Saraha, Sarahapa, Sarahapāda (or, in the Tibetan language མདའ་བསྣུན་, [danün], Wyl. mda' bsnun The Archer), (circa 8th century CE) was known as the first sahajiya and one of the Mahasiddhas. The name Saraha means "the one who has shot the arrow.".[1] 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."[2]
Saraha is considered to be one of the founders of Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly the Mahāmudrā tradition associated with the mind teachings of Tibet.[3]
Saraha was originally known as Rāhula or Rāhulabhadra 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.[4]
- ^ Lara Braitstein. The Adamantine Songs: Vajragiti by Saraha. American Institute of Buddhist Studies. 2014, p. 4
- ^ Lara Braitstein. The Adamantine Songs: Vajragiti by Saraha. American Institute of Buddhist Studies. 2014, p. 4
- ^ *Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (2006). A Song for the King: Saraha on Mahamudra Medition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. pp. 1-6. ISBN 978-0861715039
- ^ Masters of Mahāmudrā: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-four Buddhist Siddhas by Abhayadatta, translated by Keith Dowman, Hugh R. Downs. State University of New York Press: 1986. ISBN 0-88706-160-5 p. 233