Alexis SANDERSON

MEANING IN TANTRIC RITUAL

The question of meaning in Tantric ritual is considered here on the

evidence of the Saiva traditions of Kashmir. This evidence is principally
that of an extensive corpus of learned Sanskrit works produced between
AD 900 and 1300 to explain the systems of ritual and theology taught in
the Tantric Saiva scriptures. But there is also the evidence of the more
recent practice of the Kashmirians reflected in the anonymous manuals
which record the text and procedure of their rituals. This second class of
evidence, available partly in editions produced for local distribution and
partly in unedited manuscripts, is of the kind that has generally been
overlooked by Indology. This is particularly so in the case of the
Saivism of Kashmir, where scholarly interest has concentrated on its
metaphysical and mystical elements, and not at all, or with much less
precision, on the ritual and social organization which are their substrate.
When the prescription and theory of ritual have been neglected in the
study of the learned works of the medieval period, it cannot be surprising
that these humble manuals should have escaped attention altogether.
However, once one has realized that it is necessary' to approach the Saiva
traditions of Kashmir from an understanding of their basis in ritual, then
the importance of these materials becomes obvious. For they are almost
our only evidence of Saivism in the region which is not a theoretical or
prescriptive kind. They provide us with a background of reality against
which to evaluate the implications of theory and to consider the degree
and manner of the idealization of actual practice that we must expect in
authoritative prescription. Unfortunately this body of evidence is itself
inadequate in certains respects. One would be in a better position if more
of this kind of text had survived: the record of real practice is far from
complete. Furthermore, this anonymous literature cannot be dated before
the modem and late medieval manuscripts in which it has come down to
us. Therefore one cannot take for granted that the practice they record has
continued unchanged from the times of our theoretical and prescriptive
texts. It appears, however, that change has generally been in the form of
contraction to essentials; and this, after all, is what one would expect in
16 A. SANDERSON

a dwindling community concerned to preserve its identity. From AD

1320 to 1819 Kashmir was under almost continuous Muslim rule and by
the end of this time the great majority of the population, including many
brahmins, had adopted Islam.
These sources certainly do not cover the whole of Tantric ritual. The
rich Buddhist tradition of the Way of Mantras (Mantrayana, Vajrayana)
is entirely overlooked, as is the Vaisnava Tantric tradition of the Pah-
caratra. Nor do they cover the whole of the complex and many-leveled
Saiva tradition which is the rest and major part of Tantric Hinduism.
They are nonetheless an excellent starting point for an enquiry such as
this; for they encompass all the major strata of Tantric Saivism at the most
vigorous and articulate phase of their development. Nor were these Kash­
mirian perspectives on the Saiva tradition of merely local importance.
They became the standard of Tantric orthodoxy in southern India from
the eleventh century and were widely disseminated from this base during
the centuries of Kashmir's decline from its position as a major centre of
brahminical learning.
During the early medieval period Tantric Saivism in Kashmir was
dominated by two competing traditions. On the one hand was the Trika
and on the other the Saiva Siddhanta1. The first adhered to a nondualistic
theology according to which all phenomena are nothing but the spontaneous
self-projection of an all-encompassing divine consciousness, so that the
substance of the universe and its efficient cause are one and the same.
This absolute idealism was formulated and defended by Somananda
(fl . c. AD 900-950), Utpaladeva (fl. c. AD 925-75), and the latter’s com­
mentator Abhinavagupta (fl. c. AD 975-1025). The principal works of this
philosophical tradition came to be known as the Sastra of Recognition
(Pratyabhijnasastra) after their central concept, namely that liberation
comes about as the recognition (pratyabhijha) that the true identity of
oneself and all phenomena is the Lord (isvarah) defined as this all-con­
taining, autonomous consciousness. Their works of Tantric exegesis and
those of their successors claimed that this nondualism is the doctrinal basis
of all the scriptures which prescribe the Trika’s rituals and observances
and those of certain related traditions.

1 The term Saiva Siddhanta is commonly used in Indology to refer to the south Indian
tradition which so describes itself. But that tradition with its scriptures and £astras in
Tamil as well as Sanskrit is a development of a more ancient tradition seen in Kashmir
and elsewhere. It would be better to avoid confusion by referring to that as the Tamil
Saiva Siddhanta.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T RIC R ITUAL 17

The Saiva Siddhanta (henceforth Siddhanta), which the Trika’s non­

dualism opposed, adhered to a strict dualistic theology (<dvaitavadah,
bhedavadah). It claimed that the highest Saiva scriptures are those which
prescribe its own system of ritual and that they teach (i) that Siva as the
omnipotent and omniscient efficient cause (nimittakdranam) of the
universe is other than its matter (upadanam), the world (the sum of the
evolutes of this matter) being entirely distinct from the consciousness of
Siva and of all other souls, and (ii) that these other souls never lose their
individual identity even in the state of final release (moksah). So separation
(bhedah) — between souls, between souls and Siva, and between these
and the external world — is real and absolute in the Siddhanta, while in
the Trika it is merely apparent. By the same principle, liberation
{moksah) in the Siddhanta is the attainment of mere equality with Siva
(sivatulyata), while in the Trika it is recognition that one is Siva himself,
that one’s individuality is an act staged by a transpersonal Absolute.
Instead of becoming Siva one becomes independent from him by rising
above the levels under his power. This dualistic theology was propagated
in Kashmir on the basis of certain works by Sadyojyotih, an author of
uncertain date who may or may not have been Kashmirian himself. For
rigorous philosophical defence of this doctrine as well as for our most
detailed dualistic exegesis of its scriptures we have the works of Bhatta
Narayanakantha and his son Bhatta Ramakantha (/7. c. AD 950-1000).
Outstanding are the former’s commentary on the Mrgendratantra and
the latter’s commentaries on the Matahgaparamesvaragama and Sad-
yojyoti’s Naresvarapariksa.
For the Trika this distinction between dualism and nondualism was also
reflected in ritual and observance. The religious practice of the Siddhanta
was dualistic (<dvaitdcarah) in the sense that it accepted the orthodox
(Vedic) distinctions between the pure and the impure and remained
strictly within the boundaries of the former. The Trika, by contrast,
advocated the practice of nonduality (advaitacdrah)2, in as much as its
rituals involved contact with impure persons and/or substances. It justified
this apparently impious transcendence of the norms of conduct by arguing
that this practice of nonduality had been revealed by Siva himself in his
highest and most esoteric scriptures as the ultimate means of liberating
consciousness from the contraction (samkocah) or inhibition {sahka)
which holds it in bondage.
2 JY 4 folio 127v2-6, = TA 29.73c-75b and commentary (on dvaitdcarah and ad-
vaitdcarah).
18 A. SANDERSON

Since this orthopraxy and heteropraxy are characterized in our sources

as right (daksina-) and left (vama-) respectively, where right is that
which agrees with orthodox norms and left that which goes against
them3,1 shall refer to the two schools as the Saivism of the right and the
Saivism of the left. While the first expression will always be exactly
synonymous with the term Siddhanta, the second will refer not only to
the Trika but also to certain other non-Saiddhantika Saiva systems of ritual,
most particularly the closely related Kali cult known as the Krama
(Sequence), Mahanaya (Great Way) or Mahartha (Great Truth). Among
the evidence for the Kashmirian Trika by far the most outstanding work,
since it covers all aspects of the tradition, is Abhinavagupta’s monumental
Illumination o f the Tantras (Tantraloka), which has come down to us
with the commentary (-viveka) of Jayaratha (fl. c. AD 1225-75). In the
Kashmirian Krama the most complete and penetrating of our sources is
undoubtedly the Elucidation of the Great Way (Mahanayaprakasa) by
an unknown author concerning whose date we can say only that he knew
the works of Utpaladeva (fl. c. AD 925-975) and was quoted by Ja­
yaratha in the thirteenth century4.
The Siddhanta, Trika and Krama were not the only major Saiva tradi­
tions in Kashmir. In addition there was that of the cult of an esoteric form
of Siva and his female consort known as Svacchandabhairava and Agho-
resvari. Indeed it was this cult which seems to have been the norm among
the Kashmirian Saivas from the early medieval period down to modem
times. However, unlike the Siddhanta and the Trika, it was not the source
of any distinct theological position. During the tenth and eleventh cen­
turies it had been largely colonized by the dualistic exegesis and practice
of the right. Later the influence of the Siddhanta waned and the cult fell
under the influence of the nondualistic doctrines of the left. This takeover
of the middle ground was actively sought by the left as soon as it had
achieved an articulate theology, that is to say, round the turn of the
millenia. Ksemaraja (fl. c. AD 1000-1050), the successor of Abhina-
vagupta, composed a learned and detailed commentary on the Svacchan-
datantra, the scriptural authority of the cult, and tells us that he did so in
order to displace the long established tradition of dualistic interpretation
which, he claimed, had perverted the true character of this tradition5.

3 TAV 9 (15) 13713*14 (vdmacarah).

4 MNP 3.64cd, quotes IPK 1.42cd; TAV 3 (4) 1281218, quotes MNP 9.15-18.
5 SvTU 6 (15) 146,M6.
 M EA N IN G IN TANTR1C RITUAL 19

Also in this middle ground between the Siddhànta and the Trika was
the cult of Siva Conqueror of Death (Mrtyunjaya) — also called
Netranâtha (the Eye-Lord) and Amrteévarabhairava (Bhairava, Lord of
the Nectar [of Immortality]) — and his female consort AmrtalaksmL
Particularly associated with rites to avert danger and disease (sàntih), it
appears in the recent manuals to have been closely linked with that of
Svacchandabhairava6. Here too dualistic exegesis prevailed before giv­
ing way to the ascendant nondualism of the Trika. And once again it was
a commentary by Ksemarâja on its scriptural authority known variously
as the Netratantra, the Mrtyujittantra and the Amrtesvaratantra, that in­
itiated the transformation7. These two commentaries by Ksemarâja, his
Elucidations (-uddyota) of the Svacchandatantra (,Svacchandatantrod-
dyotd) and the Netratantra (,Netratantroddyota), are evidently of special
importance to us, since they give us access at an early date to the middle
ground of Kashmirian Saiva practice preserved in the manuals.
In the perspective of the left these various cults form a strict hierarchy,
its authorities speaking of Saivas ascending from level to level through a
series of initiation ceremonies (<diksà)8. The status which is assigned to a
cult in this classification corresponds to the degree to which the feminine
cosmic power (saktih) which is the inseparable attribute of Siva in the
theologies of both the right and the left is personified within the con­
figuration of deities invoked in its daily, obligatory (nirya-) worship. At
the bottom of the hierarchy, in the Siddhânta’s form of that ritual, Siva
is worshipped as the ten-armed, five-faced and consortless Sadâéiva9.
His Power is personified only in the throne (àsanam) on which he is
installed10; and other female deities are either entirely absent from his
encircling retinues (âvaranam) or are present only as the fourth circuit in
a series of seven which form the outer retinue (bahirdvaranam) of the
deity11. On the next level the eighteen-armed and five-faced Svacchan­
dabhairava is worshipped with his female consort AghoreSvari in the
centre of a retinue of ferocious male deities enclosed, in the fullest form

6 KK 4, 260.
7 NeTU 2 (22) 34321'2.
8 TA 13.300c-302 and commentary.
9 Mrg KP 3.49c-54b; NeT 9.19c-25b (the standard form of SadaSiva in Kashmir).
10 S$P 1, 167-75.
11 The goddesses are present as the fourth circuit of seven in the system of the Nan-
diSvaravatdra recension of the Nihsvasagama, which was followed in Kashmir; see
NASAP folio 6 3 rll-v l3 .
20 A. SANDERSON

of the cult, by a ring of eight cremation grounds (smasdnam)]2. We see

that this intensification of the feminine goes along with the introduction
of the mortuary symbolism of Kapalika asceticism. This sinister element
is maintained throughout the Saivism of the left. Indeed it becomes more
intense the further one ascends the hierarchy. Only the annexed cult of
Netranatha lacks it entirely; and this is in keeping with the fact that his
worship is transitional between that of the Siddhanta and these more
esoteric systems. Above the cult of Svacchandabhairava the feminine
moves from subordination to supremacy. The three goddesses of the
Trika (Para, Parapara and Apara) are worshipped with subordinate male
consorts (Bhairavasadbhava, Ratisekharabhairava and Navatmabhairava)
as the emanations of a fourth, transcendental and consortless Goddess
(Matrsadbhava / Kalasamkarsinnl) in the centre of circuits of predominantly
female deities13. In the Krama only this feminine Absolute remains: one
worships Kail surrounded by twelve others of identical form14.
The left saw the Siddhanta as common or exoteric Saivism. It did not
question its effectiveness as a means of the highest liberation — it saw
no difference between the levels of the hierarchy as far as the quality of
their results was concerned — but it claimed superiority as a more
esoteric and direct means of attaining those results. It claimed that while
the Siddhanta could bestow liberation only at death the systems of the
left had the power to accomplish this during the initiate’s lifetime (jivan-
muktih)15.
This special, esoteric vigour claimed by the left for its cults, or rather
for its specialized pantheons of mantra-deities, is also adduced to explain
a less subjective difference between the institutions of the right and the
left, namely that only the former is involved in the worship for the com­
mon good which is offered to idols (lihgam) installed in temples. All
Saiva initiates must offer regular private worship, i.e. worship for then-
own benefit alone, to the mantra-pantheon of their initiation. But for the
initiates of the left this is the only kind of worship that they practice; and
if they choose to have their mantra-deities installed in an idol for this
purpose then it must be of the small, transportable (cola-) variety which
can be kept in a casket between acts of worship and which may be seen

12 SvT 2.88b-96, 106-128b, I76-80b; SvTU 1 (2) 981216.

13 Sanderson 1986, 188-89.
14 Sanderson 1986, 197-98.
15 M W 1.193-96b; TA 37.13c-17.
 M EANING IN TANTR1C RITU A L 21

only by the initiate for whose purpose it has been consecrated. The for­
mula of installation invokes the mantras to be present in the idol only
until the initiate achieves the fruit of their worship, whether this be during
his life or when he dies. At this moment they will depart and the inert
image must either be disposed of or reconsecrated for a successor. The
mantras of the Siddhanta, however, may move out from this private
sphere to be installed permanently in fixed idols where they will remain
so long as the appropriate Saiddhantika worship and purity are maintained.
The left maintains that its own mantra-deities are simply too powerful,
indeed too dangerous, to be placed in this way beyond the immediate
control of the individual worshipper. Fixed images of certain of the esoteric
deities are not unknown; but where such installations are prescribed it is
to be the exoteric mantras of the Siddhanta which animate them. So the
boundary between the exoteric right and the esoteric left was breached in
appearance rather than fact; for it is the mantras rather than the iconic
forms which may be associated with them that are the essential
embodiments of the deities in Tantric worship. There are cults of aniconic
mantras but not of icons which are not mantras16.
Naturally the Siddhanta itself recognized no hierarchy within the
Saiva traditions but one in which it assigned itself the highest position17.
It criticized the nondualism of the left in both its metaphysical and its
socio-ritual aspects18. However, it did not go so far as to deny the
authority of the non-Saiddhantika scriptures themselves. We have seen
that it sought to colonize the middle ground of Saiva practice by pro­
pagating dualistic exegesis of the Svacchandatantra and the Netratantra.
It might have been expected to have stopped short of the scriptures of
the Trika itself. But it entered even here; for both Bhatta Narayanakantha
and Bhatta Ramakantha frequently quote the Malimvijayottara in their
commentaries on Saiddhantika scripture; and it was this Tantra of the
Trika which was the professed basis of Abhinavagupta’s exposition of
that cult in his Tantraloka.
This overlap is best understood if we assume that even the worship of
the goddesses of the Trika was being practised in some circles in accor­
dance with the ‘pure’ procedures of the Siddhanta, as was certainly the
case in the cult of Svacchandabhairava. Indeed it is probable that the
Malimvijayottara itself was the product of such circles; for it contains

16 TA 27.1-13.
17 MPV VP 2 ,4-,s.
18 Sanderson 1985a, 215, n. 127.
22 A. SA NDERSON

elements of Saiddhàntika doctrine, and while other Tantras teaching the

cult of the same pantheon of mantra-deities enjoin the practice of non­
duality, the Mâlinïvijayottara itself never deviates from the exoteric
norms when it mentions the ingredients and manner of worship. That
Abhinavagupta should have built the edifice of the Tanîràloka around
this same Tantra is therefore evidence of his desire to capture the broadest
possible base for the left19.
So we find two opposed perspectives on the same spread of cults (see
Table I). The nondualistic tradition saw them as the stages of an ascent
towards the left, while the dualistic Siddhânta recognized only that part
of them which lay horizontally along a base line of conformity to orthodox
standards of ritual purity. Only the Krama was out of this line of vision
entirely, since it remained strictly esoteric and antinomian in its practice.
It is against this background that I shall consider the theories of the
purpose and meaning of ritual propagated by the right and the left. I
shall begin by identifying a core of soteriological doctrine which is
common to both; and I shall show that this core enabled the theorists of
both persuasions to encompass and justify a religious life whose heart
was routinized ritual duty more or less qualified by the sentiment of
devotion. This I take to have been the Saivism of the majority of initiates
in the less compromising cults whose followers were doubtless the
majority of all Saivas: the Siddhânta (1), the Netranàtha cult (2), or the
‘pure’ forms of the Svacchandabhairava cult (3A) and the Trika (4A). I
shall then consider the respects in which the theories of ritual on the
right and the left differ from each other, showing that these theoretical
differences express the difference between the more exacting and super­
erogatory styles of salvatory self-awareness cultivated in the two branches
of the Saiva tradition by the élites which sought the allegiance of this
majority.

19 Cf. Sanderson 1986, 203-204, and 1992.

 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 23

TABLE 1.

The two perspectives on the principal Saiva cults. The right (the Siddhanta)
accepts only 1 , 2 , 3A and 4A. The left (the Trika etc.) rejects 3A and 4a and
teaches the ascending order 7. 2, 3B, 4B, 4 C and 5. Cults in A conform to ortho­
dox (Vedic) criteria o f purity. For the degrees o f departure from purity in B and
C see below, pp. 79-83.

Degree o f conformity Krama Trika Svacchanda- Netranatha Siddhanta

to orthodox criteria o f bhairava cult cult
purity in ritual

C 5

B 4

A 3 2 1

To understand these theories it is necessary to keep in mind how the

6aivas were placed in relation to the orthodox system of ritual which
rests on the authority of the Vedic scriptures (srutih and smrtih). The
Saivas claimed to have access through their Tantras to a ritual life which
was higher and more potent than the Vedic. But they were Vedic to the
extent that like all Hindus of caste they had first been purified by the
Vedic rites of passage (samskdrah), from conception to investiture
(iupanayanam) and (optionally) marriage20. And even when they had gone
through the ceremony of initiation (diksa), the Tantric rite of passage
which gave them access to £aiva ritual, they were still bound to conform
to the rules of the Veda-based social system (varnasramadharmah) and
its local variants (desadharmah)2]. The Saiva initiate therefore saw him­
self as subject to two levels of injunction: the general or common Vedic
level and the special level reached by his initiation22.

20 TAV 3 (4) 278'-\

21 TAV 27716~n .
22 NlP 3.74-78; TAV 3 (4) 2539' n , 278w .
24 A. SA NDERSON

The common core of Saiva soteriology

Worshippers in all these Saiva cults were of one of two kinds. This was
a matter of individual choice and it determined both the form of initiation
received and the form of the subsequent ritual discipline. On the one
hand were those whose chosen goal was nothing but liberation (moksah)
from the bondage of transmigration (samsarah). On the other hand were
those who elected to pursue supernatural powers and effects (siddhih)
while they lived and — or at least — to experience fulfilment in the
enjoyment of rewards (bhogah) in a paradisal world of their choice,
either in this life through mastery of Yoga, or after death. So worshippers
were either seekers of liberation (mumuksuh) or seekers of rewards
(bubhuksuh)23.
I shall consider only the ritual of the former here; for it was in their
case that the problems of purpose and meaning arose. The seekers of
rewards, more precisely titled sadhakas (“masterers [of powers]”), in­
flected the basic rituals of the cults for the attainment of specific and
concrete objectives such as the quelling of dangerous powers (santih),
the subjugation of desired women (vasikaranam), or the liquidation of
enemies (maranam). In such cases the purpose of the ritual is self-
evident; and the meanings of the adaptations of the basic ritual form —
such as those which affect the colour and mood of the deity — are
equally so, whether they have an obvious symbolic value, as they do in
the case of the predominance of the colours white, red and black in rites of
quelling, subjugation and liquidation, or are fixed by otherwise meaning­
less conventions in this or that text24. It is only when the ritual is un­
inflected, in the obligatory worship of those who seek liberation alone
and have therefore abjured all concrete objectives, that the problem
arises. It is only here that it was felt necessary to formulate explanations
of the far from obvious process by which ritual as the manipulation of
finite forms and quantities could achieve the infinite and absolute state
of liberation. The ritual of the liberation-seeker will be found to be
meaningful in a weak sense if he is offered some explanation of how it
achieves this purpose. It will be found meaningful in a strong sense if he
is required to perceive the actions it compromises not only as something

23 Mrg KP 8.1-8; SvT 4.79c-91b / TA 15.21-34b; TA 13.129c-256b; Brunner 1975,

411-39.
24 Mrg KP 3.45c-47b and commentary; NASAP folios 38v2-39r5; MP KP 4.102-118;
cf. Mrg KP 6.45-49; NeT 3.42-43b and commentary.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 25

to be done (sadhyamtkaryam) but also as fulfilling their purpose by

expressing and evoking in him a salvatory awareness of reality
(siddhamlvastu) as he performs them25.
These problems can be examined in detail because it was the seekers
of liberation who were the principal audience of the Kashmirian writers26.
It might have been expected that such an audience would have been the
minority among the Saivas, that the theories to be considered were
addressed to a small group which had turned away from the finite
aspirations of the majority of Tantric initiates to pursue the more arduous
path of self-realization. But while liberation is certainly seen as the goal
of the exceptional few in most forms of non-Tan trie Hinduism, here it is
the path of powers and rewards followed by the sadhaka which is by far
the more exacting and disruptive of ordinary life. It was not precluded
that the seeker of liberation should dedicate himself to his goal with
equal intensity; but he was not required to do so. To be safely on the
path to liberation he needed only have passed through the ceremony of
initiation and then maintain a comparatively moderate discipline of rituals
and observances. The religious activities of the sadhaka were much more
complex, time-consuming and intense; and they required him to adopt
observances (vratam, niyamah) in such matters as dress, food, residence
and behaviour which segregated him, sometimes dramatically, from the
normal social world.
Liberation, then, was the more accessible of the two goals of the
Tantric Saivas; and it was this accessibility, I suggest, which enabled the
cults to take firm root in Indian society. Their non-desiderative forms
made them available not just to small groups of specialists but to whole
communities; because there was nothing in these forms which prevented
them from becoming a matter of family tradition. So in concerning itself
principally with the practice of the seekers of liberation the Kashmirian
literature was addressing itself to the broad base of a well established
social institution.
Liberation was accessible to all because it was presented to the
individual as something that would be accomplished for him rather than
by him27. It was believed that only Siva can liberate the soul28 and that

