A propos the Legend of Nāropā

Author(s): Giuseppe Tucci

Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 4 (Oct., 1935),
pp. 677-688
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25201231 .
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 A propos the Legend of N?ropa1
By GIUSEPPE TUCCI

^VT?ROP?, with Padmasambhava, Mi, la ras pa, and

Tso? k'a pa, is one of the most famous Buddhist teachers
in Tibet. He may certainly be considered as one of the most
conspicuous factors of Tibetan Buddhism, since he was the
spiritual father of Marpa, who is acknowledged as the guru
of Milaraspa and the founder of the bKa' rgyud pa sect. This
school later split up into several sub-sects, widely spread
even now in Tibet, and through Karma Bakshi allied itself
with the r?i? ma pas ; but its first teacher or ?diguru is said to.
have been rDo rje ac'an, or Vajradhara, whose doctrines were

secretly transmitted to Tilop? and by this siddha to N?rop?,

who was to exercise through his pupil a great spiritual influence
all over Tibet.
Very little was known
up to now about this great ascetic,
practically nothing more than the legendary accounts of his
life contained in the bKa' babs bdun Idan by T?ran?tha and
the lives of the eighty-four Siddhas, both translated, by
Gr?nwedel.2

Many of his works have been rendered into Tibetan by his

pupil Marpa, and are to be found in the bsTan agyur, the only
book from his pen still preserved in Sanskrit being the
Sekoddesatlk?* a treatise concerned with the tantric
initiation and its rituals
according to the K?lacakra and the

Vimalaprabh? system. This text has been discovered by me

in Nepal, and is being edited and translated by my pupil,
Dr. M. Carelli. But his most famous work in Tibet is a booklet
called N? ro c'os drug (" The Six Laws of N?rop? "),
p?i
1 des N?rop?,
Die Legenden des Hauptvertretera des Nekromanten- und
Hexentums von. A. Gr?nwedel ; Leipzig (Harrassowitz), 1933.
* T?ran?tha's
Edelsteinmine, Bibliotheca Buddhica, XVIII. Die Geschich
ten der vierundachtzig Zauberer, B?ssler Archiv, v, 4, 5,
' A the Sekoa\le?a in the bKa' agyur, v.
commentary upon preserved
Beckh's Catalogue, p. 72.
JRAS. OCTOBER 1935. 44
 678 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

which is a kind of manual of the Yoga praxis for the sGom

e'en, viz. the ascetics, specially, but not only those of the
bKa' rgyud pa sect.1 This book, which is fundamentally for
the study of Tibetan mysticism and sheds a great light upon
the psycho-analytical science of the East, is being translated
by me and will shortly be published.
Scant attention has been paid up to now to the teachings
of the Siddhas and to their interpretation of the tantric
doctrines ; and are not always very clear, because
these
they are chiefly s?dliana-a?stras, viz. methods of spiritual
experiences partly unknown to us ; still they may be looked
upon as one of the greatest attempts ever known to translate
into terms of life and psychological reality mere intellectual
formula). Moreover, it is, in my opinion, just in the Tantras
that the fundamental difference between the Indian and the
Western point of view of life is to be sought. It has therefore
been for me a matter for great satisfaction to see that a veteran
of our studies has once more realized the importance of the
Siddha-school and has added to his previous labours the
translationof the biography of the famous N?rop?,2 a book
which, apart from its literary value, has the great advantage
of bringing us into direct contact with that psychology which
permeates tantric experiences and still dominates the Tibetan
mind, and which, moreover, well have been common
may
to the Mah?y?na communities in India, of whose spiritual
influence Tibetan culture is the outcome. Professor Gr?nwedel
has based his translation upon a manuscript which was found
in the Monastery of Hcmis, a famous dGon pa in Ladakh
founded a aBrug pa saint, sTag ts'a? ras pa by name,
by
whose sprul sku incarnates himself there even now and is
also well known to me As a matter of fact, the text of the
translated is merely a manuscript
biography by Gr?nwedel

