Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Strotras, Dhāraṇīs, Tantras – 143
Chaṇḍāla maidens. The Mahākālatantra is next the model of a
colloquy between Śākyamuni and a goddess and it is claimed to have
been “announced by the Buddhi.” It, however, contains instruction
on the mystical significance of the letters of the alphabet, composing
the name Mahākāla or Śiva, on the means of discovering hidden
treasures, acquiring kingship, getting a desired woman and even
mantras and magical rites to deprive men of reason and to subjugate
or slay them. The Saṁvarodāyatantra is again, [120] despite its form
of a conversation between the Buddha and Vajrapāṇi, more of a
Shaivite than a Buddhistic text. In it the Liṅga cult and the worship
of the Shaivite gods is expressly recommended. In the Kālacakra
which is said to have been revealed by the Ādibuddha we have
already the mention of Mecca of Islam. In the Mañjuśrīmūlatantra
Śākyamuni proclaims inter alia that four hundred years after him
Nāgārjuna will appear.
Raj. Mitra. Nepalese Buddhist Literature, p. 261 ff.; Burnouf,
Introduction, p. 480; Raj. Mitra. Nepalese Buddhist Literature, p. 172
f.; Burnouf, Introduction, p. 479 f.
Supreme Yogiship
There is no room for doubt that all these books were written long
after the times of Nāgārjuna and the Mahāyānasūtras and the
possibility is precluded that Nāgārjuna, the founder of the
Madhyamika school, could have composed also the Tantras.
Nevertheless he is the reputed author of five of the six sections of the
Pañcakrama. At all events this book deals more with Yoga than with
Tantric usages properly so called. As its title signifies the
Pañcakrama is an exposition of the “five steps,” the last of which is