Chapter XXVI. Tāntrik Doctrines and Dharmashastra

Volume V: Part II pp. 1031–1119

Chapter XXVI. Tāntrik Doctrines and Dharmashastra

Tantrik doctrines and dharmaśāstra

In H. of Dh. vol. II. p. 739 while dealing with the worship of Durga, who is also worshipped as Śakti (cosmic power or energy), it was stated that the influence of Śakta worship has been great throughout India and a promise was given that a brief treatment of Śāktism would follow in a later volume. It is now time to deal with Śāktas and Tantras, which exercised some influence over the Purāṇas and directly and through the Purāṇas over Indian religious ritual and practices in the medieval ageṣ

There is a vast literature on Tantras, published and unpublisheḍ There are Buddhist Tantras, Hindu Tantras and Jaina Tantraṣ There is a philosophical or spiritual side in some of the Tantras which has not been much studied except by Arthur Avalon, B. Bhattacharya and a few otherṣ In the popular mind Tantras have been associated with the worship of Śakti (Goddess Kāli), with mudrās, mantras, maṇḍalas, the five makāras, the Dakṣiṇāmārga and the Vāma-mārga, and magic practices for acquiring supernatural powerṣ All that can and will be attempted here is to trace briefly the origin of Śāktism and Tantra and point out some of the ways in which tantra has entered into Hindu ritual directly and indirectly through the Purāṇaṣ

The Amarakōśa states that tantra means ‘principal matter or part’, ‘siddhānta’ (i. e. doctrine or śāstra), a loom or paraphernalia. But it does not state that tantra means a certain peculiar class of workṣ Therefore, the inference is not altogether unjustifiable that in its time works bearing the peculiar character of what are called Tantras were either not composed or had not at least attained great vogue. In Rg. X. 71. 9 the word ‘tantra’ occurs and appears to mean a looṃ ‘These ignorant¹ men do not move about lower down ( in this world ) nor in a higher world, being neither (learned) brāhmaṇas nor some-extracting priests; these resort to speech (of a vile kind) and with that vile speech they engage in handling ploughs and looms'. The Atharvaveda (X. 7. 42) ('tantram-eke yuvati virūpe abhyākrāmam vayataḥ saṇ-mayūkham ') employs the word tantra in the same sense and so does the Tai. Br. II. 5. 5. 3 in a closely similar passage. Pāṇini (V. 2. 70) derives the word 'tantraka' (a cloth that is recently taken away from a loom) from 'tantra'. The Āp. Śr. employs the word ² tantra in the sense of 'procedure containing many parts'. The Śāṇ Śr. applies the word tantra to what being once done serves the purpose of many other actionṣ The Mahābhāsya on Pāṇini IV. 2. 60 and Vārtika 'sarvasāder- dvigośca laḥ' cites 'sarvatantraḥ' and 'dvitantraḥ' as examples meaning 'one who has studied all the tantras' or 'one who has studied two tantras', tantra probably meaning 'siddhānta'. In Yāj. I. 228 ('tantram va vaiśva-devikam ') the word tantra is takes it. The 15th adhikarana of Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra bears the title 'Tantrayukti' (vide J. O. R., Madras, vol. 4, 1930, p. 82 ff) meaning the main canons or propositions or principles of exposition of a śāstra. Caraka (Siddhisthāna, chap. 12. 40-45) also speaks of '36 tantrasya yuktayaḥ' and Suśruta (Uttaratantra, chap. 65 ) names 32 tantrayuktiṣ In Bṛhaspati and Kātyāyana and in the Bhāgavata the word tantra is employed in the sense of 'doctrine' or 'śāstra'. Śabara in his bhāṣya on Jaimini XI. I. 1 remarks that when any thing or act, once done, becomes useful in several ³ matters, that is called 'tantra'. Śaṅkarācārya in several passages of his bhāṣya on the Vedāntasūtras speaks of the Sāṅkhya system as sāṅkhya-tantra and of the Pūrvamīmamsā as 'prathama-tantra'. ⁵ In the Kālikā- purāṇa (87. 130) the works of Uśanas and Bṛhaspati on Rājānitī (the science of statecraft) are called tantras and in 92. 2 the Viṣṇudharmottara-purāṇa is called tantra. In all these cases the peculiar meaning attached to the word tantra in medieval times does not occur.

It is difficult to determine the exact ⁶ time when the word tantra came to be employed in the sense in which it is used in the so-called tantra literature nor is it possible to decide what people first introduced tantra principles and practices or where they first arose. M. M. Haraprasad Shastri was inclined to hold that the principles and practices of tantra came to India from outside and he relies mainly on a verse in the Kubjikāmatatantra ⁷ which says ‘go thou to the country of Bhārata for exercising dominance on all sides and bring about new creation in various ways in pīṭhas, upapīṭhas and kṣetras’. With all respect to that great scholar it has to be said that the passage does not affirm that tantra principles were then unknowe in India and were first introduced in Bhārata after that verse was uttereḍ That passage could very well have been uttered even when tantra practices had already taken hold of people’s minds in India and the reference to pīṭhas and kṣetras (in the verse) clearly indicates that what is meant is only a record of an existing fact, just as the Purāṇas speak in a prophetic vein about what is past. It is possible that a few mystic practices of Kulācāra or Vāmācāra owe their origin to foreign elements or sourceṣ But the one verse on which M. M. H. P. Shastri relied is far too inadequate for proving thiṣ The Rudrayāmala (eḍ by Jivananda, 1892) contains a panegyric of the Atharvaveda (17th patala, verse 4), saying that all gods, all beings (on land, in water and air), all sages, Kāmaāvidyā and Mahāvidyā dwell in it; verses 10–17 dwell upon the mysterious Kuṇḍalinī, verses 31 ff dilate upon Yogic practices and six cakras in the body, verses 51–53 mention Kāmarūpa, Jālandhara, Pūrṇagiri, Uḍḍīyāna, and a few others as Kālikā pīṭhas. Bagchi (in ‘Studies in Tantra’ pp. 45–55) adduces some evidence of foreign elements in the tāntrik doctrineṣ The Rudrayāmala ⁹ (17th Patala, verses 119–125) states that Mahāvidyā appeared to sage Vasiṣṭha and asked him to go to Cīnadēśa and Buddha, who is said to have taught Vasiṣṭha the Kaula path, Yoga practices for the attainment of siddhis (extraordinary powers) and directed him to make use of five makāras (madya &c.) in his sādhanā for becoming a perfect Yogiṇ All this shows that pīṭhas flourished in India when the Rudrayāmala was composed, that Tāntrik practices had grown in China or Tibet and that Buddha was deemed to have taught those practices, which is a libel and a vile travesty of Buddha’s noble teaching. Magic spells are found in plenty in the Atharvaveda and some mystic words or syllables are used even in the Ṛgveda; e. g. the word ‘vaṣaṭ’ occurs in Ṛg. 99. 7, VII. 100. 7 and other verses and the word svāhā¹⁰ occurs over a dozen times in the Ṛgveda (e. g. in I. 13.12, V. 5, 11, VII. 2. 11). A sleep-inducing spell occurs in Ṛg. VII. 55. 5–8,¹¹ which verses occur also in the Atharvaveda IV. 5. 6, 5, 1, 3 and which spell was probably employed by a purohita to put to sleep some noble man complaining of sleeplessness at night. Some Western scholars have held that this hymn is a lover's charm for a clandestine meeting with his lady-love. But the whole hymn has hardly any words of love in it and the author is not able to accept that theory as proveḍ Ṛgveda X. 145 is a hymn to be employed against a co-wife, the first verse of which is ‘I dig up this herb, which is a most powerful creeper, by which (a woman) injures her co-wife and by which she secures her husband (to herself alone)’.

The Ṛgveda frequently mentions magicians who appear to have been mostly non-Aryans described as adeva (godless), anṛtadeva (worshipping false gods), śiśnadeva (lecherous, Ṛg. VII. 21. 5, X. 99. 3). For reasons of space, it is not possible to go into great detailṣ Tāntrik works describe the six cruel acts which will be dealt with later oṇ In the Vedic times it was supposed that some wicked people could by charms and incantations bring about the death of men and animals or make them ill. Two long hymns (VII. 104 and X. 87 both containing 25 verses) are enough to show how the Ṛgveda people were afraid of black magic. Both hymns are full of the words ‘Yātudhāna’ (one who employs black magic) and ‘rakṣas’ (devil or evil spirit), the word yātu being the same as ‘jādu’ (employed in Marathi and other regional Indian languages). There were female evil spirits also called ‘piśācī’ (Ṛg. I. 133. 5 ‘O Indra! destroy the reddish very powerful piśācī and kill all evil spirits)’. A few verses from the Ṛgveda may be translated here. ‘May I (Vasiṣṭha) die this very day if I be a practitioner of black magic or if I have scorched the life of any person; may he, who falsely called me a practitioner of black magic, lose his ten sons; may Indra kill with a terrible weapon him who called me yātudhāna, though I am not so and who, being himself a rakṣas, declares himself to be pure; may he, being most wretched, fall below all beings (Rg. VII. 104. 15-16); O Maruts! may you spread in different places among the people, and wish to seize the devils and pound to dust the devils (rakṣasaḥ) who assuming the form of birds fly about at night and who, when the sacrifice is shining, produce deadly obstacles (ibiḍ verse 18); O Indra! kill the male practitioner of black magic and also the female (magician) that destroys with wiles; may the (devils) worshippers of foolish deities perish with their necks cut off; and may they not be able to see the sun rising (Rg. VII 104. 24); O Agni, split the skin of the yātudhāna, may thy destruc- tive bolt kill him by its heat; O Jātavedas! shatter his joints, may some carnivorous beast longing for flesh seek (devour) the broken (yātudhāna); O Agni! shatter the yātudhānas by your heat, and the rakṣas by your glow and destroy the worshippers of foolish gods (mūradevūn) and, shining towards those that feed on the lives of men (asurīpaḥ), shatter them ‘ (Rg. X. 87. 5 and 14).

* In the Āp. Gṛ. (III. 9. 5-8) it is said that the plant used by the co-wife is called Pāthā and the hymn (Rg. X. 145) is employed for securing domination over the husband and for harming a co-wife. Rg. I. 191 is a charm against various poisonṣ In the Atharvaveda there are numerous hymns styled ‘śatrunāśana’ (destructive of enemies) e. g. II. 12-24, III. 6, IV. 3 and 40, V. 8, VI. 6, 65-67 and 134. Atharva II. 11 is styled ‘Kṛtyā-dūṣaṇa’ (counteracting black magic). A few of the typical verses may be cited¹² here. ‘Employ magic spells against him, who hates us and whom we hate; attain (i. e. dominate) him who is superior and surpass him who is (our) equal’; ‘O Soma ! strike in the mouth with your thunder- bolt him who speaks evil of us that speak what is good and may he, being crushed, run away’. The Śukranītisāra (eḍ by G. Oppert, 1882) provides that the Tantras are the Upaveda of the Atharvaveda. Atharva III. 25 and VI. 130 are spells respectively employed by a man and a woman to soften the heart of the person loved; Atharva II. 30 and 31 are charms for driving away or destroying worms that cause diseases and V. 36 is a charm against piśācas (goblins).¹³ The sound 'phat' occurs in Vāj. S. In the Ap. Śr. Sūtra phat is employed in offering Soma stalks in abhicāra (employment of spells for a malevolent purpose). Phat is a sound frequently employed in the worship of Devi in Tantra workṣ But no direct connection or line of evolution from the Atharvaveda to the Tantras can be traceḍ The Tattvasaṅgraha of Śāntarakṣita (705–762 A. D.) connects even Buddha with magic practiceṣ It says 'all wise men declare that it is dharma from which results worldly prosperity and the highest beatitude. Seen results such as intelligence, health, rulership are produced by properly observing the rules about mantras, yoga and the like declared by him (i. e.,¹⁴ by Buddha)'. But one cannot place implicit reliance on any writer's statement made more than a thousand years after the event or person referred to in it. There are, however, stories in the Pali sacred books about the cultivation of magic powers among Buddha's own disciples, e. g. the story of Bhāradvāja¹⁵ who rose in the air for a bowl carved out of very fragrant sandalwooḍ Further, there is a story of miraculous powers possessed by all the members of the family of a layman called Mendaka (viz. himself, his wife, son and daughter-in-law) in Mahāvagga VI, 34. 1 ff. (S. B. E. vol. XVII, pp. 121 ff). Here again we have to remember that there is nothing in the Tipiṭaka or any early Buddhist document to prove that Buddha or his first disciples had anything to do with mudrās, mantras and mandalas and that neither Yuan Chwang nor I-thing refers to any Tantras, though both of them refer to the Buddhist monasteries as centres of Buddhist culture (vide Dr. De in N. I. A. vol. I. pp. 1 ff). In the introduction to Sādhanamālā (vol. II, LXVIII.) Dr. Bhattacharya relies upon the words ‘Sugato-padistam’ and ‘Sugataiḥ’ occurring on pp. 334-335 of the Sādhanamālā for holding that Buddha himself must have promulgated some mantraṣ There are two weighty objections viz. ‘Sugataiḥ’ does not always mean Buddha, but means also ‘followers of Buddha’ and secondly, just as most Hindu Tantras are dialogues between Śiva and Pārvatī, so later Buddhist writers might have easily said that they are quoting the Buddha; the same objection applies to Kamalaśīla’s remarks quoted by Dr. Bhattacharya, as Kamalaśīla and his teacher flourished about 1200 years after Buddha.

The question whether Buddhist Tantras were prior to Hindu Tantras or vice versa is difficult to decide. It appears probable that both arose nearly about the same time. Vide ‘The Śāktas’ by E. A. Payne pp. 72-74 for discussion of viewṣ In the Sādhanamālā (a Vajrayāna work consisting of 312 small works composed according to Dr. Bhattacharya from the 3rd century A. D. to 12th century A. D.) four pīṭhas (chief centres) of Vajrayāna¹⁶ are mentioned viz. Kāmākhyā, Sirihaṭṭa (or Śrīhaṭṭa), Pūrṇagiri and Uddiyāna. The first two are respec- tively identified with Kāmakhyā or Kāmarūpa (three miles from Gauhati) and modern Sylhet. The exact situation of the other two is a controversial matter. M. M. H. P. Shastri identified Uḍḍiyāna (which is most frequently mentioned as a pīṭha) with Orissa. His son Dr. B. Bhattacharya thinks it most probable that Vajrayāna Tantricism arose in Uḍḍiyāna (p. 46 of Intro. to B. E.). Dr. Bagchi in ‘Studies in the Tantras’ pp. 37–40 furnishes good grounds for holding that Uḍḍiyāna was near Swat valley in N. W. India and Grousset ‘In the footsteps of Buddha’ pp. 109–110 holds the same view. The Bārhaspatyasūtra (eḍ by F. W. Thomas) names eight Śāktakṣetras (III. 123–124). In his Intro. to Sādhanamālā (vol. II. p. LXXVIII) Dr. Bhattacharya holds that the Hindu tantras were introduced on the model of the Buddhist tantraṣ But Winternitz (in ‘History of Indian Literature’, Eng. tr., vol. II. p. 401) states that this view of Dr. Bhattacharya is contrary to the facts and the present writer agrees with this view.

Though Dr. Bhattacharya admits that Buddhism and Jainism exploited Hindu gods in the earlier period, he asserts (on p. 147 of his Intro. to B. E.) that ‘it is possible to declare without fear of contradiction that the Buddhists were the first to introduce the Tantras in their religion and that the Hindus borrowed them from the Buddhists in later times’. It is no honour to ancient Hindus to be called the pioneers in the practice of black magic. But scholars have to seek truth irrespective of the question of honour or dishonour. Very weighty arguments are advanced by Vallé Poussin (in E. R. E. vol. XII. p. 193), Winternitz and Payne (on ‘Śāktas p. 73) for the opposite view and the present author agrees with theṃ Hundreds of works were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan and Chinese. The traffic of borrowing has been all one way from India to Tibet and China. Vide a paper on ‘China's debt to India’ by Prof. Liang Chi Chao in Viśvabhāratī Quarterly, vol. II. for 1924–25 pp. 251–261, where it is stated that 24 Hindu scholars from A. D. 67 to 789 came to China, besides 13 from Kashmir and that went to India for study from 265–790 A. D. numbered 187 of which the names of 105 can be ascertaineḍ There is hardly any evidence of the translations of Chinese or Tibetan works into Sanskrit. Besides, the three great Chinese travellers never refer to the study of Buddhist Tantras in India. Watters on ‘Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India’ vol. I, p. 360 narrates a story from the pilgrim’s life that when he left Ayodhyā in a boat and proceeded east down the Ganges, thugs that looted the boat decided to sacrifice him to Durgā but that the Chinese pilgrim was saved by a hurricane which put the thugs in terror, who released him and treated him with reverence. Vide also ‘In the Footsteps of Buddha’ by René Grousset pp. 133–135 for this incident. We see that there is evidence of the prevalence of Tantrik and Śākta worship in India long before the 7th century A. D. There is hardly any evidence of any Buddhist Tāntrik work before 650 A. D. except perhaps the Guhyasamājatantra and Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, both of which contain late elementṣ In this way, presumption and chronology are both against borrowing by Hinduism from Buddhist Tibetan or Chinese Tāntrik workṣ Vide ‘Tibet past and present’ by Sir Charles Bell (1924) pp. 23, 25, 29, Sardar K. M. Panikkar’s work ‘India and China’ (1957) p. 70, ‘Intro-duction of the alphabet in Tibet’ by M. M. Dr. Satischandra who holds that it was borrowed from Magadha in 7th Century A. D., that show that a written script based on an Indian alphabet as prevalent in Kashmir was first introduced about 640 A. D., that the Tāntrik Buddhist Padmasambhava was summoned from Uddiyāna by a Tibetan king Ti-son De-tion (749–786 A. D.) on the recommendation of Śāntarakṣita Bodhisattva and was induced to settle in Tibet. Bunjiu Nanjio’s ‘Catalogue of Tripitaka’ (Oxford, 1883), appendix II, p. 445 No. 155 shows that Amoghavajra translated many works between 746 and 771 A. D., died in 774 A. D. and that it was under his influence that Tantra doctrines gained currency in China. It is clear from the works of Bāṇa as detailed later on that worship of Caṇḍikā with wine and flesh was prevalent in India long before 600 A. D., that Śrīparvata was famed for its tāntrik siddhis, that Śivasamhitās existed, that japa of mantras a crore of times in a cemetery was supposed to confer siddhis, that he 14th of the dark half of a month was deemed the proper tithi for japa and black magic. Therefore, it is most likely that Śākta or Tāntrik doctrines were taken to China and Tibet from India and not vice versa. Prof. P. V. Bapat in ‘2500 years of Buddhism’ (pp. 360–376) follows (at p. 363) Dr. B. Bhattacharya and tries to prove that Tibetan Tāntrism is earlier than Hindu Tāntrism, but his arguments like those of Dr. Bhattacharya do not carry conviction at all. Dr. A. S. Altekar in his paper on Sanskrit Literature in Tibet (ABORI. vol. 35 pp. 54-66) shows how Buddhism entered into Tibet in the reign of Strong-Tsan-Gampo (637-693 A. D.), that about 750 A. D. Padmasambhava from Orissa and Vairocanā from Kashmir were pioneers and how about 4500 works were translated into Tibetaṇ

Even Dr. Bhattacharya admits that Buddhist Tantras in outward appearance resemble in a marked degree Hindu Tantras (p. 47 of Intro. to B. E.), but he contends that in the subject matter, the philosophical doctrines and religious principles there is little similarity. As Buddhism did not believe in Hindu gods they do not speak about Śakti or Śāktisṃ But just as in Hindu Tantras there is the male principle Śiva and the female principle of Devī, the Buddhists postulate Prajñā (which is feminine) and Upāya (masculine) as two principles and invest them with the same roles as those of Śiva and Devī but reversed in character. They had to graft on the idea of Śūnyatā the ideas underlying the concepts of Śiva and Devī or Śakti. The subject matter is very similar as regards the goal and means (Yoga &c) and the procedure of mantra, guru, mandala &c. is the same. The most important and early works of Buddhist Tantric cult, the Prajñopāya-viniścayasiddhi and Jñānasiddhi are not earlier than the 8th century A. D., when Śāktism and Tāntrism had both been long established in India.

