. from vedic india to buddhist japan 1049
esoteric ritual practice is evident. In this brief set of actions—digging
the earth, purifying the clay, establishing the foundation, and installing
both the deities of the lineage in the form of a bīja mantra mandala,
together with the Vedic deities—are found ritual references to build-
ing rites that date from Vedic ritual practices.^11
In addition, the final set of deities evoked into the altar site is clear
evidence that the cosmology and astrology informing the ritual extends
back to Vedic India. Included here are the twelve Vedic deities, such
as Brahmā, Vāyu, Sūrya, and so on, as well as the two sets of aster-
isms the seven celestial lights and the twenty-eight lunar mansions.
The seven celestial lights are the sun, moon, and five visible planets,
while the lunar mansions are the conventional twenty-eight days of a
lunar month. (As the lunar cycle does not actually correspond exactly
to a set period of days, the Tibetan system of calendrics uses twenty-
seven. See Henning 2007, 356–57.) The mudrā described in the sec-
ond ritual action is the mudrā of Hayagrīva, the horse-headed form of
Avalokiteśvara (see Nayar 2004).
In addition to this rite for constructing the altar, there is a corre-
sponding rite for its dissolution, which is employed at the end of the
sequence to twenty-one performances that is done in the training of
Shingon priests. A closing vow is recited:
On this the seventh and final day of the ritual performance of this homa,
I make this concluding vow to the chief deity Ācala Vidyārāja (Fudō
Myōō ) and his guardians. Beginning with the host of the chief
deity Ācala, the four great and eight great guardians have brought and
transferred their vows here to me and given siddhi to me. I request the
holy guardians return to their own mandalas. From the beginning of this
rite until this concluding day, the hosts of mysterious forces have surely
brought their influences to bear. Thus, beginning with the five classes of
vajra rank in the outer circle of the mandala, for the heavenly monarchs
and hosts of the nine heavens in all three realms....The recitation then proceeds as usual with the final invocation. At the
very end of the rite, and in place of dissolving the ritual boundaries
(^11) The texts that focus on the construction of Vedic altars constitute a separate
class of texts known as śulbasūtra (or, in some cases, śulvasūtra). (Personal commu-
nication via e-mail with Michael Witzel, February 12, 2008.) Gonda notes that the
śulbasūtras are directly attached to the śrautasūtras and belong to the latest period of
Vedic textual production. They “contain minute rules regarding the measurement and
construction of the fire-places and sacrificial grounds” (Gonda 1977, 470).