1 In " "
fact, one of the best commentaries upon the six laws is that by
Tson k'a pa.
* I think that the correct and not N?ropa
spelling of the name is N?rop? :
p? is the Prakritic form of p?da.
 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA 679

redaction of a most
popular rnam Car of N?rop?, the full title
:MVas grub m?am med Idan n?ro rnam par Var
being dpal pai
dri med legs bead bde c'en qbrug sgra. The author was dBan
ap'yug rgyal mts'an, who wrote it in bSam gli? in rDsa ri.
Of course, this is not the only biography of our Siddha :
another shorter rnam Car is included in the qP'ags yul
and
grub pai dbah p'yug dpal Teh N?ro g?is dan \ dgyes mdsad
Mar pa lots? \ rje btsun blad rDo rje bcas kyi rnam Var mdor
bsdus dan |mk'as grub Dvags po lha rjei rnam Var snan pai
ba dan adsam gli? mV a* gru k'yab pai rgyan bcas, and a third
one is the mK'as mc'og n?ro pah e'en gyi rnam Var. It is a

special of a very bulky work called : bKa' rgyud pai

section
gser qpWeh, which is, as its title indicates, a series of biographies
of the greatest masters of the sect.
It is needless to add that a good deal of information con

cerning our saint is also to be found in the Deb Ver s?on po

and in the various Cos qbyu?, especially in the Cos qbyu?
of Padma dkar po.
It is well known that Tibetan manuscripts are very often
marred by many mistakes due to copyists imperfectly
acquainted with the rules of orthography, who very often
misread the original manuscripts. So it was to be expected
that even the manuscript with which we are at present
concerned was not altogether free from clerical errors ; some
times these
could have been easily corrected by the editor,
but sometimes they were such as to alter the meaning and to
mislead him in his interpretation of the text. I subjoin here
a few instances :?

p. 32, 11. 1-2 of the Tibetan text : bstan la adebs should be

gtan qbebs.
p. 33,1. 12 : skyes mc'og pan e'en n? ro pa.
p. 35, 1. 7 : The verse is defective ; it should be : Va mal
pa yi gzugs su gnas.
Ibid., 1. 15 : mc'og tu gyur pa mi mjed qjig rten gyi k'ams
qdi yin la \ dei na? ?as Jcya? bcom pa dan Man pai gli? bzi
pa qdi yin |gli? bzi las kya? \gli? mc'og tu gyur pa.
680 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

p. 36,1. 7 : Not sa la, but s? la, viz. the ??la tree.

p. 37, 1. 13 : Instead of bsnuh read smyuh bar.
Ibid., last line : For p'o ni, etc., read p'o ?a cig gi mts'ams
sbyor.

p. 41,1. 5 : For rbe read sbe ; rtsis nan should be rtsis dan.
Ibid., 1. 14 : read bstan pai sgor.
p. 45, 1. 3 : For byas pai kyad read byas pas kya?.
p. 46, 1. 16 : rgyal po gtsah po yah should be rgyal po zas
gtsah y ab.
p. 48, 11. 1 and 17 : Instead of gtsah sbra and adra read

gtsah spra (cf. p. 50, 1. 1, gtsah spra).

p. 49,1. 21 : For c'u sdod read c'u snod.
p. 50, 1. 13 : After ni gu bya ba yin add mih po na gu bya
ba yin.

p. 53, 1. 6 : For guis la read g?is lo.

