashoka (304–232 BCE). Xuanzang describes the area he refers to as U-chang-na as 5000 li (1350 km) in circuit, a fertile land, with abundant fruits and flowers and thick forests and a moderate climate, inhabited by gentle and cultured people. With regard to the practice of Buddhism Xuanzang describes that although as many as 1,400 Buddhist centers were spread along the Swat river, many of them were deserted. Xuanzang says that although the people study the Mahayana, they do not necessarily understand it. With regard to a possible tantric practice environment Song Yun tells the story of a king travelling to the country of U-chang in order to learn the spells of the Brahmins. Xuanzang mentions that the inhabitants ‘practice the art of using charms’ and that the priest purposely forbid them. Sanderson further supports the claim of tantric practice in Uḍḍiyāna quoting the Manjushrimulakalpa (Skt. Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa) which states: “[These] excellent Mantras can be mastered in the North: in Kāpiśa, Balkh, throughout Uḍiyāna, in Kashmir, Sindh, and in the valleys of the Himalaya’.”

In recent times, archeological research in Swat conducted over the last 20 years, revealed many images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the 7^th and 8^th century representing the ‘final flourishing of Buddhist art in the region’. Astonishing is the lack of Vajrayana artefacts expected form an area depicted as the Vajrayana country par excellence. A possible explanation might be the decline the area was in due to many outer factors, such as calamities and political instability. These made it increasingly difficult for the practice and further development of Buddhism. Thus Filigenzi in her archeological research article concludes: “Swat saw the emergence of the Vajrayana, the last off shoot of a long tradition that would blossom into the extraordinary florescence with which we are familiar elsewhere.”

Buddhism came to a sudden end in the 11^th century, due to Muslim invasions led by Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030), who plundered the cities and destroyed the temples. Dalton however suggests, that although Muslim invasions put an end to Buddhist institutions it continued to be practiced in the more rural areas, particularly at the borders to Tibet. Due to the increasingly hostile environment the remaining Buddhist slowly migrated to Tibet.

It may nevertheless still be interesting to note that the broader area of Kashmir produced as late as the 13^th great Vajrayana scholars, such as Shakyashri-bhadra.

Further Reading

• Beal, Samuel. Si-yu-ki. Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang, AD 629. London: Trübner, 1884.
• Bhattacharya, Benoytosh. Sādhanamālā. 2 volumes. Gaewkwad’s Oriental Series 41. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1968.
• Bogin, Benjamin. "Locating the Copper-Colored Mountain: Buddhist Cosmology, Himalayan Geography, and Maps of Imagined Worlds." Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 34, no. 2, 201.
• Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad, ed. Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India. Motilal Banarsidass, 1990.
• Dalton, Jacob P. The uses of the dgongs pa ‘dus pa’i mdo in the development of the rnyinng-ma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Asian Language and Cultures: Buddhist Studies. The University of Michigan, 2002.
• Davidson, Ronald M. "Reflections on the Mahdvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apologetics, and the Birth of Heruka." journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14.2, 1991: 197-235.
• Davidson, Ronald M. Hidden Realms and Pure Abodes: Central Asian Buddhism as Frontier Religion in the Literature of India, Nepal and Tibet. Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies 3rd ser. no. 4, 2002: 153-181.
• Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: Social History of the Tantric Movement. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2003.
• Donaldson, Thomas E. Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa: Text. Vol. 1. Abhinav Publications, 2001.
• Dudjom Rinpoche. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 1991.
• Gendun, Chopel. Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
• Gray, David B. "On the Very Idea of a Tantric Canon." Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 5 (2009): 1-37.
• Gray, David B. The Cakrasamvara Tantra: A Study and Annotated Translation. American Institute of Buddhist Studies, New York, 2007.
• Granoff, Phyllis. "Mahdvara/Mahakala: A Unique Buddhist Image from Kasmir." Artibus Asiae 41, 1979: 64 – 82.
• Huber, Toni. The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Filigenzi, Anna. “A Vajrayanic Theme in the Rock Sculpture of Swat (NWFP, Pakistan)”. In G. Verardi and S. Vita (eds.) Buddhist Asia 1, Papers from the First Conference of Buddhist Studies Held in Naples in May 2001: 37-55.
• Filigenzi, Anna. “Post-Gandharan Swat. From the Late Buddhist rock-sculptures to the Turki Śāhis dynastic centers”, in Ghani-ur-Rahman and Luca M. Olivieri (eds.) Italian Archaeology and Anthropology in Northern Pakistan (1955-2011) of Journal of Asian Civilizations, 2011: 193-210.
• Isaacson, Harunaga. Yogācāra and Vajrayāna according to Ratnākaraśānti. In: The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners, The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and its Adaptation in Inida, East Asia, and Tibet, Ulrich Timme Kragh (ed.), Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 75, Harvard University Press, 2013: 1036-1051.
• Kinsley, David R. Hindu goddesses: Visions of the divine feminine in the Hindu religious tradition. Vol. 12. Berkley: University of California Press, 1988.
• Kuwayama Shoshin, “L’inscription du Ganesa de Gardez et la chronologie des Turki-Sāhi,” Journal Asiatique, vol 279, 1991: 267-287.
• Lokesh Chandra. 'Oḍḍiyāna: A New Interpretation' in M. Aris & Aung San Suu Kyi, Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster, 1980: 73-78.
• Ngawang Zangpo. Guru Rinpoche: His life and times. Snow Lion Publications, 2002.
• Ngawang Zangpo. Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography. New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2001.
• Patrul Rinpoche. The Words of My Perfect Teacher. Translated by Padmakara Translation Group. Boston: Shambala, 1998.
• Roy, Kaushik. Warfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CE. New York: Routledge 2015.
• Sanderson, Alexis. "The Śaiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism during the Early Medieval Period" in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, edited by Shingo Einoo, Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, 23. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2009: 41-350.
• Sanderson, Alexis. “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmiri” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner / Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, edited by Dominic Goodall and André Padoux, Collection Indologie 106, Pondicherry: Institut français d'Indologie / École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2007: 231–442.
• Spagnesi, Piero. “Aspects of the Architecture of the Buddhist Sacred Areas in Swat”. In: Luca M. Olivieri (ed[s]): Special Issue for the 50th Anniversary of the IsIAO Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan of East and West, 2006: 151-175.
• Sircar, Dineschandra. The Śākta Pīthas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971.
• Tucci, Guiseppe. Travels of Tibetan Pilgrims in the Swat Valley. Calcutta: Greater India Society, 1940.
• Tulku Thondup. Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet. Boston: Shambhala, 2014.
• Tulku Zangpo Drakpa. “Le'u Dünma—The Prayer in Seven Chapters to Padmākara, the Second Buddha.” Lotsawa House: Free Translations of Tibetan Buddhist Texts. Lotsawa House, 2005. Web. 22 October 2015. <http://lotsawahouse.org/>.
• Wedemeyer, Christian K. Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian Traditions. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
• Yeshe Tsogyal. The Lotus-born: the life story of Padmasambhava. Transl. Erik Pema Kunsang, ed. Marcia Binder Schmidt. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.