Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism

History, Practice and Doctrine

Bjarne Wernicke Olesen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317585213
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Hinduism cannot be understood without the Great Goddess and the goddess-orientated ??kta traditions. The Goddess pervades Hinduism at all levels, from aniconic village deities to high-caste pan-Hindu goddesses to esoteric, tantric goddesses. Nevertheless, the highly influential tantric forms of South Asian goddess worship have only recently begun to draw scholarly attention. This book addresses the increasing interest in the Great Goddess and the tantric traditions of India by exploring the history, doctrine and practices of the ??kta tantric traditions.

The highly influential tantric forms of South Asian goddess worship form a major part of what is known as '??ktism', and is often considered one of the major branches of Hinduism next to ?aivism, Vai??avism and Sm?rtism. ??ktism is, however, less clearly defined than the other major branches, and the book looks at the texts of the ??kta traditions that constitute the primary sources for gaining insights into the ??kta religious imaginative, ritual practices and history. It provides an historical exploration of distinctive Indian ways of imagining God as Goddess, and surveys the important origins and developments within ??kta history, practice and doctrine in its diversity.

Bringing together contributions from some of the foremost scholars in the field of tantric studies, the book provides a platform for the continued research into Hindu goddesses, yoga, and tantra for those interested in understanding the religion and culture in South Asia.

1 Śakti in early tantric Śaivism

Historical observations on goddesses, cosmology and ritual in the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā¹

Shaman Hatley

Introduction

This essay seeks to elucidate conceptions of śakti and the roles of goddesses in the early form of tantric Śaivism represented by the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. Probably the oldest surviving tantric Śaiva scripture, portions of the text could date to as early as the fifth century C.E.² The essay emerges from preliminary observations I made concerning continuities between the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā and the Brahmayāmala, the latter being one of the oldest surviving tantric Śaiva texts with a Śākta cultic orientation (Hatley 2007). The Śākta cults of vidyāpīṭha works such as the Brahmayāmala evidence profound transformations of Śaiva cosmology,³ with myriad śaktis displacing the male deities who presided over the hierarchy of tattvas or ontic levels as delineated in earlier Siddhāntatantras. While the aims of the present essay are limited, my larger objective is to reconstruct the processes of transformation underpinning the Brahmayāmala’s Śākta cosmology, in tandem with the project of editing chapters of this text concerned with the intersecting subjects of cosmology and initiation (paṭalas 32–38).

In studying the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā – hereafter, ‘the Niśvāsa’ – I rely heavily upon the foundational studies of Alexis Sanderson (2006) and Dominic Goodall (forthcoming), particularly in the area of cosmology. My reading of the Niśvāsa is based on the provisional editions circulated among participants in the Niśvāsa workshop (Pondicherry, 2007) and Early Tantra project (2008–2010);⁴ and the more recent draft editions and translations of Goodall et al. (forthcoming), and, for the Mukhāgama, Nirajan Kafle (forthcoming). I approach the text diachronically, following the hypothetical stratification being proposed by its editors (Goodall et al., forthcoming) – namely, that the scripture’s five books were composed in the following chronological order: the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra, and then Nayasūtra, followed by the Guhyasūtra and Mukhāgama, the whole presumably being complete before the end of the seventh century. In the present essay I for the most part omit discussion of the Niśvāsakārikā, a large and poorly transmitted supplement to the Niśvāsa which might belong to a somewhat later period.

Mahādevī

I begin from the observation that the Niśvāsa places little cultic emphasis upon goddesses; nonetheless, it contains much of interest for the history of Śākta traditions. In describing laukikadharma, the non-initiatory religion of the laity (and not specifically Śaiva laity), the Niśvāsa’s Mukhāgama (3.107c–11) briefly describes worship of the ‘Great Goddess’ (mahādevyās tu pūjanam, 107d). Present here is an unmistakable and perhaps comparatively early articulation of the idea of the singular Mahādevī, with the spouse of Śiva heading the following list of divine names and epithets: Umā, Kātyāyanī, Durgā, Rudrā, Subhadrikā, Kālarātri, Mahāgaurī, Revatī, Bhūtanāyikā, Āryā, Prakṛtirūpā (‘She who takes the form of Prakṛti’), and Gaṇanāyikā (gaṇānāṃ nāyikā, ‘Leader of Śiva’s Troops’) (108c–9). The goddesses identified with Pārvatī or Umā span sectarian allegiances and might suggest a Gupta-era or late-Gupta milieu, potentially comparable to that of the old Skandapurāṇa (circa sixth to seventh centuries), or possibly even the Harivaṃśa. Āryā and Revatī, for instance, would seem unlikely inclusions in a medieval list of the Goddess’s principal identities.⁵ Noteworthy is the identification of the Mahādevī with prakṛti, the cosmogonic principle of Sāṃkhya, as well as the absence of explicit identification with śakti and māyā. These are the three cosmogonic, feminine-gender principles Pintchman (1994, 3–5, etc.) identifies as coming together in the Purāṇas to form the ‘symbolic complex’ of the Great Goddess.

