[Footnote 246: The appearance of Gauri as a _dea ex machina_ at the end hardly shows that Harsha"s Buddhism had a Saktist tinge but it does show that Buddhists of that period turned naturally to Sivaite mythology.]
[Footnote 247: Harshacarita, chap. VII. The parrots were expounding Vasubandhu"s Abhidharma-kosa. Ban?a frequently describes troops of holy men apparently living in harmony but including followers of most diverse sects. See Kadambari, 193 and 394: Harshacar. 67.]
[Footnote 248: It is curious that Ban?a (Harshacarita, VII.) says of this prince that from childhood he resolved never to worship anyone but Siva.]
[Footnote 249: The Rasht?ra-pala-paripr?iccha (Ed. Finot, pp. ix-xi, 28-33) inveighs against the moral degeneration of the Buddhist clergy.
This work was translated into Chinese between 589 and 618, so that demoralisation must have begun in the sixth century.]
[Footnote 250: See Rhys Davids in _J.R.A.S._ 1891, pp. 418 ff.]
[Footnote 251: Hsuan Chuang was not disposed to underrate the numbers of the Mahayana for he says that the monks of Ceylon were Mahayanists.]
[Footnote 252: See the beginning of the Kathavatthu. The doctrine is formulated in the words Puggalo upalabbhati saccikat?t?haparamat?t?henati, and there follows a discussion between a member of the orthodox school and a Puggalavadin, that is one who believes in the existence of a person, soul or ent.i.ty which transmigrates from this world to another.]
[Footnote 253: Sam. Nik. XXII. 221.]
[Footnote 254: This use of Nikaya must not be confused with its other use to denote a division of the Sutra-Pitaka. It means a group or collection and hence can be used to denote either a body of men or a collection of treatises. These Nikayas are also not the same as the four schools (Vaibhashikas, etc.), mentioned above, which were speculative. Similarly in Europe a Presbyterian may be a Calvinist, but Presbyterianism has reference to Church government and Calvinism to doctrine.
There were in India at this time (1) two vehicles, Maha-and Hinayana, (2) four speculative schools, Vaibhashikas, etc., (3) four disciplinary schools, Mula-sarvastivadins, etc. These three cla.s.ses are obviously not mutually exclusive. Thus I-Ching approved of (_a_) the Mahayana, (_b_) the Madhyamika and Yogacara, which he did not consider inconsistent and (_c_) the Mula-sarvastivada.]
[Footnote 255: I-Ching, transl. Takakusu, p. 186.]
[Footnote 256: Three Asankhya Kalpas. I-Ching, Takakusu"s transl. pp.
196-7. He seems to regard the Mahayana as the better way. He quotes Nagarjuna"s allusions to Avalokita and Amitayus with apparent approval; he tells us how one of his teachers worshipped Amitayus and strove to prepare himself for Sukhavati and how the Lotus was the favourite scripture of another. He further tells us that the Madhyamika and the Yoga systems are both perfectly correct.]
[Footnote 257: Hsuan Chuang speaks of Mahayanists belonging to the Sthavira school.]
[Footnote 258: Quoted by Rockhill, _Life of the Buddha_, pp. 196 ff.]
[Footnote 259: Chaps. x.x.xVIII and x.x.xIX. He seems to say that it is right for the laity to make an offering of their bodies by burning but not for Bhikshus. The practice is recognized and commended in the Lotus, chap. XXII, which however is a later addition to the original work.]
[Footnote 260: I-Ching, transl. Takakusu, pp. 153-4 somewhat abridged.
I-Ching (pp. 156-7) speaks of Matricheta as the princ.i.p.al hymn writer and does not identify him with Asvaghosha.]
[Footnote 261: I believe the golden image in the Arakan PaG.o.da at Mandalay is still washed with a ceremonial resembling that described by I-Ching.]
[Footnote 262: I-Ching says that monasteries commonly had a statue of Mahakala as a guardian deity.]
[Footnote 263: By the Gupta king, Narasinha Gupta Baladitya. Much information about Nalanda will be found in Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana"s _Mediaeval School of Indian Logic_, pp. 145-147. Hsuan Chuang (_Life_, transl. Beal, p. 111) says that it was built 700 years before his time, that is, in the first century B.C. He dwells on the beauty of the buildings, ponds and flowers.]
