**4.5. Inner Meanings of the Heruka Man. d. ala**

As described above, various classes of deities constitute the Heruka man. d. ala. Lord Heruka has physical features that extend from the physical features of Lord Heruka of the fivefold Heruka man. d. ala. The major deities on the lotus at the center are from the Sam. vara tradition; the Adamantine Circle consists mostly of the Sam. vara deities; the Heart Circle has the Guhyasamaja deities; the Merit Circle has human ¯ castes (partially similar to the *Kalacakra ¯* 's human castes) and gatekeeping Sam. vara

<sup>237</sup> It is Ardhadagdhaka in Ratnasena's *Man. d. alarcanavidhi ¯* (Skt ms. NGMPP B24/52, 32v7).

<sup>238</sup> It is Ardhakhan. d. ika in Ratnasena's *Man. d. alarcanavidhi ¯* (Skt ms. NGMPP B24/52, 33r1).

<sup>239</sup> In Ratnasena's *Man. d. alarcanavidhi ¯* , the four charnel grounds, Bh¯ıs.an. a, Bhayam. kara, S´ulabhinna, and ¯ Udbandhaka, are arranged in the four intermediate directions, starting with the southeast and clockwise in order (Skt ms. NGMPP B24/52, 33r1).

deities; the Space Circle has musical deities and instruments; the Wind Circle has birds (partially similar to the *Kalacakra ¯* 's birds as female deities); the Earth Circle has animals living on the ground (partially similar to the *Kalacakra ¯* 's animals on the ground as female deities) and gatekeeping Eight Mothers; the Fire Circle has human kin members (partially similar to the *Kalacakra ¯* 's human kinswomen as female partners for the initiation ritual); the Water Circle has water creatures (partially similar to the *Kalacakra ¯* 's water creatures as female deities); the Knowledge Circle has asuras and gatekeeping Hevajra deities; the Mind Circle has hells and some unwholesome states of being; the Speech Circle has various states of mind equated with the Catus.p¯ıt.ha deities; and the Body Circle has the Three Realms of Existence.

From these, it can be seen that the Heruka man. d. ala comprises deities from the Sam. vara, Guhyasamaja, Hevajra, and Catu ¯ s.p¯ıt.ha traditions and deities (some of whom are from the Kalacakra tradition) who are deifications or ¯ anthropomorphizations of the Six Realms of Reincarnation (gods, asuras, humans, beasts, ghosts, and hells) and the Three Realms of Existence, namely, the entire Buddhist cosmos. They are organized within the framework of the Sam. vara system: the major deities on the innermost circles are from the Sam. vara tradition. Each circle has thirty-six deities, which is the same number of coupled or single deities encircling Heruka on the fivefold Heruka man. d. ala of the Sam. vara tradition. The colors of the three innermost and three outermost circles are similar to the three colors of the Mind, Speech, and Body Circles in the fivefold Heruka man. d. ala.

The worldview of Buddhist Tantrism generally considers all existences as pure in nature. In the *D. ak¯ ar¯ n. ava* 15, the pure nature (*suddhi ´* ) of the Heruka man. d. ala is expressed by doctrinal concepts from various Buddhist traditions (which is a general mode of explaining the purity of the man. d. ala in Buddhist Tantrism). The outer circles (where there are the four gates and so on) of the four layers of the Heruka man. d. ala are decorated with two, three, four, and five lines (*rekha¯*). The two lines are colored black and dark blue; the three lines represent the body, speech, and mind aspects of the *dharma* (*kayav ¯ akcittadharma ¯* ); the four lines signify the Four Pleasures (*caturananda ¯* ); and the five lines mean the Fivefold Gnosis (*adar´ ¯ sadi ¯* ) (15.94cd, 100cd–101a, 143c–144b, 184cd, 225c).<sup>240</sup> The Heruka man. d. ala also represents these Buddhist concepts,

<sup>240</sup> According to the *Ratnapadmaraganidhi ¯* (D 1516, 5v1-v2), the two lines represent the two currents of vital airs in the right and left inner channels; the three lines are colored dark blue, red, and white (which are same as the colors of the three lineages of the Buddhist deities, viz., the Vajra, Lotus, and Buddha lineages, respectively); the four lines are colored dark blue, yellow, red, and green (which are same as the colors of the four lineages, viz., the Vajra, Jewel, Lotus, and Action lineages, respectively); and the five lines are colored dark blue, yellow, red, green, white (which are colors of the five lineages, viz., the Vajra, Jewel, Lotus, Karma, and Buddha lineages, respectively).

namely, the Fourfold Body of the Buddha, the Four Modes of Birth,241 the twelve classes of holy sites (such as the *p¯ıt.ha*),<sup>242</sup> the Twelve Levels (such as the *pramudita¯* or "Joyful" Level),243 the Three Realms of Existence, and the seven continents (15.68c–70b, 79a, 80ab, 92–93a, 118cd–119, 130d–132, 139c–140, 161, 171c–172b, 183, 201ab, 202–203, 213cd, 224–225b, 241cd). They are shown in Table 10. All deities constituting the man. d. ala are equated with the 996 Victors (*jina*) or Buddhas during the Auspicious Eon (*bhadrakalpa*) (15.239). In Figures 1 and 2 shown previously, these Victors are depicted as independent deities seated between the circle of thirty-six pairs of heroes and d. akin ¯ ¯ıs and the circle of four gate and four corner d. akin ¯ ¯ıs on every outermost circle of the four layers (the Merit, Earth, Knowledge, and Body Circles). Perhaps this is the common means of expressing the state as the Victors of all deities constituting the man. d. ala in the painting. According to Jayasena's *Ratnapadmaraganidhi ¯* , in this system, the first 4 of the 1000 Victors are not counted; therefore, there are 996 Victors, with 249 Victors depicted in each of the four layers (249 × 4 = 996).244

<sup>241</sup> The spontaneously born, egg-born, moisture-born, and womb-born are assigned to the Four Layers in the order shown in Table 10. However, from a different perspective, it is also taught in the text that the deities on the Water Circle, who are water-creatures, are moisture-born, and that the deities on the Fire Circle, who are humans, are womb-born. (15.174–175b).

