Nahta Bandhu Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Dashrath Sharma
Publisher: Agarchand Nahta Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 576

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 upāsakas of Mithila, such as Devāditya, Vardhamăna, Madana, Upadhyāya, Gokulanātha Upadhyāya, Mahārāja Rāmeśvara Simha, Gananātha Upadhyāya, Lakşmìnātha Gosáin and a host of others, were associated with Śakti. Every house-hold has a Gosauni (Sakti goddess). There are still many pīthas and centres of Tántricism 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, Tantranātha, Saktinátha, Khadgadhāri, Tārācarana, Adya-caraña etc, the Sabara rites of women, the vogue of fish and meat eating, Pāga or Tántric 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 Daśaharā or Vijaya-daśami, the worship of the Lingam (a veritable Tántric symbol), the Mātrkā Pūjā, the performance of NainaYogina and the prevalence of Dikșa (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 Mahārājas Krşnacandra and Sivacandra of Bengal and Lakşmiśvara Simha and Ramešvara Sinha of Mithilā no longer exist. This is the reason why the Tántric 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 Tântric 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 Tāntric Yantras. The history of this peculiar development of the Varnas has been elaborately dealt with in the Kamadhenu and the Varnoddhāra Tantra 1 The añji (F) sign in the beginning of Maithili alphabet is also due to the Tantric influence, for it represents the Kundalini (Mülādhāra),2
Another very important result of this Tantric predominance has been the composition of popular songs of the Goddess Durgă 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. 3
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. 42-43. 3. JBRS., XXXIII. pts.-i-ii, pp. 50-52.
इतिहास और पुरातत्त्व : ८७