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Tāntric Čult in Eastern India
Dr. Upendra Thakur Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian and Asian Studies, Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya.
BIHAR The Tantras may rightly be termed as "so many encyclopaedias of the knowledge of their time" as they deal with all matters of "common belief and interest from the doctrine of the origin of the world to the laws which govern kings and the societies... medicine and science generally. The Tantra is... the repository of esoteric belief and practices, particularly those relating to yoga and mantra-tattva".1 In them we find the description of the Supreme Being, the creation and destruction of the Universe, ihe classification of creatures, the origin and worship of the gods, the heavenly bodies different worlds and hells, man and hells, man and woman, cakra (centre of the human body), dharma, aśramas and the sacraments, mantra, yantra (magic diagram on which to worship), various forms of spiritual training, Japa, Vrata, worship (internal and external), medicine, science and many other things.
It has been argued that the Tantras are a recent Śästra and are largely the creation of the people of Eastern India which is supposed to be its stronghold. The antiquity of the Tantra has, however, been proved beyond doubt to be as ancient as the Sruti itself. In fact, not only in Eastern India, But throughout the whole of India the upper classes of Hindu community are governed by the Tantric religion as far as initiation (dikşā) is concerned. There are Säktas, Vaişņavas and Saivas all over the country, The Śāktas are initiated by the Sakti-mantra, the Vaisnavas by the Visņu-mantra and the Saivas by the Siva-mantra. All these mantras are the exclusive properties of the Tantra. Like Mithilā, Madras, Bengal, Bombay, Kāšī (Banaras), Kashmir, Assam and other fuch notable places of India have Śaktas, Vaişņavas and Saivas in a large number following the Tántric system. It is, therefore, absurd to argue that this system is the exclusive creation of the people of
1. Bhattacharya, Matykabheda Tantram, Intro. 3, Avalon, Principles of Tantras
(Tantra-tattva) pref. Iff, 49-50 2. Bhattacharya, Intro. 7ff, Avalon, Intro. 58ff, D. N. Bose, Tantras : Their Philo
sophy and Occult Secrets, pp. 2ff, Upendra Thakur, Studies in Jainism and Buddhism in Mithila, chap. II, pp. 29-38.
इतिहास और पुरातत्त्व : ८३
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Eastern India only. Sädhakas have appeared on the scene almost everywhere, and the Maithila Sadhakas and Panditas, like those of Bengal and other places, have "only prepared compendia and developed the practical side of it to a considerable extent" for the benefit of humanity at large.
It is interesting to note that the Sakti devatã (the Mother-Goddess) is worshipped and reverenced and the Saktipīthas (the seat of the Mother-Goddess) are established in almost all parts of India : Kāmakhyā is worshipped at Kāmarüpa; Vindhyavāsini on the Vindhya hills; Yogamāyā and Pūrņamāsī at Vịndāvana; Annapürnā, Sainkatā, Tripurābhairavi, sixtyfour Yoginis, Kālabhairavi, Durgā, Śstalā, Mangalā and other Devis at Kāśí; Guhyesvari in Nepal; Gāyatri and Sāvitri in Rajputana; Lalitā at Prayāga; Ugratārā in Mithilā (Tirhut); Jayakāli in Calcutta; Jvālāmukhi’ and Chinnamastā in and near Jalandhar; Kșirabhavāni near Kashmir and other Devis in almost all parts of India. Vimala, Sarasvati, Bhuvanesvarī, Kali and Lakşmi are worshipped and paid obeisance to in Utkala, the seat of Lord Jagannātha 3 To say that Raghunandana Bhattacārya of Bengal was the first to prescribe for the worship of Durgā, as provided for in the Tantra, would be quite wrong and misleading, for we know that previous to him many other thinkers in Mithilā, Bengal and elsewhere had done so. Vidyāpati. Śridatta, Harinātha Upād hyāya, Vidyādhara, Ratnākara, Bhojadeva, Jimātavāhana, Halāyudha, Vācaspati Miśra, Madhavācārya and even Sankarācārya had admitted the authority of the
Tantra while explaining philosophical doctrines. Vācaspati Miśra, the celebrated Maithila thinker and commentator on the six Darśanas, has in his commentary on the Patañjali-Darśana recommended Dhyana of Devatās as prescribed in the Tantras. Moreover, many well-known books written in Mithilā and elsewhere, before the age of Raghunandana, contain provisions for Durga-Pūjā, such as the Durga-bhakti-tarangini, Samvatsarapradipa, Kalakaumudi, Jpotisānava, Smytisāgara, Kalpa-taru, Kętya-masārņava, Kytyaratnakara, Kytyatattvārņava, Durgabhaktiprakaśa, Kala-nirnaya, Pūja-ratnakara and others pertaining to the worship of Durgā and Kāli.5
The Bengali practice of worshipping earthen images of Durgā or Kāli with great pomp and ceremony is followed all over eastern India. It is true that this practice does not receive the same favour, as in Mithilā and Bengal, in other parts of India but it is also true that she is everywhere worshipped in ghatas (earthen
1. Bhattacharya, 7, Avalon. 5 ff, Also, C. S. B. Dasgupta, Obscure Religious "ults,
13ff. 2. Jvālāmukhi, Candi. Tārā, Kāli, Durgā etc. are also worshipped in Mithilā at
different places. (Vide-U. Thakur, op cit, p. 31 fn 5). 3. For further details, see Avalon, 63-54, U. Thakur, Op. cit, pp. 31-32 4. Cf. Avalon, 67. 5. For other details, see Ibid., 65ff, U-Thakur, pp. 31-32.
