On the dakṣiṇācāra and the vāmācāra – II

Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra  |  July 10th 2020  |  About poster:

In the last post in this series I began my examination of the two streams of tantric discipline – the dakṣiṇācāra and the vāmācāra – or as they have become known, the Right-Hand and the Left-Hand Path. The key point I wanted to make was that the relationship between the two streams was not oppositional and exclusionary – as the two streams are represented in popular occulture. In this post, I will provide a brief overview of the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition.

As I noted in the previous post, Śaiva Siddhānta constitutes the base or the mainstream of the Śaiva mantramārg. “Siddhānta” can be translated as “the orthodox” or “the established doctrine”. Many core elements of tantric practice, ritual, and doctrine originated in this tradition, such as tantric forms of yoga, and the associated subtle body nexus of chakras, Kuṇḍalinī, etc. It was within this tradition that the structure of the 36 tattvas was codified. ¹ The tradition holds that Śiva has two levels. At the highest level, Paramśiva is formless and unknowable. The second level is the knowable forms of Śiva, to which worship can be directed. It is through his active presence in the world, performing the five functions of creation, maintenance, dissolution, concealment, and revealing – that Śiva becomes accessible to human beings. Although Śiva’s activity cannot be directly perceived by ordinary people, we can become aware of the effects of these activities, and relate these to particular aspects of his form. In so doing we can comprehend and act towards him, and visualize him. The most comprehensive form of the Lord is Sadāśiva (“Eternal Śiva”). His five faces constitute the five brahmamantras which effectuate his five activities in the world. He is visualized the body seated upon a lotus, or inside the linga. He is without a consort, white in hue, five-faced, ten-armed, and benign in disposition. He holds weapons that he uses to destroy the fetters of the soul.

Development
Śaiva Siddhānta originated in North India and quickly spread across the subcontinent. There are seventh-century inscriptions recording the initiation of kings into the tradition. From the ninth century on, there is a wealth of inscriptions referring to Śaiva Siddhānta ascetics and priests, indicating the spread of the tradition into Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnad, and into Southeast Asia (Java and Cambodia). During the same period, there was a proliferation of Śaiva monastic institutions (maṭhas) and temples. As Richard H. Davis (1991) points out, an extended network of Śaiva Siddhānta spread itself over much of India, with its preceptors acting as rājaguruḥs to kings. Although the tradition seems to have begun as a system of liberation for individuals, it quickly developed a wide range of rituals and procedures relating to the construction and consecration of temples, calendrical festivals, and optional ceremonies. In addition, the tradition developed Śaiva initiation procedures for kings, consecration rituals for kings, and an array of rituals for the benefit of a ruler and his kingdom, both protective and aggressive. For example, Alexis Sanderson (2004) cites an instance of an event during the reign of the twelfth-century Cola emperor Rājādhirāja II where an army from Sri Lanka had, after invading the mainland, looted the Rāmeśvaram temple. The emperor engaged a Śaiva Siddhāntantin officiant named Jñānasiva to perform a ritual that would destroy those responsible for the desecration of the temple. According to the inscriptional evidence, the ritual was continued for 28 days, and the invaders were defeated. ²

For individual Śaivites, there was a range of post-initiatory rituals and observances. These included post-initiatory consecrations whereby individuals could be empowered as temple officiants, daily observances, and the daily nityapūjā of Śiva which all initiates had to perform on a daily basis, without exception. This daily worship was an enactment, on a ritual level, of the essence of the Śaiva Siddhānta philosophy.

Of all the tantric traditions, the Śaiva Siddhānta was the most public-facing, with daily worship being performed in a temple by consecrated priests. The benefits of these public pūjās were believed to be fruitful not only for its officiants but also for the wider community – rulers and the general populace.

The tradition also observed the orthodox (Vaikida) distinctions between the categories of purity and impurity. In contrast, the nondual (advaitācāraḥ) traditions involved contact with persons and substances which were considered impure. More of which another time. As I noted in the previous post, the Śaivas accepted that the Vaidika orthodoxy was valid in its own domain, and they upheld its prescriptions and sought to incorporate Brahmanical injunctions and rituals into their own wherever it was practicable to do so, resulting in a hybridization of Śaiva and Brahmanical rites. Initiates of the tradition were enjoined not only to uphold the Brahmanical ordinances that related to their worldly affairs but also to continue performing Brahmanical rituals – although this was to be done for the sake of maintaining the social order, with the understanding that only the Śaiva scriptures were truly efficacious.

The tradition also observed and followed the orthodox prescriptions concerning the separation of the different castes. Although the tradition allowed for the initiation of śūdras, they could not become priests. By the same token, although women could be initiated, they were given the so-called “seedless initiation” (nirbījā dīkṣā) which meant that although they were promised the same liberation at death as active initiates, they were not allowed to perform the daily regimen of post-initiatory rituals and observances such as nityapūjā, nor could they be consecrated as temple officiants. Women could participate in the worship of Śiva, but only in the presence of an initiated husband or a consecrated temple priest. ³

The Śaiva Siddhānta tradition has survived to the present day in South India in ritual forms, although much of its doctrinal specificity has changed due to the influence of bhakti and Advaita Vedānta.

