. from vedic india to buddhist japan 1053
for domestic conduct) precede the building of a house” (Slusser 1982,
133). Writing about the building practices of the Kholagaun Chhe-
tri, a contemporary Nepalese group, John Gray (2006, 73–74) notes
that they
construct their houses in a complex spatial milieu consisting of the
worldly space manifest by the cardinal directions and the reigning dei-
ties enclosing and defining it, the physical site for the house, the vital
force (bhūmi) of the ground upon which it is built, serpent deities (nag)
that lie beneath it, impurities of lower caste construction workers and
lingering presences of other beings occupying the site. In building a
house in such a space, there are five stages of construction: assessing
the site, preparing it for construction, positioning the house on the site,
building the house, beginning with the foundation, and inhabiting the
house. The aim of each of these stages is not just to erect the material
structure but also to ensure it is auspicious, that is, to build a harmoni-
ous conjuncture of person and house with time and space.Some Thoughts toward a Conclusion
It is a theoretical decision whether to employ the rhetoric of rupture
or that of continuity. Both can be employed for political advantage—
either the symbolic resonances of being fresh, new, and relevant to the
present day, or the resonances of being well-established, tested, reli-
able, and traditional. From an academic perspective, however, neither
should be taken as the given, unproblematized format for organizing
the representation of history. The study of Buddhism, and perhaps
especially tantric Buddhism, has been largely molded by the rhetorics
of rupture—ruptures across geo-cultural and linguistic boundaries,
ruptures across sectarian developments, ruptures across political and
historical eras. This essay has attempted to point toward an alternate
historiography of continuity.
In examining the Vedic sources for the homa altar construction rites,
as well as other tantric rituals, it is tempting to hope for what might be
called “strong” connections, clear and specific similarities between the
ritual practices of the two traditions. To date such strong connections
have not been identified (see, for example, Payne 2004). Speculating
on the nature of the transition from Vedic ritual culture to tantric, one
of the factors that is perhaps most important is the traditional division
of Vedic rites between gṛhya and śrauta (domestic and solemn). One
would expect that early tantric ritual innovators would have had more
personal experience with the domestic rites, and would therefore have