Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism I

Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism; edited by Bjarne Wernicke Olesen
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Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism
Hinduism cannot be understood without the Great Goddess and the goddess-
orientated Śa-kta traditions. The Goddess pervades Hinduism at all levels,
from aniconic village deities to high-caste pan-Hindu goddesses to esoteric,
Tantric goddesses. Nevertheless, the highly influential Tantric forms of South
Asian goddess worship have only recently begun to draw scholarly attention.
This book addresses the increasing interest in the Great Goddess and the
Tantric traditions of India by exploring the history, doctrine and practices of
the Śa-kta Tantric traditions.
Tantric forms of South Asian goddess worship form a major part of what is
known as ‘Śa-ktism’, and is often considered one of the major branches of
Hinduism next to Śaivism, Vais.n.avism and Sma-rtism. Śa-ktism is, however,
less clearly defined than the other major branches, and the book looks at the
texts of the Śa-kta traditions that constitute the primary sources for gaining
insights into the Śa-kta religious imaginative, ritual practices and history. It
provides an historical exploration of distinctive Indian ways of imagining
God as Goddess, and surveys the important origins and developments within
Śa-kta history, practice and doctrine in its diversity.
Bringing together contributions from some of the foremost scholars in the
field of Tantric studies, the book provides a platform for the continued
research into Hindu goddesses, yoga, and Tantra for those interested in
understanding the religion and culture of South Asia.
Bjarne Wernicke Olesen is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu
Studies, UK, and a teacher of classical South Asian languages and religions
at Aarhus University, Denmark.
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Routledge Studies in Tantric Traditions

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Goddess Traditions in Tantric

Hinduism
History, practice and doctrine
Edited by
Bjarne Wernicke Olesen
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First published 2016

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© 2016 selection and editorial material, Bjarne Wernicke Olesen; individual
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Contents
List of illustrations 000

List of contributors 000
Foreword 000
Acknowledgement 000
List of abbreviations 000
Introduction 000
BJARNE WERNICKE OLESEN
1 Śakti in early tantric Śaivism: Historical observations on

goddesses, cosmology and ritual in the Niśva-satattvasam -
. hita 000
SHAMAN HATLEY
2 The (Un)Dreadful Goddess: Aghorı- in early śa-kta tantras 000

JUDIT TÖRZSÖK
3 Varieties of melaka in the Jayadrathaya-mala: Some reflections on

the terms hat.ha and priya 000
OLGA SERBAEVA
4 Snakebite goddesses in the Sákta traditions: Roots and

incorporations of Tvarita-, Kurukulla- and Bherun.d.a- 000
MICHAEL SLOUBER
5 The Ca-n.d.a-lı- as Śakti: Untouchable women in some Tantric texts 000

MIKAEL AKTOR
6 Śa-ktism and hat.hayoga 000

JAMES MALLINSON
7 Śa-ktism, polity and society in medieval Malabar 000

RICH FREEMAN
Index 000
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Illustrations
Figures
4.1 A twelfth-century folio of the Tvarita-mu-lasu-tra in the Kaiser
Library, Kathmandu 000
4.2 Kurukulla- yantra 000
7.1 Nampu-tiri Brahman novitiate priests offering bali as part of
regular worship to the standardized, modular representation of
the Seven Mothers, with accompanying Vı-rabhadra and
Gan.apati on the southern side of the main shrine 000
7.2 Rough sketch plan giving major shrines and their relative
orientation in the Ko-lattiri’s royal temple of Ma-t.a-yi Ka-vu. This
accords with the Rurujit-vidha-na incorporated into the
Śes.asamuccaya 000
7.3 The Teyyam of Bhairavan, performed by Malayan dancers,
modeled on the costumed ritual-begging of the Co-yi (Yogi) caste
who settled in Malabar 000
7.4 Nampu-tiri of a prominent Va-dhyar family offering gurusi-
tarpan.am from a large cauldron of artificial blood at his feet over
a woven man.d.alam to their family goddess of Rakte-śvari in a
domestic rite 000
Tables
3.1 The ritual dimensions of the two varieties of melaka 000
4.1 Parallel passages in the Agni Pura-n.a that are dependent on the
Tvarita-mu-lasu-r-a 000
4.2 Prakrit spell teachings for Bherun.d.a- 000
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Contributors
Mikael Aktor is Associate Professor of History of Religions at the Institute of

Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions, University of Southern
Denmark. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen, a part of
which was carried out at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
London University. His field of expertise is within the study of Dharma-
śa-stra, in particular with a focus on caste and untouchability. He is pre-
sently engaged in a research of North Indian Śaiva temple ritual and
temple sculpture as part of a general interest in ritual studies and religious
aesthetics.
Gavin Flood is a renowned Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative
Religion at the University of Oxford with a specialization in Śaivism and
phenomenology and with research interests that span South Asian tradi-
tions. Since 2005 he has been the Academic Director of the Oxford Centre
for Hindu Studies, which is a Recognised Independent Centre of the Uni-
versity of Oxford. He is the author of the acclaimed An Introduction to
Hinduism. His other publications include: Body and Cosmology in Kashmir
Saivism and Beyond Phenomenology: Rethinking the Study of Religion. He
is also Editor of the Blackwell Companion to Hinduism.
[John] Rich[ardson] Freeman is a cultural anthropologist with a background
and research interest in Indology (Sanskrit and Dravidian languages and
literatures). He currently teaches courses on Indian civilization, Hinduism,
and the anthropology of religion for the faculties of History and Religion
at Duke University, USA. His special area of research is Kerala, where he
has carried out many years of ethnographic and textual work on the
Teyyam traditions of spirit possession in Malabar, the wider region’s
Brahmanical system of temple worship, and the literary history of
Malayalam in its cultural relations with Sanskrit and Tamil.
Shaman Hatley (Concordia University, Montréal), researches the literature,
ritual, and social history of Tantric Śaivism in medieval India, and religion
in premodern Bengal. Hatley’s dissertation, The Brahmaya-malatantra and
Early Saiva Cult of Yoginı-s, analyses the history of the Śaiva cult of yoginı-s
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viii List of contributors

