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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 Brahmayāmalaevidence 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.⁵Noteworthy 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 Niśvāsarelatively 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 again’.¹⁶ Goodall (forthcoming) observes that Māyā is not here identified as having cosmogonic functions, as she is in later, developed systems of Śaiva cosmology.

The Nayasūtra’s meditation upon śakti (4.7–39) portrays Śiva’s power as an ontic level possessing cosmogonic and soteriological functions. She is salvific, for through mastery over the śaktitattva one ascends to realization of the highest Śiva (4.34). The ‘Great Power’ (mahāśakti) transcends Īśvara and Sadāśiva. She is fourfold, her divisions being the ‘subtle, extremely subtle, immortal, and immortal of immortals’ (sūkṣmā, susūkṣmā, amṛtā, and amṛtāmṛtā) (4.7cd–9ab). This tetrad mirrors but transcends that of the four kalās of the Lord (Īśvara), who is identified with the primordial, cosmogonic ‘drop’ (bindu). Goodall draws attention to the fact that the Niśvāsa’s presentation of the kalās or fourfold powers of the Lord (and/or of bindu) is archaic, lacking the fifth member, śāntyatīta, almost ubiquitous in the later tradition, including the Niśvāsakārikā.¹⁷Nonetheless, the śaktitattva’s tetrad of aspects has continuity with the later Śākta cosmology of the Brahmayāmala, which develops this theme by situating various sets of four kalās in its hierarchy of ontic levels.¹⁸

In the middle stratum of the Niśvāsa, represented by the Nayasūtra, are present key aspects of the Mantramārga vision of śakti’s role in grace and initiation. Though conceived of variously in the tradition, the basic premise is that Śiva’s grace (anugraha) operates through his śakti, and manifests in or as tantric initiation (dīkṣā). Chapter 1 of the Nayasūtra introduces the notion of the ‘descent of Śiva’s power’ (śaktipāta):

śivaśaktinipātena dīkṣā[jñā]naṃ prayacchati ||88||

so ’nugrahaḥ smṛto [hy evaṃ dā ¹⁹]tā caiva sadāśivaḥ ||

‘Through the descent of Śiva’s power, he bestows initiation and the scriptural wisdom. It is this which is known as “grace”, and its giver is Sadāśiva.’

The nexus of śakti, grace, and initiation extends to the officiant as well; it is yogic mastery of the śaktitattva that allows a guru to give salvific initiation (4.27cd–29, 38–40). The guru (deśika) whose initiation is efficacious ‘brims with Śiva’s śakti’ (śivaśaktyopabṛṃhitaḥ), and is capable of transmitting grace through his mere gaze, speech, or touch.²⁰ While aspects of this nexus of ideas may have pre-tantric, Atimārga roots (Sanderson 2006: 191–92), its formulation in the Nayasūtra clarifies that it belongs to an early, though probably not initial, phase of the Mantramārga.

Beyond deified tattvas, several other divinities the Niśvāsa treats as goddesses also represent apotheoses of feminine principles. The Guhyasūtra (7.293–98) provides an intriguing prescription for meditation upon Suṣumnā as a cosmological goddess, potentially, but not necessarily a deification of the central channel of the yogic body.²¹ Of much interest is the goddess of speech, Vāgīśvarī, who, as mentioned, appears in the archaic bhuvana-based cosmology of the Mūlasūtra. There (5.13) she represents the level of the cosmos just prior to the praṇava or oṃkāra. The sequence of ascending levels here mirrors and is presumably based on an Atimārga cosmological system presented in the Mukhāgama – that of the Lākula sect (Sanderson 2006: 163ff). In this, the speech-goddess appears as the first level of the ‘pure universe’ (śuddhamārga), and the ‘source’ (yoni) of the oṃkāra above it.²² This suggests a parallel with more developed Mantramārga cosmological thought, insofar as the tattva known as śuddhavidyā (‘pure knowledge’), the first level of the ‘pure universe’ (śuddhādhvan), is sometimes viewed as the source of the ontic levels arrayed above it. On this subject Goodall (forthcoming) remarks, ‘What is odd about that conception is that it [śuddhavidyā] is placed at the bottom of the pure universe, and with its supposed evolutes therefore ranged “above” it, quite unlike the evolutes of prakṛti, which are ranged “beneath” it.’ The source of this oddity may lie in the fact that śuddhavidyā inherits the cosmogonic function of the Atimārga’s Vāgīśvarī, a doctrine complexified by the Mantramārga addition of bindu, which is also viewed as the material cause for tattvas of the pure universe – but from ‘above’ rather than below. Concerning speech, it is also notable that śakti has no generative role in the Uttarasūtra’s description of the emergence of scripture (śivatantrotpatti, 1.22ff). Scripture, in the form of the ‘primordial sonic resonance’ (nāda), is said to emerge from the quiescent Śiva (Uttarasūtra 1.23), without further elaboration; or is said to emerge from the alphabetical matrix, the mātṛkā (1.41).²³ Like a number of other cosmogonic categories, the mātṛkā is deified – not, however, as a goddess, despite the gender of the term, but rather as Mātṛkāśiva (5.27).²⁴

Śakti sets

The Niśvāsa attests a number of sets of multiple feminine principles or powers familiar from the later tradition; however, there are archaic aspects to some of these. Early and late strata of the Niśvāsa both attest a triad of śaktis almost ubiquitous in later Śaivism: that of Vāmā, Jyeṣṭhā, and Raudrī. This is present in the Mūlasūtra (5.3–4), perhaps the oldest textual stratum, where the initiation of the ‘liberation seeker’ (muktidīkṣā) involves linking the initiate’s soul to the ‘base of the cosmos’ (kālāgnirudra) using the Vāmāśakti (vāmayā), purifying it with Jyeṣṭhā, and raising it upwards to the ‘hell-worlds’ (naraka) via the Raudrī śakti. Here mantras of the three are not explicated, but probably implied.²⁵ The Guhyasūtra (7.259cd–60ab) situates the three śaktis at the level of Īśvara in its presentation of the ascending hierarchy of ontic levels; this apparently elaborates on a passage in the Mūlasūtra (5.16) where their presence is implied. The triad becomes ubiquitous in the Niśvāsakārikā, for instance homologized with the three central channels of the yogic body and other threefold categories.²⁶

