The Origins of Kuṇḍalinī: A Review of Current Scholarship

Christopher Tompkins
PhD Field Statement, 2008

Topics

The Purpose of this Essay

Sources on Kuṇḍalinī
The Vedic Origins of Kuṇḍalinī
Kuṇḍalinī and the Six Cakra System of the Kubjikāmata Tantra
Kuṇḍalinī Scholarship that draws from (pre-Kubjikā) Śaiva Tantra Sources
The Tantric Origins of Kuṇḍalinī as Sonic Energy
Early Tantric Speculations of Mantra--the Paśupatas
The Role of Sacred Sound within the Śaiva Traditions of Kashmir
Cosmic Emanation of Sound Energy
The Two Movements of Kuṇḍalinī
Kuṇḍalinī as the Central Creative Power
Kuṇḍalinī Ascending as the Liberating Power of Supreme Śakti
Conclusion: Approaches for Further Study

The Purpose of this Essay

The purpose of this essay is first to provide a comprehensive review of

current scholarship on the origins of the liberating power known as kuṇḍalinī-
śakti, first delineated upon within the soteriological doctrines of medieval Śaiva
Tantra. By reviewing the evolution of scholarship on kuṇḍalinī, I will detail what
is thus far known about its tantric origins. In so doing, I will attempt to uncover
some of the obstacles that present methodologies, most of which have focused on

1
later (post-Śaiva Tantra) developments of kuṇḍalin,ī have encountered in trying
to delineate the nature of this elusive subtle body power. Most scholarship on
kuṇḍalinī has focused on its role within yogic practices; we thus currently have
little understanding of how crucial of a position kuṇḍalinī had in the
development of Tantric ontology and soteriology, particularly the early
connections of kuṇḍalinī to sacred (macrocosmic and microcosmic) sound in the
Śaiva Tantra corpus.
The number of publications on kuṇḍalinī has exploded over the past 30
years or so, particularly as the tradition of Haṭha Yoga, which mainly succeeds
the period of medieval Tantrism, has become popularized in the West. Because I
will be focusing on scholarship that points to the Tantric origins of kuṇḍalinī, this
will necessarily leave out a thorough examination of much of these publications.
However, in order to contextualize the focus of this essay, four categories of
extant literature on kuṇḍalinī will be reviewed in the Section I. These include a).
non-scholarly publications, b). pre-tantric primary sources that contain the
earliest descriptions of subtle body imagery, c). scholarly works that draw from
primary tantric sources, including, directly or indirectly, from the late (12th
century) Tantric (Kaula) text known as the Kubjikāmata Tantra and from
subsequent Haṭha Yoga manuals, and d). the very few publications on kuṇḍalinī
and the subtle body that do draw from the main body of the Śaiva Tantras
themselves.
Depictions of the subtle body (through which kuṇḍalinī becomes active),
its subtle channels, cakras (energy centers) and even hints at the presence of
kuṇḍalinī itself are extant as early in Indian philosophical literature as the first
Hindu Upaniṣads. But it is not until the advent of the cults of medieval Śaiva
Tantra that we find the doctrine of kuṇḍalinī developing as an integral tenet of
speculations on both cosmic emanation ( ontology) and spiritual liberation
(soteriology).

2
 Section II will thus reveal that, though great shifts occurred in the role,
importance, and imagery of kuṇḍalinī throughout the peak of medieval Tantric
Śaivism1 to the latter stages of the Haṭha Yoga traditions,2 the rise of kuṇḍalinī in
the Śaiva Tantras came through its pivotal relationship to sacred sound. Through
a brief review of the importance of sacred sound throughout the pre-tantric
philosophies of Vedism and Hinduism, I will denote that sacred sound (mantra)
became the thread that tied together all of the somewhat disparate doctrinal
lineages of Śaiva Tantra. Consequently, kuṇḍalinī was a central focus of Tantric
ontology and soteriology, as she was conceived of as the highest goddess
manifestation of universal sound-vibration (parāvāc) that resonates as the very
life-force (prāṇa-śakti) of the human microcosm.
It is this original role, one that has been little discussed in modern
scholarship, that will be the focus of section III. In order to discuss the
phonematic origins of kuṇḍalinī in the Śaiva Tantras, it will be necessary in the
third section to first focus on [?scholarship that discusses?] the importance of
mantra and the role of sacred sound in Tantric philosophy, ritual, and practice.
Lastly, I section four, I will outline goals for the further study of the Tantric
origins of kuṇḍalinī.

Sources on Kuṇḍalinī

The first category of publications that concerns kuṇḍalinī is that which I

have designated as ‘non-scholarly.’ By noting such a category, I define ‘non-
scholarly’ as publications that do not contain primary or at least reliable
secondary sources.3 By ‘primary’ I generally mean Saṁskrit sources, whether

1
Alexis Sanderson (1988: 663) dates the development of the Tantric corpus from approximately
400-800 c.e., while he dates its subsequent exegetical traditions from the 9th to the 14th centuries.
2
One of the latest manuals containing a thorough layout of kuṇḍalinī with the common depiction
of 7 cakras, is the 18th-19th century Haṭha Yoga treatise Śiva Saṁhitā.
3
By secondary sources, I allude to those which rely on publications that cite primary sources.

3
they be Tantras (i.e. Śaiva, Buddhist, etc.), haṭha yoga manuals, Upaniṣads or any
original source in which the doctrine of kuṇḍalinī developed. There are many
such non-scholarly works, including Kundalini: The Serpent Power, by Vasant Rele,
and Cakras by Harish Johari, writings that depict the classical Haṭha Yoga
schematic of kuṇḍalinī and the cakras4 with few or no sources.5 They are too
numerous to discuss here. In any event, it is likely that these many non-scholarly
sources have been widely influential in the West.6

The Vedic Origins of Kuṇḍalinī

All Tantras contain chapters (pādas or paṭalas) on yoga which map out a
complex subtle-energy body, including vast systems of subtle (sukṣma) channels
(nāḍīs) through which life force (prāṇa) flows.7 The central of these channels
(suṣumnā) corresponds to the middle of the spine of the physical body (sthūla)
and is the conduit for kuṇḍalinī’s rise to a locale at or above the crown of the head
(to be discussed in section III). McEvilley (2002) points to rudimentary forms of
this subtle physiology that can be found in the Cāndogya Upaniṣad (VIII.6.6): “A
hundred and one are the arteries of the heart, one of them leads to the crown of
the head. Going upward through that, one becomes immortal.” The Maitri

4
That is, of the seven medial cakras (mūladhāra, svādhiṣṭhāna, manipūra, anāhata, viśuddha, ājñā, and
sahasrāra), pierced by the central channel (suṣumnā) and flanked by two supporting channels
(nāḍīs), the iḍā (lunar current) and piṇgalā (solar current). This schematic was possibly drawn
from the late Kaula text known as the Kubjikāmatatantra (see below CHECK WITH
SANDERSON’S CHRONOLOGY) and is extant through the later Haṭha Yoga corpus (as
evidenced by its appearance in the Śiva Saṁhitā (see footnote #2).
5
See also Kundalini in the Physical World by Mary Scott (1983), which offers a chapter called “The
Tantric background of Kundalini Yoga” with hardly any sourcing at all, and Kundalini, Evolution,
and Enlightenment, ed. by John White (1979), which is mostly a collection of spiritual teachings on
the nature of kuṇḍalinī by modern svamīs.
6
Due to the limited scope of this essay, I cannot make an effort to offer proof of this point, except
to say that the abundance of “kuṇḍalinī yoga” classes now being offered at yoga studios in the
U.S. are often morphed into a practice that hardly resembles nor could possibly represent esoteric
the medieval Tantric practices implemented to awaken this sacred power. In any event, the
essence of such classes is surely not drawn from primary Tantric sources.
7
Note that kuṇḍalinī is considered to be a much refined version of pr˜õa.

