![]() ![]() Upakurvana Brahmacharins wear white cloth because nobody can object if they return to their house but a Brahmacharin who wears yellow cloth cannot return, because he is a Naishtika Brahmacharin who has accepted absolute Brahmacharya as a preparation for Sannyasa. ![]() A symbolic distinction is made in the clothing. ![]() He is preparing himself for the higher order of Sannyasa. But a Naishtika Brahmacharin cannot do that. He is allowed to leave the Guru after the period of the study is over and marry and become a householder, a layman there is no objection. An Upakurvana Brahmacharin may live under a Guru and study the Vedas and scriptures and so on, and then return to household life. Upakurvana means preparatory Brahmacharya, and Naishtika means absolute Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is of two kinds: Upakurvana Brahmacharya and Naishtika Brahmacharya. Even initiation into Naishtika Brahmacharya is not done at once. ![]() But Gurus are supposed to observe their disciples, and not give them Sannyasa immediately. Even though they still say it should be twelve years, actually it is a bit reduced. The tradition has not changed, though these days Gurus do not insist upon twelve years of service or probation. I completed this work in 1996, and have not had the opportunity or means to update it since.The initiation traditionally given today is of the same type as it was during the time of the Upanishads. The result of this research technique is a prelimi- nary picture of the “currency” of various Buddhist Sanskrit tantras in the eighth to eleventh centuries in India as this material gained popu- larity, was absorbed into the Buddhist canon, commented upon, and translated into Tibetan. Śāstrī’s catalogues of Sanskrit manuscripts in the Durbar Library of Nepal, and in the Asiatic Society of Bengal’s library in Calcutta, with some supplemental material from the manuscript collections in England at Oxford, Cambridge, and the India Office Library. With this information in hand, I matched the data to the translations I have made (for the first time) of extracts from Buddhist tantras surviving in H. I then matched these names with the information Jean Naudou has uncov- ered, giving approximate, and sometimes specific, dates for the vari- ous authors and translators. With authors, and occasionally with translators, I have where appropriate converted the Tibetan names back to their Sanskrit originals. I have searched through the Tohoku University Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist canon for the names of authors and translators of the major Buddhist tantric works. This paper presents a discussion of the Buddhist Sanskrit tantras that existed prior to or contemporaneous with the systematic translation of this material into Tibetan. ![]()
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