and provides a partial critical edition of one of its earliest scriptural sour-
ces, the Brahmaya-mala. Hatley is a contributor to the Ta-ntrika-bhidha-nakośa
(‘A Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature’), and
has authored several articles and book chapters concerning Tantric prac-
tices and goddess cults. His current research focuses on the ritual roles and
divinization of women in early Tantric Śaivism and Buddhism. He com-
pleted his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in
2007, under the direction of Harunaga Isaacson.
James Mallinson is Lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical and Indian Studies at
SOAS, University of London. He took his B.A. in Sanskrit and Old Ira-
nian at the University of Oxford, followed by an M.A. in Area Studies
(South Asia), with Ethnography as his main subject, at SOAS. His doctoral
thesis, submitted to the University of Oxford, was a critical edition and
annotated translation of the Khecarı-vidya-, an early text of hat.hayoga. Dr
Mallinson has published eight books, all of which are editions and trans-
lations of Sanskrit yoga texts, epic tales and poetry. His recent work has
used philological study of Sanskrit texts, ethnography and art history to
explore the history of yoga and yogis. He is currently working on a mono-
graph entitled Yoga and Yogis: The Texts, Techniques and Practitioners of
Early Hat.hayoga.
Bjarne Wernicke Olesen is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu
Studies, UK, and a teacher of classical South Asian languages and reli-
gions at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is founder and co-leader of the
South Asian Religion research unit at Aarhus University and director of
the Śa-kta Traditions research project together with Gavin Flood, Oxford.
His research interests include Hindu and Buddhist traditions in South Asia
(especially medieval Śa-kta traditions), Hindu Studies, and the history of
research on religion. He is co-author of a new Danish translation of the
Hat.hayogapradı-pika- (forthcoming) and has written one of the first Sanskrit
grammars with a reader in Danish.
Olga Serbaeva is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Indology,
Asia-Orient-Institute, University of Zurich. Her primary interests include
the representation of d.a-kinı-s in Tantric Buddhism and Śaivism, the con-
ceptualization of altered states of consciousness in the texts of the Vidya-pı-
t.ha, such as provoked possession (a-veśa), breaking of the codes of the
mantras, and the application of the statistics in defining the closeness of
the Sanskrit texts in general.
Michael Slouber is Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies at Western
Washington University, USA. His research focus is on the history of religion
and traditional medicine of South Asia.
Judit Törzsök studied English and Indian Studies at ELTE University, Buda-
pest (M.A., 1992), and completed her D.Phil. under Professor Alexis
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List of contributors ix
Sanderson’s supervision at Merton College, Oxford (2000). After a Junior
Research Fellowship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a post-doc-
toral year at the University of Groningen, she was appointed Assistant
Professor (maître de conférences), at the University of Lille III, where she
still teaches Sanskrit and classical Indian religions and literature. In the
past four years she has also lectured at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes, Paris, where she obtained her habilitation in 2010, supervised by
Lyne Bansat-Boudon. Her main research areas are pre-twelfth-century
Śaiva Tantrism (especially the early phase of goddess cults), classical San-
skrit literature (particularly drama), and pura-n.ic śaivism, with occasional
incursions into classical Tamil devotional literature. She has published
articles on various aspects of Śaivism and Tantrism, contributed to the
Clay Sanskrit Library with two volumes, and participates in the Skanda-
pura-n.a Project (Groningen) and the Ta-ntrika-bhidha-nakośa (Hindu Tantric
Dictionary Project, Vienna).
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Foreword
This book brings together some of the most important scholars working on
Śa-kta traditions today. Bjarne Wernicke Olesen’s book is groundbreaking in
the sense that it is the first serious attempt to publish a broad range of work
concerned at understanding what might be called Śa-ktism. Although there
have been important general works on tantrism in an earlier age (one thinks,
for example, of Hindu Tantric and Śa-kta Literature by T. Goudriaan and
Sanjukta Gupta; and Jan Gonda’s Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit),
it has only been in the last twenty-five years or so that our knowledge of the
Tantric and Śa-kta traditions has significantly improved. This has been largely
due to the work of Alexis Sanderson, who has changed our understanding of
Indian religions. Many of his students have developed important work on
these traditions too, some of whom are represented in this volume. One of the
features of the present volume, and the Śa-kta project of which this is a pro-
duct in general, is the combination of textual scholarship with anthropology.
Although one must be wary of reading present practices into the past, it
seems to me undoubtedly true that present practices shed light on the mean-
ings of past texts more than they obscure those meanings. Conversely, in the
Indian context, we cannot understand present practices without reference to
the texts of tradition. These approaches are well represented here.
In his introduction Bjarne Wernicke Olesen points out the importance of
Goddess traditions in India and the need for a systematic programme of
research to understand these forms of religion. One of the difficulties is in
drawing the boundaries around what we mean by Śa-kta traditions. A simple
definition might be those religions whose focus is a goddess or range of rela-
ted female deities. But then we have the non-Saiddha-ntika traditions, which
are nominally Śaiva, focused on Śiva, and yet which have the Goddess at
their esoteric heart (as Sanderson shows). These Śaiva-Śa-kta religions clearly
cannot be excluded from our inquiry, but the boundaries between Śa-kta and
Śaiva are not always clear. Part of the project is therefore to disentangle the
historical complexity of these religions and the ways in which they interacted
with each other, with contemporary politics, and with social systems. While
there are interesting philosophical and theological questions generated by
Śa-kta religion, the emphasis in this book is textual and historical, partly
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Foreword xi
because it is necessary to generate accurate forms of textual and historical
knowledge before significant philosophical and theological work can be
achieved, which is a second order reflection once the philological and
anthropological work has been done (although never completed).
But the study of these traditions does raise important philosophical and
theological questions that we need to think about. Why is it that worship of a
goddess is so often connected with blood sacrifice and, in the Śa-kta traditions,
with antinomian ritual behaviour? What are the implications of reflecting
upon a transcendent theistic reality in terms of the Goddess? Why is Sanskrit
philosophical discourse gendered in such a way that Śiva is the male, transcen-
dent deity while Śakti is the female power associated with chtonic forces? What
kind of cultural psychology is at work here? These and other questions will need
to wait for other spaces of reflection. Further historical questions also need to
be asked. In particular, there is clear need for detailed textual and anthro-
pological study at the regional level, as Rich Freeman has done for Kerala in
the present volume and as Sanderson has done for Kashmir. We need detailed
regional studies along with broader-sweep historical accounts that show the
interrelationship between regions and the historical impact of Śa-kta traditions
in different parts of the sub-continent. This book is an important contribution
to this field of inquiry and lays the foundations for further historical, textual
and anthropological accounts of the goddesses and their worship.
Gavin Flood
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Acknowledgement
We gratefully acknowledge the help and support of the Nehru Centre, Mr

Shivdasani, Gisela and Børge Olesen, and the Oxford Centre Centre for
Hindu Studies (OCHS), who generously granted funds for the organisation of
the Śa-kta Traditions conference held in Oxford.
Staff and students of the OCHS as well as staff of St Antony’s College and
Somerville College were of great support in making this conference such a
success.
Gavin Flood wrote the summary of Rich Freeman’s paper. Marianne Fibiger,
Mikael Aktor and Gavin Flood read an early draft version of the introduction,
criticising and improving it substantially.
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List of Abbreviations
ChU Cha-ndogya Upanis.ad, see Olivelle 1998