CHAPTER XXIV
DECADENCE OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA
The theme of this chapter is sad for it is the decadence, degradation and ultimate disappearance of Buddhism in India. The other great religions offer no precise parallel to this phenomenon but they also do not offer a parallel to the circ.u.mstances of Buddhism at the time when it flourished in its native land. Mohammedanism has been able to maintain itself in comparative isolation: up to the present day Moslims and Christians share the same cities rather than the same thoughts, especially when (as often) they belong to different races.
European Christianity after a few centuries of existence had to contend with no rival of approximately equal strength, for the struggle with Mohammedanism was chiefly military and hardly concerned the merits of the faiths. But Buddhism never had a similarly paramount and unchallenged position. It never attempted to extirpate its rivals.
It coexisted with a ma.s.s of popular superst.i.tion which it only gently reprobated and with a powerful hereditary priesthood, both intellectual and pliant, tenacious of their own ideas and yet ready to countenance almost any other ideas as the price of ruling. Neither Islam nor Christianity had such an adversary, and both of them and even Judaism resemble Buddhism in having won greater success outside their native lands than in them. Jerusalem is not an altogether satisfactory spectacle to either Christians or Jews.[264]
Still all this does not completely explain the disappearance of Buddhism from India. Before attempting to a.s.sign reasons, we shall do well to review some facts and dates relating to the period of decadence. If we take all India into consideration the period is long, but in many, indeed in most, districts the process of decay was rapid.
In the preceding chapter I have mentioned the accounts of Indian Buddhism which we owe to the Chinese travellers, Hsuan Chuang and I-Ching. The latter frankly deplores the decay of the faith which he had witnessed in his own life (_i.e._ about 650-700 A.D.) but his travels in India were of relatively small extent and he gives less local information than previous pilgrims. Hsuan Chuang describing India in 629-645 A.D. is unwilling to admit the decay but his truthful narrative lets it be seen. It is only of Bengal and the present United Provinces that he can be said to give a favourable account, and the prosperity of Buddhism there was largely due to the personal influence of Harsha.[265] In central and southern India, he tells us of little but deserted monasteries. It is clear that Buddhism was dying out but it is not so clear that it had ever been the real religion of this region. In many parts it did not conquer the population but so to speak built fortresses and left garrisons. It is probable that the Buddhism of Andhra, Kalinga and the south was represented by little more than such outposts. They included Amaravati, where portions of the ruins seem a.s.signable to about 150 A.D., and Ajanta, where some of the cave paintings are thought to be as late as the sixth century. But of neither site can we give any continuous history. In southern India the introduction of Buddhism took place under the auspices of Asoka himself, though his inscriptions have as yet been found only in northern Mysore and not in the Tamil country. The Tamil poems Manimegalei and Silappadigaram, especially the former, represent it as prevalent and still preserving much of its ancient simplicity. Even in later times when it had almost completely disappeared from southern India, occasional Buddhist temples were founded. Rajaraja endowed one at Negapatam about 1000 A.D. In 1055 a monastery was erected at Belgami in Mysore and a Buddhist town named Kalavati is mentioned as existing in that state in 1533.[266] But in spite of such survivals, even in the sixth century Buddhism could not compete in southern India with either Jainism or Hinduism and there are no traces of its existence in the Deccan after 1150.
For the Konkan, Maharashtra and Gujarat, Hsuan Chuang"s statistics are fairly satisfactory. But in all this region the Sammitiya sect which apparently was nearer to Hinduism than the others was the most important. In Ujjain Buddhism was almost extinct but in many of the western states it lingered on, perhaps only in isolated monasteries, until the twelfth century. Inscriptions found at Kanheri (843 and 851 A.D.), Dambal (1095 A.D.) and in Miraj (1110 A.D.) testify that grants were made to monasteries at these late dates.[267] But further north the faith had to endure the violence of strangers. Sind was conquered by the Arabs in 712; Gujarat and the surrounding country were invaded by northern tribes and such invasions were always inimical to the prosperity of monasteries.
This is even more true of the Panjab, the frontier provinces and Kashmir. The older invaders such as the Yueh-chih had been favourably disposed to Buddhism, but those who came later, such as the Huns, were predaceous barbarians with little religion of any sort. In Hsuan Chuang"s time it was only in Udyana that Buddhism could be said to be the religion of the people and the torrent of Mohammedan invasion which swept continuously through these countries during the middle ages overwhelmed all earlier religions, and even Hinduism had to yield. In Kashmir Buddhism soon became corrupt and according to the Rajatarangini[268] the monks began to marry as early as the sixth century. King Lalitaditya (733-769) is credited with having built monasteries as well as temples to the Sun, but his successors were Sivaites.
