138 richard k. payne and charles d. orzech
on ritual times, implements, supplies, and performance, set the basic
pattern for all subsequent homa ritual in East Asia.
Homa as presented in the MVS is set within a theological justifica-
tion for the appropriation of fire rituals by Buddhists. Chapter twenty-
seven of the sixth fascicle of the MVS propounds a genealogy of Agni
traced through forty-four “generations,” many of which are “fires” for
specific kinds of events, such as conceptions, weddings, and so on.^10
This serves to establish Agni’s lineage before the Buddha’s enlighten-
ment. Once enlightened, the Buddha now sets out twelve fires for the
accomplishment of various aims. Yet these fire offerings, even when
carried out with punctilious piety, are merely “exterior.” True homa
has a simultaneous interior aspect “which eradicates all karma.”^11 In
other words, just as the Upaniṣads had appropriated and internalized
the Vedic fire as the tapas of the yogi, now esoteric Buddhism, while
preserving the external rite, also drew a parallel to the internal eradi-
cation of defilements.^12 Thus, homa could be a vehicle for enlighten-
ment. In the words of Yixing, “Homa is the fire of the Tathagata’s
wisdom. It is able to incinerate the karmic connections that produce
all misfortunes.”^13 Giving eloquent voice to the entailments of the
inner/outer metaphor, a text attributed to Vajrabodhi states, in the
“adamantine inner homa... total enlightenment is the flame and my
own mouth is the hearth.”^14
It is clear that the system embodied in the MVS and the Susid-
dhikara was not the only one propounded in South Asia. Not long
after the arrival of Śubhākarasiṃha in the Tang court, Vajrabodhi and
his disciple Amoghavajra also arrived. Almost immediately Vajrabodhi
set out to translate an abbreviated form of the Sarvatathāgata-tattva-
saṃgraha (STTS), which is based on a five-buddha family model rather
than the three-buddha family model found in the MVS and the Susid-
dhikara.^15 In line with this fivefold taxonomy, we see the emergence
(^10) The section on “Worldly and Transcendent Homa” is rendered as a gāthā in par-
allel lines of five characters each. For these “worldly” fires, see T. 848.18:43a7–b12; the
discussion in Strickmann 1989, 417–18; and the translation in Hodge 2003, 381–90. 11
T. 848.18:44a1: fuzi nei humo miequ yu yeh sheng.
(^12) For the classic statement of the yogic transformation of the Vedic fire, see the
Śvetāśvatara Upanishad, 2:12: “No sickness, no old age, no death has he who has
obtained a body made out of the fire of Yoga.” Hume 1921, 398. 13
T. 1796.39:662b7–8.
(^14) T. 867.18:266a20.
(^15) The text is the Scripture Outlining Recitations and Contemplations of the Yoga of
the Peak of the Vajra (Jin’gangding yuqie zhong lue qu nian song jing
, T. 866).