OPINION
While it is generally believed that Buddhism had become almost extinct in India by the end of the 12th century, the fact that Buddhaguptha Natha, a Tamil Yogi who appeared like ‘Shukra’ in the sky of India’s Buddhism, led a revival of the religion in the 16th century, surprisingly went unknown until the appearance in more recent times of the English translations of his biography by his famous Tibetan disciple Taranatha (Kunga Nyingpo), (the founder of the Jonang Sect of Tibetan Buddhism), writes Dr A B Sai Prasad*
According to historians, “Buddhism emerged in India 2600 years ago as a way of life capable of transforming a person”. It flourished in the spiritually fertile soil of India under the patronization of Emperor Ashoka the Great, Kanishka, Harshavardhana etc. It gained very strong ground in India. In fact it became one of the alternatives to the then so-called Brahmanism. Over a period of time the waxing moon of Buddhism slowly travelled towards waning. According to Randall Collins, “Buddhism was already declining in India by the 12th century, but with the pillage by invaders it nearly became extinct in India”. In the 16th century Buddhaguptha Natha, a Tamil Yogi appeared like ‘Shukra’ in the sky of India’s Buddhism.
The invasions by Hoons and particularly Muslims, Sanatana Dharma accepting Buddha as an ‘Avatara’ of Mahavishnu, Adi Sankaracharya’s spirited propaganda that everything that is good in Buddhism already exists in Sanatana Dharma, broad divisions of Buddhism like Theravada (The way Of Elders) Mahayana (The Great value) and Vajrayana (The Diamond way or The Secret Mantra) and further subdivisions like Tantrayana, SahajaYana, corruption in the Buddhist Sangha etc. are some of the reasons for the decline of Buddhism in India. The total destruction of Nalanda university in 1193 by Baktiar Khilji and his Mamluk army and persecution by the invaders made Buddhist monks leave the portals of India. They settled down in other parts of Asia. Mr. Harvey Peter in his book ‘An Introduction To Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices’ (Cambridge University Press) says, “..Monks in western India escaped persecution by moving to South India”. Buddhaguptha Natha of present-day Tamil Nadu’s Rameaswaram kept the cinders of Buddhism hot.
In history the wheel of time plays a greater role. By the 10th century the Natha tradition became a religious force to reckon with. It was inspired by the Tantrayana of Buddhism. Ma Huan (1380-1460) a Chinese traveller who visited a part of Western Coast of India, wrote a memoir. He has mentioned the Nath Yogis. They were called “Kan Phata” (the split ear with an Ivory ring thrust into the lobe) Buddhaguptha Natha became a follower of Goraksha Natha. Buddhaguptha Natha was greatly influenced by Tantrayana.
The name of Buddhaguptha Natha has come into limelight only recently. Tara Natha, Tibet’s well-known Lama and greatest historian, in his Hagiography (Biography of saints or venerated persons) has deliberately mentioned the biography of Buddhaguptha Natha. According to Tara Natha (1575-1634) – In Tibetan Language his name is pronounced as Kun-dga-Snying-po, The Sanskrit translation is Anandagarbha- Buddhaguptha Natha was born in a village near Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram. He mentions the name of the village as Indralinga. Indralingam may be the name of Rameswarm in Tibetan text or a suburban village near Rameswaram. He was his parents’ eighth son. His parents were rich Vaisyas (It is said once upon a time all Vaisya followed Buddhism). They would have named their son as Buddha. Being Vaisyas they would have added the community suffix Guptha. We are not aware of his original name. His first guru Thirth Nath or Sumati or Shantiguptha who belongs to the Natha tradition of Shaivism might have named our Rameswaram Yogi as Buddhaguptha Natha. Initially he received his education from teachers Thirtha Natha, Devanara, Deepa Natha, Brahma Natha and Krishna Natha. Some of his gurus belonged to a dissident group known as ‘Nathesvaries’. David Templeman in one of his talks (Buddhist Summer School. Melbourne,2002) says, “Buddhists and Nath Yogis might have felt they were sharing to a great extent, a common path.”