4
Upaniṣad specifies (IV.21) that the name of this main ‘artery’ is the suṣumnā and
that the goal of yoga is to cause the prāṇa to rise through that channel to the
crown.
The origins of kuṇḍalinī in the Vedas and Upaniṣads, however, can be found
more directly in yoga passages that are focused on the sacred power of sound. In
his discussion of the evolution of sacred speech throughout the Vedas, Padoux
(28) refers to verse 1.164 from the Rig Veda which conveys that the great cosmic
“man (puruṣa),” the source of the universe, is made up of sound energy.8 A
similar verse in the Yajur Veda illustrates that the ‘Word’ had, even in this early
period, ritualistic, human, and cosmic correspondences. These correspondences
would become commonplace within the Śaiva Tantras, which focused intently on
the connections between humans, rites, the cosmos, and (both macrocosmic and
microcosmic) divine energy. Padoux notes that śakti would be symbolized in
Tantrism by kuṇḍalinī, which appears as life-force, breath, speech, and universal
energy at the same time (ibid).
The Upaniṣads particularly accent the subtle connection between the
breath and speech. The Bṛhadaraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.19ff.) equates breath to the
power of speech, as does the Cāndogya Upaniṣad. The latter declares (1.1.5-6) that
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“this pair joined together (breath and speech) is the syllable OM.” In the
medieval Tantric traditions, any practice designed to empower the mantra will
associate its resonance with the vibration of breath/life force (prāṇa). For
example, the Śāradā Tilaka Tantra, a 12th century work related to the Goddess
school of Tripurasundarī, instructs the practitioner to ‘dissolve’ her in-breath,
connected to the root mantra haṁ, into the out-breath, connected to the root
mantra sa, by meditating on the two syllables together (as haṁsa or so’ham). This

8
From stanza 45 of hymn 1.164: catvāri vāk parimitā padāni, “The Word is measured in four
quarters (the quarters of the sacrificed primordial Being) which are known to those brahmans
endowed with intelligence.”

9
In the Upaniṣads, the syllable OM is cognate with the Universal Principle of Brahman, and is
thus the very ‘sound’ vibration of the Absolute.

5
is done in order to manifest the sound OM, the blissful vibration of the Universal
Self.10
The Maitrīyanīya Upaniṣad contains an important section that considers oṁ
in some detail (6.3-5). Herein we find that, through yoga practices (consisting of 6
aṅgas, including breath regulation, etc.), there occurs a fusing of breath (prāṇa)
and the syllable oṁ within the suṣumnā (the central channel of the subtle body), a
state that leads to liberation. Padoux conveys that this description is “strangely
similar” to tantric depictions of the arising of phonematic energy (microcosmic
expressions of the divine Word) in the form of the ascending kuṇḍalinī in the
suṣumnā (29). In most of the tantric traditions in which kuṇḍalinī appears, she is
represented as an energy associated simultaneously with mantra and breath (29).

Kuṇḍalinī and the Six Cakra System of the Kubjikāmata Tantra

Much of the extant scholarly publications that directly or indirectly

discuss kuṇḍalinī draw descriptions of the sacred power from the subtle body
depictions that originate from the Kubjikāmata Tantra, a text that derives from the
12th century school of the Goddess Kubjikā (the “hunchbacked one”). It organizes
and recapitulates disparate subtle body schema from earlier Tantras. The

10
yadā tadbhāvamāpnoti tadā so ’hamayaṃ bhavet|sakārārṇaṃ hakārārṇaṃ lopayitvā tataḥ param|
sandhiṃ kuryāt pūrvarūpastadā ’sau praṇavo bhavet || 25.53
If the [practitioner] attains that [state of fixed meditation on the inner perceiver], then she is
absorbed into so’ham [the flow of exhalation and inhalation]. Having dissolved the syllables ‘sa’
and ‘ha’ [into each other], that supreme union gives rise to the primordial [sound] form, the
praṇava [OM].
parānandamayaṃ nityaṁ caitanyaikaguṇātmakam | ātmābhedasthitaṃ yogī praṇavaṃ bhāvayetsadā ||
25.54
The yogī should always contemplate OM, which exists non-separately from the [highest] Self,
having the sole property of constant awareness that is comprised of supreme bliss.

6
Kubjikāmata thus set the foundation for the classic ṣaṭcakra (six-cakra) system that
became prevalent in subsequent Haṭha Yoga manuals, texts that are the most
common source for scholarship on kuṇḍalinī. To further categorize extant
scholarship on kuṇḍalinī, it is necessary to highlight and differentiate publications
that have drawn from post-Kubjikā traditions, and, in so doing, to note how the
goddess power is conceived and depicted in them as compared to earlier Tantric
sources.
The cult of Kubjikā belongs to a late school known as the Western
Transmission (paścimāmnāya) of Kaulism. The Kaula tradition, one that infiltrates
the Tantras, is highly goddess oriented, as it focuses upon the “family” (kula) of
goddesses that are a central part of ritual worship and that are to be visualized as
aspects of one’s own subtle body energy. The high deity of this tradition is the
goddess Kubjikā, whose subordinate male consort is Navātma. The earliest
version of the text is dated by Heilijgers-Seelen (4) and Sanderson (687) to the 12th
century. Heilijgers-Seelen (18-19) relates that the cult’s central text, the
Kubjikāmata, envisions the divine couple as presiding over six realms (ṣaṭanvaya)
located in the six centers (cakras)11 along the central power-axis of the body. The
cakras are each equated with the five elements (earth, water, fire, wind, and ether)
and mind (manas).12
This system of six cakras, namely the mūladhāra (the perenium),
svādhiṣṭhāna, (genital region), manipūra (navel), anāhata (heart center), viśuddha
(throat), and ājñā (between the eyebrows), later became universal (Sanderson,
1988: 687, and White, 2003: 146), representing the system of kuṇḍalinī -yoga that
disseminated beyond the boundaries of the tantric cults. Sanderson notes that

11
She places (4) this six-cakra system, discussed in chapters 11-13 of the text, as older than the
subsequent 5 cakra system presented in chapters 14-16.
12
The main feature of the ṣaṭcakra (6 cakra) is the assignment of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit
alphabet in its male form to the six cakras. These letters are considered to be deities. They are
assigned to the cakras in a special division (four to the mūladhāra, 6 to the svādhiṣṭhāna, etc.).

7
this specific ṣaṭcakra system is quite absent in all of the Tantric traditions except
this (the Kubjikā cult) and the latest Tantric (Kaula) sect, that of Tripurasundarī.
A brief survey of some of the extant scholarship on kuṇḍalinī will reveal
that these writings almost exclusively represent a version of the Kubjikāmata’s
ṣaṭcakra system through Haṭha Yoga sources that later implemented it. The
principal source of the seemingly timeless system of the six cakras (post-15th
century haṭha yoga manuals commonly added a seventh, the crown cakra
[sahasrāra]) is the Shaṭcakranirūpaṇa, a late Haṭha Yoga text (15th century) first
translated in the appendix of Arthur Avalon’s seminal work, The Serpent Power.
Although in describing the image of kuṇḍalinī Mookerjee (Kundalini: The
Arousal of the Inner Energy , 10) does cite from late Tantric sources, such as the
Śāradātilaka, his depiction of the cakra system relies on the above mentioned
Shaṭcakranirūpaṇa (10, 39-56) that Woodroffe introduced. In his discussion of the
movement of “vital airs” throughout subtle body channels (nāḍīs), Mookerjee
sources from the so-called Yoga Upaniṣads (i.e. the Yoga-Kuṇḍalinī -Upaniṣad), a
corpus of twenty largely Haṭha Yoga treatises which are roughly contemporary
with the Shaṭcakranirūpaṇa This approach is taken up by Varenne (Yoga and the
Hindu Tradition, chapter 12), whose discussion of kuṇḍalinī also draws (in this
case solely) from the Yoga Upaniṣads (namely the Yoga-Kuṇḍalinī-Upaniṣad and
the Amṛtanāda-Upaniṣad) and from the 18th-19th century Śiva Saṁhitā.
Similarly, Bharati, in his Tantric Tradition, gives only a brief discussion of
kuṇḍalinī and the subtle body, focusing on the six-cakra model set forth by the
Shaṭcakranirūpaṇa and another late-medieval text, the Mahānirvāṇa (also first
translated in The Serpent Power). His review of kuṇḍalinī notes only that the
“yogic body model is taught to have six centers” and that “other texts speak of
twelve centers, and the Buddhist tantric tradition usually assumes four” (291).
Fueuerstein (Tantra: the Path of Ecstasy, 150) introduces his discussion of
the subtle body by describing the Shaṭcakranirūpaṇa system of six cakras as “the
most common cakra model.” Drawing much of his analysis of kuṇḍalinī from

