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[Full title: Means of worship (3) Human substitutes (2) Virgin]

The dictionary meaning of the term virgin is a woman who has never had sexual intercourse 45. In Sanskrit the term Kanya or Kumari is used which comes close to the English term though there are slight differences. The term Kanya in Sanskrit means an unmarried daughter, approximately aged ten years and who is a virgin 46. The term Kumari in Sanskrit means a girl whose age is ten to twelve years old and is a virgin 47. The Manusmrti 48 is of the view that an unmarried daughter of three years and above is known as Kumari. According to the Rudrayamala-tantra; young girls are refered to as 'Kanya'. The young virgins to whom worship is offered are known as 'Kumaris 49. Worship or Kumaripuja. Worship to baby girls and young virgins has been accorded to in the tantra ritual practices apart from the worship etc...to married women across different sections of the society. The ritual of worshipping the young girls is known either as Kanyapuja or as Kumaripuja. The Rudrayamala-tantra speaks in an exalted tone of the Kanyas and to the worship accorded to them. It states that the Kanya is the cause of all prosperity; a Kanya is the embodiment of all 44 PKT Sec.10 45 COED P.1614 46 The Students Sanskrit English Dictionary P. 132 The Students Sanskrit English Dictionary P. 153 48 Manusmriti IX.90 49 Kamakhya-tantra ch.12

penance 50. It adds further sadhaka will not obtain the different fruits and great merits without the worship to Kanyas". According to the Nilatantra, a Kumari without any age bar before the start of menstruation may be worshipped as a Kumari in the Kumaripujas. The Sri-vidyarnava-tantra states that whatever worship or Homa-offering is done for the goddess, it will not be successful without the Kumaripujas 52. The Sri-vidyarnava-tantra lays down certain criteria about the selection of the girl to whom worship is to be offered and gives a list as to who stand disqualified. The qualifications which a girl must posses to be eligible for the Kumaripujas are as follows - The virgin should be free from disease, healthy with well formed limbs, of good looks, devoid of any wounds, born in an unadulterated lineage. The following defects act as disqualifiers for a girl to be recipient of the Kumaripujas - She has either a deformed or undeveloped limb, is affected by leprosy, is born in a family which is characterless, has boils and pistules all over her body, cracked and rough skin, with blood and pus oozing out of the wounds; who is blind by birth, has a harsh voice, has squinted eyesight, is ugly in appearance, has a hairy body, is diseased, and born of a harlot. Another classification is given by the Kubjika-tantra³. In it the various girls are classified into different age group ranges to facilitate virgin-worship. This classification is a fourfold classification and is comparitively easy as it gives a 'range' for the classification. The table below will facilitate a quick view. 50 Rudrayamala-tantra VI.92; Rudrayamala Tantram, Yogatantra Granthamala Vol. VII, ed.-Yogatantra Dept. Sampurnanda Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya, Varanasi 1980; P.86 51 Rudrayamala-tantra VI.93 52 Sri-vidyarnava-tantra XVIII. 53 Kubjika-tantra ch.IV

Sno. Age - Range. Designation. 1. Six to Nine Na _ 2. Eight to thirteen Kulaja. 3. Ten to sixteen Identical with Goddesses. 4. Five to twelve Kumari. 333 A general opinion of Tantra works as well as the practitioners of Tantra is a girl should be worshipped as long as she does not have the menstrual flow. And in the flower-offering ceremony, a deflowered girl i.e. one whose menstrual flow has stopped is considered as a virgin, and she alone should be worshipped 54. This is specifically mentioned because it throws light on the social conditions prevailing at that time - child marriage. Accordingly, we have two types of virgin girls- (i) the girls who are still not married off and (ii) the girls who are married but the marriage is not consumated as they have not yet attained puberty. Further the virgins of different castes are to be worshiped for different reasons. The following table will throw light on the result of the worship offered to the virgins belonging to different castes 56. Also for the first time the social order prevailing at the then society of which consisted of 'fivecastes' is mentioned. Sno. Caste of virgin. Result of worship. 1. Brahmin girl. In all undertakings. 2. Ksatriya girl. For attaining victory 54 Kubjika-tantra ch XVI 55 Sri-vidyarnava-tantra ch XVIII 56 opcit.