25 BraSi 22-228; Bra SuBh on 1.1.4; Prapanc 239-52 (sadhyamlkaryam and siddham
in Vedic exegesis).
26 TA 26.1 lbc (for dhruve read bruve)\ 32.6-9b and commentary.
27 MPV VP 614; NlPP 2567.
2R NIPP 2566; NIP 2.144c-50; TA 13.122-25b.
26 A. SANDERSON

he does so through the ritual of initiation29, acting in the person of a human

officiant (ácáryah, guruh, desikah)30. This liberation, whether equality
with Siva (the doctrine of the right) or identity with áiva (the doctrine of
the left), was thought to be the effect of the ritual itself, which destroyed
the limiting and contaminating factors (malam) which until this operation
of Siva’s favour had operated on the soul and so concealed its omnipotence
and omniscience. If most individuals who had undergone initiation showed
no signs of moral and spiritual transformation, this was simply because
the mantras which are Siva’s instruments in initiation are formulated to
destroy only those limiting factors which if they were not destroyed
would cause the soul to undergo further incarnation after death. It was
Siva’s command that the part of contamination which manifests and
sustains the initiate’s current mental and physical existence should be
left intact31. Only in the case of the dying did áiva permit the destruction
of all bonds, eliminating the last remnants of a life exhausted and
bestowing salvation there and then32.
Those who were required to live on to experience the fruition of this
imperceptible processing of their souls (átmasamskárah) only at death,
were of two kinds. On the one hand were those such as imbeciles, women,
the very sick, the very old, rulers and renouncers (samnyasi) who were
judged incapable of taking on ritual duties33. When such an individual
was initiated the officiant included the “bond of the (post-initiatory)
discipline” (samayapasah) among the bonds destroyed by the mantras34.
If this had been eliminated then the initiate was guaranteed liberation
without having to observe any special duties during the remainder of his
life. All that was required of him was loyal devotion (bhaktih) to the
guru and (by extension) to the deity and the doctrine35. On the other
hand were those who were considered capable of the discipline and in
whom, therefore, the bond of discipline was left intact. They were then

29 NIPP 25612; TAV 1 (1) 8012,5.

30 MRg V KP 11216' 17; SvT 3.160cd with SvTU 1 (3) 225,6-266; TA 16.74-77.
31 MPV KP 15017; SvT 4.141 / TA 15.27 (sparing prarabdham karma)\ SvTU 2 (4)
96s-4; TAV 1 (1) 57M0: MPV 27,9-288 (imperfection after diksd).'
32 MrgV on KP 8.5 and 8.144; SvTU 3 (5) 787’19; TA 19.1-56.
33 SvT 4.87c-88b (quoted passim, e.g. MrgV KP 120810); TA 15.24c-25b; ISGDP KP
1383-4; JY 1.13.10b (including kings and renouncers [bhubhrtsamnydsinam api]).
34 MrgV on KP 8.4; SvTU 2 (4) 284,6-85n ; TA 17.69-72.
35 SvT 4.148cd; Ta 26.10; 17.73; 17.96cd; TaSa 1 5 8 ^ 15.
 M EANING IN TANTRIC RITUAL 27

bound by a code of rules (samayah) which included the duty to perform

daily, periodic and incidental rituals for the rest of their lives36.

Tantric ritual duties and their relation with their smarta counterparts

The initiate’s Tantric rituals superseded the regular smarta ceremonies,

the domestic Vedic sacrifices which an invested brahmin, ksatriya or
vaisya was obliged to offer after his marriage — or when he received his
inheritance at the time of the partition of the joint family property
(idayavibhagah) if this happened some time after his marriage, either
during the lifetime of his father or on his father’s death37. The Tantric
Saiva rituals were certainly more elaborate than the smarta, but they
were largely parallel to them in their timing and structure. It is this
parallelism that I wish to stress. For while the theorists were concerned
to show that the Tantric rites are superior to the Vedic — one is to
believe that by taking initiation in addition to investiture one has moved
one’s ritual life into a higher gear — the rituals themselves reveal a hum­
bler aspiration, that of achieving parity with the orthodox by providing
the system with equivalents of all the essential smarta rites which the
invested perform or undergo during adult life and, indeed, beyond it. As
we shall see, the need to match these orthodox rituals was strong enough
to compromise the very beliefs which justified the separate existence of
the Tantric system. Equivalence in observable practice was ultimately
more important than insider theories of superiority.

Daily rites
In briefest outline these Tantric rituals were as follows. Everyday the
initiate was obliged to worship the deity of his initiation, making offerings
to a private, transportable idol, or to the deity and its retinue installed
invisibly upon a low platform of earth (sthandilam)38. Where an idol was
employed it was either Siva’s abstract emblem (the lihgam as generally
understood [=avyaktalingam]) or an anthropomorphic representation
(yyaktalihgam), principally an image (pratima) cast in metal, a painting

36 Mrg KP 8.170c-73c; CP 1.22c; 66-74: S$P 3. 144-46; SvT 5.44-51; TA 15.521c-

610b.
37 See YajnMit on Yajn 1.96; Devapala and Brahmanabala on KathGS 45.1 (pp. 196-7).
38 MrgV introducing KP 3.54c-55b;TA 26.37c-76 and TA 27; TaSa 1791516.
28 A. SANDERSON

on cloth (patah) or an outline of the deities incised on a cranium or sub­

stitute (türah)39. The deities were visualized and then worshipped, first
mentally, in the heart, and then externally, on the earthen platform or in
the idol. After this service (püjá) the mantras of the cult’s pantheon were
silently repeated a fixed number of times with the aid of a rosary
(.aksamálá), and then gratified with a proportionate number of oblations
(iáhutih) into a consecrated fire (sivágnih, bhairavágnih or de\yagnih)40.
In the Trika this sacrifice into fire (homah) was optional41.
This ritual was to be performed after all or one of the Junctures
(samdhyá), namely sunrise, midday and sunset42. The normal practice
was to perform it after midday Juncture, and to make a nominal offering
followed by mantra-recitation (japah) after the other two43. It was to be
preceded by the following preliminaries: ritual purification (snánam) in
water, the veneration of the Juncture (samdhyávandanam), the casting of
water from cupped hands towards the sun as an offering to the deities of
one’s cult visualized within its orb (swyopasthánam. sivárghyadánam),
the recitation (japah) of one’s cult’s modification of the Vedic gáyatrl-
mantra44, and the offering of libations (tarpanam) poured from the hand
to one’s mantra-deities, to the several classes of Vedic gods or to certain
Saiva parallels (the Vidyás, Vidyesvaras and the rest), to the Sages
(rsih), to the Men (Sanaka etc.), to All Creatures (bhütam), and to the
Ancestors (pitá). If he was an ascetic (naisthikah, yatih) the initiate
would then smear his body with ashes. For a married home-dweller
(grhasthah) this ‘ash-bath’ (bhasmasnánam) was optional; and instead
of smearing his whole body he could simply mark his forehead, breast,
upper arms and certain other points on his body with three horizontal
lines (tripundram) of ashes mixed with water45.

39 Aj 4.1-2 and N.R. B hatf s apparatus; TÁ 27.9; 19c-28b.

40 Detailed accounts of daily rites: MP KP 3.1-4.118; Mrg KP 3.1-17 and 6.1-76;
NÁSAP folios 31r5-104rl3; SáP 1, 90-277; SvT 2.21-279; TÁ 15.115c-368 + 386c-
436b; 26.37c-27.59. Whether the sacrificial fire is a áiva-fire, a Bhairava-fire or a
Goddess-fire (devyagnih) depends on the cult; see. e.g., NeTU 1 (3) 893'5; SvT 2.225cd.
258b (sivágnih), 274 (bhairavágnih); KK 4, 343l4-3442 (sivágnih); KK 4, 251l4-252:
(bhaira\>ágnih); JY satka 1 folio 110v5 (devyagnih or bhairavágnih).
41 TÁ 26.69cd.
42 íáGD P KP 18.124; SvT 5.51cd.
43 NÁSAP folio 26r6, 106r4-5; cf. TÁ 26.37b-38b. Nominal worship: NÁSAP folio
117r4-6.
44 KK 4, 216,3-I7 1: Gayatris of Sadá^iva. Netranatha and Svacchhandabhairava; Taittin-
yáranyaka 10 (Mahánáráyanopanisad). 71-82 (the Yajurvedic prototype of such Gayatris).
45 Samdhyá rites: Mrg KP patala 2; MP KP patala 2; S$P 1, 2-67; SvT 2.1c-20;
NÁSAP folios 21 v 11-3l r l 5; TÁ Í5.45-78; 26.29c-37b.
 MEANING IN TA N TRIC R ITU A L 29

All this was closely parallel to the smarta programme of daily worship.
There too the main presentation of offerings to the gods (devapuja) took
place after the midday Juncture, following almost identical preliminaries.
Furthermore, both the Tan trie and the smarta worship are followed by the
same sequence of concluding rites, namely those of the Vaišvadeva sacri­
fice, in which part of the food prepared for the family meal is sacrificed
in the domestic fire to the All Gods (višvedeváh) and other deities, after
which other portions are presented as offerings (balih) to the various
house-deities (vdstubalih) and spirits (bhutabalih), to the ancestors (pin-
danirvápah), to dogs, untouchables, outcastes, and birds. The Tantric
initiate performs a Šaiva elaboration of this Vedic prototype46. The
Tantric preliminaries are also such an elaboration, in the sense that while
the main worship is merely parallel to the smárta, these preliminaries are
the smarta prototypes with certain Šaiva modifications and additions
which inflate and inflect the whole. Modifications are such as the use of
Tantric versions of the Vedic gáyatňmantra and the presentation of
water not simply to the Sun but to Siva as the Sun. Additions are such as
the inclusion of the cult’s mantra-deities in the series of recipients in the
pouring of libations (tarpanam)41.
This suggests the hypothesis that the Tantric ritual evolved through
the substitution of a sectarian (Tantric) act of worship for the non-
sectarian (smarta), and that this substitute within the prototype then
spilled over to affect the rites before and after it.

Other regular rites

On the eighth, fourteenth and fifteenth days of each lunar fortnight (the
parva days), and on the days of the equinoxes, the solstices, eclipses and
the like, the initiate was required to double all the quantities of his daily
worship, to maintain celibacy, and to restrict his diet, eating only the rem­
nant of the rice prepared during his worship as an offering to his pan­
theon48. Here too he was following the Vedic example. Neither this cal­
endar nor the rules of austerity on these days was a Tantric invention49.

46 IŠGDP KP patala 15 (13522-3621); SŠP 1, 295-301; KK 4, 452-56.

47 Smárta daily programme: Yájň 1.98-114; Visnu 64-67; Kurm 2.18.56-117.
48 MrgV CP 21111; Kálottarágama at STrišK anubandha 175; TÁ 28.10-111; NÁSAP
folios 134rl-135rl2.
49 N íitiS 266,1U; Visnu 69.1.
30 A. SA N D ERSO N

Finally there was the annual offering of coloured threads known as

pavitras (pavitraropanam) with prayers that the recipient deity would
complete and perfect the sum of the initiate’s worship during the year
past, annulling the effects of any omissions or faults. Other pavitras
were offered to his guru, to his own person, his sacred text, his rosary,
other empowered media of his cult, and the various secondary and
peripheral deities50. Also he replaced those of his ritual implements
which were made of wood or pottery51. This ritual inaugurated a period
of ascetic restraint (niyamah) during which the initiate was to remain
within his settlement52. Ideally this period was the four months of the
rainy season, so that the observance (vratam) was equivalent to the
smarta caturmasyavrata which takes place during “ Visnu’s sleep” , that
is to say, from the twelfth day of the bright half of the month Asadha
(June-July) to the same day in Kartika (October-November)53. However,
there were less exacting alternatives. According to Abhinavagupta the
observance might be adopted for only a week or, in hard times, for only
three days54. This practice of offering pavitras would appear to be
Tantric in its origin; but it may well be that this distinction was blurred
in medieval Kashmir, since there is evidence that there arose a smarta
version of this ritual55.

Incidental rites
These were the obligatory rituals (nitya- in the sense of niyatakaramya-)
whose occasion (nimittam) was fixed in time {nitya- in the sense of ni-
yatakdla-). In addition there were actions and rituals which were obligatory
if the occasion for them arose. These incidental (naimittika-) duties were
(i) acts and rites of reparation or penance (prayascittam), to be carried
out when a rule of the discipline had been infringed (,samayalopah,

50 Detailed accounts of pavitràropana: Mayas folios 52r4-55r5; NÀSAP folios 135v2-

144r4; I$GDP KP 21; TÀ 28.112-186b.
51 Mayas folio 53r5; ISGDP KP 21.55.
52 S$P2, 167; TÀ 28.181 cd.
53 Mayas folio 54v6-55rl; S£P 2, 167; TÀ 28.141; 181. Equivalence with smàrta
càturmàsyavrata: SSP 2, 91. The smarta caturmasyavrata: NimS 80-84.
54 TÀ 28.141ab; 181; S$P 2, 165, vv. 1 lOc-111.
55 NimS 87-89; Alb Vol. n, p. 181. The latter describes the Vaisnava pavitra ceremony
[4tParvatl (?)”] of the 11th of the bright half of the month Bhàdra. His information is
evidently from Kashmir, since the vernacular words quoted in this chapter on festivals are
recognizably Kashmiri.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC R ITUAL 31

samayollahghanam)56, and (ii) elaborate worship (visesapuja) to be offered

on special occasions (such as a visit by the guru to one’s home) and
anniversaries (such as those of one’s guru’s birth, initiation and death)57.
The category of anniversaries also accommodated important public
festivals such as the annual Night of Siva (Sivaratri), since these were
seen as commemorating particular exploits (caritam) of the gods in
ancient times58.
While there is a clear distinction in practice between rites of reparation
iprayascittam) for specific offences and all other incidental (naimittika-)
ceremonies, theory entails that for the seeker of liberation (mumuksuh)
all ritual other than that of his ordinary daily programme is reparatory.
For what other purpose could it serve? The result is that the annual cycle
of obligatory worship was to be seen as an automatically self-perfecting
or self-correcting process. The intensification of worship on special
occasions was to be understood as making up for any deficiencies or
inaccuracies in the daily services, and the annual pavitraropana ritual
and observance as doing the same for these periodic rituals59. The same
purpose was attributed to the annual celebration of Sivaratri60. Even
the daily ritual, the smallest unit in the annual cycle, contains acts and
formulas whose function is to perfect those that have preceded, compen­
sating for whatever in that performance may have been deficient, defective
of incorrectly executed61. Again the model is the Vedic tradition. There
too there are rites of reparation (prayascittam) designed to restore the
agent to the requisite state of purity, to compensate for failure to perform
a ritual at the prescribed time, and for similar derelictions; and the rituals
themselves are primed with elements which automatically rectify them62.

Cremation and the Rescue o f the Dead

So much for the obligatory rituals performed by the initiate himself.
We must now consider the rites of passage (samskdrah) performed by

56 ISGDP KP 20; S$P 2, 224-329; NASAP folios 114rl0-17v4; TA 28.408-423b.

57 TA 28.6-9; 186-216; 368^32b; TaSa 179M0; NASAP folio 135rl~6; PingM 20.5-18.
58 The myth: Sanderson 1985a, 215-16, n. 128 (sources); TAV 11 (28) 5 15-63. Ritual
procedure: NASAP folios 146rt>-49v7, paraphrased at HarCC 31.
59 TA 28.144c-145b; NASAP folio 135rl2.
60 NASAP folio 147rl5-v2.
61 Reparative oblations: ISGDP KP 13. 105c-107b; SvT 2.278-279b; NASAP folio
10412'13; AKP folio 40vl4-15; KK 4. 2687'8 and 28514-13; AKP folio 102rl-5. Reparative
samayavidvds: AKP folio 103r9-15; 105v5-9; KK 4, 3248-13; MNP (K) 1263-295.
62 KathGS 214; SrauKo 2i. 655.
32 A. SANDERSON

officiants as part of their incidental duties (naimittikam karma). We have

already seen that there were no Saiva counterparts of the Vedic sam-
skaras up to investiture (upanayanam) and marriage. Only when a person
had passed through these Vedic rites of qualification would he receive
the first and foremost of the Saiva samskaras, namely the initiation (diksa)
which qualified him for the study of the Tantras and the performance of
Tantric worship. In some respects initiation was parallel to the orthodox
investiture: both bestowed qualification to worship and study. But the
6aiva ritual was not equivalent to the Vedic, since it was added to it
rather than substituted for it. This distinction was less clear, however, in
the case of the secondary samskaras, for a Saiva underwent these in
place of the Vedic rites which he would have undergone if he had
received investiture alone. The first of these was the funerary rite
(ianryestihy antyasamskarah) which disposed of his body and ritual
implements63. The second was the Rite to Rescue the Dead [from the
hells] (mrtoddharah)6*. Unlike the former, which was performed as a
matter of course, the latter rite was performed only for the benefit of
individuals who had died impure deaths (by suicide, murder, certain
diseases, at ominous times etc.) or in a state of impurity caused by unex­
piated transgressions65. The smdrta counterpart of this is the Naraya-
nabali or Suryabali, which is performed for exactly the same classes of
individuals a year after their death. Its purpose is to rescue them from
the hells and make them fit to receive the funerary and post-funerary
rites which they have forfeited by the manner or circumstances of their
death. Those rites are then performed over the next few days. They begin
with a ritual of cremation (antyestih) in which a crude doll (parna-
purusah) takes the place of the now nonexistent corpse, and end with the
sapindikarana ritual in which the deceased (pretah) is incorporated as an
ancestor {pita)66.
While practice provided equivalents of the rituals of the smdrta tradition,
theory taught their superiority. Strictly speaking both the rite of cremation
and the Rescuing of the Dead (mrtoddharah) were forms of liberating
initiation. They were therefore believed to be operating on a very different
level from their smdrta equivalents, and to far greater effect67. In the

63 S$P 3, 568-618; ISGDP KP 62 (591-94«); KK 4, 205-209; TA 24.

64 NeT 18.112c-18 and commentary; TA 21.
65 TA 21.8; TAV 10(21) 217l7-185; NeTU 2 (18) 12113; TA 21.1 lc-12.
“ Mit 299I,-300B; NimS 392'-964. The text of the ritual; KK 4. 81-205.
67 TA 24.39 (antyesndiksa)\ 21.11a (mrtoddhan diksa).
 M EANING IN TANTR1C RITUAL 33

Šaiva cremation the individual’s body and ritual implements were in­
cinerated in the consecrated fire, just as they were in the smárta case, but
only after his soul (jlvah) had been caught, drawn in, reinstalled in his
corpse by means of the ritual of the Great Net (mahájálam), and liberated
by undergoing the ritual of initiation in this substrate. The same applied
in the Tantric Šaiva equivalent of the smárta Náráyanabali (/Suryabali).
Here too the promised outcome was final liberation, not mere incorporation
into the ancestral patrilineage (sapindlkaranam). The burning of the
surrogate body was similarly upgraded. While in the smárta rite it was
simply the ritual processing (samskárah) and disposal (pratipattih) of
the sacrificer’s body and implements (áyudham), here it was part of the
initiatory destruction of the bonds (pášah) which hold the omniscient
and omnipotent soul in the ignorance and impotence of the cycle of
births and deaths (samsárah)6*.

The theory o f the inferable Descent of Power

To perform these rituals the officiant was required as in regular in­
itiations to convince himself that he was proceeding in accordance with
Siva’s will. He had to be sure that the candidate had received the Descent
of Power (šaktipátah) by means of which Siva is believed to prepare a
soul for this liberating ritual. In normal circumstances the officiant could
consider himself justified in performing the ritual for a person if he had
seen the devotion (bhaktih) which was the minimum and standard proof
of this descent69. But evidently he could see no such proof in the case of
the dead.
Initiation after death was practised nonetheless. For it was argued that
it was permissible for the officiant to proceed in these circumstances if
he could infer that the descent had occurred, and that he could do so either
from the fact that he himself had particularly strong feelings of compassion
for the dead man, or from the fervour with which the candidate’s family
and friends sought his intervention70. The second possibility comes
down to this, that such “ initiations” could be done on request. But to

68 TÁ 21.39-40.
69 MP CP 4 .6 c -ll; TÁ 25.27-29b and commentary.
70 TÁ 14.22; 21.9c-l lb and commentary; 19.5ab and commentary. To suggest that it was
the size of the fee {daksina) promised for the performance of the ritual that was the pre­
ferred means of measuring this fervour might be thought unfair by some, though probably
not by those whose expectations have been formed by observing the behaviour of the
funerary priests of Benares.
34 A. SANDERSON

confess to seeing the matter in these terms would too flagrantly contradict
the model Saivism of the theorists. Evidently this argument that the
descent of grace may be inferred is a learned device designed to reconcile
what is indistinguishable from the function of a mere priest, and of a
priest for the dead at that, with the ideal image of the officiant as spiritual
guide.