Also present in all layers of the Niśvāsa is the extended, ninefold form of the śakti triad, beginning with Vāmā and ending with Manonmanī. This series comprises female counterparts of the vidyeśas, deities whose names are abstracted from the archaic mantra of Vāmadeva (Goodall 2004: 181). As presented in the Mūlasūtra, the nine śaktis seem to function in a manner analogous to later traditions; installed on a lotus of eight petals upon Sadāśiva’s throne (āsana), they form the ‘inner layer’ (āvaraṇa) of his maṇḍala (cf. Goodall et al. 2005, Fig. 4).²⁷ In Guhyasūtra 7.252, they appear to be divisions of the tattva-goddess Mahāvidyā.²⁸ The śakti triad and its ninefold form hence are present at the earliest levels of the Mantramārga, to which it appears distinctive; I am unaware of any links to the pre-tantric Atimārga.

In contrast, the triad of Śiva’s powers of knowledge, action, and volition – jñānaśakti, kriyāśakti, and icchāśakti – seems absent as such from the Niśvāsa’s early and middle textual strata. This is also true of other early Siddhānta Tantras.²⁹ More striking is the fact that the very idea of Śiva’s power of volition or will, icchāśakti, seems present only in the Guhyasūtra (8.79a), where there is no indication of it being grouped with jñānaśakti and kriyāśakti. Rather, jñānaśakti and kriyāśakti find mention as a pair, both in the Mūlasūtra (5.15) and Guhyasūtra (7.260cd, and probably 8.65b); in both cases they are referred to as vidyās (dve vidye) and are enumerated immediately after the triad of vāmā, jyeṣṭhā, and raudrī, as though forming a pentad. In the cosmology of the Guhyasūtra, however, Śiva’s volition emerges as an additional śakti. A lacunose passage appears to refer to its veneration in a description of an ascending series of cosmological deities (8.79ab); and at the close of Guhyasūtra, chapter 8, in the Purāṇa-style dialogue referred to earlier, Śiva describes the Goddess as mother of the worlds, and identifies her with a series of feminine-gender cosmological principles that includes his volition.³⁰ Only in the Niśvāsakārikā are kriyā, jñāna, and icchā spoken of as a triad of Śiva’s powers,³¹ distinct from and perhaps mirroring the triad of vāmā, jyeṣṭhā, and raudrī.

The position of icchāśakti as a late entrant into the cosmology of the Niśvāsa seems to confirm Hélène Brunner’s suggestion (1992: 1–7) that the pair jñānaśakti and kriyāśakti underlies later groupings of three or more. Indeed, Śiva’s dual powers of knowledge and action are a topic emphasized in Pāśupata literature,³² where, it may be noted, the ‘femaleness’ of Śiva’s śakti seems confined wholly to grammatical gender. Identification of Śiva’s volition as a śakti may have developed to explain how the quiescent, desireless Śiva should stir into action at all, echoing the Upaniṣadic idea of a primeval divine aspiration which sets creation in motion. This is conceptually distinct from the cosmogony intimated in passages from the Uttara- and Nayasūtra, which emphasize the desireless (niṣkāma) nature of Śiva and Śakti, whose conjunction nonetheless results in the origin of bindu. The metaphor invoked is that of the solar Śiva’s rays shining upon the sunstone of Śakti, giving rise to the appearance of fire.³³ Śakti produces bindu when conjoined with or possessing Śiva’s tejas – his radiance, or perhaps generative power³⁴ – a potentially problematic third cosmogonic factor. In contract, and in a less philosophical register, the Guhyasūtra invokes the image of divine progenitors when it speaks of the Goddess as the ever-pregnant creatrix and Śiva as her lover (kāmayitṛ).³⁵

Mother-goddesses

I turn now to the Mother-goddesses (mātṛ), who appear to have been central to the early development of Śākta-oriented cults. This is evident from early vidyāpīṭha scriptures, which categorize goddesses and sometimes practitioners into clans headed by the Mothers, incorporate them as cult deities, or in other ways evidence their historical primacy (Hatley 2012: 107–19). It is also the cult of Mothers alone among goddesses that finds mention in Varāhamihira’s list of major sectarian groups of the sixth century.³⁶ The Niśvāsa describes mātṛs as deities primarily of public, lay religion (laukikadharma) – not as tantric deities possessing mantric identities. The Mukhāgama (2.28cd–30ab) lists the mātṛs among cult deities of temples,³⁷ and refers to devotees of and places sacred to the Mother-goddesses, among many other divine and semi-divine beings.³⁸ There is nothing to confirm whether the Niśvāsa knew of the brahmanical Seven Mothers (sapta mātaraḥ), important cult deities from at least the fifth century; the Niśvāsa’s nameless mātṛs could instead resemble the multitudinous and diverse Mothers attested in the Mahābhārata, Kuṣāṇa-era statuary, and medical literature. (These are attested alongside the Seven Mothers in the old Skandapurāṇa.) As in other works of tantric literature, temples of the Mother-goddesses are listed among the places appropriate for performing solitary tantric ritual, along with crossroads, jungles, mountain peaks, Śiva temples, and so forth.³⁹ It appears to be the liminality of the mātṛ temple – presumably a secluded shrine rather than public monument – that makes it suitable for the rituals envisioned, for these do not directly involve their worship.

