Maitripa- Tibetan FigureMortal"Mahāsiddha"

The Mahāsiddha of Mithilā

Maitripa lived in India during the eleventh century, a period when tantric Buddhism flourished in the monasteries and forests of the subcontinent even as it faced growing pressure from political upheaval. He studied at Vikramaśīla, one of the great monastic universities, under masters including Nāropa. According to the hagiographic accounts preserved by Tāranātha and in the Life of Marpa, Maitripa was eventually expelled from Vikramaśīla for practicing tantric rites that violated the monastery's vinaya rules. Cast out of institutional life, he retreated to the forests and mountain caves of southern India, where he sought and found the legendary mahāsiddha Śavaripa.

Under Śavaripa's guidance, Maitripa received the Mahāmudrā transmission and the esoteric songs (dohā) of Saraha, the great arrow-making siddha whose spontaneous verses expressed the nature of mind beyond conceptual elaboration. These teachings would become the cornerstone of Maitripa's own realization and the foundation of what he transmitted to his students. He became renowned as a master of the dohā tradition, teaching through songs that pointed directly at nondual awareness rather than through scholastic exposition.

Transmission to Marpa

When the Tibetan translator Marpa Lotsawa journeyed to India seeking Buddhist teachings, Maitripa was among the masters he sought out. According to the Life of Marpa composed by gTsang smyon Heruka, Marpa received from Maitripa the Mahāmudrā instructions and the dohā songs of Saraha, teachings that emphasized direct recognition of mind's nature without reliance on elaborate ritual or visualization. These transmissions became a distinctive current within the Kagyü lineage, complementing the tantric instructions Marpa received from Nāropa.

Maitripa's contribution to Tibetan Buddhism thus operated through a single but profoundly influential channel. The Mahāmudrā teachings he transmitted to Marpa passed through Milarepa and Gampopa to become central to Kagyü doctrine and practice. His emphasis on the dohā tradition—spontaneous songs of realization rather than systematic treatises—left a lasting mark on the style of Tibetan Buddhist instruction, visible in the song traditions of Milarepa and countless Kagyü masters after him.