GDhS Gautamadharmasu-tra, see Olivelle 2000
GRETIL Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages.
E-texts available online at http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/
gretil.htm
HT Hevajra Tantra, see Snellgrove 2010
IFI/IFP Institut Français de Pondichéry
Ka-d Ka-dambarı-, see Ka-le 1895–1896
KSTS Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies
MBh Maha-bha-rata, see BORI 1971–1976
MBha-s. Maha-bha-s.ya, see Kielhorn 1962–1972
MDhŚ Ma-navadharmaśa-stra, see Olivelle 2005
MIRI Muktabodha Indological Research Institute. E-texts available
online at http://muktalib5.org/digital_library.html
NAK National Archives, Kathmandu
YT Yonitantra, see Schoterman 1980
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Introduction
Bjarne Wernicke Olesen
General remarks
As an increasing number of scholars have pointed out (e.g. Coburn 1984;
Brooks 1990; Pintchman 1994; Flood 1996), Hinduism cannot be understood
without the Indian Great Goddess and the goddess-oriented Śa-kta traditions.
The Great Goddess in her many forms pervades Hinduism at all levels, from
aniconic village deities to high-caste pan-Hindu goddesses to esoteric, tantric
goddesses. Indeed, as David Kinsley has stated, ‘the great variety of goddesses
allows one to find in their mythology and worship expressions of almost every
important Hindu theme. In short, a study of Hindu goddesses is not so much
a study of one aspect of the Hindu tradition as it is a study of the Hindu
tradition itself ’. (Kinsley 1987, 4). Furthermore, as Alexis Sanderson has
shown in his detailed philological studies (e.g. Sanderson 1988; 1995; 2009),
Śa-kta tantric traditions have also had a profound influence on tantric Bud-
dhism or Vajraya-na – in some cases (e.g. the yoga-nuttara-tantras) to an extent
that would allow for the term ‘Śa-kta Buddhism’. Jainism also has been influ-
enced by tantric goddess worship, although to a lesser extent (Sanderson 2009).
Nevertheless, the very influential Śa-kta tantric forms of South Asian god-
dess worship have only recently begun to draw a more broad scholarly atten-
tion. These traditions form the esoteric part of what has become known as
‘Śa-ktism’, i.e. traditions focusing on a goddess or a group of goddesses with a
tendency to identify the Goddess as Śakti (‘power, force’) with ultimate rea-
lity, ens realissimum. By some scholars, Śa-ktism is seen as a network of both
tantric and non-tantric traditions and considered one of the major branches
of Hinduism next to Śaivism, Vais.n.avism and Sma-rtism. To others, Śa-ktism is
first and foremost an esoteric development within tantric Śaivism, a subsect,
or a form of ‘feminised Śaivism’ – sometimes also emphasised as ‘tantra par
excellence’. Thus, ‘Śa-ktism’ is less clearly defined than the other major bran-
ches of Hinduism and it can be surprisingly difficult to discern Śa-ktism from
Śaivism in its tantric forms. In the broader perspective of the study of reli-
gion, these often very complex and challenging forms of religion provide a
test case for our understanding of Hinduism and raise important theoretical
and methodological questions with regard to the study of religious traditions
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2 List of Abbreviations
in South Asia as well as to the more general and comparative study of reli-
gion. However, these meta-theoretical questions will be dealt with elsewhere,
as they form one of the major themes at the second international Śa-kta Traditions
conference and subsequent volume.
This volume
The main approach of the present volume is textual Indology as the texts of
the Śa-kta traditions constitute our primary sources for gaining insights into the
Śa-kta religious imaginaire, ritual practices, and history. However, this approach
is supplemented by an art-historical perspective, an anthropological perspec-
tive and the overall perspective of the history of religions. The volume
answers the increasing interest in the Great Goddess and the Śa-kta tantric
traditions of South Asia, indicated by the growth of popular and secondary
literature in recent years. Unfortunately, most of this new literature is written
without the proper knowledge of the original texts and many misconceptions
persist. The goal of this volume is therefore to shed new light on what has
been called ‘some of the most complex, challenging and influential forms of
South Asian religion’,1 based on solid research that is grounded in the origi-
nal texts (most of which have yet to be translated into European languages).
The book brings together contributions from some of the foremost scholars in
the field of tantric textual studies with the particular aim of tracing and
understanding developments in the history and rise of tantric worship of the
Indian Great Goddess, covering a long period of Indian religious history from
the early medieval period up to the present. The volume acts as a historical
exploration of distinctive Indian ways of imagining God as Goddess (and
goddesses), a survey of important origins and developments within Śa-kta history,
practice and doctrine in its diversity, as well as an insight into the ‘weird and
wonderful’ Śa-kta religious imaginaire and ritual practice that may be con-
sidered distinctive and thus sets ‘Śa-ktism’ apart from other South Asian reli-
gious traditions. Finally, the volume intends to fill a gap between dedicated
monographs that focus on a single goddess, a single tradition, or a group of
goddesses, and the few general surveys of ‘Śa-ktism’ or ‘Śa-kta religion’ at hand.
For those interested in goddess worship and esoteric traditions in general,
this book will establish important points of departure for further comparative
work in the area of comparative religion. For those concerned with the spe-
cific understanding of religion and culture in South Asia, especially in its
esoteric tantric forms, it will provide a platform for the continued research
into Hindu goddesses, yoga, and tantra.
The Śa-kta Traditions project

The Śa-kta Traditions project was started by Gavin Flood, Academic Director
of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) and Professor of Hindu
Studies and Comparative Religion at the University of Oxford, and Bjarne
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Introduction 3
Wernicke Olesen, Research Fellow at OCHS and Ph.D. scholar at Aarhus
University. The project was inspired by Wernicke Olesen’s doctoral work and
a mutual interest in a somewhat neglected area of research, as well as the
recognition that any headway in this field would indeed be of great value for
the future study of religions in South Asia. A research desideratum and aim
for the project was thus formulated by Gavin Flood:
Research on the Śaiva traditions has been quite extensively developed in