The word ‘Śākta’ means one who is a worshipper or devotee of ‘Śakti’ (cosmic power or energy). It appears that long before the 8th century A. D. this cult had spread in almost all parts of India, particularly in Bengal and Assaṃ Śakti under different names (such as Tripurā, Lohita, Sdaśikā, Kāmeśvarī) was conceived to be the primordial principle of all activity in the universe and is generally worshipped under the name of Devī. The Devīmāhātmya is one of the chief works of the Śāktas and has been described above on pp. 155-156. The chief characteristics of the Śākta cult are the doctrine that God or Deity is one and is to be conceived as the mother and also the destroyer¹⁸ and that there is a special form of ceremonial worship which sometimes assumed debased and revolting formṣ Devī has been eulogised in other Purāṇas also as in Vāmana (18-19), Devī-bhāgavata (III. 27), Brahmāṇḍa (that contains the Lalitāmāhātmya in 44 chapters), Matsya (13. 24-54, where 108 names of Devī and 108 places of her worship are set out), Kūrma (I. 12). In the last Purāṇa (Kūrma I. 12) Devī is called Mahāmahāsamardinī (98), Anāhatā, Kuṇḍalinī (128), Durgā, Kātyāyanī, Caṇḍī, Bhadrakālī (143 and 148) and it is stated that the śāstras opposed¹⁹ to the Veda and Smṛti that are popular among people such as Kāpāla, Bhairava, Vāmala, Vāma, Ārhata were propagated by Devī for deluding the world and were based on ignorance. Vide also Brahmapurāṇa (181. 48-52) for names of Devī and for the proposition that Devī when worshipped with offerings of wine, flesh and other edibles becomes pleased and grants men's desireṣ Bhadrakālī is comparatively an ancient name. In the Sāṇ Gr. (SBE vol. XXIX p. 86) it is provided that an offering is to be made to Śrī at the head of the bed on which the householder sleeps and at the foot of the bed to Bhadra-kālī, while Manu provides that, in the daily baliharaṇa, bali (offering) is to be offered to Bhadrakālī in the south-west.

The Tantras and Śākta works have much in common, the main point of difference being that in the Śākta cult Devī (or Śakti) is worshipped as the highest, while Tantras (which include also Buddhist and Jaina works) are not restricted to the worship of Devī or Śakti, but may be agnostic, Vedāntic or Sāṅkhya in their philosophical outlook. Dr. B. Bhattacharyya (in Intro. to Guhyasamājatantra p. XXXIV and in Intro. to Sādhanamālā vol. II. p. XIX) states that, for a work to be called a real Tantra, there must be the element of Śakti in it. But this is plainly rather an over-statement. The Vāyupurāṇa enumerates the Śākta among six darśanas (philosophic points of view) as in note ²⁰.

Even the Ṛgveda speaks of the Śaktis of the great gods of the Vedic pantheoṇ But the Śakti or Śaktis are of the God himself and not a separate creative principle and sometimes Śakti is meant as part of the poet, priest or sacrificer (as in Rg. I. 31. 18, I 83. 3, IV. 22. 8, X. 25. 5). The word ‘Śakti’ occurs in the Ṛgveda about a dozen times in the singular as well as in the plural, five times with Indra (Rg. II. 39. 7), twice with pitṛṣ (I 109. 3, VI. 75. 9) and once with gods in general (X. 88, 10, who are said to have created Agni with their powers). Sometimes, the word ‘Māyā’ is used with regard to Indra instead of the word Śakti. ‘O Indra! I long for your great friendship and powers (śaktiḥ)...understand that you are our great protector; I proclaim your ancient and recent deeds, O Indra endowed with powers (Śaktivaḥ)! ......: ’ Indra assuming ¹⁶⁷⁷ many forms by his powers (māyābhiḥ) repairs (to many sacrifices), ten hundred horses are yoked to his chariot’. In these passages there is no question of worship-ping śakti or śaktis of the god praiseḍ The more frequent word, however, is Śacī (‘śacibhiḥ’ occurring 36 times and ‘śacyā’ 12 times). The word ‘Śacīpati’ (lord of Śaci or power) occurs sixteen times in the Ṛgveda and has been applied in all places to Indra, except once in Rg. VII. 67. 5 (where it is applied to Aśvins). It cannot be said that in the Ṛgveda ‘Śacī’ is the wife of Indra (as it is said in later mythology), since the plural is more frequent than Śaci in the singular and since Aśvins also are called ‘Śacīpati’. once. Similarly, the word ‘Śacīvaḥ’ occurs eleven times, in nine of which it is addressed to Indra but it is once applied to Agni (Rg. III. 21. 4) and once to Soma (Rg. IX. 87. 9). The ideas associated with the words ‘Śakti’ and ‘Śacī’ are those of creation, protection, valour, and bounty. In Rg. I. 56. 4 Indra’s power is called ‘Devī taviṣī’ but the word Śaci does not occur in that verse. There is a sublime hymn (Rg. X. 125) of the power of Vāk (speech), wherein Vāk is said to associate with Rudras, Ādityas, Vasus, all gods and is declared to support Mitra and Varuna, Indra and Agni, the Aśvins, Soma, Tvaṣṭṛ, Pūṣan and Bhaga. Vāk is said to stretch the bow for Rudra in order that the destructive enemy of brahma (prayer or God Brahmā) may be killed, that Vāk stands occupy- ing all worlds and that her body touches heaven, that it is beyond heaven and the earth, that Vāk stands so vast by its greatness'. Vāk becomes the principle of all energy. According to the Nighantu (I. 11), menā, gnāḥ and śacī are three of the 57 words meaning 'Vāk'. In Tai. S. V. 1. 7. 2 the metres are called 'gnās'. Ṛg. I. 164. 41 is an enigmatic description of Vāk explained in Nirukta XI. 40. It should be noticed that, just as Devī or Śakti is associated with Śiva in later literature, so are Indrāṇī, Varuṇāṇī, Agnāyī, Rodasī associated with Indra, Varuṇa, Agni and Maruts respectively as wiveṣ 'I invoke Indrāṇī, ¹⁶ Varuṇāṇī and Agnāyī for my welfare and for drink- ing Soma'; 'May the women, the wives of gods, partake of the offering, viz. Indrāṇī, Agnāyī, the brilliant (wife) of the Aśvins, Rodasī; may Varuṇāṇī listen (to our laud); may the goddesses partake (of offerings) at the time (appropriate) for women'. It must be said, however, that these goddesses (devīḥ) play a very subordinate part in the Ṛgveda. No direct connection can be traced between these Vedic goddesses and the later concep- tion of Devī or Śakti. Indrāṇī is invoked for protection in Ṛg. I. 22. 12, II. 32. 8, V. 46. 8, X. 86. 11-12. In Ṛg. V. 46. 8 Indrāṇī and three others are called Devapatnīs and 'gnās'. In Ṛg. I. 61. 8 it is said that the gnās, the wives of gods, wove, when Indra struck the demon Ahi, a song of worship. The word 'gnā' occurs 20 times in the Ṛg. in the nominative, objective, instrumental and locative and is an Indo-European word for wife (Greek has it). Vide Nir III. 21 where 'menā' and 'gnā' occur. In the Kenopaniṣad Umā Haimavatī (daughter of Himavat) tells of Brahma to the gods Agni, Vāyu and Indra (III. 12). In the Śvetāśvataropaniṣad it is said 'they (brahma- vādins) endowed with meditation and Yoga saw Śakti (power) abiding as non-different from God and concealed (from com- prehension) by its own attributes (or by sattva, rajas and tamas).’ The same Upaniṣad (in VI. 8) speaks of Brahma as possessing the highest Śakti²² in various forms and this text is quoted by Śaṅkarācārya on Vedāntasūtra II. 1. 24. In the bhāṣya on Vedāntasūtra II. 1. 30 and in the sūtra to be endowed with all powerṣ Vide also Śvetāśva. IV. 1. The Nārāyaṇopaniṣad contains an invocation of Durgā-devī²³: ‘I approach as a refuge the blazing goddess Durgā, brilliant like fire, luminous owing to tapas, that is resorted to for (yielding) the rewards of religious actions; O goddess possessed of excellent might! adoration to your power’. Rāghavabhaṭṭa²⁴ avers that Tantra cult is based on Śruti as can be seen from the Upaniṣads called Rāmapūrvottara-tāpanīya and Nṛsimhāpūrvottara-tāpanīya. Similarly, Bhāskararāya in his commentary Setubandha on Vāmakeśvaratantra mentions several Upaniṣads as treating in detail of the bhakti of Mahātripura-sundarī and interprets Rg. V. 47. 4 ‘catvari Im’ as referring to Kādividya. But all these Upaniṣads seem to be purposely composed to bolster up the tantras that had come to be looked upon and they are mostly mentioned by late medieval writers like Rāghava- bhaṭṭa and Bhāskararārya. There are two great hymns addressed to Durgā in the Mahābhārata, ²⁵ viz. in Virāṭaparva (chap. 6) by Yudhiṣṭhira and the other in Bhīṣmaparva (chap. 23) by Arjuna, but they are discarded as apocryphal in the Poona critical editioṇ The Gaṅgādhara stone inscription of Viśvavarman of 480 of the Malava era (424 A.D.) refers to Mātṛs (Mother Goddesses) and Tantra. ²⁶ The Br. S. 57. 56 mentions the groups of Mātṛṣ The Vṛddha-Hārīta-smṛti recommends that the householder should not enter places of Śaiva, Bauddha, Skānda and Śākta ²⁷ cultṣ The Viṣṇupurāṇa ²⁸ (one of the earliest among extant Purāṇas) speaks of the whole world as that of Viṣṇu, who is the highest Brahma and is endowed with Śakti, enumerates some of the names of Durgā as Āryā, Vedagarbhā, Ambikā, Bhadrā, Bhadra-kālī, Kṣemadā, Bhāgyadā and winds up by stating that when Durgā is worshipped with offerings of wine, flesh, various kinds of foods, she, being pleased, would fulfil all desires of meṇ In the Kādambarī of Bāṇabhaṭṭa there is a long description of the temple of Caṇḍikā at a few days' journey from Ujjayinī, where there was an old Draviḍa devotee, in which the following points deserve to be noted, viz. offerings of the heads of animals, lion as vāhana, the slaughter of Mahiṣāsura, the doctrines of Pāśupatas written down on small books of palm leaves containing jugglery, tantra and mantras, Durgā-stotra written on a piece of cloth, ruined temples of the Mātrs and description of the Draviḍa devotee as knowing thousands of wonderful stories about Śrīparvata. Bāṇa describes at length what queen Vilāsavatī, pining for a son, began doing to placate all Gods viz. sleeping in the shrines of Caṇḍikā where guggulu was being incessantly burnt, taking auspicious baths on nights of dark 14th in public squares where magic circles had been drawn by great magicians, visiting temples of Mātrs, wearing amulets inside which were pieces of birch leaves on which mantras had been written with yellow pigment, and, when delivery was near, her bed was rendered holy with various herbs, roots and yantras (figures or diagrams). In the Harsacarita (III) there is a reference to magic circles and to human sacrifices in the description of the Śaiva ascetic Bhairavā-cārya who had all the Śaiva-samhitās by heart, who performed the japa of a mahāmantra called Mahākālahṛdaya a crore of times in a cemetery and wanted the help of Puṣpabhūti (an ancestor of Emperor Harṣa) for perfection in that mantra to be achieved by subduing a vetāla and who ultimately attained to the position of Vidyādhara and rose into the starry firmament. In the last Introductory verse of the Harsacarita the Emperor Harṣa is, by means of puns, called the Śrīparvata in yielding all Siddhis (supernatural powers, or fulfilment) according to the wishes of all suppliantṣ²⁹ These descriptions from the works of Bāṇa (first half of 7th century) show how even long before the 7th century A. D. the worship of Caṇḍī, with flesh and the Śākta or Tāntrik paraphernalia of mantras, siddhis, maṇḍalas and yantras had gripped the minds of all Indian people, great and small, rich and poor. In the Mālatīmādhava ( Act V ) we have a gruesome picture of human sacrifice to Cāmuṇḍā. In the same drama Saudāminī is described as observing the vows of a Kāpālika on Śrīparvata and as having secured supernatural powers by means of mantraṣ Śrīparvata is mentioned as a holy place of Śiva and Devī in Vanaparva 85. 19–20. The Vāsava- dattā of Subandhu ( p. 87 of Hall’s eḍ ) speaks of Śrīparvata as ‘Sannihita-mallikārjunaḥ.’ Later on a few passages from Sanskrit and Prakrit literature will be cited to show how the teaching of Tāntrik practices led to great moral debasement and revolting orgies in the name of religioṇ

The literature on Tantras was vast ( vide ‘Principles of Tantra’ eḍ by A. Avalon, part 1 pp. 390–392 for a long list of Tantras). Both Hindu and Buddhist writers composed numerous works on Tantra and a very large number of subjects came to be included in Tantra workṣ Buddhist and Hindu Tantras are alike in some respects but they differ in the topics discussed, philosophical doctrines and some religious principles and practiceṣ Tāntra works were introduced into Tibet, Mongolia, China, Japan and South East Asia. Originals of many of the Sanskrit Tāntrik works are now not available, but the translations of some of them in Tibetan are available.¹⁶¹⁷ It is aid that even now if proper search is made, three hundred works on Tantra may be discovered ( vide Dr. B. Bhattacharya in vol. X, of Śrī Ramavarmā Institute of Research at Cochin p. 81 ).

It is difficult to give a general definition of Tantraṣ The word ‘Tantra’ is derived usually from ‘Tan’ to spread and ‘trai’ (to save). ‘It spreads (dilates upon) many matters including the tattvas and mantras and affords protection; therefore it is called Tantra'. ³¹ They can only be described but one matter is included in almost all of them, viz. the five 'Makāras'. Often they contain an amalgam of religion, philosophy, superstitious dogmas, rites, astronomy, astrology, medicine, prognosticatioṇ They resemble the Purāṇas in several respectṣ The Buddhists deified many important personages of Buddhism and took over in course of time certain Hindu deities like Gaṇeśa and Sarasvatī. Tantras are classified by comparatively later works into three groups, Viṣṇukrānta, Rathakrānta and Aśvakrānta and 64 Tantras are assigned to each of the three groups (vide Tantrik Texts, vol. I. eḍ by Arthur Avalon, Introduction pp. II-IV); but these numbers seem to be fictitiouṣ The same Tantra is put in two classes by certain workṣ The Kulārṇava-tantra (III, 6-7) speaks of five āmnāyas (East, West, South, North and ūrdhva) as the paths to Mokṣa. The Paraśurāma-kalpasūtra ³² I. 2 does the same. Besides, Tāntrik worshippers are divided into three classes viz. Śaiva, Śākta and Vaiṣṇava. Bagchi states ('Studies in Tantras' p. 3) that Tāntrik literature is classified into Srotas (which are three) Pīṭha and Āmnāya. The Saundaryalaharī, ascribed by some to the great Advaita teacher Śaṅkarācārya, refers to sixty-four Tantras (in verse 31 which begins 'catuṣṣaṣṭyā tantraiḥ', which, it is said therein, were declared by God Śaṅkara for deluding ³³ the worlḍ Several Hindu and Buddhist Tantras have been published and we have now a fair idea of what the numerous Tantras must have been like. Some of the published Hindu Tantras are Kulārṇava, Tantrasāra, Nityotsava, Paraśurāmakalpa-sūtra, Pārānandasūtra, Prapañcasāra, Mantra- mahōdadhi of Mahīdhara, Mahānirvāṇatantra, Rudrayāmala, Vāmakeśvaratantra, Śāradātilaka (about 11th century A. D.). Besides, there are works like the Tantrāloka and Mālinīvijaya- vārtika of Abhinavagupta of Kashmir Tantrisṃ They stand somewhat apart from the works enumerated above. Among the published Buddhist tantras are; Advayavajrasaṅgraha, Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa, Guhyasamāja-tantra (probably 6th century A. D.) Jñānasiddhi of Indrabhūti (717 A. D.), Nispan- nayōgāvalī of Abhayākaragupta (composed between the last quarter of 11th and first of 12th century A. D.), Prajñōpāya- viniścaya-siddhi of Anangavajra (about 705 A. D.), Ṣaṭ-cakra- nirūpaṇa (1577 A. D.), Sādhanamālā (containing 312 small works supposed to be from 3rd to 12th century A. D.). Of the Buddhist Tantras Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa and Guhyasamāja- tantra ³⁶ are the oldest according to Dr. B. Bhattacharya (Intro. p. XXXVIII. to Guhya-samājatantra). Most of the above works have been published by Arthur Avalon (Sir. John Woodroffe) and in the Gaikwad Oriental Serieṣ Some of the Hindu Tantras contain sublime philosophical views derived from the Upaniṣads and the Gītā or from the Sāṅkhya and Yoga and the final goal according to them is Mukti (liberation from the cycle of births and deaths) for all men but to be secured by following the path laid down by the Tantraṣ As the number of published Hindu Tantras is considerable, reference will be made mainly to a few viz. Kulārṇava, Pārānandasūtra, Prapañcasāra, Mahānirvāṇatantra, Vamakeśvaratantra (Ānaṇ eḍ), Śaktisaṅgamatantra, Śāradātilaka and in the case of the Buddhist tantras to Āryamañjuśrīmūla-kalpa, Prajñopāyaviniścayasiddhi, Jñānasiddhi, Sādhanamālā, Sekoddeśāṭikā. The purpose of most Buddhist Tantras is to indicate a short path for attaining Buddha-hood through Yoga practices and they introduce the element of Śakti for Yogic practices and for securing miraculous powers (called siddhis). In the History of Dharmaśāstra not much need be said about Buddhist Tantras except for comparison and stress will have to be laid on the Hindu Tantras alone. The philosophical aspects of Tāntrik culture may be studied in the Paraśurāmakalpasūtra, the Vamakeśvara-tantra, Tantrarāja, the works on Kashmir Śaivism, Bhāskararāya, Bhāvanopaniṣaḍ This last is a late work dignified with the title of Upaniṣad, as it deals with bhāvanā and summarises the Vāsanāpaṭala of Tantrarājatantra (vide Intro. to the latter p. 3). There are also Vaiṣṇava Tantras like the Gautamīya-tantra (D. C. mṣ No. 1120 of 1886-1892) and Kramadīpikā of Keśava (who was a successor of Nimbārka) with the commentary of Govinda Vidyāvinoda (published in the Chowkhamba S. series), which are not referred to in this work from considerations of space. Vide Agnipurāṇa 39. 1–7 for the names of twenty-five Vaiṣṇava Tantras dealing with the establishment of Viṣṇu image and other matters and Māheśvara-tantra 26. 16–20.