Bengal, especially western Bengal and Bihar, was the stronghold of decadent Buddhism, though even here hostile influences were not absent. But about 730 A.D. a pious Buddhist named Gopala founded the Pala dynasty and extended his power over Magadha. The Palas ruled for about 450 years and supplied a long and devout line of defenders of the faith. But to the east of their dominions lay the princ.i.p.ality of Kanauj, a state of varying size and fortunes and from the eighth century onwards a stronghold of Brahmanic learning.
The revolution in Hinduism which definitely defeated, though it did not annihilate Buddhism, is generally connected with the names of k.u.maril?a Bhatta (_c._ 750) and San?kara (_c._ 800). We know the doctrines of these teachers, for many of their works have come down to us, but when we enquire what was their political importance, or the scope and extent of the movement which they championed we are conscious (as so often) of the extraordinary vagueness of Indian records even when the subject might appeal to religious and philosophic minds.[269] k.u.maril?a is said to have been a Brahman of Bihar who abjured Buddhism for Hinduism and raged with the ardour of a proselyte against his ancient faith. Tradition[270] represents him as instigating King Sudhanvan to exterminate the Buddhists. But nothing is known of this king and he cannot have had the extensive empire with which he is credited.
San?kara was a Brahman of the south who in a short life found time to write numerous works, to wander over India, to found a monastic order and build four monasteries. In doctrine and discipline he was more pliant than k.u.maril?a and he a.s.similated many strong points of Buddhism. Both these teachers are depicted as the successful heroes of public disputations in which the interest at stake was considerable.
The vanquished had to become a disciple of the vanquisher or to forfeit his life and, if he was the head of an inst.i.tution, to surrender its property. These accounts, though exaggerated, are probably a florid version of what occurred and we may surmise that the popular faith of the day was generally victorious. What violence the rising tide of Hinduism may have wrought, it is hard to say. There is no evidence of any general persecution of Buddhism in the sense in which one Christian sect persecuted another in Europe. But at a rather later date we hear that Jains were persecuted and tortured by Saiva princes both in southern India and Gujarat, and if there were any detailed account, epigraphic or literary, of such persecutions in the eighth and ninth centuries, there would be no reason for doubting it.
But no details are forthcoming. Without resorting to ma.s.sacre, an anti-Buddhist king had in his power many effective methods of hostility. He might confiscate or transfer monastic property, or forbid his subjects to support monks. Considering the state of Buddhism as represented by Hsuan Chuang and I-Ching it is probable that such measures would suffice to ensure the triumph of the Brahmans in most parts of India.
After the epoch of San?kara, the history of Indian Buddhism is confined to the Pala kingdom. Elsewhere we hear only of isolated grants to monasteries and similar acts of piety, often striking but hardly worthy of mention in comparison with the enormous number of Brahmanic inscriptions. But in the Pala kingdom[271] Buddhism, though corrupt, was flourishing so far as the number of its adherents and royal favour were concerned. Gopala founded the monastery of Odontapuri or Udandapura, which according to some authorities was in the town of Bihar. Dharmapala the second king of the dynasty (_c._ 800 A.D.) built on the north bank of the Ganges the even more celebrated University of Vikramasila,[272] where many commentaries were composed.
It was a centre not only of tantric learning but of logic and grammar, and is interesting as showing the connection between Bengal and Tibet.
Tibetans studied there and Sanskrit books were translated into Tibetan within its cloisters. Dharmapala is said to have reigned sixty-four years and to have held his court at Patna, which had fallen into decay but now began to revive. According to Taranatha his successor Devapala built Somapuri, conquered Orissa and waged war with the unbelievers who had become numerous, no doubt as a result of the preaching of San?kara. But as a rule the Palas, though they favoured Buddhism, did not actively discourage Hinduism. They even gave grants to Hindu temples and their prime ministers were generally Brahmans who[273]
used to erect non-Buddhist images in Buddhist shrines. The dynasty continued through the eleventh century and in this period some information as to the condition of Indian Buddhism is afforded by the relations between Bengal and Tibet. After the persecution of the tenth century Tibetan Buddhism was revived by the preaching of monks from Bengal. Mahipala then occupied the throne (_c._ 978-1030) and during his reign various learned men accepted invitations to Tibet. More celebrated is the mission of Atisa, a monk of the Vikramasila monastery, which took place about 1038. That these two missions should have been invited and despatched shows that in the eleventh century Bengal was a centre of Buddhist learning. Probably the numerous Sanskrit works preserved in Tibetan translations then existed in its monasteries. But about the same time the power of the Pala dynasty, and with it the influence of Buddhism, were curtailed by the establishment of the rival Sena dynasty in the eastern provinces.