Buddhaguptha Natha learnt grammar from Deepa Natha. All the gurus were followers of Gorakshanatha. From these gurus he learnt Rasayana i.e, Alchemy. The first 30 years of his life Buddhagupta Nath spent in Rameswaram. He equipped himself with Mantra, Tantra and Yoga. He even practiced them very devotedly.
For 16 long years Buddhaguptha Natha practiced meditation in one of the old Shiva temples of Rameswaram. After mastering the art of meditation he started his pilgrimage to different spiritual places of India. During his pilgrimage he visited Oddiyana or Uddiyana. This was once the seat of Maha Siddhas. For the monks of Tibet this is one of their holy places. This place belongs to the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism. This is the birth place of DZOGCHEN (Great Completion or Great Perfection) preaching. Buddhists of Tibet consider this place as Heaven on Earth. In Tibetan language they call this place as BEYUL (Hidden Valley). This place is associated with Guru Padmasambhava. Some historians are of the opinion that this place is in the Swat district of Pakistan. Buddhaguptha Natha gained much by visiting this place.
Tara Natha, the disciple of Buddhaguptha Natha, in his hagiography gives details about his guru’s pilgrimage. He says his guru, during his extensive travels, once visited Rathor of Rajasthan. The Nobles of the King received him and presented some gifts to Buddhaguptha Natha. With the help of locals Buddhaguptha Natha erected a small hut and began to practice his Yoga. One day in his deep meditation he had the vision of Vajra Yogini. Monks of Tibet consider Vajra Yogini as the female incarnation of Buddha. She appeared in his meditation again and again. Once she appeared as a barmaid. Because of her grace he could easily overcome all the obstacles in his life. It is said in the beginning Buddhaguptha Natha followed Shiva’s Natha Sampradaya. After this holy Vision he followed the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism. He practiced Vajrayana for eight long years. He was initiated into ‘Chakra Samvara’. He was given the Hevajra Mantra “Om Deva Picu Vajra Hum Phat Svaha’. This induction took place in Dramila Dvipa, A guru by the name of Sumati gave this mantra to Buddhaguptha Natha.
Buddhaguptha Natha then approached Guru Shanti Guptha. He sought empowerment from Guru Shanti Guptha. Guru Shanti Guptha advised him to gather necessary material from different sources. Buddhaguptha Natha first visited the Trilinga province (The area covered by SriSailam, Kaaleswaram and Draksharamam of present-day Andhra Pradesh). Here he gathered material worth 30 Tolas (One tola is equivalent to approximately 11.66 grams) of Silver. Then he visited Tirumala and gathered some material. Finally he visited a place in Karnataka where his guru Shanti Gupta was residing. He received empowerment from his guru Shanthi Gupta. Some more empowerment he received from his Guru’s prominent disciple by the name of Gambheera Linga. He spent nearly 13 months with his Guru Shanti Guptha. It is said Guru Shanti Guptha christened this Rameswaram man as Buddhaguptha Natha. Buddhaguptha Natha eventually went on his own to mountain retreats and mastered ‘CHULAN” (It is a kind of antiaging method. It is a kind of super vitamin).