The Hindu tantras which are supposed to have embodied dialogues between Śiva and Devī or Skanda or Bhairava and rarely others as in Dattātreyatantra (D. C. mṣ No. 962 of 1887–91) endeavour to show that they base themselves on the Vedas, Āgamas, Smṛtis and Purāṇas, that there is an easier and quicker way to the final goal of mokṣa and they often quote Vedic verseṣ For example, in the Kulārṇava, Śiva says to Devī ‘I churned the great ocean of Vedas and Āgamas with the churning handle of (correct) knowledge. I knew the essence of these and took out the Kuladharma, ³⁷ that the Kaulaśāstras are autho- ritative like Vedic texts and should not be nullified by ratiocinatioṇ' The same Tantra further asserts ‘one who has studied the of Kuladharma is ignorant of Kula candāla, while a caṇḍāla who knows Kuladharmas is superior to a brāhmaṇa. If all dharmas such as sacrifices, pilgrimages and vratas are put on one side and Kuladharma on another side, Kaula (dharma) is superior.’³⁸ It is, therefore necessary to understand what is meant by Kula or Kauladharma. The Guhya-samāja³⁹ states that Guhya means the three viz. body, speech and mind and ‘samāja’ means ‘coming together’, that Kula may comprehend five matters or three or 101 and that Guhya (as defined) is trikula.' God Śaṅkara⁴⁰ declared five tattvas, viz. wine, flesh, fish, mudrā (hand and finger poses or the woman helper of a yogin ) and sexual intercourse, that are acts that become the means for the attainment of the position of a vīra and that the mantra of Śakti does not confer perfection unless one follows the practices of Kula; therefore a person should be devoted to the Kula practices whereby he would attain to the sādhanā of Śakti; wine, flesh, fish, mudrā and sexual intercourse—these are declared to be the five tattvas in the procedure of the worship of Śakti. In another place the Mahānirvāņa⁴¹ says that the individual soul, prakṛti, space, time, ākāśa, earth, water, fire and Vāyu—these are called ‘Kula’ and that way of life whereby one looks upon all these as brahma without distinction is called Kulācāra, that confers the four goals viz. dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa. The Śaktisaṅgama-tantra states that Kula means the upāsakas (worshippers)⁴² of Kālī. The Kulārņava states ‘Kula means gotra and that springs from Śakti and Śiva; that man is called Kaulika who knows that mokṣa is secured from that (i. e. Śakti and Śiva). Śiva is called ‘Akula’ and Śakti is called ‘Kula’; those who contemplate on Kula and Akula are the wise kaulikaṣ” Various other definitions are given in Guhyasamāja (Ist patala p. 6), in the Preface p. VIII of the Śaktisaṅgama-tantra, Tārākhaṇḍa. But the same Tantra clinches the matter by declaring that “Śakti is known as Kula; her worship and the like are described; that should be known as ‘Kulācāra’, which is difficult of attain-ment even for godṣ Worship, done with these alone viz. wine, flesh, fish, mudrā and sexual intercourse, is known as Kulācāra.” The Parānanda-sūtra⁴³ provides that the highest self is one, that there are seven Lords (Īśvara) viz. Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Sūrya, Gaṇeśa, Śakti and Bhairava, that individual souls are countless, that there are three mārgas (paths) viz. Dakṣiṇa, Vāma and Uttara, each succeeding one being superior to each preceding one, that Dakṣiṇa-mārga is the one declared in the Veda, smṛtis and purāṇas, that the Vāma (way) is declared by the Veda and Āgamas, while the third (Uttara) is the one declared by the words of the Veda and of the Guru and that the Guruvākya is that of one's guru who is himself Jīvan-mukta and who gives instruction as to a mantra. That sūtra further provides that the Vāmācāra is of two kinds, madhyama (middling) and uttama (best), that uttama is the one which is concerned with wine, sexual intercourse and hand poses, while madhyama is one where all five, wine, flesh, fish, mudrā and maithuna are resorted to. It should be noticed that the Tantras themselves designate the use of five makāras in worship as Vāmācāra and not their orthodox partisans of Yoga, as Heinrich Zimmer alleges in ‘ The art of Indian Asia’ vol. I. p 130. Pārānandasūtra ⁴⁴ prescribes that the disciple has to undergo dīkṣā (consecration) from a qualified guru, who instructs the disciple as to the mantra, who holds a mouthful of water in his own mouth and passes it into the mouth of the disciple that accepts the mantra while he gulps down the water. This procedure applies if the guru is a brāhmaṇa, but if the guru is a kṣatriya he should recite the mantra in the right ear of the disciple. The Tantrarāja-tantra provides that the guru should wait for 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 years according as the intending disciple belongs to the four varṇas or to a mixed caste, should test his qualities and devotion and then communicate to him the mantra; otherwise, both guru and disciple would come to grief (Tāntrik Texts, vol VIII. II. 37–38). Most works on Tantra provide that the knowledge conveyed by the guru and worship with five makāras must be kept secret and if made public falling in hell is the result. Vide Paraśurāma-kalpasūtra I. 12 and Śaktisaṅgama-tantra ⁴⁵. After undergoing dīkṣā and receiving the mantra the disciple has to follow the orders of the guru till the former has a vision of the deity.⁴⁶ Guru is higher than all other men, mantra is higher than guru, the deity is higher than the mantra and the highest self is higher than the devatā. In order to attain siddhis the guru is to be served by disciples with devotion in all wayṣ There is only one way viz. bhakti (devotion) for those (disciples) that long for worldly pleasures, heaven or mokṣa, as the Śruti says 'there is no other way'. Jīvan-mukti⁴⁷ means 'to have a vision of the Deity worshipped' and 'one who is liberated, though living, is not tainted by his acts, whether meritorious or otherwise'. This doctrine closely follows what is said in some of the Upaniṣads about the man who has realised brahma that 'he shakes off puṇya and pāpa and having cast aside the body he reaches the world of brahma; he does not return i. e. he never again undergoes saṁsāra. One should strive for that stage. Therefore one who has obtained correct knowledge should become a bhakta (devotee). All these, viz. one in distress, the seeker after knowledge, one who seeks some desired object and one who has obtained correct knowledge, are noble, but the man, who has knowledge about God, when he becomes a devotee, reaches the world of the Highest Self, as the Vedic words say 'one who knows brahma reaches the Highest'. With all this sublime philosophy as the background the Pārānandasūtra frankly provides that the guru, after completing the worship up to the offering of a handful of flowers and having offered into fire some food, should make a collection of makāras, should again come to the place for worshipping the Deity and offer food into fire, should hand over to the neophyte a bowl for drinking wine, mudrā, materials for dinner with condiments and a courtezan and should instruct the neophyte, that has accepted the three makāras (madya, mudrā and maithuna), as regards the kaula practiceṣ⁴⁸ Then the Pārānanda-sūtra devotes two pages (16–17) to the kauladharmas taught to the neophyte, from which a few striking passages may be citeḍ “A young⁴⁹ courtezan is Śakti incarnate, is brahma; women are gods and are ornaments (of the world); they should not be censured nor angered”; ‘after worshipping the gods and gurus in the way laid down by the Veda and the Tantras a man does not incur sin if he drinks wine while remembering god or has sexual intercourse with a courtezaṇ He who partakes of wine and the rest merely for pleasing himself falls into a terrible hell. He who giving up the ordinances of śāstra acts as he pleases does not attain siddhi in this world, nor heaven nor the Highest goal (mokṣa). A worshipper should drink wine only up till his eyes do not begin to roll and up till his mind does not become unsteady; to drink beyond that stage is bestial’. The Pārānandasūtra (pp. 70-71) describes the procedure of a festival (Utsavavidhi) among Tantrikaṣ The mantra is ‘Īśvarātman, tava dāsoham’, which may be given to even a caṇḍāla or may be accepted from a caṇḍāla. It is further provided that the followers of Vāma-mārga may employ the following mantras about the three makāras, that (the best among) Vamācāras should resort to. They are : 'I take this holy nectar, which is a medicine (antidote) for saṁsāra, which is a means of cutting off the snares by which the paśu (in man) is bound and which is declared by Bhairava' (this when taking the first i. e. wine); 'I take this mudrā which is 'ucchista' of the Lord (i. e. which has been first offered to God), which destroys the torments of the heart, which produces joy and which⁵⁰ is enriched with other food materials' (this when taking mudrā); 'I take this divine young woman who has drunk wine, that always makes the heart full of bliss and that brings about my sādhanā' (when taking one of the women that are brought together).

The Hindu Tantra works present two sides, one philosophical and spiritual, the other popular, practical and more or less magical, which relies on mantras, mudrās, maṇḍalas, nyāsas, cakras and yantras as physical means to realize one's identity with the Supreme Power or Energy by concentration and as conferring extraordinary powers on the devotee. This may be illustrated by reference to two typical tantras, the Śāradatilaka and the Mahānirvāṇa-tantra. The Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, though it speaks of the five makāras as means of upāsanā and though it states that when the great Tantra is understood, the Vedas, Purāṇas and śāstras are hardly⁵¹ of any use, puts forward the striking conception in IV. 34-47 that Parameśvara is one and to be described as sat, cit and ānanda, that He is one without a second, is beyond the guṇas and is to be known from the Vedānta textṣ It further on says that the best mantra is 'om sac-cidekam brahma' (III. 14), that those who perform the upāsanā of the Highest Brahma do not require other means of worship (sādhanā); by sticking to this mantra man becomes brahma. In the 4th chap. however, the Mahāparinirvāṇa starts by saying that Durgā is the highest prakṛti of Paramātmā, she has various names such as Kālī, Bhuvaneśvarī, Bhairavī, Chhin-namastakā, that she is Sarasvatī, Lakṣmī and Śakti, that she assumes various forms for securing the purpose of her devotees and for the destruction of demonṣ In the Kaliyuga perfection cannot be attained without following kula practices, which lead to the knowledge of brahma and the man who possesses know- ledge of brahma is a liberated soul, though living (he is Jīvanmukta). Then there is high praise (IV. 10 ff) of Devī who is spoken of as the primordial Śakti (ādyā paramā śakti) and all gods including Śiva himself derive their powers from this Highest Śakti. A rather astounding statement is made in ⁵² the words 'as there was partaking of wine and the rest in Satya, Tretā and Dvāpara yugas, one should do the same in Kali-yuga, but in accordance with the kula way, and that Kali does not affect those who give to the truthful Yogin the five tattvas (wine &c.) sanctified according to the kula way'. Then a mantra of ten syllables is declared 'hrīm śrīm krīm parame- śvarī ⁵³ svāhā', by merely listening to which a man becomes jīvanmukta. Then by various combinations of the mystic syllables with Parameśvarī and Kālikā twelve mantras are produced (V. 18). But the mantras do not confer siddhi unless the kulācāra way is followed viz. the five tattvas 'madya' &c. are offered (V. 22-23). Then a Gāyatrī mantra is set out (V. 62-63) as 'adyāyai vidmahe Parameśvaryai dhīmahi । tan-nah Kālī pracodayāt ॥', which is to be muttered thrice daily. The Sānkhya tattvas, Prakṛti, Mahat, Ahaṅkāra &c. are welded on to the worship of Śakti and the Vedic mantra 'Hamsaḥ śuciṣad ' (Rg. IV. 40. 5) with the Tāntrik bīja Hrīm (V. 197). The Tantra gives directions for the sanctification of flesh (V. 203-208, where Rg. I. 22. 20 'tadviṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam ' is employed), of fish (V. 209-210) where the mantra 'Tryambakam' (Rg. VIII. 59. 12) is employed, of mudrā (V. 211-212 where the mantras 'Tad Viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ' and 'tad-viprāso' Rg. I. 22. 20- 21, are employed) to be offered to Devī. The Mahānirvāṇatantra (18th century) being composed after Śāktism had come into great ridicule and obloquy is rather sober.⁵⁴ It says that women of good birth should simply smell wine and not drink it, while householder sādhakas should drink only as much as is contained in five cups, since by drinking too much men of good family incur the loss of siddhi, and should drink only so long as the wine quaffed does not make their eyes roll or does not make their mind confuseḍ As to the last tattva (maithuna) the sādhaka was to confine himself to the woman he chooses as his Śakti (VI. 14) and if his wife is alive he is not to touch another woman with a vicious intent, otherwise he would go to hell.⁵⁵ In keeping with its desire to present respectability along with tāntrik practices, the Mahānirvāṇa devotes chapter VIII. to the duties of varṇas and āśramas, the duties of the king, the duties of servants in general, provides⁵⁶ that persons of all varṇas are to marry within the varṇa and dine with persons of the same varṇa, except when engaged in Bhairavi cakra and Tattva-cakra (VIII. 150), when men of all varṇas are like the best brāhmaṇas, and no consideration of the castes of the participants arises nor any question about ucchiṣṭa. It prescribes that no one has the adhikāra to engage in the performance of Tattvacakra unless he is a sādhaka endowed with knowledge of brahma. In that cakra the tattvas (wine and the others) should be collected and placed in front of the Devī, the mantra 'Haṁsaḥ' (Rg. IV. 40. 5) should be recited over all tattvas and the tattvas should be offered to the Highest Self with the verse 'Brahmārpaṇam brahma havir' (Bhagvadgītā IV. 24 = Mahānirvāṇa VIII. 214) and all the sādhakas should engage in drinking and eating.⁵⁷ Chap. IX enumerates and describes ten saṁskāras from garbhādhāna to marriage for members of the three varṇas and nine for śūdras (omitting upanayana), wherein Vedic mantras Dharmasūtras and smṛtis One interesting item is what is called Śaiva marriage, which is of two kinds, one entered into according to the rules of cakra and the other lasting for life. It is further provided that in Śaiva marriage⁵⁸ no question of varṇa or age arises and that if a man has children from a wife married in the brāhma form and also children of a Śaiva marriage, it is only the former that take as heirs and the latter are entitled only to food and raiment (IX. 261-264). Chapters X, XI, XII of the Mahānirvāṇa deal respectively with śrāddhas, prāyaścittas for sins and vyavahāra.

It is necessary now to turn to the Śāradātilaka which belongs to about the 11th century A. D. That work is divided into 25 paṭalas and contains over 4500 verseṣ It presents in the beginning a somewhat abstruse and involved philosophy. It says that Śiva is both nirguṇa and saguṇa, the former being different from Prakṛti, the latter being associated with Prakṛti. Then it describes the order of evolution and manifestation as follows :- From the Saguṇa Parameśvara described as “Sac-cidānanda- vibhāva” Śakti⁵⁹ proceeds; from the latter arises nāda (para) and from nāda arises bindu (para) which is divided into three viz. bindu (apara ), nāda (apara) and bīja; the first is identified with Śiva, bīja being Śakti and nāda being the coming together of the two (Śiva and Śakti). Śakti creates the worlds, she is śabda-brahma (I. 56) and is called parāśakti (I. 52) and para- devatā (I. 57). She flashes like lightning in the ādhāra-cakra.⁶⁰ Śakti assumes the form of Kuṇḍalinī in the human body. From Śambhu in the form of bindu arise in order Sadāśiva, Īśa, Rudra, Viṣṇu, Brahmā; from the avyakta bindu arise in order the mahat-tattva, ahaṅkāra and the other tattvas mentioned in the Sāṅkhya systeṃ Śakti is all-pervading and yet more subtle than the subtlest, she is the Kuṇḍalinī coiled like a serpent and manifests herself in the form of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet (from 'a' to 'kṣa').

Before proceeding further some explanation of the six cakras which form an important constituent subject of several tantras is needeḍ There are said to be six cakras (centres) in the human body viz. Ādhāra or Mūlādhāra (at the base of the spine), Svādhiṣṭhāna (near the generative organ), Maṇipūra (near the navel), Anāhata (near the heart), Viśuddha (near throat), and Ājñā (between the brows). Besides these, there is Brahmarandhra figured as the pericarp of the thousand-petalled lotus within the crown of the heaḍ The cakras are often identified with the nerve plexuses of modern physiology, but the descrip- tions in Sanskrit works of the Kuṇḍalini and the cakras are meant to refer not to the gross body but rather to what is situated in the subtle body that vanishes when a man dieṣ The idea of the relevant Sanskrit texts is that the Kuṇḍalini Śakti ('Kundalin' means a serpent) is asleep in the Mūlādhāra-cakra coiled like a serpent and has to be roused by the practices of Yoga and deep meditatioṇ⁶² The Śāradātilaka asks in an eloquent stanza the sādhaka to meditate upon the Kuṇḍalini which when roused passes from the Mūlādhāra-cakra by means of the Suṣumnā-nāḍī (which is in the centre of the spinal column) through all the six cakras, unites with Śiva in the Sahasrāra (thousand-petalled) cakra and then returns to Mūlādhāra. Each of the six cakras is said to have a certain number of petals viz. 4, 6, 10, 12, 16, 2 (50 in all) in order from Mūlādhāra to Ājñā (vide Rudrayāmala, 17th Paṭala, verses 55-56). The letters of the alphabet also are 50 (from 'a' to 'kṣa') and they are assigned in groups to the six cakras as follows: ha and kṣa to Ājñā, 16 vowels to Viśuddha in the throat, letters ka to tha (12 in all) to Anāhata, letters Da to Pha (10) to Maṇipūra, ba to la (6 in all) to Svādhiṣṭhāna, letters va to sa (4) to Mūlādhāra. Some tantras state the colour of each of the six cakras and identify them with the five elements and the minḍ These speculations of the Yoga and Tantras are developments of the ancient Upaniṣad theories briefly noticed below.⁶³

Letters form words and words form mantras, that are the power incarnate of Śakti. Then the Śāradātilaka describes āsana, maṇḍapa, kuṇḍa, maṇḍala, pīṭhas (on which images of gods are to be placed), dīkṣā (initiation), prāṇapratiṣṭhā (vivifying images), production of sacrificial fire. The Śāradātilaka (I. 109 and V. 81–91), the Varivasyārahasya (II. 80), the Paraśurāmakalpasūtra (I. 4, ‘Ṣaṭ-triṁśat tattvāni viśvam’) and other Tāntrik and Āgamic works enumerate 36 tattvas (including those of the sāṅkhya system). From chap. VII. to XXIII mantras of different deities, their formation, use and results, abhiṣekas and mudrās are describeḍ Yantras are dealt with in chap. XXIV and Yoga in chap. XXV. It must be said to the credit of the Śāradātilaka that it treats of only mantras and mudrās and hardly anywhere treats of the other makāraṣ The Śāradātilaka has been profusely quoted as an authoritative Tantra by medieval Dharmaśāstra writers like Govindānanda, Raghunandana, Kamalākara, Nīlakaṇṭha, Mitramiśra and otherṣ In J. G. J. R. I. vol. III. pp. 97–108 M. M. Gopinath Kavirāja contributes a learned paper on nāḍa, bindu and kāla and takes great pains to elucidate these and hopes that his exposition will make the meaning of these words clear (p. 103). But the author feels grave doubts whether most readers will find the meanings clear.

