THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF NEWAR BUDDHISMpriests, and this probably came about because of the availability of the
Vajriidiryas. In Malla Nepal there were far more Vajriiciiryas than brahmans,
especially in Patan and Kathmandu. Even today in Bhaktapur, the most Hindu of
the three cities, there are only 26 households of Newar brahmans as opposed to
209 houses of bare, about half of whom are Vajriiciiryas.^29 It is clear that in
Malla Nepal there were barely enough brahmans to serve the needs of the court
and the aristocracy who were caste Hindus. In fact, the use of brahman priests
may well have provided a convenient distinction between the rulers and the
ruled. From the viewpoint of the people (i.e., the Jyapiis), the Vajriiciiryas were
accepted and respected above all because they possessed power - power to ward
off evil, to subdue malevolent deities, to coerce supernatural forces and to bend
them to the use of the villagers.^30 Even to this day people in the Valley, even
non-Newars, will say that the most powerfuljhankrl is the Vajriiciirya.^31 If then
one uses the criterion of the family priest to classify people as Hindu or Bud-
dhist, what information does this convey? Very little indeed. What is needed is a
fresh anthropological analysis of the religious customs of these people from a
different viewpoint.
What are the historical antecedents that led to the unique features of Newar
Buddhism today? At the outset it must be said that one cannot give a definite
answer to this question at the present state of our knowledge. In what follows I
will attempt to draw together what few threads we have from the medieval
period, and try to form some tentative hypotheses.
Buddhist stories and legends give a hoary antiquity to Buddhism in the
Valley, tracing human habitation to a visit of Mafijusri, who drained the lake
that once filled the Valley. Legends speak of visits to the Valley by the leg-
endary. Buddhas who preceded the historical Buddha: Kiisyapa Buddha,
Krakucchanda, Kanakamui).i, Dipankara; and some of the viharas are said to
have been founded by these early Buddhas. Legend speaks of a visit to the
Valley by the Emperor Asoka. The four stiipas at the cardinal points of the city
of Patan are attributed to him, many ancient caityas in Kathmandu are attributed
to him, and he is said to have married off a daughter to a lcyatriya of Nepal. In
their old age she and her husband founded a vihara, the present Cii Bahi, which
was named after her. The Sanskrit name of this vihara is often given as Ciiru-
mati Vihiira.^32
Given the proximity of the Valley of Nepal to Lumbini and Kapilavastu and
to the areas of North Bihar where Buddhism spread rapidly even during the time
of the Buddha, it is quite possible that the Dharma found its way to the Valley
during the lifetime of the Buddha himself. It is not a priori impossible that the
Emperor Asoka visited the Valley, but there is no contemporary evidence of
such a visit either from Nepal or from Buddhist sources in India. Unlike India,
where the ancient Buddhist sites are abandoned ruins, the ancient sites in Nepal
are still active shrines. Hence archeological investigation of sites such as the
four stiipas of Patan is impossible without offending the religious sensibilities of
the people.