Sraddha
If the Saiva tradition promised that the initiate would attain the com­
plete and final liberation of his soul at the time of death or, at the latest,
through these initiations after death, then surely they would have had no
reason to prescribe that he receive offerings thereafter? So, of the three
constituents of smdrta ritual, namely (i) the rites of passage (samska-
rah), (ii) the worship of the gods (<devapuja), and (iii) sraddha, the
presentation of food and other necessities to the departed (pretah) and
the ancestors (pita), the third at least should have found no Saiva parallel.
But to imagine that this would be the case is to make the mistake of ex­
pecting the ritual of a system to be entirely explicable in terms of its
theology and soteriology. For in spite of their professed doctrines the
Saiva officiants practised an exactly parallel and synonymous series of
post-funerary rituals: (i) the presentation of offerings to the departed
(pretah) during the first ten days after death ([dasahnika]siva[preta]-
kriya)1], (ii) the eighteen sraddhas performed for the departed during the
year after death (ekoddistasivasraddham) commencing on the eleventh
day at the end of the period of post-mortem impurity72, (iii) the sakta
Lamp sraddha (sivadipasraddham, saktasraddham)11 offered on the new
moon day of Kartika (October-November) or at an auspicious conjunction
during the months of Magha (January-February) or Phalguna (February-
March) in the year after the death74, (iv) the ritual for the incorporation
of the departed among the ancestors (saivasapindikaranam)75, and (v)
the annual sraddha (sdrnvatsarikasivasrdddham) offered thereafter to
this ancestor, his father, his father’s father and the wife of each76. These

71 KK 4, 299-312.
72 KK 4, 377-91.
73 KK 4, 410-52.
74 Mrt folio 22v2-6.
75 KK 4, 391-409.
76 KK 4, 313-377.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T RIC R ITUAL 35

correspond exactly to the stages of post-funerary observance in the pan-

Indian smarta tradition, with the exception of the Lamp sraddha; but
that too has its counterpart in the smarta tradition of Kashmir77.
Of course, even these Saiva equivalents, obviously exoteric though they
are, were suitably encoded to indicate to the learned that this apparent
equivalence of socio-ritual function was not to be confused with equiva­
lence of effect. So in the Vedic paradigm the deceased was addressed or
summoned in his exoteric identity as a member of the exogamous clan
(gotram) of brahmins into which he had been bom, or, if he was not a
brahmin, as a member of the clan of his domestic priest; but in the Saiva
sraddha he was named esoterically as the embodiment of one or other in
a hierarchical series of £iva-forms, and as a member of the clan of Siva or,
in the sakta Lamp sraddha, of Bhairava. Until he has been incorporated
as an ancestor the deceased is addressed in the ritual as a Rudra of the
clan of Siva or Bhairava (sivagotrolbhairavagotro rudrah). Once incor­
porated he rises to the status of an isvara of the clan of £iva (sivagotra
isvarah). Up to this moment the deceased’s father, grandfather and
great-grandfather have been Isvara, Sadasiva and Siva respectively. Now
that the deceased has become Isvara his father (the old Isvara) moves up
to become Sadasiva, his grandfather (hitherto Sadasiva) becomes Siva,
and his great-grandfather (hitherto Siva) disappears into the undifferent­
iated totality of higher ascendants. A wife ascends in step with her hus­
band. She is a RudranT (“ wife of Rudra”) until incorporation (sapindi-
karanam). Then she becomes first a BalavikaranI, then a BalapramathanI,
and finally a BhutadamanI78. These three are the highest of the eight
goddesses that surround the goddess ManonmanI on the thirty-second
cosmic level (suddhavidyatattvam), the first of those which make up the
pure (i.e. liberated) segment of the universe (suddhadhva)79. Isvara,
Sadasiva and Siva (the identities of their husbands) are the Siva forms
governing the levels above her, namely the thirty-third, the thirty-fourth
and the thirty-sixth. See Table II. So the ancestors have been translated
from their exoteric identities to the status of the highest deities.

77 KKKPaddh folio 203vl-.

78 KK 4, 391,3-924 etc.
79 iSGDP KP 17.217c-19b; SvT 10.1142c-1146b.
36 A. SA NDERSON

TABLE II.

The status o f the deceased and the a ncestors in Saiva p o st-funerary ritual

Ascendants Their wives Identities Correspondig tattvas

FaFaFa £iva Sivatattva (36th)

[Saktitattva (35th)]
FaFa Sadâéiva Sadâsivatattva (34th)
Fa T Isvara Isvaratattva (33rd)
Suddhavidyâ (32nd)
FaFaFaWi Bhütadamanî Bhütadamanî
FaFaWi BalapramathanT BalapramathanT
Mo T BalavikaranT BalavikaranT

[Màyàtattva (31st)]
pretah T Rudra
(deceased Fa)
prêta T Rudrânî
(deceased Mo)

Even so, the translation preserves the hierarchical structure of the Vedic
paradigm; and to this extent it is obviously artificial. For there is no
theological justification for the implications (i) that a Saiva is liberated
by gradually ascending after death through these four levels, from the
status of a Rudra to that of a 6iva, (ii) that the speed of his ascent
depends on the lifespan of his descendants, (iii) that a wife’s liberation
is tied to that of her husband, and (iv) that it is tied to it in such a way
that she always lags behind him, maintaining even here the respectful
dependence which was hers in life. On the contrary, these implications
contradict the professed doctrine that all individuals who have received
initiation for liberation attain their goal as soon as they die.

The doctrine of the reconcilers: ritual as mere duty

We have seen that the shared base of the right and the left of Saivism
was a doctrine of salvation through rites. To be a Saiva (and therefore
 M EA N IN G IN TA N TRJC R ITUAL 37

bound for liberation) it was not necessary to cultivate a particular form

of gnostic insight or undergo any kind of spiritual transformation acces­
sible to introspection or observable by others. Such self-cultivation was
practised by an élite and the existence of this élite was no doubt the
pride of the many; but for the latter it was enough that they had passed
through a special rite of qualification beyond the common investiture
and, if competent to do so, now conformed to a special system of ritual
and discipline beyond that of the ordinary Hindu. It was their ritual
rather than their spiritual life that was intensified. In this respect they
stand comparison with the Srautins, who substituted the solemn srauta
rituals prescribed in the primary revelation (srutih) for the less demanding
smârta programme of the secondary texts (smrtih). So while the Saivism
of the scriptures and of the postscriptural theorists may have been a cult
for the salvation of the spiritually motivated individual prepared to
transcend the security of his exoteric identity, there was nothing in the
compulsory core of this cult which demanded any unusual capacity of
mind, imagination or emotion; and therefore there was nothing to prevent
its being perpetuated through agnatic lines as a matter of duty and family
tradition. If this process of domestication and routinization created tensions
between the resulting practice and traditional soteriology, that was a
problem for the theorists; and it seems, to judge from their theory of in­
ferable grace (saktipàtah), that their need for consistency was easily
satisfied.
We have also seen that in spite of the doctrine that the Tantric Saiva
rituals operate on an entirely different level, they are nonetheless parallel
or equivalent in their form and social function to those of the Vedic
tradition. It is not surprising therefore that at least some of those who
practiced the Saiva system should have been indifferent to or even denied
its theoretical superiority, in order to claim simple parity with the non-
Tantric orthopraxy. Witness the attitude which Georg Biihler encountered
when he was working among the Saivas of Kashmir in 1877. He wrote:
My acquaintances were either unable or unwilling to tell me the purpose o f
their Saiva mysteries. They said that they did not consider them to be a spe­
cial road to heaven or to final liberation, nor particularly to add to their
sanctity. But they thought that it was better to be initiated, as it has been the
custom o f the country from time immemorial80.

80 Bühler 1877, 24.

38 A. SANDERSON

It might be thought that this attitude was limited to recent times. But
Bhatta Ramakantha is already aware of it c. AD 975, when Saiva learning
was at its height. He claims to have written his commentary on the Ma-
tafigapdramesvardgama partly to defend that scripture from the mis­
interpretations to which it had been subjected by those who wished to
dilute the teachings of the Siddhanta by reconciling them with the
Veda81; and it would seem to be these reconcilers that he has in mind
later in that work when he attacks unidentified opponents for adopting
the view of the theorists of Vedic ritual when claiming that a Saiva per­
forms his various obligatory rituals for no other purpose than to obey the
texts which command their performance82. This is indeed the theory of
the purpose of Vedic ritual current among the anti-Tantric exegetes of
the Veda. More specifically it is that of the Prabhakara school of Ml-
mamsa. For while the rival Kaumarila or Bhatta school held that the per­
formance of obligatory ritual was at least motivated by a desire to avoid
the negative karmic consequences of omission83, the Prabhakaras re­
fused to allow even this consideration to intervene between the cognition
of a Vedic prescription in its text and its realization in action, holding
that the correct perception of these texts was that they conveyed duty per
se {svatahkdryata)u .
The problem for Bhatta Ramakantha was that those Saivas who looked
upon their ritual in this light were bringing it down to the level of the rest
of inherited brahminical obligation. But they could do this only because
Saivism had penetrated to this level in practice. Their error, it might be
said, was simply that they did not adorn this fact with one or other of the
traditional theories of Tantric ritual which claimed that it activated and
expressed a higher, esoteric selfhood which exists behind or within the
social personhood which the lifelong practice of this or that system of
obligatory ritual and observance establishes and maintains.

The doctrine of the right

These theories, which we shall now consider, required the initiate to

understand that the work of Saiva ritual begins where that of the exoteric

81 MPV VP 1 (v.4a).
82 MPV KP 6 6 ^ (reading nisprayojanam eva coditarx'dt with the Kashmirian MSS).
83 SloVa Sambandhdksepaparihdra llOcd.
84 NayaR 10'-3*,4"18; PraPranc 445MI; Manubh 1, 56^7.
 M EA N IN G IN TANTR1C R ITUAL 39

religion of the Veda ends. He was to believe that Tantric initiation is

necessary, not because it was expected of him, but because the practice
of the non-Tantric religion alone was not capable of leading him to com­
plete liberation85. In this view the best that could be expected of the fol­
lower of the lower, exoteric path was that by worshipping Siva (/Rudra)
with the Vedic or Puránic rites he might win Siva’s favour in the form
of the awareness that his spiritual perfection was incomplete. Intuiting
the presence of the higher bondage of the soul known only to the Saivas
he might then seek the Saiva initiation which alone could release him
from it86.
The idea that the perfection of the self achievable by the Vedic rites is
incomplete was certainly not alien to the Vedic tradition itself. It was a
cardinal tenet of the Vedántins, and of the neo-MImamsakas under their
influence. Liberation, they argued, could be achieved only as the knowl­
edge of a selfhood which transcends the individual agent and therefore
the domain of action87. The performance of the obligatory rituals pre­
scribed by the Vedic texts could therefore do no more than decontaminate
awareness in preparation for this more radical depersonalization88. But the
Siddhánta’s transcendence of the self of orthodox ritual was of an en­
tirely different kind. It rejected the notion that liberation could be brought
about by enlightenment, by mere knowledge. Knowledge could liberate
only if man’s state of bondage in samsára were simply an error or illusion.
It argued that while unliberated existence is indeed characterized by er­
roneous views, the ultimate cause of this ignorance is Impurity (malam).
Now this Impurity was not some transcendental Illusion in the style of
the nondualistic Vedanta of Mandanamiára and Sankara, but rather a
pervasive, unperceived material substance (dravyam). So long as an in­
dividual is not ripe for liberation Siva will cause this Impurity to con­
taminate him, preventing him from realizing that in his real nature he is
an omniscient and omnipotent being equal to Siva himself. But when
Siva sees that a soul is ready for release he will restrain the power of this
Impurity and show his favour in the form of the Descent of Power (sak-
tipátah). This will reveal the individual to an officiant as fit to receive
the initiation through which Siva will grant him release. Knowledge
alone could not liberate him, whether it arose by the power of the in­

85 NÍPP 20912-21414.
86 MPV VP 618-8n , 1016"19, 94M.
87 BraSQBh on 3.4.16 and 3.4.25-26.
88 BraSQBh on 3.4.26; BháCint 44'4' 18.
40 A. SANDERSON

dividual himself or by the favour of Siva, precisely because this Impurity is

a material substance (dravyam). Siva-inspired knowledge might reveal the
existence of Impurity, as a man may realize that his sight is impaired by
a cataract, but just as this cataract can be removed only through surgical
intervention, so Impurity will remain until it is physically destroyed by
the appropriate action (vyaparah). This action is the ritual of Tantric
Saiva initiation revealed by Siva in his scriptures89.
What then was the purpose of the rituals which the competent were
obliged to perform after initiation? The theorists of the Siddhanta did
provide an answer to this question, though one may well doubt that it
played a larger part in motivating the average initiate than the desire to
avoid the greater inconvenience of reparation, loss of esteem, or punish­
ment after death. We have seen that the Saivas accommodated the fact
that initiation causes no evident spiritual transformation by having the
bond-destroying mantras spare those past acts which are already in the
process of fruition (arabdhakaiya-) as the initiand's current incarnation.
Now since this residue of karma would surely be exhausted simply by
his living out the rest of his life, it might be objected that there would be
no purpose in any further religious activity. Such subversive thinking
would have left the Saiva with no alternative but to equalize his ritual
with the Vedic by offering one of the exoteric theories of the purpose of
ritual mentioned above, were it not for the following argument. The
fruition of one’s already active karma would be impossible, it was real­
ized, if initiation had not also left intact (i) some small portion of the
Impurity which it destroys, and (ii) the bond of Maya (mdyapasah). For
the Kashmirian Saiddhantikas the latter constitutes the subtle body (pu-
ryastakam). Formed from elements of each of the evolutes of the cosmic
matter (mayo) which is the material cause of the impure universe it
serves as the vehicle of the bound soul’s experience on these levels. It
was argued that without this and some residue of Impurity the initiate
would be unable to remain incarnate. It was not enough, therefore, that
the individual should live out his natural life. That would exhaust the
store of his acts but it would not eliminate the bond of Maya and the
residue of Impurity which would permit this exhaustion. So the theorists
of the Siddhanta had found a positive purpose for the performance of the
obligatory rituals beyond that of obedience to sacred prescription. These

89 MoKa 47c-68; MPV KP 2 I(M9; VP 27,9-288; N1PP 254n -2552; MoKa 25c-32b;
SvTU 3 (5) 8410-862; TA 13.41c-52.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T R IC R ITUAL 41

regular rituals after initiation were to be seen as gradually eliminating

the soul’s residual imperfections, so that the initiate would experience
the full manifestation of his innate equality with Siva at death without
further delay or hindrance90. This theory certainly succeeds in explaining
how Saiva ritual is superior to the smarta. For if it were accepted that
post-initiatory worship completes the effect of initiation there could be
no doubting that this worship operates on a level far above that of the
daily cult of the gods which is its smarta counterpart.
Now it might be argued that any initiate’s awareness of the superiority of
his ritual depended on his knowing this theory, and that the ritual itseff
could therefore be experienced in the same way as its non-Tantric
counterpart, that is, as prescribed action meaningless in itself. To hold
the opinions of Buhler’s informants or Bhatta Ramakantha’s unnamed
opponents would therefore be to forget or reject a certain academic
theory rather than to be oblivious of a message conveyed by the live text
of the ritual itself. Aware of the fact that obligatory ritual is drawn
ineluctably towards mechanical action whose only meaning is the status
or title it confers on its performers, aware too, perhaps, that mere theory
about ritual is a poor substitute for expression in it, the theorists of the
Siddhanta insisted that the efficacy of the obligatory ritual depended in
part on the performer’s empathy, saying that while it is as mere action
(vyaparah) that ritual reduces day by day the substance (draiyam) which
is the remnant of Impurity, it is only if this action is also cognitive that
it can work at the same time on the bond of Maya (mayapasah). For this
cognitive element the Siddhanta seizes on the process in which the initiate
transforms himself into Siva at the beginning of his daily obligatory
worship, extracting his soul from his body, visualizing the destruction of
that body, meditating on the pure and impartible self that remains, re-
clothing that self with the body of Siva by installing the mantras (man-
tranydsah) which constitute it on specified points on his own limbs, and,
finally, meditating on himself as the deity. The Siddhanta maintained that
it is by repeatedly enacting this process of self-transformation in the daily
round of ritual that the initiate gradually eliminates the false identification
of his self with the gross and subtle bodies which constitutes the bond of
Maya. In other words he is believed to be destroying this bond by staging
in advance the manifestations of Sivaness (sivatvabhivyaktih) which will

90 MPV KP 663"14; MrgV KP 202' 10 (for bhogatah [207] read bhogah with MS C); MPV
KP 220-232; MPV VP 567'*-5685; STrifKV 126,0-".T he subtle body: STriSKV 126*7
42 A. SANDERSON

characterize his liberation91. It follows from this that the initiate was
required to believe that his obligatory ritual would achieve its effect only
if it were the conscious enactment of that effect.
I said above that a tradition would be looking on its ritual as meaningful
in a strong sense if it saw the actions it comprises as achieving their
purpose by expressing and evoking in the performer a salvatory awareness
of reality. Since it would be sound £aiva theology to say that the performer
really is the Siva whose manifestation he enacts, whether this be in terms
of identity (sivaikatmyam) or equality (sivatulyata), it would appear that
the theorists of the Siddhanta did consider their ritual to be meaningful
in this strong sense. However, this conclusion will be valid only if they
held that the enactment of Sivaness is effective as knowledge, as the
communication of the fact of this Sivaness to the worshipper’s mind. I
suggest that the Siddhanta did not go this far, but remained true to the
ritualistic orientation evident in most areas of its theorizing by seeing
this cognitive process as a variety of action {karma) rather than knowl­
edge (jnanam). The thinking which the theorists of the Siddhanta had in
mind was not the cognition of a fact but a kind of mental work which
produces a result through effort. It is seen as imagination with the power
to cross from the imaginary {kalpanikam) to the real (satyam), so tran­
scending the dichotomy between these domains which marks the world
on which ritual works92. It is certainly the case that the effect, namely
Sivaness, is made present in the mind of the ritual agent; but this is not
because his ritual has become cognition of fact (siddham) — in this
instance, recognition of self — but rather because it is the nature of
Tantric ritual to realize in this way what is desired and not yet existent
(sadhyam). In this respect the obligatory ritual of the liberation seeker is
no different from the appetitive rituals of the sadhaka. In the logic of
ritual action Sivaness is just as much something to be achieved {sadhyam)
as are the lower accomplishments {siddhih) such as appeasement (santih),
subjugation {vasikaranam) and liquidation {maranam). The sadhaka
transforms himself into the deity. He assumes the ego {ahahkarah) of
the deity and inflects it in this way or that depending on the result he
desires. His ritual activates a specific aspect of divine agency, which he
takes on and directs as the agent of the ritual. The seeker of liberation

91 MPV VP 511y9\ STriSKV 289*'0; cf. SvTU 1 (2) 2413-252; 1 (3) 168M 698. Detailed
accounts of mental worship: Mrg KP 3.4-11; SvT 2.33-55b; MVUT 8.18-49; TA 15.233-
288b.
92 Cf. MrgV KP 20219.
 MEANING IN TANTR1C RITUAL 43

uses the same ritual form. But because he has renounced all the goals of
action his ritual lacks that form's intentionality. While becoming Siva is
instrumental for the sadhaka, it must be the end itself for the seeker of
liberation. In other words, the effect enacted by ritual for liberation is
being Siva or being Siva-like, rather than being Siva or Siva-like as the
agent of this or that desired object.
This purpose is an integral part of the text of Tantric ritual. It has not
been superimposed by theory. This does not mean, of course, that it is
impossible to perform the ritual without internalizing this purpose. Even
the meditation that one is Siva may be experienced simply as the perfor­
mance of an enjoined action. Indeed once such spiritual elements are
parts of obligatory ritual it is only by a more or less supererogatory
effort that they are kept alive. The Siddhanta proceeds to this end by
arguing that such an effort is essential to the purpose of the ritual. It
attempts to keep the ritual on the level of effective imagination leading
to a liberation which is positively desired, and thereby keeps in focus the
belief that Saiva ritual is essentially superior to the smarta tradition.
This, we may suspect, was for the benefit of a community in which
this original spirit of Tantric ritual had been largely ritualized by family
tradition.

