Oddiyana
Encyclopedia
, a small country in early medieval India
, ascribed importance in the development and dissemination of Tantric Buddhism. The physical location of is disputed and open to conjecture. Possible locations that have been identified are:
and at least one evocation of the historicity of a particular personage by that name is intimately connected with the location of 'Oddiyana' (the locality denoted by the term 'Oddiyana' whether in each case cited is Swat Valley or Orissa
or some other location is glossed with a suite of orthographic representations and near homophones which require further case-by-case examination and exploration), Orissa and the cult of Jaganath and a number of texts that inform the matter such as the Sādhanamālā' , Kālikā Purāṇa, Caturāsiti-siddha-Pravṛtti, Jñānasiddhi as Donaldson (2001: p. 11) frames an overview of some of the debate and then ventures further salience:
) revealed in Jigme Lingpa's terma of the Ngondro
of the Longchen Nyingtig and throughout the Longchen Nyingtig Ngondro, Oddiyana is rendered in the form .
.
Oddiyana was a city said to be a seat of Vajrayana
practice situated in the geographical area of North-Western Pakistan
. A number of Vajrayana and Tantric
practitioners are said to have stayed and practiced there. In Mahayana folklore
, the first Vajrayana teachings were supposedly given there by Shakyamuni Buddha, at the request of King Indrabodhi.
, meaning garden or orchard; Chinese
pinyin
: wu chang, also romanized as Woo-chang) was a Buddhist region in northern India
, delimited in part by the Indus river
and to the south by a region known as Soo-ho-to. Prakrit
was spoken.
The area is said to have supported some 500 Sthavira Buddhist monasteries, at which travelling monks were provided lodgings and food for three days. It is said Buddha
's footprint could be found there (refer petrosomatoglyph
), a rock on which he dried his clothes and a place where he 'converted' a Naga
.
It is said that the two schools derived from the Sthaviras, the Dharmagupta and Kasyapiya
, were established in this area. Both of these schools had proto-Mahayana
doctrines.
Udyāna is of vital importance in the Vajrayana
schools of Buddhism
, as most of the later tantras are identified as originating there.
Possible locations of Udyāna that have been identified are:
Fa Xian wrote: "There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder. It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day." (This footprint can still be seen today, in the upper Swat valley, at Lat/Long:35.1316,72.459).
Medieval India
Medieval India refers to the Middle Ages i.e. 5th to 15th century AD in the Indian subcontinent, it includes:*Early Middle Ages: Middle kingdoms of India*Hoysala Empire*Kakatiya Kingdom*Delhi Sultanate*Ahom Kingdom*Reddy Kingdom...
, ascribed importance in the development and dissemination of Tantric Buddhism. The physical location of is disputed and open to conjecture. Possible locations that have been identified are:
- Swāt Valley region of present-day PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. Most scholars conventionally place it here. - OrissaOrissaOrissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
locality of Eastern India, through a case founded upon "literary, archeological and iconographical" evidence, according to Keown, et al. (2003: p. 203). Scholars championing this location contend that the name Oḍḍiyāna derives from the DravidianDravidian languagesThe Dravidian language family includes approximately 85 genetically related languages, spoken by about 217 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and...
, denoting a native or indigenous person of (Orissa) or from Oṭṭiyam, Telegu for Oḍra. is also the Middle Indic form of Udyāna, meaning "garden," the name by which Hsüan Tsang knew the region around Orissa. - In later Tibetan traditions, is either conflated or identified with ShambhalaShambhalaIn Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala or Shangri-la is a mythical kingdom hidden somewhere in Inner Asia...
, a land inhabited by dakiniDakiniA dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'. The dakini, in...
and inaccessible to or by, ordinary mortals being a beyulBeyulBeyul are hidden valleys, encompassing hundreds of square kilometers, which Padmasambhava blessed as refuges in the Nyingmapa Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. Terton may reveal them from terma at specific and appropriate times. Their locations were kept on scrolls hidden under rocks and inside caves,...
or 'hidden land'.
