Column | Shiva’s sexuality and Buddha’s celibacy

The Ocean Sutra is a 1,500-year-old Mahayana Buddhist manuscript that reveals a powerful affect of Tantrik Shaiva ideology. It was composed in Central Asia at a time when Buddhism, which rose 2,500 years in the past and had overshadowed Vedic ritual practices, started going through pushback from the rise of temples devoted to Shiva and Vishnu.

Whereas Buddha had promoted monasticism and celibacy, Shiva’s story celebrated sexuality. Vishnu balanced the 2 excessive views.

This pushback might be traced to the epic Mahabharata, compiled round 100 BCE, which first narrates the story of Shiva destroying Daksha’s yagna (a ritual in entrance of a sacred fireplace). By 500 CE, in Agni Purana, Buddha was introduced as a type of Vishnu — taken to trick demons into giving up Veda, to observe the monastic path as a substitute. This enabled Shiva to boost his bow and destroy the demons’ three flying cities with a single arrow. Thus, Shiva and Buddha have been seen as doing anti-Vedic actions, for various causes: Shiva, to be included within the newly rising Hindu pantheon, and (Vishnu as an imposter) Buddha, to assist the gods defeat demons. The supremacy of Veda was endorsed by these tales popularised by Brahmins.

Ceaselessly in distinction and battle

Buddha shuns marriage; Shiva is wooed into marriage first by Sati, the priest’s daughter, after which Parvati, the mountain princess. Buddha coated himself with robes; Shiva wandered bare with matted hair, smeared with ash. Buddhism emerged in Bihar, 2,500 years in the past; Shaivism in all probability emerged in Mauryan instances within the pine wooden forests of the Uttarakhand area. We will state this as a result of, as per the Mahabharata, Daksha’s yagna takes place at Gangadwara, recognized as trendy Haridwar. Additionally the earliest Shiva temples, in-built central India throughout the Gupta instances, map the Uttarakhand terrain, with the roof representing the Himalayas, and the gateway flanked by the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna.

Buddha was as soon as a prince named Siddhartha. His celibacy was a code for avoiding the entice of enjoyment. Shiva is worshipped as Siddheshwar, the lord of Siddha — his magical powers obtained by celibacy mixed with Tantrik practices. The Buddhist manner spoke of restraint. However Shiva worshippers, the Tantrikas often called Pashupata, popularised the thought of yogis who can wander bare on snowy mountains, who could make childless ladies pregnant, who can carry rain to barren lands, and kill enemies with the look of a watch. In different phrases, sexuality grew to become about energy, not renunciation.

Buddhist students have famous that within the early days, many individuals mocked Buddha’s celibacy and questioned his masculinity. This will likely have been amplified by the worship of Shiva’s phallic image. This led to the compilation of tales of Buddha’s marriage and fathering of youngsters, and even his prowess as a lover and the affect he made on ladies, a trope later discovered within the tales of Krishna.

Among the many 32 marks on the Buddha’s physique — his lengthy ears, his webbed palms, and the like — is the right male genitalia, indicated by a bump on the robes. This explicitness reveals the nervousness of monks in a world the place Tantra visualised the world as the end result of mystical sexual union.

Commemorated as Yamāntaka

Underneath the affect of Tantra, Buddhism reworked. New types of Buddha-to-be (Bodhisattva) appeared as Mahakala Bhairava, the guardian of the Buddhist manner, who, sarcastically, was visualised as being as violent and erotic as Rudra-Shiva. Each Buddha and Shiva have been commemorated as Yamāntaka, killer of the god of demise, liberator from the wheel of rebirth.

The ‘destroyer of demise’ driving a water buffalo
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WikiCommons

Ocean Sutra is amongst the primary texts to disclose the affect of Tantrik sexuality and magic on Buddhism. It tells the story of courtesans accusing Buddha of not having genitalia, and thus of not being man sufficient for his spouse. To counter this accusation, Buddha presents himself nude. The outline that follows is relatively vibrant — a imaginative and prescient of elephants and horses and lotus flowers. The courtesans are humbled they usually grow to be Buddhist nuns.

In one other story, an abusive courtesan is visited by a good-looking man who challenges her to fulfill him. They make love over days. By the third day, she is happy and needs him to depart, however he’s not content material and so continues, till he dies. Even in demise, his corpse clings to her physique, refusing to let go, till it rots. She is compelled to wish to Buddha and ask for his assist. He liberates her and he or she turns into Buddhist.

Ocean Sutra is understood right this moment by its Chinese language translations. It might have performed a key position in reshaping Chinese language politics by difficult the misogyny and patriarchy of the Confucian court docket with a brand new Buddhist notion of kingship, and enabling the meteoric rise of Woman Wu of the Tang dynasty, within the eighth century. She was the primary and solely woman to be declared Emperor of China. She additionally imagined the Buddha and the Bodhisattva as ladies, acknowledging the position of sexuality on the planet of celibacy.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the creator of fifty books on mythology, artwork and tradition.