While it is difficult to draw conclusions from so short a passage, the absence of māyā and śakti may suggest that the Mukhāgama reflects a relatively early stage in the formation of the Great Goddess, perhaps similar to that of the Skandapurāṇa. The latter attests the idea of the Mahādevī emanating other goddesses, as well as her identity with prakṛti (13.24, 42cd–44ab);⁶ her identification with the cosmogonic principles of śakti and māyā is also intimated, but only in passing, receiving little emphasis or elaboration.⁷ The three cosmogonic principles come together emphatically in the subsequent Devīmāhātmya of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa,⁸ which is explicit in advancing what we might call a purāṇic Śākta theology on this basis.

The Mukhāgama’s eulogy of the Mahādevī, in the context of lay religion, is complemented by a Mantramārga-oriented formulation of the Great Goddess found in a dialogue between the divine couple in the Guhyasūtra (8.128–40), a late stratum of the text. There, rather than being eulogized as the unitary Goddess encompassing the feminine divinities of popular religion, Śiva praises her as mother of the universe, and as the apotheosis of all manner of female cosmological principles: the ontic levels (tattva) designated by feminine-gender names, such as māyā. Similarly, Śiva is identified as father of the worlds and as all male-gendered facets of divinity. The categories invoked are primarily those of Mantramārga cosmology, rather than the deities of popular religion. However, the technical terminology of cosmology also gives way to Purāṇa-like devotional praise of the divine couple as universal progenitors: all that exists originates in Śiva’s seed, emerging from the womb of the Goddess;⁹ all that comes into being represents various transformations (vikāra) of her.¹⁰ Viewing these formulations in tandem, we find in the Niśvāsa relatively early and complementary articulations of the idea of the Great Goddess in the intersecting spheres of laukikadharma and the Mantramārga, i.e. tantric Śaivism.

Śakti, cosmology and theology

Viewing the Niśvāsa corpus according to the stratification proposed by its editors, it appears evident that the nature and role of Śiva’s feminized power or powers evolves significantly with the text’s historical development. The contrast is marked between the earliest stratum (the Mūlasūtra) and latest strata (Guhyasūtra, then Niśāvakārikā); and it seems that some distinctions are discernible between these and the middle strata as well (Uttarasūtra and Nayasūtra). Present in the Uttarasūtra and Nayasūtra, but not clearly evident in the earlier Mūlasūtra, are several key elements of the theology of śakti familiar from later sources, such as the cosmogonic function of the supreme Śakti and the role of the ‘descent of Śiva’s power’ (śaktipāta) in grace and initiation. The most fascinating material is present in the Niśvāsa’s treatment of cosmology. By ‘cosmology’ I refer to both cosmogony and cosmography – subjects expounded in a variety of contexts, especially those of initiation – and to the origins of mantra, scripture, and language. The cosmology of the Niśvāsa has been the subject of groundbreaking studies by Sanderson (2006) and Goodall (forthcoming), who demonstrate that the universe of the Niśvāsa’s Mūlasūtra consists of an ascending hierarchy of worlds (bhuvanas), rather than the ontic levels or tattvas which come to characterize more developed systems.¹¹ In the Mūlasūtra, śakti is conspicuously absent, both as a level of the cosmos and as a cosmogonic power. The closest one comes to a feminine creative principle is Vāgīśvarī, Goddess of Speech, discussed below.

The conception of śakti as Śiva’s cosmogonic power is, however, evidenced in the middle and later strata of the Niśvāsa. The Uttarasūtra (1.5–6) articulates the notion that Śiva’s śakti, conjoined with his ‘energy’ (tejas¹²), gives rise to bindu, the primordial creative ‘drop’ or ‘point’.¹³ This appears to function as material cause for the emanation of a descending series of ontic levels (tattva): Īśvara, Vidyā, Māyā, Kāla, Niyati,¹⁴ Puruṣa, Prakṛti, and the material creation. Nayasūtra, chapters 3 and 4, describes meditation upon the tattva-series as deities, a subject receiving further elaboration in the Guhyasūtra (Chapter 8); this might represent an historical development vis-à-vis the Uttarasūtra, for in the latter’s exposition of meditation upon the tattvas, their deification is not explicit.¹⁵

In contrast, the yoga of the Nayasūtra involves visualization of the tattvas as deities with anthropomorphic qualities who embody the powers associated with their ontic levels (3.20ff). Tattvas with feminine-gender names are represented as goddesses, comprising Prakṛti, Niyati, Māyā, Vidyā, and the transcendent Śakti. The visualization of Māyā (3.34c–35) provides an early example of a ‘fierce’ tantric goddess – a deity ‘black in colour, red-eyed, with long teeth, very hairy, with tawny hair … coarse-bodied, big-bellied, [she is the one] who causes [all] creatures, from Brahmā downwards, to fall again and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgement
• Introduction
• 1. Śakti in early tantric Śaivism: historical observations on goddesses, cosmology and ritual in the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā
• 2. The (Un)Dreadful Goddess: Aghorī in early Śākta tantras
• 3. Varieties of melaka in the Jayadrathayāmala: some reflections on the terms haṭha and priya
• 4. Snakebite goddesses in the Śākta traditions: roots and incorporations of Tvaritā, Kurukullā and Bheruṇḍā
• 5. The Cāṇḍālī as Śakti: untouchable women in some tantric texts
• 6. Śāktism and haṭhayoga
• 7. Śāktism, polity and society in medieval Malabar
• Index