recent years. Important work has been done on the Skanda Pura-n.a,2 the
Pa-śupatas,3 the Śaiva Siddha-nta,4 the non-dualistic Śaiva traditions, and
their philosophical articulation in the Pratyabhijña-.5 But less work has
been done on what might be called Śa-kta traditions, those traditions,
tantric and non-tantric, focused on an independent Goddess (Devı-) or on
Śiva’s power (śakti). Research has been done on the Kubjika- tradition6
and on Śa-kta oriented Śaiva traditions7 but a sustained research pro-
gramme that inquires into the history, doctrine and practices of what
might be called ‘Śa-ktism’ is a desideratum.
The aim of this research project is therefore to address fundamental
questions such as the clarification of the distinction between Śaiva and Śa-kta
traditions, questions about Śa-kta textual lineages and their interrelation-
ship, the clarification of doctrines and practices of the different schools,
questions about the relationship between the tantric and the pura-n.ic God-
dess traditions, questions about the relationship between local Goddess tra-
ditions (such as the Teyyams in Kerala) and the pan-South Asian traditions,
raising questions about the relationship between esoteric practices and the
exoteric temple cults, asking what the delimitation of Śa-kta doctrine is, and
what developments there are in contemporary Śa-kta worship.
The research project is ambitious and intends to address these questions from
a number of perspectives, i.e. a text-historical or philological perspective, an
anthropological perspective on contemporary practice, a doctrinal or con-
ceptual focus on theological reflection based on the textual material that has
been established to date, an art-historical angle, as well as the meta-theoretical
perspective of the study of religion. The project is being carried out as a col-
laboration between the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the Department
for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University. Project outputs are a number
of international conferences held at Oxford and Aarhus, with papers and
reports on ongoing research published in dedicated conference volumes as
well as the establishing of an international Śa-kta research network with webpages
at Aarhus and OCHS.8
The conference
The first international Śa-kta Traditions conference was held in Oxford on
10–11 September 2011 at Somerville College. The conference was one of
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participation by invitation, and priority was given to the Indological per-
spective, as the texts of the Śa-kta traditions and their text-historical bound-
aries are hardly established. The conference was highly successful, with over
fifty participants and twelve international speakers. The keynote address was
given by Alexis Sanderson, Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and
Ethics at All Souls College, Oxford, considered by many to be the world’s
foremost scholar on Sanskrit, Indology, and the tantric traditions. The con-
ference was hosted by Professor Gavin Flood, and manager of the conference
was Research Fellow Bjarne Wernicke Olesen.
The first day of the conference concentrated on Indological and philologi-
cal papers. Each session lasted one hour and each speaker chaired the fol-
lowing session. Alexis Sanderson gave the keynote address on the rise of
goddess worship in early medieval India and was chaired by Gavin Flood.
The keynote was followed by papers based on particular Śa-kta-related tantric
texts, especially the Niśva-satattvasam -
. hita (Shaman Hatley, Concordia), Brah-
-
mayamala and the Siddhayogeśvarımata (Judit Törzsök, Lille–Paris), Datta--
-
treyayogaśa-stra and the Hat.hapradı-pika- (James Mallinson, Oxford),
Jayadrathaya-mala (Olga Serbaeva, Zürich) and the Yonitantra (Mikael
Aktor, Odense). The day was concluded with a conference dinner for the
speakers in the library at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
The second day was of a more interdisciplinary nature, including papers
from the perspectives of Indology, art history, the comparative study of reli-
gion, and anthropology (or ‘all the weird stuff’, as Gudrun Bühnemann
humorously put it). Harunaga Isaacson (Hamburg) presented the first paper
on the sa-dhana of female deities in Indian tantric Buddhism of the tenth to
twelfth century and was chaired by Gavin Flood. The session was followed by
.
papers on śaktilingas and similar sculptures from the perspective of Indology
and art history (Gudrun Bühnemann, Wisconsin–Madison), Devı- worship as
point of departure for a comparative project (Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger,
Aarhus), snakebite goddesses in the Śa-kta traditions with particular reference
to the Ga-rud.a Tantras (Michael Slouber, Berkeley), and the Śa-kta influence in
the goddess cults of Malabar based on textual, ethnographic, and historical
sources in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit (Rich Freeman, Duke). The day
was concluded with a final discussion led by Gavin Flood focusing on the use
of the terms ‘Śa-kta’ and ‘Śa-ktism’.
Particulars
In addition to the author’s abstracts initiating every chapter, some of the main
features of the papers will be summarised below in an approximate chron-
ological order, revealing some of the Śa-kta motifs and themes that recur
throughout the volume.9 However, it should be emphasised that the points of
view expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, although
an attempt has been made to keep formulations and points close to the ori-
ginal. First and foremost, the following synoptic overview may prove useful in
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Introduction 5
providing the reader with a general impression of how the heterogeneous
sources and material show a remarkable congruence and continuity in the
longue durée of Indian religious history covered by this volume – hopefully
stimulating the reader as well as facilitating the communication between
scholars working in different Śa-kta-related areas of research.
In his keynote, Alexis Sanderson provided a revised and original overview
of the rise of goddess worship in early medieval India based on new evidence,
which in his own words suggests a major elaboration or extension of his pre-
vious work.10 In his lecture, Sanderson attempted to identify an independent
Śa-kta tradition, which first appears inside ka-pa-lika atimargic sources (fifth
century CE) and then exists refined within the mantrama-rga or tantric Śaivism,
being assimilated to various degrees. In his article ‘The Śaiva Exegesis of
Kashmir’ (2007), Sanderson made the point that the mantrama-rga (fifth cen-
tury CE +) in all its versions, both saiddha-ntika and non-saiddha-ntika, operates
on a single liturgical system.11 In his lecture, this point was qualified by stat-
ing that there is indeed strong evidence for an independent ka-pa-lika Śa-kta
tradition coming in from the side and being to a greater or lesser extent
assimilated into the matrix of the Śaiva common ritual system. One of the dis-
tinctive features of this Śa-kta tradition is the collective, orgiastic worship in
which the individual identity is merged in a group. According to Sanderson,
this tradition was not a creation of or a reformation within the mantrama-rga,
but an ancient tradition preserved at the margins among esoteric groups. What
has been hitherto represented as a more elevated, mystical tradition within
Śaivism is indeed so from the perspective of later Śaiva practitioners, but it is
also – in Sanderson’s view – a very archaic and independent Śa-kta tradition
from the outside, which has been preserved in spite of various attempts at refor-
mation and assimilation. Furthermore, this was not just a ‘weird and won-
derful’ phenomenon at the margins, but it flowed into the high cultural world,
which became very evident in the work of the great Śa-kta-Śaiva exegete
Abhinavagupta (tenth century CE), who came from this very Ka-lı-kula-Krama
Śa-kta tradition of the non-saiddha-ntika division. Abhinavagupta intellectua-
lised it and reinterpreted it as part of a new kind of cultural self-definition for
learned Brahmans in Kashmir. Thus, Abhinavagupta stands out as the final
