Tantric Theology: Demiurgic and Anti-Cosmic Themes in the Myths of Mahākāla and Vajrabhairava

Abstract

While the Rudra/Maheśvara subjugation myth is well known in Tantric Studies there exist a great number of variant retellings of it in the Tibetan literary record which have largely been overlooked by scholarship. This paper examines two cycles of lesser-known versions of this centrally important tantric charter myth, one from the Rnying ma (Old School) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, centering on a form of Mahākāla and the other from the Gsar ma (New School) tradition, focused on Vajrabhairava. The Mahākāla cycle, while not significantly different from the versions that have been studied before, adds several interesting details. The Vajrabhairava version of the myth, however, is of special interest. While it is superficially like the better-known Rnying ma versions, it appears to be a notable transvaluation of, even a deliberate response, to the latter. I argue that these two versions of the myth in fact present very different, even radically opposing, theological worldviews, one of which upholds and apotheosizes cosmic order, and another which is radically anti-cosmic.