Still, under Ramapala, who reigned about 1100, the great teacher Abhayakara was an ornament of the Mahayana. Taranatha[274] says that he corrected the text of the scriptures and that in his time there were many Pandits and resident Bhikshus in the monasteries of Vikramasila, Bodh-Gaya and Odontapuri.
There is thus every reason to suppose that in the twelfth century Buddhism still nourished in Bihar, that its clergy numbered several thousands and its learning was held in esteem. The blow which destroyed its power was struck by a Mohammedan invasion in 1193. In that year Ikhtiyar-ud-Din Muhammad,[275] a general of Kutb-ud-Din, invaded Bihar with a band of only two hundred men and with amazing audacity seized the capital, which, consisting chiefly of palaces and monasteries, collapsed without a blow. The monks were ma.s.sacred to a man, and when the victors, who appear not to have understood what manner of place they had captured, asked the meaning of the libraries which they saw, no one was found capable of reading the books.[276]
It was in 1193 also that Benares was conquered by the Mohammedans. I have found no record of the sack of the monastery at Sarnath but the ruins are said to show traces of fire and other indications that it was overwhelmed by some sudden disaster.
The Mohammedans had no special animus against Buddhism. They were iconoclasts who saw merit in the destruction of images and the slaughter of idolaters. But whereas Hinduism was spread over the country, Buddhism was concentrated in the great monasteries and when these were destroyed there remained nothing outside them capable of withstanding either the violence of the Moslims or the a.s.similative influence of the Brahmans. Hence Buddhism suffered far more from these invasions than Hinduism but still vestiges of it lingered long[277]
and exist even now in Orissa. Taranatha says that the immediate result of the Moslim conquest was the dispersal of the surviving teachers and this may explain the sporadic occurrence of late Buddhist inscriptions in other parts of India. He also tells us that a king named Cangalaraja restored the ruined Buddhist temples of Bengal about 1450.
Elsewhere[278] he gives a not discouraging picture of Buddhism in the Deccan, Gujarat and Rajputana after the Moslim conquest of Magadha but adds that the study of magic became more and more prevalent. In the life of Caitanya it is stated that when travelling in southern India (about 1510 A.D.) he argued with Buddhists and confuted them, apparently somewhere in Arcot.[279] Ma.n.u.scripts preserved in Nepal indicate that as late as the fifteenth or sixteenth century Bengali copyists wrote out Buddhist works, and there is evidence that Bodh-Gaya continued to be a place of pilgrimage. In 1585 it was visited by a Nepalese named Abhaya Raja who on his return erected in Patan a monastery imitated from what he had seen in Bengal, and in 1777 the Tashi Lama sent an emba.s.sy. But such instances prove little as to the religion of the surrounding Hindu population, for at the present day numerous Buddhist pilgrims, especially Burmese, frequent the shrine. The control of the temple pa.s.sed into the hands of the Brahmans and for the ordinary Bengali Buddha became a member of India"s numerous pantheon. Pandit Haraprasad Sastri mentions a singular poem called Buddhacaritra, completed in 1711 and celebrating an incarnation of Buddha which apparently commenced in 1699 and was to end in the reappearance of the golden age. But the being called Buddha is a form of Vishn?u and the work is as strange a jumble of religion as it is of languages, being written in "a curious medley of bad Sanskrit, bad Hindi and bad Bihari."
It is chiefly in Orissa that traces of Buddhism can still be found within the limits of India proper. The Saraks of Baramba, Tigaria and the adjoining parts of Cuttack describe themselves as Buddhists.[280]
Their name is the modern equivalent of Sravaka and they apparently represent an ancient Buddhist community which has become a sectarian caste. They have little knowledge of their religion but meet once a year in the cave temples of Khandagiri, to worship a deity called Buddhadeva or Caturbhuja. All their ceremonies commence with the formula _Ahim?sa parama dharma_ and they respect the temple of Puri, which is suspected of having a Buddhist origin.