८४: अगरचन्द नाहटा अभिनन्दन-ग्रन्थ
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jars). Shrines containing her images are reverentially visited, nine-day Vratas performed, fasts duly observed and the sacred Candi read on the Mahāştami day. Even now women folk bathe in the rivers or tanks early every morning for the first nine days of the bright fortnight of the month of Asvina and worship the small images of the Devī, made of clay, with all devotion. All these undoubtedly show that this practice of worshipping the Devi has been followed from times immemorial.
The most peculiar characteristic of this religion is that women and Śūdras are not at all prohibited from practising the Sadhana. The Rudrayamala says that a woman may also be a Guru who is a Kulīna (practising Kulācāra), of auspicious appearance, fair-faced and lotus-eyed, endowed with intellect, calmness of mind, proficient in mantras and in their meanings, ever engaged in japa and devoted to the worrhip of her Istadevatā.1 The Gautamīya Tantra declares that the people of all castes, irrespective of sex, may receive its mantras. In the Cakra there is no caste at all, even the lowest Caņdāla being deemed, whilst therein, higher than the Brāhmaṇas. The Mahānirvāna Tantra' says: "That low Kaula who refuses to initiate a Candāla or a Yavana into the Kaula dharma, considering them to be inferior, or a woman out of disrespect for her, goes the downward way. All two-footed beings in this world, from the vipra (Brāhmaṇa) to the inferior castes, are competent for Kulācāra." This is no doubt the most revolutionary aspect of this religion which in the course of centuries attracted millions of follou ers to its fold.
Another great factor that contributed to its tremendous growth and popularity is that in the Tantras, the duties of each of the castes as well as those of the king are not prescribed much differently from Manu, the great law-giver. The Mahānirvāna Tantra speaks very highly of the family life. It rigorusly prescribes that one should never be allowed to take to ascetic life who has children. wife or such like near relations to maintain. We have in the ninth chapter of the Mahānirvana Tantra (Saṁskāras) "sacraments from conception until marriage". entirely in consonance with Brāhmaṇic texts. In the tenth chapter we have the direction for the disposal and the cult of the dead (Sraddha). "A peculiarity of the Saktas in conncetion with marriage consists in the fact that side by side with the Brāhma marriage for which the Brāhmaṇic prescriptions are valid, there is also a Saiva marriage, that is, a kind of marriage for a limited period which is only permitted to the members of the circle (cakra) of the initiates. But children out of such marriage are not legitimate and do not inherit.4" Thus, the Brāhmaṇic raw also applied to the Śāktas and as such the section concerning civil and criminal law
1. Ibid. 807-08 ff. 2. Cf. "Sarva varnādhik āraśca nārinānu yogyameva ca". 3. Chap, XIV, Vs. 137 and 134. 4. Avalon, 117. It is, however, incorrect to call them illegitimate children, on
the other hand, off-springs of a Brahma marriage are preferential inheritors.
इतिहास और पुरातत्त्व : ८५
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in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the Mahānisvāna T antra substantially agrees with Manu.
