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MANTRAYANA-VAJRAYANA: HINDU MANTRIC SYSTEM
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who cared more for their material welfare than Nirvana. They could not read the Sutras and so they were shortened into Dharanis for being memorised. When further shortened the Dharnis were reduced to Mantras which were sometimes reduced to a single syllable in the form of Bīja * as in the case of Prajnāpāramitā.
HINDU MANTRIC SYSTEM
Dr. B. Bhattacharyya infers Hindu Mantric system to be later than the Buddhist Vajrayana and even that it was incorporated bodily into Hinduism from Buddhism, because he thinks Tantric Mantras make abrupt appearance in Hindu Tantric literature without showing even a faint trace of the earlier and crude stages of development. We beg to differ and point out that Hindu Tantric literature has gradually developed from the Vedas specially the Atharvaveda. Besides what has been stated in the previous section hereof regarding Atharvaveda being the original source of Mantra as well as Tantra we beg to refer the readers to Asurikalpa in which according to the Mantra and Dhyana there given the principal deity Durga is addressed as 'Atharvaṇasya Duhite' and 'Turyavedasya Putri' i. e. daughter of Atharvan.§
It is not only according to Hindu tradition or belief of Hindu Tantrics that Atharvaveda is considered to be the original source from which Tantrism is considered to have developed but also according to Jain authorities. We shall show this by references from two ancient Jain works viz. Vasudeva Hindi by Vachaka Sri Sanghadāsa and
*Buddhist Mantras are of four kinds:-(1) Bija Mantra being monosyllabic (2) Mulamantras are long and may be compared to Hindu Tantrika's Mālāmantras (3) Hṛdaya Mantra being short Mantra for Japa of the principal deity i. e. Ishtadevatā (4) Avaraṇadevată Mantras being generally short Mantras of the deities surrounding the chief deity.
Jain Education International 2010_03
8 बालेन्दु चेतवणां विकसितनयनां वामहस्त त्रिशूलाम् । दक्षे स्थाल्यंकुशादयां हृदरुणवदनां नागयज्ञोपवीताम् ॥ नानालंकारयुक्तां सुललितवदनां तुर्यवेदस्य पुत्रीम् । दुर्गा पद्मासनस्थामखिलवशकरीमासुरीं त्वां नमामि ॥
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