Some passages may refer to individual goddesses associated with mātṛs in ways potentially suggesting their incorporation as tantric deities. In a fascinating passage of the Uttarasūtra (1.31–38), Kālī, and possibly the goddess Vijayā, are listed among the interlocutors involved in the revelation of tantric literature,⁴⁰ alongside a variety of gods, gaṇas, sages, bhairavas, unnamed mātṛs, yakṣas (guhyaka), and other divinities. This suggestive list, and vague reference to scripture’s manifoldness, may point towards the existence of diverse tantric literatures in the period of the Uttarasūtra’s composition, beyond the canon of twenty-eight texts it delineates – texts that would come to be viewed as the canon of Siddhānta Tantras.⁴¹ The presence of bhairavas,⁴² mātṛs, and so forth among the interlocutors may raise the possibility that there existed texts belonging to or prefiguring scriptural genres such as the Bhairava Tantras, and those dedicated to goddess cults (Vāma- or Bhaginī Tantras, Mātṛ Tantras, Ḍākinī Tantras); Sanderson (2001, 2009) adduces evidence pointing toward the existence of such literature in or prior to the seventh century. In the Guhyasūtra alone do we find allusion to the fierce Caṇḍikā, whose identity frequently intersects with that of Cāmuṇḍā, leader of the Seven Mothers: in passing, the text provides an otherwise anomalous ‘mantra of Caṇḍī’ (caṇḍimantra) and its application, alluding to a tradition of magical ritual centered upon this deity.⁴³

The Guhyasūtra also attests the incorporation of mātṛs in its exposition of cosmology, providing what may be a significant link to later Śākta-oriented traditions. Chapter 5 lists mātṛs among the presiding deities (patayaḥ) of a series of seven pātālas, ‘netherworlds’, together with a variety of other divinities, including rudras, gaṇas, nāgas, rākṣasas, bhaginīs, and yogakanyās.⁴⁴ None of these are presented as tantric cult deities with mantras. By and large, the Guhyasūtra’s higher cosmological spheres are populated with male mantra-lords (mantreśvara, etc.) and manifold rudras. While in later Śākta accounts of the cosmos, goddesses would largely eclipse male deities, in the Guhyasūtra the goddesses of the netherworlds are exceptional. In the lowest pātāla are present ‘groups of Mothers’ (mātṛgaṇāḥ) and ‘Sisters’ (bhaginyaḥ).⁴⁵ These could potentially refer to the most famous representatives of the classes, namely the Seven Mothers and the Four Sisters of Tumburu; however, most probably are intended to be amorphous bands of minor female deities. Two other sets of Mother goddess find mention: ‘tawny’ (piṅgala) Mothers who bear blue lotuses are present in the third netherworld, while in the fourth preside kapālamātṛs, ‘Skull Mothers’. The latter, who have parallel in the kapālarudras of the next higher cosmological sphere, appear to represent a transformation of the Mothers into deities whose kāpālika iconography presages that of the Śākta Vidyāpīṭha’s cult goddesses.⁴⁶

Positioned higher in the series are yogakanyās, ‘yoga maidens’, deities of the sixth and seventh netherworlds. Here described merely as ‘possessing great power’ (mahāvīryāḥ),⁴⁷ goddesses of this particular collocation are not well-attested in Śaiva textual sources familiar to me. Yet as powerful, youthful goddesses connected with yoga who transcend the Skull Mothers, these ‘yoga maidens’ appear to prefigure the deities later referred to as yogeśvarīs, ‘female masters of yoga’, or yoginīs. This connection is drawn much later by a Kashmirian, Kṣemarāja, in commenting upon a parallel passage in the Svacchandatantra; he understands yogakanyās as yoginīs who possess their yogic powers from the very moment of birth.⁴⁸ This seems consistent with the term’s use in the Harivaṃśa, where it describes the goddess Ekānaṃśā as the infant girl substituted for Kṛṣṇa.⁴⁹ It hence appears that the Guhyasūtra describes a hierarchy of divinities encompassing goddesses with typological similarities to those later brought within the rubric of the yoginī: multiple categories of Mother-goddess, the Sisters, and maiden goddesses possessed of yogic powers.⁵⁰

Ritual

Although the cosmology of the Guhyasūtra only faintly intimates developments suggestive of the formation of the Śākta Vidyāpīṭha, its ritual offers substantial material for comparison. This late stratum of the Niśvāsa is rich in siddhi-oriented practices that foreshadow varieties of ritual elaborated upon in the Bhairavatantras. Particularly noteworthy are its mortuary (kāpālika) practices, the use of magical substances (siddhadravyas), and coital ritual. The kāpālika rites of the Guhyasūtra appear largely magical in orientation, which places them in much closer relation to those of the Mantramārga’s Bhairavatantras than the liberationist kāpālika ritual of the Atimārga. This is particularly evident in the Guhyasūtra’s prescriptions for preparing magical substances in a skull; in one case the end-product is ash that would turn the practitioner into a vidyādhara(celestial wizard), and in another an eye-ointment that induces invisibility. Similar procedures are common in vidyāpīṭha sources, where, however, more marked use of the ‘impure’ is made.⁵¹ Perhaps the most extreme of the kāpālika magical practices taught in the Guhyasūtra is chapter three’s rite of fire sacrifice, performed in the mouth of a corpse, which in structure and aims parallels vetālasādhana as described in the Brahmayāmala and Harṣacarita.⁵² As in the Brahmayāmala, the rite culminates with the corpse’s tongue emerging, which when severed becomes a magical sword.⁵³Elsewhere, the Guhyasūtra describes rituals for magically enlivening a corpse that does one’s bidding.⁵⁴ Such magic was undoubtedly ancient, described for instance in the Jaina Prakrit Vasudevahiṇḍi (Dezső 2010: 399).