Having gained profound knowledge in the Vajrayana division of Buddhism, he took up a mission of propagating Buddhism in different parts of Asia. Three people have narrated about his travels. Mr. Prabhakara Tamilarasu (‘A Tamil Buddhist Yogi went to Zanzibar, Macau in 1500s’, The Print, 3rd January 2025) says, ‘his Indian travels started from Konkan Coast of present-day Goa in 1570 and ended at the coast of Amaravati (The New Capital of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh) in 1585. His biographer Tara Natha has recorded that Buddhaguptha Natha’s maritime journey which according to him lasted for 8 full years. Buddhaguptha Natha travelled to ‘Sankhdvipa’. Iain Sinclair (a writer and Filmmaker) in his research paper (The Indian Ocean Itinerary Of Buddhaguptha Natha’s Namthar, Published in the Journal Of Tibetan Literature,2024,3(2) 27-60) identifies this place as ‘Socotra Island of Yemen. From Socotra this Tamil Yogi travelled to one of the Islands of Maldives. Once upon a time people here were following Buddhism. Now Buddhism is not practiced in Maldives. From Maldives the Yogi reached Sri Lanka. Buddhaguptha Natha was very much impressed by the natural beauty of this Island. Buddhism was thriving there. He meets people there. He visits almost all the important places connected with Buddhism. He visits even The Ram Sethu. Britishers have changed the name of Ram Sethu as Adam’s Bridge. Here he had the local king as his audience. Tara Natha mentions his name as ra he Shing bhan dari, namely Raja Singhe 1 formerly Tikiri Bandara. He was on the throne at Kandy from 1581 (or in effect from 1578) to 1892. As per Tara Natha’s hagiography he reached a place called “Jami Giri”. Even the prominent Buddhist Monk Nagarjuna too had paid a visit to this place. Saint Nagarjuna had even constructed one Buddhist Aarama here. From here Buddhaguptha Natha reached Mount Potalaka. At this place Buddhists claim that BODHISATTVA AVALOKITESHVARA once lived. Iain Sinclair says, ‘Buddhaguptha Natha’s five-year sojourn in Sri Lanka would then have started in 1573 at the earliest and ended no later than 1587.’ Tara Natha says his Guru Buddhaguptha Natha, during his stay in Sri Lanka, met a 700 years old Yogi by name YASAKARASHANTHI in a cave near Kandy.
After spending five years in Sri Lanka Buddhaguptha Natha reached Pulau Lingga (Indonesia). From there he went to Macau (China) and to Zanzibar or Comoro Islands (East Africa). Mr. David Templeman gives some more details about Buddhaguptha Nath’s pilgrimage. In his talk he says, ‘He travelled on foot to Iran, Balkh in the north of Afghanistan, Kashgar in Central Asia, Multan, Khorasan, Badakhshan, Quest and lands of Mughals. He travelled by boat to South East Asia, parts of Burma (Myanmar) and possibly Thailand. It is even believed that he reached Madagascar off the coast of East Africa’. Paying his compliments to Buddhaguptha Natha, 63-year-old independent research scholar Mr. Sampath from Namakkal District of Tamil Nadu observes: “Buddhaguptha Natha may have been the first Tamil Buddhist to travel this widely.” Iain Sinclare mentions names of some Islands. These Islands- Dunggi gling, Palata, Ulingga, Amuka, Potala Chungba- are yet to be identified. Iain Sinclare says Buddhaguptha Natha has toured in these islands.
In 1590s (may be in 1594) after completing his South Asia travel Buddhaguptha Natha finally reached Tibet. Here he met a 14-16-year-old boy by name Tara Natha. There is a beautiful story about Tara nath’s meeting with Buddhaguptha Natha. In one of his dreams Tara Natha dreamt about Buddhaguptha Natha, a monk about whom he did know even from Adam. He felt this meeting will be a turning point in his life. He met 76 years old Buddhaguptha Natha and became his disciple. He learnt all the secrets about Vajrayana from Buddhaguptha Natha. He was so influenced by the teachings of Buddhaguptha Natha that in his writings he says, “My Guru told me”, “My Guru said this”, “My Guru’s view is at variance with previous teachers”, “My teacher said differently and I believe him” etc.
Tara Natha’s hagiography being in Tibetan language was not within the reach of scholars. Only those people who were well versed in Tibetan language knew about Buddhaguptha Natha. Strangely Indians as well as scholars worldwide were totally ignorant about Buddhaguptha Natha’s contribution to the spread of Buddhism in the other parts of the world. In one of his short articles Augstine Weddel (1854-1938) briefly mentions the name of Buddhaguptha Natha. An Italian by the name of Giuseppe Tucci for the first time in history, translates Tara Nath’s hagiography from Tibetan language into English and publishes an article in Indian Historical Quarterly VII-683-702 in the year 1931. Hubert Decleer (1940-2022) gives some additional information about Buddhaguptha Natha, He says Buddhaguptha Natha appears to be a contemporary of Aliya (Son-in-law) Rama Raya of Vijayanagara dynasty. In the year 2008 David Templeman translated the hagiography penned by Tara Natha into English and published it. He confirms that Rameswaram’s Tamil Yogi is christened as Buddhaguptha Natha by Guru Sumathi. Now it is clear that the name of Buddhaguptha Natha has seen the light of the day, only in the 21st century.
