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SEPTEMBER, 1906.)
THE ORIGIN OF THE DEVANAGARI ALPHABET.
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root-principie on which the Tantric system is based is phallie worship and the traditions connected with it. The various symbols and mysterious figures used in connection with this phallic worship, and the traditions and practices of the witchcraft surrounding it, go as far back as the
Atharva-Veda and perhaps still earlier, Bhaskarananda, who was one of the followers of Tantric worship and an authority on Tantric matters, writes thus at the commencement of his commentary on the Tripuropanishad :
श्री साङ्ख्याथनकल्पसूत्रविधिभिः कर्माणि ये कुर्वते येषां शाकलसूत्रमन्त्रनिचयः कौशीतकी ब्राह्मणम् । तेराराधकमध्यमन्त्रविततिः या पयते बहुचैः
कभिषोडशनिमहोपनिषदं व्याचक्ष्महे ता वयम् । We comment on that great Upanishad, the sixteen verses of which are recited by the followers of the Rig Veda in the middle of their ritualistic performances. These followers of the Rig Veda perform their ritual in accordance with the teachings of the Kalpasútra of the revered Sân khyâyana, recite the mass of mantras collected in the Sakala sátra, and observe the formulas of the Kausitaki Brahmana'
The "great Upanishad" referred to in the stanza is the Tripuro panishad, in which is found the description of the symbols representing Sakti or Bhaga :
बामण्डला हा स्तना बिम्बमेकं सुखं चाधस्त्रीणि गुहासदनानि. कामीकलां काम्यरूपां विदित्वा
नरो जायते कामरूपइच कामः Two circles are two breast-nipples. One circle is the face. Below them are three cave-like abodas (triangle). On knowing this as the enchanting form of Sakti (Kami-kala, the body of Kami), one not only atture that enchanting form which is desired by all, bat also becomes Kama himself. (See Plate VI.)
अश्शक्तिर्भगवान्काम ईशः , स दाताराविह सौभगानाम् सप्रधानो समसस्वी समोतयोः There at:
Tripuropanishad. Bhaga is Sakti and Kama is Siva, combined with Bhaga. Both of them are dispensers of all kind of prosperity. Both, being inseparably interwoven together, are of equal rank, might and power, eternal, and the source of the Universe.'
When such a scholar as Bhaskarananda says that these verses, pregnant with phallic ideas, together with the other verses of the Tripuropanishad, are recited during their ceremonies by the followers of the Rig Veda, there can be no doubt that the traditions connected with phallic worship have continued uninterrupted from the time of the Rig Veda down to the present day. There is reason to believe that there existed two kinds of phallic worship : the one a symbolical or nature-worship, like that of Indra, Varuna, Agni, &c., and the other in a grotesque form. To the poets of the Rig Veda, whose minds rose on bigh above the moon, the sun, and the sky, and saw behind them some divine principle modifying the face of nature, there appeared an eternal union of divine principles of opposite sex cansing the Universe, and phallic worship was to the poete no more than a tribute of heartfelt reverence to a mental image, or an actual symbol of Prajapati :
विष्णुबोनि कल्पवन स्वष्टा रूपाणि पिंश । भार्सिचतु प्रजापतिः धाता गर्भ धातु ते॥
