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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 Sūtras and so they were shortened into Dhāranīs 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. Bhattāchäryya infers Hindu Māntric system to be later than the Buddhist Vajrayāna and even that it was incorporated bodily into Hinduism from Buddhism, because he thinks Tántric Mantras make abrupt appearance in Hindu Tántric 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 Asurīkalpa in which according to the Mantra and Dhyana there given the principal deity Durgā is addressed as 'Atharvaṇasya Dubite' and 'Turyavedasya Putrī' 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 Tántrism 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 Vāchaka Sri Sanghadāsa and
*Buddhist Mantras are of four kinds:-(1) Bīja Mantra being monosyllabic (2) Mülamantras are long and may be compared to Hindu Tantrika's Mājāmantras (3) HỊdaya Maptra being short Mantra for Japa of the principal deity i.e. Ishtadevată (4) Avaranadevatá Mantras being generally short Mantras of the deities surrounding the chief deity.
६ बालेन्दुस्वेतवर्णीं विकसितनयनां वामहस्तत्रिशूलाम् ।
दक्षे स्थाल्यकुशाढयां हृदरुणवदनां नागयज्ञोपवीताम् ।। नानालंकारयुक्तां सुललितवदनां तुर्यवेदस्य पुत्रीम् । दुर्गा पद्मासनस्थामखिलवशकरीमासुरीं त्वां नमामि ।।