The doctrine of the left

The theories of the left were also concerned to resist the drift towards
parity with the ritual of the smarta tradition. But just as the left departed
further from the behavioural norms of that tradition, so these theories
were of a more radical nature and more firmly backed by prescription.
As might be expected in a theology which maintained a form of non-
dualistic idealism the left admitted no cause of liberation other than
knowledge (jhanam). Knowledge destroys the ignorance which alone is
the cause of bondage (bandhah). As in the Siddhanta, this ignorance is
of two kinds. Firstly there is the conceptual ignorance proper to the mind
(bauddham ajhdnam). This takes the form of not knowing what one
really is and of believing that one is something which one is not. But there
is also the deeper ignorance which is the soul’s state (paurusam ajha-
nam). In the Siddhanta it is because of this that the individual {anuh, pasuh)
transmigrates from incarnation to incarnation subject to the conse­
quences of his past actions {karma). In the doctrine of the left, however,
44 A. SANDERSON

this preconceptual ignorance is more than the motor of the individual’s

experience. It constitutes individuality itself. For there are no souls in
this system, no souls in the Siddhanta’s sense of essentially individual
entities which are either in bondage or liberated. To be individual and to
experience transmigration are a single property of consciousness sponta­
neously manifested in consciousness by consciousness: contraction in
the form of the projection of a universe of interacting but independent
subjects and objects. This entailed a second and more fundamental dif­
ference in doctrine. For the Siddhanta preconceptual ignorance or ab­
sence of knowledge (paurusam ajnanam) is the effect of a substance
outside consciousness, namely Impurity (malam). But in the nondualism
of the left there can. of course, be nothing outside consciousness: limitation
has to be explained as self-limitation. The category of Impurity, however,
was too central to the entire corpus of Saiva scriptures to be eliminated
altogether from the metaphysics of the left. Instead it was dematerialized
and conflated with its effect. Impurity was now the state of contraction
itself, not its independent and unconscious cause; and this in turn was no
more than the belief ihdX one is contracted (apurnammanyata). Because
of this misconception one taints oneself with the impressions (vasana) of
good and bad actions (karmamalam, i.e. subhasubhakarmavasana) and
therefore continues to project the appropriate Teal world’ in which one
may experience and create one’s destiny (mayxyamalam, i.e. bhin-
navedyapratha).
Just as ignorance is of two kinds, so is knowledge (jhanam). There is
the higher, nondualistic knowledge proper to the ‘soul’ {paurusam
jhanam) which is the directly experienced absence of contraction; and
there is the intellectual, conceptual formulation of the absolute state and
reality (bauddham jhanam). Conscious formulation is not simply the
effect of the soul’s true state. Intellectual ignorance is a reflex of con­
tracted consciousness; but it may also intensify that contraction. In the
same way fully expanded consciousness (paurusam jhanam) expresses
itself in nondualistic formulations of reality (bauddham jhanam), as in
the scriptures; but consciousness may also be brought to this expansion
by immersion in the contemplation of such formulations93.
The first consequence of this model is that ritual ceases to be essential
to the attainment of liberation. Since Impurity is not a material substance

93 Knowledge, ignorance and impurity: TA 1.23-51 and commentary; TaSa 25-56; TA

9.62-87; 13.1-129b; SvTU 3 (5) 84,0-997.
 M EANING IN TANTRIC RITUAL 45

outside consciousness but an ignorance within it. there is now nothing

but this ignorance impeding one’s salvation. This cancels the Siddhanta's
view that liberation depends on ritual. For that view was based on the
premise that the cause of bondage is not ignorance itself but Impurity as
the physical cause of ignorance. Only if that premise is accepted can it
be argued that there is something unique in the nature of ritual which
makes it indispensable as the means of liberation, namely that it is action
(vyápárah) and therefore capable of working on this material impediment
where knowledge could only indicate its existence.
The Trika and the Krama were certainly concerned with ritual. But
they saw it as the path of those who have not been purified by the
Descent of Power (saktipátah) in its most intense manifestations94. Some
individuals, it is claimed, attain spontaneous enlightenment (which in the
left is. of course, identical with liberation) without any external stimulus;
and it may be that this expansion of consciousness is so overpowering that
they can no longer remain in their bodies. Others may attain sudden self-
realization without the assistance of a guru or the teachings of scriptures
but are able to live on to enlighten others, since in their case the Descent
has been slightly less intense. The enlightenment of such uninitiated and
unconsecrated gurus may remain absolutely firm. But in others it may
begin to vacillate, achieving stability gradually or suddenly only with
the help of reasoning (yuktih), scripture {sastram), the teaching of a
guru, or some other stimulus95.
This view that the highest gurus achieve their status and liberation
without recourse to ritual was in flagrant conflict with the central principle
of the common core of áaiva doctrine. The left, therefore, had to disguise
its heresy; and it did so by claiming that such gurus far from being un­
initiated have actually received a higher kind of initiation. While the
ordinary candidate must pass through a ritual conducted by a con­
secrated officiant, these mystics (jñání) are empowered directly by Siva
himself96, as was believed to happen in the case of souls awaiting release
in worlds (bhuvanam) other than ours97. As for the ritual of consecration
(abhisekah), in which an initiate is raised to the office (adhikarah) of
officiant (ácáryah) by having water impregnated with the power of the

94 TÁ 2.34-38; 3.288-90b; MNP 1.7-29a.

95 TA 4.39-68 and commentary; 13.130-216 and commentary.
96 TÁV 1 (1) 8010-8110; PT 25; TÁ 13.141.
97 S á P 3 , 1.5-7.
46 A. SANDERSON

relevant set of mantras poured over him, this too is accomplished, we are
told, within the mystic himself “by the goddesses embodied as his own
internal awareness”98. The goddesses take the place of the young girls
(kumari) who pour the empowering water on to the candidate’s head in
the cults of the left99. The action, though attributed to the goddesses, is
really Siva’s — just as the girls are directed by the officiant — since
they are the personification of his Powers.
Those who are not favoured with a Descent of Power of such intensity
will achieve liberation only by taking refuge in a guru, coming to him
through their own inspiration (p r a t i b h a ) or under the influence of a
spiritual friend (k a ly a n a m itra m )100. But even among these there are those
whom the resulting initiation liberates immediately and definitively. Nor
is it necessary that this sudden transformation of consciousness should
come about through initiation in its conventional ritual form. Initiation
here may be the guru’s oral teaching (k a th a n a m ), a silent transmission
(s a m k r a m a n a m ), his glance or touch, the unflinching acceptance and
consumption of a sacramental impurity, and other direct and powerful
stimuli of this order101.
So the first consequence of the left’s soteriological model is that
liberation can be attained without ritual. The second is that if ritual is to
be a means to liberation at all its purpose can no longer be discovered in
the fact that it is concrete action as opposed to mere knowledge. Since
Impurity has been dematerialized, ritual must work on ignorance itself;
and to do this it must be a kind of knowing.
We have already seen that it is a fundamental principle of the left’s
soteriology that discursive (savikalpaka-) formulation of the self’s true
nature can lead eventually to its nondiscursive (nirvikalpaka-) realization
(saksdtkarah). It is believed that the thought (vikalpah) of the nondual
reality of consciouness can be so intensified through constant reiteration
that it obliterates all other awareness and finally throws off its dualizing
nature to become the enlightened nondual consciouness which until then
has been its object102.

98 TA 13.142a; TAV 3 (4) 57M13 (on TA 4.49-50. = PT 18 and 25abc‘).

99 JY 1, folio 126v4-5 (19.110-112b); JY 4, folio 230v6-231r4 (mahdlaksmyddisid-
dhipatala 36-45).
100 TAV 8 (13) 1403'7.
I0' TA 13.227c-29b.
102 TA 4.2-12.
 M EA N IN G IN TANTR1C R ITU A L 47

The performance of ritual is fitted into this perspective, as the resort

of those who cannot achieve this self-transformation through thought
alone103. They must begin the process one step further out from the goal,
by descending into action (kriya), the grossest of the powers of con­
sciousness. But in so doing they do not move out from the domain of
knowledge. They are to see themselves as practising the same perfecting
of the thought of reality (vikalpasamskárah), but in the less subtle medium
of meaningful action. A substratum of action in the concrete sphere of
individualized consciousness supports the process of awareness and
enables it to develop in intensity104.
The deity is to be equated with the nondual consciousness which the
worshipper seeks to realize as his ultimate identity. The act of worship is
to be seen as the contemplation of that identity and therefore as capable
of leading to enlightenment through repetition culminating in direct real­
ization105. Evidently, then, the left's analysis makes ritual meaningful in
the strong sense defined above: its purpose is to express and evoke in
the performer a salvatory awareness of ultimate reality.
This doctrine that ritual is a liberating process of self-contemplation
was encoded as far as possible into the constituent phases and details of
worship. The whole text of the ritual was thereby transformed into a
series of variations on the theme of nonduality and the nondualization of
awareness. Since the ritual procedures are virtually identical in all the
Tan trie Saiva traditions — differences are of the deities, mantras, mandalas
and other such particulars rather than of the basic ritual structure — this
nondualistic exegesis was easily extended from the Trika to the adjacent
cults of Svacchandabhairava and Netranatha through Ksemaraja’s com­
mentaries on their Tantras. One may add that it was also extended in
time to the Kashmirian and south Indian literature of the cult of the god­
dess Tripurasundan, the most influential and widespread of the Tantric
traditions in medieval and modem India. But this colonization was not
only on the level of what these systems had in common. It extended
beyond this into what was particular to each. The deities, mantras and
the rest, which together differentiate one cult from another, were over-
coded to reveal beneath their surface the doctrines and categories of the
Trika or, through the Trika, of the Krama, which earlier had impressed
itself on to the Trika in the same way.

103 TÁ 5.3-4.
104 TÁ 1.231-40.
105 TÁ 15.267c-71b.
48 A. SANDERSON

Meaning in the common ritual structure

The nonduality of the factors of action

The meaning attributed to the common ritual structure was itself on two
levels. The first was expressed in the theory of the nonduality of the
factors of action (kdrakah). These factors are the participants in the action
described by a sentence. So in the example ‘In the place of worship I
gratify the deities on the earthen platform (sthandilam) with liquor from
the chalice’ we have the agent of the action (karta), its object (karma
[the deities]), its instrument (karanam [liquor]), its point of ablation
(apadanam [the chalice]), and its two substrates (adhikaranam), that of
the agent (the place of worship) and that of the object (the earthen
platform)106.
Since the act of worship must involve perceiving its factors as distinct
entities, surely it is hostile to the awareness of nonduality which the left
declares to be the purpose of ritual? This was certainly the view of ritual in
the Vedic nondualism of Mandanamisra and Sankara. For them ritual
and knowledge were entirely incompatible because the first rests on the
conviction that the factors, the action (kriya) and its result {phalam) are
independent entities capable of connexion, while the object of the second is
a nondual Absolute, knowledge of which reveals that the plurality of
these elements was the product of ignorance (avidya)101.
However, the expanded consciousness which is the Absolute of the
Saiva left did not exclude the plurality (bhedah) and sequence (kramah)
of action. For it was defined as that which projects itself as this plural and
sequential reality while retaining the nonduality and timeless simultaneity
of the consciousness which is its inner ground. So, while all appearance
is binding in the nondualism of Mandanamisra and Sankara, it may either
bind or liberate in the dynamic nondualism of Abhinavagupta and Kse-
maraja. It will do the first only if its presence is not recognized as the
dynamism natural to the light of consciousness. It will do the second as
soon as this recognition has been established. The cognition and action
which previously obscured the real identity of the individual now illustrate
its all-pervading and unobscurable power. Liberation in life (jivanmuktih)

106 TA 15.158c-60 and commentary; SvTU 1 (2) 8715*20.

107 BraSuBh on 3.4.16; BraSi 22,M:.
 M EA N IN G IN TANTR1C RITU A L 49

is just this perception of the dynamic unity of consciousness in each of

its self-obscurations108.
So the fact that Tantric ritual is action and therefore entails awareness
of distinct factors cannot by itself disqualify it from being a means of
realizing nonduality so defined. The important issue here is that of how
these distinctions are perceived; and the left argues that the Tantric form
of worship is designed precisely to provoke the worshipper into perceiv­
ing them correctly. For, it points out, each factor enters the act of worship
only after passing through a rite of qualification {samskarah) in which it
is made to abandon its secular and separate nature. S n ia n a and s ra u ta
ritual also pretransforms whatever is to be a factor in sacred action; but
here the process is nothing less than the infusion of the mantras that con­
stitute the tangible essence of the deity itself. To be made fit to participate
in the cult of the deity is to be transformed into the deity, or in nondual-
istic terms, to be realized as the deity, so that the proper awareness of the
worshipper should be that he Siva worships Siva with Siva on Siva etc.109
Tantric ritual can therefore be interpreted as presenting the initiate with a
model of the Absolute which he is to realize as his true identity.
It might be argued that this unification of the factors in ritual is pointless
since ritual forms only a small part of the initiate's life. Abhinavagupta
replies110:
Once the entire set of factors has been transformed into Siva in the para­
digm (udaharanam) of ritual it goes on to pervade all one’s secular actions
[in the same unity]. For just as a [properly disciplined] horse will stay
within the bounds of its training when it is given free rein, even in the midst
of battle, so one who has identified the factors with Siva through the con­
stant repetition of the act of worship ceases to see them as separate [in any
of his actions] whether he is in motion or at rest Anyone who devotes him­
self entirely to the practice of unity in this way will experience this universe
suddenly and overwhelmingly revealing itself [in its true nature], seeming to
dance ecstatically in the violent impact of [penetration by] its unbounded
Siva nature. (...) What further goal remains for those who offer worship
only to attain this trance in which they penetrate the universe as Siva in his
fullest expansion? They are already fulfilled. They are already Sivas.
So it is that ritual — the infusion of mantras (nyasah), the worship of the
deities, and the rest — can lead to the ultimate goal without [independent
cultivation of] gnosis {jhanam) or yogic states iyogah). For provided it is per­
formed in this way it will bestow the realization of one’s identity [with Siva].

108 M W 1.628-31 {paramddvayam)\ MNP 9.68.

109 T A V 9 (15) 21017' 18.
1,0 TA 15.148-51, 153-55b.
50 A. SANDERSON

The interpretation of the stages of the ritual

The second level of meaning in the common ritual structure is
achieved by interpreting the stages of the ritual.
While explaining how the thought of reality can be transformed into
direct realization without the support of a substrate in action. Abhina-
vagupta takes up the topic of what he calls ‘true {yastava-, akalpita-)
worship’. By this he means worship translated into purely cognitive terms
so that the various stages of ‘artificial' (kalpita-) ritual are divested of
their concrete reality to subsist in thought alone as so many modes of
cultivating enlightened awareness. It is unnecessary to catalogue all
these translations here, especially since, as with most other methods of
interpretation in the Sanskrit tradition, it is not assumed that there is only
one valid reading. Abhinavagupta himself offers one set of translations
in his Tantraloka and quite another in the parallel passage of his
TantrasaraU]. The only limitation is that an interpretation should fit the
metaphysics of the exegesis. Merely by way of example, then, I quote
the following passage from the former, in which Abhinavagupta alludes
to the sequence of (i) ablution (snanam), (ii) the pouring of libations
(tarpanam) to the deities, ancestors and the rest, (iii) the bath in ashes
(,bhasmasnanam), (iv) the visualization of the body and other more subtle
levels of self-projection being destroyed by fire, (v) the imposition of the
transcendental ‘body’ (murtih) in their place, and its development
through the imposition of the pantheon of mantras (mantranyasah),
(vi) the worship of this deified self by placing flowers and the like on the
‘aperture of Brahma’ (brahmarandhram) at the crown of the head (‘self-
worship’ [atmayagah]), and (vii) the presentation of offerings to the
deities on the earthen platform (sthandilam) or in their idols (lihgam)u l :
[Ablution:] Cleansed by joyfully immersing him self in this universe brim­
ming with the <liquid>/<bliss> (rasah) o f his awareness, [Libations:] he
should gratify the entire sequence of the cosmic hierarchies. [Ash-bath:] The
bath [which follows] is the immersion of his body and other [levels of con­
tracted selfhood] in the ‘white ash' which remains of the universe when he
has incinerated it in the fire of his expansive awareness. [Visualization o f the
burning o f the body, etc.:] When he has performed the rites o f ablution and
gratified the infinite deities in this way he should ‘purify’ the levels of reality
(tattvam) which have given rise to his body [and the rest].

1,1 TA 4.114c-212; TaSa 256-31n (for tatha ubhayatmaka- [267] read laxhyahrdayai-
maka-).
112 TA 4.115c-22.
 MEANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 51

[Imposition o f the ‘body’ and pantheon o f mantras:] True impurity is the

idea that these [contracted entities] are other than Siva, even though they
are identical with him. True purification is the obliteration o f this idea. So
he com es to see that his ‘b ody’ contains nothing but consciousness, that it
is free o f duality; and so he rests omnipotent in the autonomy o f pure
awareness. [Self-worship:] Whatever delights his mind in any o f the fields
o f the senses is then ‘placed’ <in the light of the real which is
Brahma>/<upon that place o f nectar which is [the aperture of] Brahma>m .
For it is thus that it becom es a true offering [to the circle o f the powers o f
consciousness]. [Making offerings:] A s for the presentation o f offerings to
the deities {puja), in its true form this is the reunion o f the alienated total­
ity of phenomena with the autonomous, pure and infinite self which is the
consciousness o f Bhairava.

Those who are believed to be capable of attaining liberation through

the practice of such contemplations are those who having received a
Descent of Power (s a k tip a ta h ) of the greatest intensity are said to
achieve the status of gurus without recourse to the usual rituals of in­
itiation and consecration. The charge that their title is therefore void was
turned aside, as we have seen, by the claim that they are unconsecrated
only in appearance, the empowering ritual having been accomplished with­
out the mediation of an officiant by the goddesses present within them as
the powers of their own consciousness. In fact these contemplations are
given by Abhinavagupta as the modes of this self-empowerment. And
this is why they are expressed in the language of ritual: the title of gurus
who have not been qualified for their office by the usual ritual of con­
secration is strengthened by expressing the process of their qualification
as the true ritual in relation to which the external ritual undergone by the
majority of the left’s gurus and by all those of the right is artificial.
The principal inspiration of this language of higher ritual in the Trika
and its colonies is the Krama. The sequence of external rites (pujakramah)
is transformed into the liberating contemplation of the natural cycle of the
Goddess Cognition (samvitkramah) which is the special practice of that
tradition. So Abhinavagupta explains that his ‘presentation of offerings to
the deities’ {puja), namely the reunion of alienated objectivity with the pure
subjectivity established by the preliminaries (from ‘ablution’ onwards), is
the contemplation of the fact that reality is pervaded by the twelve Kails of
the Krama’s Sequence of the Nameless (andkhyakramah)U4, that is to say,

113 Cf. parallel MVV 2.124.

1,4 TA4.121c-24.
52 A. SANDERSON

by the Goddess as she manifests herself without diminution or increase

of her power in the twelve moments of manifestation, from the initial
projection of objectivity in consciousness to the final dissolution of the
subjectivity which sustains that awareness into the egoless light of non-
duality115.
Such translated Tantric ritual informed the self-perception of an élite
within the Trika which absolved itself of the need for mere ceremonies.
But at the same time this élite projected these translations back on to
ritual itself, as a means of exhorting the less powerfully inspired to point
their ritual in its direction by empowering it with these Krama-based
contemplations.
The resulting subtext of deeper awareness (vàsanàkramah) and inner
meaning is not complete. The works of Abhinavagupta and Ksemaràja
provide keys to the main phases of the action — ablution, the prelimi­
naries transformations of the worshipper, the presentation of offerings,
the recitation of the mantras and the gratification of the deities in the fire
(homah) — but only sporadically interpret the various actions which
make up these phases. Ksemaràja, for example, tells the worshipper of
Svacchandabhairava that when he cleans the chalice, fills it with liquid
and asperges the offerings from it at the beginning of the external cult,
he is ‘freeing it of the extraneous substances which are duality’ (bhe-
dasalyàpanayanam), ‘causing it to embody the whole universe’ {asesa-
visvamayîbhàvanam) and ‘consubstantiating the offerings with the light
[of consciousness]’ (tejomayatvàpàdanam)U6\ but he does not offer us
the meanings of, for example, any of the thirteen actions which purify
the fire-pit (kundasamskàrah) in preparation for the fire-sacrifice
{homah), saying only that all serve to identify the pit with the Supreme
Lord in his aspect as the Power of Action {kriyâsaktih)u l, an identity
established not by tendentious interpretation, as in the case of the actions
with the chalice, but by the fact that the pit is addressed as the embodiment
of that Power in the mantra with which it receives offerings after these
purifying acts have been completed118.
Later authors, particularly in south India, following the lead and
principles of their Kashmirian models attempted somewhat more com­
prehensive and continuous interpretations. Notable in this respect are the

M5 TÂ 4.125-180b.
1.6 SvTU 1 (2) 891'3, 905.
1.7 SvTU 1 (2) 99,3-10017.
1.8 SvTU 1 (2) 1013; KK 4, 2472: om kriyàsakryàtmane kundàya namah.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 53

Subhagodayavasana of Sivananda and the Cidvilasa of Amrtanandanatha.

By way of example I shall translate part of the latter. The author runs
through the following sequence within daily worship: ablution (sndnam),
the veneration of the Juncture (samdhyavandanani), the offering to the Sun
(suryopasthanam), approaching the shrine, protecting one's person (at-
maraksa), binding the directions (digbandhanam) to prevent the entry of
Impeders, and expelling those that are already in the shrine (vighnoc-
catatiam)U9\
The ‘holy bathing place’ (nrtham) is the ocean of the nectar of nonduality
bounded by the shore o f self-awareness. ‘To bathe’ in this ocean is so to
immerse oneself that one is freed o f the [three] Impurities, that o f the con­
traction o f consciousness (anavamalam), [that o f actions good and bad
(karmamalam) and that o f the appearance of a world outside consciousness
(maylyamalam)]. ‘Night' is the power which deludes all men. ‘Day' is that
which enlightens them. The ‘Juncture’ (sam dhya) is their fusion in unified
experience; and its deity is [therefore] none other than the Goddess Para
herself [, consciousness beyond the duality o f bondage and liberation]. The
‘Sun’ is Siva [since, like the sun, he is] manifest by his own power alone
(svaprakasa-). The rays by which this ‘sun’ reveals the ‘world’ o f objec­
tivity are the expansion o f the power o f representation (vimarsah) inherent
in that [light (prakasah)]. To ‘worship’ it is to contemplate the fact that it
is on e’s identity. The true ‘shrine’ is the individual. Its walls are his skin,
flesh and bones. The ‘darkness’ within it is dispelled by the ‘lamp’ o f
knowledge. To worship is to worship here. The true ‘self-protection’ is
escape from the dangers caused by the enemy duality. ‘To bind the direc­
tions’ all around one is to contemplate them as consciousness. The ‘altar’
is the centre o f the lotus o f the heart; and the ‘deity’ upon it is conscious­
ness. The Bhairava [who guards the site] destroys the bonds o f those alone
who practice the cult o f that [deity]. The real ‘Impeders’ o f worship here
are the acts o f conceptual cognition (vikalpah) which fill [the ‘space’ within
the ‘shrine’] as the plurality o f the universe. The rite of their expulsion is the
contemplation which brings them to rest in the nonconceptual awareness
which is their internal ground...

The interpretation of features specific to each cult

We have seen how the left handled the ritual structures common to the
various Saiva Tantric cults. It gave purpose and meaning to the whole
through the theory of the nondualization of the factors, making awareness
in ritual the paradigm of enlightenment; and it reinforced this theory by

1,9 CidV 309.

54 A. SANDERSON

translating the stages of ritual into modes of self-realization and exhorting

the initiate to contemplate these esoteric meanings as he performed the
corresponding actions. I shall now consider how the left handled what
was specific to each of the cults, most notably their sets of deities and
mantras.
The method pursued confirmed the left’s view of hierarchy of the cults
(see Table I) by feeding elements of the Krama and Krama-based Trika
into its exegesis of the Malinivijayottaratantra, the Svacchandatantra
and the Netratantra, thereby installing itself within the three principal
non-Saiddhantika Saiva cults which were being practised at that time in
conformity with orthodox values (level A in Table I): the cult of Ne-
tranatha (2) and the domesticated forms of the cults of Svacchandabhai-
rava (3A) and the goddesses of the Trika (4A). To accept the authority
of these commentaries was therefore to read the essential features of
these cults as exoteric expressions of categories proper to the esoteric
Trika (4B/4C) or Krama (5). But this intrusive exegesis did not rely
entirely on the specifics of the esoteric cults. Even if it was not beyond
the ingenuity of Abhinavagupta and Ksemaraja to have provided a more
continuous translation of the features of the lower cults into those of the
higher, this would have defeated their purpose. For if they had done so
they would have lessened the power of these equations, which resides in
the relative inaccessibility of the source of higher meaning. Such spe­
cific translations, therefore, are conspicuous and decisive, but few120.
In addition to them, and providing them with a more continuous
supporting background, are translations into the terms and categories of
the Doctrine of Recognition (Pratyabhijnasastra) founded by Abhinava-
gupta’s predecessor Utpaladeva. This system was ideally suited to unify
the exegesis of these various traditions, because it was produced by an
initiate in the esoteric Trika and Krama121 precisely to translate the non­
dualism of those traditions into terms that transcended whatever was
specific to the structure or terminology of any Saiva school.
A few examples, from the cults of Netranatha, Svacchandabhairava
and the Trika, must suffice to illustrate the principal varieties of this kind
of overcoding.