p. 54,11. 15 and 16 : abed qbrel should be abad abral.
p. 59, 1. 21 : For mts'on read mts'og.
p. 86, 1. 6 : For rtsa bas gros read brtse bai gros.
Ibid., 1. 13 : This should be bla ma ma br?ed.
p. 87, 11. 15-16 read gsah snags yid biin nor
: After gnas
bu yi | gdams hag snod du agyur to \mk'a* agro ma yi gsa?
bai gnas \ rgyud pa yid bzin nor bu bzuh.
p. 87. last line : byas pa Ita bui.
1. 17 : For bden agags read bden qdsin agags.
p. 89,
p. 101, 1. 3 : This must be : bsdus pa la yab lhan gcig skyes
pa dan yum lhan gcig skyes mai sgrub Vabs.
But I do not insist further upon this point : it is quite clear
that the text, as it is, needs a revision.
As to the translation, I frankly confess that I cannot accept
the renderings of Professor Gr?nwedel ; apart from the many
in which he seems to have misunderstood the text,
points
I object to the idea which he has of this literature and which
is responsible very often for his translation. Magic, of course,
is blended with the Tantras ; and many Tantras have complete
sections dedicated to magic, and even to black magic. But
in the Tantras there are also many other things which cannot
 A PROPOS THE LEGEND 0F%NAROPA 681

be considered as magic ; after all, the life of N?rop? itself

is a good instance of this ; what he is looking for, are not
siddhis but the siddhi ; that is, that supreme spiritual realiza
tion which will enable him to step over samsara and to obtain
the full possession of the ultimate reality. The Siddha is
not a magician ; even in Hinduism a siddhapurusa is the
"
Perfect One ", the Indian ideal of perfection, as opposed
to that of the European saint. The Siddha may have, as a
rule even has, siddhis, but these are mere signs of his having
attained the supreme realization. We must not forget that
in the Tantras of the higher class, as those which have inspired
the school of the bKa' rgyud pa, everything is symbolical :
or religious forms as
they used old expressions symbols of
these spiritual experiences, which they taught men to realize.
If we would understand by a comparison the atmosphere
which pervades the Tantras, we must have recourse to the

mystery-sects or to the gnostic schools of Hellenistic times,

which also used time-honoured symbols or mythological
expressions to signify quite different spiritual realities,
which were the outcome of the religious consciousness of their
time. There is no trace of necromancy in all this. If we

interpret the Vajray?na, by which Tantras have been inspired,

as magic, we fail to understand the mystic significance of this
Buddhist Yoga, which, apart from its weak points, is
certainly one of the most important creations of the Hindu
mind, upon which we must not pass judgment without
grasping its real meaning, beyond its outer appearance and
its verbal expressions, which may be even misleading. The

exegetical literature preserved in Tibetan or due to Tibetan

mystics will show this fact beyond any doubt. These, I think,
are the realia for which we must account if we would under
stand the Tantras.
Let us give some instances of the interpretation of the
text by Gr?nwedel ; they are only a few, but there is hardly
a page where his renderings could not, according to me,
be improved.
682 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

p. 34, 1. 16 :?
"
Ich bin ein Buddha, in meinem Geiste vollendet,
mein Wort ist das heilige Dharma,
ich bin die Gemeinde der M?nche (sa?gha) erhabener
K?rperlichkeit,"
Here, of course, reference is made to the triple essence of
" " "
N?rop? as being sku, gsuh, Cugs body ", word ", mind ",
viz. the three constituents, according to the Vajray?na, of
every personality, and in their wyra-aspect of the Buddhas.
"
My mind is the perfect Buddha, my word is the supreme
Law, my body is the holy Church.''
p. 37, 1. 19 : Aber es klappte nicht mit der Existenzform ;
da, als so ein Stillstand war durch Disharmonie bez?glich
einer Schwangerschaft in einem m?nnlichen Jahre, wurde
. . .
gesagt.
"
When the astrological connections did not agree, they
said to the emissary = as a]
(mts'ams sbyor pranidhi) [sent
. . ."
messenger.
"
p. 38, 1. 4 : Der Geist hat die Zuflucht gefunden, ohne
Trug ist das h?chste Wesen ; gedeiht dann die Stimmung
zur h?chsten Erkenntnis (bodhi) infolge der Anlage, die einem
Wesen entspricht, das mit guter Absicht begabt ist, so tritt,
wenn der Wunsch besteht unter Herbeirufen des h?chsten
Gutes, der Schutzg?tter (istadeva), der Hexen (?lakin?s)
und religionsh?ter (dharmap?la) eine F?lle von Spenden
zu geben/'
"
It is clearer to translate as follows : Having taken refuge
in the triratna (a necessary introduction to every ceremony,
never
trisaranagamana, skyabs agro), since the three jewels
deceive, being in this way possessed of a pure mind, one
must, out of it, resolve to obtain the supreme illumination
(cittotp?du) ; then he must prepare abundant offerings in the
ceremony of evocation (?v?hana) of the Guru, the triratna,
the protecting God and the D?kin?."
p. 47. When N?rop? is invited by his parents to marry,
after many a refusal he yields, provided they find for him
 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA 683