The prevalent Vedic ritualism of the day was too powerless to face the new communities springing up all over the country. From the Karmakända we have, there, to turn to Jñānakānda in the Vedic-religion which finds elaborate representation in the Upanişads. Besides the earliest ritualism of yajñas being philosophised upon in the earlier Upanişads, we find that the foundation for a new elaborate ritualism was fully laid in many of the latr Upanişads. Keeping in view the new changes, the philosophy of pañca-upāsanā (five-fold worship viz. the worship of Śiva, Devi, Sun, Gaņeśa and Vişnu) was developed out of the mystery of Praņava ('Om') of which some features are also to be clearly seen in the Brāhmaṇas, As a matter of fact, such upakaraṇas of Tantric worship as grass, leaves, water etc. seem to have been adopted from the Vedic worship along with their appropriate incantations This may thus be regarded as the earliest configuration which Tantricism had on the eve of "these silent but mighty social upheavals through which the Aryanisation of vast and increasing multitudes of new races proceeded in pre-Buddhistic India, and which had their culmination in the eventful centuries of the Buddhistic coup-de-grace.”2
The great problem to be tackled was the aryanisation of this new India that was rising and surging furiously from every side against the fast-dwindling centres of the old Vedic orthodoxy struggling hard for its existence. The religious movements of the Bhāgavatas, Śaktas, Sauras, Šaivas. Gāņapātyas. Jainas and Buddhists absorbed many of the non-Aryan races and cast their life in the mould of the Vedic spiritual ideal which largely minimised the gulf existing between them and the Vedic orthodoxy, ending in their gradual amal amalgamation in the course of a few centuries Thus, the pre-Buddhistic phase of Tantric worship is a fact to be reckoned with in the early history of India much before the appearance of the Buddha. I ts foundation wrs so widely and firmly established that, notwithstanding the ceaseless cfforts, Buddhism could not dislodge it, but was in turn itself swallowed up by this Tantric worship within a short span of a few centuries. This wonderfully transformed Buddhism soon appeared on the arena in its new attractive garb as the Mahāyāna.3
The worship of Sakti was predominant throughout eastern Indi a. Like the worship of Śiva, the worship of Sakti was equally widespread. There is, however, a great difference in that there is a marked paucity of legends and stories recording attainment of Siddhis by the worshippers of lord Siva whereas the stories regarding Säkta devotees attaining miraculous powers are numerous.
1. Cf. the discourse about the conception of Śiva. 2. Avalon, op. cit., p. 554. 3. For other details see Ibid. 556 ff, U. Thakur op. cit, p. 37.
८६ : अगरचन्द नाहटा अभिनन्दन-ग्रन्थ
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This is probably because Sakti was supposed to give Siddhis only, but the god who could award mukti or salvation was Lord Siva, which was certainly a higher thing. Some of the greatest saints and upasakas of Mithila, such as Devaditya, Vardhamana, Madana, Upadhyaya, Gokulanatha Upadhyaya, Mahārāja Rūmesvara Simha, Gananatha Upadhyāya, Lakṣminatha Gosain and a host of others, were associated with Sakti. Every house-hold has a Gosauni (Sakti goddess). There are still many pithas and centres of Tantricism where Sadhakas from different parts. of the country come to practise Sadhana. Moreover, the first verse taught to a child is in praise of Sakti. The popularity of Aripana or Alipana (painted Yantras on the ground); the names of Maithilis and Bengalis such as Tantradhari, Tantranatha, Šaktinatha, Khadgadhär, Taracarana, Adya-carana etc, the Sabara rites. of women, the vogue of fish and meat eating, Päga or Tantric head-dress, the offering of sweet cooked rice in milk and the feeding of Kumaris (Virgins) known as Patari ceremony on all auspicious occasions, the widespread public worship of the earthen images of Durga in Daśahara or Vijaya-dasami, the worship of the Lingam (a veritable Tantric symbol), the Matrka Puja, the performance of NainaYugina and the prevalence of Dikṣā (Istamantragrahana)-all these briefly point to the great importance of the Sakti cult in the life of the people of eastern India. But, all told, the fact remains that the glory and honour that the Tantras had, and received, in the time of those great Sadhakas and Maharajas Kṛṣṇacandra and Sivacandra of Bengal and Lakṣmisvara Simha and Ramesvara Sinha of Mithila no longer exist. This is the reason why the Tantric Sadhakas of Bengal and Mithila are not so well-known at present.
This reverence for and adoration of Sakti has immensely influenced the script and literature of the land. Not only there are a large number of Tantric works written and compiled in Sanskrit, not only there are almost all writers praising. Sakti or the Primal (Adya) Energy, but the very script of eastern India has developed in accordance with Tantric Yantras. The history of this peculiar development of the Varnas has been elaborately dealt with in the Kamadhenu and the Varnoddhara Tantra1 The añji (F) sign in the beginning of Maithili alphabet is also due to the Tantric influence, for it represents the Kundalini (Mülädhära), Another very important result of this Tantric predominance has been the composition of popular songs of the Goddess Durga in local literature, without which no auspicious religious ceremony can ever, begin. Besides a large number of songs, there is a great number of documents relating to incantations and charms which, though not fully understood now by the experts of the Mantra-Sastra, nonetheless, serve their purpose very efficaciously.
1. Also cf. Woodroffe, The Garland of Letters (Varnamala).
2. Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol. I, p. 3; U. Thakur, op. cit. pp. 42-13. 3. JBRS., XXXIII. pts.-i-ii, pp. 50-52.