120 Sanderson 1986, 199-200.

121 TAV 3 (4) 194810.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T R IC R ITU A L 55

The Eye o f Netranatha

At the end of his commentary on the Netratantra Ksemaraja reveals
the esoteric nature of the Eye {netram) which gives the deity of the
Tantra (Netranatha, ‘Lord of the Eye [-mantra]’122) and the Tantra itself
their name123:
Victorious is the unique Eye (netram) of Siva. It is white [in part] with a
radiance that is innate, since it bestows the light [of reality] on everything
(iabhasanam). It is red [in part] because it immerses itself in awareness of
whatever it manifests (amarsanam). It is grey [in part] because it inter­
nalizes all that [manifestation] in [subjective] relish lsamcarvanam). It is
black [in part] because it devours [even] that [subjective awareness]
(grdsah). It is neither white nor black nor grey nor red nor not these, since
it is the unity embodied as the Circle of the Absolute Light (bhasacakram).
Now there is nothing in the Netratantra which justifies such an inter­
pretation. The doctrine of this verse has been imported from the Krama.
In fact we have here the central teaching of that cult, that liberation is
obtained through the contemplation (i) that the only reality is Con­
sciousness manifesting this cycle of projection of the object, immersion
in the object, internalization of the object into the subject, and resorption
of the subject, and (ii) that this process in no way sullies the pure,
unlocated and timeless Light (bhasa) which is its ground. The associ­
ation of the Krama’s phases of cognition with the colours of the
Eye is accomplished indirectly, through the authority of the
Yogasamcaratantra, a text of the esoteric Trika (4C) influenced by
the Krama. For in a passage of that work quoted in the Tantraloka and
developed by Jayaratha in his commentary, an equivalent series of
Krama phases is equated in the same way with the variously coloured
parts of the human eye (see Table III)124.

122 The eye here is the mantra om jum sah which is among the six limb-mantras
known as the vidyahgas which are pan of the intimate retinue of the principal mantra in,
e.g., the Trika and the cult of Svacchandabhairava: see TA 30.40c-41b (om jum sah) and
SvT 1.63 ( om jum sah jyotirupaya netraya vasat); In the Netratantra this mantra of the
[third] eye is the object of an independent cult, so that it has limb-mantras of its own,
including an eye-mantra: see NeT 2.21-33.
123 NeTU 2 (22) 34338" .
124 TA 4.127-130 and commentary (quoting Yogasamcaratantra).
56 A. SANDERSON

TABLE III.

The parts ofthe eye and the Krama in Ksemaràja (Ks), Yogasamcdra (YS) and
Jayaratha (J)

Colours Krama phases Parts of the Krama phases Circles in

(Ks) of cognition eye (YS, J) equated with Krama ritual
(Ks) parts of eye (passim)125
(YS, J)

White Illumination The White Emission [of srsticakram

(abhdsanam) the object (circle of
(prameyam)] emission)
(srstih)

Red Immersed Part not Stasis [of the sthiticakram

awareness-of exposed faculties (circle of stasis)
(red) (pramdnam)
(amarsanam) immersed in
the object]
(sthitih)

Grey Internalization Iris Retraction [of samharacakram

by the subject the object and (circle of
(.carvanam) faculties into retraction)
the subject
(pramdta)]
(samhdrah)

Black Devouring Pupil The Nameless andkhyacakram

[the subject] 0andkhyam), (circle of the
(grasah) i.e. retraction Nameless)
of the subject
into pure
consciousness
(pramd)

All/no Absolute Light — — bhdsdcakram

colours (bhdsa) (circle of Light)

125 For this peniadic Krama system see, e.g., MNP (K) 9.4-11.3 and MM 39-40.
 MEANING IN TA N TRIC R ITU A L 57

The internal worship of Svacchandabhairava

Ksemaraja also works the esoteric tradition into his commentary on
the Svacchandatantra. This is how he defines the reality beneath the sur­
face of the worship of Svacchandabhairava126:
When he has transcended the universe he should grasp the pure ‘body’
which is [transcendental] consciousness. He should then continue to hold it
in his awareness as its universal form emerges, and fuse with that its iden­
tity as the Ultimate reality (mahatattvam), namely the Light which is four­
fold [in the sequence] beginning with Initial Effort. Once he has done this,
then in his zeal to accomplish the true rite of worship he should offer up
into it the entire universe.
The sequence of ritual acts which this verse translates is that of the
mental worship (manasayagah) which as the core of the cult transfers its
meaning to the material worship which follows. The constituent acts are
the installation (nyasah) of the throne (asanam) and mantras of Svac­
chandabhairava within the body, the visualization of his icon (dhydnam),
and the presentation of imagined offerings (puja). The worshipper first
installs the throne of the deity within himself, visualizing it as an open
lotus in his heart with a stem that runs down to a bulbous root below his
navel. The lotus is identified with the level of Pure Gnosis (suddhavi-
dydtattvam), the thirty-second ‘reality’ (tattvam) in ascent and the first
of the four that make up the ‘pure’ universe {suddhddhva). The stem
beneath is to be imagined as embodying the thirty-one realities that con­
stitute the impure universe (asuddhadhva). The worshipper completes
the throne by installing the ten-armed deity Sada&va in the centre of the
lotus. This is the form under which Siva is visualized for worship above
the throne in the Siddhanta; but here he is subordinated as the last level
of the throne, supporting the greater Svacchandabhairava upon his
shoulders127. When he has completed the throne the worshipper first
installs the mantra of the ‘body’ Cmurtimantrah), an inchoate radiance
which is to be seen as basis or support of the installation of Svacchand­
abhairava himself128. To bring about the presence of the deity he installs
the thirty-two syllabled mantra known as the Partite (Sakalabhattaraka)129,

126 SvTU 1 (2) 716"10 (püjäsatarrvam).

127 The throne: SvT 2.55c-83a.
128 SvT 2.83bcd. Cf. TÄ 15.238-239b.
129 SvT 2.84-88a.
58 A. SANDERSON

then visualizes the white, five-faced, eighteen-armed Svacchandabhairava

which is its icon130, and finally summons the monosyllabic Impartible
mantra (Niskalabhattâraka) which is that deity’s higher form, drawing it
down into the icon of the Partite mantra131. He then makes lavish imaginary
offerings to the deity before repeating this procedure in the material cult
which follows132.
Ksemarâja reads this esoterically as the ascent from extroverted, con­
tracted consciousness {samsàrah) to transcendental, pure consciousness
(=the installation of the throne which ascends through the reality levels
up to Sadâsiva and the installation of the ‘body’ mantra above it) fol­
lowed by the expansion of this consciousness to encompass external
phenomena (=the installation of the Partite mantra), an expansion which
does not entail its falling from the enlightened state reached through the
preceding ascent, because it is permeated from above by awareness of
ultimate reality (=the summoning of the Impartible [niskala-] form of
the mantra-deity to reside in the icon of the Partite).
Once again the basis of this translation is the Krama (see Table IV). For
it is in that system that we find the doctrine that the extraction of con­
sciousness from the lower reality levels is only the prelude to a higher
enlightenment achieved by preserving this uncontracted awareness in
their midst. This sequence is well expressed in the following passage of
the Krama Aphorisms (Kramasüîra) which Ksemarâja quotes in his Pra-
îyabhijhàhrdaya133:
By means of the internal Trance of the Krama (kramamudrâ) he remains
immersed [in uncontracted self-consciousness (pùrnâhamiâ)] while extro­
verted, and so attains [the ultimate goal]. In this process he first enters
within from outside. Then by the very force of this penetration (aveSah) he
enters from within into his outer identity.
Furthermore, when Ksemarâja describes the ultimate reality (mahâ-
tattvam) embodied in the Impartible mantra-deity as “the Light which is
fourfold [in the sequence] beginning with Initial Effort (udyogàdica-
tuskala-y\ the sequence of four to which he alludes is that of which the
subsequent three are Illumination (<avabhàsanam), Internalization (car-

130 SvT 2.88b-97.

131 SvT 2.98-101.
132 SvT 2.102-136.
133 Kramasmra quoted in PraHr on sütra 19.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T R IC RITUAL 59

vanam) and Dissolution (vilapanam)1**. These are the Krama’s four phases
of cognition, the same as the first four of the five that are mentioned in
Ksemaraja’s verse on the inner nature of the Eye (Netranatha), such dif­
ference as there is between the two sets being a matter of names and not
substance. The summoning of the Impartible (niskala-) into the Partite
(,sakala-) Svacchandabhairava is thus translated into the liberating practice
of the Krama, in which one is to perceive the process of the emergence and
disappearance of content (=samsarah) in consciousness as the pulsation
of the absolute Light (-nirvanam) through this cycle.
This correspondence between the sequence of worship and the Krama
is deftly sealed into Ksemaraja’s verse by the interpretive device known
as nirvacana. The purpose of a nirvacana is to explain the aptness of a
thing’s name by analysing it into a description of the thing’s real nature.
Where the name to be analysed is that of a cultural fact whose nature is
open to debate, such as a deity or some other revealed entity, the nirva­
cana is a powerful means of passing off new interpretation as faithful
exegesis. Now, in the cult of Svacchandabhairava, as we have already
seen, there are two forms of the mantra-deity, the Partite (Sakalabhat-
taraka) and the Impartible (Niskalabhattaraka). The first is the thirty-two
syllabled [OM (...)] AGHOREBHYO ‘THA GHOREBHYO GHORA-
GHORATAREBHYA CA SARVATAH SARVA SARVEBHYO NA-
MAS TE RUDRA RUPEBHYO [(...) N AM AH/S V AH A]135. The latter
is the monosyllabic [OM] HUM [NISKALASVACCHANDABHAIRA-
VAYA NAMAHU'SVAHA]136. The two mantras are also called Bahurupa
and Catuskala respectively137. In the explicit sense of Ksemaraja’s verse,
which states the hidden meaning of the ritual, these words bahurupa-
and catuskala- are used in metaphysical senses, referring (i) to the univer­
sal Qiterally "manifold’ [bahurupa-]) form of consciousness, and (ii) to the
fourfold (catuskala-) nature of the Light. Yet, since these metaphysical

134 SpN 6 7; MNP 3.1; MNP (K) 42. For the order in the verse on the eye of the
Netratantra cf. PraHr 11.
135 SvT 1.41-143; KK 4, 2621'3 (... -rupebhyo hum sakalasvacchanda Cbhattaraka)
bhairavaya svaha); 327l4-328‘; AKP folio 487'9 (om hum aghorebhyo ... -rupebhyah
hum namah svahd). See SvTU 1 (1) 365-3818 in which Ksemaraja reveals the “ secret
meaning” (rahasyarthah) of the mantra by interpreting it in the terms of his nondualism.
For semantic analyses of the seed-syllables SAUH and KHPHREM which are the core of
the mantra-systems of the Trika and Krama see TA 4.186c-191. 5.54c-78; Padoux 1990.
416-426; Sanderson 1990, 56-58.
136 SvT 1.69; KK 4, 237^7; 32815.
137 SvTU 3 (6 ) 10 1 3, 1 2 1 3, 1 2 1 ,iM9.
60 A. SAN D ERSO N

references coincide with the Bahurupa and Catuskala mantras in the

sequence of actual ritual to which the verse alludes, it is evident that
Ksemaraja intends the former to be understood as nirvacanas of the latter.
“He should then continue to hold it with his awareness as its universal
(bahurupa-) form emerges” implies to the learned Saiva that his Partite
mantra is called Bahurupa (‘Manifold’) because it embodies the Krama’s
concept of the projection of plurality (bahurupatvam) in consciousness.
Similarly “ and [he should] fuse with that its identity as the Ultimate
reality (mahatattvam), namely the Light which is fourfold [in the
sequence] beginning with Initial Effort” implies that the monosyllabic
mantra is called Catuskala (‘Fourfold’) because it is the light (bhasa)
which embodies the four phases of the Krama.
In the second case the nirvacana inserts the Krama even more deeply.
For the seed-syllable HUM is called Catuskala in the first instance
because according to the analysis recorded by Ksemaraja it comprises
the four elements HA, U, M and M understood as the unvocalized H
embodying cosmic power (Anahatabhattaraka) with A, U, M and M as
its four (catuh-) aspects (kala)13*. So the verse implies that the sincere
worshipper should identify each of these four elements with one of the
four Krama phases beginning with Initial Effort (udyogah).

138 SvTU 1 ( 1 ) 573-17 (for sakarena [576] read makarena)\ 5S4*7; 3 (6 ) 12816"17.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 61

TABLE IV.

Ksemaraja's interpretation of the phases of the internal worship of Svacchan-

dabhairava

Stages Sequence of the internal worship The Krama meaning

of Svacchandabhairava

I Installation of the Extracting consciousness

throne (asananydsah) from the lower levels of
reality,

II Installation of the thereby grasping

‘body’ mantra (murtinydsah) transcosmic consciousness.

m Installation and visualization Experiencing the spontaneous

of the Bahurupa mantra expansion of that consciousness.

IV Summoning (dvahanam) of the Permeating this expansion with

Catuskala mantra (HUM) into the Light (-bhasa) of the four­
the icon of the Bahurupa mantra: fold cycle of cognition:
[H+] A Initial Effort (udyogah)
U Illumination (avabhasanam)
M Internalization (carvanam)
M Dissolution (vilapanam),

V The presentation so realizing that projected

of imaginary plurality (-samsarah) and non­
offerings (mdnasapuja) dual consciousness (=nirvanam)
have the same essence.

There are certainly occasions in the ritual, most notably at its conclusion,
when one is required to be aware of these four elements of the impartible
mantra as an ascending series. In the concluding rite in which one
‘dismisses’ the mantra-deities (visarjanavidhih) one is to show the gesture
of retraction (samharamudrd), folding the fingers of one’s right hand one
after another into the palm of that hand, beginning from the little finger,
and finally closing the fist with one’s thumb. As one does this one is to
visualize the lesser mantras of the cult dissolving into the Bahurupa
mantra and the Bahurupa into the Catuskala. Finally one is to meditate
62 A. SANDERSON

on the Catuskala dissolving part by pan into the Absolute in the limit of
its final resonance139.
It is evident, then, that Ksemaraja attempted to work the Krama into
the very core of the Tan trie cults.

The semantic analysis o f names

Bhairava
The power of the nirvacana device is well illustrated in its application to
Bhairava, the name under which Siva is worshipped in the non-Saiddhan-
tika cults of Svacchandabhairava, Trisirobhairava, Amrtesabhairava (/Ne-
tranatha), Kapalabhairava and others140. For the unlearned, we may sup­
pose, the name was adequately explained by its literal meaning (‘The
Terrible’), since its bearer is associated with the cremation grounds and
requires alcoholic and non-vegetarian offerings, even human sacrifices.
These associations, however, make him an unlikely candidate for the
role of the Absolute. The nondualistic tradition therefore overlaid the
basic meaning of the name with more appropriate interpretations. The
semantic analysis of Bhairava in the Kashmirian literature is too large a
subject to be accommodated here: there are at least seven different
derivations of the word141. But an adequate idea of the process may be
formed from the first of the derivations given in Ksemaraja’s commentary
on the Svacchandatantra]A2.
Bhairava is so called because his essential nature resides in the actions
denoted by the verbs 'Jbhr, '¡ru and 'Jvam [>bhairavah], where these actions
involve the universe [as their agent of object].
Ksemaraja’s meaning is as follows, clarified with the help of a passage
from the Tantraloka which he certainly had in mind. The deity of these
cults is called Bhairava (i) because he holds and nourishes the universe
(%hr ‘to hold’ and 'Ibhr ‘to nourish’), in the sense that he manifests it upon
the screen (bhittih) of his identity; (ii) because he is held and nourished
by the universe (id.), in the sense that it is only in as much as he is

SvT 4.525-527 and commentary; AKP folio 108r17-v5.

139
NeTU 1 (5) 11713-'4 and 18914 (’Amrtesabhairava*); AmDV passim; and KK 4,
140
which shows that the full form of the mantra of Netranatha is om jum sah amrtefvarab-
hairavaya namahlsxaha (4, 2197'8; 2609, 30211, 3247 etc.).
141 TA 1.96-100 and commentary; SvTU 1(1) 3 13-46.
142 SvTU 1 ( 1 ) 3,3_14.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N T RIC RITU A L 63

embodied as everything that he is manifest in everything143; (iii) because

he expresses the universe as sound (Vrw ‘to roar’), in the sense that he
contains this projection within his subjectivity, reducing it to the resonance
of his own internal state, and (iv) because he emits the universe (Vvam
‘to vomit1, metaph. ‘to emit’), in the sense that even though it is identical
with that internal consciousness it is experienced as though it were out­
side it144.
As before, the Krama is not far below the surface. The meanings of
the roots >Ibhr, Vrw and ylvam from which Ksemaraja derives the name
are evidently intended to express the three principal phases of cognition:
(i) persistence (,sthitih), also called embodiment (avatarah) in the Krama,
the moment during which consciousness remains immersed in the content
it has projected, (ii) retraction (samharah), in which consciousness
resorbs this content, turning inwards towards its nondual essence, and
(iii) emission (srstih), in which consciousness recommences the cycle by
projecting new content out of that essence.
The roots >Ibhr ‘to maintain’ and Vvam ‘to emit’ could be correlated
with persistence and emission easily enough; but it required some in­
genuity to complete the Krama model by finding resorption in ylru ‘to
roar’. That emission should come at the end rather than the beginning of
the three is, of course, the inevitable consequence of the order of syllables,
Vvam ‘to emit’ being associated with the third syllable of the name. But this
could not have been a substantial inconvenience for Ksemaraja, since he
must have believed that to begin with emission is merely a matter of
convention, the sequence being cyclical.

Svacchanda-
Ksemaraja also applies the method of nirvacana to Svacchanda- in the
name Svacchandabhairava. The Svacchandatantra, which teaches the cult
of that deity, does not tell us what it intends by the first part of the name;
but certain text-places suggest that the meaning intended is ‘spontaneous’,
‘unrestrained’, even ‘wild’145. It happens, however, that svacchanda- is
also synonymous with svatantra-, and Ksemaraja takes advantage of this
fact to discover a proof that the scripture of the cult and therefore the
belief required of those who wish to practise it properly is the nondualism

143 TAV 1 (1) 141

144 TAV 1 (1) 1414"5; VijnBhV 113-116, especially 11518.
145 E.g. SvT 7.260-261b.
64 A. SANDERSON

of his tradition. For svatantra- means ‘free’ or ‘autonomous’; and in

Ksemarâja’s metaphysics the freedom of nondual consciousness is the
only freedom that exists. So if the Bhairava of this cult is Svacchanda-,
then, this must be because he is that consciousness. Ksemarâja primes
the name itself —and consequently the title of the cult’s Tantra — to
repel the rival tradition of dualistic exegesis from the outset146.

Kali
The nirvacana method also upgrades Kali. The nondualists derive the
name as a feminine agent noun formed from the verb >Ikal in the various
senses assigned to it by the List o f Roots {Dhàtupâtha). These meanings,
namely ‘to throw’ {kala ksepe), ‘to go’ (kala gatau), ‘to know’ (id.), ‘to
enumerate’ {kala samkhyâne) and ‘to sound’ {kala sabde), have only to be
interpreted to fit the exegetes’ nondualism of consciousness. So, as Abhi-
navagupta tells us in his Tantrâloka, the autonomous consciousness which
is the Absolute is called Kail (i) because it throws, in the sense that it pro­
jects the universe, causing to appear as though beyond it {'Ikal ‘to throw’
[ksepe]); (ii) because through it the projection returns to (‘goes to’) its
identity as cognition (>Ikal ‘to go’ [gatau]); (iii) because it knows the
projected, in the sense that it represents it as identical with its own
identity {^kal ‘to know’ [gatau]); (iv) because it enumerates the projection,
in the sense that it distinguishes each element from all the others within
its own unity {ylkal ‘to count’ [samkhyàne]), and (v) because it sounds,
in the sense that when it has dissolved the projection it continues as the
resonance of internal self-awareness {'Ikal ‘to utter a sound’ [sabde])141.

The interpretation o f icons

Netranâtha (Amrteévarabhairava) and Amrtalaksml
Comparable with these nirvacanas of the names of the deities are the
interpretations of the iconic details of the visualization texts of Netranâtha
(/Amrteévarabhairava) and Svacchandabhairava found in Ksemarâja’s

146SvTU 6 (15) 1466"14.