a girl possessed of certain requisites. The stanza in which he

expresses this purpose is so rendered by Gr?nwedel :?

"
Die Gnade der drei g?ttlichen erhabenen G?ter hat mich
erfasst. Bei der Eigenart des Begriffes Vater und Mutter der
sechs Wesens-klassen wird Eins zu Zwei, bei Vater und Mutter
kann also Wahrheit nicht sein. Ich ein solcher Zauberer, wie
meine Berufung verlangt, spreche den Wunsch aus, da ich
imstande skrupelloser Reinheit bin : m?ge mir ein Wort

gegeben werden, ob ich makellose T?rthikas eines Geschlechtes

f?r die grosse Karriere (mah?y?na) finden kann, also, wenn
es ein solches Midchen gibt, wird das Wort meiner Eltern
nicht gebrochen." "
The should, I think, be as follows : Though,
translation

being seized by the mercy of the triratna, I think that all

creatures of the six kinds of existence are my parents (lit. :
have the nature
of my parents) (and that therefore) it is
wrong (to believe) that one or two are my own parents :
only
the ascetic, according to the command (received) am
(I),
searching for such [a girl]. Inform me if you find (a girl)
(possessed of the
following marks) simple,1 : she must be
to a non-Buddhist immaculate 4
pure,2 belonging family,3
6 These marks
(vimal?), in the lineage of the Great Vehicle."
are, as a matter of fact, in the course of the
explained
narration. Those who are acquainted with the Tantras will

easily recognize the usual marks of the candall or mudr?

used in some esoteric rituals.
"
p. 59, 1. 16. Als er nun seinem Begehren nach dem
Wunschedelstein (cint?mani), der den Zauber enth?lt,
Abschluss geben wollte, denn er war nun mit der zweiten

Spezialit?t mit der Lehre der Donnerkeilschule (vajray?na)

der Geheimformeln (guhyamantra) besch?ftigt und damit ein
Zeichen sei dass ihn Bhatt?rik? Vajrayogin? zu dem
1 Tibetan 1. 17.
text, p. 49,
* 1. 1.
Ibid., p. 50,
? 1. 14.
Ibid., p. 50,
? 1. 13.
Ibid., p. 50,
? 1. 20.
Ibid., p. 60,
 684 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

ehrw?rdigen Ti-lo-pa f?hre, damit er -die Zauberkraft der

Waffe aus?be und durch das, was sein Herz bedeute, die
Lehre . . ."
steigere.
" ' '
Secondly (referring to first dan po ni of p. 41, 1. 19)
to say it in detail, as regards (ni instead of na) the way
by
which he, being devoted to the teachings of the Vajray?na

consisting of the secret mantras, cut off all doubts

concerning
that gem which is the tantric teaching [it is told that] through
the will of Bhayy?rik? Vajrayogin? he received a si?n which
led him into the presence of ?rya Tilop? so that he might
apply to the supreme
himself perfection and develop the
teaching of the essential meaning.''
"
p. 65, 1. 4 : Mache hier die Bannung zu dem dir
erw?nschten Ziel."
"
Bring to fulfilment our desire."
"
p. 66, 1. 5 : Wir entbehren des kundigen Arztes, der uns
die Wahrheit bringt ?ber die Finsternis des Nichtwissens
(avidy?), darum o Bhagavat Abhayak?rti verweile zu unserem
Heile."
"
On account of the bewilderment of ignorance we are

deprived of the "clever doctor of the law."