इतिहास और पुरातत्त्व : ८७
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Thus, the influence of the Tantric practices has been so great upon the life of the people of eastern India, particularly Mithila, Bengal and Assam, that all their daily activities are practically dominated and governed by the principles of the Tantric religion. The Kaula and Dasa-mahavidya, however gained wide. popularity in course of time. The Kaulas became the protagonists of Vämacăra or Vämamärga sect and Dasa-mahavidya. Kali, Tara and Bhuvanesvari have now prominent place in the life of the people. Agama does not necessarily mean "a sacred book appealed to by Vämācārins" as opposed to Nigama of the followers of Dakṣinācāra. Nor is the term Vämäcärin itself a synonym for Kaula, for at person may be the first without being the second.
In ancient times Dakşinăcăra was more popular and widely practised. It produced great Sadhakas. But in course of time (probably about a century ago) people came to be intensely influenced by the Vämācāra practices. The mode of worship in the two margas is quite different. It is true, one who follows the Vămăcăra attains Siddhi soon; but it is very difficult to practise it successfully and as such there is every chance of a fall in this marga. Vasistha and other Sadhakas followed Dakṣiņācāra and were great devotees of the goddess Tārā. Great Sadhakas have from timg to time appeared on the scene and inspired people to practise this religion. Dakšiņācāra was therefore, (and is atill) looked upon with high regard innumerable Sadhakas followed this path, whose life-history, full of miraculous feats and wonderful achievements, ahs now passed into legends. handed down from generation to generation and is yet an object of popular study and reverence.2
Side by side with Dakṣiņācāra, Vāmācāra and Kaula also gained much popularity and soon gave rise to Abhicara-Karma (black magic, mummery, witchcrafts etc.) among the low classes and women. This had no doubt a dongerously demoralising effect on the morale of the common people, and it was this Karma that largely contributed to the unpopularity of the Tantras in general and the growing hatred for the Sadhakas in particular. Indeed, the divine qualities inherent in this sect are very difficult to practise, and, therefore, in the absence of the right interpretations and understanding people took to degrading forms of debauchery.
1. Umesha Miśra, Maithila Samskrti o' Sabhyata (in Maithili), pt. II. p. 181 U. Thakur, op. cit pp. 44-45.
2. This Abhicara-karma was unfortunately the indirect result of the Arimardana Homa or Nigraha Homa i. e. "the object of punishing an enemy" fully dealt with and enumerated in the thirtyfirst chapter (Arimardana Homa) of the celebrated work Tantrarāja-Tantra (The King among Tantras), edited by Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon). verses 3-6 of this Chapter speak of certain things which should be known regarding the enemy before a Homa is begun (Ibid., pp. 94-95)
८८ : अगरचन्द नाहटा अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ
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________________ under the garb of the Tantric Sadhana. The result was obvious. The divi e Tantras came to be stigmatised as a libidinous phallic necromancy. Laksmidhara, in his commentary on the thirty-first verse (sloka) of Saundarya-Lahari of Sankaracarya ahs given the names of sixty-fore Tantras, i. e. Candrakala, Jyotsnavati, Kalanidhi, Kularnava, Kulesvari, Bhuvanesvari, Barhaspatya and Durvasamata, in which the Brahmanas, the Ksatriyas, the Vaisyas, the Sudras and even the mixed castes have been given equal rights to perform meditation." The first three are advised to attain Siddhi through Daksinacara practices and the Sudras and the mixed castes are required to undergo Sadhana through Vamacara. It is due to this liberal attitude that there has been no sect-rivalry since hoary past to the present day. One finds Saivas, saktas and Vaisnavas living together in perfect harmony in one and the same family. Whenever fish or meat is prepared in one family the members, though belonging to the different sects, sit together in one row and take their meals ungrudgingly, the only difference being that the Vaisnavas keep away from taking fish or meat. The Brahmanas daily worship the Salagrama (Visnu) and rub Srikhandacandana and ashes (bh7sma) of Siva on their forehead, arms, ears and other parts of body. Side by side with these gods, they worship Istadevi, the symbol of Sakti and also put vermillion marks on their fore. head. Durga Puja is celebrated with the same zeal and vigour as Krsnastami or Janmastami and Sivaratri. All this has resulted in wonderful blending of different religious sects and perfect harmony among their followers, a feature hardly to be seen elsewhere. Even the most orthodox Brahmanas participate in Muslim religious festivals and also those of the low castes, and vice-versa. It is, therefore no exaggeration to say that in this part of the country we have the real Indian culture in all its broad aspects, still flourishing, to which the celebrated Tantric religion has made its singular contributions. 1. Umesha Misra, op. cit., p. 18ff. 2. U. Thakur, op. cit. p. 45. 12 इतिहास और पुरातत्त्व : 89