Key texts
One of the most important texts associated with Śaiva Siddhānta is the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, a critical edition of which has recently been published by the French Institute of Pondicherry. ⁴ The earliest parts of the work have been speculatively dated to 450-550 C.E. In fact, as the The Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā declares itself to belong to the mantramārga but not the Siddhānta, scholars believe that some parts of the text predate the formulation of the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition – but later became the “root text” of that tradition. It does however feature a list of a canon of 28 scriptures which are the principal SiddhāntaTantras. Other important texts of the tradition include the Sarvajñānottara, the Kiraṇa, the Kālottara and the Parākhya. As the tradition developed, commentaries on the core scriptures and ritual manuals (paddhatis) were produced in order to clarify points of doctrine and to refute the perspectives of other systems. Particularly notably among the commentators are the tenth-century Rāmakaṇṭha, whose “Enquiry into the Nature of Liberation” (Paramokṣanirāsakārikāvṛtti) has been published, in a critical and translated edition, by the French Institute of Pondicherry. ⁵

Core Doctrine
The central concept of Śaiva Siddhānta is that the entire universe is composed of three ontological categories: the Lord – Śiva – (pati), bound souls (paśu) and fetters (pāśa). These three categories interact in myriad ways to give rise to phenomenal existence (samsāra) but are of themselves, distinct from each other. There are also two fundamental dualities underpinning these three categories. Everything that exists is said to be either consciousness (cit) or inanimate substance (jaḍa). Inherent in consciousness are the innate capacities of knowing (jñāna) and action (kriyā) through which a conscious entity may exercise agency. Jaḍa, in contrast, is inert and has no autonomous capacity.

Śiva, as the Lord of all (paśupati) and all the worlds, are emitted and reabsorbed by his command. Bound souls are maintained in their bondage – and are eventually granted grace by his activity. Other divine beings are included in the category of pati and they rule limited domains which are in turn encompassed by other spheres of lordship and subject to the will of divine sovereigns. Śiva however, is fully autonomous (svatantra) and composed of cit.

Paśu in common usage refers to cattle or other tethered domestic animals, or a sacrificial animal. Human Paśus are held in bondage by a variety of fetters (pāśa) – the body, the mind, and the world, and are so powerful that they persist across multiple lifetimes. The fetters are composed of jaḍa. Individual bound souls are composed – like Śiva – of cit but the body is composed of jaḍa. Thus the soul is eternal, whilst the body has a beginning and an end. The soul transmigrates from body to body. The soul’s capacities for both knowing and action are – as with Śiva – potentially infinite, but in the unliberated state, the fetters cover (āvaraṇa) the soul’s capacities, suppressing the power of knowledge and activity. The three primary fetters are the “primal stain” (mala) which is compared by some Śaiva Siddhānta exegetes to a cataract in the eye that causes blindness. Knowledge of the cataract’s existence alone is not sufficient to remove it – some action is required. In the same way, the fetters that cover the soul can only be removed by action. The two other fetters are the residue of prior actions (karman) and the material of the cosmos (māyā). Together, these three fetters cover the soul and minimize their capacities. So human beings continually struggle between poles of empowerment and suppression. It is the descent of Śiva’s grace (śaktipāta) which stirs an individual to seek initiation.

The fetters alienate the soul from Śiva, but can be removed or destroyed – through the grace of Śiva (anugrāha) and through disciplined action, which consists of study, proper conduct, yoga and in particular, ritual. Ultimately, however, only Śiva’s grace is the basis for all efficacious activity. Of particular importance is the ritual of initiation dīkṣā – where Śiva acts via the intermediary of the initiating guru to destroy the devotee’s fetters and set them on the path to recovering their innate capacities, and guaranteeing liberation from Saṃsāra at death.

Liberation (muktātman) is achieved when all the fetters have been finally removed. The liberated soul attains a Śiva-like state, but never merges or becomes one with Śiva – which is the position taken by the nondual traditions. This is a dualist (dvaitācāraḥ) position, which the nondual (advaitācāraḥ) traditions argued against.

Śaiva Siddhānta recognizes various modes of knowledge and ranks them hierarchically in the manner I outlined in the previous post. The highest form of knowledge is the śivajñāna – the system given by Śiva, collected in the scriptural āgamas. By his grace, Śiva transmits the āgamas to other divine beings, who in turn, allow the most revered sages to hear them, and from thence they are passed to the community of initiates. According to the Kāmikāgama, it is Śiva’s highest, upward-turned face that emits the āgamas, whilst his other four (directional) faces emit other forms of knowledge which are appropriate for those who are as yet dominated by their fetters. In this philosophy then, one’s degree of bondage produces what one is capable of knowing. When an individual’s fetters begin to loosen and their capacity for knowing ripens, then the śivajñāna is the only viable system, springing, as it does, from Śiva, who knows all. Here, knowledge is not just an assemblage of facts – it produces change, destroying ignorance (avidyā) and showing the true nature of the universe. The Kāmikāgama says: “One should consider the distinction between superior and inferior systems of knowledge like the difference at night between the eyes of a cat and those of a man”. ⁶ The nondual traditions of course, in the same way, held the Śaiva Siddhānta to be a lower revelation, created by Śiva for those not yet ready to embrace the higher knowledge. ⁷

I had intended to summarise the key convergences and divergences between the Siddhānta and the nondual vāmācāra traditions, but that will have to wait for the next post.

Sources
Richard H. Davis Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshipping Siva in Medieval India (Princeton University Press 1991).
André Padoux The Hindu Tantric World: An Overview (University of Chicago Press 2017).
Alexis Sanderson Religion and the State: Śaiva Officiants in the Territory of the King’s Brahmanical Chaplain. (Indo-Iranian Journal 47: 229-300, 2005).
Alexis Sanderson “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir” in Dominic Goodall, André Padoux (eds) Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner (French Institute of Pondicherry, 2007).
Alexis Sanderson “Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Medieval Period” in John Makinson (ed) Honoris Causa: Essays in Honour of Aveek Sarkar (Allen Lane, 2015).
Christopher Wallis Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition (Mattamayūra Press. 2013).

Online
The Institute for Śaiva and Tantric Studies

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