Saraha,Sarhappa, Sarahapa, SarahapÃÂda (, ; ) was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha and poet. The name Saraha means "the one who has shot the arrow.". According to one, scholar, "This is an explicit reference to an incident in many versions of his biography when he studied with a dakini disguised as a low-caste arrow smith. Metaphorically, it refers to one who has shot the arrow of non duality into the heart of duality."
Saraha is considered to be one of the founders of Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly the MahÃÂmudrÃÂ tradition associated with the mind teachings of Tibet.
Saraha was originally known as RÃÂhula or RÃÂhulabhadra and was born in Roli, a region of the city-state of Rajni in eastern India, into a Shakya family and studied at the Buddhist monastic university Nalanda.
Saraha is normally shown seated and holding an arrow (Skt. Ã Âaru). It is from a mature nameless woman, often called the Arrow Smith Dakini or the Arrow Making Dakini, who was Saraha's teacher and consort, that the typical iconography of Saraha holding an arrow emerges. Some versions of their meeting say that Saraha saw the Arrow Making Dakini in a vision and thus was wandering here and there, searching her out. Some say they met at a crossroads, while other versions say that it was in a busy marketplace where she was selling her arrows.
Whether they meet in a marketplace or a crossroads, it is this woman's intense concentration and spiritual instructions to Saraha that are transformative. When he finds her, Saraha inquires about what she is doing. Her reply to him is pith and direct: "The Buddha's meaning can be known through symbols and actions, not through words and books."
The Arrow Making Dakini then explained the symbolic meaning of the arrow to him using the elusive tantric twilight language that is common to Dakini teachings. It is said, that in this moment, Saraha fully realized the state of mahamudra and at that moment he said the single syllable "da." This is a play on the sound of this word, which can mean either "arrow" or "symbol" (dadar or mda' dar in Tibetan). Saraha then recognized the wisdom Dakini in front of him, abandoned his studies and monastic vows, and moved to a cremation ground with her to practice
As an homage to the Arrow Making Dakini and Saraha and their great spiritual accomplishments, and to bring forth the blessings of these spiritual lineages, contemporary tantric communities are engaging in archery and arrow smithing as a form of spiritual discipline and practice.
The second nameless woman who was Saraha's teacher and consort is often called the Radish Curry Girl or the Radish Curry Dakini. Saraha met her when she was just 15 years old and it is likely she had been working as a servant. The story that provides this accomplished dakini with the epithet Radish Curry Girl also has several versions. One of the more well-known ones states that Saraha asked this young woman to make him a radish curry one day. While she was doing this, Saraha fell into meditation. His meditative absorption was so complete that he remained in samadhi for twelve years.
When he emerged from meditation, he asked the young woman if he could have some of the radish curry twelve long years later. Her direct replies to him are the teachings. She said: "You sit in samadhi for twelve years and the first thing you ask for is radish curry?"
Saraha noted her wisdom and realized his own faults in meditative practice. He decided that the only way for him to make any progress on the spiritual path would be to move into an isolated mountain location, away from all distractions.
Again, the Radish Curry Dakini offered pith instructions to Saraha: "If you awaken from samadhi with an undiminished desire for radish curry, what do you think the isolation of the mountains will do for you? The purest solitude," she counseled, "is one that allows you to escape from the preconceptions and prejudices, from the labels and concepts of a narrow, inflexible mind."
Saraha was wise enough to listen carefully to the wisdom of this dakini in front of him, realizing that she was indeed not just his consort but also his teacher. From that moment forward, his meditative practices changed and he eventually attained the supreme realization of mahamudra. At the time of his death, both Saraha and his consort ascended to Dakini Pure Lands.
Luipa was a pupil of Saraha.
In the oral and literary traditions of South Asia, there are at least three classifications for the tantric compositions and teachings of Saraha: doha (poetic couplets), caryagiti (performance songs), and vajragiti (adamantine songs, which are classified according to the content, not the form).
