134 richard k. payne and charles d. orzechnuance to more traditional approaches, such as doctrinal and bio-
graphical studies, an historical ritual studies approach can reveal
aspects of the tradition otherwise obscured.
Homa is a votive offering made in an act of exchange with a deity,
and it is clearly identifiable by the use of fire, personified as the deity
Agni, as the vehicle for making such votive offerings. The ritual use of
fire and the symbolism of Agni as consumer and conveyor of offer-
ings to the gods links homa to its origins in Vedic ritual culture. It
can, however, be traced even further back to the ritual practices of
Indo-European peoples more generally (Payne 2002). Based on Vedic
ritual, practices such as homa were adapted to tantric contexts (Samuel
2008).
Although other systems are known, the most fully developed cat-
egorization of types of homa rituals is fivefold (wuzhongfa; goshuhō
). Śāntika (xizaifa; sokusaihō ) is employed for protection;
pauṣṭika (zengyifa; sōyakuhō 㦴 ) for prosperity; aṅkuśa (gouzhaofa;
kōchōhō ) for captivating; vaśīkaran ̣a (jingaifa; keiaihō )
for gaining love and respect; and abhicāraka (zhoufufa; jōbukuhō
) for subjugating adversaries. Each of these five kinds is to be
performed employing different colors, hearth shapes, and times of
day, and descriptions of the pertinent details are a frequent element
in tantric ritual texts.^1 Each is also distinguished by the seed syllable,
bīja mantra, appended to the mantras used in the different homa. For
example, a homa for protection will have mantra ending in the bīja
svāhā, while the mantra employed in a homa for prosperity end with
namaḥ (Payne 2005b).
As a form of ritual technology, homa can be adapted for any
number of different cults, performed with different deities as the
chief deity (benzun; honzon ). There are instances of homa
devoted to figures known throughout the Buddhist tantric world,
such as Acalanatha Vidyārāja (Fudō Myōō ), also known as
Candamahāroṣana, as well more local cult figures such as Kūkai.^2 The
extent of this adaptability is evidenced by a modern homa devoted to
Jesus (Payne 2010).
(^1) See, for instance, Amoghavajra’s Regulations for Homa for Vajra Pinnacle Yoga
( Jin’gang ding yuqie humo yigui 2 , T. 908
See Tinsley, “Kūkai and the Development of Shingon Buddhism,” in this volume.