the prince met Śabara, a disciple of Saraha, he was immensely impressed by this great adept and begged him for instruction. He received initiation into the tantra of Cakrasaṃvara. The initial part of his penance was completed when he joined a circle of twenty-four Dakas and Dakinis in a ganachakra in a charnel ground which climaxed in consumption of the corpse of a sage. With a final blessing from his Guru he left Oddiyana and became a mendicant sage. The period ended when, feeling the need for sustained one-pointed meditation practice, he sat down to meditate beside a pile of fish-guts by the banks of the River Ganges in Bengal, where he remained till he had attained mahamudra-siddhi, the highest level of spiritual attainment in Vajrayana Buddhism. The Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism records that Luipa's was a kayastha or scribe, at the court of Dharmapala, the emperor of Varendra in northern Bengal. While begging for alms at Dharmapala's palace Savaripa recognized the scribe Luipa as a suitable recipient for his Samvara lineage; his extraordinary talent was evident in the versified letters he wrote to the king's correspondents, a task requiring a pointed concentration. The account of Luipa found in the work of Taranatha, a scholar from the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, differs significantly from that found in Buton's work. Here, Luipa was a scribe to the King of Oddiyana and was initiated into the Vajravārāhī mandala. Poetry of Luipa rendered into English The following poetic extract of Luipa is from his work, Kāā Tarubara, the first pada of the Charyapada (c. 9-10th century) and rendered into English by Mahendra Bora and cited in Ayyappapanicker & Akademi (1997: p. 599): The body is a gentle tree with its branches five in number, Into the stuff of unsteady mind enters Time the wrecker. Get your mind steadied and enjoy the bliss never-waning, Lui counsels, know it from your teacher just by asking: Why all these modes of meditation one should toil and try, When going through joy and sorrow all must one day die? Ignoring this bond of deception, trust in sense-perception, Riding on the wings of pure void, make her your companion. Lui testifies, I have seen her clear in my meditation, Seated on twin mats doing inhalation and exhalation. It is also notable to refer here that Luipa has also contributed to the 29th song/Raga/Hymn of the Charyapada,