<sup>242</sup> The twelve classes of holy sites are the *p¯ıt.ha*, *upap¯ıt.ha*, *ks.etra*, *upaks.etra*, *chandoha*, *upacchandoha*, *melapaka ¯* , *upamelapaka ¯* , *sma´ ´ sana ¯* , *upa´sma´sana ¯* , *p¯ılava*, and *upap¯ılava*. For details on how these twelve classes of holy sites are used in other Buddhist texts, see (Sugiki 2009, pp. 529–35). The order of these twelve classes in the *D. ak¯ arn ¯ . ava* is identical to that in the *Mahamudr ¯ at¯.ilakatantra*, which is one of the latest scriptures among those belonging to the Hevajra scriptural tradition and which was composed earlier than the

*D. ak¯ arn ¯ . ava*. <sup>243</sup> The Twelve Levels (*dvada´ ¯ sabhumi ¯* ) of bodhisattvas are as follows: Joyful (*pramudita¯*), Stainless (*vimala¯*), Luminous (*prabhakar ¯ ¯ı*), Radiance (*arcis.mat¯ı*), Hard-to-Conquer (*sudurjaya¯*), Immediacy (*abhimukh¯ı*), Far-Reaching (*dura ¯ m. gama¯*), Immovable (*acala¯*), Eminence (*sadhumat ¯ ¯ı*), Dharma-Cloud (*dharmamegha¯*), Universal Light (*samantaprabha¯*), and Conviction Practice (*adhimukticarya¯*).

<sup>244</sup> The *Ratnapadmaraganidhi ¯* , D 1516 9v4–v5. The first 4 of the 1000 Victors are Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Ka´¯syapa, and S´akyamuni. According to Jayasena, they are excluded because the ¯ first three, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Ka´¯syapa, are already liberated and because the fourth, S´akyamuni, is identical to (is present as the nature of) ¯ D. ak¯ ar¯ n. ava (Heruka), the central deity of the man. d. ala.


**Table 10.** Buddhist concepts represented in the Heruka Man. d. ala.

The thirteen circles (numbered (1)–(13)), a base component of the structure of this man. d. ala, are thus related to the twelve classes of holy sites and the Twelve Levels. The one-to-one correspondence between the twelve classes of holy sites and the Twelve Levels in the *D. ak¯ ar¯ n. ava* 15, as shown in Table 10, is more similar to that found in Abhayakaragupta's ¯ *Amn ¯ ayamañjar ¯ ¯ı* (a commentary on the *Sam. put.odbhava*) than to that found in the works of other major scholarly monks in India.246

The seven continents (simply mentioned in the *D. ak¯ ar¯ n. ava* as *dv¯ıpam. prathamakam.* , *dvit¯ıya-*, *tr.t¯ıya-*, *catur-* (*caturtha-*), *pañcama-*, *s. as.t.ha-*, and *saptama-dv¯ıpa*) are, according to the *Bohita¯*, *zla ba'i gling*, *dkar po'i gling*, *ku sha'i gling*, *mi'am ci'i gling*, *krung gi gling*, *drag po'i gling*, and *'jam bu'i gling*, respectively.247 These are almost identical to the seven continents or *dv¯ıpa*s (*candra*, *sitabha ¯* , *varaparamaku´sa*, *kim. nara*, *krauñca*,

<sup>245</sup> "The spontaneously born" is not explicitly mentioned in the text. In Table 10, I have supplemented it because the other three modes of birth are taught.

<sup>246</sup> See (Sugiki 2009, p. 535). In his *Amn ¯ ayamañjar ¯ ¯ı*, Abhayakaragupta relates the ¯ *p¯ılava* (the twelfth) and the *upap¯ılava* (the thirteenth) to the "Conviction Practice" and the "Universal Light" Levels, respectively. This is the difference between the *D. ak¯ ar¯ n. ava* shown in Table 10 and the *Amn ¯ ayamañjar ¯ ¯ı*. The *Yogaratnamal¯ a¯* of Ka¯n. ha, the *Muktaval ¯ ¯ı* of Ratnakara´ ¯ santi, the ¯ *Sam. put.at.ilakatantrat.¯ıka¯* of Indrabodhi, and the *P¯ıt.hadinirnaya ¯* of S´akyarak ¯ s.ita relate the twelve classes of holy sites to the Twelve Levels in different ways.

<sup>247</sup> *Bohita¯*, D 1419, 141r5, 142r5, 143v1, 143v6-v7, 144v1, 145r2, and 146r2.

*raudra*, and *jambu¯* in order) that are taught in the *Kalacakra ¯* , <sup>248</sup> and not the seven continents that are taught widely in the Hindu Pura¯n. ic and Tantric scriptures such as the *Vis.n. upuran¯. a*.

Every class of holy site (the *p¯ıt.ha*, etc.) is inclusive of all twelve classes of holy sites. Similarly, every Level (the Joyful Level, etc.) is inclusive of all Twelve Levels, and every Realm (the Formless Realm, etc.) is inclusive of all Three Realms (15.69–70b). This way all circles, which have their own forms of pure nature, each have all forms of pure nature at the same time.

<sup>248</sup> *Kalacakra ¯* , Skt ed. (Dwivedi 1994), 1.16.