8
haṭha yoga sources, he cites from the 15th century Haṭha-Yoga-Pradīpikā in
denoting the immense system of subtle body channels (nāḍīs) and the yoga
practices that cleanse them (169). The nāḍī system, however, was a central tenet
of the tantric subtle body as early as the 7th and 8th centuries, as depicted in
seminal Tantras such as the Siddhayogeśvarīmata (see below). The haṭha yoga
sources, drawing from much earlier tantric traditions, generally had lost the
contexts in which the subtle body was ritually aligned with the macrocosm
through the movement of specific, named goddess energies within the nāḍīs.
As White points out (2003, 144), despite the assumptions of Fueuerstein
and other scholars who accept the six-cakra system as somehow conventional,
there has never been a “standard” system of six cakras. As noted, Sanderson has
shown that this schematic was first introduced in the late (i.e. from the point of
view of the tantric traditions) Kubjikāmatatantra. While White’s premise is
undoubtedly true, his own problematic structuring of the evolution of the cakra
systems throughout the Śaiva Tantra tradition (144-147) does not examine the
appearance of the cakras in some of the cannon’s most important texts. White
erroneously positions the earliest discussion of the cakras to the eighth century
Buddhist Hevajra Tantra instead of to earlier Śaiva sources where they occur, such
as the Siddhayogeśvarīmata.13

13
From White’s “Yoga in Early Tantra” (2003: 144). In his “Vajrayana: Origin and Function” in
Buddhism into the Year 2000: International Conference Proceedings, Dhammakaya Foundation, Bangkok:
Dhammakaya Foundation, 1994, p. 95, Sanderson has shown that the Yoginītantras, one of which
is the Hevajra Tantra, derives material from earlier Śaiva sources such as the Siddhayogeśvarīmata,
Tantrasadbhāva, Jayadrathayāmala, and Brahmayāmala. The Siddhayogeśvarīmata, one of the three
core texts of the Trika school of Śaiva Tantra, contains a cakra system that is found throughout
these early Śaiva texts. The cakras it lists (from Padoux, 1990, 273) are five, located at the heart
(hṛt), throat (kaṇṭha), forehead (lalīṭa), and at a space twelve finger breadths above the head
(dvādaśānta).
White makes a second error (145) in listing the devotional Vaiṣṇava work the Bhagavata Purāṇa as
the earliest Hindu source (he places it in the eighth to tenth centuries) for the cakras. He claims
that the 9th to 10th century Kaula work Kaulajñānanirṇaya drew from the Bhagavata Purāṇa’s layout
in configuring its own seven cakra enumeration. This includes an added navel (nābhi) and palate
(talu) cakra that is missing from the more primitive Siddhayogeśvarīmata. Moreover, my own study
of the Netra Tantra, a Śaiva work that Sanderson has recently dated to the first quarter of the 9th
century (thus designating it as older than or contemporary with the BP), has revealed that the

9
Kuṇḍalinī Scholarship that draws from (pre-Kubjikā) Śaiva Tantra Sources

A small number of scholarly publications on kuṇḍalinī have centered at

least part of their attention on the Śaiva Tantra (or Śaivāgama) corpus, the
majority of which, as previously mentioned (Sanderson, 1988, 663), date from
around 400-800 c.e. I will now focus on these important contributions.
A very recent monogragh (2006) entitled The Tantric Body, by Gavin Flood,
addresses the very need to re-address how scholarship on kuṇḍalinī and the
cakras is approached. Unfortunately, Flood subscribes (158) to White’s erroneous
claim that the earliest Hindu source for the cakras is the Bhagavata Purāṇa (see
footnote 10).14 However, he does comply with Sanderson’s position that the
Kubjikāmatatantra is the source for the standard six-cakra system extant in Haṭha
Yoga sources.
Flood correctly relates (157-158) that, while “the system of cakras has
become synonymous with tantric esoteric anatomy,” the cakra systems vary from
text to text and are more tradition-specific than some modern exponents have
acknowledged. For example, the Netra Tantra’s six cakras15 differ from that of the
Siddhayogeśvarīmata’s five-cakra system (discussed in footnote 10) in number,
name, and location (within the subtle body), despite the fact that these two
Tantras are roughly contemporary (ca. 7th-8th centuries c.e.). The

Netra also contains a nābhi and talu cakra (NT VII.1) within its 6 cakra system (which is altogether
different that the 6 cakra layout of the Kubjikāmata). Thus it is not feasible to list the Bhagavata
Purāṇa, a non-Śaiva work, as a reliable early source for a cakra scheme that would have informed
Śaiva texts like the Kaulajñānanirṇaya as the latter had more appropriate sources within its own
doctrinal lineages to draw from, such as the Netra Tantra.
14
He furthermore supports White’s claim that the Kaulajñānanirõaya, a 9th-10th century text, has
the earliest use of the term cakra. The Siddhayogeśvarīmata and Netra Tantra, however, both of
which use the term to refer to power centers along the subtle spinal channel, pre-date the
Kaulajñānanirṇaya, as I have shown (footnote 10).
15
It is worth noting again, in order to avoid confusion, that the Netra’s cakras are in different
locales and have different names and subtle body associations than the ‘standard’ depiction of
the Kubjikāmata which is adopted throughout the Haṭha Yoga corpus.

10
Siddhayogeśvarīmata’s cakra schematic and layout of nāḍīs (subtle channels) was
later expounded upon by Abhinavagupta, the great Tantric exegete (ca. early 11th
century) of the Trika school, in his epic work the Tantrāloka. Abhinavagupta’s
(i.e. the Siddhayogeśvarīmata’s) five-cakra system is described in some detail by
Silburn (chapter 2).
Apart from the cakras, there are other subtle body constituents that appear
in different varieties within the Śaiva Tantra corpus. The Netra Tantra (ch. 7),
along with its 6 cakras, lists 12 knots (granthis) to be pierced by the rising
kuṇḍalinī, six spaces (vyomas) to be filled by it along the central axis, 12 ‘locales’
(ādhāras) wherein Śiva himself can be found (superimposed throughout the
subtle body), and 6 ‘targets’ along the central axis.16 The Mālinīvijayottara Tantra
(ch. 12) lists a similar schematic of these subtle body constituents but with
different numberings.17 These constituents are much less commonly mentioned
in subtle body-focused texts that post-date the Kubjikāmata Tantra, namely those
of the haṭha yoga tradition.
Flood (160), in tracing the origins of the term kuṇḍalinī into the Śaiva
canon, again cites White, who incorrectly says that the earliest occurrence of the
‘indwelling serpent’ appears in the 8th century Trika text called the
Tantrasadbhāva, which describes this power as kuṇḍalī (“she who is
coiled/curved”). “Kuṇḍalinī” appears in the Svacchanda Tantra (VII.19-20), the
core text of the dakīṇī cult of Bhairava, which is a source text for the latest of the
three “Trika” Tantras, the Tantrasadbhāva.18 Fueuerstein also traces elements of
the subtle body and kuṇḍalinī to the Śaiva Tantra corpus that pre-dates the

16
For the sake of consistency I use here the term kuṇḍalinī. However, different phrases for the
“serpent power” are used. The Netra Tantra opts for ‘kuṇḍalī’ (VII.23), which essentially means the
same thing. Thus it can be argued that Flood is incorrect when he states that the Netra does not
refer to kuṇḍalinī (160).
17
See Vasudeva, Somadeva, The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottara Tantra, Pondicherry: All India Press,
2004, pgs. 253-275.
18
In these two verses of the SvT, kuṇḍalinī, which corresponds to nāda (sacred sound) is described
as the energy that results from the conjunction of the two central breaths, prāṇa (incoming) and
(outgoing) apāna (from Padoux, 1990: 139).

