Vajrayāna

Vajrayāna (Sanskrit: वज्रयान, literally meaning either the Diamond Vehicle or Thunderbolt Vehicle) is the tantric corpus of Buddhism.

According to Vajrayāna scriptures, the term Vajrayāna refers to one of three vehicles or routes to enlightenment, the other two being the Śrāvakayāna (also known as the Hīnayāna) and Mahāyāna.

Founded by Indian Mahāsiddhas, Vajrayāna subscribes to Buddhist tantric literature.

Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism. The Mañjusrimulakalpa, which later came to be classified under Kriyatantra, states that mantras taught in the Shaiva, Garuda and Vaishnava tantras will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught originally by Manjushri. The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Shaiva guru and initiating members into Saiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas. The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.

The Vajrayana established the symbolic terminology and the liturgy that would characterize all forms of the tradition.

The sahaja-siddhi movement developed in the 8th century in Bengal. It was dominated by long-haired, wandering siddhas who openly challenged and ridiculed the Buddhist establishment.

The Kalachakra tantra developed in the 10th century. It is farthest removed from the earlier Buddhist traditions, and incorporates concepts of messianism and astrology not present elsewhere in Buddhist literature.

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