he origin. These give rise to celestial emanations, female
as well as male, and to terrestrial reflexes such as Sakyamuni.
Among the other features of Padma-Sambhava's teaching the following
may be enumerated with more or less certainty: (_a_) A readiness to
tolerate and incorporate the local cults of the countries where he
preached. (_b_) A free use of spells (dharani) and magical figures
(mandala) for the purpose of subduing demons and acquiring
supernatural powers. (_c_) The belief that by such methods an adept
can not only summon a deity but assume his form and in fact become the
deity. (_d_) The worship of Amitabha, among other deities, and a
belief in his paradise. (_e_) The presentation of offerings, though
not of flesh, in sacrifice[1018] and the performance of ceremonies on
behalf of departed souls. (_f_) The worship of departed and perhaps of
living teachers. His image is a conspicuous object of veneration in
the Nying-ma-pa sect but he does not appear to have taught the
doctrine of hierarchical succession by incarnation. Grunwedel[1019]
has pointed out that the later corruptions of Buddhism in northern
India, Tibet and Central Asia are connected with the personages known
as the eighty-four Mahasiddhas, or great magicians. Their appearance
as shown in pictures is that of Brahmanic ascetics rather than of
Buddhist Bhikshus, but many of them bear names which are not Indian.
Their dates cannot be fixed at present and appear to cover a
period from the early centuries of our era up to about 1200, so that
they represent not a special movement but a continuous tendency to
import into Buddhism very various currents of thought, north Indian,
Iranian, Central Asian and even Mohammedan.

The visit of Padma-Sambhava was followed by a period of religious
activity which culminated in the ninth century under King Ralpachan,
but it does not appear that the numerous translations from Indian
works made in this reign did more than supplement and amplify the
doctrine already preached. But when after a lengthy eclipse Buddhism
was reinstated in the eleventh century under the auspices of Atisa
and other foreign teachers we hear of something new, called the
Kalacakra[1020] system also known as the Vajrayana. Pending the
publication of the Kalacakra Tantra,[1021] it is not easy to make
definite statements about this school which presumably marks the
extreme point of development or degeneration in Buddhism, but a
persistent tradition