11
Kubjikāmatatantra. He quotes from Abhinavagupta’s (10th century) Tantrāloka (ch.
3) in describing three types of kuṇḍalinī: prāṇa as the divine power as
transcendent, universal energy, prāṇa as the divine power as ordinary life energy,
and ūrdhva, the divine power as the awakened serpent energy moving upward in
the suṣumnā. Flood (161) and Silburn (chapter 5) also discuss Abhinavagupta’s
tri-kuṇḍalinī, including a short review by Silburn of the relevant section of
Abhinava’s source text for this material, the Vijñānabhairava.
Silburn’s work (Kundalini: Energy of the Depths) is essentially a brief survey
of disparate aspects of kuṇḍalinī as it appears in a number of texts, especially in
the writings of Abhinavagupta. She also details, through a very small number of
excerpts, the important role that kuṇḍalinī plays in what is known as the Nātha
tradition,19 the origins of which post-date most of the Śaivāgama canon. This
includes a discussion of nāḍīs and cakras from Gorakṣanātha’s Amaraughaśāsana
(Section II, ch. 3). Otherwise, her focus largely concerns the presence of kuṇḍalinī
within the Trika exegetical school (i.e. Abhinavagupta, etc.) and omits its many
occurrences in earlier Śaiva literature. She does not offer any discussion as to
how and why kuṇḍalinī and subtle body descriptions differ between the texts that
she excerpts from. Neither does Silburn remark on the relationship of kuṇḍalinī to
mantric (sound) energy (see section III), held to be crucial to tantric ontology and
soteriology.
David White’s Alchemical Body contains occasional references to kuṇḍalinī
that are used to support his overall agenda, which is to assert that tantric yoga
practices were engendered by siddhas (‘perfected ones’) primarily in order to gain
siddhis (magical powers). It thus does not examine kuṇḍalinī’s most important
ontological role in the Tantras as a phonematic power (see below). He cites
occasionally from Haṭha Yoga sources (especially the 15th century
Haṭhayogapradīpikā) and mainly from secondary literature, especially Silburn

19
The Nāthas, including Matsyendra and Gorakṣa, are considered to be the founders of the haṭha
yoga tradition.

12
(1988), when mentioning kuṇḍalinī as a source for yogic empowerment. For
example, he centers (221) on kuṇḍalinī’s role as a poison (before she is ‘churned’
and awakened) for the uninitiated, material that he draws from Silburn (27), who
in turn quotes from the Tantrāloka.20
White further investigates various roles of kuṇḍalinī within tantric and
haṭha yoga sources in his more recent (2003) Kiss of the Yoginī. Herein he again
mistakenly claims (224) that the Buddhist Yoginī Tantra, the Hevajra, is the
earliest account for the cakra system. White briefly details kuṇḍalinī’s all-
important connection to sacred sound in this text. His discussion of the little
studied Kaulajñānanirṇaya Tantra (KJN), attributed to Matsyendranātha, includes
a schematic of the pervasion of goddess energy in the form of sound: the mātṛkās
(“mothers”).21 White paraphrases the text, stating that the mātṛkās are identified
with the “mass of sound” (śabdarāṣi) of the subtle body, located in “all of the
knots” (savagrantheṣu). The KJN describes how the awakening of kuṇḍalinī breaks
these internal knots and liberates the practitioner (230).
White says nothing more than this about the meaning of these technical
terms and how sound relates to energy (i.e. kuṇḍalinī) in this case, noting (ibid)
only that “here [in the KJN] we already detect the process of semanticization of
the Goddess and her energies, a process that becomes predominant in later
Tantric traditions.” Unfortunately, he dates his source text, the KJN, to the ninth
or tenth century (76), later relating (215-217, 229-234) that it draws extensively
from the Kubjikāmata, a Tantra whose earliest version, as noted, has been dated to
the twelfth century by Heilijgers-Seelen (4) and Sanderson (1988: 687). The
important connections of kuṇḍalinī to phonematic energy, as we shall see, are to
be found in much earlier texts than the KJN.

20
By transmuting this poison into nectar, the yogin becomes “a second Śiva” (210).
21
The mātṛkās, as we shall see, are originally considered to be the potency of universal goddess
energy (śakti) as sound, but before she manifests as the phonematic universe. They are thus the
concentrated potential of what śakti will become upon emanation. I will discuss the mātṛkās in the
next section.

13
 Georg Fueuerstein directly connects kuṇḍalinī to tantric depictions of
sacred sound and to the power of mantric energy, although he sources mainly
from (largely post-Śaiva Tantra) haṭha yoga texts (190-197). However, he does
break down (187) the relationship of kuṇḍalinī to the “sonic Absolute” (śabda-
brahman) as depicted in the Śāradātilika Tantra (1.108), a relatively late Śaiva
Tantra (possibly thirteenth century). Feuerstein describes how the Tantras lists
the goddess power as part of a sequence of “cosmogonic processes” which
details the emanation of sound-energy from its Supreme source. Padoux (1990)
offers a much more detailed discussion of the breakdown of this emanation that
will be discussed below.
As noted earlier, as the crucial role of mantra was arguably the thread that
tied together all of the doctrinal lineages of Śaiva Tantra, so kuṇḍalinī, conceived
of as the highest manifestation of sound-energy, became an important focus of
tantric ontology and soteriology. Andre Padoux’s 1990 monograph, entitled Vāc:
The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras, highlights the power of the
‘Word’ (i.e. ‘parāvāc,’ etc.), the central descriptive term for divine energy in these
traditions. Śakti as was consistently expressed as a vocalic power within nearly
all tantric rituals, regardless of sect, on both the macrocosmic and microcosmic
levels.
All of the Śaivāgamas are essentially ritualistic texts. A primary focus of a
given Tantra, as we shall see, are micro-macrocosmic correlations that detail the
cosmic emanation of sound-energy and describe how it is to be reabsorbed
within the subtle body (microcosm) of the liberated human being. Padoux’s
exhaustive research of numerous primary source materials that span the entirety
of the Śaiva Tantric tradition provide an unprecedented insight into the pivotal
role of mantra/phonematic energy in both ontological movements (emanation
and reabsorption).

14
 Padoux’s findings, augmented in small part by other publications on the
importance of mantra in Tantric ritual,22 convey that while from Vedic times
speech had a divine quality and a central role in many philosophical schools, the
same is even more so in tantrism, of which all the speculations about the Word
are based upon the identity established between vocalic sound and divine
energy. Mantras are used ritually in Tantrism to impart the highest knowledge
and liberation (50). The kuṇḍalinī itself--held universally by most schools of Śaiva
Tantra to be the liberating form of śakti that is awakened through yoga practices--
is a form of highly potent phonematic energy that is not only activated by the
recitation of mantras, as we shall see, it is conceived to be mantric power.23 Thus
the origins of kuṇḍalinī can be found through an investigation of the pivotal role
of sacred sound as found in many of the core texts of the Śaiva Tantra canon.

