On the dakṣiṇācāra and the vāmācāra – IV
In the previous post in this series I took a quick look at the earliest form of the non-Saiddhāntika or vāmācāra traditions of the tantras – the Caturbhaginī or “Four Sisters” system. For this post I shall briefly examine two more early vāmācāra streams, the Mantrapīṭha and the Vidyāpīṭha.
Quite early on, the non-Saidhantika traditions divided into two streams. Mantra, in Sanskrit, is of masculine gender, and so came to signify male deities, whilst Vidya, which is synonymous, is of the female gender. So there developed the Mantrapīṭha and the Vidyāpīṭha. The Vidyāpīṭha signifies a stream of scriptural transmissions which are goddess-oriented, sometimes to the extent that male deities have a lesser status. These scriptures are sometimes called the Śaktitantras (“power Tantras”). Both these streams are classified as belonging to the dakṣiṇasrotas – the “Right Stream” – as distinguished from the “Middle Stream” (madhyamasrotas) and the “Left Stream” (vāma) which was the Caturbhaginī tradition I briefly examined in the previous post.
The Mantrapīṭha
The Mantrapīṭha – “Throne of Mantras” originated in Kashmir. Later texts tell us that this tradition consisted of a canon of 64 revealed texts, but this is in all likelihood a formulaic rather than a literal number. It’s central – and indeed, the only extant text of the tradition is the Svacchanda-tantra, a large text, which focuses on the worship of Svacchanda-bhairava (“Autonomous Bhairava”) and his consort Aghoreśvarī. It has been dated to the seventh century. There is an important tenth-century commentary (the uddyota) on this text by Kṣemarāja, the disciple of Abhinavagupta.
Svacchanda-bhairava is a fierce form of Śiva, sometimes depicted standing upon Sadāśiva – the central form of Śiva for the Siddhāntas (see this post). Although related to the mainstream Saidhantika tradition, its practitioners viewed it as supplanting the earlier system. Svacchanda-bhairava is described as white in hue, five-faced, and quiescent. He is adorned with a necklace of scorpions, garlanded with skulls, and bears both sword and shield. He has eighteen arms, and his other weapons include the noose, goad, arrows, a skull-topped staff, a stringed vīṇā, a ḍamarū drum, a bell, bow, trident and axe. Svacchanda-bhairava is accompanied by the goddess Aghoreśvarī, encircled by predominantly male deities in the mantrapīṭha.
The propitiation of Svacchanda-bhairava is associated with mortuary images and the ritual use of “impure” substances such as flesh and wine as offerings. The Svacchanda-tantra also has much to say about ritual possession, where Bhairava enters the body of the adept, granting them magical powers.
The Svacchanda-bhairava also contains detailed instruction on preliminary ritual practices such as the imposition of mantras onto the body of the practitioner, the use of breath to purify the body, and the identification of the practitioner with Bhairava. For example:
“One should worship the lord who is the god of gods with fragrances, incense, then with flowers, and with various foods to be eaten all of which are conceptualized with the mind alone.
Having meditated upon Bhairava as one’s own self, one should perform mental worship (a sacrifice in the heart).
Having visualized onto the navel the root of the lotus, one should imagine the stalk of the lotus, which has the length of twelve fingers, to extend up to the heart. One should
contemplate there a very splendid lotus with eight petals, having a filament with a pericarp.
There, the root of the lotus is the essence of śakti, the feminine power of the divine, and those fibers on the stalk of the lotus are indeed the worlds of Rudra, O beautiful woman.” 1
The Vidyāpīṭha
An early example of the Vidyāpīṭha stream is the Yamala (“Union”) tradition, becoming established between the sixth and seventh centuries, but not surviving in any large extent into what is considered to be the “classical period” of the tantras – the ninth to tenth centuries. It was greatly influenced by the Atimargic traditions of the Kapalikas. It’s root text is the Brahmayāmala, which has been dated to between the sixth and eighth centuries.
Consisting of 12,000 verses, this text has much of interest in it concerning the groups of female spirits known as Yoginīs, and cremation ground rituals whereby an adept might attract the attention of a host of Yoginīs, who will grant him magical powers and secret knowledge. It also features references to the ritual use of sexual fluids and practices involving sexual intercourse. The Brahmayāmala remains as yet untranslated although a great deal of work on this text has been done by scholars such as Shaman Hatley and Judit Torzsok.
The central deity of the Yāmala tradition is Bhairava in the form of Kapālīśa – “Lord of the Skull-bearers” and his consort, Caṇḍa Kāpālinī – “Grim Bearer of the Skull” (also Aghorī – “not Terrible, and Bhairavī). These deities are visualized seated in the centre of a maṇḍala, surrounded by four lesser goddesses, four female attendants, six Yoginīs, and eight mothers (mātṛ). Yāmala ritual practices, for the most part, take place in wild places such as abandoned temples and cremation grounds, and the Brahmayāmala tends to emphasize the acquisition of magical power over the quest for liberation.
An example of the ritual procedures featured in the Brahmayāmala is the rather gruesome cremation ground ritual called the siddha mandala, which involves the practitioner making a ritual pavilion out of human corpses, and covered with sheets of human skin, writing mantras onto corpses and visualizing himself to be surrounded by terrible goddesses and other horrific beings.
“Should he remain [standing and practicing] up until midday [of the following day], he will see the six Yoginīs. At the waning of the day, he will see the [four Guhyakā] goddesses in the cremation ground. Offering to them alcohol [mixed] with blood then, delighted, they say to him: “Choose a boon, sādhaka.” 2
Eventually, after another day or so remaining in this corpse-strewn place, Bhairava will appear and enters the practitioner’s heart, after which he gains the power of Śiva.
The various traditions which emerged from the Vidyāpīṭha stream were in themselves highly influential in the later developments of the nondual Kaula systems which largely eclipsed and survived these early tantric traditions. More of which another time.
Sources
William James Arraj, The Svacchandatantram: History and Structure of a Śaiva Scripture (Ph.D thesis, University of Chicago, 1988)
Teun Goudriaan, “The Stages of Awakening in the Svacchanda-Tantra” in Goudriaan (ed) Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honor of Andre Padoux (Sri Satguru Publications, 1993)
Shaman Hatley, The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs (Ph.D thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2007)
Simone McCarter, The Body Divine: Tantric Śaivite Ritual Practices in the Svacchandatantra and Its Commentary (Religions 2014, 5, 738–750; doi:10.3390/rel5030738)
Christopher Wallis Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition (Mattamayūra Press. 2013).
