MAHĀSIDDHA

The Sanskrit term mahāsiddha ("great master of spiritual accomplishment" or "great adept") and the simpler, near synonymous form siddha (adept) refer to an individual who has achieved great success in tantric meditation. Buddhist traditions mainly associate siddhas with the transmission of tantric instructions throughout South, East, and, to some degree, Southeast Asia. They are especially important for the Buddhist schools of Nepal and Tibet, which commonly enumerate eighty-four mahāsiddhas, many of whom are regarded as founders of tantric lineages still in existence today.

Primarily active on the Indian subcontinent during the eighth to twelfth centuries, Buddhist siddhas are chiefly characterized by their possession of siddhi (success), yogic accomplishments of two types: the ordinary or mundane accomplishment of magical powers, and the supreme accomplishment of perfect enlightenment. Life stories of individual siddhas abound with examples of the first type of success: mastery over the physical elements and material world, superhuman cognition, even immortality. Siddhas are commonly associated with particular displays of accomplishment; for example, Virūpa's ability to stop the sun mid-course and Saraha's immunity to the heat of molten metal. According to tradition, however, such powers are mere by-products of tantric meditation, not the goal itself. Siddhas or mahāsiddhas qualified by the second type of accomplishment therefore stand as the VajrayĀna enlightened ideal—a model for swiftly attaining realization and ultimate enlightenment through the practice of meditation and yoga.

While many siddhas were probably historical figures, records of their lives and teachings vary in depth and detail. The majority of these accounts are known from the rich corpus of biographical literature preserved in Tibetan, often based on oral and literary traditions from India. Prominent among them is the twelfth-century author Abhayadatta's Caturaśītisiddhapravṛtti (Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas)—extant in Tibetan translation—which presents brief vitae for numerous important masters (Robinson, 1979). The Bka' babs bdun ldan (Seven Instruction Lineages), written by the Tibetan historian Tāranātha (1575–1634), records elements of siddhas' lives as they pertain to the promulgation of important tantric lineages (Templeman). Several widely revered siddhas, such as the Bengali master NĀropa (1016–1100), have been the subject of comprehensive biographies (Guenther).

Accounts of the mahāsiddhas generally portray individuated personalities while following tropes common to much of Buddhist sacred biography—discontent and renunciation, practice of austerities, the overcoming of difficulties, and eventual realization. Siddhas were both male and female and represented all strata of Indian society: Some were born into royal families, others to uneducated laborers. Many began their lives as monks or scholars in one of the great Indian Buddhist universities. Most were compelled at a certain point to abandon their ordinary life, the monastery, or the throne, in favor of mountain solitude and a life of meditation and yogic practice. Some studied under a living master (occasionally another siddha), others received teachings through direct visions of the Buddha. After attaining siddhi, they often led the life of a wandering ascetic, or appeared in the guise of a yogin-madman, intentionally transgressing the normal parameters of religious practice. Siddhas often instructed their disciples through songs of realization (dohā), but hundreds of works—including tantric commentaries, liturgies, and meditation manuals—attributed to Indian adepts are also preserved in the Tibetan canon. As objects of meditation, devotional prayer, and religious art, the figures of the siddhas themselves form an important locus of religious practice throughout the Himalayan Buddhist world.

Well-known individuals among the traditional reckonings of eighty-four mahāsiddhas include Saraha and Maitrīpa, responsible for the spread of mahĀmudrĀ (great seal) instructions; Tilopa and Nāropa, earliest founders of the Tibetan Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) sect; and Virūpa, source for the Tibetan doctrine of path and fruition (lam 'bras) of the Sa skya (Sakya) sect.

See also:Tantra

Bibliography

Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Guenther, Herbert V. The Life and Teaching of Nāropa. Boston and London: Shambhala, 1986.

Robinson, James B. Buddha's Lions: Lives of the 84 Siddhas. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publications, 1979.

Robinson, James B. "The Lives of Indian Buddhist Saints: Biography, Hagiography and Myth." In Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. José Ignacio Cabezón and Roger R. Jackson. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1996.

Templeman, David, trans. The Seven Instruction Lineages. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983.

Andrew Quintman