The Tantric Origins of Kuṇḍalinī as Sonic Energy

This section begins with a brief review of the evolution of the importance
of sacred sound from the Vedas to the Śaiva Tantric corpus. Coward’s discussion
(1989) of the fifth century systematizer of the Grammarian school, Bhartṛhari,
highlights the importance that mantras had gained within the ontologies of
Hindu philosophical schools up to his time. Bhartṛhari’s Vākyapadīya holds that
Vedic mantras and consciousness are inextricably intertwined.24 His claim was
that, through understanding the way by which Sanskrit was correlated with the
manifest world by means of Vedic utterances, one could arrive at the knowledge

22
These include Alper, Harvey P, “A Working Bibliography for the Study of Mantras,” in Harvey
P. Alper, ed., Understanding Mantras. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989, pgs. 392-435; Muller-Ortega,
Paul, “Tantric Meditation: Vocalic Beginnings,” in Teun Goudriaan, ed., Ritual and Speculation in
Early Tantrism. Albany: SUNY Press, 1992, pgs. 227-245; and Wheelock, Wade, “The Mantra in
Vedic and Tantric Ritual,” in in Harvey P. Alper, ed., Understanding Mantras. Albany: SUNY
Press, 1989, pgs. 96-122.
23
This discussion, which quotes from early primary source Tantras, can be found on pages 124-
146 (of Padoux, 1990).
24
This was demonstrated, for instance, in Padoux’s discussion of Rig Veda 1.164 (in section II
above), which showed that the first case cause of the universe, the “great man,” was made up of
sound energy and was the source of all life.

15
of universal Brahman. Thus, Bhartṛhari describes the Absolute as Śabdabrahman
(the ‘absolute’ as ‘sound’ consciousness).
Similarly, the Yoga Sūtra (ca. 2nd-4th centuries c.e.) describes Īśvara
(“Lord”) as the ‘seed of omniscience’ whose ‘expression is the praṇava (the root
syllable OM),’ from which all speech, as well as all the prakṛtic evolutes, derive.25
Like the YS, Bhartṛhari’s philosophy teaches that the Absolute is prior to the
many.26 Individual words are subsumed by the sentence or poetic phrase, the
phrase by the Vedic poem, and so on, until all speech is identified with Brahman
(the Absolute). As Coward explains, Bhartṛhari considers the mystical experience
to be when the practitioner, having become the “seeing one” (paśyantī), realizes
the omnipresence of the deity through the mantra itself (Vāk. I.142). Coward
holds that this understanding later informed the tantric devotee’s visionary
experience of the universal deity (171).
Wheelock’s “The Mantra in Vedic and Tantric Ritual” discerns some key
differences in the implementation of mantras within Vedic and Tantric rituals. He
points out that, unlike ordinary speech, the effect of mantra is not to
communicate information; instead, it “creates and allows participation in a
known and repeatable situation.” A mantra is recited in order to generate a
thought or meditation that will transform the consciousness of the practitioner.
There are thus two broad goals for using mantras in Vedic and Tantric rituals: a).
to transform concrete components of the ritual from mundane objects to
resonances of sacred forces, and b). the service or worship of the gods (99-100).
Unlike the Vedic conception of mantra, the seed (bīja) mantras of Tantric
rituals are not mere symbols of ritual elements, they are cosmic elements in
essential form. For instance, in the 11th century Kālīkāpurāṇa, bīja mantras are

25
tatra niratiśayaṁ sarva jñabījam | I.25. pūrveṣam api guruḥ kālena anavacchedāt |I.26.
tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ | I.27. The sūtra ‘It (Īśvara) is the teacher of all gurus before us’ (I.26)
connotes that it is the catalyst for all of universal manifestation, as the primal puruṣa, which is
identical with Īśvara (I.24).
26
The YS does not, however, offer a non-dualist ontological vision, as does Bhartṛhari, although
both denote an Absolute (Īśvara/Brahman) as the catalyst for universal manifestation.

16
considered to be respective parts of the goddess (104). In the ritual of this text,
the practitioner is infused (nyāsa) with the mantra which is the transcendent form
of the deity. In Vedic ritual, on the other hand, although the priest identifies
parts of his body with parts of a variety of different gods, there is no unification
of worshipper and god (105).
Both rituals (Vedic and Tantric) homologize the ritual to a divine reality.
But, as Gonda relates (cited in Wheelock, 108), the Tantric view, unlike that of the
Veda, is that the mantra is used to transform the consciousness of the adept so
that it enters a transcendental state of unity with the deity being worshipped, a
view resembling that of Vākyapadīya I.142 (above).27 Wheelock notes that this goal
is usually met in Tantric ritual by first repeating the root mantra (of a particular
Tantric sect) until it produces a concrete, sonic manifestation of the deity. In
effect, then, the mantra itself becomes infused with the deity, which in turn
empowers and transforms the consciousness of the practitioner.

Early Tantric Speculations of Mantra--the Paśupatas

Oberhammer’s work on the use of mantras by the Paśupatas, an early sect

of Śaiva Tantrics that formed the basis of the Atimārga (“outer path”) school,28
shows that cosmogonic beliefs regarding the divine and omnipresent nature of
sacred sound were in place during the formation of early medieval Tantric
practices. Perhaps the earliest sect of Śaiva Tantra, the Paśupatas practiced
meditations that were aimed at attaining union with Maheśvara (Śiva). These
meditations were based on the use of mantras, particularly oṁkāra (the syllable
oṁ). As was the case with Patañjali (Yoga Sūtra I.27-28), for the Paśupatas, the
oṁkāra was viewed as a “linguistic representation of god,” and not a proposition

27
It should be noted that, while the goal of attaining an identity with a higher reality is
universally represented in all Tantric rituals, many Tantric cults, such as the dualistic Śaiva
Siddhānta, do not see this goal as a monistic one as Gonda seems to indicate.
28
Sanderson (1988, 663) dates the Atimārga to the 6th century c.e.

17
about him (215). Oberhammer relates (217) that the Paśupatas’ various forms of
mantra meditation were believed to “successfully mediate the experience of
increasingly subtle, less objective forms of Śiva’s presence.” Consequently, the
successful practitioner would be able to merge with Śiva, the very essence of the
oṁkāra mantra and of the manifested universe, at the time of death (ibid).

The Role of Sacred Sound within the Śaiva Traditions of Kashmir

Publications by Alper, Sanderson, Muller-Ortega, Goudriaan, and

especially Padoux link the importance of mantra to the origins of kuṇḍalinī as the
central mantric power of Tantric ritual and practice. As we have seen (in section I
above), the rudiments of kuṇḍalinī and subtle body imagery can be found as far
back as the Upaniṣads. But it was not until the advent of the Śaivāgama corpus,
and particularly the Trika school, that kuṇḍalinī fully emerged as a central
ontological, soteriological and ritual phenomenon.
Alper (1989) summarizes how the power of speech evolved within the
development of the medieval Śaiva Tantra corpus. By the third quarter of the
first millennium (c.e.), he notes (250), there had emerged ritual cults that were
loosely based on a ‘generic’ form of Śaiva worship that derived from a literary
group of anthologies known as the Purāṇas (lit. “histories”). These cults
produced texts, characteristically concerned with Śaiva ritual, that they called
Śaivāgamas because they were believed to have come (āgama) from Śiva himself.
The ritualism of these Śaivāgamas, or ‘Śaiva Tantras,’ was theologically
preoccupied with the power of speech, in the power of energy concealed in the
Divine Word. The Śaivāgama traditions, which date from roughly 400-800 c.e.,29
follow the prescriptions of the Paśupatas and other predecessors from whom

29
These are the dates that Sanderson applies to the āgamas (1988, 663).

18
they inherited and developed the conviction that mantras were soteriologically
central.
Andre Padoux has explored further than any other scholar into the
importance and function of sacred sound within Tantric Śaivism. He contends
that the Śaiva texts which speculate and elaborate the most upon speech are the
various non-dualistic Śaivāgama traditions which emerged, developed, and
flourished in Kaśmir (1990:53), particularly those of the Trika (‘Triad’) school.
Alper (1989) similarly relates that the Trika traditions understood the Supreme
Reality mythically, as Transcendental Discourse (Parāvāc), i.e. as the goddess
Śakti. Ontologically, they asserted that the ultimate is transcendentally linguistic,
for it is that which makes possible the mundane conversation of men.
Soteriologically, they taught that uttering a Tantra’s specific bīja mantra is the tool
that puts one in touch with the goddess (283) herself. The Trika exegete
Abhinavagupta systematized the teachings of sacred speech as they occurred in
the Śaivāgama corpus and in the Kaśmiri sects that came before him, including
the Śivasūtras, the Spanda (Pulsation) school, and the Pratyabhijñā (Recognition)
school.30

Cosmic Emanation of Sound Energy

Padoux relates (77) that, for the largely non-dualistic traditions of Kaśmir,
the underlying principle of the universe, Consciousness (Śiva, cit, saṁvid), is both
pure light-consciousness (prakāśa) and self-awareness or active-consciousness
(vimarśa). From the standpoint of the categories of cosmic manifestation (tattvas),
which in Tantric systems are usually thirty-six in number, prakāśa is Śiva and
vimarśa is Śakti, the goddess principle. Both, however, are utterly inseparable.31

30
These three divisions, unlike the āgamas, which were considered to have been authored by Śiva,
were written by non-dualist philosophers of Kaśmir that preceded Abhinavagupta.
31
Padoux here cites from one of Abhinavagupta’s commentaries on the Parātriṁśikā.

