Panchamakaras

By admin on Jun 2, 2016 | In Srividya, Darshana

- Reflections on the Tantras
In both the Mahācīnācārakrama and Brahmayāmala,
almost a similar story is given where the Buddha is
represented as advising Vasiṣṭha that real worship of the
Mother-Goddess should be performed in the cīnācāra
system centering round five makāras or five Ms, i.e.,
madya (wine), matsya (fish), māmsa (meat), mudrā
(cereal) and maithuna (copulation).
madyairmāmsaistathā matsyairmudrābhirmaithunairapi
|
strībhiḥ sārdhaṃ mahāsādhurarcayed jagadambikām ||
Other Tantras like the Kulacūḍāmaṇitantra,
Bhairavayāmala etc. give different meanings of the
ingredients to suite the taste of the orthodox class to
whom many of the above injunctions would appear to
be repulsive.
1 Madya or madirā - milk in the case of a Brāhmaṇa,
ghee or boiled butter in the case of a Kṣatriya, honey in
the case of a Vaiśya, liquor made from rice in case of a
Shūdra (or he may take coconut water in a copper pot)
2 Matsya - the pāṇiphala, masur dāl, or white bring or
red reddish or red sesame may be taken as the
substitutes
3 Māmsa - the substitutes are garlic, ginger, sesame and
salt
4 Mudrā - in place of parched kidney bean, the
substitutes are paddy, rice, wheat and grain
5 Maithuna - the offering of Karavīra and Aparājitā
flowers with hands in the kaccapa mudrā or union with
sādhaka’s own wife
Even a heterodox text like Mahācīnācārakrama blows
coition with one’s own wife in the absence of other
women. It may be noted in this connection that such
sādhanā with five Ms appeared to be somewhat
repugnant in the eyes of the orthodox class, but it could
hardly set it aside as it had already made a place in the
Tantras. Hence the orthodox Tantras explained the
whole scheme as nothing but different forms or stages
in the Prāṇāyāma. Thus an early Tantra like Kulārṇava
maintains regarding surā or wine etc.
āmūlādhāramābrahmarandhraṃ gate punaḥ punaḥ |
ciccandrakuṇḍalīśaktiḥ saśvāsasya sukhodayaḥ ||
vyomapaṅkajaniṣyandasudhāpānarato naraḥ |
madhupāyī samaṃ proktastvitare madyapāyinaḥ ||
This clearly demonstrates that from the very beginning,
two different theories prevailed regarding the
pañcamakāra sādhanā - one orthodox and the other
heterodox which appears to have been influenced by
ideas as prevalent in the northern form of Buddhism. It
must however be admitted that the heterodox form of
worship is more difficult than the orthodox one.
Union with Sādhaka’s own wife defeats the very
purpose of such sādhanā thinks himself to be Shiva and
his wife as the goddess and refrains from discharging
the semen. This is indeed the most difficult aspect of
this form of sādhanā.
The Prāṇatoṣanītantra which was composed in Bengal
gives the following account of the pañcamakāra.
yā surā sarvakāryeṣu kathitā bhuvi muktidā |
tasya nāma bhaveddevi tīrthaṃ pānaṃ sudurlabham ||
śūdrānāṃ bhakṣayogyānāṃ yanmāmsaṃ devanirmitam
|
vedamantreṇa vidhivat proktā sā śuddhiruttamā ||
bhakṣayogyāśca kathitā ye ye matsyā varānane |
te rahasye mayā proktā mīnaḥ siddhipradāyakaḥ ||
pṛthukataṇḍulā bhṛṣṭā ghodhūmacaṇakādayaḥ |
teṣāṃ nāma bhaveddevi mudrā muktipradāyinī ||
bhagaliṅgasya yogena maithunaṃ yadbhavet priye |
tasya nāma bhaveddevi pañcamaṃ parikīrtitam ||
prathamaṃ tu bhavenmadyaṃ māmsaṃ caiva
dvitīyakam |
matsyaṃ cive tṛtīyaṃ syānmudrā cive caturthikā ||
pañcamaṃ pañcamaṃ vidyāt pañcaite nāmataḥ smṛtāḥ ||
M Winternitz maintains that the original home of the
Tantras was in Bengal whence it went to Nepal, Tibet
and other places. R P Chanda draws our attention to a
verse of unknown origin affirming that the vidyā first
appeared in Bengal, became very strong in Mithilā,
some traces of it were to be found in Mahārāṣtra, while
it met its end in Gurjara. When, however, we find that
of the four original pīṭhas mentioned in the Tantras,
three are located not far from the Indus and one in
Assam, such theories can hardly be maintained. Bagchi
has shown that the inspiration came possibly from
extra-Indian region. H P Shastri thinks that Tantra was
introduced into India by the priests of Turkistan when
the local religion of the place was ousted by Islam. But
as we have already seen Tantra must have flourished
much earlier i.e., in the early Gupta age or little earlier
when the Scytho-Kuśāna influence had been operating
in India.
If we can understand the maithuna aspect of the
sādhanā in its proper perspective, the significance of the
yāmala works and some sculptures of the medieval age
may become clear to us, instead of exhibiting a vulgar
aspect of worship. Example of maithuna mūrtis are
quite in prevalence in almost all the South Indian
temples. The characteristic and aesthetic differences
with their northern counterparts in, say, Khajuraho or
Konark are quite marked and they are as follows:
1 Composition with single couple is few and far
between
2 More than a single couple, sometimes three or four
pairs appear in the composition actively engaged or in
the process of engaging themselves in the act of
coupling. In a number of examples more male-folk are
present than the actual number of women-folk or vice
versa. In some other cases more than one man are
engaged in different maithuna postures with a single
lady while the other ladies simply stand and stare or at
times assist
3 The couples are invariably always in the erotic
posture and graceful, playful, attenuated, while the
elegantly standing figures of the North are extremely
rare in South Indian temples.
4 The integrity of composition and space division, the
technical manipulation and surface treatment and the
aesthetic maturity of the North with regard to form and
content are lacking in these panels.
The following are the temples where example bound.
The Hall of Thousand Columns, Srīraṅganātha temple,
Srīraṅgam; Mīnākṣī temple of Madurai,
Padmanābhasvāmī temple of Kerala etc.
These sculptures, judged in the background of the
Tāntric treatise, Kāmākhyātantra, instead of showing
any vulgarity exhibits before us the extreme and the
most difficult form of renunciation. Wine, meat, fish
and arched kidney beans, when taken together, provoke
passion in human body, and the Tāntric form of
maithuna, in which the seeds will not flow, under such
condition, only show the extreme form of self restraint.
Such a sādhaka is called vīra or hero, and the whole
process is called vīra sādhanā.
As such form of sādhanā is not possible for ordinary
man it has not been recommended in some of the
Tantras. Thus the system of pañcamakāra sādhanā is
conspicuous by its absence in the Shāradātilaka which
has been regarded as one of the earliest Tāntric works.