147TA 4.173c-76 and commentary. Some other examples of name-nirvacanas in the non-
dualistic exegesis: TÀ 1.101-103 (Deva); 104 (Pati, Siva); TÀ 4.148-172 and commentary
(the twelve Kâlïs); Ta 15.131c-133b (Màlinï); TÀ 15.346-347c (Kâlasamkarsim), 347d-348
(Mâtrsadbhâva); M W 1.395-397 (TriSiro [bhairava]); TÀV 1 (1) 225’8 (Ganapati); SvTU 1
(1) 36M (Rudra); TÀ 15.310, SvTU 1 (2) 47 12 J6 (Mahlpreta); SvTU 3 (6 ) 1037 9 (Pranava);
NeTU 1 (1) 1, verse 2 (Netra).
 M EANING IN TANTRIC RITU A L 65

commentaries on the Netratantra and the Svacchandatantra. The first of

these deities is visualized as brilliant white, one-faced, three-eyed, wide-
eyed, and four-armed, sitting on a white lotus in the centre of a lunar
disc. In two of his four hands he holds ajar of nectar (amrtakalasah) and
a full moon. The other two display the gestures of generosity (va-
radamudra) and protection {abhayamudra)m . Ksemaraja’s commentary
on this icon runs as follows149:
When the text enjoins the worshipper to visualize the lord of the gods in his
essential nature it means that he is to contemplate himself as white and
transparent, as the pure, joyful light of uninflected (anupadhi-) consciousness,
joyful because in its unsullied and autonomous power it manifests the
universe on the screen of its identity and permeates it with bliss, (...) one­
faced because he alone possesses the power of autonomy (svatantryasaktih),
and three-eyed because he has the three powers of will (iccha), knowledge
(jnanam) and action (kriya) which that autonomy manifests in itself. The
god is four-armed because he has the special property of deploying Santa
and the other three powers [which comprise the universe] while being one
with Santyatlta [above those four]. He is wide-eyed to express the fact that
it is he that manifests the universe. He shows the gestures of generosity and
protection and holds the jar of nectar and the full moon to indicate that he
bestows supernatural powers and effects (siddhih), eliminates all dangers,
and reveals the true nature of the self in its two aspects as cognition and
action.
Svacchandabhairava and Aghoresvari
Svacchandabhairava too is white and wide-eyed, but he has five faces, is
adorned with serpents and a necklace of red scorpions, wears a lion skin
about his hips, the freshly flayed hide of an elephant about his shoulders,
and a garland of skulls around his neck. He is black-throated and has
eighteen arms. The nine left hands hold or display a shield, a noose, a
bow, the gesture of generosity, a skull-topped staff (khatvahgah), a lute
(vind), a bell, a club (dandah), and a hammer (mudgarah). The nine
right hands hold or display a sword, an elephant-goad, an arrow, the gesture
of protection (abhayamudrd), a skull, a damaru drum, a trident, a six-
pointed ‘thunderbolt’ (vajram) and an axe. He stands on SadaSiva150. His

148 NeT 3.17-23b.

149 NeTU 1 (3) 73,0-745.
150 In paintings from Kashmir SadaSiva is represented standing or crouching beneath
Svacchandabhairava, supporting him on his shoulders, the god’s feet placed on his
upturned palms; see, e.g., the nineteenth century watercolour reproduced by Kramrisch
(1981:171). I am grateful to Ms. Madhu Bazaz Wangu for bringing this illustration to my
attention.
66 A. SANDERSON

consort AghoreSvari, who sits in his lap on his left thigh, is visualized
with the same characteristics151. Ksemaraja’s comments are as follows
on the verses of the Svacchandatantra which give this visualization152:
By virtue of his autonomy the Lord has manifested this form within Un-
mana, the [highest] level of Power (saktih). He has done so in order to provide
aspirants with a means of penetrating the light of the Impartible [mantra-
deity (niskala-)]\ for there is no god with this appearance anywhere in the
[series (adhva)) of worlds [below that level]. It is because he personifies
the effulgence of [feminine] Power that he has eighteen arms, that being
the characteristic of the goddess Durga.
Furthermore, Bhairava [in his essential nature] as Consciousness
(Cidbhairava) pervades every detail of this description of his form, the
icon being, as it were, the imprint [of that nature]. The correspondences are
as follows:
[1] tripancanayanam ‘having thrice (tri-) five (panca-) eyes (nayana-)’
[is also intended to mean] ‘who leads the five with the three’, for the five
[...?] that pervade everything up to the level of Maya are controlled by
[Cidbhairava] by means of his three Powers — the Higher, the Intermediate
and the Lower — through their division into gross, subtle and supersubtie.
[2] ‘adorned with matted locks...’ [means] ‘adorned with VameSvari and
the other [four] Powers who reside at the summit [of his being, just as the
matted locks which represent them are the upper limit of the visualization].
[3] ‘and [adorned with] a crown’ [means] ‘[adorned with] the spreading
effulgence of [his] freedom’.
[4] ‘radiant as ten million moons' [means] ‘filled with Light and Bliss’.
This is what the Laksmlkaularnava means when it says:
“O Empress of the gods, he is called Bhairava in the world not because
his mouth is open exposing his fangs but because he is nondual (advaitah).
And because he is nondual one should contemplate him as benevolent
(,saumya
[5] ‘wearing the crescent moon in his hair’ [means] ‘possessing the element
of nectar (amrtakala), also called amdkala, [the pure, creative consciousness]
which gives life to the universe’153.
[6] pancavaktram [which means ‘with five faces (vaktram)' in reference
to the concrete icon, means] ‘with the five manifestors-and-rescuers [vaktra-
ol\*yaj ‘to manifest’ + ^Itra ‘to rescue’] — which manifest the [self s] ultimate
nature and rescue from transmigration (samsarah) — namely his con­
sciousness, bliss, will, knowledge and action.

SvT 2.88-97, 114c-l 16.

151
SvTU 1 (2) 53s-5519.
152
For this esoteric meaning of the sixteenth or seventeenth “phase” of the moon
153
termed amdkala. see TAV 1 (1) 10311; TA 3.137c-140; TAV 3 (5) 369,?-3709; PTV
p. 2013-7; and TA 6.95c-97 and commentary.
 M EA N IN G IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 67

[7] [He is described as] ‘wide-eyed’ [because he is] established in the

supreme expansion of [the] Bhairava [trance (mudrâ)]\ for one who is in
that state is said by scripture to be “focused within, gazing out, neither
opening nor closing [his eyes]”154.
[8] The passage beginning sarpa- and ending liárena tu virájitam [meaning
‘adorned with snakes, gonàsa serpents and a necklace of fire red scorpions’]
refers to his engagement in the spontaneous play of tying and untying the
three bonds [of the soul], that is to say, the mayiya, the karma and the
ánava]55.
[9] [The description] ‘having a garland of skulls as ornament' (kapá-
làbharanam) [expresses the fact that] he is embodied as the entire universe.
The garland of skulls [stands for] the universe as a complex with diverse
constituent pans156, [which is seen in our system as] adorning him [as
the manifestation of his nature] rather than [as] concealing him [as in the
illusionistic nondualism propagated by certain exegetes of the Upanisads].
[10] The Lord filled with consciousness and bliss has three instruments:
will, knowledge and action. These are really nine because each of the three
powers has three aspects [: itself in predominance and the other two latent
within it]. Each of these [nine] is further doubled, being either universal or
particular (parâparabhedena). This is why he has eighteen arms.
[11] Among [the implements and gestures displayed by] these [eighteen]
the sword is his power of knowledge (jňánašaktih) and alludes to his sev­
ering of the [soul'sjbonds.
[12] The shield is his power of action and alludes to the fact that he
shields his devotees from the terror of transmigration.
[13] The noose suggests the autonomous power to act [which he mani­
fests] in binding the universe157.
[14] The elephant-goad suggests his power to draw in [and resorb] that
[universe]158.
[15] The bow and arrow suggest his breaking through the series of
‘knots’ which are the Cause-deities (kàranagranthih) [located along the
axis of the microcosm].
[ 16] That he shows the gestures of generosity and protection suggests the
fact that he bestows both lesser rewards (bhogah) and liberation.
[17] His holding a severed head alludes to the fact that it is he that
‘decapitates’ Màyà, the non-manifestation [of nondual reality].

154 This is the first line of a verse defining bhairavi mudra quoted by Ksemaraja on
VijhBhT 26. A variant version is quoted at MMP 90,11. 25-26 which is almost identical
with KulamT 8.85.
155 IPK 3.15-16.
156 For kapdlamaldtmandvayavaprapancarupam read kapalatma ndnavayavaprapan-
carupam.
157 SvTU 1 (2) 5411819. I translate emending pdsena visvabandhanena svatantryam to
pasena vi£vabandhane svatantryam.
158 Cf. BhairAnukSt 19.
68 A. SANDERSON

[18] His holding a skull-topped staff suggests that the whole universe
[from Earth] up to Anafrita159 — symbolized by the skull — is fused with
consciousness, the ‘screen’ (bhittih) on which it appears.
[19] His lute (vina), his rattle drum (damaruh) and his bell suggest that
his power is concentrated in awareness of the resonance which is the
ground of the diversity of low-pitched, high-pitched and middle-pitched
sounds.
[20] His trident suggests his destruction of the three bonds, because its
staff is [symbolic of] his power of freedom (svatantryasaktih) united with
[the three prongs] of will, knowledge and action.
[21] His thunderbolt (vajram) suggests that his power is the entire universe,
because its three prongs pointing upwards are will, knowledge and action,
and its three prongs pointing downwards are [all] the objects of these, the
willed, the known and that which is acted upon.
[22] His club is [symbolic of] his power of karmic law (niyatih) and
suggests his universal control.
[23] His axe, being [curved] like a ploughshare represents the power of
Resonance (nadasaktih)160; and his hammer [with its spherical head] re­
presents the power of the Point (bindusaktih). The first suggests the rending
of all duality and the second its pulverization.
[24] [The line simhacarmapandhanam gajacarmottanyakam (‘with a
lion skin as his garment and an elephant’s hide as his upper garment’)
means the following.] The ‘lion’ is [symbolic of] the effulgence of con­
sciousness. This is because it [too] is ‘five-faced’ [pahcananah, a synonym
for ‘lion’], consisting as it does of [the five levels of the Pure Universe,
namely] Suddhavidya (‘Pure Knowledge’), Kvara, SadaSiva, Sakti and Siva.
The word carma [literally ‘hide’] means operation (caritam) [here, derived
from ^Icar ‘to do’]. [This operation of the fivefold effulgence of consciousness
is described as] his ‘garment’ because it is the intimate attribute of the
self s real nature. The ‘elephant’ in its vastness is [symbolic] of Maya [the
source of the Impure Universe]; and it is this ‘elephant’ that the ‘lion’ [of
the effulgence of consciousness] must tear apart. [The elephant’s] ‘hide’
{carma) [too] is [to be understood as] its operation (caritam), which is to
say, [Maya’s] seductive play [as the manifestation of plural reality]. He
wears this as his ‘upper garment’ in the sense that this play is superimposed
on to the nondual consciousness which is the self s real nature.
[25] He is called ‘god’ (devam) because play and all the other [actions
denoted by the root 'idiv from which the word is derived] are natural to
him161.
[26] He is ‘black-throated’ (mlakantham) because he has removed (/swal­
lowed) the great poison [which was churned from the ocean of milk]162. This
poison is [symbolic of] the non-manifestation (akhyatih) [of nonduality].

159 AnaSritabhattaraka: SvT 10.1243d-59.

160 SvTU 3 (6 ) 12318, 12816; VijnBhU 6 3.
161 See TA 1.101-103 and commentary; PTV p. 6 , 0-8 3.
162 See, e.g., Mahabharata 1.16.36, App. Crit., 274* for this aetiological myth.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 69

[27] He is ‘radiant’ (sutejasam) because he is filled with consciousness

and bliss.

On the text’s description of his consort AghoreSvari some verses later

— it states that she has the same appearance, but adds certain details —
Ksemaraja comments as follows163:
Her mouth is slightly open exposing her tusk-like canines, because like
Bhairava she devours the bonds [of the soul]. She emits a deep roar,
because [while it is the Light of Being (prakasah) that is predominant in
Bhairava] in her it is [that Light’s power of] Representation (vimarsah).
Her face is calm, because like Bhairava she is intent on the salvation of
souls (anugrahah). Her eyes are full of wonder because like him she is
immersed in the Bhairava trance (bhairavamudra).
These passages exemplify the common type of the left’s exegesis, the
background against which the more specialized empowerment by the
Krama is set. For the iconic details are translated for the most part into
the metaphysical language of the doctrine of Recognition (Pratyabhijna-
Sastra). The meaning of oneness is discovered in the power of auto­
nomous agency (svdtantryasaktih)]M, of threeness in will (iccha), knowl­
edge (jnanam) and action (kriya)x65, and of fiveness in these preceded by
consciousness (cit) and bliss (anandah)166. Similarly, when Ksemaraja
explains the requirement that one imagine the goddess emitting a deep
roar in the embrace of her consort he invokes the fundamental principle of
that doctrine, namely that the Light of Being (prakasah) would be inert
and unmanifest if it were not resonant with the power of Representation
(vimarsah)]61.
Here too the Krama makes its appearance, for the matted locks (jatah)
coiled on Svacchandabhairava’s head are equated with the set of Powers
beginning with VameSvari. In Ksemaraja’s Krama VameSvari is identified
with the power of consciousness in its absolute, uncontracted state and is
said to give rise to four circuits of subordinate deities: the Khecaris, the
Gocaris, the Dikcaris and the Bhucaris. These are the same power of
consciousness but projected towards and into plurality on the levels of
(i) the subject, (ii) the mental apparatus (<antahkaranam), (iii) the faculties

163 SvTU 1 (2 ) 6 6 n '15.

164 IPK 1.44; TA 1.67c-94 and commentary.
165 TA 1.94; cf. SiDr 1.3-4.
166 SiDr 1.2 and commentary.
167 IPK 1.42.
70 A. SANDERSON

of sense-perception (buddhxndriyam) and action (karmendriyam), and (iv)

the sense-elements (tanmatram). These projected powers bind the unen­
lightened but confirm the enlightenment of the liberated by manifesting
nonduality on all levels of experience168.

The translation of the Trika’s deities into the structure of Krama enlight­
enment
What Ksemaraja’s commentaries on the Netratantra and the Svacchan-
datantra did for the cults of Netranatha and Svacchandabhairava the Mali-
nivijayavdrtika, Tantraloka and Tantrasara of his teacher Abhinavagupta
had already accomplished for the cult of the Malinivijayottara, and in
greater depth, this difference stemming from the fact that in the terms of
Table I the cult of this Tantra was directly below the sources of the in­
trusive exegesis (4BC [+5]). I have shown elsewhere that these sources had
already been permeated by the cult of Kail in general and by the Krama the
in particular. Abhinavagupta assimilated the Tantra into a Krama-based
system of exegesis by expounding it as though the absence of explicit re­
ferences to the Kail cult and its esoteric doctrine were the result of no more
than the brevity of the exposition169. He used the more esoteric texts of the
Trika to illuminate its meaning and showed how its triad of goddesses
(Para, Parapara and Apara) was a synonymous expression of the structure
of enlightened consciousness which he identified as the true meaning of the
twelve Kalis which make up the cycle of the Nameless (<anakhyacakram,
andkhyakramah) in the inner core of the Krama’s pantheon. The process by
which he raised the Trika of the Malinivijayottara into the Kali-based Trika
and then translated it into his version of the Krama proper is visible in the
following passage of his Tantrasara™:
The supreme Lord (ParameSvara) is all-inclusive consciousness. His Power is
simply this plenitude {purnata). It is given various names in our scriptures:
Totality (kulam)ll[, Capacity (sdmarthyam)m , the Wave (urmih)m , the Heart
(hrdayam)]1A, the Core (sdrah)175, the Subtle Movement (spandah)]76, the

168 SpN 3723-3821; TA 1.99cd; PTV 399-403.

169 TA 1.17.
170 TaSa 279-2817.
171 TAV 11 (29) 320.
172 SatvS 5.101ab.
173 SpN 48’9; TAV 3 (4) 21410' 12 (for urmikilav read urmikauladav).
174 TAV 2 (3) 84,(M1.
175 TAV 2 (3) 82,M2.
176 SatvS 3.15cd: 5.82c-83b; AhirbS 57.30cd.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITU A L 71

All-pervading Power (vib hu tih )111, the Empress of the Three [Powers]
(Trisika)178, Kali, KarsanT [= Kalasamkarsanl, ‘The Destroyer of Time’]179,
Candl180, the Word (vanJ)m , Experience (b h o g a h )m , Cognition (d rk )m ,
the Eternal (Nitya)184, etc. Each of these names serves to express some
aspect of its essence, so that one may meditate upon it under some form
and so hold it in one’s awareness.
Now this consciousness which is plenitude becomes manifest through
the realization that it contains all powers. The latter are infinite in number.
In short, they comprise the universe. How [then] could the scriptures teach
them [all]? However, there are three in which the universe is summarized
[: the goddesses Para, Parapara and Apara]. [The first,] the Higher Power
(srip arasaktih ), is that by virtue of which the supreme Lord sustains, per­
ceives and illuminates this [totality of the thirty-six levels of reality
(tattvam)] from Siva down to Earth [in the mode of non-separation
(abhedah), i.e.] as nonconceptualized, pure sentience (sa m vin m a tra m ).
[The second,] the Intermediate Power (sripardparasaktih), is that through
which [he performs these same cosmic functions] in the mode of separation
coexisting with non-separation (b h e da b h ed ah ), in the way that the surface
of a mirror reflects objects without their mass185. [The third], the Lower
Power (srim a d ap a rdsa ktih ), is that through which [the same is accom­
plished] in the mode of simple separation (b h e d a h ), in which [subjects and
objects] are outside each other.
He also internalizes this cosmic action in all three of its modes at once,
incorporating them within himself in a [higher] synthesis. The power of
this synthesis is [the same as the first of the three, namely] the goddess
Para. But in order to express this aspect of her identity she is distinguished
[in this role] by such names as Matrsadbhava (’the Essence of [All] Sub­
jects’186) and KalakarsinT (‘the Destroyer of Time’).

Here Abhinavagupta assimilates the deities of the M d lin iv ija y o tta r a to

those of the KalT-based Trika cults of such scriptures as the D e v y a y a -
m a la ta n tr a . There one worships the three goddesses Para, Parapara and
Apara seated on lotuses imagined by the worshipper — or depicted in a

177 HarVij 6.46; NIPP 2 17; SatvS 12.50-51b.

178 PTV 16l5-175.
179 JY passim.
180 TA 15.391-393 (Yogasamcaratantra).
181 Cf. IPK 1.44.
182 Mahakaul folio 3r7-8 (1.45): Bhogabhairavl; folio 4v5 (1.78): Bhogabhairava,
BhoginI; Ormikaul folio 5r5-6 (ibid. 1.92): BhoginI, Bhoga, Bhogahasta; VamakMV 2819*20
(quoting Allata): BhoginI.
183 p jY 25012.
184 NSA-RV 4815.
185 Literally: “as an elephant etc. in a mirror’’ (TaSa 28n [reading darpane hastyddi-
vat for darpanahasryadivat]).
186 TA 4.177; 15.347c-48.
72 A. SANDERSON

mandala — above the three prongs of a trident which, like the lotus-stalk
of the throne of Svacchandabhairava, pervades the universe which these
deities transcend. Para occupies the central lotus. Above her one worships
Kalasamkarsinl (/Kali)187.
There is no such fourth level in the ritual of the Maliriivijayottara. But
there is a distinction between two mantras of Para on the central lotus:
she is first installed as the mantra SAUH and then worshipped with the
mantra HSHRPHREM188. Abhinavagupta recognizes the logic of the ritual
in that he distinguishes the two as aspects of one goddess. Nonetheless,
he identifies the second with the fourth goddess Kalasamkarsinl, so trans­
posing the cult into the territory of Kali189. Furthermore, he empowers
this set of four goddesses with meaning derived from the Krama (see
Table V). For, as the sequel of this passage and other pronouncements in
the parallel Tantraloka show, the triad of separation (bhedah), separation
coexisting with non-separation (bhedabhedah) and non-separation (ab-
hedah) is equivalent in Abhinavagupta’s mind to two other sets of three.
These are (i) emission (srstih), persistence (sthitih) and retraction (sam-
harah), and (ii) the three modes of consciousness, in which the object
(prameyam), the medium (pramdnam) and the agent of cognition {pra-
mdta) respectively predominate. The fourth element in these two triads,
corresponding to the higher nonduality of synthesis (paramadvayam), is the
Nameless (anakhyam) and Pure Sentience (pramd, pramitih) respectively.
table v.

Abhinavagupta’s correlation of the Trika goddesses with the modes of repre­

sentation (I), the phases of cognition (II) and the aspects of cognition (III)

Aparâ Parapara Para Kalasamkarsinl

I Separation Separation with Non-separation Absolute nonduality

non-separation

II Emission Persistence Retraction The Nameless

in The object The faculties The subject Pure Sentience

TÀ 31.96-97.
187
TÀ 15.331c-32; MVUT 8.42cd. The form of the mantra-seed: MVUT 8.39-40b;
188
TÄ 30.47-48a.
189 TÄ 15.33lc-52b.
 M EANING IN TA N T R IC RITU A L 73

So Abhinavagupta has encoded the deities of the Malinmjayottara to

express to the worshipper that his ultimate identity is the unity of con­
sciousness in its three dynamic aspects. This exploits the theory of the
Krama; but it also permits him to demonstrate that the pantheons of the
Trika and the Krama are ultimately identical. So, continuing the passage
quoted above, he writes190:
These same four Powers spontaneously tremble in emission, persistence
and retraction, and so becom e the tw elve [Kalis].

The account of the twelve Kalis which follows this remark substitutes
semantic derivations (nirvacanam) for their names in order to translate
them into the stages of an expanded version of the same model of the
cycle of consciousness191. They become (i) the emission of the object
(prameyasrstih [= Srstikali]), (ii) persistence of the object (prameyasthitih
[= RaktakaH]), (iii) retraction of the object (prameyasamharah [= Sthiti-
nasakall]), (iv) the nameless state of the object (prameyanakhyam [= Ya-
makall]), (v) the emission of [consciousness in] the faculties [alone] (pra-
manasrstih [= SamharakaH]), [which is the first stage of the involution of
awareness deprived of the support of an external object], (vi) the per­
sistence of this state (pramanasthitih [= Mrtyukall]), (vii) its retraction
(pramanasamharah [= Rudrakall/Bhadrakall]), (viii) its nameless phase
(pramanandkhyam [= Martandakall]), in which the five faculties of action,
the five faculties of cognition and the two internal faculties of attention
(manah) and judgement (buddhih) dissolve into the ego-faculty (ahum-
kdrah), (ix) the emission of the subject (pramdtrsrstih [= ParamarkakaU])
in which this ego-faculty, which had been projected as the controller of the
twelve faculties, is dissolved into the individual agent-self, (x) the persis­
tence of subjectivity (pramatrsthitih [= Kalagnirudrakall]), in which this
lower self dissolves into the transcendental subject (Mahakala), (xi) the
retraction of the subject (pramdtrsamharah [= MahakalakalT]), in which
the transcendental subject is dissolved into absolute introversion, and
finally (xii) the nameless state of the subject (pramdtrandkhyam [= Ma-
habhairavacandograghorakall]), the pure sentience (samvinmdtram) which
contains all these aspects as its innate power of self-expression192.
This account of the twelve Kails is to be reconciled with the introduc­
tory formula (concerning the triplication of the four Powers in emission,

190 TaSa 28n -292.

191 TaSa 29:-3013.
192 TA 4.148-172 and commentary.
74 A. SANDERSON

persistence and retraction) by understanding the three moments of the

Nameless as the triplication of the fourth goddess Matrsadbhava/Ka-
lasamkarsinl, and the remaining moments of the object, faculties and
subject as the triplications of Apara, Parapara and Para respectively.
Since emission, persistence and retraction are also equated with the three
goddesses in that order, we may just as well describe the twelve Kalis as
the manifestation of Apara, Parapara, Para and Matrsadbhava/Kala-
samkarsin! in Apara (object-awareness), Parapara (faculty-awareness)
and Para (subject-awareness)193. In other words, the equations established
in Abhinavagupta’s exegesis of the Malimvijayottaratantra come down
to this, that the pantheon of the Trika is the condensed expression of the
structure of Krama enlightenment, and that its worship with this awareness
becomes a means to that end (see Table VI). It is this set of twelve,
rather than the three or four goddesses of the Trika proper, which Abhi-
navagupta declares to be “the principal circuit of the divine Powers”
(mukhyam sakticakram) in which Bhairava’s nature is most fully mani­
fest. All other sets of emanations worshipped in the various Saiva systems
of ritual (kalpah) are, he claims, the condensation or expansion of these194.
He finds independent confirmation of his equation in the ritual of the
Trika itself. For Para, like Apara and Parapara, has her own circuit of
dependent Powers; and while Apara has three (Manas!, Cakravega and
Mohan!)195, Parapara eight (Aghora, Paramaghora, Ghorarupa, Ghora-
vaktra, Bhlma, Bhlsana, Vaman! and Piban!)196, Para has twelve (Siddhi,
Rddhi, LaksmI, Dipti, Mala, Sivasiva, Sumukhi, VamanI, Nan da,
HarikeSi, Hayanana and Visves!)197. These twelve, asserts Abhinavagupta,
are the deities, or rather the aspects of enlightened cognition, which are
referred to elsewhere as the Kalis. He presents the difference, then, as
one of ritual application rather than identity198. Jayaratha backs this up
with a semantic justification (nirvacanam) of the name Para, deriving it
from the root Vpr “to be full”. For, as we have seen, the fullness of con­
sciousness is precisely the circuit of the twelve Kalis199.