Conflation of Indrabhuti related to conflation of Oddiyana
The matter of the conflation of IndrabhutiIndrabhuti
Indrabhuti is a name attributed to a number of individuals that have become conflated in the esoteric Buddhadharma tradition of Mantrayana...
and at least one evocation of the historicity of a particular personage by that name is intimately connected with the location of 'Oddiyana' (the locality denoted by the term 'Oddiyana' whether in each case cited is Swat Valley or Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
or some other location is glossed with a suite of orthographic representations and near homophones which require further case-by-case examination and exploration), Orissa and the cult of Jaganath and a number of texts that inform the matter such as the Sādhanamālā' , Kālikā Purāṇa, Caturāsiti-siddha-Pravṛtti, Jñānasiddhi as Donaldson (2001: p. 11) frames an overview of some of the debate and then ventures further salience:
In his argument, P. C. Bagchi states that there are two distinct series of names in Tibetan: (1) O-rgyān, U-rgyān, O-ḍi-yā-na, and (2) O-ḍi-vi-śā, with the first series connected with Indrabhūti, i.e., Oḍiyăna and Uḍḍiyāna, while the second series falls back on Oḍi and Oḍiviśa, i.e., Uḍra (Orissa) and has nothing to do with Indrabhūti. N.K. Sahu objects, however, and points out that these two sets of names are seldom distinguished in Buddhist Tantra literature, and opines that the words Oḍa, Oḍra, Uḍra, Oḍiviśa and Oḍiyāna are all used as variants of Uḍḍiyāna. In the Sādhanamālā, he further points out, Uḍḍiyāna is also spelt as Oḍrayāna while in the Kālikā Purāṇa, as indicated earlier, it is spelt either Uḍḍiyāna or Oḍra. There is also evidence, Sahu continues, that Indrabhūti is the king of Orissa rather than of the Swāt valley. The Caturāsiti-siddha-Pravṛtti, for example, mentions him as the king of Oḍiviśa while Cordier, in his Bṣtān-ḥgyur catalogue, gives sufficient indications of his being the king of Orissa. Also, in his famous work Jñānasiddhi, king Indrabhūti opens it with an invocation to Lord Jagannātha, a deity intimately associated with Orissa and with no other area of India.
Orgyan / Orgyen
In the 'Seven Line Prayer' (of PadmasambhavaPadmasambhava
Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
) revealed in Jigme Lingpa's terma of the Ngondro
Ngöndro
Ngöndro refers to the preliminary, preparatory or foundational 'practices' or 'disciplines' common to all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and also to Bön...
of the Longchen Nyingtig and throughout the Longchen Nyingtig Ngondro, Oddiyana is rendered in the form .
Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhist literature, is described as being ruled by several kings each of whom were named IndrabhūtiIndrabhuti
Indrabhuti is a name attributed to a number of individuals that have become conflated in the esoteric Buddhadharma tradition of Mantrayana...
.
Oddiyana was a city said to be a seat of Vajrayana
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
practice situated in the geographical area of North-Western Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. A number of Vajrayana and Tantric
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
practitioners are said to have stayed and practiced there. In Mahayana folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, the first Vajrayana teachings were supposedly given there by Shakyamuni Buddha, at the request of King Indrabodhi.
Udyāna
Udyāna (SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, meaning garden or orchard; Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: wu chang, also romanized as Woo-chang) was a Buddhist region in northern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, delimited in part by the Indus river
Indus River
The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through China and India.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and...
and to the south by a region known as Soo-ho-to. Prakrit
Prakrit
Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
was spoken.
The area is said to have supported some 500 Sthavira Buddhist monasteries, at which travelling monks were provided lodgings and food for three days. It is said Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
's footprint could be found there (refer petrosomatoglyph
Petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is an image of parts of a human or animal body incised in rock. Many were created by Celtic peoples, such as the Picts, Scots, Irish, Cornish, Cumbrians, Bretons and Welsh. These representations date from the Early Middle Ages; others of uncertain purpose date back to megalithic...
), a rock on which he dried his clothes and a place where he 'converted' a Naga
Naga people
The term Naga people refers to a conglomeration of several tribes inhabiting the North Eastern part of India and north-western Burma. The tribes have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority ethnic group in the Indian state of Nagaland...
.
It is said that the two schools derived from the Sthaviras, the Dharmagupta and Kasyapiya
Kasyapiya
Kāśyapīya was one of the early Buddhist schools in India.-Etymology:The name Kāśyapīya is believed to be derived from Kāśyapa, one of the original missionaries sent by King Ashoka to the Himavant country...
, were established in this area. Both of these schools had proto-Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
doctrines.
Udyāna is of vital importance in the Vajrayana
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
schools of Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, as most of the later tantras are identified as originating there.
Possible locations of Udyāna that have been identified are:
- a) Modern day Swat Valley in PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. - b) Modern day MahanadiMahanadi RiverThe Mahanadi in East Central India. It drains an area of around 141,600 km2 and has a total course of 858 km. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Orissa.-Source:...
and Baitarani basin in OrissaOrissaOrissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Fa Xian wrote: "There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder. It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day." (This footprint can still be seen today, in the upper Swat valley, at Lat/Long:35.1316,72.459).