Nagendranath Vasu has published some interesting details as to the survival of Buddhist ideas in Orissa.[281] He traces the origin of this hardy though degraded form of Mahayanism to Ramai Pandit,[282] a tantric acarya of Magadha who wrote a work called Sunya Puran?a which became popular. Orissa was one of the regions which offered the longest resistance to Islam, for it did not succ.u.mb until 1568. A period of Sivaism in the tenth and eleventh centuries is indicated by the temples of Bhuvaneshwar and other monuments. But in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the reigning dynasty were worshippers of Vishnu and built the great temples at Puri and Konarak, dedicated to Jagannatha and Surya-narayan?a respectively. We do not however hear that they persecuted Buddhism and there are reasons for thinking that Jagannatha is a form of the Buddha[283] and that the temple at Puri was originally a Buddhist site. It is said that it contains a gigantic statue of the Buddha before which a wall has been built and also that the image of Jagannatha, which is little more than a log of wood, is really a case enclosing a Buddhist relic. King Prataparudra ( 1529) persecuted Buddhism, which implies that at this late date its adherents were sufficiently numerous to attract attention. Either at the beginning of his reign or before it there flourished a group of six poets of whom the princ.i.p.al were Acyutananda Dasa and Caitanya Dasa.[284] Their works are nominally devoted to the celebration of Kr?ishn?a"s praises and form the chief vernacular scripture of the Vaishn?avas in Orissa but in them Kr?ishn?a, or the highest form of the deity by whatever name he is called, is constantly identified with Sunya or the Void, that favourite term of Mahayanist philosophy.
Pa.s.sages from them are also quoted stating that in the Kali age the followers of the Buddha must disguise themselves; that there are 3000 crypto-Buddhists hidden in various parts of Orissa, that Hari has been incarnate in many Buddhas and that the Buddha will appear again on earth. The phrase "I take refuge in the Buddha, in Mata adisakti (= Dharma) and in the Sangha" is also quoted from these works and Caitanya Dasa describes five Vishnus, who are apparently identical with the five Dhyani Buddhas.[285]
Taranatha states that the last king of Orissa, Mukunda Deva, who was overthrown by the Mohammedans in 1568, was a Buddhist and founded some temples and monasteries. In the seventeenth century, there flourished a Buddhist poet named Mahadevadasa,[286] and the Tibetan pilgrim Buddhagupta visited among other sites the old capital of Mayurabhanja and saw a stupa there. It is claimed that the tribe known as Bathuris or Bauris have always been crypto-Buddhists and have preserved their ancient customs. They are however no credit to their religion, for one of their princ.i.p.al ceremonies is hook-swinging.[287]
The doctrine of the Bathuris is called Mahima Dharma and experienced an interesting revival in 1875.[288] A blind man named Bhima Bhoi had a vision of the Buddha who restored his sight and bade him preach the law. He attracted some thousands of adherents and led a band to Puri proclaiming that his mission was to bring to light the statue of Buddha concealed in the temple. The Raja resisted the attempt and the followers of Bhima Bhoi were worsted in a sanguinary encounter. Since that time they have retired to the more remote districts of Orissa and are said to hold that the Buddha will appear again in a new incarnation. They are also called k.u.mbhipatias and according to the last census of India (1911) are hostile to Brahmans and probably number about 25,000.
Traces of Buddhism also survive in the worship of a deity called Dharma-Raja or Dharma-Thakur which still prevails in western and southern Bengal.[289] Priests of this worship are usually not Brahmans but of low caste, and Haraprasad thinks that the laity who follow it may number "several millions." Though Dharma has come to be a.s.sociated with the G.o.ddess of smallpox and is believed even by his adorers to be a form of Vishnu or of Siva, yet Dhyana, or meditation, forms a part of his worship and the prayers and literature of the sect retain some traces of his origin. Thus he is said to be highly honoured in Ceylon and receives the epithet Sunyamurti.