As for sexual ritual, which is characteristic of the early Śākta Vidyāpīṭha, this finds some precedent in the Guhyasūtra, which teaches a tantric version of the asidhārāvrata (‘the razor’s edge observance’; 3.38cd–43ab). This involves the participation of a beautiful young woman skilled in the erotic arts, although one who succumbs to lust in her embrace falls into hell. What distinguishes the Guhyasūtra’s inflection of this brahmanical ritual is a shift from ascetic to magical ends, which places it in continuity with the coital rituals of vidyāpīṭha practice systems. I have elsewhere sought to trace the development of the asidhārāvrata, and suggested that it may have been adopted from an Atimārga source (Hatley, forthcoming). Absent from the coital rite of the Guhyasūtra is any indication of interest in manipulating the dangerous potency of the ‘secret nectars’ (guhyāmṛta), i.e. sexual fluids, a subject of considerable fascination in vidyāpīṭha sources. However, besides metal ores, neem oil, and the like, the Guhyasūtra’s ritual occasionally taps the power of conventionally impure substances, such as blood and beef, and in one instance menstrual blood.⁵⁵

In the Guhyasūtra, some glimpses may be had of the cult of spirits prominent in Tantras of the Bhūta- and Bhairava- scriptural streams. In an example from Chapter 11, one who fasts, smears the body with crematory ash, and performs twelve-lakh repetitions of the mantra OṂANĀTHĀYANAMAḤhas the darśan of ‘spirits’ (bhūta), who offer him ‘magical substances’ (siddhadravya) that induce invisibility.⁵⁶ Such magical, transactional experiences are greatly elaborated upon in the vidyāpīṭha yoginī cults, wherein ‘visionary encounters’ (melāpa) with the goddesses become central to the aims of ritual. Also noteworthy is the Guhyasūtra’s prescription for gaining the aid of a yakṣiṇī (‘dryad’). Further reference is made to achieving power over such female spirits as the bhūtī, piśācinī, and nāginī, although generally, feminine-gender spirits are little emphasized.⁵⁷ Erotic magic is present, such as a rite in the Guhyasūtra wherein one magically transforms a female ‘goat or sheep’ (ajā) into a woman who fulfills ‘all of one’s desires’.⁵⁸ Also noteworthy are the numerous references to joining the ranks of the vidyādharas, suggesting that even at this level of the tradition, magical perfection and the attainment of embodied divinity had emerged as well-defined aims of ritual. In general character, the Guhyasūtra thus suggests the extent to which the ritual of the Bhairava Tantras and early Śākta cults had deep roots in earlier tradition, representing a shift in emphasis rather than something altogether novel.

Conclusion

A number of historical observations emerge from the preceding analysis of the Niśvāsa corpus. First, it is evident that a theology emphasizing Śiva’s cosmogonic and grace-bestowing ‘power’ (śakti) comes into view in the middle stratum of the Niśvāsa corpus. This nexus of ideas receives further elaboration in the Guhyasūtra, which, for instance, incorporates the idea of Śiva’s ‘power of volition’ (icchāśakti), accompanied by a shift in cosmogonic imagery. In general terms, a disproportionate amount of the material concerning śaktis and goddesses belongs to the Guhyasūtra, a comparatively late stratum of the text. Diachronic analysis of the Niśvāsa corpus suggests that early tantric goddesses were frequently apotheoses of feminine-gender cosmological categories; a movement from feminine-gendered principles to embodied goddesses may be characteristic of the early Mantramārga. The equation of goddesses with śakti, and the ‘femaleness’ of śakti, appear to be innovations of the early Mantramārga, aspects of the early development of which are visible in the Niśvāsa itself. Furthermore, the conflation of prakṛti and śakti, which appears critical to the Purāṇic construction of the Mahādevī, becomes evident in the cosmology of the Niśvāsa in the deification of prakṛti and in the subsumption of all such cosmological goddesses within śakti. It is also evident that many of the ritual forms and concerns of the early Śākta Vidyāpīṭha are presaged in the Guhyasūtra of the Niśvāsa.

Notes

1  I would like to thank Dominic Goodall, Harunaga Isaacson, and Alexis Sanderson for their comments on the version of this essay presented at the conference on Śākta traditions held at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in September 2011.

2  This is argued in some detail by Goodall et al. (forthcoming, Introduction).

3  Concerning texts of the Vidyāpīṭha, see Sanderson (1988: 668–79, 2009: 19–20, 45–49).

4  ‘Early Tantra: Discovering the Interrelationships and Common Ritual Syntax of the Śaiva, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and Saura Traditions’, directed by Harunaga Isaacson and Dominic Goodall, and funded by the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (France) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

5  For several early references to Āryā, see White (2003: 39–40). She is also mentioned in Skandapurāṇa 31.106a.

6  This model is evident in Pārvatī’s emanation of Kauśikī/Vindhyavāsinī, and Kauśikī’s of the Mother-goddesses; see the discussion of Yokochi (2004: 49–55, 99–113). On Pārvatī’s identification with prakṛti, note especially 13.24, and 13.43–44ab (iyaṃ ca prakṛtir devī sadā te sṛṣṭikāraṇam | patnīrūpaṃ samāsthāya jagatkāraṇam āgatā || namas tubhyaṃ sadeśāna devyāś caiva sadā namaḥ |).

7  The Mantramārga theology of the cosmogonic śakti seems only faintly alluded to in the Skandapurāṇa; the Mahādevī’s identification with Śiva’s ‘power’ (śakti) is mentioned in Skandapurāṇa, Chapter 32 (parāṃ ca pravṛttiṃ maheśasya śaktiṃ). Cf. the weaker case of Skandapurāṇa3.14ab, which (in passing) refers to Śiva as ‘singular, [though] conjoined with the śakti, and not devoid of śakti’ (ekasmai śaktiyuktāya aśaktirahitāya ca).

As for the identification of Pārvatī with the creative, magical power known as māyā, note especially Skandapurāṇa 60.41c. This eulogy of Pārvatī (vv. 38–41), spoken by Viṣṇu, is remarkably śākta in character, speaking of the Goddess as creator and destroyer, as prakṛti, bearer of the world, and mahāmāyā, among other divine epithets.

8  On the dating of the Devīmāhātmya, see Yokochi (2004: 21–23).

9  Guhyasūtra 8.129: ā brahmastambaparyantañ jagat sarvañ carācaram | mama bījodbhavaṃ sarvaṃ tava yonivinirgatam ||

10  Guhyasūtra 8.133cd: vikārās tava jāyante yat sarvaṃ sampratiṣṭhitam.

11  Goodall (forthcoming) remarks, ‘It is only in the textual layers later than the Mūlasūtra that we find the tattvas presented, sometimes to homologise them with mantra-elements, sometimes to serve as the focal point for yogic meditation and, finally, in the case of the higher (non-Sāṅkhya) tattvas, as layers in the upper reaches of the cosmos.’