culmination of this process of intellectualisation of the Śa-kta tradition or
‘high cultural Śa-ktism’, that begins in Kashmir in the ninth century and cul-
minates in the late tenth century. It left its stamp on the culture of Kashmir
but also had a huge influence on India as such. First and foremost, it was
taken up in South India by the very influential cult of Tripura- Sundarı-, a kind
of purified ‘sweet Śa-ktism’ as opposed to the ‘shocking Śa-ktism’ of North
India. It was assimilated by the orthodox sma-rta Brahmanical system as well
as by Pa-ñcara-tra Vais.n.avism and even by Dighambara Jainism and later
Śvetambara Jainism, thus indicating the pervasive influence and popularity of
Śa-kta traditions and goddess worship at the time. Finally, Sanderson emphasised,
Buddhism from the eighth century onwards was completely transformed
along the same lines of the Śa-kta developments which we see in Śaivism.
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In his chapter, Shaman Hatley examines the nature and historical develop-
ment of goddesses and the category of Śiva’s ‘power(s)’, śakti, in what may be
the oldest surviving Śaiva scripture, namely the Niśva-satattvasam -
. hita, dating
from the fifth to seventh century CE. As pointed out by Hatley, the Niśva-sa
contains much of interest for the history of Śa-kta traditions, although the text
places little cultic emphasis upon goddesses. Based on a diachronic analysis of
the five books of the Niśva-sa corpus – following the hypothetical stratification
suggested by its editors (Goodall et al., forthcoming) – Hatley suggests that early
tantric goddesses were frequently apotheoses of feminine-gender cosmological
categories. This was followed by a movement from feminine-gendered princi-
ples to embodied goddesses that may be seen as characteristic of the early
Mantrama-rga. The equation of goddesses with Śiva’s śakti, and the ‘female-
ness’ of śakti, thus appears to be innovations of the early Mantrama-rga,
aspects of which can be studied in the Niśva-sa. Furthermore, we find in the
Niśva-sa early and very interesting complementary articulations of the idea of
the singular Great Goddess (Maha-devı-) in the intersecting spheres of lay
religion (laukikadharma) and tantric Śavism (Mantrama-rga). Noteworthy in
the Niśva-sa’s description of lay religion (in the Mukha-gama book) is the
identification of Maha-devı- with prakr.ti and the absence of identification with
śakti and ma-ya- – the two other cosmogonic principles identified by Pintch-
man (1994) in the ‘symbolic complex’ of the Great Goddess found in the
pura-n.as. Thus, the Niśva-sa may reflect a relatively early stage in the formation
of the Great Goddess, preceeding the classic formulation of pura-n.ic Śa-kta
theology in the Devı-ma-ha-tmya of the Ma-rkan.d.eyapura-n.a. However, this is
complemented by a Mantrama-rga-oriented formulation of the Great Goddess
found in a late stratum of the Niśva-sa, namely the Guhyasu-tra book. Here we
find the conflation of prakr.ti and śakti that is critical to the pura-n.ic con-
struction of the Maha-devı-. This becomes evident in the deification of prakr.ti
and in the subsumption of all such cosmological goddesses within śakti in the
cosmology of the Niśva-sa. It may be added that Hatley’s larger objective is to
reconstruct the processes of the Śa-kta transformation and reconfiguration of
the Śaiva cosmology in the Brahmaya-mala as well as to edit chapters from
this text. The Brahmaya-mala is among the earliest extant tantras with a Śa-kta
cultic orientation, and thus offers interesting insights into how the cultic
emphasis on goddesses was extended into doctrine.
In her paper, Judit Törzsök investigates the place of the goddess Aghorı- in
early tantric scriptures (ca. 7th–8th century CE) and the possible factors con-
tributing to the shaping of her cult and identity as a supreme goddess. Aghorı-
(‘undreadful’) is a frequently occurring name for the highest goddess in these
early tantric sciptures as well as in non-tantric contexts at the time. In parti-
cular, Törzsök looks at the Siddhayogeśvarı-mata of the Trika and the Brah-
maya-mala, and points out that it is in the Brahmaya-mala that the goddess
Aghorı- (or Aghoreśı-) is first described in detail as the supreme goddess of the
cult. Furthermore, as Aghorı-’s cult is strongly associated with cremation
ground rituals, it is suggested by Törzsök that Aghorı- might even have been
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Introduction 7
- -
the principal deity of the skull-bearing kapalika ascetics, their tradition being
an important precursor of later Śa-kta tantric currents. A number of remark-
able ka-pa-lika elements thus figure in the Brahmaya-mala, including the ‘great
vow’ (maha-vrata), the ‘great churning’ (maha-mantha-na), provoked posession
(a-veśa), and other cremation ground rituals. Among other continuities with
pretantric currents, Törzsök emphasises the continuities with the La-kulas. She
shows how the idea of three kinds of female powers (śakti) headed by Aghora-
is already present in their scriptures predating the Śa-kta tantras. However, it
is only in the Śa-kta tantras that the role of male and female deities and
mantras are reversed and goddesses take the leading role. In their mantric
identities, it can thus be observed how the tantric Aghora- or Aghorı- often
seem to ‘śa-ktise’ existing male Śaiva entities by replacing them with feminine
ones. The Siddhayogeśvarı-mata creates a fully Śa-kta doctrine and pantheon
inspired by what was originally a Vedic mantra, namely the Aghora-mantra,
and in the Brahmaya-mala, Aghorı-’s nine-syllable mantra is used as a sub-
stitute for the male nava-tman-mantra. According to Törzsök, it is also quite
evident how Aghorı- was used to draw the cult of the seven Mothers into the
Śa-kta tantric doctrine and ritual. In this case, Aghorı- would become the eighth
Mother and supersede them, just as the tantric cult of the Mothers is sup-
posed to supersede the nontantric cult of the Mothers. It therefore seems, that
the cult of the Mothers was not a direct precursor of Śa-ktism, but instead was
adopted and transformed in the same way the Śa-kta tantras adopted and
transformed pretantric Śaiva doctrines and practices of the atima-rga. How-
ever, some doubt still remains as to what extent Aghorı- functions merely as
an epithet or does indeed refer to an identifiable supreme goddess with
ka-pa-lika antecedents. In either case, Aghorı- clearly played a significant role
and provides us with interesting insights into the development of Śa-kta tantric
doctrine and practice.
Olga Serbaeva explores particular instances of the tantric practitioner or
sa-dhaka’s encounters with yoginı-s as they are described in the Jaya-
drathaya-mala (pre-tenth century?). These encounters are termed melaka or
mela-pa and usually come at the end of a mantra recitation or homa. They
invariably take place in desolate and dangerous places (cremation grounds,
mountain tops, etc.) where the tantric sa-dhaka finds himself surrounded by
yoginı-s in a visionary (and often intoxicated) state. He satifies the yoginı-s by
offering them a bloody argha from his own limbs whereafter they transform
him into a superhuman, often compared to Bhairava. These encounters con-
stitute the core of the post-initiation tantric practice in the Vidya-pı-t.ha texts to
which the Jayadrathaya-mala belongs.12 The text is influenced by ideas of the
Krama and later Trika and constitutes a gathering of multiple traditions and
material – ranging from descriptions of ka-pa-lika-style human sacrifice to
internalised yogic dhya-na. The text consists of four parts or s.at.kas (supposed
to contain 6,000 verses each) of which the first s.at.ka is the most archaic and
least Śa-kta in language and orientation. The first s.at.ka may be separated by a
century or more from the remaining s.at.kas, which – taken together – can be
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said to form one of the most ‘Śa-kta’ tantric texts in existence, as suggested by
Serbaeva. The deities invoked are almost exclusively female while Bhairava is
reduced to a speaker and rarely appears in the man.d.alas. In some instances,
