page_title: Vajrayana
section_title: Texts
hierarchical_section_title: Vajrayana / Texts
caption_attribution_description: English: A few pages from the Vajrāvalī Buddhist text, a ritual compendium compiled by the Vikramashila monastery around 1100 CE, by the abbot Abhayakaragupta. This text is one of the largest compendium on tantric Buddhism. It has extensive discussions on various rituals and ceremonies within a Buddhist monastery. Cecil Bendall purchased this manuscript in February 1898–9 in Nepal. The manuscript is now preserved as MS Or.154 at the Cambridge University LIbrary. Language: Sanskrit Script: Nepalaksara The photo above is of a 2D manuscript artwork created about 900 years ago, itself a copy from a text that was authored earlier. The artwork and this 2D photograph, therefore, fall under Wikimedia Commons PD-Art licensing guidelines. Any rights I have as a photographer is herewith donated to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0 license.
context_page_description: Vajrayāna, Vajrā-Mahāyāna, Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism are terms referring to the various Buddhist traditions of Tantra and "Secret Mantra", which developed in medieval India and spread to Tibet, Bhutan, and East Asia. In Tibet, Buddhist Tantra is termed Vajrayāna, while in China it is generally known as Tángmì Hanmi 漢密 or Mìzōng, in Pali it is known as Pyitsayãna, and in Japan it is known as Mikkyō.
  Vajrayāna is usually translated as Diamond Vehicle or Thunderbolt Vehicle or Indestructible Vehicle, referring to the vajra, a mythical weapon which is also used as a ritual implement.
  Founded by medieval Indian Mahāsiddhas, Vajrayāna subscribes to the literature known as the Buddhist Tantras. It includes practices that make use of mantras, dharanis, mudras, mandalas and the visualization of deities and Buddhas. According to Vajrayāna scriptures, the term Vajrayāna refers to one of three vehicles or routes to enlightenment, the other two being the Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna.
context_section_description: There is an extended body of texts associated with Buddhist Tantra, including the "tantras" themselves, tantric commentaries and shastras, sadhanas (liturgical texts), ritual manuals (Jp. gikirui, 儀軌類), dharanis, poems or songs (dohas), termas and so on. According to Harunaga Isaacson,
  Though we do not know precisely at present just how many Indian tantric Buddhist texts survive today in the language in which they were written, their number is certainly over one thousand five hundred; I suspect indeed over two thousand. A large part of this body of texts has also been translated into Tibetan, and a smaller part into Chinese. Aside from these, there are perhaps another two thousand or more works that are known today only from such translations. We can be certain as well that many others are lost to us forever, in whatever form. Of the texts that survive a very small proportion has been published; an almost insignificant percentage has been edited or translated reliably.
  Vajrayana texts exhibit a wide range of literary characteristics—usually a mix of verse and prose, almost always in a Sanskrit that "transgresses frequently against classical norms of grammar and usage," although also occasionally in various Middle Indic dialects or elegant classical Sanskrit.
  In Chinese Mantrayana (Zhenyan), and Japanese Shingon, the most influential esoteric texts are the Mahavairocana Tantra (Dainichi Kyo) and the Vajraśekhara Sūtra (Kongokai Kyo).
  
  In Tibetan Buddhism, a large number of tantric works are widely studied and different schools focus on the study and practice of different cycles of texts. According to Geoffrey Samuel,
  "the Sakyapa specialize in the Hevajra Tantra, the Nyingmapa specialize in the various so called Old Tantras and terma cycles, and the most important Kagyudpa and Gelugpa tantras are Guhyasamāja, Cakrasaṃvara and Kālacakra."
caption: Three leafs from a manuscript of the Vajrāvalī, a ritual compendium compiled by Abhayakaragupta, abbot of the Vikramashila monastery around 1100 CE.
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