As Braitstein writes:
Doha is a form of couplet poetry and a portion of Saraha's doha are compiled in Dohakoà Âa, the 'Treasury of Rhyming Couplets'. Pada (verses) 22, 32, 38 and 39 of Caryagëtikoà Âa (or Charyapada) are assigned to him. The script used in the doha shows close resemblance with the present-day BengaliâÂÂAssamese, Tirhuta and Odia scripts which imply that Sarahapa has compiled his literature in the earlier language which has similarity with all Assamese, Bengali, Maithili and Odia languages.
In the disputed opinion of Rahul Sankrityayan, SarahapÃÂda was the earliest Siddha or SiddhÃÂcÃÂrya and the first poet of Bengali, Odia, Maithili and Hindi literature . According to him, SarahapÃÂda was a student of Haribhadra, who was, in turn, a disciple of à ÂÃÂntaraká¹£ita, the noted Buddhist scholar who traveled to Tibet. As à ÂÃÂntaraká¹£ita is known to have lived in the mid-8th century from Tibetan historical sources and Haribhadra was a contemporary of PÃÂla king Dharmapala (770 â 815 CE), SarahapÃÂda must have lived in the late 8th century or early 9th-century CE. From the colophon of a manuscript of Saraha's Dohakoà Âa, copied in Nepali Samvat 221 (1101 CE) and found from Royal Durbar Library in Nepal (most probably the earliest manuscript of Dohakoà Âa), by Pt. Haraprasad Shastri in 1907, we know that many doha-s of Saraha were extant by that time. Thanks to the efforts of a scholar named Divakar Chanda, some of them have been preserved., and were printed and published first in the modern Bangla font by the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad in 1916 along with the Dohakosh of Sarahapa in Bangla font, the Sanskrit notes of the dohas of Sarahapa also in the Bangla font, the Dakarnab adage-poems, the dohas of Kanhapa or Krishnacharyapa or Kanifnath and the Mekhla notes. The mouthpiece was by Haraprasad Shastri who had found the manuscript at the Royal Durbar Library of the Nepal kingdom in 1907.
The following song and poem of Saraha are from the original Apabhramsa (the language Saraha most often wrote in) is no longer extant but we have the Tibetan translation:
Here is one scholarly interpretation of the above verses: <blockquote>" space: In Indian thought, especially Buddhist, a common metaphor for the objective nature of reality as empty or unlimited, and the subjective quality of the mind that experiences that emptiness...Space also is one of the five elements recognized in most Indian cosmologies, along with earth, water, fire, and air. In certain contexts... "sky" is a more appropriate translation for the Apabhramsa or Tibetan original. emptiness: According to most Mahayana Buddhist schools, the ultimate nature of all entities and concepts in the cosmos, realization of which is required for attaining liberation. Emptiness (Skt. à Âà «nyatÃÂ) may be regarded negatively as the absence, anywhere, of anything resembling a permanent, independent substance or nature...more positively, it is regarded as the mind's natural luminosity, which is "empty" of the defilements that temporarily obscure...The critical remarks directed here at those who think "it" (i.e., reality) is connected with emptiness presumably are meant to correct a one-sided obsession with negation, which is one of Saraha's major targets."</blockquote>
The point of Saraha in this poem is clearly to ensure that the aspirant on way to becoming adept, does not get trapped by the metaphor and soteriological lexicon. This was a recurrent motif in Saraha's teachings and is key for why he is depicted in Tibetan iconography with an 'arrow' or 'dadar' (Tibetan: mda' dar). Further to this, the comment of scholar Judith Simmer-Brown (2001: p. 359) as follows is relevant: "The word for arrow is mda, which is identical in pronunciation to the word for symbol, brda".