12  See the discussion below.

13  Uttarasūtra 1.5cd–6ab: tasya śaktiḥ śivā nityā śivatejopabṛṃhitā | śivatejena saṃyuktā śakter jāyati bindukaḥ.

14  The tattva-goddesses Māyā, Niyati, and Vidyā are discussed by Goodall (forthcoming).

15  Such deification might, however, be implicit, as suggested by the instruction to make an effigy of māyā (Uttarasūtra 5.25).

16  Translation of Goodall et al. (forthcoming).

17  See kalā (definition 6) in Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, vol. 2; and Goodall et al. (forthcoming).

18  While the Brahmayāmala attests the fivefold form of the kalās, its cosmology places importance upon sets of four, as presented in paṭala 32, on the subject of ‘cosmography’ (prakriyā).

19  The editors note that the old palm-leaf manuscript (siglum N) is not fully legible here; the bracketed syllables are transmitted by its two apographs.

20  Nayasūtra 4.40: cakṣuṣā vācayā sparśā manasā -d- udakena vā | dīkṣayet sarvajantūni śivaśaktyopabṛṃhitaḥ ||.

21  Suṣumnā is said to be white, with the shape of a lotus stalk, and to ‘emerge from the body of Śiva’ (padmasūtrākṛtiḥ śuklā, 294c; śivakāyād viniḥsṛtā, 297b). What precisely suṣumnā represents in the Guhyasūtra is unclear, for as Goodall et al. (forthcoming) point out, it is not yet the ‘central channel’ (nāḍī) in the yoga of the Uttarasūtra.

22  Mukhāgama 4.95ab and 4.127ab; cf. Guhyasūtra 8.50cd.

23  Uttarasūtra 1.41: śāstrakoṭisahasrāṇi mantrakoṭyā hy anekaśaḥ | mātṛkāsambhavāḥ sarve nāsti mantram ataḥ param ||.

24  In contrast, Guhyasūtra 8.128 might identify the alphabet with both Śiva and the Goddess: ahaṃ tvañ ca viśālākṣi mūlaṃ sarvajagasya tu | mātṛkāśivarūpeṇa siddhisambhavapādapam || – perhaps ‘You and I, O woman of long eyes, are the root of the entire world. As the mātṛkāśiva, [we are] the tree giving rise to [the fruit of] the perfections’.

25  See discussion of Goodall et al. (forthcoming) in the annotation thereon.

26  See e.g. Niśvāsakārikā, IFP Transcript no. 17, 40.6: iḍāyāṃ saṃsthitā vāmā vāmāṅge sarvadehinām | suṣumnāyāṃ punar jyeṣṭhā raudrī tu piṅgalāśritā || .

27  Describing the basic maṇḍala for ‘worship of Śiva’ (śivārcanavidhi, 2.1b), Mūlasūtra, ch. 2 enjoins installing the Nine śaktis upon a white lotus (tasyopari sitaṃ padmaṃ navaśaktisamanvitam, 2.2cd). Cf. Guhyasūtra 1.108, and 8.65a, which refers to ‘the ninefold śakti pantheon/worship’ (navadhā śaktiyāgaṃ).

28  See the discussion ad loc. by Goodall et al. (forthcoming).

29  Goodall, personal communication. A relatively early example of kriyā-, jñāna-, and icchā as a triad of powers is provided by the Svacchandatantra (1.65–68, etc.).

30  Guhyasūtra 8.140ab: mama icchā na hanyā tvaṃ tvaṃ hi śaktibalodayā.

31  See, for instance, IFP Transcript no. 127, p. 357: śivajñā tu mayākhyātā oṃ nameti triyakṣaram | jñānaśakti[ḥ] kriyāśaktir icchāśakti[s] tṛtīyakā | te yadā jñāpayed eva[ṃ] tadā siddhyanti nānyathā |.

32  See for instance the Pañcārthabhāṣya of Kauṇḍinya ad Pāsupatasūtra 4.23.

33  Uttarasūtra 1.5–6, Nayasūtra 2.6–9; note particularly 2.7–8: ādityasya maṇir yadvat tāpito raviraśmibhiḥ | vahnis sañjāyate tatra na rave tatra kāmatā || maṇer api na kāmitvan tadvad devasya ceṣṭitam | ādityavac chivo jñeyaḥ śaktir mmaṇir iva sthitā ||.

34  Uttarasūtra 1.6ab: śivatejena saṃyuktā śakter jāyati bindukaḥ. For tejas as a creative power, note Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6, 2.3, and cf. Couture’s (2001, 319) remarks on the term in the Harivaṃśa: ‘Tejas is, as it were, a divine seed (bīja), or a spark, a medium which allows the gods to descend upon the earth. The gods need only a ‘portion’ or a ‘fragment’ (aṃśa or bhāga) of their unlimited tejas in order to generate (sṛj, visṛj, utsṛj) duplicates of themselves and appear in the human world.’

35  Guhyasūtra 8.133ab: tvaṃ sadā gurviṇī devi ahaṅ kāmayitā sadā.

36  Bṛhatsaṃhitā 59.19.

37  Mukhāgama 2.28cd–30ab: brahmāṇaṃ skaṃdaṃ rudrāṇīṃ gaṇeśam mātaraṃ ravim || vahniṃ śatakratuṃ yakṣaṃ vāyum dharmmañ jaleśvaram | yo yasya sthāpanaṅ kuryāt prāsāde tu suśobhane || pūjaye parayā bhaktyā so ’mṛto hy asya lokatām |

38  Mukhāgama 3.33–34ab.

39  Uttarasūtra 2.4c and Guhyasūtra 6.32. Cf., e.g., Siddhayogeśvarīmata 6.2–4, and Brahmayāmala 14.11cd–13ab and 18.18–19.

