184. The Buddhist Merlin

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While in the West the legends of King Arthur were being born, a Buddhist tantric magician of immense magical powers - Vajrabodhi - was enshrining himself as the Merlin of first India, and then China. Undeniably one of the most extraordinary characters of the 8th century, Vajrabodhi would play a crucial role in transporting Buddhism to the Chinese court, along with Indian scholarship. After being sent there on an important embassy by his cousin, a mighty Pallava king of Southern India, Vajrabodhi embarked upon a colourful odyssey to rival those of antiquity, meeting, as he went, a young boy who would later become his loyal companion and a powerful sorcerer in his own right; Amoghavajra. Together they were alleged to have sent rain dragons to cure droughts, and concocted spells or mantras capable of destroying the invading hordes of Islam and the Tibetans. What then is the truth of these exceptional monks and their purported “magic”? Did they really conquer rampaging armies and even master the elements? Join William and Anita as they discuss Vajrabodhi, the Buddhist magician of India, and his sorcerer’s apprentice. From wizards, spells, and rain dragons, to invading armies, and the secrets of the previously unexplainable Borobudur… To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producers: Anouska Lewis and Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of empire, a chat community,
0:06.7	discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly
0:11.5	newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at
0:14.4	W.
0:15.1	W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me and William Durumpel.
0:34.3	I know I've said it before, I do know why I've said that this episode is going to be a bit like
0:38.3	Game of Thrones and it kind it is going to be a bit like the Game of Thrones because this is an episode my friends which will have
0:45.2	Wizards sorceress apprentices dragons or there be dragons spells and I mean it is exactly the kind of fantasy that people expect now.
0:55.0	George R. R. Martin to churn out, but this is a really interesting story.
0:59.0	What are we talking about this week?
1:01.0	So we're talking about one of the most extraordinary
1:05.0	characters of this period and he is a Buddhist tantric magician or sorcerer
1:11.4	called Vadroboi.
1:13.4	And what's lovely, I'm nice writing this book, The Golden Road.
1:16.9	This is a period of history where there are huge gaps in the historical record.
1:21.2	There are no really good chronicles telling this whole story like you get in the
1:25.4	Mogul period or during the British period. You're trying to piece together archaeological evidence,
1:30.8	inscriptions, pieces of pottery, epigraphy, and then suddenly out of all this
1:36.2	sort of Puantelis mix of different art and tiny inscriptions and so on, we get one whopping biography of a magician.
1:45.0	Hooray!
1:46.0	I remember some cheering when I was researching this and it's been recently re-translated the life of
1:55.4	Adra Bodi and it's a cracker of a story. So Vagera first of all I mean translates his
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