The article discusses representations of alterity and formation of identity in tantrik Buddhist discourse with regard to Brahmins. Religious identity, as is now widely recognized, is not monolithic but relational, developing and changing through the encounters that continually occur between competing religious traditions. In this article the author explores the process by which religious identity was formed in a Tantric Buddhist tradition during the early medieval period, through an exploration of a body of discourse composed during its period of early development. This tradition, which gave rise to the Buddhist Yogini tantras, is fascinating because it developed in dependence upon a non-Buddhist tradition, and thus faced the challenge of forging a distinctly Buddhist identity.