40  Uttarasūtra 1.34d. The old MS. reads vijayo kālir eva ca; vijayā seems more likely, however, for Kālī (or a variant thereof) and Vijayā (or Jayā) occur together in a number of deity lists: e.g. Mālinīvijayottara 20.44a; Siddhayogeśvarīmata 20.42cd; and Bhāgavatapurāṇa X, 2.11cd. Concerning Kālī or Mahākālī’s relationship to the mātṛs, note their association in the Kumārasambhava (VII.30–39); her presence (alongside Mahākāla) in the Rāvaṇ-kā-kāī shrine of the mātṛs at Ellorā; and e.g. Skandapurāṇa 68.9. For Vijayā as a mātṛ, see e.g. Skandapurāṇa 64.26. She is better known as one the ‘Four Sisters’ (caturbhaginī), cult deities of the ‘leftward stream’ (vāmasrotas) of Śaiva revelation.

41  Note also reference to a derivative ‘compilation’ (saṅgraha) genre of scripture in Uttarasūtra 1.32a–c: yo ’nyaḥ parataro bhedo śivatantreṣu paṭhyate | saṅgrahaḥ sa tu vijñeyo.

42  The verse quarter 1.34c appears to read bhairavāś ca gaṇamukhyā[ḥ], where, the editors point out, bhairavāḥ could instead be an adjective describing gaṇamukhyāḥ.

43  The passage giving the mantra is unfortunately lacunose; the old MS. (siglum N) reads, oṃ caṇḍike krama … caṇḍimantro ’yam (3.25 ab).

44  Guhyasūtra 5.1–21.

45  5.6cd: anye mātṛgaṇā rudrā bhaginyaś ca gaṇās tathā.

46  See Guhyasūtra 5.9ab (mātarā[ḥ] piṅgalā yatra vasanty utpalahastikāḥ), 5.11cd (kapālamātaro yatra va … ṭayaḥ [lacuna; perhaps read vasanti śatakoṭayaḥ]), and 5.14ab (tathā kapālarudrāś ca asaṃkhyeyāḥ puna[ḥ] sthitāḥ). Kapālamātṛs are also mentioned in Skandapurāṇa 7.23, and apparently the old Śivadharmasaṅgraha (Peter Bisschop, personal communication).

47  yogakanyakās are mentioned in Guhyasūtra 5.15d, in a description of the city Ratnavatī of the sixth pātāla; other denizens include atharvarudras (atharvarudrās tatraiva vasante yogakanyakāḥ). ‘Yoga maidens possessed of great power’ (yogakanyā mahāvīryās, 5.19a) are also met with in a description of the seventh pātāla, along with ‘sons’ of Agni and Vāyu (agnikumārakāḥ, 18d; vāyukumārakāḥ, 19b). The fifth pātāla contains agnikumārikās, female counterparts of the ‘sons of Agni’. Given the similarity of the collocations, and their occurrence together, it is possible, if unlikely, that yogakanyā should be understood along the lines of agnikumārikā, as ‘maiden [born] of Yoga’.

48  Svacchandatantra (KSTS edition) 10.116cd–19ab, describing the abode of Śiva–Hāṭakeśvara:

yadūrdhve caiva sauvarṇaṃ pātālaṃ parikīrtitam |

tatra vasaty asau devo hāṭakaḥ parameśvaraḥ ||116||

purakoṭisahasrais tu samantāt parivāritaḥ |

siddhai rudragaṇair divyair bhaginīmātṛbhir vṛtaḥ ||117||

yoginīyogakanyābhī rudraiś caiva sakanyakaiḥ |

siddhadravyasamair mantraiś cintāmaṇirasāyanaiḥ ||118||

siddhavidyāsamṛddhaṃ vai hāṭakeśasya mandiram |

Here yoginīs are mentioned alongside siddhas, rudras, bhaginīs, mātṛs, yogakanyās, and perhaps rudrakanyās, in the entourage of Śiva-Hāṭakeśvara. Kṣemarāja interprets the ‘yoga maidens’ (yogakanyās) as a high grade of yoginī (yoginyo yogena siddhāḥ, yogakanyās tu jātamātrā eva saṃsmāritayogāḥ, ‘yoginīs are perfected through [practice of] yoga; but yogakanyās are caused to recall their yoga upon merely being born’). This passage in the Svacchandatantra is an elaboration upon Guhyasūtra 5.16cd–17ab, where the deities mentioned are rudras, vidyās, and vidyeśvaras:

sauvarṇaṃ saptamaṃ jñeyaṃ pātālaṃ nāgasevitam |

yatra citravatī nāma purī rudrasamākulā ||16||

tatrāsau hāṭhako devo vidyāvidyeśvarair vṛtaḥ |.

49  Harivaṃśa 96.14. See also the passages occurring in some manuscripts between 48.36–37 in the critical edition. Also, cf. the category of the ‘natural born’ (prākṛtā) yoginī in Brahmayāmala, paṭalas 56 and 96, and similar notions in a variety of other sources. I am grateful to Harunaga Isaacson for his suggestions on this subject (personal communication).

50  Cf. Brahmayāmala paṭalas 56 and 74, which contain detailed taxonomies of yoginīs. Compare also the list of potentially malevolent divinities in Netratantra, ch. 2, the female ones among these being ‘hordes/groups of śākinīs and yoginīs; the bhaginīs, rudramātṛs, etc.; ḍāvīs, ḍāmarikās, and rūpikās’ (°śākinīyoginīgaṇaiḥ | bhaginīrudramātrādiḍāvīḍāmarikādibhiḥ || rūpikābhir … , 13b–14a). This list hence includes both Mother-goddesses and ‘Sisters’, the latter, according to Kṣemarāja’s commentary, ‘arising from partial incarnations of [the Seven Mothers,] Brāhmī, etc.’ (brahmyādyaṃśakotthā bhaginyaḥ).

51  A process for producing invisibility-inducing kohl in a human skull is given in Guhyasūtra 3.81–82. The recipe involves nothing more offensive than ghee. The process in 11.110 utilizes ash: oṃ yogādhipa namaḥ | anena mantreṇa bhasma gṛhya kapālasampuṭe sthāpya tāvaj japed yāvad†āvartitamatiḥ† tatas tu tenoddhūlane vidyādharo bhavati | …

(‘OṂYOGĀDHIPANAMAḤ – taking hold of ashes using this mantra and placing them in the hollow of a skull, one should repeat the mantra until … (?). Then, when one is dusted with these ashes, he becomes a vidyādhara … ’).