3. Vaisya girl. 4. Sudra girl. 5. For obtaining profits. For getting sons. The girl of the outcastes. For creating a rift (among the enemies). The worship of virgins is stated to be indispensable for Tantric rites. Great results are said to be achieved by worshipping a Kumari on a dead body $7. The virgins of different ages are designated differently. The following table will help in a quick look at the different designations of the young girls. Age of Kanya in yrs. Kubjika tantra. Rudrayamala tantra. One Sandhya. Sandhya Two Sarasvati. Sarasvati. Three Tridhamurti Tridhamurti Four Kalika Kalika Five Subhaga. Suryaga. Six Uma. Rohini. Seven Malini. Malini. Eight Kubjika. Kubjika. Nine Samvarsa. Kalasandhatri. Ten Aparajita. Aparajita. Eleven Rudrani. Rudrani. Twelve Bhairavi. Bhairavi. Thirteen Mahalaksmi. Mahalaksmi. 57 Nila-tantra ch.XV

Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Pitanayika. Pitanayika. Ksetraja. Ksetraja. Tarini. Ambika 335 A general opinion of the works of tantra and the practitioners of tantra is any girl without any age bar, before the start of menstruation may be worshipped in the Kumaripuja. Worship method and period. Like the Tithinitya goddesses, sixteen girls from one year to sixteen years of age are to be offered worship. These small girls are to be in the ascending order such that the age is increasing by one year every consecutive day. The ninth day of the bright half is especially conducive of the desired result. The worship of the sixteen virgins should be performed from the first day of the bright fortnight upto the full moon day ie. Amavasya till Pournima both days inclusive this adds to sixteen days. Special pujas are ordained on the days of great festivities or Mahaparva days. The worship of virgins is emphasized on the ninth day of the bright fortnight. In the opinion of the Nila-tantra" Kumaripuja is slated on the Mahanavami day of the autumn month. Autumn month is stated to be conductive to merit. After the worship, the girl should be given daksina in gold, silver or pearls. Further, the devotee should bear the expenses of her marriage. By this, one is redeemed even of grave 58 Rudrayamala-tantra VI.101,102. also Nila-tantra ch.XV 59 Nila-tantra ch.XV

sin. The procedure of Kumaripuja is systematically dealt with in the Sri-vidyarnava-tantra 60. The sadhaka has to go the house of the girl child one day prior to the actual day of worship and invite her to come and accept the worship and make him blessed. The sadhaka with a coconut, betel nut and leaves, fruits etc...is supposed to offer his invitation. The next day the girl-child is welcomed and offered sandal-paste, oil, garlands etc... and in a mandapa outside the puja mandapa, he himself is supposed to wash her legs with warm water, wipe the feet with a fine cloth and then sprinkle the washed water on his head. Having done so, he should lead her to the place of worship and offer her a seat facing the west. This seat is offered a seat parallel to the goddess who faces the east. The seat of the kanya is in the form of an eight petalled lotus drawn with read-lead. The sadhaka meditates the virgin to be the goddess Mahalaksmi and offers worship to her. The worship which is offered to her is in a manner such that she is the goddess manifest in person. The following services are offered to her - (i) Acamana on arrival, on arrival, (ii) Clothes, (iii) Bangles, finger-rings etc...decorations, (iv) A chain for the neck, smearing of sandalpaste, (iv) Offering of flower garlands, burning of incenses, (v) waving of lamp, the upacaras befitting a king, (vi) Feeding with payasam, sugar and ghee, (vii) Rice and other dishes be offered without tossing, (viii) Sweet fruits be offered again and again, (ix) Betelnut, beatel leaf etc... (x) Acamana after the completion of food, (xi) Dana should be given without offering arghya, (xii) Circumambulate around the virgin and offer salutations with joined palms placed above the head, (xiii) the virgin should then be dispersed back to her house. 60 Sri-vidyarnava-tantra ch.XVIII

Offerings. 337 The worship of virgins as mentioned before yields completeness to the ritual undertaken by the sadhaka. As per the requirement the sadhaka is supposed to choose the specific virgin caste-wise to attain the desired result. The amount of merit of virgin worship is so great that, whatever is offered to small girls yields its specific fruit apart from the great merit of a complete worship process. The following table will bring the different offerings and the result thereof instantly. Sno. Offering. 1. Flower 2. Feeding 3. Water offered 4. Food Result of the offering. Equivalent to the Mt. Meru. Equivalent to feeding the three worlds. Equivalent to the sea. Equivalent to a kula mountain. The sway of the feminine genre over the ritual proceedings of the tantra is indeed noteworthy. Infact it can be said that the tantra echoes the philosophy of the Devimahatmayam that "indeed all the females are indeed the manifestations of your form O! Goddess." Another point worth mentioning is the role and importance of female preceptors in the Tantra mode. This point will be taken in for analysis in the next section 'The Worshipper'.