As a follower of Natheswari and Vajra Yogini traditions Buddhguptha Natha had acquired some mystic powers. Tara Natha writes about the most astonishing powers of his master. He says, “The signs and marks of his accomplishments as a Yogin were plainly visible to ordinary eyes. Half the day he remained (in a state) whereby he cut off the flow of his breath, and at practically all times he stayed naked (throughout his stay in Tibet). Not only did he not experience any harm from this, but his immediate entourage, within a two-meter radius, could feel an intense heat, by means of which he was able to protect others from the cold. By cutting off the flow of his breath through his mouth and nostrils, he was able to make appear to his eyes and ears, whatever he wanted. Also his feet did not sink on water. He was standing about two fingers above the ground and his bodily splendour would touch every object and remain there for a long time. He possessed the power of seeing others’ secret designs, in a supernatural way knowing others’ minds. His body was light. He would jump down from (a height of) two to three stories and like a skin that had been flung down, he landed gently like a feather. Poison quicksilver and the like were unable to harm him. As his mind was abiding in steady loving kindness, dogs and even carnivores would lick his body and in other ways show their affection. Ravens, little birds and so forth would alight on his lap or on to the tips of fingers. At the time of bestowing an empowerment, he was able to make the wisdom actually descend. In the presence of worthy candidates he would show his miraculous occurrences of various kinds, such as radiating lights into the ‘mandala’. He stood in no need for the foods offered to him by human beings. He lived on (intangible) foods offered by non-human beings. While holding his breath a little, his body would diminish in size to the point that he could enter in a tiny drinking cup; next, by once exhaling his breath, he could turn into eight different bodies.”
Buddhguptha Natha stayed with Tara Natha for three months and returned to India via Nepal. He reunited with his Guru Shanti Guptha. He spent some time with his guru and continued his journey with his own students. The last sentence of Tara Natha in Buddhguptha Natha’s biography proper, composed in about 1601, reads: ‘after that, and up to the present day, he took up his residence in the vicinity of Devakota, so I heard’.
‘Buddhaguptha Natha was not an ordained monastic practitioner and not the product of a monastic university’. This is the most astonishing thing about Buddhaguptha Natha. During his travels he preferred to visit ‘Pithas’ rather than exclusively sacred places of worship.
Strangely there are no traces of Yogi Buddhaguptha Natha in Tamil Nadu. Somehow historians have forgotten to mention Yogi Buddhaguptha Natha who is responsible for the revival of Buddhism in India. Buddhist researcher Mr. Sampath from Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal observes. “Buddhaguptha Natha’s life provides evidence that Buddhism, specifically Tantric and Siddha traditions persisted in India well into the 17th century, challenging the narrative that Buddhism was completely eradicated from the Indian Sub-continent by the 12th century”.
Dr. B R Ambedkar the chief architect of our Constitution while addressing the delegates of Youngman’s Buddhist Association in May 1950 at Colombo (Sri Lanka) on “Rise and fall of Buddhism in India” said, “Buddhism in its material form had disappeared, I agree. But as a spiritual force it still exists.” May be to endorse the statement made by Dr, B R Ambedkar, Mr. Koenraad Elsit, a Flemish author known primarily for his adherence to Hindutva ideology, in his book ‘Buddha was every inch Hindu’ writes; “Under Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, Buddhism was turned into the unofficial State Religion of India, accepting the ‘Lion Pillar’ of the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka as a state symbol and putting the 24 spokes ‘Chakravart’ wheel in Indian Flag”.
—
A retired Professor of Hindi from Chennai’s Pachaiyapp’s College, octogenarian Dr A B Saj Prasad is a freelance writer in Hindi, Telugu and English as well as a translator, with fluency in six languages, including Tamil and Kannada, while his mother tongue is Marathi. He has participated in national and international seminars in these languages and is a recipient of Uttar Pradesh Hindi Samsthan’s Souhardha Puraskar. He was also an editor and is actively connected with three Telugu monthlies – Misimi, Supatha (Hyderabad) Sapthagiri (Tirupathi) – and English magazine Bhavan’s Journal, Mumbai.