Many tantras speak of the five makāras as the means of worshipping Devī, as enabling a man to possess miraculous powers and as leading to final liberatioṇ The Kulārṇava states ⁶⁴ the great Bhairava has prescribed that in the Kaula system siddhī (perfection) results from those very substances by (resorting to) which (ordinarily) men incur sin'. That means that the Kaula system eradicates poison by poison or, to employ modern terminology, its principles are like those of Homeopathy.

The Tantras seem to be not unaware that in prescribing the five makāras as leading to mukti (final liberation) they were playing with fire. The Kulārṇava itself remarks (II. 117–119 and 122 ) ' If by merely drinking wine a man were to attain siddhī (miraculous powers, perfection), then all wretched drunkards may attain siddhī. If, by merely eating meat a holy goal were to be secured then all meat-eaters in the world would be holy meṇ If by mere intercourse with a woman (called śakti) mokṣa was to result, then all men in the world may attain liberatioṇ To follow the path (of Kula) is indeed more unattainable than walking on the edge of a sword, than clinging to a tiger's neck, than holding a serpent (in one's hand)'. The Kulārṇava prefaces the preceding dicta by the words 'Many, who are devoid of traditional knowledge and who profane (the śāstra) by false ideas, imagine that the Kaulika doctrine is this and that, relying on their (poor) intellect' ( II. 116 ).

The Devībhāgavata provides (XI. 1. 25) that so much of tantra as is not opposed to the Veda is undoubtedly authoritative (vedāvirodhī cet tantram tat pramāṇam na saṁśayaḥ), but what is opposed to Veda is not authoritative.

There appears to have been great rivalry between the Hindu and Buddhist tantraṣ The Śaktisaṁgama-tantra, one of the most popular and most exhaustive works on tantra, states that Devī manifests herself for the destruction of Bauddha and other heretical sects, for the removal of the confusing admixture of different cults, for the establishment of the (true) cult, for the protection of what the brāhmaṇas stand for and for the perfect attainment of mantra-śāstra.⁶⁵ The Bauddha tantras, on the other hand, were not slow to retaliate. It would not be entirely out of place if a few words were devoted to the Bauddha Tantras particularly of the Vajrayāna. It has already been shown above (pp. 943-44 note: 1516) that all Buddhists, whether of the hīnayāna or mahāyāna type, were required to observe strict rules and regulations such as those of pañcaśīlas and of taking refuge with Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha and of daśaśīlas (for monks). The goal of nirvāṇa (particularly under Mahāyāna doctrines) could be reached only after a very long time or after several birthṣ As luxuries viz. flesh, fish, wine and women had been banned, the general mass of the people and probably monks also were tired of the strict mode of life and long waiting for the goal. Buddhist Tantras like the Guhyasamāja (that belongs to the Vajrayāna school) provided an easy process by which liberation and even Buddha-hood could be secured in a short time and even in⁶⁶ one life and averred that Bodhisattvas and Buddhas attained the seat of dharma by enjoying all objects of pleasure as they⁶⁷ pleaseḍ The word Vajra means both ‘diamond’ and ‘thunderbolt’. The first meaning appears to have been principally meant in the Guhyasamāja but the 2nd meaning also must have been some-times intendeḍ Vajra denotes anything which is hard like a diamonḍ In the Guhyasamājatantra the word Vajra, either singly or in compounds, occurs hundreds of timeṣ Kāya (body), Vāk (speech) and citta (mind) are called ‘trivajra’. (Guhya, pp. 31, 35, 36, 43). Numerous other things⁶⁸ are called ‘vajra’, such as the śūnya (the Absolute of the Mādhyamaka school) and also Vijñāna (consciousness), which is the sole reality according to the Yogācāra school, and the Mahāsukha (Bliss) added by the Śāktaṣ It also means the male organ in the mystic language of Śāktaṣ Though the original Buddhist rules insisted on ahimsā, Guhyasamāja permitted several kinds of flesh, such as that of elephants, horses, dogs and even human ⁷⁰ flesh. Early Buddhism insisted upon truthfulness and continence (brahma-carya); vajrayāna, being an innovating revolt, allowed the killing of all animals, speaking untruth, intercourse with women (including even incest with the mother, sister ¹⁷²⁴ and daughter) and appropriating wealth not donated by any one. This was called vajramārga (the path of vajra), which is said to have been the doctrine of all Buddhaṣ

The Prajñōpāya (I. 20) describes the state reached by the Vajrayāna method as followṣ ‘It is neither duality nor non-duality, it is full of peace, beneficent, present everywhere, to be realised by one’s own self, steady (unchanging), undisturbed and full of Prajñā (wisdom) and Upāya (activity with compas-sion). sion) and it further provides (V. 22-23) that ‘by those who hanker after liberation perfection of wisdom must be sought in all wayṣ This perfection of wisdom is everywhere present assuming the form of woman’. Prajñā was linked up with an intense state of emotion called Sukha or Mahāsukha (great bliss). "It being the nature of endless bliss is designated mahāsukha; it is beneficent all round, most eminent and conduces to complete enlightenment’ (Prajñopāya. I. 27) and ‘this all Buddha knowledge which is by its nature to be experienced by one’s inmost self is called Mahāsukha (great bliss) since it is the most eminent of all pleasures’ (Jñānasiddhi VII, 3). The word Prajñā is feminine in gender and therefore some Vajrayāna writers identified Prajñā with woman; by erotic symbolism and far-fetched analogies the cult of woman was starteḍ

Dr. H. V. Guenther has published a book styled ‘Yuga-naddha’ propounding the Tāntrik view of life based only on Buddhist Tantras and endeavours to prove in that work (of about 190 pages) that the Buddhist Tantrikas try to restore life in its entirety, which is neither an indulgence in passions nor a rejection and escape, but a complete reconciliation to the hard facts of life, that the sexual aspect of the Tantras is but the corrective against the one-sided intellectualism and rationalism of mere philosophy which is unable to cope with the problems of everyday life and that the symbol of Yuganaddha points to the unique harmony and interpenetration of masculinity and feminity, of blunt truth and symbolic truth, of intellect and humanity. It is not possible even to summarize this work or criticize it here. The core of the doctrine of the Vajrayāna tantras is found in the passages quoted in notes 1720–21, 1723–24. The argument is: according to these Tantras perception of wholeness is the most joyous of all human experiences and man’s experience will not be full but only partial if he has no experience of feminity i. e. of everything female. He may experience feminity through all female members of his family. Therefore, it is not to be wondered at, says Dr. Guenther, that ‘this experience so often has an incestuous character’. Then he offers (on pp. 106–112) a lengthy explanation of what he means which, the present author has to confess, is not quite clear to his moderate mental abilitieṣ Dr. Guenther appears to be steeped in all the latest theories of modern psychologists like those of Freud and tries to expound that Buddhist authors of the 8th century A. D. like Anaṅgavajra and Indrabhūti had plumbed the depths of the psychical life on the lines of modern psycho-analysiṣ Granting for a moment all that Dr. Guenther says about bi-sexuality, about sexual partnership being the best expression for the most intimate relation between two opposites, about woman being for the male a material object and a goddess, the present writer feels that one question appears to have been not satisfactorily answered or explained, viz. why did not the Buddhist Tantrikas simply exhort the sādhaka to understand the emotions, view-points and value of woman as a mother, sister, wife, daughter or as a woman in general and why did they frequently and blatantly harp upon sexual intercourse of even an incestuous kind as a quick method of realizing the goal?

The Guhyasamāja-tantra puts forward a quick and short method for realising Buddhahood and for the attainment of miraculous powers (siddhis) through the processes of Yoga. The siddhis are said to be of two kinds, Sāmānya (ordinary,⁷² such as becoming invisible) and Uttama (highest i. e. attaining Buddhahood). Four means for securing ordinary siddhis are mentioned and they are called Vajra-catuṣka. It is further provided that the best siddhi is acquired by the nectar of knowledge due to the six angas⁷³ of Yoga (and by no other way) viz. Pratyāhāra, Dhyāna, Prāṇāyāma, Dhāraṇā, Anusmṛti and Samādhi. It is worthy of note that the first three angas of yoga mentioned in the Yogasūtra viz. yama, niyama⁷⁴ and āsana are omitted and a new one, Anusmṛti, is addeḍ Yama could not be included because to the Guhyasamāja it did not matter if the sādhaka ate flesh, or indulged in sexual intercourse or told lies, while in Yogasūtra yamas are ahiṁsā, satya (truthfulness), asteya (not appropriating anything that does not belong to one), brahmacarya (sexual purity) and aparigraha (non-acceptance of gifts). Niyamas could not be included because among the five Yama and niyama were omitted by Bauddha Tantras 1069

niyamas are svādhyāya (Veda study) and (Īśvarapraṇidhāna) devotion to or surrender to Goḍ Many Bauddhas reviled the Veda and acknowledged no Supreme Deity. The Guhyasamāja introduced Yogic practices for quickly securing Buddhahooḍ The idea of allowing flesh and sexual intercourse seems to have been that the Yogin is to be indifferent as to what he does so long as he is striving for the goal of Buddhahood, for development of his psychic life and that he may disregard all social conventions and ruleṣ⁷⁵ Another innovation of the Vajrayāna was the introduction of upāsanā of Śakti for liberation through Yoga. The Guhya-samāja provides that if even after making efforts for six months, the sādhaka has no realisation, he may repeat his efforts for three times more and if even after that he has no enlightenment he should resort to Hathayoga and then he would attain correct knowledge through Yoga. A further innovation was the theory of the five Dhyāni-buddhas,⁷⁶ emanating from the Bhagavan, who represent the five Skandhas or fundamental principles of which the whole creation is composed and each of whom was associated with a female Śakti. The teaching of the Guhyasamāja is that if psychical power and miraculous siddhis are to be developed females must be associated with those who undertake Yogic exercises to achieve their endṣ Thus the prophecy of the founder of Buddhism pronounced, when yielding to the pressure and entreaties of his favourite disciple Ananda for allowing women to be members of the saṅgha and to be nuns, that on account of this innovation his system would stand fast only for five hundred years, though otherwise it would have lasted for a thousand years, was literally fulfilled (vide Cullavagga X. 1. 6 in Vinaya Texts, vol. III. S. B. E. XX p. 325). If we accept 483 B. C. as the date of Buddha's Parinirvāṇa (as many scholars hold) or 477 B. C. (as A. Foucher holds) 500 years therefrom would bring us to the first century A. D. and it is clear that by a century or two after that time much of Buddha's teaching appears to have been almost completely swamped by doctrines of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Tantraṣ By a strange irony of fate Buddha's 'dharma-cakra-pravartana' came to be transformed into 'adharma-cakra-pravartana' by many of his so-called followers of the Vajrayāna. In the Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta V. 23 (S. B. E. vol. XI. p. 91) the Buddha was very strict and warned bhikkhus not to see bhikkhunis, not to talk to them if they could not avoid seeing them, and to be wide awake if a nun talked to theṃ Buddha severely rebuked one of his disciples for showing his miraculous powers (vide p. 1037 and ṇ 1672 above), but Guhyasamāja and other Buddhist tantras make provision for endowing the sādhaka with miraculous powers, such as causing rainfall in case of drought (Guhya-samāja p. 84), killing an enemy by magical rites over an effigy of the enemy (ibiḍ p. 96). Besides, the Guhyasamāja knows the six cruel or terrible magic acts (called 'ṣaṭkarmāṇi), viz. Śānti (rite for averting disease or black magic), vaśīkaraṇa (bewitching women and men and even gods), stambhana (stop-ping the movements or actions of others), vidveṣaṇa (creating enmity between two friends or two persons who love each other), uccāṭana (making a person or enemy flee from the country, town or village), māraṇa (killing or causing permanent injury to living beings). The Guhyasamāja mentions these six (putting 'ākarṣaṇa' for 'vidveṣaṇa') respectively at pp. 168, 165, 96, 87 (Ākarṣaṇa), 81, 130. Vide Sādhanamālā pp. 368-369 for the same and for the shape of maṇdalas and times for each of the six cruel riteṣ Even the rather sober Śāradatilaka-tantra mentions these six (23. 122), defines them (23. 123-125), provides that Rāṭī, Vāṇī (speech or Sarasvati), Ramā, Jyeṣṭhā, Durgā and Kālī are respectively the six deities of these six cruel acts and must be worshipped at the commencement, that six periods of ten ghaṭikās from sunrise are respectively appropriate to these six and so also are certain seasons (23. 126-139). It is most astounding that the Prapañcasāra (23. 5) ascribed to the great advaita teacher Śaṅkarācārya describes at length a mantra called Trailokya-mohana for accomplishing the above six cruel actṣ Both Hindu and Buddhist Tantras⁷⁷ lay great emphasis on the importance and qualifications of the guru. The Bauddha Tantras have the highest praise for the guru. The Jñānasiddhi (13. 9-12) prescribes high qualifications and the Prajñopāyavini-ścaya-siddhi (III, 9-16) contains a grand eulogy of the guru, identifying him with Buddha and calling him omniscient and so oṇ The Advayasiddhi of Lakṣmīnkāra (about 729 A. D.), who started the astounding doctrine that one should offer worship to one's own body wherein all gods reside, says that in the three worlds there is none higher than the ācārya. In the Nityotsava of Umānanda-nātha, pupil of Bhāsurānanda-nātha (i. e. Bhāskararāya as he was called before he took dīkṣā) the guru Bhāskararāya is praised in the following hyperbolical terms⁷⁸ 'to whom no part of the earth was unseen (owing to his yogic sight), there was no king who was not his slave, to whom no śāstra was unknown; why use more words, whose form was the highest Śakti herself.' But the Jñāna-siddhi and Kulārṇava (XIII. 128) warn against gurus who falsely pretend to know the truth and give instruction in dharma from greed for money. The Kulārṇava ( ullāsas XII and XIII ) are devoted to the quali-fications and greatness of guru. The Śāradātilaka also sets out the qualifications of the tāntrika guru (II. 142-144) and of the disciple (III.145-152 ).⁷⁹ The guru among other matters 'must know the essence of all Agamas and the principles and meaning of all śāstras, he must be one whose words come out true, who has a quiet mind, who has profoundly studied the Veda and its meaning, who follows the path of Yoga and whose bearing is as beneficent as that of a deity.' Among the many requirements about a disciple,⁸⁰ one is that he must keep secret the mantra and pūjā imparted by his guru. The disciple places the guru's feet on his head and surrenders his body, wealth and even life to the guru. The necessity of a guru for the acquisition of esoteric philosophy is stressed by the Upaniṣads also. For, example the Kathopaniṣad⁸¹ says 'this knowledge cannot be obtained by ratiocination, it can be understood well only when expounded by another'; the Chāndogya (IV. 9. 3) says 'Sir, I have heard from men like you that only knowledge that is learnt from a teacher leads to real good'. The Liṅgapurāṇa⁸² and others says that guru is identical with Śiva and the rewards of devotion to Śiva and to the guru are the same. The Kulārṇava (XI. 46) emphasizes that the order of the succession of gurus, the Āgamas, Āmnāya, mantra and practices – all these when learnt from the lips of a guru become fruitful and not otherwise. The Prapañcasāra provides 'the disciple should consider in his mind that guru, devatā and mantra are one and should repeat a hundred times the mantra that he received by the favour of the guru.'

The Vedānta system requires for its understanding high intellectual and moral attainments and could be followed by only a few gifted soulṣ It is claimed that Tantras provide a method which assists men of ordinary intellect and which utilizes visual and physical processes for the attainment of spiritual experience, for the development of psychic forces and for the quick attainment of liberation by such practices as the repetition of mantras, mudrās, nyāsas, maṇḍalas, cakras and yantraṣ The respect for the guru sometimes reached amongst Tantrik writers to extreme and disgusting lengths as the note below will indicate.⁸³ The teaching of Tāntrika texts about the five makāras must have created a very unhealthy and debased state among all classes, particularly the lower orders of Society. The centuries from the 7th to the 12th A. D. were the peak period of Tāntrik works and cults, both Hindu and Buddhist. In a certain cult of the Vajrayāna the gurus wore a blue vesture. A story is narrated of a guru (a monk) of the sammitīya sect who went dressed in a blue dress to a courtezaṇ He did not return to the monastery at night. When asked in the morning by his disciples why he put on a blue dress, he explained the great spiritual merit of the blue-coloured dresṣ Since then his followers began to wear blue dress and in their book called ‘Nīlapaṭadarśana’ it is written ‘the god Kāmādeva (Eros) is a jewel, a courtezan is a jewel, wine is a jewel; I bow to these three jewels; other so-called jewels are three glass beads’. It should be remembered that for devout Buddhists, Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha are three Ratnas (jewels). The followers of the Nīlapaṭadarśana deemed these last three to be as worthless as glass beadṣ Vide Bhikṣu Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana's paper ‘On Vajrayāna or Mantrayāna’ in J. A. vol. 225 (1934) p. 216 where this is narrateḍ False gurus must have gone about deluding people with rosy prospects of bliss and liberation by the easy method of drinking wine, eating flesh and free association with all sorts of womeṇ The Indian literature of those centuries is full of condemnation and caricatures of the methods of Tāntrik worship by means of wine, flesh and sexual laxity. A few instances may be cited here. In the prākṛit play called Karpūramañjarī of Rājaśekhara (about 900 A. D.), a character called Bhairavānanda ⁸⁴ who was supposed to possess wonderful powers is introduced and he says (while representing that he was somewhat tipsy) 'owing to the favour of our guru we know nothing about mantras or tantras or meditatioṇ We drink wine, dally with women and yet, being devoted to the Kula path, we reach mokṣa. A fierce strumpet is given dīkṣā and made a lawful wife, wine is drunk and flesh is consumed, our food is got by begging for alms, our bed is a piece of hide. To whom would the Kauladharma not appear attractive? Even gods headed by Viṣṇu and Brahmā declare that liberation is attained by meditation, Veda study and performance of Vedic sacrifices; only one God, the husband of Umā, perceived that mokṣa (can be attained) by dalliance with women and by wine'. The Yaśastilaka-campū (composed in 959 A. D.) after referring to the Dakṣiṇa and Vāma paths of Śaivāgama quotes a verse of the great poet ⁸⁵ Bhāsa “a person should drink wine, look at the face of the woman dear to him, wear a dress naturally charming and free from being odd; may the adorable Śiva be long-lived, who (first) discovered such a path to mokṣa!” The Daśāvatāra-carita of Kṣemendra (3rd quarter of 11th century A. D.) states in one verse what the Tantrik gurus and their followers did “Gurus declare that liberation follows by the drinking of wine from the same goblet by various craftsmen such as washermen, weavers, workers in hides, kāpālikas, in the procedure of cakrapūjā, and by dalliance with women without the least scruple and by always leading a life of festivitieṣ” ⁸⁶ The Rāja-taraṅgiṇī (middle of 12th century A. D.) has several references to the Tāntrikas and their doingṣ In V. 66 Kalhaṇa says that during ⁸⁷ the reign of Avantivarman of Kashmir, siddhas (persons possessed of miraculous powers like aṇimā) such as Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa were born for the benefit of the worlḍ In describing the effects of the rule of a good king Yaśaskara (939-948 A. D.), Kalhaṇa ⁸⁸ remarks that during his reign were not seen housewives figuring as divinities at the rite of gurudīkṣā and shaking their heads for detracting from the eminent character (attributed to) of their husbandṣ' King Kalāśa of Kashmir (1063-1089 A. D.) became a pupil of Pramadakaṇṭha, son of Amarakāṇṭha who was a good brāhmaṇa, but Kalāśa, who by nature was evil-minded, was instructed in evil practices by his guru Pramadakaṇṭha and the latter made the former ignore the distinction between women who are approachable and who are not. In this connection, Kalhaṇa bitterly ⁸⁹ bewails "what other unscrupulousness of this guru (of Kalāśa) should be described by me, when, leaving aside all scruples, he committed incestuous intercourse with his own daughter." This establishes that in the 11th century A. D. in Kashmir there were Tāntrik gurus that literally carried out what the Guhyasamājatantra quoted in note 1724 apparently recommended to Buddhist Yogiṣ In the drama called Moha- parājaya by Yaśahpāla under king Ajyadeva, successor of Kumārapāla, among the dramatis personae is a kaula who declares his doctrine to be eating flesh every day, drinking wine without any qualms and allowing the mind free scope.⁹⁰ Aparārka quotes a verse which shows that, in the midst of numerous cults, it was difficult to be consistent: “A person may be at heart a Kaula (follower of the Kula doctrine), in outward appearance he may look a Śaiva, and he may follow Vaidika rites in his usual practiceṣ One should live grasping what is essential like the cocoanut⁹¹ fruit”. It appears that great scholars and poets had a sneaking admiration for Tāntrika worship. The great writer Vidyāpati of Mithilā appears to be a Vaiṣṇava from his devotional songs, but wrote the Śaivasarvasvasāra (so he may be called a Śaiva), and wrote also Durgābhaktitarangiṇī (and thus appears to have been a Śākta) and composed also a Tāntrik⁹² work. The very first verse of Vidyāpati's ‘Purusaparikṣā’ contains an invocation of Ādi-Śakti.' Bengal and Assam were the strongholds of Śākta doctrines and even now Kāli worship is still in vogue there, but it was the great Bengal king Ballālasena who discarded Devipurāna as an authority in his encyclopaedic work on gifts called Dānasāgara.¹⁷⁴⁶