the sa-dhaka is said to achieve the state of yoginı-s, to become a yoginı- or even
to become like Ka-lı- herself. Serbaeva’s point of departure is the distinction
made by Abhinavagupta in his Tantra-loka between two types of melaka, the
hat.ha- and priyamelaka. The hat.hamelaka is also mentioned in the Brah-
maya-mala as a potentially dangerous practice in which the sa-dhaka may risk
his life and be killed by the yoginı-s/d.a-kinı-s. Thus, Serbaeva explores the
nature of the hat.hamelaka in the Jayadrathaya-mala, including its relation to
the practice of provoked possession (a-veśa) and whether the same clear-cut
hat.ha/priya distinction is found in this pre-Abhinavagupta text. However, a
preliminary linguistic analysis of the occurences of the term melaka and its
variants in the Jayadrathaya-mala does not reveal a clear-cut distinction, just
as the potential violent character of the hat.hamelaka and the potential sexual
character of the priyamelaka seems to be neither fully confirmed nor contra-
dicted. On the other hand, a ‘melaka-manual’ is found in the Jaya-
drathaya-mala (3.38–39) which deals exclusively with technical aspects of
melaka. The last verses of this manual do in fact allow for an alternative
interpretation of some melakas as being ‘violent’ (hat.ha) in nature, as it is the
yoginı-s who are ‘forced’ by the sa-dhaka to appear at a time and place chosen
by him. This can be contrasted with the priya variety in which the sa-dhaka has
to humbly await the yoginı-s in a place and time where they ‘love’ (priya) to
manifest themselves. Thus, in the hat.ha variety in the Jayadrathaya-mala the
sa-dhaka becomes the main orchestrator of the encounters with yoginı-s. This
practice contrasts with earlier tantras and is based on a set of powerful
mudra-s provoking altered states peculiar to the Jayadrathaya-mala. These
mudra-s are complex ritual procedures including body postures, mantras,
shouting, breath control, and so on, related to almost all instances of melaka
in the text through which the sa-dhaka gains access and control over the
yoginı-s. As the Jayadrathaya-mala links melaka with mudra-s and the yogic
mastery of the subtle body, the text constitutes an important step in the
proces of the interiorisation and intellectualisation of the melaka as it is
known from the works of Abhinavagupta. After being internalised, the
melaka was often encoded by kun.d.alinı--related procedures as a practice for
the expansion of consciousness (in which the priya/hat.ha distinction became
irrelevant). Furthermore, Serbaeva suggests that one consider the preparatory
phase of the melaka as a visible ritual praxis in which the priyamelaka is dis-
tinguished by secret signs (chomma) as well as by a low-risk collective practice
ending in a collective altered state, i.e. a regular ‘tantric feast’ with human
yoginı-s. This is opposed to the exceptional and individual high-risk hat.hame-
laka involving non-human yoginı-s, aiming at the personal transformation of
the sa-dhaka in a solitary visionary state. Serbaeva concludes with some
interesting reflections on the nature of this hat.hamelaka-related transformation
of the sa-dhaka.
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Introduction 9
Michael Slouber takes a closer look at early identities and transformations
of snakebite goddesses found in the Śaiva Ga-rud.a Tantras, who were later
incorporated into the influential Śa-kta traditions of the 9th–12th century. The
prevalence of snakebite in South Asia was from an early time coupled with
popular goddess worship, resulting in a number of influential Śa-kta traditions
dedicated to goddesses associated with snakes and healing snakebite.
Although the literature and worship of these goddesses became widespread,
little work has been done on their textual traditions, as pointed out by Slou-
ber. He suggests, that some of these goddesses were popularised by the
Ga-rud.a Tantras. In his paper, he focuses on the three goddesses Tvarita-,
Kurukulla- and Bherun.d.a-. The goddess Tvarita- (‘The Swift One’) was in time
identified with high goddesses such as Kubjika-, Durga-, and Ka-lı-, as well as
with Padma-vatı- in the Jaina Tantras (probably via the influential cult of Tri-
pura- Sundarı-). Kurukulla- is best known as a tantric Buddhist goddess often
identified with Ta-ra-, but she also figures as an independent goddess in the Śrı-
vidya- and Ka-lı-kula sources from the ninth to the sixteenth century apart from
the Ga-rud.a Tantras. As Slouber shows, it remains a complex question whe-
ther her origin is to be found in a Śaiva or Buddhist context. In the case of
Bherun.d.a-, Slouber shows the usefulness of distinguishing between the god-
dess’ identity as an independent snakebite goddess of the Ga-rud.a Tantras and
her identity as an ancillary goddess in other Śa-kta sources. It becomes clear,
that Tvarita-, Kurukulla- and Bherun.d.a- each have multifaceted identities as
well as separate literature, visual forms, spells, and identities in the early Śaiva
Ga-rud.a Tantras and the early Śa-kta Tripura- Sundarı- literature. In relation to
the important question of the relationship between the tantric and the pura-n.ic
goddess traditions, Slouber presents new evidence that Pura-n.ic chapters on
snakebite goddesses were borrowed directly from tantric sources. Thus we find
parallel passages in the Agni Pura-n.a that are obviously dependent on the
Tvarita-mu-lasu-tra, the latter being ascribed to the Trottala Tantra, i.e. one of
the most cited canonical Ga-rud.a tantras.
Mikael Aktor takes a closer look at the Ca-n.d.a-lı-’s role in tantric texts. She
is the lowest of low-caste women, belonging to what Dumont has labelled ‘the
old prototype of the Untouchable’. At the same time she is the ‘Chief God-
dess, Lady of hosts’ in tantric texts. Thus, the Yonitantra (eleventh century CE)
evokes a yantra representing the yoni with the Ca-n.d.a-lı- as the central divinity.
In her worship (yonipu-ja-) the worshipper becomes equal to Śiva. As Aktor
observes, low-caste women such as the Ca-n.d.a-lı- or the D -
. ombı (washer
woman) figure prominently in many of the tantric texts – especially in the
Buddhist and Vais.n.ava tantric Sahajiya- literature – in which she personifies
the Kun.d.alinı- śakti. This raises the question of the reasons behind such anti-
nomian tantric tributes to the untouchable woman par excellence. Through a
study and analysis of the literary images of the lowest castes in other genres,
Aktor shows how the use and ritual significance of these caste labels in the
tantric texts becomes intelligible. A multifaceted image of the untouchable
woman as a reservoir of contrasting forces emerges from this study. In
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general, female sexuality is an expression of śakti, and as seen in the law
books (e.g. Ma-navadharmaśa-stra), a more free flowing sexuality is attributed to
women, especially from the lowest castes, who are not restricted and ‘tamed’
by marriage into one of the four varn.as. Thus, unmarried, childless and sexually
active low-caste women are highly potent and preferred as agents of ritual
transformation in an antinomian tantric context. But even more so is the
Can.d.a-la woman, who is often associated with savage life beyond civilised norms.
In classical texts (e.g. Cha-ndogyopanis.ad), the Can.d.a-la represents a category
of untouchable castes rather than a single caste. Two different images of the
Can.d.a-la emerge in the early centuries of composition of the Maha-bha-rata and
early law books, namely the domesticated caste of Can.d.a-la and the savage
Can.d.a-la – the latter representing a tribe rather than a caste. The tribal ste-
reotype as an antithesis to Brahmin values is preserved in later narrative lit-
erature such as Ba-n.abhat.t.a’s novel Ka-dambarı- (sixth century CE). As can be
observed in the novel, ambiguous attitudes toward untouchability are at
stake – the wild and unspoiled Ca-n.d.a-lı- is also seen as disturbingly attractive.
Aktor suggests that the rationale is turned on its head in the novel, that is,
beside the level of social norm and public censure dictated by kinship and
class, there is another secret level at which the untouchability protects the
