Principle of Shakti in Kashmir Shaivism (Study)
by Nirmala V. | 2016 | 65,229 words
This page relates 鈥業ntroduction鈥� of the thesis dealing with the evolution and role of Shakti鈥攖he feminine principle鈥攚ithin the religious and philosophical framework of Kashmir Shaivism. Tantrism represents an ancient Indian spiritual system with Shakti traditionally holding a prominent role. This study examines four major sub-streams: Kula, Krama, Spanda, and Pratyabhijn膩.
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Introduction
Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘 although has expanded its popularity as a well-developed philosophical school of Tantra, it is appropriate and also important to address it as a religious-philosophical system. The wider spread of the system through numerous sub-schools and unique conceptions basically had the religious identities[1] of their own. They have constantly undergone changes through the frequent encounters in the internal and the external atmospheres of the system. It may well be noticed that 艢补办迟颈 is an imminent fundamental principle of great prominence in all the schools of Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘.
As the injunctive position of the principle of 艢补办迟颈鈥攊n its highly philosophized contexts鈥攈ad already been expalined, the view going to be explored through the present chapter is the changing facets of 艢补办迟颈, in distinct sub-schools of the philosophy of Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘. It is clear that the philosophical part of this tradition is an extension or a later development of the cultic phase, the specific history of which goes back to the pre-historic times.
Conventionally, the analysis of evolution of any idea in any discipline has been accounted as an endeavour which generates effective philosophical comparison between distinct contexts[2] through which the evolution occurred. Hence, no doubt, the present interrogation focusing on 艢补办迟颈鈥攖he concept which has never been addressed as a religious philosophical principle[3]鈥攊s significantly relevant. The attempt here is to present the changing status and nature of 艢补办迟颈 through the four major streams of Kashmir 艢aivim viz., Kula, Krama, Spanda, and 笔谤补迟测补产丑颈箩帽腻. All these four are accepted in the present study as chronologically successive sub-schools, even though the history of the schools of 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘 is divergent according to different scholars.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Tantrism is known commonly as 鈥楽outh Asian religious philosophy鈥�, as its inherent religious nature has been mixed up with the philosophy emerged in a later time. This is a misconception that in its primitive stages the aboriginal cults had no rational elements and it was orthodoxy which provided them the real thought systems. But the present scholar reasonably finds some sort of philosophical world-view in Tantrism鈥檚 earliest phase itself. Arvind Sharma reminds to wipe out two misconceptions regarding this topic that: 1. The primal religions have no philosophy and 2. Primal religions are not qualified as religions, in order to initiate an intellectual space in the book, A Primal Perspective on the Philosophy of Religion, Springer, Netherlands, 2006, p.2.
[2]:
Some clear assertions about the evolutionary history of religious concepts are made by Eckart Voland and Wulf Schiefenhovel (Eds.),The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behaviour, Springer, Berlin, 2009, p.191ff.
[3]:
Studies on the concept of 艢补办迟颈 in Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘 started in the second half of twentieth century are very few in numbers. S. K. Das in his work, 艢补办迟颈 or Divine Power, University of Calcutta, 1934 discusses mainly about the expressions of 艢补办迟颈 on the basis of 惭腻濒颈苍墨惫颈箩补测辞迟迟补谤补迟补苍迟谤补 (惭腻濒颈苍墨惫颈箩补测辞迟迟补谤补迟补苍迟谤补) and its discussion starts from the theory of Vedic origin and ends in the linguistic aspects. The works like that of Richard. F. Cefalu (艢补办迟颈 in Abhinavagupta鈥檚 Concept of Moksha, Fordham University, 1974) and Pandit Rajamani Tigunite (艢补办迟颈 The Power in Tantra: A Scholarly Approach, Himalayan Institute Press, USA, 1998.) are merely significant in their titles. Gerald James Larson (鈥淭he Sources for 艢补办迟颈 in Abhinavagupta鈥檚 Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘: A Linguistic and Aesthetic Category鈥�, Philosophy East and West, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 1974, pp. 41-56.), tries to stress on the linguistic and aesthetic roots of 艢补办迟颈 in Abhinavagupta. Yet 艢补办迟颈 has been studied only as a religious or as a pure philosophical category. Navjivan Rastogi, through his two articles, (鈥溑毑拱斐倬扁�� in Kashmir 艢iv膩dvayav膩d Ke M奴l Avadh膩ra峁嚹亂em, D. K. Printworld, Delhi, 2007 and 鈥淣otion of 艢补办迟颈 in Kashmir 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘鈥�, 2011) points out the religious philosophic nature of 艢补办迟颈-but not in a detailed manner. Vague descriptions of the same can be found in Alexis Sanderson (See, 鈥�艢腻办迟补 Procedures for Weather Control and other Supernatural Effects through Power over 狈腻驳补蝉: 骋腻谤耻岣峣办补 Passages in the 艢腻办迟补 闯补测补诲谤补迟丑补测腻尘补濒补鈥� and 鈥淭he 艢补颈惫补 Literature鈥�, Journal of Indological Studies, Kyoto, 2014, No. 23, pp.1-113.) The studies which concentrate on Tantric goddess studies show a tendency to subsume the philosophical nature of 艢补办迟颈 to its religiosity.