19
Śakti is also called Vāc (Speech), and is the very energy of universal
consciousness (Śiva). She is, within Śiva, the power, or the Word, or as Padoux
offers (78), the “Energy-Word,” the power through which he creates, maintains,
and withdraws himself as the universe. Thus the Word, right from the first stage
of universal manifestation, appears as the dynamic aspect (śakti) of
consciousness. Abhinavagupta cites from Bhatṛhari32 when stating that
consciousness is inseparable from the Word because there is no reflectiveness, no
idea, that is not accompanied by speech.
Citing from the 9th century Spanda-Kārikā (Treatises on Vibration), a text that
Abhinavagupta frequently alluded to, Padoux relates that the energy of
Consciousness, the Goddess as the ‘Word,’ appears as a creative pulsation, a
continuous movement of contraction and expansion. The most important point
for our purposes is that this manifestation has its microcosmic counterpart, so
that the movement into finite expressions of creation appears as that which
creates the human (contracted) condition, and the movement of withdrawal
(expansion) as liberation from that condition (82). Padoux continues:
This quasi-identity of both movements, cosmic and human, is symbolized by
kuṇḍalinī, which is both vital and spiritual energy, present both within human
beings and in the cosmos (ibid).

Hence, kuṇḍalinī is pivotal in a dual process of sound emanation and re-

absorption that is a cosmic event, one experienced by individual expressions of
consciousness (i.e. human beings) at the respective moments of their
embodiment and their liberation.
Padoux provides (83) a valuable schematic that illustrates the emanation
of the Goddess as ‘sound-energy,’ one that is found particularly within the
Śaivāgama canon (more so than in the Spanda or Pratyabhijñā texts, or in the Śiva
Sūtras). Śakti, as primal sound vibration of the entire universe, gradually
contracts becoming a drop (bindu) of phonic energy, divides, and subsequently

32
Padoux does not cite the verse (78).

20
gives birth to the ‘matrix of the phonemes’ (mātṛkās), then to the phonemes
themselves (varṇas) through the form of kuṇḍalinī energy. Thus kuṇḍalinī is the
‘coiled’ goddess energy that is ready to spring into manifested universe; it is the
last stage before the goddess, as one universal power, becomes the many. Thus
Vācaka (the ‘Expressor’), Śakti as the energy potential, manifests into “that which
is expressed,” (vācya), namely the world of physical objects (artha), such as
human beings.
Muller-Ortega’s work on Abhinavagupta’s commentary of the
Parātrīṁśikā, the Parātrīṁśikā-laguvṛtti,33 provides valuable insight into both this
process of cosmic emanation and re-absorption. The PT discusses the matrix of
phonemes (mātṛkā), describing them as existing within the heart of Śiva and
consequently within the heart of all beings. The root mantra of the Parātriṁśikā,
is, not surprisingly, a heart mantra (234). Alper (1989) discusses the role of the
mātṛkā as expounded upon in Kṣemarāja’s commentary of the 9th century
Śivasūtras, which in turn draws this information from the core Trika text known
as the Mālinīvijayottaratantra and from the Parātriṁśikā. Kṣemarāja relates that the
entire cosmos may be experienced in ritual meditation exactly as it is envisioned
metaphorically, as animated by circles upon circles of goddesses (mātṛkās).
Goudriaan (1979), who also discusses the cosmic emanation as exhibited
in Abhinavagupta’s works and in the Śāradātilaka, gives a thorough examination
of the 36 tattvas, “realms” or dimensions of cosmic/human experience that Śiva
emanates as his śakti in the form of phonematic energy (52). See also Brooks
(1990) for another discussion of this phonematic emanation from the later (śākta,
Goddess-oriented) tradition known as the Śrī Vidyā (61).

The Two Movements of Kuṇḍalinī

33
The “longer and shorter verses” on the Parātriṁśikā.

21
 Padoux (1990) is the only published scholar to specifically delineate the
two critical roles that kuṇḍalinī plays in the tantras. Nearly all of our knowledge
of kuṇḍalinī has come from (later) haṭha yoga sources which nearly always depict
the serpent power as a spiritually liberating force: when awakened through
appropriate practices, kuṇḍalinī brings the yogin to a state of liberation by uniting
the consciousness of the practitioner with the universal Absolute (paramaśiva).

[[[This liberating role is, however, but one of the two kuṇḍalinī that plays in the
tantras. Nearly all of the tantras focus on the creation of the universeAgain and
again the tantras depict the human being’s creation and subsequent liberation as
a mirror of the cosmic process. Thus this sacred goddess power Kuṇḍalinī is the
catalyzing energy of each of these two phases within all beings, and so the entire
human race is collectively the expression of cosmic emanation and re-absorption.
]]]

Kuṇḍalinī as the Central Creative Power

First occurs the movement that brings the universe into existence, that of
the supreme kuṇḍalinī (parākuṇḍalinī). In Tantric cosmology, before this stage of
emanation (as detailed above), the Goddess (Parāvāc) forms the bindu, the “drop”
of phonic energy that represents the potential for manifestation before the
moment of creation. After bindu it pursues its emanative course downward as the
mātṛkās, transforming into kuṇḍalinī as it brings the manifestation of the universe
into existence. This moment occurs within the creation of the human being, as
the un-coiling kuṇḍalinī ascends through the body, endowing one not only with
life but with the faculty of speech (126). In this sense, kuṇḍalinī gives rise to all
human language and is thus, metaphorically, the source of all life since
consciousness is considered to be a phonic phenomenon. After creation, it then

22
becomes dormant, only to be potentially awakened by the liberation-seeking
practitioner (see below).
The Śāradā Tilaka Tantra, which gives the above schematic in much more
detail, eventually states that universal sonic energy is “the kuṇḍalinī dwelling in
the center of the body in all animate beings.”34 Jayaratha’s commentary on
Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka states that movements of the kuṇḍalinī result
(metaphorically) in the letter ‘a’ of the devanāgarī script. In effect, the one
universal Śakti gradually transforms into the energy-potential of kuṇḍalinī
through which she splits into the many expressions (arthas) of the manifested
world, a process that is described in the Tantrāloka. One of the core Trika texts
from which Abhinava drew material, the Tantrasadbhāva (ca. 8th century c.e.),
denotes this evolution of phonic energy wherein Kuṇḍalinī-śakti is the catalyst for
the mātṛkās to condense from pure energy potential all the way down to
empirical speech.
Chapter 16 of the Tantrasadbhāva describes kuṇḍalinī’s all important role as
the creative power that catalyzes human consciousness. The mātṛkās are
described as the ‘agents’ of bindu-based creations endowed with supreme
splendor.35 They are, in effect, the creative potential (i.e. ‘mothers’) for Śakti to
subdivide (or contract) into the characteristics of a human being, expressed as the
subtle body (sukṣma deha) that in turn condenses further into the physical body
(sthūla deha). Out of compassion, Śiva himself enters the (subtle body) navel so as
to guide Śakti’s full manifestation into human consciousness.36 This ‘drop’ of Śiva

34
ŚT I.15-25.
35
baindavīsṛṣṭikāriṇiyaḥ paratejaḥsamanvitāḥ |
tāsāṁ bhedo na vidyeta naikarūpā gabhastayaḥ || 16.8 ||
“(The mātṛkās) are agents of drop-based creations, endowed with supreme tejas. The divisions of
them cannot be know, their rays are many-formed.”
36
nābhiśikau (śakau) bhaved binduḥ śaktyudaragataḥ prabhuḥ |
bhramate’lātacakre sṛṣṭihetoradhomukhaḥ || 16.9 ||
“The bindu exists in the fire of the navel. It is the powerful Lord, who has gone into the womb of
śakti.” Note that ‘bindu’ here merely denotes a ‘drop’ of Śiva that is present, and not the bindu
phase of the Goddess manifestation that precedes the formation of the mātṛkās.

