Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas

Dowman's book is a translation, or, as Dowman himself calls it, adaption, of a Tibetan text "Legends of the Eighty-four mahasiddhas" and is as such central among the translations of Vajrayana Buddhist texts available in English. All the biographies are given here in one volume along with a good introduction to Buddhist tantra. Along with every biography is given a short verse from another Tibetan work; the verse describes in a condensed form the nature of the given siddha's realisation. Also, after the particular biography, Dowman describes the particular practice (sadhana) of each mahasiddha, and finally, in a historiography section at the end of each legend, discusses certain factors, particulars not given in the biographies themselves, as trying to locate in time and space where the stories take place. The commentaries are what really make the book worth reading, because the legends themselves are difficult to understand. Dowman shows that these old stories are not just fairy tales about magicians. They tell something significant about how to progress spiritually, sometimes from the unlikeliest of circumstances.