p. 66,1. 10 : Der Geborene l?st sterbend jede Verbindung,
seine Form (dharmat?), bei der so, das was sich angeh?uft
hat, schwindet."
"
Whatever is born dies, every compound is bound to be
dissolved."
"
p. 68, 1. 10 : Die siebente Letter (seine ?akti) des
Samvara hatte nun zweihunderttausend Ehrenbezeugungen
erhalten."
"
He had uttered two hundred thousand times the mantra
of six letters of Samvara." Reference is here made to the^a^a
of the sacred to Samvara.
sapt?ksara-mantra
"
p. 69, 1. 9 : Ich habe dir selbst den Segen gegeben, da
du den ehrw?rdigen Ti-lo-pa erhalten musst, sonst einen

ehrw?rdigen Lehrer nicht erh?ltst. Wo ist dein Buddha zu

"
f\nden ?
 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA 685

" .
. .Without the noble master where could you
finding
"
get the Buddha" ?
p. 74 1. 17 : Wenn du nicht mit dem Seh werte einer der
Geburt nicht mehr unterworfenen Eigenart, und zwar aus
einer Stimmung heraus, die jeder Sympathie fremd ist, den
fortlaufenden Faden des Kreislaufs (samsara) durchschl?gst,
"
wie k?nnte dir zuteil werden, den Lehrer zu finden ?
"
If you do not cut off with that sword which is the
(doctrine of) the Absolute Unborn the continuity of samsara,
whose essence is ..."
non-perception.
" "
p. 82, 1. 5 : Wirf das da ins Feuer und nahm dabei von
seiner Gewandschulter eine Laus, als vollgeh?uftes Mass zur
Liebe. Obwohl damit . . ."
gesagt sein sollte.
"
He took from the bosom of the beggar a handful of lice
(read spar mo instead of sprar mo) and told him to throw them
into the fire."
"
p. 84,1. 20 : Von jetzt ab musst du losgel?st sein von der
Pr?fung des Errungenen in einem Geiste, der das Innere
h?lt und nur Anteil nimmt an dem kommenden ?usseren
Bereich."
"
Now you must be freed from any discrimination as regards
the attachment to the external objects to be perceived
(gr?hya) and to mind as the internal perceiver (gr?haka)."
"
p. 86,1. 3 : Ich folgte der Prophezeiung der Hexe (cl?kin?),
warf von mir die Leitung der M?nchsgemeinde, die auf der
Grundlage meiner Predigt stand."
"
. . . I have forsaken the church which is the root of
the teaching."
"
p. 92,1. 11 : Ich verstehe jetzt, dass es n?tig ist, mit dem
reinen Wasser der Anleitungen den Nachwuchs des Nestes
der Erbs?nde, eines anderen Ichs, zu reinigen."
"
I have understood that it is necessary to remove the heat
(tsa gdun) of the moral impurities of oneself and of others
with the cooling water of mystic instructions."
"
p. 95, 1. 15 : So gew?hrte er ihm elf Zeichen der Zauber
macht des Gef?sses, elf der Geheimnisse, elf des Erfassens
686 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

der Erkenntnis (prajn?jn?na), den Segen des Reifenlassens

vollendeter Macht und alles restlos, was im allgemeinen zum
Geheimzauber (guhyamantra) geh?rt."
In this passage reference ismade to the four higher abhisekas
or initiations, dbah shir, or simply dbah, which can only be