It is possible that the founders of the Tāntrik or Śakta cult of the five makāras threw defiance at the terrible aspect of God that rules the destinies of men and things and that made men sometimes suffer terribly even if they led lives of virtue, to do the worst for their disregard of conventional morality and social practices and hoped by their Yoga exercises to attain to high psychical powers and blisṣ¹⁷⁴⁷ There is another possible motive also. Masses of common people were being drawn towards Buddhisṃ The founders of Hindu Tāntrik cults wanted to retain them within the Hindu folḍ As common people drank wine and ate meat, they were told that they would attain higher spiritual levels even while indulging in meat and drink provided they followed Tāntrik gurus and practiceṣ The idea was that Śakti was all and was for all; bhoga (enjoyment) need not be given up, as man is part of Devi or Śiva. Bhoga should be sublimated, that is all that is required in Kaula-śāstra. The Tāntrikas¹⁷⁴⁸ substitute a yoga of enjoyment (bhoga) for the yoga of abstinence and asceticisṃ When indulging in the left-hand path practices the sādhaka is supposed or held to be destroying the egoistic elements of the soul.

The Mahānirvāṇatantra and a few others endeavour to stem the tide of sexual immorality and promiscuity. For example, Rāmeśvara, the commentator of Paraśurāmakalpasūtra, says that one that has not conquered his senses has no adhikāra for Kaulamārga (p. 153). This is in direct conflict with what even the Mahānirvāṇatantra says that all men from brāhmaṇas to the untouchables have adhikāra for Kula practiceṣ Modern apologists for Tantrism emphasize that the instructions embodied in the Guhyasamāja, the directions for the mode of life to be led by followers of Vajrayāna, apply only to the Yogis who have attained some degree of yogic perfectioṇ But the obvious reply is ‘who is to decide that a particular person had attained the minimum spiritual level except the man himself and, supposing that all the directions were meant for Yogis, why was it necessary to say in a blatant manner and language that a Yogi practising Vajrayāna may engage in what common and less sophisticated people deem to be incest? This is not the place to reply to all apologists for ancient and medieval Tāntrik workṣ But a few must be dealt with because they are liable to create misunderstandings, if allowed to go uncriticizeḍ In his Preface to ‘Principles of Tantra’ Part 2, Sir John Woodroffe states (p. IX.) that the use of flesh, fish and wine was common in the Vedic age and that the Mahābhārata and some Purāṇas like the Kālikā, Mārkaṇḍeya and Kūrma refer to consumption of wine, meat and fish. This looks like special pleading and is misleading. The question is: was surā offered to the gods in every day or periodic sacrifices as an offering in the Ṛgveda or any other Veda. In the Vedic age wine may have been known and even drunk, but what is material is to recognize is that there is a difference made between Soma and surā. Vide Sat. ⁹⁶ Br. “Soma is truth, prosperity, light and surā is untruth, misery and darkness” (V. 1. 5. 28). While Soma is mentioned hundreds of times in the Ṛgveda, has the 9th maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda specially reserved for its praises and was offered to gods, the word surā occurs only six times in the Ṛgveda and it is nowhere expressly stated that it was offered to any god as a religious offering; on the contrary, in a hymn to Varuṇa, surā is put for- ward as leading to the commission of sin just as anger and gambling do (Ṛg. VII. 86. 6 ‘na sa svo. dakṣo Varuṇa dhṛutiḥ sā surā manyur-vibbhīdako acittiḥ). In his zeal for the vindica- tion of Tāntrism Arthur Avalon is injudicious enough to misinterpret simple wordṣ In the Intro. to ‘Principles of Tantra’ p. VII he quotes Ṛg. I. 166. 7 “arcantyakram madirasya pitaye” and translates “worshipping the Sun before drinking madira (wine).” The word here is madira (and not ‘madirā’), it is an adjective and means “exhilarating”. The word “Madirā” never occurs in the Ṛg. while “madira” as an adjective, occurs at least sixteen times and qualifies Soma, Indu, Amśu, Rasa or Madhu, generally expressed (and rarely implied). There is no word for “before.” That quarter means ‘they (the worshippers or Maruts) worship (Indra) who is worthy of praise (and a friend of the Maruts) in order that he may come for drinking the exhilarating (Soma).¹ The word madirā (for wine) hardly ever occurs in any genuine work of Vedic timeṣ Its earliest occurrence is probably in the Mahābhārata. Reference is also made by modern apologists to the offering of surā in the Sautrāmaṇi iṣṭi in honour of Indra. But the circumstances are peculiar. Sautrāmaṇi is only one out of numerous sacrifices and the occasions for performing it were rare i. e. it was performed at the end of Rājasūya and also at the end of Agnicayana and when a priest who had drunk too much of soma vomiteḍ The most important fact, however, is that the remnants of surā offered in Sautrāmaṇi were not drunk by the priests engaged in it but a brāhmaṇa had to be hired for drinking the remnants and if no brāhmaṇa could be secured then the remnants were to be poured over an ant-hill (vide H. of Dh. vol. II. p. 1226 for details). The Kāṭhakasaṁhitā ⁹⁷ contains an interesting passage “Therefore an elderly person and a youngster, the daughter-in-law and the father-in-law, drink liquor and remain babbling together; thoughtlessness is sin; therefore a brāhmaṇa does not drink surā with the thought that ‘otherwise (if I drink it) I may be tainted by sin’; therefore this is for kṣatriya; one should say to a brāhmaṇa that surā, if drunk by a kṣatriya, does not harm the latter.” These passages show that not only the priests did not drink surā even in Sautrāmaṇi but that it had become difficult to hire a brāhmaṇa for drinking it by the time of the Kāṭhaka-saṃhitā. The passage of the Vājasaneya saṃhitā 19. 5 relied on at p. VII (of Intro. to ‘Principles of Tantra’ part.II) also refers to Sautrāmaṇi and to no other sacri fice. The mantra is “Brahma kṣatram pavate. teja. indriyam surayā somah suta āduto madāya” and means that “Soma when mixed with surā becomes a strong drink and leads to intoxicatioṇ” The Chāndogya V. 10. 9 (q. above p. 1578 ṇ 943) counts the drinker of surā among the five grave sinnerṣ There fore, there is hardly any analogy between the offering of wine in Sautrāmaṇi and the teaching about offering wine to Devī as provided in the Tantraṣ Similarly, the reference to the Atharvaveda as containing magical rites does not help at all. Society had advanced far beyond that stage and Manu. XI. 63 looked upon abhicāra (i. e. performance of a magic rite like Śyenayāga for killing a person) and mūlakarma (i. e. bringing under one's control a person or a woman by herbs and mantras) as a sin, though a lesser one (an upapātaka). The reference to the Mahābhārata (Udyogaparva, 59. 5 ff) is again misleading. Wine was drunk by people in the Mahābhārata times, but not as part of a religious ritual as in the Tantraṣ Vide pp. 964-966 of H. of Dh. vol. III for a note on ‘intoxicating drinkṣ’ The reference to Mārkaṇḍeya and other purāṇas is of no avail as evidence, since at least the present author holds that those parts of the Purāṇas were written and interpolated after Tāntrik rites had taken a firm hold on some sections of the Hindu society. The reference to sexual intercourse in the Mahāvrata ⁹⁸ is most misleading. In the Tantras like the Kulārṇava and the Guhya- samāja it is the sādhaka himself who to practise maithuna as one of the ways of securing marvellous powers and higher spiritual attainmentṣ But in the Mahāvrata the sexual inter- course is by strangers to the sacrifice (and not by the yajamāna nor by any of the priests), is a purely symbolical act and bears no analogy to a sādhaka himself engaging in maithuna as a religious rite to placate the Devī. Even a late reformist work like the Mahānirvāṇa (VIII. 174-175) expressly says that those of the five tattvas which a sādhaka can secure, such as flesh and others, should have recited over them the mantra ‘ām, hrīm, from, svāhā’ a hundred times, that he should reflect that every thing is a product of brahma, should close his eyes, should offer those to Kālī and should himself drink and eat theṃ As the Tāntrik prescriptions of the makāras for attainment of miraculous powers and of liberation had shocked people and had brought the tantras into great disrepute, later Hindu Tāntrik works like the Saktisaṅgamatantra (between 1555-1607 A. D.) began to offer symbolic interpretationṣ They ⁹⁹ say that the words 'madya, mudrā, maithuna' &c. are not used in the ordinary popular sense but in a special esoteric sense. For example, mudrā has several senses, viz. a mixture of jaggery and ginger, or of salt and oil-cake or garlic and tamarind fruit, or wheat and māṣa beans, that madya (wine) is not what is prepared from mādhavī (spring flower) but it springs from the joyful experience (or rasa) of Śakti, when effort is made to awaken the Kuṇḍalinī. It may be admitted that some Tāntrik works and writers divide men into three classes, paśu (the bestial ones), vīra (those that have made great progress on the path of spiritual discipline) and daiva (those who are godlike). As regards these three, the five makāras are assigned by some apologistic writers different meaningṣ D. N. Bose in his work 'Tantras, their philosophy and occult secrets' boldly asserts (p. 110) that the real significance of the five makāras has been deliberately perverted by vicious people and explains (p. 111) that madya is the nectarine stream issuing from the cavity of the brain where the soul resides, matsya means suppression of vital airs, māṁsa means 'vow of silence,' 'maithuna' means 'meditation on the acts of creation and destructioṇ'

The Tāntrikas clothe their practices in bombastic and high-sounding wordṣ The five makāras are called pañca-tattvas, kuladravyas or kulatattvaṣ Maithuna is generally referred to as pañcamatattva, the woman with whom sexual intercourse is to be had or who was at least to be associated with a male in Tantra worship is called Śakti (vide Kulārṇava VII 39-43 and Mahānirvāṇa VI. 18-20) or prakṛti or latā and this special ritual is called 'Latāsādhana' (Mahānirvāṇa I. 52). Wine is called tīrthavārī (holy water) or kāraṇa (VIII. 168 and VI. 17). The Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, though a reformist work and in certain cases asking the king to punish drunkards (XI. 113-121)¹⁰⁰. waxes eloquent over wine and praises it as Tārā in the form ¹⁰¹ of a fluid substance, as the saviour of individual souls, as the mother (or producer) of bhoga (enjoyment) and mokṣa (libera- tion) and as the remover of misfortunes and diseases and after some further praise of wine winds up by saying that those men who drink wine according to the rules and with a well-controlled mind are gods on earth (XI. 108). For the worship of Śakti the five tattvas are absolutely necessary (Mahānirvāṇa-tantra V. 21-24 quoted in note 1695 above and ¹⁰² Kulārṇava V. 69 and 76). Some tantras say that the meaning of tattva differs according as the person concerned is Tāmasika (a paśu kind of worshipper), Rājasika (a vīra as he is called), sāttvika (a divya, a person who is godlike). Madya means according to various Tāntrik Texts real wine as well as a substitute like cocoanut water or any other liquid; it also means that intoxicating know- ledge that comes of Yoga practices, whereby the worshipper becomes senseless as regards the external worlḍ Māṁsa is the act whereby the sādhaka surrenders himself and his action to Lord Śiva. Matsya (fish, of which the first part ‘mat’ means ‘mine’) is that psychical state by which the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beingṣ Maithuna is the union of the Śakti Kuṇḍalinī (the woman inside a man’s body) in the Mūlādhāra-cakra with the supreme Śiva in the Sahasrāracakra in the highest centre of the brain and is the stream of the sweet juice that drops from the Sahasrara. Prepara- tion of hemp (called vijayā or ‘bhāṅg’) is madya for some. The Mahānirvāṇa says (VIII. 170 and 173) that ‘madhura-traya’ may be substituted for wine and for ‘Maithuna’ meditation on the feet of the (image of) Devī and japa of the desired mantra may be substituteḍ The Kaulāvalinirṇaya (III. 111) boldly states that if a man, after partaking of vijayā (bhāṅg) engages in meditation, he sees directly before him the form of the goddess as described in the Dhyānamantra. Some Tantras like the Kaulajñānanirṇaya and Bhāskararāya¹⁰³ in his commentary on Lalitāsahasranāma say that when Kuṇḍalini is roused by a yogin and it reaches the thousand-petalled cakra (Sahasrāra) from which (that has on its pericarp the moon) drops nectar which is figuratively spoken of as madya (vide notes 1716, 1752). The Kulārṇava at first asserts (I. 105-107) 'Mukti does not result from the study of the Veda nor by the study of śāstras, it results from (correct) knowledge alone, that the āśramas are not a means of mokṣa nor are the darśanas the means, nor all the śāstras, that it is knowledge alone that is the cause, that it is the knowledge imparted by the teaching of the guru that confers mukti, all (other) vidyās are mockery.' Then in the Vedāntic strain it affirms (I. 111-112) "two words (respectively) lead to bondage or liberation viz. (this is) ‘mine’ or ‘nothing is mine’. A person falls in bondage by the thought ‘this is mine’ and becomes liberated by realising ‘nothing is mine’ and that that is proper action that does not lead to bondage and that is real lore that leads to liberatioṇ” After these high thoughts the same Tantra (II, 22-23 and 29) proceeds to Kaula doctrine. ‘If a man is a yogin he does not (ordinarily) enjoy life, while one who enjoys life does not know yoga; but the Kaula doctrine combines both yoga and bhoga and is superior to all (other doctrines); in the Kaula doctrine bhoga turns into yoga directly, saṃsāra turns into mokṣa. Kaula knowledge enlightens him whose mind is purified by the mantras of Śaiva worship, Durgā worship &c.”

The Kulārṇava appears to be in two minds to ordinary men like the present writer. While in one breath as shown in note 1718 it frankly recommends the drinking of wine and eating of flesh to the followers of Kaula doctrine, it also endeavours to give an esoteric meaning to the makāras as follows (V. 107-112): Frequently reaching the brahmarandhra from the mūlādhāra, there arises the bliss of the union of the Kuṇḍalini-Śakti with the moon in the form of Intelligence (cit, Śiva); the person who is intent on tasting the nectar oozing from the lotus in the crown of the head is said to drink `sudhā` (nectar, wine); other people drink mere wine. When the adept ¹⁰⁴ in Yoga cutting the beast (ego) doing good or evil actions with the sword of knowledge (of reality) makes his mind merge in the Highest, he is said to be eater of `pala` (the Highest, flesh). The (Yogin) who restraining the several senses by his mind concentrates them on the Self, becomes '`matsyāśī`', ¹⁰⁵ others,are only killers of living beingṣ The `Śakti` (the woman associated with a `sādhaka`) of a beastly man is unenlightened but that of the one who honours (or resorts to) such a `Śakti` is really a worshipper of `Śakti`. When a man is filled through and through with the bliss due to the union of the Highest `Śakti` with the Self (`Śiva`), that is called `Maithuna` (copulation); all other men are merely licentious personṣ

