the search for 'origins'

It is for this reason that I have not wasted my—and the reader’s—time in attempting to pin down the (historical) ‘origin’ of the Vid�shaka (or of any of the other figures discussed here). It is this inability to ask the right questions—so typical of a certain genre of Indology—that accounts for Rahul Peter Das "On the [not so] Subtle Art of [Mis-] Interpreting [Transgressive Sacrality]", Journal of the American Oriental Society 111 (1991):737–767.