imparted to a pupil who has already received the seven

inferior ones : while the first seven abhisekas are intended

only for the laukikasiddhi, i.e. powers useful life, the

in this

remaining four have a mystic significance and their aim is

to bring the neophyte into contact with higher planes of

experience. In the esoteric school the initiation does not need

the help of any ritual, but is imparted through symbols
(brda) which are eleven, just as the abhisekas are eleven.
"
p. 95, 1. 18 : Wenn jemand das, was durch die Macht
des Gef?sses in Erscheinung tritt als T?uschung erkannte,
dem erkl?ren sich
alle Erscheinungen als auf die Devas

bez?glich, das Selbsterfassen des Geistes magischer Geheim

kraft als Leere (??nyat?), die Leere der Geheimkraft des
vollen Erkennens (praj?a) als Seligkeit."
Here the spiritual process is described which takes place
"
during the three baptisms, or initiations, Through the
kunxbli?bhiseka, having'recognized that all appearances are
like a magic play, one explains every possible appearance
as [projections of] gods or [visions of] mind. Through the

guhy?bhiseka one recognizes that mind, which is the field

of one's own experience, is nothing but the void (??nya) itself.
Through the prajn?-jn?n?bhiseka one recognizes this void
"
as bliss (sukha, mali?-sukha). Through the fourth [abhiseka]
one recognizes this bliss as devoid of any expansion." All
these things are explained in detail by N?rop? in the
Sekoddesat?k?.
I am afraid that the long discussion which follows and is
concerned with the abhisekas and their esoteric meaning
has not also been properly understood by Gr?nwedel. From

p. 106 up to p. 113 the revelation of the six laws is narrated

viz. gtum mo, sgyu lus, rmi lam, *od gsal, p'o ba, groh qjug.
 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA 687

"
For lam one must, of course, read rmi lam
smin dream ",
which has a great significance in the mystical process ; glum
mo is not Canrjik?, but the practice which develops the
internal heat, etc. I need hardly insist any longer upon the

necessity of revising this translation in the light of a deeper

knowledge of the realia of Mah?y?na mysticism under

discussion.
There are also other points on which I do not agree with
Professor Gr?nwedel ; so, for instance, when he seeks to
find traces of Manich ism in our book or in the ideas it

expresses. There are, I am convinced, traces of Manichaeism

and possibly of Nestorianism in some old rNi? ma pa books,
to which I hope to draw shortly the attention of my colleagues ;
but I think that Professor Gr?nwedel has here failed to prove
his assumption. How is it possible to be convinced by his
assertion that the Lotus-sect is Manicheean ? There were in
the Buddhist Tantras various methods of mystic realizations
which were chiefly based upon the variety of human beings.
These methods were called the vajra, ratna, khadga, padma
and cobra methods ; even the iconography of the symbolism
of m?ndalas was different according to the particular
method followed, as we can easily perceive in the literature
connected with the Tattvasa?graha-tantra or the Param?di
tantra.

Another division of tantric rituals based upon the difference

of the people to be initiated is also found in Ts'o? ka pa's
commentary upon the Guhyasam?ja,1 where it is stated that
individuals are of five kinds : utpala, white lotus, padma,
candana, ratna. Each individual is only fit for the initiation
of the corresponding class. This division is, of course, strictly
connected with the pa?cakula or doctrine of five families
common in the Tantras, which expresses the fivefold emanation
and partition of cosmic phenomena from the primeval

1
rOyud Cams cad kyi rgyal po dpal gSa? ba ?dus pai rgya e'er bs*ad
pa sgron ma gsal bai t?ig don ji bzin abyed pai mc"an gyi yah agrel (vol. i
of the collected works of Tson k'a pa, fol. 13).
688 A PROPOS THE LEGEND OF NAROPA

consciousness. Anyhow the lotus-class is peculiarly mah?

y?na.
To sum up my views : it is quite possible that Mah?y?na
Buddhism and Lamaism have been, to a certain extent,
influenced by Manichaean doctrines ; but this fact must be
proved, and the way to be followed is not that shown by
Professor Gr?nwedel.
239.