22 ronald m. davidson
(sometimes stronger, sometimes less so) and gives insufficient weight
to other factors; this formulation also ignores the evidence that some
forms of tantric Śaivism (especially Kaśmīri Śaivism) owe an ideologi-
cal debt to the Buddhist theoretical positions of Vijñānavāda and a
ritual debt to outcaste and non-Śaiva expiatory behavior, explicit in
the carrying of a skull cup as a vow. It is therefore evident that reli-
gious traditions throughout medieval South Asia were surreptitiously
appropriating material from both institutionalized as well as non-
institutionalized ideas and practices, and Buddhists were no exception
to this process. Given these values, most forms of tantrism represent
medievalized North Indian religion.
The earliest form of Buddhist tantrism arises in the first half of the
seventh century and draws strongly from the dhāraṇī literature that
had already been developed for the previous several centuries. Man-
tras had been in Buddhist employ in various forms during the first
centuries of the Common Era. Indeed, later vinaya literature discusses
the correct and incorrect uses of mantras, with the basic decision that
mantras could be applied to protect oneself and others, just so long as
that service is not sold for monetary gain or used to extort goods or
other prerogatives from clients. While there were a few instances of
mantras employed for religious uses (chiefly recollection of the Bud-
dha in meditation), the principal difference between mantras in that
sense and dhāraṇīs is that the latter were extensively and intentionally
applied to soteriological goals, as well as mundane goals. Thus dhāraṇī
literature was fully integrated into the bodhisattva’s career, and this
is recognized throughout Mahāyānist literature, which makes skill in
dhāraṇīs an important component of the path. Recent scholarship has
emphasized the idea of dhāraṇīs as memory or mnemonic devices in
this regard, but this is only part of the application of dhāraṇīs (David-
son 2009).
Beyond mantras and dhāraṇīs, early tantric literature also clearly
privileges the Prajñāpāramitā sources, especially the Vajracchedikā,
as well as the other Perfection of Insight texts. These were employed
throughout the Mahāyānist ritual enterprise for the purposes of sealing
a ritual, establishing merit, focusing the mind, obtaining postmortem
merit, and other purposes. The Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya, whatever its
genesis, certainly became part of the tantric corpus, taking its place by
other hṛdaya (mantric) texts, and the place of the Heart Sūtra within
the larger hṛdaya genre has yet to be discussed in the voluminous sec-
ondary literature already devoted to the short work in its various recen-
sions and translations. By the eleventh century, the Heart Sūtra had