In the biography of the eleventh century Indian mahāsiddha Kṛṣṇācārya/ Kāṇhā written by his 12th incarnation, the scholar Kunga Drölchog (Tibetan: Kun dga’ grol mchog) (1507-1566) from Mustang, we find something quite unique. Specifically, we can observe that the series of caryāgīti songs attributed to Kāṇhā have been employed as a structural part of the narrative of the biography.

In this lecture, I will examine how precisely these songs were used within the narrative structure itself and why their order appears to be substantially different from their commonly accepted order as found, for example, in the Caryāgītikoṣa. I will demonstrate that the songs were either used to „guide“ the narrative itself or that the imagery found within the songs was used to describe the narrative events themselves.

I will further show how the various versions of the Life of Kṛṣṇācārya/Kāṇhā have travelled through a series of complex permutations at the hands of Tibetans such as Bu ston, dPa’ bo gtsug lag and Tāranātha since its inception one thousand years ago. I suggest that in some cases these considerable variations are due to reasons less connected with issues of divinity and more with the desire to maintain the illusion of a perfect lineage.