UrNamaNi

Source: TW

The siddhaikavIra tantra, a bauddha kriyA tantra, was transmitted by dIpaMkara shrIj~nAna (980–1054 CE) to Tibet. We believe this tantra preserves a body of early H material within a bauddha framework. A peculiar mantra is the so-called binding mantra:

OM he he tiShTha tiShTha bandha bandha dhAraya dhAraya nirundhaya nirundhaya devadattam UrNAmaNe svAhA |
(Janardan Pandey edition).

It invokes a rare deity UrNamaNi (=wool gem!), whose exact identity is a bit mysterious. The bauddha explanation is that the mantra arose from the woolly hair between the eyebrows of a buddha and was hence named so.

A variant of this mantra is also found in the ma~njushrIya mUlakalpa and on cloth pasted on the head of a lokapAla sculpted in the Song dynasty, a little before its overthrow by the Mongols (below).

The identity of this lokapAla is unclear from the Sino-Japanese iconographic style.

However, the siddhaikavIra offers a series of peculiar rites with this mantra that provide a “lokapAla” connection. One of them for blocking an enemy host goes thus:

“One should write this mantra on a rag from a cemetery, in combination with the names of the commanders of an opposing army, in the center of a double vajra.

Outside the double vajra, one should write eight laM syllables, and around the outside of these, one should draw a double maṇḍala of indra. The mantra should then be placed in the abdomen of a gaNapati idol made of beeswax, who is adorned with the double vajra. When it is buried next to an opposing army, it will stop that army.”

Thus, this tantra points to the existence of maNDala-s for indra with his mUlabIja laM. The use of the gaNapati idol is repeated several times in this tantra.