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Wallis: Advayavajra’s Instructions 207formed at the initial stage of a formalized practice. Though activities varysomewhat from community to community, they generally involve suchexercises as mantra recitation (jåpa), daily ablutions (snåna), oblations(homa), meditation (dhyåna), devotional worship of buddhas andbodhisattvas (p¥jå), ma√∂ala offerings, and occasional alms begging(bhik≈å). These are carried out under a vow (vrata), during an extendedperiod of training. The execution of both the ådikarma and the puraΩcara√afollows formal initiation into a cult, but precedes the performance ofadvanced ritual practice. A common characteristic of these terms is theemphasis placed on elements that are generally considered emblematic ofa tantric milieu, namely, the prerequisite of initiation (abhiΩeka or dik≈a) bya qualified guru, the employment of two- or three-dimensional diagrams(ma√∂ala or yantra) in several categories of rituals—appeasement, possession,attraction, fixation, hostility, destruction, and death 17 —the use ofsculpted (pratimå) or painted (pa†a) images of deities and revered beingsin devotional rituals, and the implementation of hand-gestures (mudrå) in“sealing” the efficacy established by means of practice. Of paramountimportance to these groups’ ritual programs, furthermore, is the linguisticinstrument known as mantra. The central role played by the mantra in suchgroups during this period is reflected in the indigenous terms mantraΩåstra,mantracaryå, and mantrayåna as synonymous with both the texts andpractices of tantra. Indeed, the term employed by Advayavajra to characterizethe type of Buddhism that he is advocating is not what might beexpected—Mahåyåna, tantra, Vajrayåna, Mahåmudrå—but mantrayåna. 18Legitimizing the TeachingAdvayavajra states at the outset of the Kud®≈†inirghåtana that hisintention in producing this work is to refute false views, and to do so inaccordance with the precepts for the primary practice that he subsequentlyprescribes in detail. 19 What exactly are the “false views” that Advayavajrahas set out to refute? Since the entire first section of the Kud®≈†inirghåtana 20is concerned with establishing as non-controversial the rituals that follow,it seems that the views being countered here concern the status of thepractices as legitimately Buddhist. The biographical statements onAdvayavajra reported by Tåranåtha (b. 1575) may provide a clue to thisinterpretation when he writes:The professor promulgated Nonattentiveness 21 in the Middle Country.Some people did not believe in it; for them, he expounded thedetailed commentary to the textual source, the Dohå. 22 When theysaid, “this is not the thought of the tantras,” he proved that it waswith accepted scriptures, chiefly the Hevajra and the