Sharrock, Peter (2024) 'Maṇḍalas and Landscape in Maritime Asia.' In: Payne, Richard K. and Hayes, Glen A., (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Abstract
Fierce Herukas, emitted by the supreme buddhas of the Vajrayāna “thunderbolt vehicle,” emerged toward the end of the first millennium CE to bolster Buddhist kings outside India with supernatural powers to defend their territory, repel their enemies, and bring peace. This movement applied politically what was prescribed in the major Tantra texts of the great Ganges Valley monasteries but was not implemented in India. The Tantras envisaged extending supramundane maṇḍalas over the royal landscape that were networked into holy sites. The Buddhists were thus replicating in maritime Asia the system of Vidyāpīṭha Śaivism in the Indian subcontinent, where Śaiva masters drew their support for kings from holy pilgrimage sites linked to Śiva. This article traces this royal rebirth of the Herukas to underpin imperial strategies in the mundane sphere in interstate confrontations along the southern coast of Asia.
| Item Type: | Book Chapters |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Buddhism, Tantra, Bhairava, rituals, Divākarapaṇḍita, Brahmanical, Śiva, Śaiva, Vidyāpīṭha, soteriology |
| SOAS Departments & Centres: | Departments and Subunits > School of Arts > Department of the History of Art & Archaeology |
| ISBN: | 9780197549889 |
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197549889.013.47 |
| SWORD Depositor: | JISC Publications Router |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Mar 2024 08:53 |
| URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/41546 |
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