AMBIGUOUS SEXUALITYcollected 'performance"songs' (caryiiglti) preserved in Old Bengali and also in
Tibetan translation. Kiil)ha is a particularly interesting figure to consider, in part
because his songs have the ring of autobiography, in part because he has been
much discussed in Western writings about tantra, and in part, too, because his
biography is problematic and his works not discussed much by Indian or Tibetan
commentators -making him a sort of tabula oscura (if not rasa) onto which
any number of interpretations may be (and have been) projected without fear of
definitive contradiction. The main focus of this essay will be three songs in
which Kal)ha makes explicit reference to his sexual relationship with a low-caste
woman. The essay's first section will introduce Kal)ha and the songs. The
second, and central, section will consider a number of different ways in which
the songs might be interpreted, with particular attention to Kiil)ha's view of 'sex-
uality'. The third and concluding section addresses some possible objections to
my analysis, and suggests a number of broader historical, hermeneutical and
definitional issues that arise from my analysis.
II. KiiQ.ha and his songs
Like so many pre-modern figures in Indian religion, Kal)ha is historically
obscure, to the point where we cannot be certain whether he is one person or
many. Tibetan tradition assumes that the figure known in India as Kal)ha, Kr~IJa
or Caryapa (as well as variations of each of these),^7 is one person, whose trans-
lated name is Nag po spyod pa (from Krsl.liicarya), and who is the author of over
a hundred works in the tantra section of the canonical collection of translated
Indian commentaries, the bs Tan 'gyur. This same Nag po spyod pa is listed as
one of the eighty-four 'great adepts' (mahiisiddha) of Buddhist tantra, most of
whom seem to have lived shortly before or after the end of the first millennium
ofthe Common Era, and many of whom figure prominently in the guru-lineages
(guruparampara) of the Tibetan schools that were the heirs of late Indian
Buddhism.^8
Biographical details on Nag po spyod pa are given in Abhayadatta's 12th
century Sanskrit text, Lives of the Eighty-Four Great Adepts,^9 and in a number
of Tibetan histories, including those of Bu ston (14th century)'^0 and Taranatha
(17th century).ll Unfortunately, none of the three sources tells the same story
about Nag po spyod pa. Abhayadatta's Nag po spyod pais a proud and impul-
sive adept who ignores the advice of his guru, Jalandhari, and, despite miracu-
lous powers, dies by a curse from a woman he has wronged. Bu ston's Nag po
spyod pa is the disciple of Ramal)i, is himself an expert in the eight magical
attainments, and is guru to disciples who will master Mahamudra, the 'great
seal' that is the goal oftantric practice. Taranatha's Nag po spyod pais actually
two figures, an elder and a younger; the former, the disciple of Jalandhari, con-
verts a king to Buddhism,^12 while the latter, a disciple of Nag po spyod pa the
elder, is a master of various tantras and author of many treatises.^13 The widely
varying accounts given by different authors simply make it impossible to know