Conflicting Categories and Blurred Boundaries: Mahāyāna and Emergence of Tantric Buddhism in the Rock-Cut Western Deccan Caves

Despite wide-ranging scholarship over the last three decades, the development of tantric Buddhism out of fully-developed Mahāyāna contexts in ancient India remains unclear. The very use of the terms “tantric” vs. “esoteric” Buddhism, particularly in reference to this nascent period, also continues to create controversy. It is therefore critical to ask: what characterizes an object as “tantric" in Mahāyāna visual culture? And further, what role should texts play in interpreting “tantric” subjects in visual material? This paper presents a multi-site visual milieu—sculptural programs within the western Deccan rock-cut cave monasteries of Nāsik and Kānherī—as evidence of the emergence of early esotericism in the late fifth to sixth centuries CE. A comparison of tantric ritual manuals of the kriyā and caryā classes to earlier in situ imagery reveals a three-dimensional mandala depicting early mantra families (kulas) together with the reverence of female deities who embodied mantras in on-the-ground practice.