23
then spins around and around like a ‘fire brand,’ whereupon it stimulates the
arousal of ‘māyā’ (kuṇḍalinī). The TSB states that, as she rises from the navel
center she becomes instantly erect (thus denoting that she was coiled). After this
point, she to be known simply as nāda (sound resonance).37 These verses describe
the moment that the consciousness of the human being is manifested through the
sound-energy of kuṇḍalinī that rises in the central channel of the subtle body
(suṣumnā). It is the vital force that gives consciousness to the body, demonstrated
by the ‘sound’ of the breath and the ability to speak. The depiction of Śiva (the
Divine Source) stirring up the feminine life force in order to create life is similar
to the creation story of the Hebrew Bible. Just as the animating principle (śakti)
rises as breath and speech in the tantras through the intervention of Śiva, so in
the Bible God “breathed into his [man’s] nostrils the breath of life.”38 Breath, a
feminine word in Hebrew (ruah), can be seen as the counterpart of the prāṇa-śakti
(breath/vital energy) which flows from the arisen kuṇḍalinī.
Depictions of kuṇḍalinī as the central (phonematic) creative power are to
be found in other Tantric lineages, such as those of the Yāmala (Union) Cults of
the Mantramārga. The Yāmala Tantras signified a growing trend towards
goddess worship within the ritual, as the secondary deities (to the central male
god, i.e. Bhairava) were, for the first time, a maṇḍala (circle) of yoginīs.39
The Picumata, or Brahmayāmalatantra, highlights kuṇḍalinī as the supreme goddess
power to be recognized as the creative force within the subtle body:
She is of a pale white light; she is like crystalline rays in form. She is the śakti that
has come forth through his (Śiva’s) desire. Her form is knowledge; she is beyond

37
bindunā kṣobhitā māyā ṛjutvaṁ jāyate kṣaṇāt |
nādākhyā sā tu vijñeyā sādākhyā tu parā kalā || 16.10 ||
Māyā is stirred by the bindu. At that very moment, erectness (of her) is produced. She is to be
known as ‘sound resonance’, as the highest division (of Śakti in the body, versus ordinary prāṇa-
śakti).
38
Genesis 2.7.
39
A distinction between the Yāmala and Trika schools is that the Yāmala Tantras focused on
yogic practice for the sake of gaining siddhis, or yogic powers, while the Trika focused on yogic
practice for the sake of liberation. In the Yāmala tantras can be seen the first level of ascent of the
Śakti towards the autonomy she would have in the latest tantric schools, such as the Śri Vidyā.

24
 the mind; she is said to be vibrating. Her existence is without (a definable)
appearance…she, being endless, causes to awake (within the human being) in an
instant bindu (consciousness) and nāda (sound-energy). She exists in a coiled
shape (kuṇḍalākṛti). She exists within the 16 vowels…thus she (the supreme
Goddess in this aspect) is kuṇḍalinī-śakti (the coiled energy). She is born by the
method of the nine syllables…(she is) conjoined with vowels and consonants,
and exists in the 50 syllables (of the alphabet).40

Interestingly, the ‘nine syllables’ that cause kuṇḍalinī to rise (1.131cd)

refers to the nine syllables of the Picumata’s bīja mantra. The connotation is that
ultimately kuṇḍalinī is mantric energy. The Goddess vibrates as mantric energy,
and through this vibration the phonemes (vowels, etc.) are produced, i.e. the
vital force and consciousness of the individual. The phonemes, analogized to the
vāyus (life currents) of the human being, are thus manifestations of the primal
mantric power (kuṇḍalinī) of the Goddess. Conversely, it is the recitation of the
Picumata’s root mantra by the tantric practitioner that will initiate kuṇḍalinī to rise
again, this time for the purpose of spiritual liberation (mokṣa). In so doing, the
practitioner, will paradoxically cause to awaken kuṇḍalinī, the very mantric force
that originally animated his being.
The Svaccandatantra, the core text of the Svacchanda Bhairava cult that
constituted the Tantric division known as the Mantrapīṭha (‘Seat of Mantras’),
contains early evidence for the dual role of kuṇḍalinī. As the ‘coiled’ kuṇḍalinī
represents the stage of the eternal, omnipresent goddess power that will
reverberate into the phonemes (human consciousness), it is called the anāhata

40
jyotsnārūpā svarūpeṇa sphaṭikasyeva raśmayaḥ |
tasyecchānirgatā śaktir jñānarūpā manonmanī || 1.127 ||
pravartate nirābhāsā avadhūteti sā smṛtā |
prabodhayati sānantā bindunādau kṣaṇena tu || 1.128 ||
kuṇḍalākṛtisaṁstānā svarādau saṁvyavasthitā |
caturbhāgavibhaktā sā caturbhāgavibhājitā || 1.129 ||
evaṁ kuṇḍalinīśaktiḥ svaraiḥ ṣoḍaśabhiḥ sthitāḥ |
catuṣkapathakopetā pañcavyomālankṛtā || 1.130 ||
evaṁ pañcavidhā sā tu śaktir ādyā manonmanī |
navākṣaravidhānena punaś caiva prajāyate || 1.131 ||
svaravyañjanasaṁyuktā pañcāśākṣara sāṁpratam |
avadhūtā mahādevi navabhedair vyavasthitā || 1.132 ||

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(‘unstruck’ sound).41 In other words, kuṇḍalinī is the creative mantric power that
precedes and gives rise to all variants of sound. All sounds are made by two
things striking together, such as speech, which is produced by the breath striking
the vocal chords. Kuṇḍalinī, the eternal mantric power that is antecedent to all
sounds, was never created; thus, in Tantras like the Svacchanda it was
considered to be the subtle body manifestation of the eternal, cause-less,
vibrating resonance of the Goddess.
The Svacchanda also equates kuṇḍalinī to a haṁsa, Śiva’s “swan” that “can
neither be emitted nor held back.” The haṁsa is the “self-uttered (i.e. un-struck
sound) that dwells within the heart of all creatures” (VII.59) [ŚT here]. The
combination of incoming (prāṇa) and outgoing (apāna) breaths is known as
haṁsa: the prāṇa is associated with the syllable ‘haṁ,’ while the apāna is
associated with the syllable ‘sa.’ Thus the term haṁsa refers to the energy that
moves both breaths, which is held by commentator Kṣemarāja to be none other
than kuṇḍalinī herself.42 He describes kuṇḍalinī as nāda, the sound that gives rise
to all other sounds. As we have seen, this is the role attributed to kuṇḍalinī in the
Tantrasadbhāva. Having pulsated (sphuritvā) as the phonemes (varṇas), she is nāda
and vimarśa, the reflection of divine consciousness. She manifests into prāṇa
(prāṇakuṇḍalīkātmatayā bhātītyāmnāyaḥ) [SOURCE?], the life-force of the human
being, which is marked by the upward (prāṇa) and downward (apāna) moving
breaths (i.e. haṁsa).