The apologists for unpopular `Tāntrik` practices offer explana- tions of the five '`makāras`' more or less on the lines of the `Kulār- ṇava`. For example, in his Introduction to the 'Principles of `Tantra`' (part II) Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) gives (pp. CVII–CVIII) an esoteric explanation of the word 'drinking' used in such a verse as that in the `Parānandasūtra`, 'Having drunk again and again, having fallen upon the earth, then having got up and again drunk (wine) there is no rebirth.' ¹⁰⁶ He explains 'Being thus awakened Kundalini enters the great road to liberation (mukti), that is, the Sushumnā nerve, and penetrating the centres one by one, ascends to the Sahasrāra and there coming in blissful communion with the Lord of Lords, through the same passage to the Mūlādhāra Chakra. Nectar is said to flow from such communioṇ The sādhaka drinks it and becomes supremely happy. This is the wine called Kulāmṛta, which a sādhaka of the spiritual plane drinkṣ......In reference to a sādhaka of the spiritual (ādhyātmika) class the Tantra says 'Pitvā pitvā...vidyate'. During the first stage of Ṣaṭ-cakra-sādhanā the sādhaka cannot suppress his breath for a sufficiently long time at a stretch to enable him to practise concentration and meditation in each centre of Power. He cannot therefore detain Kundalini within the Sushumnā longer than his power of Kumbhaka permitṣ He must consequently come down upon the earth i. e. the Mūlādhāra, which is the centre of the element earth, after having drunk of the heavenly ambrosia. The sādhaka must practise this again and again and by constant practice, the cause of rebirth i. e. vāsanā (desire) is removeḍ" This explanation sounds very profound and highly psychical, but it is not at all convincing. Similarly, the present author wonders how many writers on Tantras and how many Tantrikas understood the theory of sublimation put forward in 'Tantras as a way of realization' (Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV. pp. 233-235) by way of explaining the insistence on five makāraṣ The first question is: why was it necessary to employ vulgar language to describe a state of profound bliss ? Supposing the explanation of madya offered by Woodroffe is accepted, what is the explanation about offering flesh and fish ? One cannot easily get out of 'matsyāśī' and 'māṁsāśī' the esoteric sense required by the apologistṣ The Kulārṇava, the Pārānanda-sūtra and several other works almost always employ the words madya, māṁsa and fish in the ordinary sense. They rarely, if at all, drop the hint that words like matsya and māṁsa are being used in an esoteric sense and proceed to deal with realities of madya and flesh. The Kulārṇava quotes (II. 126) the verse of Manu IX, 93 (surā vai malam-annānāṁ &c.), provides for the preparation of the three kinds of surā (V. 15–21), and says (V. 30) that surā is the 12th kind among intoxicants and that there are eleven other kinds of intoxicants made from jack-fruit, grapes, dates, sugar-cane &c. (V. 29). In XI, 22–35 the Kulārṇava dilates upon the etiquette to be observed in drinking wine as part of Kaula practice. It proceeds (V. 44) to divide flesh into three classes viz. of animals that fly in the sky (birds), of aquatic animals and of those that move on the earth. The ¹⁰⁸ Svacchandatantra (a work of great authority in Kashmir Śaivism) prescribes that various kinds of fish and meat and other food that can be licked and drunk should be poured in front of Śiva (image) and one should not stint for money. Quotations from Pārānanda-sūtra (notes 1698, 1703–4) make it perfectly clear that the words madya, māṁsa, and maithuna are employed therein in the ordinary sense. Pārānandasūtra (on pp. 80-81, paragraphs 69–70 and pp. 82-83 para. 76–80) describes such obscene details of the sādhaka’s sexual intercourse that it is not possible to set them down here. The ordinary worship of Devī was elaborate enough, containing as it did 16 upacāras (vide p. 164 note 420 above). Where was the necessity of bringing in wine, meat and maithuna as an absolutely necessary part of the worship of Devī? The Kulārṇava and other tantras praise the Vedas, employ vedic mantras and quote¹⁰⁹ Upaniṣad and Gītā passageṣ For example, Mahānirvāṇa V.197 ff employs Vedic mantras (as noted on p. 1058) for sanctifying the five makāras, the three mantras ‘Āpo hi ṣṭhā’ Rg. X. 9. 1–3 in Nāmakaṇa (ibiḍ IX. 150–152), Vispuryaṇim’ Rg. X. 184. 1 in Garbhādhāna (ibiḍ IX. 96), ‘Ayam te yonir’ Rg. III, 29. 10 in the worship of Agni (ibiḍ IX. 21) and the verse ‘Kālī Karālī’ (Muṇḍakopaniṣad I. 2. 4). in the worship of the seven tongues of Agni. The Mahānirvāṇa (VIII. 214–215) prescribes Gītā IV. 24 (brahmārpaṇam brahma havir) as the mantra to be recited by the leader of the Tattva- cakra in offering the five tattvas and in sanctifying theṃ In spite of all this lip service to the Veda the tantras ignore the great moral dangers involved in their persistent teaching of five makāras and also pay no heed to the impressive advice of the Gītā (III. 21) that whatever a great or honoured man does or holds as authoritative is followed by all common people. There are several late medieval works about the Kaula cult that speak of drinking wine, eating flesh and maithuna in the vulgar sense as means of Devī worship and yet assert that by doing so mukti (liberation) would be secureḍ Two verses from a ms of a tāntrik work called Kaularahasya (containing one hundred verses) will bring home to the reader how common people understood the cult of the makāraṣ¹¹⁰

Prof. Heinrich Zimmer in the ‘Art of Indian Asia’ (vol. I pp. 129–130) observes ‘such living forms are suggested to the Indian artist by a dynamic philosophy of religious and philosophical tradition, for the worship of the life- force pouring into the universe and maintaining it, manifesting itself no less in the gross matter of daily experience than in the divine beings of religious vision constitutes the very foundation of Indian religious life. According to this doctrine which was particularly influential in the great periods of Indian art, release from the bondage of our normal human imperfection can be gained not only through the world- negating methods of asceticism (yoga) but equally through a perfect realization of love and its sexual enjoyment (bhoga). According to this view which has been eloquently expressed in the so-called Tantric symbols and rituals of both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, there is intrinsically no antagonism between yoga and bhoga. The role played by the guru, the spiritual guide and teacher in the stern masculine disciplines of yoga, is taken over in the initiations of bhoga by the devout and sensual helpmate. The initiating woman plays the part of Śakti while the male initiate assumes that of Śiva and both attain together to the realisation of the immanence within themselves of the Goddess and the Goḍ' It has already been stated (p. 1054) that Prof. Zimmer is wrong in thinking that the Tantrik rites were systematically disparaged as 'vāmamārga' by the Indian partisans of Yoga. He is also wrong (p. 130) when he says that 'throughout the first millennium A. D. they (Tantric rites) were a basic element of normal Indian experi- ence.' There is really very little evidence to substantiate this claiṃ He makes this sweeping generalisation as an art-critic and historian of Indian Art from the few tāntric sculptures on the Puri and other temples in Orissa and some other places in India. Vide the well-known work 'Bengal Lancer' by F. Yeats-Brown (London, Golancz, 1930) pp. 236-237, where the superintendent of the temple of Jagannāth justifies the obscene frescoes on the ground that until a man is master of his gross body he cannot see the Godhead and feels sure that future ages will look on Tantrik psychology with understanding.

One or two very peculiar notions and practices of the Tāntrikas may be briefly mentioned here. The offering of flesh, wine and mudrā to the devatā with the recital of three bījas 'āṁ, hrīṁ, kroṁ' and the mantras 'oṁ Ānanda- bhairavāya namaḥ' and 'oṁ Anandabhairavyai namaḥ' was technically called śuddhi ¹¹¹. The Mahānirvāṇa and Tantrarāja-tantra state that to drink wine without śuddhi ¹¹² was like swallowing poison, that the person doing so would suffer from diseases for a long time, would soon die prematurely and that wine was to be drunk even by one who has attained some perfection only up till the mind has reached an ecstatic state of absorption ( in thoughts of Devi ) and that if he drinks beyond that stage he at once becomes a sinner ( vide also Kulārṇava VII, 97–98 for the last proposition ).

A most revolting rite from the view-point of all unsophisticated people is what is called ‘cakra-pūjā’ ( worship in a circle ). An equal number of men and women without distinction of caste and even near blood relations secretly meet at night and sit in a circle (vide Kaulāvalinirṇaya VIII. 76). The Goddess is represented by a yantra (diagram). There is a leader of the cakra. The regulations were that only persons who had attained the status of Vīra (defined above in n 1763) were to be admitted¹⁷⁶⁴ and paśus (ordinary men with beastly passions not curbed) were to be excludeḍ What assurance was there that the leader of the cakra himself possessed the noble qualities mentioned in the verse quoted above and would choose only men possessed of similar qualities ? The women assembled cast their bodices in a receptacle and each of the assembled men secured a female companion for that night by lot i. e. by taking a bodice out of those contained in the receptacle. The practice of Śrīcakra must have given rise to great obloquy and unpopularity for the Tāntrikaṣ Therefore, the Kulārṇava¹⁷⁶⁵ advises that cakrapūjā should be sub rosa. 'What happens at Śrīcakra, whether good or bad, should never be uttered (in public); this is the order (of God); one should never give out information about what happens at Cakrapūjā'. The 18th century Mahānirvāṇatantra, which is reformist in character, states that, since in the Kali age (in which people are weak and the influence of sinful age is very strong), for the last tattva (i. e. maithuna) one's own wife is alone to be the Śakti because in that case no fault can be found or some substitute like red sandalwood paste may be employeḍ In the author's youth whispers floated about that in some towns in Mahārāṣṭra cakrapūjā was practised, that even great Pandits thought that their learning was due to the favour of Devī, that they, though very orthodox in other respects, took once a year in Devīpūjā a thimbleful of wine as prasāda. The learned Achyutarāya¹⁷⁶⁶ Modak of Nasik composed at Nasik a work called 'A vaidika-dhikkṛti' (condemnation of non-vaidika practices) wherein he severely handled the cult of the five makāraṣ

Naturally common people, who could not appreciate or understand the abstruse and subtle philosophy of Śakti, Nāḍa, Bindu and so forth, seized with avidity upon the apparently easy path of worship of Śakti by the five makāras and the mantras, bījas, cakras and the like taught by the Tantras and it has been seen above (pp. 1073-76) to what depths some persons professing to be gurus, Śāktas and Tāntrikas descended in course of time.

The path of the Tantras was in its higher level one of Upāsanā or Bhakti, though it very often degenerated into magic and moral depravity. The deity worshipped viz. Parameśvarī. presented three aspects to the upāsaka¹¹⁷ (devotee) viz. gross (sthūla), subtle (sūkṣma) and para (highest). The first aspect is represented by the form of Devī with hands, feet and other limbs, which is fit for worship with the hands and the eyes of the devotee; the second aspect consists of mantras, which are fit for apprehension with the organs of hearing and speech by those who have the good fortune to receive the mantras from a worthy guru. The third aspect (para) is one to be apprehended by the mind of the sādhaka and described as all-pervading consciousness and the like (in Nityaṣoḍaśikā VI. 49–50).

Some modern writers have been somewhat unjust to the whole Tantrik literature in labelling it all as black magic or as full of obscenitieṣ The present writer is not one of those who some- times hold that what is not understood is either false, absurd or non-existent. He is prepared to believe that the end and aim of a few of the higher minds among Tāntrikas and of some of the works on Tantra was the attainment of high spiritual powers by Yoga practices, the Realization of the Supreme Tattva (Principle) variously designated as Brahma, Viṣṇu, Śiva or Devī, and Liberation (mokṣa). He is aware that many of these claim to be based on Vedic traditions, teachings and practices and to have further developed the conceptions underlying Vedic teachings and ritual and that even the magic rites contained in several Tantrik works had their counterparts, though on a much smaller scale, in the Ṛgveda, the Atharvaveda, Sāmavidhāna Brāhmaṇa and other Vedic workṣ The present author, though he has carefully studied many of the Tantras and the Yogaśūtra of Patañjali with the bhāṣya and commentaries thereon, has to admit that he has had no mystic experience, but he is not pre- pared to deny that prophets, saints, poets and others might have mystic visions and experienceṣ Man's psychic powers are vast and unknown as propounded in Alexis Carrell's work 'Man the unknown' and in 'Invisible influence' by Dr. Alexander Cannon (15th impression, Rider and Co., London, 1935). He knows that some of the Tāntrik works made a distinction between the rules of ordinary social life and conventions (samājā-dharma) and the peculiar forms of Tāntrik worship, in which, while it lasts, no distinction is made on the ground of caste or sex (vide notes 1711 and 1713). It may further be conceded that the Tantra works placed women on a footing of equality with men, gave them an exalted position and that they endeavoured to provide a common platform (as shown in ṇ 1704 above) for differing and wrangling sects of Vaiṣṇavas, Śaivas and others by putting forward Devī as the object of worship for all; but they had not much success as is shown by the facts that Vaiṣṇavas and Śaivas still carried on their quarrels and that the Tāntrik texts themselves fall into five classes, viz. Śaiva, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava, Saura and Gāṇapatya, and that there are differing doctrines among the Tāntrikas called Kādimata, Hādimata &c.

The matters that distinguish Tāntrik works from other religious literature in Sanskrit are the ¹⁷⁶⁸ promise of the attainment of miraculous powers, the Realisation of the one Supreme Principle in a short time by means of the Tāntrik sādhanā method or procedure' (vide Intro. to 'Principles of Tantra' p. XIV), by their insistence on the worship of Devī with makāras alone as yielding the desired results (as in Mahā-nirvāṇa V. 24 'pañcatattva-vihināyām pūjāyām na phalod- bhavah') and on their peculiar ritual of mantras, bījas (syllables meaningless to ordinary men), nyāsas, mudrās, cakras, yantras and similar things for attaining their goal. The condemnation poured on Tāntricism is principally due to their insistence on wine, meat and sexual unions as the best and the only means for the effective worship of Devī, their theory that by merely repeating some mantra or mantras over wine, meat and other tattvas, by offering them to Devī and by medita- tion on her, one may drink wine or eat meat, when in the same breath they say emphatically that partaking of wine and meat is sinful without this ritual. This antagonizes those who are not kaulas and who hold that this persistent teaching is very dangerous for the common run of men and savours of hypocrisy.

Some of the Tantras practically inculcated what appears to non-tāntrikas unbridled licence. The Kaulāvalī-nirṇaya (IV. 15 ff) asserts: 'The Śāktas have no higher means of happi- ness and liberation than the fifth tattva (i. e. maithuna); a sādhaka becomes siddha only by the (practice) of the fifth tattva. If he resorts only to the first (i. e. wine) he becomes only Bhairava, if only to the 2nd (meat) he becomes Brahmā, by the third (fish) he becomes a mahābhairava, by the 4th (mudrā) he becomes foremost among sādhakaṣ¹¹⁹ The same Tantra goes further and frankly says 'all women are fit for intercourse to a (Śākta) worshipper except the wives of his guru or of those Śāktas who have attained to the status of Vīra, that for those who have reached the stage of adraita there is no prohibition nor is anything enjoineḍ To the pure everything is pure, it is only the hankering that is blamable.' In this con- nection that work advances certain puerile and obscene argu- ments (in VIII. 223–225) about illicit or incestuous intercourse that cannot be set out here. That tantra does not stand alone in such statementṣ For example, the Kālīvilāsatantra (X. 20–21) allows adulterous intercourse to a 'Śākta' devotee pro- vided it is not carried to the last stage of emission and avers that, if he observes the condition in the proviso, he would become the master of supernatural powers in spite of adultery. It should be noted that the author of this work has unabashed hardihood to make Śiva tell this to Pārvatī. About wine that work remarks 'just as drinking of soma¹²⁰ is prescribed for brāhmaṇas in solemn Vedic sacrifices, similarly wine should be drunk at proper times (or according to the practice of Kaulas), since it confers enjoyment as well as mokṣa; drinking wine is blamable in the case of those who hanker after benefits or who are egoistic; but in the case of those there is neither prohibition (of drinking) nor the enjoining of it. One who is free from the fetters of making distinctions should practise drinking wine for the purpose of remembering the meaning of the mantras and for making his mind fixed (on worship) but he who resorts to wine, and other tattvas merely for pleasure is sinful.' The teachings of works like the Kaula- vali-nirṇaya about drinking wine and sexual intercourse with all sorts of women as the highest means of Śakti worship by persons professing to be advaitins led to great depravity and sexual immorality and orgies as indicated by the criticism in medi- eval works cited above (pp. 1073-76) that regarded Tāntrik teach- ings as execrable, though some medieval Hindu works admitted into religious practices nyāsa, mudrā, yantra and the like, which were deemed to be innocuous and which would be described in this work later oṇ The mere intention of doing good if certain conditions were fulfilled is not enough excuse, when it is most likely that the means proposed for attaining a high spiritual level and for liberation would have the opposite effect on most people. Taking all things into consideration, the present author is constrained to observe that medieval and recent writers who severely criticized Tāntrik works were on the whole largely justified in their condemnation of Tāntrik practices as enunciated in many Tāntrik works and of the works themselveṣ For one man that attained super-normal powers, high spiritual level and great mystic experience there must have been hundreds of hypocrites, charlatans, and licentious men who deluded trustful and ignorant men and particularly womeṇ Only a few Purāṇas like the Devipurāṇa, the Kalika, the Devīmāhātmya in the Mārkaṇḍeya provide for the employment of some of the condemned makāras (madya, māṁsa, matsya) in the worship of the Great Goddesṣ From about the 6th or 7th century A.D. Purāṇas began to incorporate the special ceremonial characteristics of the Śāktas and Tantrikaṣ Aparārka quotes a passage¹²¹ from the Devīpurāṇa wherein the qualifications of a Sthāpaka (one who performs Devapratiṣṭhā) are set out, viz. he would be the best Sthāpaka for establishing images of Devī and the Mātr̥s, who knows the vāma (left or opposite) and the dakṣiṇa (right) path of worship, who has thoroughly mastered the veda relating to the Mātr̥s (the Mother Goddesses), who is clever in the interpretation of Pañcarātra works and is proficient in the Tantras of the Mātr̥s &c. The Kālikā-purāṇa devotes many chapters (54 ff) to the description of mantras, kavacas, mudrās, nyāsas &c. The Bhāgavatapurāṇa also and Agni¹²² 372.34 expressly say that the worship of gods and Viṣṇu also is either vaidikī, tāntrikī or miśrā, the first and third being for the three higher varṇas and the tāntrikī for śūdraṣ The Bhāgavatapurāṇa refers to the worship of Keśava laid down in the Tantras for him who desires to cast out the knot (bondage or grief) of the heart. It (Bhāgavata) also mentions¹²³ Vaidikī and Tāntrikī dīkṣā (in XI. 11. 37) and refers to the Tantrik method of the aṅgas, upāṅgas, āyudhas and decorations in the worship of the Lord of Lakṣmī.¹²⁴ Some of the Purāṇas and medieval nibandhas, however, fully utilized what Tantras had to say about mantras, japa, nyāsa, maṇḍala, cakra, yantra and similar matterṣ This will be illustrated later by some exampleṣ Even for such a simple and common topic as the 16 upacāras of worship, the Varṣakriyā-kaumudī (p. 156) and Ekādaśī-tattva (p. 59) quote the Prapañcasāra-tantra (VI. 41-42).

