IS BUDDHIST TANTRA DERIVED FROM SHIVAISM?
It is often claimed that Buddhist tantra is a derivate from the tantric practices in Shivaism, but in fact, the reverse may be true. As Benoytosh Bhattacharyya notes in his ‘Buddist Esoterism’: “it is possible to declare, without fear of contradition, that the Buddhists were the first to introduce the tantras into their religion, and that the Hindus borrowed them from the Buddhists in later times, and that it is idle to say that later Buddhism is an outcome of Saivaism. .. The literature, which goes by the name of the Hindu Tantras, arose almost immediately after the Buddhist ideas had established themselves.” Although there are striking external resemblances, the differences in methods and aims between the Buddhist and Hindu tantras are quite significant.
