113bC4l

304 ⁄ siddhas, monks, and communities
Apparently, the positioning of the worldly gods and other characters in the
mandala required a separate series of locales. However, the cemeteries quickly
became an important aspect of the yogini tantras, and a genre of cemetery literature
developed to describe their various attributes, sounds, meanings, and
so forth. Iconographically as well, cemeteries stood as important signposts in
the visual record, for, as mundane places, their collective representation became
an avenue for artists to blend the sacred and the humorous.
For our purposes, the cemeteries describe idealized communities of siddhas.
Their position in tension with the central mandala provides a sense of
both contrast and similarity. It describes at once the distance and relationship
between siddhas as agents of the new proclamation and the theological objects
of their cultus. Without the siddhas, many of the mandalas simply would not
have existed, for the new saints constituted the creative impetus behind the
movement. Conversely, many of the divinities were simply available in some
sense. They were brought from the shadows into the harsh light of Buddhist
literature and had their rituals and representations altered in the process.
However, the ritual and visual representations of siddhas in cemeteries are not
an accurate description of what would be seen on the ground. Rather, it is a
new articulation of liminal communities acting as the promoters and providers
of a transgressive and polluted spirituality.
Perhaps the most interesting of the cemetery texts is rather late and anomalous
in its assignment of names, positions, and so on. It is attributed to Birwa,
normally identified as the vernacular name for the mahasiddha Virupa,
part of whose hagiography was examined for humorous episodes in chapter 6.
The text is interesting because it specifies in some detail the attribution of both
specific siddhas and their lineages in specific cremation grounds.
Cremation Ground 17 Blessed by Community
Candogra (E) Nagabuddhi Aryadeva, *Sundari, and yogins and
yoginis of Nagarjuna’s Guhyasamaja
system.
*Yamajvala (S) Dombhiheruka Avadhuti, *Bhuja, and those following
the Guhyasamaja and Krsnayamari.
*Varunakapala (W) A$vaghosa Kukuripa, *Hrdayalamkara, and
those following the Mahamaya-tantra.
*Kuberabhairava (N) Ac¯arya Bhadra, *Kuttaka, and those following
*Padmaka the Hevajra system of Saroruhavajra.
*%rinayaka (SE) Saraha *Gunakanaka, Padmavajra, and those
following Saraha’s system of Samvara.