The Purāṇas and some smṛtis prescribe short mantras of five, six, eight, twelve, thirteen and more syllables as very efficacious for securing all objectṣ A few of them are set out in the note ¹²⁵ below. Medhātithi or Manu says that the word mantra primarily means a part of the Veda comprising Ṛgveda, Yajurveda and Sāmaveda, treated as such by those who have studied the Veda, and that expressions like “Agnaye svāhā” ¹²⁶ employed in rites like Vaiśvadeva are called mantras in a secondary sense by way of praise. The vedic conception was that a mantra has great potency and that it must be correctly repeated to secure the desired result, that a mantra defective as to accent or as to a letter or wrongly applied did not convey the meaning intended and that becoming a thunderbolt in the form of a word or words it destroys ¹²⁷ the yajamāna. Vedic mantras are of four classes viz. r̥k (which is metrical), yajus (which has no restriction as to metre but which must be a sentence), a sāman (which is sung) and nigada (i.e. praiṣa, meaning words that are addressed by one person to another calling upon the latter to do a certain act, e.g. the words ‘srucah sammṛddhi, proksaṇir- āsādaya’. Nigadas are yajus in form but are distinguished from yajus by the fact that the former are loudly uttered, while a yajus is ordinarily recited in a low voice.¹²⁸ The most sacred mantra is the Gāyatrī (Rg. III. 62. 10 ‘tat-savitur’ &c). The Atharvaveda (XIX. 71. 1) calls it Vedamātā (the mother of the Veda). The Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad (V. 14) contains a grand eulogy of the Gāyatrī.¹²⁹ Om is a very sacred syllable, a symbol of brahma and may be called in the language of the Tantras a bīja. There are only a few syllables such as om, phaṭ, vaṣaṭ in the Vedic literature that on the face of them have no meaning but are like bīja mantras in the Tantra sense. There is a Bījanighaṇṭu (a dictionary of bīja mantras) printed in ‘Tantrik texts’ Vol I. pp. 28-29 (where monosyllabic bījas such as Hrīm, Śrīm, Krīm, Hum, phaṭ, are set out and described in symbolic words indicated in note 1708 above. It is stated about a dozen times in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa viz. it is the perfection of sacrifice when it is rūpasamṛddha (perfect as to its form) i.e. when the r̥k verse pointedly refers to the sacrificial act that is being performeḍ¹³⁰ The Nirukta. (I. 15-16) starts a lengthy discussion on Kautsa’s view that mantras have no sense (or are purposeless). There is a long discussion in the Pūrvamīmāṁsāsūtra (I. 2. 31 ff) on the same lines as in the Nirukta. Jaimini states that there is no difference in the meanings of words employed in the Veda and those employed by people and Śabara adds in his bhāṣya (on P. M. S. I. 2. 32) that mantras are recited in sacrifices only for the purpose of conveying or manifesting the meaning.¹³¹ It is difficult to ( Continued on next page ) define what a vedic mantra is and it is generally understood, as said by Śabara, that passages or verses are mantras that are recognised as such by the learneḍ¹³² The whole Veda is divided into five categories viz. Vidhi (hortatory passages as in ‘Agni- hotram juhuyāt’), mantras, nāmādheya (names such as Udbhida in ‘Udbhida yajeta’ or ‘Viśvajit’ as in ‘Viśvajitā yajeta’), niṣedha (prohibition as in ‘nānṛtam vadet’) and arthavāda (explanatory or laudatory passages as in ‘Vāyu is a deity that is swiftest’). The Nirukta (I, 20) embodies the ancient view that the sages had an intuitive perception of Dharma and they transmitted the mantras by oral instruction to those that came after them and that had no intuitive perception of Dharma. The mantras and stotras were supposed even in the Rg. to induce the gods to come to the sacrifices and to bestow on those who recited them protection, valiant sons, cattle, wealth, victory and all sorts of things (e. g. vide Rg. I. 102. 1-5, II. 24. 15-16, II. 25. 2, III. 31. 14, IX. 20. 7, IX. 72. 9, X. 78. 8, X. 105. 1). It has been shown above p. 920 (in notes 4167-4168) how the Purāṇas prescribed their own mantras for many religious acts but those mantras also are significant and not meaninglesṣ

Mantras are the very heart and core of Tantraśāstra so much so that the śāstra is often spoken of as mantraśāstra. The theory of Tāntrik writings such as the Prapañcasāra and Śāradātilaka about mantras may be briefly stated as follows : In the human body there are ten nāḍis, the three principal being Iḍā (on the left side from the left testicle to the left nostril), Suṣumnā (in the middle of the body in the spinal chord) and Piṅgalā (on the right side from the right testicle to the right nostril). The Kuṇḍalinī lies asleep coiled like a snake in the Mūlādhāra-cakra. It is a form of the śabda-brahma. The Devī (or Śakti) assumes the form of Kuṇḍalinī, all gods reside in Devī and all mantras are Her forms (Śāradātilaka I. 55-57). It has already been stated how from contact with light (Jyotiḥ) Śakti becomes conscious and has a desire to create, then it solidifies and appears as a bindu. Through the instrumentality of Kāla (Time) bindu divides itself into three, gross (i. e. bīja), subtle (sūkṣma i. e. nāda which is bījābindu) and para (i. e. bindu which is kāryabindu). This last is of the nature of an unmanifest sound and is called śabdabrahma¹³² by the sages (Śāradatilaka I. 11-12. Prapañcasāra I, 41 ff). Śabdabrahma exists in all things as consciousness; it exists in the bodies of living human beings in the form of Kundalini and then appears as letters in prose, poetry and so forth, being carried by Vāyu (air) to the throat, palate, teeth &c. The sounds thus produced are called akṣaras and when written they are spoken of as varṇas (letters of the alphabet, mātṛkā, which are 50 from a to kṣa). The impulse to sound production arising in mūlādhāra-cakra is called ‘parā’ (vāk), it is called paśyanti when it reaches ‘svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra, madhyamā in the heart and vaikhari in the mouth. Both akṣara and varṇa are Kundalini made articulate in speech and visible in writing. All the mantras (some say they are nine crores) are evolved from the varṇas of the alphabet that are deemed (by Tāntrikas) to be living conscious sound powerṣ It is the bīja mantras like hrīm, śrīm, krīm that make visible the form of the Devatā (Mahānirvāṇa V. 18-19)¹³³. It is wrong to suppose that mantras are mere letters or words or language. They assume different forms, such as bījamantras, kavaca, hṛdaya &c. The bījamantras like Hrīm (representing Tribhuvanesvarī or Māyā), Śrīm (representing Lakṣmī), Krīm (representing Kālī) cannot possibly be called language, since they convey no mean-ing to ordinary meṇ They are the Devatā (Iṣṭadevatā of the sādhaka, the worshipper) imparted to the sādhaka by the qualified guru at the time of dīkṣā (initiation). They are not efficacious if merely learnt by reading bookṣ A mantra accord- ing to Tantrik works is the sound body of Śakti charged with the vibrations of the spiritual personality of the original Tāntrika seer of the mantra and endowed with a perpetual store of power by the Tāntrik seer. What is needed to awaken Power in the disciple and to reap the full effect of the mantra is the touch of the guru, the imagination and concentrated will power of the sādhaka. The deity willed that certain letters uttered by the seer should as sound or sounds convey such and such a meaning and should have a certain potency. The sounds represented by the letters are forms of Śivaśakti i. e. śabdabrahma. From this last the whole world proceeds in the form of sounds (śabda) and the objects (artha) which sounds or words denote. The Devatā, the mantra and the guru are the essentials of sādhanā (procedure that leads on to Siddhi, laid down in Tāntrik works); the disciple has to revolve in his mind that the three are non-different. Mantra is not the same thing as a prayer. For a prayer a person may employ any words that he may choose, but in the case of a mantra definite letters are considered necessary, which are deemed to be the forms in which Śakti manifests Herself to the worshipper. A mantra may be in the form of words that have an obvious meaning or in the form of letters arranged in a particular order and that have no meaning to the uninitiateḍ It is recognised in some of the works on this śāstra that thought has creative power, that each person is Śiva, and can attain to higher and higher spiritual levels depending upon his ability to realise himself as Śiva. Thoughts are real, kind thoughts will do good to ourselves and to those around us, evil thoughts and wishes of others may cause us suffering.

Tāntrik works have their own mantras and they also employ Vedic mantraṣ For example, the mantra 'Jātavedase sunavāma' (Rg. I. 99. 1), though addressed to Agni, is employed in later works for invoking Durgā, the mantra 'Tryambakam yajamahe' (Rg. VII. 59. 12) is addressed to Rudra, but is called Mṛtyuñjaya-mantra or mṛtasañjīvinī mantra in Tāntrik works and is prescribed for purifying the mind (cittaśuddhi) in the Mahānirvāṇa (VIII. 243). Similarly, the Gāyatrī mantra (Rg. III. 62. 10) is employed by the Tāntrikaṣ Vide Śāradātilaka XXI. 1-8 and 16 (latter for dhyāna of Gāyatrī) and Prapañcasāra, which devotes the whole chapter 30 to the explanation of om, the vyāhṛtis and the words of the Gāyatrī and Gāyatrī-sādhana). The Mahānirvāṇa prescribes the performance of Vaidiki sandhyā to be followed by the Tāntriki sandhyā. The Tāntriki Gāyatrī is 'Ādyāyai vidmahe Parameśvaryai dhīmahi tan-nah Kāli praco-dayāt'¹³⁴ (Mahānirvāṇa V. 62–63). Even Śūdra Tāntrikas were to recite this last, while the three higher classes were to repeat the vedic Gāyatrī employing om, śrīm and aim before it respec-tively. The importance of guru, mantra and devatā is emphati-cally brought out in the following verse ‘the person, who considers guru as a mere mortal, a mantra as mere letters and images (of deities) as mere stones falls into Hell.’¹³⁴ The Rudrayāmala says 'If Śiva is angered, Guru can save (the pupil), but if Guru is angered, no one can save (the pupil)’.

The Parśurāmakalpasūtra, Jñānārṇavatantra, the Śāradā-tilaka and almost all Tāntrika works say that mantras possess wonderful and inconceivable powers,¹³⁵ that a follower of Tantra secures all powers by following the practices of the school of his guru traditionally handed down and by faith, that mantras are the means of securing the fruits desired, that the authoritativeness of Tantraśāstra depends mainly on the faith of the followers of the śāstra; that the sādhaka should come to feel that guru, mantra, the deity, his own soul, mind and life-breaths are all one and then he will possess the knowledge of the Highest Self. Some of the Tāntrik works contain most exaggerated praises of mantras, particularly the śrīvidyāmantra of sixteen letters; e. g. Jñānārṇava says ‘Even crores of Vājapeyas and thousands of Aśvamedhas are not equal (in merit) to even the utterance of Śrīvidyā and so also gifts of crores of Kapilā cows cannot be compared to one utterance of Śrīvidyā (24th patala, verses 74-76 ). Vide Agnipurāṇa 125. 51-55 for mantras employed in killing an enemy, chapters 134 and 135 for Trai-lokyavijayavidyā and Sañgrāmavijayavidyā respectively.

Numberless mantras are contained in the Tantras made from different arrangements of the constituent parts of a mantra. The Mahānirvāņa first gives a mantra of ten syllables by different arrangements of the letters and by addition of certain other syllables and words like 'Kālike' it forms twelve mantras, remarks that there are crores of mantras and that the mantras contained in all Tantras are all mantras of the Great ¹³⁶ Devi.

The word mantra is explained as derived from 'man' to think and ‘trai’ or ‘trā’. Yāska’s Nirukta (VII. 12) derives it simply from 'man'. The Kulārņava says ‘mantra’ is so called since it saves from all dangers, as the sādhaka thereby is led to ponder over God of immeasurable refulgence that is the only principle (in the world)'. A similar derivation is given by Rāmapūrvatāpanīya Upanișad, by the Prapañcasāra and other Tantraṣ¹³⁷ Numerous varieties of mantras called Kavaca, Hrdaya, Upahr-daya, Netra, Astra, Rakșā and so forth are specified in the Tantrik texts, one or two of which may be illustrated in the note below and the rest are passed over for reasons of space.¹³⁸ The Śāradātilaka divides mantras into male, female and neuter; masculine mantras end in 'hum' and 'phaṭ', female mantras in 'svāhā' and neuter mantras end with 'namaḥ'. This is stretched further so as to apply to letters viz. the vowels r̥, r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ are said to be neither and the rest are said to be not neuter but only short and long (Śāradātilaka, VI. 3 and Raghavabhaṭṭa thereon). Śāradātilaka (from chap. VII to XXIII) is devoted to mantras of Sarasvati, Lakṣmī, Bhuvanesvarī, Tvaritā and others, Durgā,¹³⁹ Tripurā, Gaṇapati, Candramaṣ Many of the mantras are to be repeated thousands of times or lakhs of times in order to secure full effect. For example, in X. 105-107 the Śāradātilaka prescribes that a certain mantra should be repeated five lakhs of times and then fifty thousand āhutis of ghee should be made and worship of the Devī with the procedure prescribed should be performeḍ The worshipper then secures whatever he may desire and can make kings subservient to his will. Another noticeable feature is that the mantras are treated like the mantras of the Veda and mention is made in the manner of the Anukramaṇis of the sage, the metre, the deity and the viniyoga (or purpose for which it is to be used or employed). Though the Śāradātilaka is a sober work free from the sexual practices of Vāmamārga, still it does contain mantras for magical purposes such as bringing women under control (IX. 103-104, X. 76),¹⁴⁰ bringing about the paralysing or the death of an enemy by mantras (XI. 60-124, XXI. 95 XXII, 1 ff).

The Buddhist Tantras did not lag behind the Hindu Tantras in the matter of the potency of mantraṣ The Sādhanamālā¹⁴¹ asserts that there is nothing that cannot be accomplished by mantras if proper procedure is followeḍ For example, it says that a certain mantra is a prince among mantras confers Buddhahood, what need is there to say about others siddhis, that by another mantra even Buddhahood which is extremely difficult to attain is like a jujube fruit placed on the palm of the hand and that a certain mantra (of unmeaning words) if repeated five times at three periods in the day viz. the morning, noon and evening, makes even a fool (lit. an ass) master of three hundred workṣ The Buddhist Tantras also prescribe repetition of mantras for a lakh¹⁴³ of times (vide Sādhanamālā, vol I, No. 165 p. 336 and No. 108, p. 221). Some of the mantras embody the doctrines of Mahāyāna with the addition of syllables like om, phat, svāhā ( such as ‘ōm śūnyatā-jñānavajrasvabhāva-tmakoham’ in Sādhanamālā vol. I, p. 62). The Prapañcasāra, which is ascribed to the great advaita teacher Śaṅkarācārya and on which Padmapāda is said to have written a commentary (both published by A. Avalon in Tantrik Texts, vol. XVIII–XIX, 1935), contains a mantra called Trallokya-mohana for the purpose¹⁷⁹³ of the six cruel magic rites and (in 34. 33) describes a yantra (diagram) by worship of which a sādhaka can make a woman smitten with passion for him and draw her to hiṃ This, among other matters such as ungrammatical forms, raises grave doubts as to whether the work was really composed by the first Śaṅkarācārya. It may, however, be stated that the learned Rāghavabhaṭṭa in many places in his commentary on the Śāradātilaka (such as I. 7, 8, 12) quotes the Prapañcasāra (I. 42, 44) as the great ācārya’s work and several later writers do the same. It has to be borne in mind, however, that about 400 works are ascribed to the great advaita Ācārya and that Rāghavabhaṭṭa was separated by at least seven centuries from the great Ācārya and his ascription therefore cannot be accepted with implicit faith without more evidence.

Several Purāṇas are affected by the theory about the power of mantras of the Tāntrika type. The Garuḍa-purāṇa (I. chap. 7 and 10) employs many monosyllabic unmeaning mantras like hrām, kṣaum, hrīm, hum, hūm, hrīm and says (I. 23) that ‘om Khakholkāya Sūryamūrtaye namaḥ’ is the mūlamantra of the Sun and this mantra is employed for sun-worship in an early digest like the Kṛtyakalpataru on vrata (p. 9 note). The Bhaviṣya-purāṇa (Brāhmaparva 215. 4) gives ‘Khakholkāya namaḥ’ as the mūlamantra in Sun worship. The Bhaviṣya (Brāhma. 29. 9–15) provides that ‘gam svāhā’ is the mūla-mantra of Gaṇapati worship, cites the mantras for hṛdaya, śikha, kavaca &c. and a Gāyatri suited to Gaṇapati.¹⁷⁹⁴ Garuḍa I 38 contains a long prose mantra of Cāmuṇḍā. The Agni- purāṇa also contains many mantras of the Tāntrik type. Chap. 121 verses 15-17 provide¹⁷⁹⁵ for a mantra whereby enemies are brought under control (as noted below) and verses 17-19 speak of a mantra for paralysing (stambhana) of an enemy. Chap. 133-135 of the Agni contain several mantras of the Tāntrik type. Chapter 307 contains several mantras of bringing under control the three worldṣ

A mantra called Mahāśvetā is spoken of in the Bhavisya-purāṇa which is mentioned in the Kṛtyakalpataru on vrata (p. 9) and in Ekādaśītattva p. 40 and it is ‘ hrām hrim sah ’ and the japa of that mantra on Sunday with fast is said to yield what one desireṣ¹⁷⁹⁶

The later medieval digests on Dharmaśāstra- adopt the Prāṇapratiṣṭhā-mantra evolved by the Śāradātilaka ( XXIII, 71-76 ). The Devapratiṣṭhā tattva¹⁷⁹⁷ ( pp. 506-507 ) quotes these verses from Śāradātilaka, sets out the mantra and explains the verses at length. The Divyatattva also (pp. 609-610) does the same. The Vyavahāramayūkha (p. 86) sets out the same mantra for the consecration of the image of Dharma in the ordeal of Dharma without expressly naming the Śāradātilaka. The Nirṇayasindhu (pp. 349-350) has an elaborate rite of the vasat hrim, and phat and employs the same procedure as the one prescribed by the Śāradātilaka without expressly mentioning the latter. The Śāradātilaka appears to follow earlier works like the Jayākhyasamhitā ( Pātala XX ) and Prapañcasāra-tantra ( 35. 1-9 ff ). Reasons of space preclude further illustrations of the use of Tāntrik mantras by medieval digests on Dharmaśāstra. One matter of contrast between Vedic mantras and some Tāntrik mantras may be noticeḍ A Vedic mantra, according to Jaiminī (I 2. 32), was significant, but the Tantras go so far as to teach the repetition of mantras that have no meaning or that contain the letters of the mantra in reversed forṃ For example, the Kālivilāsatantra (XXII. 21) says that the reverse of the three letters of the mantra ‘om Durge’, as ‘rgedu om’ yields all desires (‘rgedu om tryakṣaram mantram sarvakāmaphalapradam)’. The Sad-dharmapuṇḍarīka¹⁴⁹ (a standard work of Mahāyāna Buddhism) chap. 21 (text edited by Kern and Bunyiu Nanjiu, 1912 and translated in S. B. E. vol. XXI, pp. 370-375) contains spells (called Dhāraṇīpadāni). It should not be supposed that spells were peculiar to Hindus or Buddhistṣ Many ancient peoples believed that words and letters have magic power and that belief led on to another belief that it did not matter even if the letters and words had no sense. E. J. Thomas in ‘History of Buddhist thought’ (reprint of 1953) states that spells similar to Hindu and Buddhist types exist in old English, Old High German and Keltic (p. 186).

The repetition of mantras, Vedic as well as Tāntrik, is called ‘Purāścaraṇa’¹⁵⁰ (which literally means ‘performing or carrying out before’). The Mahānirvāṇa (VII. 76-85) sets out various modes of purāścaraṇa (brief as well as elaborate). One way is to bring together five tattvas on the 14th tithi of a dark fortnight or on a Tuesday or Saturday, then the Devī is to be worshipped and the worshipper is to repeat ten thousand times with single-mindedness the mantra in mahāniśī (midnight), then he is to feed persons devoted to brahman and becomes one who has carried out purāścaraṇa. Another way is that he should repeat every day one thousand times the mantra beginning on a Tuesday up to (including) the next Tuesday, so that by repeating the mantra in all eight thousand times on eight days, he will be deemed to have performed puraścaraṇa. Sometimes, it is prescribed ¹⁵¹ that a mantra such as ‘Śivāya namaḥ’ (this is five-lettered mantra) or ‘Om Śivāya namaḥ’ (a ṣaḍakṣara mantra) should be repeated 24 lakhs of times and the sādhaka should offer into Agni twenty-four thousand āhutis of pāyasa. Then the mantra becomes perfect and confers on the sādhaka whatever he desireṣ The Kulārṇava states that Puraścaraṇa is so called because by the five-fold upāsanā the deity desired (as if) moves ¹⁵² before the worshipper for conferring on him her favour. A mantra like the Gāyatrī is ¹⁵³ to be repeated every day 1008 or 108 or 10 timeṣ This requirement is in keeping with what the Purāṇas and Dharmaśāstra works say. For example, the Nāradapurāṇa (II. 57.54) provides that a mantra is to be repeated 8, 28, or 108 timeṣ The Ekādaśītattva ¹⁵⁴ quotes Devīpurāṇa for the proposition that the offerings in the homa to planets should be 108, 28 or 8 according to one's ability.