193 TA 1.207; 4.125; MMP lOO^-lOl3.

194 TA 1.107-111; 3.250c-57b.
193 SYM folio 34v3-5.
196 TAV 12(33) 341,(M3.
197 MVUT 20.46-47 (for iikha siva read sivasiva', cf. SYM folio 29v2).
198 TAV 2 (3) 2 3 6 " 12.
195 TAV 2 (3) 2368-'0.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 75

TABLE VI.

Abhinavagupta ’s demonstration o f the equivalence o f the pantheons

o f the Trika and the Krama

The fourth The three The four Trika The twelve Kalis of the
goddess of the goddesses of goddesses sub­ circle of the Nameless
esoteric Trika the common dividing each (anakhyam) in the Krama
Trika of those three system of Abhinavagupta
Aparâ
, Emission = Srstikall
/ o f the object
■ Parapara
/ Persistence = RaktakäJT
Aparâ o f the object
Object.
Emission
Para
Retraction = SthitinasakalT
o f the object
Matrsadbhava
The Nameless = Yamakall
in the object
Apara
Emission = SamharakalT
o f the faculties
Parapara
Persistence = MrtyukälT
Matrsadbhava/ Parapara o f the faculties
KalasamkarsinI Faculties,
Pure sentience. Persistence Para
The Nameless Retraction = RudrakalT
o f the faculties
Matrsadbhava
The Nameless
in the faculties
Apara
Emission = Paramârkakâlî
o f the subject
Parapara
Persistence = Kâlâgnirudrak§11
Para o f the subject
1 Subject,
Retraction Para
Retraction = MahàkâlakaîT
o f the subject
Matrsadbhava
The Nameless = Mahabhairava-
in the subject candograghorakälT
76 A. SANDERSON

The problem of liberation by another

According to the soteriology of the left knowledge alone could liberate.

The action of ritual had therefore to be seen as a kind of knowing if it was
to be thought effective. We have seen how Abhinavagupta and Ksemaraja
came to this conclusion and how they interpreted the common ritual
structure and the specifics of the various cults in order to justify it. Now
there is no great difficulty in applying this position to the rituals which
individuals do for their own benefit after their initiation. Even if the theory
idealized practice — it is, of course, unlikely that those who were obliged
to worship in one of the cults of the left were generally more theoretical
in their actions than their Saiddhantika co-religionists — , it could still be
seen to cover the practice of the less inspired, since it would be hard to
deny, and impossible to prove, that there was not some degree of awareness
of consubstantiation with the deity (tanmayibhavah) even in the most
mechanical performance200. If all ritual was to be knowledge, then the
difference between the performances of enthusiasts and ordinary initiates
could be understood as one of intensity rather than kind. However, it is
not so obvious how the theory would work when applied to the process
of initiation.
The problem is this. The first premise of Tantric Saivism is that the
individual cannot liberate himself. We have seen that both the right and
the left insist that only Siva can liberate and that he does so by acting on
the bonds (pasah) of the soul (pasuh, anuh) through the ritual of initiation
(idiksd). Now, if ritual is seen as action (kriya, vyaparah), as it is by the
Siddhanta, there is no difficulty in accepting that it could work on some­
one other than the performer. There is no reason, therefore, why the ritual
of initiation should not be effective. But if it is seen as knowledge (jna-
nam), as it is by the left, then it is impossible to understand how it could
concern anyone other than its performer. The ritual of initiation, therefore,
would be of benefit to none but the officiant (acaryah) himself. It would
appear, then, that the doctrine that only knowledge can liberate contra­
dicts the more basic and universal Saiva theory that the individual can­
not liberate himself201.

200 Consubstantiation (tanmayibhavah) the purpose of daily ritual: TA 26.4d; 26.33a;

26.36d; 26.61a; 27.9a; 27.53a.
201 TA 1.237-38c.
 MEANING IN TA N TRIC RITU A L 77

If this were truly so one would be surprised at the fact that the left
proved able to compete successfully with the right for authority over the
routinized cults of the Kashmirian tradition. Cults of self-realization
which used ritual as a possible if lower form of contemplation might
appeal to religious enthusiasts; but they would surely have had difficulty
in encompassing the mentality of obedience to duty which is the prime
mover of routine religion.
Abhinavagupta is aware of this problem and shows a way out, allowing
the left to accept the effectiveness of initiation without abandoning its
gnostic soteriology. He does this by appealing to his doctrine of nondual
consciousness. He points out that the problem exists only for those who
accept the Siddhanta’s position that selves are really and ultimately
different from each other. In the system of the left the problem simply
does not arise, since it holds that this distinction is imaginary (kalpana-
matram). There is only consciousness. This absolute manifests itself as
our representations of self and other(s); but it does not thereby surrender
its unity. So when the officiant initiates he represents both himself and
the initiand as this undifferentiated ground; and as long as he sustains
this realization the initiand’s identity is truly fused with his202.
So the ritual of initiation can liberate the initiand because it is the
officiant’s self-knowledge, not in spite of that fact. Indeed that Siva has
taught initiation as a means of release is itself a proof of nondualism: if
souls were truly distinct initiation would be ineffectual and therefore
would not have been taught in the Tantras.
This position enables the left to encompass the whole range of Saiva
religiosity, from the routinized to the most intensely meaningful. One may
shift the onus of self-knowledge entirely on to the officiant, aspiring to
achieve liberation only at death, either by virtue of initiation alone (the
case of those who are spared the bond of discipline) or by virtue of that
ritual followed by the observance of the post-initiatory discipline (the
case of the rest). But one may also aspire to liberation in life (jivan-
muktih), reinforcing the effect of initiation by developing conceptual
self-knowledge (vikalpasamskarah) to the point of direct revelation
{saksdtkdrah). Ritual, as we have seen, can function to this end.
As for the self-knowledge required of the initiating officiant, this too
must have been understood to encompass the whole range of intensities
from the ideal to the nominal. At first sight it might appear that the left

202 TÄ 1.232-34 and commentary.

78 A. SANDERSON

allowed the greatest latitude to the ordinary initiate but compensated for
this tolerance by insisting that its officiants be believed to be enlightened
through liberation in life. But that this was not so is proved by our texts.
For they distinguish between gnostic (jnanl) officiants, who do achieve
liberation before death, and ritualists (karml) who remain unenlightened
during their tenure of office and lose their capacity to accomplish liberating
initiations as soon as they consecrate their successors203.

The prescription of intensity

Heteropraxy
The left’s doctrine of ritual, then, for all its emphasis on meaning, also
accommodated the ritualism of the common base; since even here the
cultivation of knowledge was supererogatory for the majority. It might
be thought, therefore, that the initiates in these cults were just as liable as
those in the Siddhanta to lose awareness of what made their path different
from that of the uninitiated orthodox. However, there was an additional
line of defence to prevent their drifting into parity with the exoteric religion.
This was the prescription of ‘nondual practice’ (<advaitacarah).
The Kashmirian Siddhanta confined its cult (kriya) and conduct (carya)
to what was pure and permissible in the eyes of the non-Tantric orthodox.
It stressed the absoluteness of caste distinctions204, and had what amounted
to a brahmin priesthood, since only men of that caste were qualified to
become officiants205. The left, however, insisted that in the cult of Svac-
chandabhairava and in all the cults which are to its left in Table I the
theoretical transcendence of orthodoxy was to be backed up by the actual
transcendence of its rules of conduct. Conformity to orthodox criteria of
purity was to be relegated to the domain of social interactions: it was to
be seen as an outward show which surrounded and concealed the Tantric
domain206. Only the cult of Netranatha/Amrtesvarabhairava stood out­
side this rule. The execution of its rituals entailed no more impurity than
did those of the Siddhanta; and its mantras, like the Siddhanta’s, could

203 TA 20.9- 10b and commentary {nirdcdra- [Jayaratha: = jndrun-], avadhutatatrvajna-

gurus versus sacara- [Jayaratha: = kriydpradhana-] gurus); TA 23.15c- 16b; 23.25-28;
TAV 11 (29) 939' 10, TA 29.129c-130b.
204 MoKa 145-146; MP KP 150,9-1512; STriSKV 65^°.
205 MoKa 99; MPV KP 1501213.
206 TA 4.233c-234b; TAV 3 (4) 2 7 8 H
 M EANING IN TANTRIC RITUAL 79

be installed in fixed images in temples to be worshipped by priest-

officiants for the general good207. That Ksemaraja should have subjected
its Tantra to his anti-dualistic exegesis may be explained by its close
association with the cult of Svacchandabhairava and by its particular
popularity among the Kashmirians.
The impurity involved in the rest of the cults was not of the same
degree in each: the more esoteric the cult the greater its transcendence of
the orthodox norms. These gradations have been indicated in Table I.
Above the A of that table (the level of pure Tantric ritual, i.e. that of
the Siddhanta, the cult of Netranatha and expurgated forms of the cults
of Svacchandabhairava and the Trika) I distinguish two levels of non­
conformity (B and C). Both are proper to cults of Bhairava and the god­
d esses); but those in B (the unexpurgated cult of Svacchandabhairava
[3B] and the first level of the Trika [4B]) are Tantric, while those in C
(the second level of the Trika [4C] and the Krama [5]) are Kaula. The
first are distinguished from the cults of A by the use of alcoholic liquor
and flesh, and by associations with the cremation ground asceticism of
the Kapalikas. The second intensify these antinomian elements and add
others, notably rites involving sexual intercourse208.
Within B one must distinguish between the cult of Svacchandabhairava
and the non-Kaula Trika. In the first the only rule which entails impurity
by the standards of the orthodox and affects all worshippers is that
which requires them to gratify the deity with an offering of fermented
liquor (sura) when he has been summoned to the site of worship and
when he is about to be dismissed at the end of the service209. He is also
to receive offerings of flesh. He is thus set apart from the Siva of the
Siddhanta, who receives neither alcohol nor meat210. But the distinction
is softened by the fact that the flesh is offered to Svacchandabhairava
only in imagination, during the mental cult that precedes external wor­
ship211. Real meat and fish were to enter the cult only if the worshipper

207 TAV 10 (27) 3605-8; NeT 18.119c-21; 18.105-112b.

208 This distinction between the Tantric and the Kaula cults applies in this grouping of
traditions. It is not the case that all Tantric cults were less antinomian than the Kaula and
lacked sexual rites: the difference between the Kaula and the Tantric lies elsewhere; see
Sanderson 1988, 670-689. Furthermore, this gradation by degrees of antinomianism applies
strictly only in the practice of married liberation-seekers. For evidence of antinomian behav­
iour among mantra-masterers (sadhakah) even in the Siddhanta see Sanderson 1985b. 565.
209 SvT 2.136ab and SvTU 1 (3) 1775-8.
2,0 Sura prohibited in Saiddhantika cult: NASAP folio 6 2r2-ll. Saiddhantika vegetar­
ianism: MrgV CP 21315' 16; TAV 11 (29) 6 4 « .
211 SvT 2.135ab.
80 A. SANDERSON

were an ascetic (naisthikah, yatih, virah) rather than a married man

(,grhasthah). Even then they were restricted to the pantheon’s periphery,
being presented not to Svacchandabhairava himself, nor even to the
Bhairavas and world-protectors (lokapdlah) who are his retinue, but to
the lords of the eight cremation grounds (smasanadhipatih) which
enclose this pantheon in the cult of ascetics alone212.
The greater purity of the married initiate is also evident in the rules of
ceremonial apparel. A married officiant dressed to perform his special
duties in the same way as his Saiddhantika counterpart. But an ascetic
officiant (naisthikacaryah) not only smeared himself with ashes from
head to foot — the practice of Saiva ascetics in general — but also wore,
in the manner of the Kapalikas, the five ornaments of human bone
(mudra) and the sacred thread (yajfiopavitah) made from the twisted hair
of corpses, adding to the impurity of his alcoholic and sanguinary offerings
the pollution caused by contact with the dead213.
The married initiate in the cult of Svacchandabhairava was therefore
excluded from level A only by the offering of fermented liquor (surd).
This was nonetheless a source of grave pollution in the view of the
uninitiated. To drink surd was listed as one of the five most heinous sins
which a brahmin could commit. To smell it, even unintentionally, was to
merit the loss of caste unless he performed an arduous penance to restore
his purity; and any non-brahmin who caused a brahmin to be contami­
nated by it was to be punished with death214. The expurgated form of the
cult of Svacchandabhairava (3A), which was probably that of the majority
of initiates, achieved parity with the Siddhanta by substituting water for
this offering and it justified the substitution by claiming that the word
surd in the relevant injunction of the Svacchandatantra meant water
rather than fermented liquor. How the followers of this tradition sup­
ported their interpretation is not recorded; but one may guess that they
relied on surd's being listed among the words for ‘water’ in the ancient
Vedic glossary (Nighantu)215. Ksemaraja, of course, attacks this forced
interpretation as a betrayal of the true spirit of the Svacchandatantra;
and we are bound to agree that the evidence of the text is on his side of
the argument. For, as he points out, it expressly forbids the initiate to be

212 SvT 2.176-18lb and commentary.

2.3 Mamed officiant’s dress: MP KP 5.4c-9; AKP folios 2vl3-3r8; I$GDP KP 140^
r , 1419-10. This and the ascetic officiant’s dress: SvT 3.2-4b and commentary.
2.4 Manu 11.53; 11 .6 6 ; Visnu 5.100; 38.1-7.
215 Nigh 1.12.25 (sira or sura).
 MEANING IN TANTR1C RITU A L 81

squeamish about alcoholic and sanguinary offerings216. This prohibition

would have been without scope if the cult gave no occasion for such
fastidiousness.
The Tantric form of the Trika raises heteropraxy to a higher level of in­
tensity. The Mdliriivijayottaratantra itself teaches a form of the cult which
belongs in A; but Abhinavagupta’s creative interpretation of this work
transforms its rituals to conform to more esoteric norms of B. Fermented
liquor was to be poured into the principal chalice (visesarghapatram, vidh-
yarghapatram) and then sprinkled from it over all the substances to be of­
fered in worship217. In the Svacchandabhairava cult it filled a secondary ves­
sel (nirodhdrghapatram) and was merely one of the offerings218. The cult
which the worshipper was to offer to his own body (dtmapuja) before he
proceeded to the cult of the deities, required him to place flowers soaked in
this liquid upon his head219. He might even ingest it, since he was permitted
to eat the food offering (naivedyam) when the service was over220. This too
would have been sprinkled from the principal chalice. In the cult of Svac­
chandabhairava the role of alcoholic liquor was marginal in comparison.
According to Abhinavagupta the mantras of the Trika’s goddesses
possess such intense power (vliyarn, diptih) that they must be placated
with offerings of liquor and real flesh and blood, as soon as they have
been summoned for worship. Only then would it be safe for the initiate
to present the conventional Tantric service of flowers, incense, fragrant
powder, lighted lamps and the rest221.
The Trika’s deities thirst for blood is also apparent in his account of
the ceremony of initiation. After the officiant has prepared the mandala
of coloured powders (rajomandalam), installed the invisible deities upon
it and worshipped them, he is to bring into their presence a male buffalo,
goat, sheep, or many of these, and immolate them by decapitation. He is
then to install the same deities in a sacrificial fire, to immolate another
victim to them, extract the omentum (vapd)222, roast it over the fire and
then offer it to them into the flames (vapahomah)223.

2,6 SvTU 1 (2) 75s*11.

217 TA 15.288c-92.
218 SvTU 1 (3) 177s-9; cf. Mrg 7 .1 lc-13 and commentary.
2,9 TA 15.293-294b and commentary.
220 TA 26.70.
221 TA 26.51c-53b, as quoted at TAV 11 (29) 396’9.
222 A fold of peritoneum (the serous membrane lining the walls of the abdominal and
pelvic cavities) extending from the stomach to the adjacent abdominal organs.
223 TA 16.28-73; TaSa 157,:-1582.
82 A. SA N D ER SO N

However, the transcendence of norms required in these Tantric cults

of Bhairava and the goddesses was far surpassed by the Kaula traditions
on level C (the Krama [5] and the Kaula Trika [4C]). As in the Tantric
Trika, worshippers in these Kaula systems were to fill the principal chalice
with liquor in order to ‘purify’ the offering and other factors involved in
the act of worship; but they were also to add particles or drops of such
substances as the Five Jewels and the Offerings of Heroes (viradra-
vyam)224. The first are urine, semen, menstrual blood, faeces and phlegm225.
The rest are these five followed by onion, garlic (both highly pollutant
for regenerate members of the three castes with access to the Veda),
human flesh, beef, goat’s flesh, fish and fowl226. Furthermore, while in
the Tantric Trika the initiate was to sprinkle the contents of the chalice
around and on his person, here he was also to drink from it: in order to
gratify the deities within his own body227.
The favoured substrate of worship (pujadharah) was a vessel fashioned
from a human skull and filled with wine228. Moreover, this liquid and surd
were not merely substances required by the deities: they were venerated
as the deities themselves, as Anandabhairava(/Anandesvara) and Anan-
dabhairavl (/SuradevT)229.
The offerings presented were of the same kind as in the Tantric Trika,
but with the notable addition of the body products, the other impurities
among the twelve Offerings of Heroes230, and the dipacaru. The last was
the usual offering of food (naivedyam, caruh)\ but it took the unusual
form of a number of lamps (dipah) shaped out of dough with red wicks
fuelled with clarified cow’s butter (goghrtam)231. They were intended as
a substitute for the flesh of a human sacrifice (mahapasuh)232 and were
to be eaten by the worshipper at the end of the cult233. In the Krama the
textual prescriptions for the preparation of these lamps brought the sub­
stitute closer to the original: the wicks were to contain camphor, musk, aloe
and olibanum mixed with the blood of a man or of an animal substitute

224 TA 29.15b; 17; 22ab.

225 The Five Jewels: TA 11 (29) 1305*8.
226 The Twelve Offerings of Heroes: TAV 11 (29) 164*6.
227 TA 29.23.
228 TA 29.15cd; 25-27b; TaSa 19816 (virapdtram).
229 TAV 11 (29) 92'3; lO5 ™; 12 (37) 412,M7 (for siddha- read siddhadi-).
230 TA 29.10.
231 TAV 11 (29) 156"13; 5 1 '^ 9 (= JY 4 folio 125vl-3) (for ddhdra- read adhere).
232 TAV 11 (29) 39M.
233 CihcMSS folio 26rl-v3; UttCarV folio 5v3.
 MEANING IN TA N T RIC R ITUAL 83

and the lamps themselves were to be made from the flour of red rice
kneaded with fermented liquor and mixed with ginger and pepper234.
Both red rice and ginger are substitutes for flesh235.
No one was qualified to practice the Kaula traditions unless he had a
female partner (dutl, saktih)236. For it was through sexual intercourse
with her that he was to obtain the semen and menstrual blood which
were the principal impurities to be added to the chalice of wine237. Her
genitalia were one of the possible substrates of the worship which fol­
lowed238; and copulation with her after ritual worship with meat and
wine could take the place of the conventional external cult239.
Routinization and domestication may have favoured a man’s choosing
his wife for this role. But Abhinavagupta strictly forbids that choice,
condemning it as a gross secularization of the tradition. He rules that the
initiate’s partner should be his mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter,
grandmother, or sister’s daughter240; and his commentator Jayaratha ex­
plains that a wife is entirely unsuitable because the initiate would be
distracted by carnal lust from the state of mind required for the ritual241.
No less abhorrent to the orthodox than incest were relations with
women of pollutant castes242. Abhinavagupta’s Kaula Trika includes the
practice of celebrating the parva days by summoning a group of such
untouchable women and worshipping them as the goddesses of the
cult243. They were to be gratified with liquor, fed and given sacrificial
fees (daksina). Texts of the Krama describe the same rite; but merely as
the prelude to an orgy of ritual dancing, copulation and possession by
the deities244.

