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OF THE HINDUS.
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volved in considerable obscurity. From the practices described in some of the Puráňas, particularly that of the Dikshá or rite of initiation, in the Agni Púrána, from the specification of formulæ comprising the mystical monosyllables of the Tántras in that and other similar compilations, and from the citation of some of them by name in different Pauráňic works', we must conclude that some of the Tantras are prior to those authorities. But the date of the Puranas themselves is far from determined, and whilst some parts of them may be of considerable antiquity, other portions of most, if not of all, are undoubtedly subsequent to the tenth century of the Christian era. It is not unlikely, however, that several of the Tantras are of earlier composition, especially as we find the system they inculcate included by ANANDAGIRI, in his life of SANKARÁCHÁRYA, amongst the heterodoxies which that Legislator succeeded in confuting. On the other hand there appears no indication of Tántrika notions in the
? As in the Kúrma Purana the Kapála, Bhairava, Váma and Yamala, and the Pancharátra in the Varáha: we have also a number mentioned in the Sankara Tijaya, of both Ánandagiri and Madhara, as the Siva Gitá, Šira Sanhita, Rudra Yamala, and Siva Rahasya. It is also said in Anandagiri's work, that the Brahmanas were cursed by Gáyatri, to become Tántrikas in the Kali age:
वेदोक्तकर्महीनाश्च तान्त्रिकाचारतत्पराः ।
यूयं कलौ भवन्त्वेवमिति तानाह सा रुषा॥ "She being angry said to them: in the Kali age, after abandoning the Veda ritual, become followers of the Tántrika observances."