Rāghavabhaṭṭa in his commentary on Śāradātilaka (16. 56) has a very exhaustive and learned note on the details of puraścaraṇa that are common to all mantraṣ According to the Vāyavīya-saṃhitā ¹⁵⁵ the perfecting of the procedure of the mūlamantra is called puraścaraṇa, since it has to be practised before the acts in which it is to be employeḍ The Kulārṇava provides that there are at least five constituent elements of puraścaraṇa viz. pūjā (worship of the desired deity) three times a day, japa (muttering of the mantra), tarpana, homa, and dinner to brāhmaṇas; that if any one of these cannot be carried out, then he should perform japa of the mantra twice as many times more as the number prescribed for that constituent, that, in the absence of some constituents, by providing a good dinner to brāhmaṇas everything becomes successful and that if one mantra is perfected by performing the five constituents mentioned above, then he secures siddhi of all mantraṣ Rāghavabhaṭṭa suggests another way of puraścaraṇa viz. one should be pure,¹⁵⁶ observe a fast and then in an eclipse of the sun or moon should stand in the navel-deep water of a river directly falling into the sea, should recite a mantra with concentration of mind from the time the eclipse begins till its end, thereafter perform homa and the rest in order reducing each to 1/10 of the number of japa recitation, then secure the guru’s contentment (by gifts) and that by this method mantra becomes perfect and the deity becomes favourable. The Kaulāvalinirṇaya describes (14th paṭala, verses 75–260) a terrible sādhanā whereby in a single night a sādhaka secures mantra-siddhi viz. by going to a cemetery or other lonely spot after one watch of the night, securing the corpse of a cāṇḍāla, or of one who is killed by some one with a sword or one bitten by a snake or a young handsome warrior dying in a battle (not killed by himself), he should wash the corpse, offer worship to it and to Durgā and repeat the mantra ('om Durge Durge rakṣaṇi svāhā'). If he is not frightened by the terrific sights that he may see and after following a very long procedure he secures mantrasiddhi. The Tārābhaktisudhārṇava (taraṅga IX pp 345 ff) describes the 'śavasādhana-vidhi' and so does the Kulacūḍāmaṇi-tantra (Tāntrik texts, vol. IV.) VI. 19–28.

Rāghavabhaṭṭa further quotes a passage¹⁵⁷ to the effect that if the sādhaka satisfies his guru who is a form of the deity worshipped, he would secure perfection of mantra even without purāscaraṇa, that purāścaraṇa is the main seed (cause) of (the perfection of) mantras, that where the number of times a mantra is to be recited is not expressly stated, it should be repeated 8000 timeṣ Rāghavabhaṭṭa quotes a verse saying that just as a man in the grip of diseases is incapable of performing all actions a mantra devoid of purāścaraṇa is declared to be in a similar conditioṇ

The Agnipurāṇa, Kulārṇava and Śāradatilaka lay down rules about the places where purāścaraṇa of a mantra is to be practiseḍ The following places are commended¹⁵⁸ for those who are engaged in perfecting a mantra, viz. holy places, river bank, caves, mountain top, ground near a tīrtha, confluence of rivers, holy forests and parks, the root of a bilva tree, mountain slopes, temple, seashore, one’s own house or any place where the mind (of the sādhaka) feels happy. Rules were also laid down as to the food on which the sādhaka was to subsist during the days of purāścaraṇa viz. food¹⁵⁹ obtained by begging for alms (for brahmacārin and yati), haviṣya food (prescribed for vratas), allowed vegetables, fruits, milk, bulbous roots, barley meal. The Mantramahodadhi (25. 66–71) sets out what is haviṣya food in śānti and proper food in the other cruel riteṣ Rāghavabhaṭṭa (on 16. 56) adds many rules from other sources, such as the sādhaka performing purāścaraṇa should avoid sexual intercourse, flesh, wine, should not speak with women and śūdras, nor speak untruth, nor pamper his senses, should carry on the japa from morning till noon, should not allow a break, should repeat the mantra the same number of times every day. The Jayākhya-saṃhitā (19th pațala, verses 13-33) says that, for three years after the sādhaka begins purascarana of the mantra chosen, various obstacles and disturbances present them- selves but if his mind and action are not affected by them, then from the 4th year he comes to be served by disciples that surrender everything to him, that after seven years even proud kings approach him for favour, after the 9th year he notices many wondrous things such as joy, sound dreams, sweet music and fragrance,¹⁶⁰ hears loud vedic recitation, he eats and sleeps little (yet does not become lean), that these are signs of his having reached perfection in the mantra. The same work provides that such signs he should not divulge to any one but his own guru and if he divulges those happy signs to others siddhis run away from him (19. 34-37). The same saṃhitā (15. 186-188) provides that the syllables svāhā, svadhā, phat, hum and namaḥ are to be respectively employed in homa, in rites for manes, destructive activities, creating hatred among friends and for securing mokṣa. All tāntrik works emphasize that mantra must be received from a qualified guru and the sādhanā of the mantra must be done under the guidance of the guru till the disciple himself becomes a siddha. As shown above it was believed that mantras would confer the highest spiritual and supernormal powers, would bring to the sādhaka all desired objects and mokṣa. The Kulārṇava states ¹⁶¹ ‘It it declared in the doctrine taught by Śiva that without dīkṣā there would be no mokṣa, that dīkṣā cannot be had without an ācārya (guru) and that mantras would yield no fruit unless a guru instructs (a disciple) about them’. It was further provided ¹⁸¹¹ that there was no siddhi (miraculous powers due to mantras) nor mokṣa for him who had not had dikṣā performed for him, that therefore a man should by all means receive dikṣā from a guru and that when one is endowed with the ceremony of dikṣā the distinctions based on caste vanish and a śūdra and a brāhmaṇa cease to be so (when both have undergone dikṣā). It was held that, if a person were to engage in the japa of a mantra written in a book, he would not secure siddhi and he would surely meet losses at every ¹⁸¹² step.

In the Mahānirvāṇa (II. 14-15 and 20) it is said that Vedic mantras yielded desired results in Satya and other yugas, but in Kaliyuga they are like serpents without poison or like dead ones, that in the Kaliyuga the mantras declared in tantra works yield fruits quickly and are commended for employment in all actions such as japa and sacrificeṣ There is no such path as the one propounded in Tantras that would lead to mokṣa or to happiness in this world and the next. The Mahānirvāṇa prescribes that 'om sac-cid-ekam brahma' is the best of mantras (III. 14), that those who perform the upāsanā of the highest brahma are in need of no other sādhanā and that by the mere perfection of that mantra the individual soul merges in brahma. ¹⁸¹³ So Mokṣa was one of the aimṣ Another aim was the attainment of miraculous or supernormal powerṣ The Prapañcasāra enumerates out the eight siddhis ¹⁸¹⁴ and states that one who is endowed with these eight is a liberated soul and is spoken of as a yogiṇ The theory of siddhis is an ancient conception and occurs in the Āpastamba-dharmasūtra. ¹⁸¹⁵ The eight siddhis are named and explained in the Yogasūtrabhāṣya as follows ¹⁶⁷: Aṇiman (becoming small like an atom, atomization), laghiman (levitation), mahiman (becoming magnified like a mountain or the sky, magnification), prāpti (all objects becoming near to him such as touching the moon with one's fingertip, extension), prākāmya (the non-obstruction of his desire such as diving into the earth underground and coming up as if he were in water), vaśitva (mastery of the five elements and their products such as a jar), īśitva (sovereignty over the production, absorption or arrangement of elements and their products), yatra-kāmavasāyitva (the power to determine things according to his wish or will i. e. he may will that poison should have the effect of nectar and brings about that result ). A siddha would be one who has secured these eight siddhiṣ The Gītā (X. 26) says that the sage Kapila is the great one among siddhas (‘siddhānām kapilo muniḥ’). The Yogasūtra further speaks of siddhis as fivefold viz. proceeding from birth, from drugs, from mantras, from tapas (austerities) and from concentratioṇ There were other objects also sought to be achieved by mantras, such as the six cruel rites and making women to have passion for a maṇ This shows that not only Tāntrikas, but those who practised yoga believed in the power of mantras to confer supernormal powers on the yogiṇ The Yogasūtra provides that some of the siddhis ( as in III. 37 ) are obstacles to the attainment of samādhi and they are siddhis only to those who have awakened from trance.¹⁶⁸ Yaj (III. 202-203) provides that the power to disappear, to enter another body and temporarily to abandon one's body, to create at one's will objects-these and other powers of the attainment of siddhis by Yoga perfection in Yoga one can cast away the mortal coil and be able to become immortal in brahma. A great deal is said about the six cruel rites in the Tantras such as Prapañcasāra (V), Śāradātilaka (23. 121–145 ), Śakti-saṅgamatantra ( Kālikhaṇḍa VIII, 102–106), Mantramahodadhi (25th Taranga). The Śāradātilaka (23. 137–141) deals with the six methods or arrangements of mantra along with the name of the enemy against whom the six rites were to be practised, Viz. the arrangements called grathana, vidarbha, sampuṭa, rodhana, yoga and pallava. These are all passed over here. But it appears that even the early Purāṇas were influenced by rites of black magic. For example, the Matsya¹⁶⁹ says 'in vidveṣaṇa (creating enmity among those who love one another) and in abhicāra, a triangular kuṇḍa is recommended and homa should be offered in it by priests that wear red flowers and red sandalwood paste, that wear the sacred thread in the nivīta way, that put on red turbans and red garments, the fuel sticks should be smeared with the fresh blood of crows collected in three vessels and should be offered with the left hand holding the bones of a hawk. The priests should have their hair untied on the head and should contemplate the befalling of evil on the enemy; they should recite the mantra ‘durmitri-yās-tasmai santu’ and also the syllables ‘hrīm’ and ‘phāṭ’ and having recited over a razor the mantra used in śyenayāga, the priest should cut into pieces an effigy of the enemy with that razor and throw into the fire the pieces of the effigy. This rite yields results only here (in this world), but no good results in the next world and therefore one (who engages in this rite) should then perform a śānti. The Matsya also provides for a rite for bringing a person (or a woman) under control or for uccāṭana (chap. 93. 139–148). It is possible that the Tāntrikas and the Matsya both developed their magic rites of six kinds from the Śyenayāga mentioned in the Brāhmaṇas and Śrauta-sūtraṣ The Agnipurāṇa (chap. 138) also deals with those evil riteṣ The Ahirbudhnya-saṃhitā, though mainly a work of the Pāñcarātra cult, is full of lore on mantraṣ¹⁷⁰ In chap. 52 (verses 2-88) it deals with the linguistic occultism of such mantras as 'om namo Viṣṇave'. It says that mantras have three senses sthūla (gross), sūkṣma (subtle) and highest; chap. 51 explains these three about the Tāra or Tāraka mantra viz. Oṃ

It may be noted here that the Buddhist Tantras also claimed to show the way to the attainment of various objects, from success in love affairs to liberation and all these could be mostly secured by mantraṣ The Buddhist Tantra writers of the Vajrayāna school state that their names are still cherished¹⁷¹ and honoured in Nepal and Tibet. The Buddhists mentioned eight siddhis but they were somewhat different from those of the Yogasūtra. The Sādhanamālā mentions them as follows: Khadga (a sword over which mantras have been muttered whereby the user of it succeeds in battle), Añjana (collyrium applied to eyes which enables a person to see buried treasure), Pādalepa (ointment applied to the soles of the feet enabling a person to move anywhere undiscovered), Antardhāna (becoming invisible before the very eyes of persons watching him), Rasarasāyana (power of transmuting baser metals into gold or finding out an elixir for immortality), Khecara (being able to fly up in the sky), Bhūcara (going swiftly anywhere on the earth) and Pātālasiddhi (diving underneath the earth¹⁷²). As the Buddhist monks were to possess no property, they had a craving for wealth and supposed that by means of certain mantras, the lord of wealth (Kubera) would confer on them riches that would last for ever.¹⁷³ They also believed that by mantras they would make. some of the Hindu gods their servants, viz. that they would be surrounded by many apsarases (heavenly damsels), that Indra would be their umbrella-bearer, Brahmā would be councillor and Hari door-keeper.¹⁷⁴ They wanted to defeat opponents in public discussions and to acquire proficiency in Śāstras without study through the power of mantras alone (vide Sādhanamālā Noṣ 151, 155, 256). They were also anxious to cure and avert diseases and remove snake poisoṇ They thought that by mantras they would attain to omniscience and Buddhahood (vide notes 1791–92).

As stated above (notes 1810–11) a mantra had to be received from a guru after initiation (dīkṣā). Therefore, a few words must be said about dīkṣā. The Tāntrikas did not discover any new concept in dīkṣā. From very ancient Vedic times there was upanayana regarded as the beginning of the spiritual birth of a boy and the sacrificer had to undergo a purificatory ceremony before embarking on the performance of a sacrifice, but both were not so elaborate as the dīkṣā described in some of the Tāntrika workṣ Vide H. of Dh. vol. II pp. 1135–1140 for Vedic dīkṣā (in Agniṣṭoma), the observances and references to the Brāhmaṇas and the Śrautasūtraṣ The Tai. S. (VI. I. 1–3 and VII. 4. 8) refers to dīkṣā and the Ait. Br. (I. 3) mentions the main items in Vedic dīkṣā, such as bath with sacred water on the sacrificer, smearing the face and other parts of the body with butter, applying collyrium to the eyes, purification of the sacrificer's body twice by the adhvaryu with three bunches of seven darbhas each above the navel and then below it with mantras, entering a pavilion specially prepared for the sacrificer, covering him with a garment that envelopes him as a sack envelopes an embryo, dark antelope skin as an upper garment. The Śat. Br. also refers to the details of dīkṣā and states that thereby the sacrificer becomes one among the gods for the time being (vide III. 1. 2. 10–21, III. 1. 3. 7–28) and for the idea that dīkṣā symbolizes a new birth for the sacrificer. The Atharva- veda says 'Great truth, formidable moral order, vows of initiation, austerities, prayer (or knowledge) and sacrifice support the earth.'¹⁷⁵ Dīkṣā is treated elaborately in some of the Tantras such as Prapañcasāra (V and VI), Kulārṇava (14. 39 ff), Śāradātilaka (4th patala), Nityotsava (pp. 4-10), Jñānārṇava (24th patala), Viṣṇusaṃhitā (X), Mahānirvāṇa (X. 112-119) and in Liṅgapurāṇa (II 21). The Nirṇayasāgara Press brought out an edition (in 1935) of a work called Dīkṣāprakāśikā of Viṣṇu-bhaṭṭa, pupil of Satyānandanātha, composed in Śaka 1719 (1797 A. D.). Almost all of them derive the word from the root 'dā' (to give) and 'kṣi' to destroy, in various wayṣ The Kulārṇava defines it as 'the good call it dīkṣā because it confers a divine (holy) state and wipes off all sins, thereby freeing a man from the bondage of saṃsāra'; the Śāradātilaka states 'since it confers divine knowledge and destroys sins it is named dīkṣā by the teachers that know the Tantraṣ'

The Śaktisaṅgama-tantra regards an eclipse of the sun or the moon (particularly of the moon) as the best time for under-going initiation for a mantra from a guru and remarks that when performed in an eclipse, the week day, tithi, nakṣatra or month or Yoga or Karaṇa need not be considered¹⁷⁷. The Kālivilāsatantra states that if one is fortunate enough to secure Svātī nakṣatra and Friday on the 5th tithi of the dark half of Phālguna and undergoes dīkṣā on that date, that yields the rewards of a crore of ordinary dīkṣās (VI. 3-4). The N. S. (p. 67) quotes the Jñānārṇava to the effect that the dīkṣā as to a mantra should be on the day of a solar or lunar eclipse or within seven days from an eclipse and adds that the principal time is solar eclipse and quotes Kālotttara to the effect that, if the time of a solar eclipse is secured for dīkṣā, one need not consider the month, tithi, the week day and the like. N. S. also quotes a passage from Yoginītantra condemning dīkṣā on a lunar eclipse. Vide Muhūrtakalpadruma of Vitthala p. 94 verse 6 (Nirṇ. eḍ) for further details about times and places for dīkṣā. The Agnipurāṇa ( chapters 27, 81-89 and 304 ) deals with dikṣā at great length and is full of Tāntrik mantras and rites, but reasons of space forbid any treatment of the same here. The Jñānārṇava ( 24. 45-53 ) provides that at the time of initiation ( dikṣā ) the guru has to instruct the disciple or novice as regards the six cakras ( Ādhāra up to Ājñā ) together with the number of petals in each, the colour of each, the letters of the alphabet assigned to each.

Late Dharmaśāstra works relied for the initiation into mantras on tantra workṣ For example, the Dharmasindhu ( p. 32 ) expressly says so. There is a difference between Dīkṣā and upadeśa, which latter means the communication of only a mantra in a solar or lunar eclipse, at a tīrtha, Siddhakṣetra ( sacred region once inhabited by a siddha ) or in a Śiva temple. Raghunandana in Dīkṣātattva ( vol. II, pp. 645-659 ) gives a lengthy treatment of dikṣā at the beginning of which he remarks that in the Śāradātilaka and other works numerous topics of dikṣā are described but as in his time all those were not being followed he attempts only a brief treatment.

The Mahānirvāṇa states ( X. 201-202 ) that the guru for giving dikṣā when the disciple is a Śākta, Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, Saura or a Gāṇapatya, should be of the same sect, but a kaula is a good guru for every one. The Mahānirvāṇa ( X. 112 ) provides that a person does not become a Kaula by merely drinking wine, but he becomes so only after abhiṣeka. Then ( in verses 113-193 of 10th ullāsa ) the Mahānirvāṇa provides an elaborate procedure of complete abhiṣeka somewhat resembling Christian Baptisṃ There is first on the day previous to the day of abhiṣeka worship of Gaṇeśa, then of eight Śaktis ( Brāhmī &c. ), lokapālas and their weaponṣ Then the next day ( i. e. the day of abhiṣeka ) after a bath the neophyte donates sesame and gold for the removal of all sins and approaches a guru with the prayer to perform abhiṣeka. Then the guru draws a sarvatobhadra maṇḍala on an altar, sanctifies the five tattvas, places an auspicious jar and fills it with wine or with holy water. The principal part consists in the guru's sprinkling with water the disciple to the accompaniment of 21 mantras ( X. 160-180 ) invoking ¹⁷⁸ the gods Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, the Mātṛs, various Śaktis, the avatāras, the numerous forms of Devī, the dikpālas, the nine planets, nakṣatras, yogas, weekdays, karaṇas, seas, sacred rivers, nāgas, trees &c. Then the guru gives the disciple a new name ending in Anandānātha, who honours the guru and other Kaulas present. This ceremony may go on for 9, 7, 5, 3 nights or one night. Vide Tantrarājatantra II, 58–72, Jñānasiddhi (XVII) for similar procedure of abhiṣeka. Vide the introduction to the Sekoddeśatīkā, a Buddhist Tāntrik work (In G. O. S.) edited by Mario E. Carelli, for its resemblance to the Christian rite of Baptisṃ The Ahirbudhnya-saṃhitā (chap. 39) provides a procedure of Mahābhiṣeka as one remedy against all diseases, as one destroying all enemies and for the attainment of all desired objectṣ There were four kinds of dīkṣas, Kriyāvatī, Varṇamayī, Kalāvatī and Vedhamayī and there were elaborate rules about vāstuyāga, construction of maṇḍapa, kuṇḍas and sthaṇḍila, which are all passed over for reasons of space.