An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism (An Old and Rare Book)

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It naturally gives one pleasure to see one's book reprinted. The response from the readers, including the learned reviewers in many of the esteemed journals, has indeed been very encouraging. The book is being reprinted with necessary revisions.

The present work embodies substantially the thesis submitted by the author, and approved, for the Premchand Roychand Studentship of the University of Calcutta in 1937. Due to the abnormal conditions prevailing in the country during and after the World War II, the author could not arrange to have his work published earlier than 1950. The author brought before the reading public the fruits of his labour in the hope that they might be of use and interest to those who find pleasure in making an academic study of a religious subject.

Whether Vedic or non-Vedic in origin, Tantricism, both Brahmanical and Buddhistic, represents a special aspect of the religious and cultural life of India. A thorough study of Tantricism is, therefore, indispensable for a close acquaintance with the special quality of the Indian mind. For a long time it was customary to hold that Tantricism is an offshoot of Hinduism, or that it constitutes only a particular phase of Hindu Sadhana; but researches in later Buddhism have now brought home that, so far as the extant literature is concerned, the stock of Tantric literature is richer and more varied in the domain of Buddhism than in that of Hinduism. Much more, it is hoped, may be recovered or reconstructed from the Tibetan and Chinese sources. Thanks to the scholarly endeavour of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, which has published a number of important Buddhist Tantric texts and made them available to the scholar and the general reader.

Tantricism, whether Hindu or Buddhistic (and we shall presently see that they are fundamentally the same), has been the target of all sorts of criticism, charitable and uncharitable, from scholars, both Oriental and Occidental. It has often been styled as a school of religious mysticism, where the word mysticism is taken, more often than not, as a loose synonym for puzzling obscurity. The present author has, however, tried to keep his mind open as far as practicable throughout the whole study. His interest has mainly been academic and cultural. He has studied a considerable number of texts, both published and unpublished, gathered information, analysed and classified them and has then tried to give a correct exposition on textual basis, avoiding personal observations and judgment as far as possible. There are many things in the practices of the Tantrikas which are undoubtedly unconventional; the author has tried to exhibit them without offering any apology or advocacy. If errors have crept in, in the form of mis-statement or misinter-pretation, they are due mainly to the fact that ancient religious literature, embodying complicated practices and subtle realisation, may not be deciphered properly by "our modern spectacled eyes ".

The inspiration of the author came from another source. It is known to all students of the Modern Indian Languages that the literature of the early period-particularly in Bengali-comprises a number of songs and Dohas, dealing with the tenets of the Tantric Buddhists. To understand and appreciate the meaning of these songs and Dohas the Tantric background must be clearly understood. The present study was an attempt towards that direction. This study brought to the notice of the author many new and interesting facts which led him to pursue his study further and the findings of further researches in this direction have been incorporated in his book, Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature (published in 1919 by the University of Calcutta).