Kuṇḍalinī Ascending as the Liberating Power of Supreme Śakti

The second movement of kuṇḍalinī is her ascent that results from yogic
practices. Such an ascent takes place in the yogin who is seeking liberation. The

41
SvT 6.5 commentary by Kṣemarāja.
42
yataḥ pārameśī bodhākhyā śaktirviśvaṁ garbhīkṛtya parā kuṇḍalikā sati vimarśa rūpatayā
nādātmavarṇakuṇḍalīkātmanā sphuritvāntarnimajjitautatsvarūpā prāṇakuṇḍalīkātmatayā
bhātītyāmnāyaḥ | commentary to SvT IV.257.

26
conscious arousal of kuṇḍalinī brings about a gradual removal of the obstacles to
liberation (represented partially by the aforementioned granthis [knots] of the
subtle body that must be pierced by the rising power). Because of the micro-
macrocosmic correspondences referred to earlier, this movement is analogous
with the cosmic process of re-absorption.43
This movement is, of course, intricately linked ritually with mantras.
Abhinavagupta describes (86 Padoux, 387; find source) how supreme
consciousness takes the form of two heart mantras, one representing emanation
and another re-absorption. The ritual bestowment and proper recitation of these
mantras leads to the discovery of the source of consciousness within the self. The
energy of these mantras, Abhinavagupta reminds us, is Parāvāc (Kuṇḍalinī), the
highest Śakti as the ‘Supreme Word’ energy. Recitation awakens the kuṇḍalinī,
the phonic energy of the mantra, within the microcosm of the individual (388).
The upward movement (uccāra) of the kuṇḍalinī, effected by recitation of
the mantra and by yogic regulation of breath, as mentioned, takes the yogin to the
supreme stage. Thus these practices awaken kuṇḍalinī, which rises in the center
channel (suṣumnā), from the heart up to the dvādaśānta (the highest cakra in the
Tantrāloka and in most of the Śaiva Tantras) where immersion with divine
consciousness (Śiva) occurs (399-401).44 Muller-Ortega (2002) gives a fairly
detailed study of these processes as they are described by Abhinavagupta within
the aforementioned Parātriṁśikā-laguvṛtti, one of the very few analyses on Tantric
ritual that has been published.45

Conclusion: Approaches for Further Study

43
In the sense that the liberated practitioner re-merges with universal consciousness.
44
As I have already discussed the cakras and other subtle body physiology, I will not reintroduce
that subject here, except to remind us that subtle body schematics vary from text to text. No
comprehensive inter-textual study of what they consist of and how they differ from Tantra to
Tantra has ever been published.
45
He describes, for instance, how the mantra functions as the “specific vibratory key,” as the
“powerful resonant software that drives the neuronal circuitry of the cakras and catalyzes the
unfurling of the coiled energy of the kuṇḍalinī” (238).

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 I conclude this essay by referring to another publication that much
more thoroughly details a Tantric ritual that involves the awakening of kuṇḍalinī.
Sanderson’s “Mandala and Agamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir” (1986) is an
invaluable resource for understanding how the emanation and subsequent
resorption of cosmic sound-energy is ritually internalized. He exhaustively
examines every nuance of the Trika ritual of mantra bestowment as given in the
key Tantras of that system (the Mālinīvijayottara, Siddhayogeśvarīmata, and the
Tantrasadbhāva) and as expounded upon by the Trika’s chief exegete,
Abhinavagupta. The complicated ritual described involves the placement of the
triśūlabjamaṇḍala (maṇḍala of the trident and lotuses) within the subtle body of the
initiate by the guru. This maṇḍala, specific to the Trika school, acts as an internal
map by through which the practitioner may visualize the various stages of yogic
emancipation that he is undergoing. Sanderson describes (178) the process
thusly:
The fused breath (from yogic breathing) is totally dissolved and the ‘fire’ of the
‘rising breath’ rises through the navel. It ascends through a vertical channel,
penetrating the cranial ‘aperture of Brahma’ (brahmarandhram) to culminate as
Śiva-consciousness at a point twelve finger spaces above it (the dvādaśānta). In
the present phase of our ritual the level of inner sensation underlying the
movement of inhalation and exhalation is extended in imagination along the
central channel and the triśūlabjamaṇḍala is projected in ascending stages along it.
Thus the worshipper evokes through ritual the actual, yogic rise of the liberating
central power, kuṇḍalinī.

This very important study represents an extremely rare insight into the origins of
kuṇḍalinī within Tantric ritual. The texts that it draws from, products of the
Śaivāgama corpus (ca. 400-800 c.e.), pre-date those sourced in most publications
on kuṇḍalinī, as we have seen, by six to ten centuries. Most of our current
knowledge of kuṇḍalinī, as I endeavored to show in section II, derives from post-
Śaivāgama sources that focus mostly on the liberating aspects of the Goddess

28
power and with much less emphasis on its original (Tantric) connection to
phonematic energy.
The Haṭha Yoga manuals, from which most extant scholarship on
kuṇḍalinī is drawn, are much less concerned with depicting an ontology than
offering a soteriology, both of which kuṇḍalinī plays a pivotal a part in the earlier
Tantric traditions. The first of the two movements (or functions) of divine energy
described in the Tantras, that of macro-cosmic emanation, was largely forgotten
in the later (post-Tantric) period and is thus virtually unrepresented in extant
scholarship on kuṇḍalinī.
A further obstacle to understanding the original purpose and function of
kuṇḍalinī is that most of this scholarship, in analyzing and depicting the cakra
system that is so integral to the movements of kuṇḍalinī, has relied on a cakra
schematic that post-dates most of the Śaivāgama corpus.46 The very few attempts
to delineate the various cakra systems (i.e. by David White, above) of the Tantras
(that predate the Kubjik˜mata) have unfortunately been unsuccessful due to
misdating and a lack of comprehensive knowledge of primary source materials
that are concerned with kuṇḍalinī.
In order for future scholarship on the origins of kuṇḍalinī to be productive
and successful, I conclude, we must develop a much stronger working
knowledge of the primary texts of the Śaiva Tantra canon. This essay has
hopefully shown that most scholarly discussions of kuṇḍalinī often cite other
secondary publications (as do Flood and White) as sources. Furthermore, the
methodology of current scholarship on kuṇḍalinī, regardless of the source, has
been to simply survey instances wherein it has appeared in various texts (i.e
Silburn’s approach) and to briefly describe these appearances. Others, such as
Flood (2006), have tried to delineate, in passing, what seems to be kuṇḍalinī’s
general role in Tantric philosophy/practice. Neither of these approaches have

46
That of the 12th century Kubjikāmata Tantra’s six-cakra system, discussed in section II.

29
attempted to thread together depictions of kuṇḍalinī in order to come to an
understanding of how different traditions may have collectively viewed its role
and purpose within the broader field of Tantric ontology and soteriology.
The new methodology should be to focus on translating and examining
primary Tantric texts in which kuṇḍalinī is exhibited. We can then begin to more
broadly link together the core tenets of kuṇḍalinī as found in these texts in an
effort to discover its original purpose and importance in the Tantrism. Sanderson
(1988) and others have begun to provide us with a classification system for the
vast Śaiva Tantra corpus. Now, with computer search systems like GREP, which
allow scholars to do word and phrase searches within one or many SaÕskrit texts
at the same time, we can more comprehensively examine the roots of kuṇḍalinī in
order to better understand the paramount importance of this integral tenet of
Tantric philosophy and practice.
Such a methodology will be beneficial in two specific ways. The first is
that we will come to a much better understanding of the intricacy of Tantric
ontology, particularly the paramount importance that sacred sound plays in the
relationship between the macrocosm and the microcosm (emanation and
resorption), a connection that is a core feature of Tantrism. I attempted to
demonstrate the second by including in this conclusion Sanderson’s study of the
Trika ritual (discussed above). By analyzing, comparing, and contrasting more of
the many soteriologically-based rituals that are integral to all Śaiva Tantras, we
can attain a much clearer vision of the importance of kuṇḍalinī within the
ritualistic aspect of Tantrism. Conversely, by comparing and contrasting the
pivotal roles that kuṇḍalinī plays within the rituals of different Tantras (and
within the different school systems of Śaiva Tantra), we will come to a much
better understanding of the intricacy and efficacy of Tantric rituals themselves.

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