unspoiled beauty and pure sexuality of the Untouchable against the impure
touch of the Touchable. However, the Can.d.a-la’s impurity is not only the lowest
in a continuum. Patañjali’s commentary on one of Pa-n.ini’s rules (2.4.10), as well
as Buddhist Ja-taka stories, reveals the idea that the Can.d.a-las carry with them
an inborn ‘magic’ quality and pollution that cannot be removed by ordinary
means. A ritual transformation of this inauspicious quality can therefore
be highly powerful in a tantric context. Furthermore, as Aktor points out, the
association between Ca-n.d.a-lı-s and menstruation can be traced back to the
earliest texts dealing with Untouchables. In the law books, the term ca-n.d.a-lı- is
frequently used to designate a woman on her first (and most polluting) day of
menstruation. Thus, whereas the Yonitantra places the Ca-n.d.a-lı- at the centre
of the yantra, the Br.hadyonitantra places the ‘flowering’ or menstruating
woman (pus.paru-pin.-ı) at the centre. As can be seen in mythical aetiologies,
death, grievious sin, female sexuality and menstruation are often related. The
inversion of norms is also at stake in relation to the D - - -
. ombı in the Caryagıti,
-
an eleventh-century CE Buddhist Sahajiya tantric text, as Aktor shows. Here
we again find the secret level serving as the playground for the Siddhas’
experiments with sexual energy and mystical experience – expressed in the
tantric language of implicit meanings (sandhya-bha-s.a-). As Aktor points out
(with a reference to Dumont’s yoga–bhoga dichotomy), instead of rejecting
the enjoyments of the senses (yoga), the ritual enjoyment (bhoga) of experi-
ences otherwise considered impure became possible through this inversion of
norms at a secret level. For some of the tantric traditions of the mantrama-rga,
the attribution of ritual power to bhoga became one of the primary means for
attaining yogic states of consciousness – and thus to have your cake and eat
it, as it were. This became the case with the disturbingly attractive Ca-n.d.a-lı-.
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Introduction 11
James [Jim] Mallinson looks at hat.hayoga’s relationship with Śaivism and
its Śa-kta manifestations and examines one of the ways Śa-ktism endured after
its heyday in what Alexis Sanderson (2009) has termed the ‘Śaiva Age’ (5th–13th
century CE). The thirteenth century CE thus marks the end of the heyday but
also the beginning of hat.hayoga’s rise to a position of dominance among
India’s soteriological methods. In his paper, Mallinson shows how this very
succesful form of yoga – first and foremost popularised by the Hat.ha[yoga]
pradı-pika- (ca. 1450 CE) – was a result of the ‘Śa-ktisation’ of hat.hayoga and its
appropriation by the Na-ths, a Śa-kta cult of the Paścima-mna-ya or western
stream of Kaula Śaivism. Mallinson starts off by summarising the distin-
guishing features of early hat.hayoga with the Vais.n.ava Datta-treyayogaśa-stra
as point of departure and then goes on to summarise the techniques of
hat.hayoga as taught in a number of pre-Hat.hapradı-pika- texts identified as the
corpus of early hat.hayoga (neither Śa-kta nor Na-th). Thus, in its early for-
mulations, hat.hayoga was closely associated with traditional ascetic practices
of boosting the beneficial effects of celibacy, i.e. the preservation of semen
(bindudha-ran.a). This early hat.hayoga was characterised by a variety of yogic
techniques later known as mudra-s (e.g. viparı-takaran.-ı and khecarı-mudra-) with
the primary aim of keeping the semen (bindu, amr.ta) in the head of the
hat.hayogin. According to a pervasive yogic physiology (first found in the
Amr.tasiddhi), bindu/amr.ta rains down from the moon in the head and is
burned up in the sun at the base of the spine. As the bindu was considered the
vital principle, its loss was supposed to lead to weakness and death, that is, if
preventive yogic techniques were not employed. Should the hat.hayogin be as
unfortunate to ejaculate, he might even use the technique of vajrolimudra- as a
damage control to create a vacuum in his abdomen and resorb his bindu.
Mallinson then goes on to show how Śa-kta techniques of yoga were grouped
separately from hat.hayoga as layayoga in a typology that became commonplace,
but was first found in the Datta-treyayogaśa-stra. Thus, in the same period as
early hat.hayoga we find the influential Kun.d.alinı- system of yoga developed by
Śa-kta traditions. In this system, the yogin visualised the rising of the serpent
goddess Kun.d.alinı- from her home at the base of the spine (a-dha-ra) up
through a series of cakras (usually six) to union with Śiva or, as is the case in
the Śa-kta-oriented Khecarı-vidya-, the great store of amr.ta in the head, with
which she floods the body on her journey back down. This stands out as a
remarkable contrast to the cavity-sealing Khecarı-mudra- of early hat.hayoga. Fur-
thermore, vajrolimudra- as described in the Śa-kta hat.hayogic text Śivasam -
. hita
is a technique not for damage control but for absorbing the commingled
sexual fluids (bindu and rajas) of both male and female partners in order to
combine them with one’s own body. The Datta-treyayogaśa-stra also mentions
a number of sam . ketas or ‘secret techniques’ in relation to layayoga that are
found in other texts as well. These secret techniques focus on visualisations of,
and meditations on, places and energies in the body – again in contrast with
the more physical yogic techniques of early hat.hayoga. To the techniques of
layayoga is further added the concentration on na-da or ‘internal sound’ (said
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to be the best form of layayoga in the Śivasam -
. hita). As Mallinson points out,
the yoga of early texts associated with the Na-th gurus (e.g. Goraks.aśataka
and Yogabı-ja) seem to correspond more with layayoga than with early
hat.hayoga. However, the Kun.d.alinı- system and techniques of layayoga
developed in a Śa-kta milieu were then overlaid onto the techniques of
hat.hayoga in a number of texts. An early attempt is the Vivekama-rtan.d.a while
the later Śivasam -
. hita presents a more coherent synthesis. However, the
- -
Hat.hapradıpika’s fusion became the locus classicus and dominant form of
hat.hayoga as well as of yoga more broadly conceived. In this text, Śa-kta
techniques of Kun.d.alinı--oriented layayoga was included under the rubric of
the otherwise bindudha-ran.a-oriented hat.hayoga. At the same time, the pur-
pose of hat.hayoga was to a great extent realigned to that of layayoga (e.g. the
raising of Kun.d.alinı-). Mallinson identifies early practitioners of hat.hayoga as
munis such as Kapila and Datta-treya in contrast to layayoga-practising,
Śa-kta-oriented siddhas such as Goraks.a – a distinction that seems to persist
today between Śa-kta Na-ths and the more orthodox Daśana-mı-s and Ra-ma-
nandı-s. Finally, Mallinson locates these developments in a wider perspective,
and suggests that the co-option of hat.hayoga by a Śa-kta tradition can be seen
as representative of the development within Śa-ktism of a less sectarian and
more universal yoga (i.e. a democratisation of yoga) and of the formation of
the Na-th sam - -
. pradaya. This originally non-celibate Śakta tradition developed
-
into the highly influential celibate order of Nath ascetics, who are nowadays
more in keeping with the expurgated ‘sweet Śa-ktism’ of the South Indian Śrı-
vidya-, having the benevolent goddess Ba-la- or Tripura Sundarı- as their focus
of worship.
In the last paper Rich Freeman presents a case study of Śa-kta traditions in
Kerala during their formation in the later medieval period and traces their
continuities into the present. In this important paper Freeman integrates
knowledge of Sanskrit and Malayalam texts with knowledge gained through
years of fieldwork. In particular, Freeman shows that many of his findings in
the anthropology of Kerala are borne out in the textual findings of Alexis
Sanderson’s critical Indology. Freeman begins with the contemporary situa-
tion in Kerala, that in the temples and in performative cults there has been a
synthesis of puranic and tantric ideas and practices. But beneath the general