There are a number of songs of realization attributed to the Indian Buddhist yogi Saraha in the Tengyur of the Tibetan Buddhist canon:
rgyud vol Ra. <br /> 104bâÂÂ150a To. 1652: à Ârë BuddhakapÃÂlatantrapañjikàjñÃÂna vatë nÃÂma (trans: Gayadhara, Jo Zla ba'i 'od zer)<br /> 225bâÂÂ229b To. 1655: à Ârë BuddhakapÃÂlasÃÂdhana nÃÂma (trans: Gayadhara, Gyi jo Zla ba'i 'od zer)<br /> 229bâÂÂ230b To. 1656: Sarvabhà «tabalividhi (trans: Gayadhara, Gyi jo Zla ba'i 'od zer)<br /> 230bâÂÂ243b To. 1657: à Ârë BuddhakapÃÂlamaá¹Âá¸Âalavidhikrama pradyotana nÃÂma (trans: Gayadhara, Gyi ja Zla ba'i 'od zer)
rgyud vol Wi.<br /> 70bâÂÂ77a To. 2224: Dohakoá¹£agëti - do ha mdzod kyi glu - "People Doha" (trans: ?)
rgyud vol Zhi (Ui: Shi)<br /> 26bâÂÂ28b To. 2263: Dohakoá¹£a nÃÂma caryÃÂgëti - do ha mdzod ces bya ba spyod pa'i glu - "King Doha", "Royal Song" (trans: ?)
28bâÂÂ33b To. 2264: Dohakoá¹£opadeà Âagëti nÃÂma - mi zad pa'i gter mdzod man ngag gi glu zhes bya ba - "Queen Doha" (trans: VajrapÃÂá¹Âi rev: Asu)
55bâÂÂ57b To. 2266: Kakhasyadoha nÃÂma (Ui gives "Kakhadoha nama") (trans: à Ârëvairocanavajra)<br /> 57bâÂÂ65b To. 2267: Kakhadohaá¹Âippaá¹Âa (trans: à Ârëvairocanavajra)<br /> 106bâÂÂ113a To. 2269: KÃÂyakoá¹£ÃÂmá¹Âtavajragëti (trans: ?)<br /> 113aâÂÂ115b To. 2270: VÃÂkkoá¹£arucirasvaravajragëti (trans: Nag po pa)<br /> 115bâÂÂ117a To. 2271: Cittakoá¹£ÃÂjavajragëti (trans: Nag po pa)<br /> 117aâÂÂ122a To. 2272: KÃÂyavÃÂkcittÃÂmanasikÃÂra nÃÂma (trans: Nag po pa)<br /> 122aâÂÂ124a To. 2273: Dohakoá¹£a nÃÂma mahÃÂmudropadeà Âa (trans: à Ârëvairocanaraká¹£ita)<br /> 124aâÂÂ125a To. 2274: DvÃÂdaà Âopadeà ÂagÃÂthà(trans: ?)<br /> 125aâÂÂ126a To. 2275: SvÃÂdhiá¹£á¹ÂhÃÂnakrama (trans: à ÂÃÂntabhadra, rma ban chos 'bar)<br /> 126bâÂÂ127b To. 2276: Tattvopadeà Âaà Âikharadohagëti nÃÂma (trans: Ká¹Âá¹£á¹Âa Paá¹Âá¸Âit)
rgyud vol Zi<br /> 3aâÂÂ4a To. 2345: BhÃÂvanÃÂdá¹Âá¹£á¹ÂicaryÃÂphaladohagëtikànÃÂma (trans: ?)<br /> 5bâÂÂ5b To. 2351: Vasantatilakadohakoá¹£agëtikànÃÂma (trans: ?)<br /> 55bâÂÂ62a To. 2440: MahÃÂmudropadeà Âavajraguhyagëti (trans: Kamalaà Âëla, ston pa seng ge rgyal po)
rgyud vol. Phu<br /> 182bâÂÂ183a To. 3164: Trailokavaà Âaá¹Âkaralokeà ÂvarasÃÂdana (trans: Abhaya, tshul khrims rgyal mtshan)<br /> 183aâÂÂ184a To. 3165: Trailokavaà Âaá¹Âkaralokeà ÂvarasÃÂdana (trans: RatnÃÂkara, Tshul rgyal)
rgud vol. Mu<br /> 46bâÂÂ47a To. 3371: Trailokavaà Âaá¹Âkaralokiteà ÂvarasÃÂdana (trans: Don yod rdo rje, Ba ri)<br /> 88aâÂÂ88b To. 3427: Trailokavaà Âaá¹Âkaralokeà ÂvarasÃÂdana (trans: Grags pa rgyal mtshan)