A corrupt form of Buddhism still exists in Nepal.[290] This country when first heard of was in the hands of the Nevars who have preserved some traditions of a migration from the north and are akin to the Tibetans in race and language, though like many non-Aryan tribes they have endeavoured to invent for themselves a Hindu pedigree. Buddhism was introduced under Asoka. As Indian influence was strong and communication with Tirhut and Bengal easy, it is probable that Buddhism in Nepal reflected the phases which it underwent in Bengal. A Nepalese inscription of the seventh century gives a list of shrines of which seven are Sivaite, six Buddhist and four Vishnuite.[291] After that date it was more successful in maintaining itself, for it did not suffer from Mohammedan attacks and was less exposed to the a.s.similative influence of Brahmanism. That influence however, though operating in a foreign country and on people not bred among Brahmanic traditions, was nevertheless strong. In 1324 the king of Tirhut, being expelled thence by Mohammedans, seized the throne of Nepal and brought with him many learned Brahmans. His dynasty was not permanent but later in the fourteenth century a subsequent ruler, Jayasthiti, organized society and religion in consultation with the Brahman immigrants. The followers of the two religions were arranged in parallel divisions, a group of Buddhists cla.s.sified according to occupation corresponding to each Hindu caste, and appropriate rules and ceremonies were prescribed for the different sections. The code then established is still in force in essentials and Nepal, being intellectually the pupil of India, has continued to receive such new ideas as appeared in the plains of Bengal. When these ascended to the mountain valleys they were adopted, with free modification of old and new material alike, by both Buddhists and Hindus, but as both sects were geographically isolated, each tended to resemble the other more than either resembled normal Buddhism or Hinduism. Naturally the new ideas were mainly Brahmanic and Buddhism had no chance of being fortified by an importation of even moderately orthodox doctrine. In the fourteenth century arose the community of wandering ascetics called Nathas who were reverenced by Hindus and Buddhists alike. They rejected the observances of both creeds but often combined their doctrines and, though disavowed by the Brahmans, exercised a considerable influence among the lower castes. Some of the peculiar deities of Nepal, such as Matsyendranath, have attributes traceable to these wanderers. In 1769 Nepal was conquered by the Gurkhas. This tribe seems related to the Tibetan stock, as are the Nevars, but it had long been Hinduized and claimed a Rajput ancestry. Thus Gurkha rule has favoured and accelerated the hinduizing of Nepalese Buddhism.
Since the time of Hodgson the worship of the adi-Buddha, or an original divine Buddha practically equivalent to G.o.d, has been often described as characteristic of Nepalese religion and such a worship undoubtedly exists. But recent accounts indicate that it is not prominent and also that it can hardly be considered a distinct type of monotheistic Buddhism. The idea that the five Dhyani-Buddhas are emanations or manifestations of a single primordial Buddha-spirit is a natural development of Mahayanist ideas, but no definite statement of it earlier than the Kalacakra literature is forthcoming, though many earlier works point towards it.[292] In modern Nepal the chief temple of the adi-Buddha is on the hill of Svayambhu (the self-existent) near Katmandu. According to a legend preserved in the Svayambhu Puran?a, a special divine manifestation occurred in ancient times on an adjoining lake; a miraculous lotus arose on its surface, bearing an image, over which a Caitya was subsequently erected. The shrine is greatly venerated but this adi-Buddha, or Svayambhu, does not differ essentially from other miraculous images in India which are said not to consist of ordinary matter but to embody in some special way the nature of a deity. The religion of Nepal is less remarkable for new developments of Buddhism than for the singular fusion of Buddhism with Hinduism which it presents and which helps us to understand what must have been the last phase in Bengal.
The Nepalese Brahmans tolerate Buddhism. The Nepala-mahatmya says that to worship Buddha is to worship Siva, and the Svayambhu Purana returns the compliment by recommending the worship of Pasupati.[293] The official itinerary of the Hindu pilgrim includes Svayambhu, where he adores Buddha under that name. More often the two religions adore the same image under different names: what is Avalokita to the one is Mahakala to the other. Durga is explained as being the incarnation of the Prajna-paramita and she is even identified with the adi-Buddha.
The Nepalese pantheon like the Tibetan contains three elements, often united in modern legends: firstly aboriginal deities, such as Nagas and other nature spirits: secondly definitely Buddhist deities or Bodhisattvas of whom Manjusri receives the most honour: thirdly Hindu deities such as Gan?esa and Kr?ishn?a. The popular deity Matsyendranath appears to combine all three elements in his own person.