How Does the Divine Feminine Function in Mahayana Buddhism?

In this talk based on my current book project, we will look at early extant images typically identified as Tara, a goddess renown in Tibetan Buddhism today, who flanks Avalokiteshvara (the Bodhisattva of Compassion) in relief sculptures at the rock-cut cave monastery of Kanheri located in Mumbai, India (c. late 5^th—early 6^th centuries CE). This is a time when the divine feminine becomes increasingly visible and important in all three indigenous religions of India (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain). My focus is on the methods by which Buddhists integrated goddess reverence into Mahayana theology, particularly when many early scriptures tell us those in a female body (whether human or divine) cannot attain an advanced level of understanding without first being reborn as male. By contrast, this is a watershed moment in Buddhist developments as we see a transformation in ritual practices as well as new understandings of the power of Awakening on earth, which over the next centuries develop into the Vajrayana (Diamond Vehicle) Buddhism that continues to be paramount in Tibetan traditions. Female divinities begin to function as Bodhisattvas in this period (i.e. Mahayana practitioners who undertake vows to attain future Buddhahood and aid all beings in attaining Awakening). Yet they do so without typically being explicitly identified as such, I suggest, due to the earlier Mahayana prohibition on female enlightenment. By placing texts and images into conversation with one another to enhance our conceptions of the early tantric Buddhist milieu, I show that goddesses are incorporated into Mahayana contexts through the doctrine of bodhisattva emanation and as embodied mantras (strings of powerful syllables).