TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)
45 Hemraj Sakya, Sivadeva Sa'f!skiirita Sri Rudravan:uJ Mahiivihiira Sthita Talpatra-
Abhilekh, Patan, 2524 BS. A critical edition of nearly all of these documents prepared
by Prof. Bernhard Kolver and Hemraj Sakya is currently in the press.
46 Alka Chattopadhyaya, Atlsa and Tibet, Delhi 1981, 322; George N. Roerich, (tr.), The
Blue Annals, Delhi 1979, 247. See also Luciano Petech, Mediaeval History of Nepal,
Rome 1984, 41---43 for a correction of the earlier translations of the relevant passages.
47 George Roerich, Biography of Dharmasvamin, Patan 1959, 55-6.
48 In his translation of the Blue Annals, Roerich consistently claims that Vaglsvarakirti
and Phamtimpa are the same man. Nowhere does he give any evidence for the identi-
fication. It is clear that Vaglsvaraklrti was an Indian and equally clear that
Phamtimpa's brothers were Nepalese.
49 Ian Alsop, The Crowns of the Vajriiciiryas, forthcoming.
50 Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, Appendix I and II.
51 Hemraj Sakya, Srlsvayambhii-Mahiicaitya, Kathmandu 1098 NS, 124.
52 Hemraj Sakya and T.R. Vaidya, Medieval Nepal, Kathmandu 1970,30-31.
53 D.R. Regmi, Medieval Nepal, Calcutta 1965-6, Part 3, 69.
54 Ibid. 3: 104.
55 Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, 481, n.4.
56 Slusser, Nepal Mm:u;lala I, 288-9.
57 Daniel Wright, (ed.), History of Nepal, Kathmandu 1972,235-6.
58 Gellner, op. cit., 25.
59 Gellner, ibid., p. 30 from his retranslation from the original manuscript of the relevant
passage from Wright's chronicle. This passage has been entirely omitted by Wright's
translators.
60 Gellner, ibid., 32.
61 Wright, History of Nepal, 116.
62 What is important is that these monasteries were de jure celibate institutions. This
sort of reasoning is not so unusual. Nepali brahmans today will explain their superior
status by the fact that they are forbidden to drink alcohol. When one points out that
today many brahmans (perhaps even the informant) do, the informant will respond
that this is irrelevant. What is important is that as a caste they are non-drinkers; and
so they were defined in Nepalese law. The old code oflaw (Miilukl A in), in force until
twenty five years ago, divided the clean castes into two broad categories: those who
wear the sacred thread (tagadhiiri) and those who drink alcohol (matvaU).
63 See for example Wright, History of Nepal, 118-20.
64 Dhanavajra Vajracarya, "Madhyakalik Nepalka Ek Prakhyat Raja Sivadeva", Contri-
butions to Nepalese Studies, Vol. VIII, 1: 217-18.
65 See Stephen Greenwald, "Monkhood versus Priesthood in Newar Buddhism", in C.
von Fiirer-Haimendorf, Contributions to the Anthropology of Nepal, London 1974,
129-31, for selections from writers from Hodgson to Snellgrove. To these can be
added Slusser's similar remarks, Nepal Mal)t/.ala, 1, 136-7.
66 Leinhard, see references.
67 Snellgrove, Buddhist Himalaya, Oxford 1957, I 02-3.
68 Ibid., 95.
References
Allen, Michael, "Buddhism Without Monks: The Vajrayana Religion of the Newars of
Kathmandu Valley", SA 3 1973, 1---4.
--The Cult of Kumari: Virgin Worship in Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Institute of
Nepal and Asian Studies, Kathmandu 1975.
