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264
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1906.
worship. In the Kadimata, a Tantric MS, which, as its name implies, is an authoritative text of those, whose mantra begins with the syllable, ka, the following chakra is described :
पग्रं चतुर्दशदलं बहिर्वृत्तड्यं तथा । लिखित्वा कर्णिकामध्ये योनि मायोदरां लिखेत् । इलेष्वपि तथाशक्तेश्चतुर्दशसु संलिखेत् ।
भगमालां मध्यशनयामावाह्याभ्यर्चयेद्वाह: • Having drawn a fourteen-petaled circle within two concentric circles, one shall draw within it a triangle containing a phallic symbol in the middle. In the fourteen petals of the figure of the goddess Sakti, a series of Bhaga-symbols, he shall also inscribe. Having invoked the presence of the goddess Sakti in the central symbol, he has to perform the external worship.'
Nor is there any mystery in the number eight of the chakr as and the number nine of the dudras, holes or gates, for in his commentary on the Bhavanopanishad, Bhaskarananda says:
मूलाधारादिषटू मूर्खाधस्सहस्त्रदलकमले दै
लम्बिकापमिति नवाधारा: The six chakras, - namely, (1) Múladhara, prime support ; (2) Manipůra, the watery zone decked with precious stones; (3) Svadhishthâna, one's own seat; (4) Anahata, sounding though not struck; (5) Visuddhi, the zone of purification ; (6) and Ajna, command - two thousand-petaled lotuses both below and above the six chakras, and the edge of the epiglottis form the nine chakras.'
Here leaving the epiglottis which is plainly a later addition, the eight chakras mentioned in the hymn may be taken to correspond to the six divisions of human body, the legs, the waist, the navel, the heart, the throat, and the brows. Of the two lotuses, one is for the god or goddess to stand apon and the other to wear on the head or to form the head. Not only are the chakras believed to correspond to human body, but also taken to represent the six divisions of the Universe, as already pointed out. As for the nine gates, they are enumerated in the same commentary thus :
श्रोत्रचक्षुर्नासानां हवं दयम्.
जिव्हागुधपावव एकेक इति.15 Two, two gates in each of the organs, the ear, the eye and the nose. One gate in each of the organs, the tongue, the generative organ, and the anus.'
Nor are the words Bhaga and Kams, so frequently used in the Atharva-Veda, devoid of the phallic sense which they convey in Tantric texts.
In the following Hymn, 16 Bhaga is used in its ordinary sense devoid of any divine attribute:
(1) As the wind tears this grass from the surface of the earth, thus do I tear thy soul, so that, thou woman shalt love, shalt not be averse to me.
(2) If ye, O two Asvins, shall unite and bring together the loving pair, - united are the Bhagas of both of you (lovers), united the thoughts, united the purposes !
() When the birds desire to chirp, lustily desire to chirp, may my call go there as an arrow point upon the shaft!
(4) What is within shall be without; what is without shall be within ! Take captive, O herb, the soul of the maidens endowed with every charm.
(5) Longing for a husband, this woman hath come, I have come longing for a wife. As a loudly neighing horse, I have attained to my good fortune (Bhagena aham samdgamam).
1 P. 289, Bhavanopanishad printed along with the Saunlaryalahari, M, O. L. Edition, 18 P. 34, Bhavanopanishad, the same Edition.
16 II, 30, 4.-7.