The defence o f heteropraxy

The attitude of the orthodox to such practices hardly needs to be
stated. The Saiva left itself argued for the validity iprdmdnyam) of the

234 UttCarV folio lvl-3.

235 Kaulav 5.118cd; SarvolIT 16.4.
236 TA 1 (1) 323“7; 11 (29) e s 1^20.
237 TA 29.15b; 22ab and commentary; TAV 11 (29) 92'-936; MNP (K) 139".
238 TaSa 2014-"; TA 29.130-32; PTV 2215-226'.
239 TA 29.96-177.
240 TA 29.101c-2 and commentary.
241 TAV 1 1 (29) 731'10.
242 Manu 11.57.
243 TA 28.81 and 29.66; 28.87-105.
244 JY 4 folios 206r7-209r (viratandavah); KaKuKr folios 18r5-19v2 (cakrakridd).
84 A. SANDERSON

scriptural injunctions which instigate these rituals and attempted to

justify them by explaining their purpose.
As for their validity, the Saiva nondualists contended that the transcen­
dence of smàrta prohibitions in the Tantric and Kaula rituals of levels B
and C was no different in principle from that which occurred in the most
orthodox Vedic practice when a man went beyond smàrta observance to
undertake the more prestigious and demanding rituals of the archaic
srauta tradition. They pointed out that the srauta Sautràman! ritual, in its
pure form at least, included the consumption of rice beer (surd); that
animals were immolated in the srauta Pasubandha and their omenta
(vapà) roasted; and that the Srautin, like the Kaula, was unable to per­
form his rites without a consort, though admittedly she had to be his
wife in the srauta case. Now no impurity or sin was thought to be
incurred in the performance of these srauta rituals, because it was re­
cognized that they were instigated by specific injunctions which auto­
matically blocked the application of any general rules in the corpus of
valid scripture. To object to the SautramanT and Pasubandha rituals
because there are general Vedic prohibitions against drinking alcohol
and taking life would be as unreasonable as to object to the use of irregular
verbs. The grammar lays down general rules to cover most cases and
then gives specific rules to cover the exceptions. So does the corpus of
ritual injunctions (codanà). If this was true for the srauta rituals, why
should it not apply equally to specific injunctions in the Saiva case? The
answer of the non-Tantric orthodox was that the Tantric scriptures are
outside the Veda and therefore invalid. The Saivas agreed, of course,
that their scriptures were no part of the Vedic revelation; but for them
revelation (àgamah) was a vaster entity incorporating many levels of in­
junction, ascending fromJthe^nost general and exoteric to the most specific
and esoteric. The Vedic corpus of srutih and smrtih was seen as the lowest
of these levels, precisely because it was the source of the most general
religious authority, while the Saiva Tantras with their esoteric transcen­
dence of that authority were seen as the highest. The Saiva rules, there­
fore, were valid in their sphere; nor could any smàrta or srauta rule pre­
vail over them where there was conflict245; and the same principle was
applied within the Tantric Saiva field to conflicts between injunctions on
its various levels246.

245 TÀ 4.245c-47 and commentary; cf. TÀ 15.170c-78b.

24« j à v 3 (4 ) 2781,-819.
 M EANING IN TANTR1C RITUAL 85

As for justification, it was explained that the purpose of Kaula trans­

cendence — and this applies by extension to the milder practices of the
Tantric cults of level B — is to enable the worshipper to realize that the
purity and impurity which attach to things and persons on the authority
of Vedic injunctions are not objective properties of those things or persons
(vastudharmah), but purely subjective (pramâtrdharmah). This realization
is thought to be essential because it is seen that the contrary belief en­
tailed by acquiescence in the brahminical socio-ritual order depends
upon and therefore perpetuates the realist illusion that consciousness
deals with a world of discrete phenomena outside itself. Indeed it is seen
as establishing this state of ignorance in its most extreme form; for it is
possible to believe that there is an outside world causing perceptions
without believing that it includes the values which are assigned to it by
brahminism. The power attributed to the practice of nonduality (ad-
vaitâcàrah) is therefore that it enables the initiate to abandon his state of
contraction — or to reaffirm that he has done so — in the realization that
even such universally abhorred substances as the Five Jewels can be
ingested without contamination, since their real nature, like that of all
phenomena, is their identity with his true and uncontaminable self, the
autonomous consciousness which manifests them.
The hesitation which prevents the majority from accepting the validity
of the Kaula and Tantric revelation becomes identical in this perspective
with the contraction which consciousness takes on when it projects itself as
bound individuals and their world. By performing Kaula ritual the initiate
empowers himself to experience sudden enlightenment (,alamgràsah).
His anxiety to conform to the orthodox religion (sahkà) will abruptly
dissolve, taking with it all trace of the lower, dualistic experience of
reality. Throwing off the unenlightened inhibition (pàsavayantranà)
which has contaminated his awareness he will penetrate to the nondual
consciousness which is absolute reality and the state of liberation247.
Such is the power attributed to this contact with impurity that it is be­
lieved that it may take the place of the conventional process of initiation
(diksd) into the Kaula cult. Instead of that ritual the Kaula officiant may
simply present the candidate with a skull-cup containing wine and the
Jewels or other such substances. If he swallows the contents without
hesitation (sahka) he is considered to have attained direct realization of

247 TÀ 4.221c-51b and commentary; TÀ 12.14-25; PTV 2325-23613 (concerning the

Five Jewels); TÀV 3 (4) 269M2; TÀV 11 (29) 130,0-n . Alamgràsah: TÀ 3.259c-264.
86 A. SANDERSON

consciousness in its essential nature uncontaminated by conceptual or

ethical dualities (vikalpah)248. Termed the ‘consumption of the oblation’
(caruprasanam) this act is listed accordingly among the contexts in
which enlightenment may occur without recourse to meditation, ritual or
any other means of liberation249.
Transgression, then, is translated into transcendence. As the Ancrn-
datantra says250:
The very substances which are said to be the cause of a man’s downfall in
the Vedic religion (arsam) become the means of accelerating his liberation
in this System of the Left {vamasasanam)15'.
But it also serves to differentiate the Saivas of levels B and C from the
followers of the purified versions of the non-Saiddhantika cults on level
A (4A and 3A). When Ksemaraja attacks those who substituted water
for fermented liquor in the cult of Svacchandabhairava he accuses them
of “being in the grip of the demon Caste”252. Evidently their concern to
have their cult pure in the terms of the non-Tantric orthodox, free of any
elements that might be thought to compromise their claim to the brahmin-
hood of their birth, had blinded them to the significance of the removal
of the caste of their birth (jatyuddliarah) and their entry into the casteless
‘caste’ of Bhairava (bhairavajatih) which were part of the ceremony of
their initiation. It would be rash to assume that the castelessness required
by the left meant that an initiate could no longer claim membership in
the caste of his birth for the purpose of such exoteric social interactions
as marriage. But it did require him to identify himself with the deity of
his initiation in a such a way that the two levels of his self-image (as in­
vested member of a caste [upariitah] and as initiate [diksitah]) were truly
distinct. That is why the Svacchandatantra promises that anyone who
even mentions the former caste of a fellow initiate will be punished after
death with torture in the hells253. Initiates who objected to the offering of

TA 29.198c-200 and commentary; MNP 2.5.

248
TAV 1 (2) 2 13 (carubhojanam); TAV 11 (29) 1301213; TA 13.228b (caruh).
249
250 TA 37.5abc\ quoting Anandatesana.
251 The term ‘Teaching of the Left’ is probably not intended to mean the teaching of
the non-Saidhantika Tantras in general but rather that of the Stream of the Left/North
(vamasrotah, uttarasrotah), the division of those scriptures to which this text belongs
according to, e.g., NASAP folio lSv^4.
252 SvTU 1 (2) 758. On the eight demonic possessors (grahah) beginning with caste
see Sanderson 1985a, 211-212.
253 SvTU 2 (4) 278-2919; SvT 4.503-546 and commentary.
 MEANING IN TA N TRIC RITU A L 87

fermented liquor refused this internal hierarchy and were therefore indis­
tinguishable from the uninitiated (pasuh)254.
By insisting that the elements of nonconformity be preserved in the
Tantric cults Abhinavagupta and Ksemarâja backed up the effect of their
semanticization of ritual. By injecting nondualistic meaning and pre­
scribing nondualistic practice (advaitàcàrah) they directed the initiate to
look to the Kaula Trika and the Krama rather than the Siddhânta for the
Saivism of the élite. These Kaula systems certainly were the preserve of
the exceptional few. Abhinavagupta reserves them for those officiants
and initiates who have already reached the point at which they are firmly
established in the spontaneity of nondual awareness255, and says that a
disciple (sisyah) fit to be initiated into this form of Saivism is one in a
hundred thousand256.

Aesthetic intensity
Kaula worship has been explained above purely in terms of the value
of transcending the ‘psychosis’ of conformity to the exoteric religion. But
there is another aspect of this method of transcendence : its sensuality or
aesthetic intensity. It is argued that when the objects of the senses are
seen as things outside consciousness, to be appropriated and manipulated
by the subject, then the senses are no more than the instruments of the
state of bondage {bandhah)\ but when the subject abandons this appetitive
style of perception he experiences the objects of his senses within con­
sciousness, as the content of the cognitions that perceive them rather
than as their cause. This shift from the appetitive to the aesthetic mode of
awareness is seen by Abhinavagupta as the divinization of the senses them­
selves, or rather as the recognition of their divine nature as projections or
avenues of the blissful but egoless consciousness which is the underlying
identity of all awareness. Gratified by this reintegration of objectivity —
where before they were starved by brahminical restraint and fastidiousness
— they liberate consciousness into the realization of its all-containing
radiance and transparency257:

254 SvTU 1 (2) 7511. Cf. TÄ 29.99-100. quoting Yogasamcäratantra.

255 TÄ 29.led and commentary.
256 TÀ 29.187ab.
257 TÄ 3.262-64 and commentary.
88 A. SANDERSON

All the processes [of his cognition, from the emission of the object to its
retraction] suddenly and violently (hathatah) throw off their outwardness.
They are cast into the visceral fire of self-awareness, causing it to bum
more brightly with this fuel of their power. When the otherness of these
phenomena has been dissolved by this process of instant ‘digestion’
(hathapakah) [his senses, now revealed as the goddesses of cognition
(samvittidevata [= karane&ari))] devour the nectar of this universe trans­
formed, and gratified thereby they fuse in turn with the all-containing radiant
Bhairava of the void of pure consciousness (cidvyomabhairavah) who lies
in the heart of awareness.
So wine imadyam), meat (mamsah) and sexual intercourse (maithunam)
— the three Afs258 — are enjoined in Kaula rituals not simply as means of
transcending the inhibitions of orthodoxy but also because the first two
stimulate the vigour of the worshipper so that he may achieve the greatest
possible degree of sensual bliss in the third259. The greater the intensity of
this bliss the greater the self-realization in one who experiences it aesthet­
ically, centred in consciousness uncontaminated by desire. If he can adjust
the mode of his perception in this way, being, as Abhinavagupta says
when defining qualification for Kaula initiation, “firmly established in the
spontaneity of nondual awareness”, then the complete excitation of his
senses becomes the fullest expansion of liberated consciousness260.

Possession
This prescription of intensity is also seen in Abhinavagupta’s treatment
of the Kaula ritual of initiation. In the Tantric initiations of levels A and
B the initiand could be the passive beneficiary of the officiant’s action
and awareness; and the left’s presentation of these more broadly based
cults was therefore compatible with routinized religion. But in the Kaula
case the initiand’s transformation had to be seen. Where he was required
to do anything during the ritual he was to act in a trance, impelled not by
his own will but by the power of the deity (rudrasaktih) possessing his
limbs261; and when the officiant united the initiand’s soul with the deity
(yojanikd) this state of possession (avesah) was to manifest itself in
ecstasy, convulsions, swooning and the like, the officiant reading these
as evidence of how intense a Descent of Power (saktipaiah) was taking

258 TA 29.97-97 and commentary.

259 TA 29.97c-98b ( Yogasamcara).
260 TAV 1 1 (29) 6 5 ^ ; 6 6 9-'0.
261 TA 29.187c-197b.
 M EANING IN TANTRIC RITUAL 89

place262. If the normal Kaula procedure did not have the desired effect
then there were mantras and visualizations of special power kept in
reserve. If an individual were unaffected even when these were used he
was to be cast aside as unfit for the Kaula path263. From this point of
view the Tan trie cults exist for the benefit of those who are incapable of
progress through the more intense Kaula methods.

Compression
Just as all ritual is seen as the descent of knowledge into the less
demanding medium of meaningful action, so within the latter there are
thought to be degrees of this descent. The left sees a hierarchy of means
of liberation (upayah), from a pure, non-sequential and nonconceptual
intuition through sequential meditation in thought alone to sequential
meditation supported by the substrate of ritual action264. And it is a
corollary of this view that ritual itself is ranked according to the degree
of its elaboration: the more prolix the support the lower the status. So
Kaula ritual is not only more intense than the Tantric; it must also tend
towards brevity and compression. Thus Abhinavagupta tells us that even
when the Kaula worship of the deities takes its lowest form, that is to
say, when the offerings are presented to the deities upon some inert sub-
strate265, there is no need for such preliminaries as ritual ablution (snanam)
or the complex impositions of mantras (mantranyasah) prescribed in the
Tantric system. The same principle explains the absence of the sacrifice to
the deities in fire (homah) and the fact that the preparation of a mandala
for the deities, so important in Tantric initiation, may be omitted266.
Even greater compression is seen in the higher forms of worship known
as the Cult in Internal Sensation (prdnayagah) and the Cult in Awareness
[alone] (samvidydgah). In the first the goddesses are visualized within
the internal sensation which underlies the vital breaths267, and then grat­
ified with the ‘nectar’ of the ingoing breath (apanah). This he visualizes
pouring into him through the orifices of his head and filling his body268.
In the second the initiate contemplates the goddesses in their real nature

262 TA 29.207-208.
263 TA 29.210-211.
264 Sanderson 1986, 209, n.9.
265 TA 29.7 and commentary: 29.25-27b and commentary.
266 TA 29.8 (MVUT 11.2); cf. TA 15.190c-191b and commentary.
267 Pranah: Sanderson 1986, 177-78.
268 TA 29.178-180.
90 A. SANDERSON

as the blissful, uncontracted awareness which is within and behind his

individuality and gratifies them by contemplating the entire content of
his consciousness dissolving into this Absolute269. Abhinavagupta pre­
scribes this highly condensed cult as the norm in the daily worship of
those who seek liberation rather than rewards. He requires worship with
the female consort only on special occasions270.
The pantheon too is subject to compression. Abhinavagupta explains
that the order of worship is taught to an initiate in the Kaula Trika in five
forms corresponding to the five ascending states of awareness: the waking
state, dream, deep sleep, the fourth (turyam) and that beyond it (turydtltam).
The first is worship of the entire pantheon: KuleSvara and his consort
Kulesvari, the three goddesses Para, Parapara and Apara, their Bhairavas,
and their retinues of Yoginls etc. In the second the initiate worships one
of the goddesses with her Bhairava and retinue. In the third he worships
the core of the pantheon without the retinues: Kulesvara, Kulesvari, the
three goddesses and their Bhairavas. In the fourth he worships only
Kulesvari, and in the fifth only KuleSvara271.
So worship is presented by the left as moving by degrees from graded
sequences in action, through sequence in imagination alone, to a direct
perception of reality in which thought will transcend its nature. For
when worship in awareness reaches its culmination in non-sequential
intuition it has disappeared, or rather we should say with Abhinavagupta
that it has become permanent worship, since it is thenceforth co-exten-
sive with experience itself272.

The Krama
This soteriological model prompted the processes of overcoding which
we saw above in the exegesis of the Maliriivijayottaratantra, the Svacchan-
datantra and the Netratantra. If Saiva ritual was the projection of the
non-sequential experience of the Absolute into liturgical sequence then it
should have been possible to recognize the structure of that Absolute all
the way down through the hierarchy of the cults; for that structure would
be unchanged, just as it is when it contracts into the various levels which

269 TA 29.181-185.
270 TaSa 198,M5.
271 TA 29.220-223 and commentary.
272 p t v 266s (for sadodito yogah read sadodito yagah); 2691"6.
 M EANING IN TA N TRIC RITUAL 91

form the consciousness of individuals273. This, of course, required some

exegetical ingenuity, since the Tantras of the cults predate the
theory which dictates the sort of evidence which the nondualists ex­
pected to find. In order to show how the lower levels collapse neatly into
the higher it was necessary to delve beneath the Tantras' literal meaning.
But this elegant theory of the relation between knowledge and action
deserved clearer application than it could ever find through the overcod­
ing of the cults of levels A and B. Effective as this may have been as a
way of asserting the authority of the left, there remained a high degree
of redundancy. The common structure of the Tantric ritual could be
overcoded only in its general outline, not in all of its details. The same
applied to an even greater extent to the features specific to each cult.
One way round this problem was that of the Kaula Trika. It reduced
the weight of meaningless elements or elements whose apparent meaning
could not be easily harmonized with the left's metaphysics by condensing
the process of worship, and shifting the emphasis from the cognition of
meaning towards intensity of experience. But what was lacking in these
cults was any example of a fully elaborated, uncondensed ritual which
explicitly and uninterruptedly mirrored the theoretical model of con­
sciousness to be internalized as the state of enlightenment.
The need was met by the Krama of Kashmir from the ninth century.
The ritual of this system combined the ecstatic and antinomian intensity
of the Kaula tradition with the worship of a series of sets of emanations
of Kali to be contemplated as the transformation of the structure of
awareness as it passes through the cyclical process of cognition and
withdraws into its nonconceptual essence274. Neither the evolution of
this metaphysical ritual from its scriptural prototypes nor the detail of
the final product can be examined here. I wish only to propose that its
emergence was a decisive factor in the development in Kashmir of non-
dualistic Saiva exegesis. We have seen how both Ksemaraja and Abhinava-
gupta worked it into their interpretations of the non-Kaula cults. But they
did not simply borrow meaning from the Krama. They aspired to make
these systems meaningful in the manner of the Krama, to apply to them
the Krama’s practice of ritual as contemplation.

273 PraHr 9-11.

274 For an outline of Krama worship see Sanderson 1988, 696-98.
92 A. SANDERSON

Abbreviations in the notes

BLO = Bodleian Library, Oxford, England. KSTS = Kashmir Series of Texts

and Studies. NAK = National Archives, Kathmandu. PIFI = Publications de
l’Institut Français dTndologie. TSS = Trivandrum Sanskrit Series. TT = Tantrik
Texts (ed. Arthur Avalon).

AKP Agnikàryapaddhaîi. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. MS San­

scrit 166A
Aj Ajitägama. Ed. N.R. Bhatt. PIFI 24. Pondichéry. 1964, 1967
Alb Albêrùriï's India. English edition by E.C. Sachau, London:
Triibner & Co., 1888, reprinted: Delhi: S. Chand and Co., 1964
AmDV Amrtesvaradîksâvidhi by Viéveévara; NAK. MS 5-4867
AhirbS Ahirbudhnyasamhitâ. Ed. Pandit M.D. Ramanujacharya, rev.
Pandit V. Krishnamacharya. Adyar Library Series, Volume 4.
2 Pts. Madras. 1966 (2nd ed.)
ÏSGDP Hänasivagurudevapaddhati [Siddhäntasära]. Ed. T. Ganapati
Sastri. TSS 69, 72, 77, 83. Trivandrum. 1920-25
ÏPK isvarapratyabhijnâkàrikâ by Utpaladeva. Ed. M.S. Kaul.
KSTS 24. Srinagar. 1921
UttCarV Uttaracaruvidhâna. NAK MS 1-1559
Üimikaul Ûrrmkaulârnava. NAK 5.5207
KK 4 Karmakânda Vol. 4. Ed. Keshav Bhat Zutishi. Bombay.
1936. Reproduced by Lokesh Chandra in Sanskrit Texts
from Kashmir vol. 7, Satapitaka Series 333, New Delhi,
1984
KâthGS Kâthakagrhyasùtram bhàsyaîrayasârayutam. Ed. W. Caland.
Lahore. 1924/5
KàKuKr Kätikulakramärcana by Vimalaprabodha. NAK MS 5-5188
KKKPaddh Kàsmïrikakarmakândapaddhati. BLO. MS Sansk. d. 335
KulârnT Kulärnavatantra. Ed. Taranatha Vidyäratna. TT 5. London:
Luzac & Co. 1971
Kurm Kùrmapuràna. Ed. Anand Swarup Gupta. Varanasi. 1971
Kaulâv Kaulâvalinirnaya. Ed A. Avalon and Narendranath Vidyava-
ridhi. TT 14. London and Calcutta. 1928/9
KP Kriyàpàda
CP Caryäpäda
CincMSS Cincinimatasârasamuccaya. NAK MS 1-767
CidV Cidviïâsa by Amrtänandanätha. In NSA pp. 322-27
JY 1,4 Jayadrathayàmala, satkas 1 and 4. NAK MSS 5-4650 and 1-
1468
TaSä Tantrasära by Abhinavagupta. Ed. Mukund Ram Sastri KSTS
17. Bombay. 1918
TÀ, TÄV Tanträloka by Abhinavagupta, with the commentary (-v/-
veka) of Jayaratha. Ed. Mukund Ram Sastri. KSTS 23, 28,
30, 35, 29, 41, 47, 59, 52, 57, 58. Bombay-Srinagar. 1918-
38
 M EA N IN G IN T A N T R IC RITU A L 93

NÍP, -P Naresvaraparlksa by Sadyojyoti with the commentary (-pra-

kdsa) of Bhatta Ramakantha. Ed. M.S. Kaul. KSTS 45. Srina­
gar. 1926
NäyaR Nyayaratnamdla by Parthasarathimi^ra with the commen­
tary (Nayakaratna) of Ramanujacarya. Ed. K.S. Ramas-
waml Sastri Siromani. Gaewkad Oriental Series 75. Baroda.
1937.
Nigh Nighantu. In R.G. Bhadkamkar (ed), The Nirukta of Yaska (with
Nighantu) edited with Durga’s Commentary, Poona: BORI,
1985 (Repr.)
NÄSAP Nityadisamgrahdbhidhdnapaddhati by Raj anaka Taksakavarta.
BLO. MS Stein Or. d. 43
NSA, -RV Nityasodatikdrnava with commentary (-rjuvimarsim) by
^ivanandamuni. Ed. V.V. Dvivedi. Varanasi: Sanskrit Uni­
versity. 1968
NimS Nirnayasindhu by Kamalakarabhatta. Ed. Narayan Rama.
Bombay. 1949 (5th ed.)
NeT, -U Netratantra with commentary (-uddyota) by Ksemaraja. Ed.
M.S. Kaul. KSTS 46, 59. 1926, 1939
PT, -V Pardtrimsikd/Paratnsikd with commentary (-vivarana) by
Abhinavagupta. Ed. Mukund Ram Sastri. KSTS 18. 1918
PifigM Pihgalamata NAK MS 3-376
PraPañc Prakaranapancikd by SalikanathamiSra. Ed. A. Subrahmanya
Sastri. Varanasi. 1961
PraHr Pratyabhijhahrdaya by Ksemaraja. Ed. J.C. Chatteiji. KSTS
3. Srinagar. 1911
BraSi Brahmasiddhi by MandanamiSra. Ed. Kuppuswami Sastri.
Madras Government Oriental Series 4. 1937
BraSuBh Brahmasutrabhasya by Sankara. Ed. Narayan Ram. Bombay.
1948
BhäCint Bhdttacintdmani by Gagabhatta. Ed. Ramakrsna Sastri Pata-
vardhana. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series 6. 1900, 1933
BhairAnukSt Bhairavanukaranastotra by Rajanaka Ksemaraja. In R. Gnoli,
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