Compare with Brahmayāmala, paṭala 50, which taps the powers of rather less innocuous substances:

kroṣṭhukasya tu piśitaṃ haritālamanacchilā |

rocanā ca mahāmāṃsaṃ ekīkṛtvā tu pīṣayet ||8||

kapālasaṃpuṭaṃ kṛtvā ātmaraktena miśritam |

sahasrāṣṭādhikaṃ japtvā tṛṣkṛtvā tilakaṃ kuru ||9||

bhavate bhūtale siddho adreśyaḥ kālavāśinaḥ |

9c sahasrāṣṭādhikaṃ] em. Isaacson; sahasrāntādhikaṃ MS. 10b adreśyaḥ] em.; adreśyoḥ MS.

‘One should mix together and make a paste of the flesh of a jackal, the haritāla and manaḥśilā minerals, yellow pigment, and human flesh. After placing this in the hollow of a skull mixed with one’s own blood, and reciting the mantra one-thousand and eight times, make a bindi [with this] thrice. He becomes perfected on this [very] earth, invisible, having power over death.’

This brief Chapter, the kroṣṭukakalpa, has as its theme magic utilizing jackal (kroṣṭuka) flesh.

52  For a detailed and insightful study of vetālasādhana, see Dezső (2010).

53  Guhyasūtra 3.60cd–64ab, quoted by Goodall et al. (forthcoming, Introduction); this passage is also discussed by Dezső (2010).

54  Guhyasūtra 11.86 describes magically enlivening an unmutilated corpse, which if male becomes a slave whom one may ride as a mount and go anywhere; if female, the corpse becomes like a celestial maiden, with whom one may live ten thousand years, invisible. The more elaborate rites described in 14.127–29 are performed in a cremation ground, and the enlivened corpse (vetāla) may be dispatched to do a particular task or fetch magical substances or treasure: tataś cottiṣṭhati bruvate ca | bho vīrapuruṣa kiṃ karomīti | sa vaktavyaḥ | īpsitaṃ kāmaṃ dadasveti | tataḥ sarvaṃ sampādayati | atha vāñjanarocanamanaḥśilā hy auṣadhiratnanidhānaṃ vā ānayasveti | tatas tat karma kṛtvā tatraiva gatvā nipatati || (‘And then [the vetāla] arises and says, ‘O heroic man, what shall I do?’ He is to be told, ‘provide the [following] desired wish’. Then he accomplishes everything. Or [one should say,] ‘fetch ointment, yellow pigment, the manaḥśilā mineral, or herbs, gems, or hidden treasure’. Then, after doing that work, [the corpse] goes there and falls [back] down’) (excerpt from 14.127).

55  Note for instance that Guhyasūtra 10.87 mentions homa using beef (gomāṃsa), while 14.66 describes smearing an ‘effigy’ (pratikṛti) with blood as part of a ‘rite of subjugation’ (vaśīkaraṇa). A magical recipe using ‘menstrual blood’ (nārīrajas) is attested in 3.54c–56b, quoted in Goodall et al. (forthcoming, Introduction).

56  Guhyasūtra 11.64: anena mantreṇa śmaśānabhasmanā snātvā nirāhāro dvādaśalakṣaṃ japet bhūtagaṇāni paśyati [em.; paśyanti Cod.] | siddhadravyāṇi prayacchanti | taiḥ siddhadravyair antarhito bhavati || (‘Having bathed in ashes using this mantra, while fasting, one should repeat the mantra twelve hundred thousand times. He sees groups of spirits; they bestow magical substances. Through those magical substances, he becomes invisible’).

57  Guhyasūtra 10.81–84. This procedure, called yakṣiṇīvidhi (yakṣiṇyā eṣa vidhiḥ), involves worship of an image that comes to life when the rite is complete: siddhā sā kiṃ karomīti bhāryā me bhavasveti | tayā saha ramate yāvad ācandratārakam (‘when mastered, she [says] “what shall I do?” “Be my wife.” He enjoys himself with her for the duration of the moon and stars’). The subsequent verse (10.84) provides means for making a wife of a ‘snake goddess’ (nāginī). Cf. Guhyasūtra 14.83, which describes rites for subjugating female spirits – the yakṣiṇī, piśācinī, and bhūtī.

58  rūpavatī strī bhavati sā sarvakāmā[n] dadāti. The rite is described in Guhyasūtra 14.153.

References

Primary sources

Chāndogya Upaniṣad. V. P. Limaye and R. D. Vadekar, eds. Eighteen Principal Upanisads, vol. 1. Poona: Vaidika Saṃśodhana Maṇḍala, 1958.

Niśvāsakārikā. Institut Français de Pondichéry Transcript nos. 17, 127, and 150. Electronic transcriptions by S. A. S. Sarma, Nibedita Rao, and R. Sathyanarayanan.

Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. Electronic transcription and draft edition by Dominic Goodall,Peter Bisschop, Diwakar Acharya, and Nirajan Kafle, based on National Archives of Kathmandu ms. no. 1–227 (Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project reel A41/14), and two apographs: NAK 5–2406 (NGMPP reel A159/18), and Wellcome Institute Sanskrit ms. I.33.

Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. See Goodall et al. (forthcoming), The Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: The Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra. Volume 1. A critical edition of the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra, and Nayasūtra. Franco-German Early Tantra Series.

Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. Nirajan Kafle, ed.

Netratantra. Madhusūdan Kaul Shāstrī, ed. The Netra Tantram, with Commentary by Kshemarāja. 2 vols. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, nos. 46, 61. Bombay: Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1926, 1939.

Pāśupatasūtra. R. Ananthakrishna Sastri, ed. Pāśupatasūtras with Pañcārthabhāṣya of Kauṇḍinya. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, no. 143. Trivandrum: Oriental Manuscripts Library of the University of Travancore, 1940.