and vague invocations of a ‘Mother Goddess’ or ‘Bhagavatı-’ worship, there
are more complex textual and historical instantiations of Śa-kta traditions in
Kerala. One of the main findings Freeman presents is the way in which the
Nampu-tiri Brahman caste has accommodated and appropriated Śa-kta tradi-
tions, stripping them of any association with blood sacrifice, non-vegetarian
and alcoholic offerings, and ritualised sex and sexual imagery. This Kerala
tantric tradition is an amalgam of vedic and tantric rites, focused on the
temple, in which vedic as well as tantric mantras are used in temple ritual that
contains no elements of impurity characteristic of lower-caste Śa-kta rites. The
dominant Brahmans are known as Tantris, those who install images in tem-
ples, perform annual festivals, and have the hereditary knowledge and
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Introduction 13
authority in these matters, in contrast to those Brahmans of subordinate
ritual status called Śa-ntis, who are engaged in daily rites of worship. This
Nampu-tiri tradition has been in place since the fifteenth century and the main
text of the tradition, the Tantrasamuccaya, is still used in temples today. The
importance and centrality of this text is witnessed by layers of Sanskrit and
-
Malayalam commentaries. There is also the earlier Iśa-naśivagurudevapad-
dhati, a composite text that is generally framed in a Śaiva Siddha-nta tradition
that goes back to the twelfth century, but that incorporates Vais.n.ava and
Śa-kta cults of worship. A third important text, the Śes.asamuccaya, composed
within the same Nampu-tiri family as the Tantrasamuccaya, presents the
remainder of the deities not dealt with in that text and includes Śa-kta pan-
theons of the seven Mothers, Sarasvatı- and related deities (Śrı-, Parvatı-, Jyes.-
t.ha-), and the demon slaying Rurujit. Here we have an absorption of Śa-kta
elements into the tradition that reflects the Brahmanical control of lower
social groups and their deities. In Kerala there existed a complex social
structure of sambandham relations in which the younger siblings of the eldest
Brahman male had liaisons with upper-caste, non-Brahman women. This
meant, as Dumont had noted, that most Brahman males’ vedic ritual status
was compromised and so, Freeman argues, an alternate tantric order offered a
‘socio-religious compensatory validation’.
In the context of these textual and social traditions, Freeman presents an
example from Nı-leśvaram and the teyyam festival at which alcohol and blood
are offered to, often, female deities embodied in possessed male dancers. Here
at Nı-leśvaram, a Śa-kta priestly caste, the Pit.a-rar, had royal patronage and
Freeman shows that the royal shrine at Nı-leśvaram and others along the
Malabar coast represent the worship of Rurujit from the Śes.asamuccaya. In a
way parallel to the Orissan Paippala-din Atharvavedins that Sanderson has
shown adapted Trika and other Śa-kta cults, so the Kerala Brahmans under
royal patronage adapted Śa-kta traditions. The shrine at Ma-t.a-yi Ka-vu presents
an architectural reflection of a process of assimilation of a Śa-kta cult. Rurujit
is the goddess who conquers the demon Ruru, a demon who is assimilated
into an enemy of the former kingdom. After killing the demon the goddess is
pacified and installed in the temple as the royal protector. The goddess is
incarnated in the spirit-possessed teyyam in the temple’s outer courtyard on
an annual basis. This pattern of the localisation of a goddess who upon
defeating a demon has to be controlled is often encountered in Kerala.
Indeed, we see a general pattern in Kerala of Nampu-tiri Brahmans respond-
ing to Śa-kta and tantric traditions by attempting to gain control of them and,
as Freeman observes, ‘bring them within the orbit of their social authority’.
One of the main features of these Śa-kta traditions in Kerala is the blood rites.
While the teyyams are offered real blood from decapitated chickens, the
Nampu-tiris offer substitute blood to appease their deities. But the teyyams are
also offered substitute blood tainted by real, chicken’s blood. Freeman shows
two contrasting logics behind this. On the one hand the Brahmans wish to
avoid pollution, on the other the castes who offer to the teyyams wish to
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increase the amount of blood offered. Here we have in stark contrast a dis-
tinction and tension between the śa-kta and the vedic traditions still present on
the Malabar coast.
Ørslev Kloster, 2014
Notes
1 Centre for Tantric Studies, Hamburg (www.tantric-studies.uni-hamburg.de/about-us/).
2 Adriaensen et al. 1998; Bakker and Isaacson 2004.
3 Bisschop 2006.
4 Goodall 1998; 2004.
5 E.g. Sanderson 2007, 231–442.
6 Goudriaan and Schoterman 1988; 1994; Heilijgers-Seelen 1994.
7 Sanderson 2007; 2009; Padoux 1994; Vasudeva 2004; White 2003.
8 www.ochs.org.uk/research/sakta-traditions (Oxford); http://projects.au.dk/sakta-
traditions/ (Aarhus).
9 Alexis Sanderson, Harunaga Isaacson, Marianne Fibiger and Gudrun Bühnemann
did not contribute with papers to this volume. However, a summary is given of
some of the main points of Alexis Sanderson’s keynote address, as his lecture pro-
vides an important framework of understandning for the papers collected in this
volume. It is our hope that their contributions may form part of subsequent
conference volumes in the Śa-kta Traditions project.
10 In his influential article on Śaivism and the Tantric traditions (1988), Sanderson
presented a broad overview of the traditions, counting two branches of the ati-
ma-rga (second century CE +), namely Pa-śupata and La-kula, and two branches of
the mantrama-rga (fifth century CE +), namely Siddha-nta and Ka-pa-lika-style cults.
However, in the light of new evidence, Sanderson suggested the addition of a third
branch of the atima-rga (3rd–5th century CE), encompassing Somasiddha-ntins and
Ka-pa-likas. In the context of Śa-kta traditions, this would imply that an early Śa-kta
dimension can be traced within the atima-rga as well.
11 Sanderson stated that this point was made partly to undermine the tendency of
scholars in the field ‘to hermetically seal themselves off inside one or other of these
branches and not look over the wall to see what’s on the other side’.
12 Cf. Sanderson’s mapping of the Tantric traditions (Sanderson 1988).
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Bakker, T. Hans and Isaacson, Harunaga.2004. The Skandapura-n.a, Volume II A,
Adhya-yas 26–31.14: The Va-ra-n.ası- Cycle. Critical Edition with an Introduction,
English Synopsis and Philological and Historical Commentary. Supplement to
Groningen Oriental Studies. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
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Introduction 15
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Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism I

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Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism I

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Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism; edited by Bjarne Wernicke Olesen

Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism

Routledge Studies in Tantric Traditions

Goddess Traditions in Tantric

First published 2016

ISBN: 978-1-138-82334-1 (hbk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

List of illustrations 000

1 Śakti in early tantric Śaivism: Historical observations on

2 The (Un)Dreadful Goddess: Aghorı- in early śa-kta tantras 000

3 Varieties of melaka in the Jayadrathaya-mala: Some reﬂections on

4 Snakebite goddesses in the Sákta traditions: Roots and

5 The Ca-n.d.a-lı- as Śakti: Untouchable women in some Tantric texts 000

6 Śa-ktism and hat.hayoga 000

7 Śa-ktism, polity and society in medieval Malabar 000

Mikael Aktor is Associate Professor of History of Religions at the Institute of

viii List of contributors

We gratefully acknowledge the help and support of the Nehru Centre, Mr

ChU Cha-ndogya Upanis.ad, see Olivelle 1998

The Śa-kta Traditions project

Research on the Śaiva traditions has been quite extensively developed in

Ørslev Kloster, 2014

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