Bṛhatsaṃhitā. Hendrik Kern, ed. The Bṛhatsaṃhitā of Varāha-Mihara. 1864–1865. Reprint (7 fascs. in 1), Bibliotheca Indica, vol. 48. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1982.

Brahmayāmala. Palm-leaf manuscript: NAK 3–370 (ngmpp reel A42/6). Paper manuscripts: nak 5–1929 (ngmpp reel A165/14), nak 1–143 (ngmpp reel A166/1), nak 1–286 (ngmpp reel A165/13), and nak 6–2608 (ngmpp reel A1319/4).

Brahmayāmala. See Hatley (2007).

Bhāgavatapurāṇa. J. L. Shastri, ed. Bhāgavata Purāṇa of Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, with Sanskrit Commentary Bhāvārthabodhinī of Śrīdhara Svāmin. Delhi: Motilal Banardidass, 1983.

Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa. K. M. Banerjea, ed. 1855–1862. Reprint, Bibliotecha Indica, vol. 29. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1980.

Mālinīvijayottaratantra. Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī, ed. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, no. 37. Bombay: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1922.

Siddhayogeśvarīmata. Judit Törzsök, ed. ‘‘The Doctrine of Magic Female Spirits’. A Critical Edition of Selected Chapters of the Siddhayogeśvarīmata(tantra) with Annotated Translation and Analysis’. PhD thesis, University of Oxford.

Skandapurāṇa. Rob Adriaensen, Hans T. Bakker and Harunaga Isaacson. The Skandapurāṇa, Vol. I. Adhyāyas 1–25. Critically Edited with Prolegomena and English Synopsis. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1998.

Skandapurāṇa. Kṛṣṇaprasāda Bhaṭṭarāī, ed. Skandapurāṇasya Ambikākāṇḍaḥ. Mahendraratnagranthamālā, no. 2. Kathmandu, Nepal: 1988.

Svacchandatantra. Madhusūdan Kaul Shāstrī, ed. The Svacchanda Tantram, with Commentary by Kshemarāja. 6 vols. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, nos. 31, 38, 44, 48, 51 (vol. 5a), 51 (vol. 5b), 56. Bombay: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1921–1935.

Harivaṃśa. Parashuram Lakshman Vaidya, ed. The Harivaṃśa, being the khila or supplement to the Mahābhārata: for the first time critically edited. 2 vols. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1969–1971.

Secondary literature

Brunner-Lachaux, Hélène. 1992. “Jñāna and Kriyā: Relation between Theory and Practice in the Śaivāgamas”. In Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism. Studies in Honor of André Padoux, ed. Teun Goudriaan, pp. 1–59. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Couture, André. 2001. ‘From Viṣṇu’s Deeds to Viṣṇu’s Play, or Observations on the Word Avatāra as a Designation for the Manifestations of Viṣṇu’. Journal of Indian Philosophy, 29: 313–326.

Dezső, Csaba. 2010. ‘Encounters with Vetālas: Studies on Fabulous Creatures I’. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung, 63(4): 391–426.

Goodall, Dominic. Forthcoming. ‘How the Tattvas of Tantric Śaivism Came to Be 36: the evidence of the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā’.

Goodall, Dominic. 2004. The Parākhyatantra. A Scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta. Collection Indologie, no. 98. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/École française d’Extrême-Orient.

Goodall, Dominic, et al. Forthcoming. The Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: The Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra. Volume 1. A critical edition of the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra, and Nayasūtra. Franco-German Early Tantra Series.

Goodall, Dominic, Nibedita, Rout, R. Sathyanarayanan, S.A.S. Sarma, T. Ganesan and S. Sambandhaśivācārya eds. 2005. The Pañcāvaraṇastava of Aghoraśivācārya: A Twelfth-century South Indian Prescription for the Visualization of Sadāśiva and his Retinue. Collection Indologie, no. 102. Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry/École française d’Extrême-Orient.

Hatley, Shaman. Forthcoming. ‘Erotic Asceticism: the Knife’s Edge Observance of Brahmayāmala xl (the asidhāravratapaṭala), with a critical edition and translation’. Tantric Studies, 3.

Hatley, Shaman. 2012. “From Mātṛ to Yoginī: Continuity and Transformation in the South Asian Cults of the Mother Goddesses”. In Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond, ed. István Keul, pp. 99–129. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Hatley, Shaman. 2007. ‘The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs’. Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania.

Pintchman, Tracy. 1995. The Rise of the Great Goddess in the Hindu Tradition. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Sanderson, Alexis. 2009. “The Śaiva Age”. In Genesis and Development of Tantrism, ed. Shingo Einoo, pp. 41–350. Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, no. 23. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo.

Sanderson, Alexis. 2006. ‘The Lākulas: New Evidence of a System Intermediate between Pāñcārthika Pāśupatism and Āgamic Śaivism’. Ramalinga Reddy Memorial Lectures, 1997. In The Indian Philosophical Annual, 24: 143–217.

Sanderson, Alexis. 2001. “History through Textual Criticism in the Study of Śaivism, the Pañcarātra and the Buddhist Yoginītantras”. In Les Sources et le Temps. Sources and Time. A Colloquium. Pondicherry 11–13 January 1997, ed. François Grimal, pp. 1–47. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondicherry/École française d’Extrême-Orient.

Sanderson, Alexis. 1988. “Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions”. In The World’s Religions, ed. S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke and F. Hardy, pp. 660–704. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Reprinted in The World’s Religions: The Religions of Asia, ed. F. Hardy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (1990), pp. 128–172.

Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, vol. 2. Hélène Brunner, Gerhard Oberhammer, and André Padoux, eds. Tāntrikābhidhānakośa. Dictionnaire des terms techniques de la littérature hindoue tantrique. 2 vols. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, no. 44. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004.

Yokochi, Yuko. 2004. ‘The Rise of the Warrior Goddess in Ancient India. A Study of the Myth Cycle of Kauśikī-Vindhyavāsinī in the Skandapurāṇa’. PhD dissertation, University of Groningen.

White, David Gordon. 2003. Kiss of the Yoginī: ‘Tantric Sex’ in Its South Asian Contexts. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.