Principle of Shakti in Kashmir Shaivism (Study)
by Nirmala V. | 2016 | 65,229 words
This page relates 鈥楳etaphysical Framework of Kula System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.
Go directly to: Footnotes.
Part 2 - Metaphysical Framework of Kula System
Religious cults certainly hold their own deliberations about the things related to the existence of human being which later got advanced to the form of philosophy. Indeed Kula cannot be treated as a pure philosophical system, for its being an exponent of the metaphysics through an arena of multifarious ritualistic practices. Modern scholars try to distinguish the ritualistic character (especially of Tantric streams) into two; one grounded on mental equanimity and the other on physical equanimity. They might not satisfy the necessities of developed philosophies which commonly give importance to the 鈥榠nternal.鈥�[1] Hence, the present attempt is not to transform the structural external sense of rites into mere internal meaning with the help of interpretative approach[2], but to readout the real nature of ritual as holding some philosophical aspects which surround the magnitude of the principle of 艢补办迟颈.[3]
It may be noted that the key objective of all the Kula practices is the attainment of super natural powers which help the practitioner to consume all the sovereignties known as Siddhis[4], in specific, 碍补耻濒颈办墨蝉颈诲诲丑颈. Being ambiguous and obscure, Tantra has been defined by Madeleine Biardeu as centred on the goals of 艢补颈惫颈蝉尘.
Whereas David Gordon White admits an overarching definition of Tantric doctrine;
[Tantra is]... an attempt to place 办腻尘补, desire, in every sense of the word, in the service of liberation... not to sacrifice the world for liberation's sake, but to reinstate it, in varying ways, within the perspective of salvation. The use of 办腻尘补 and all aspects of this world to gain both worldly and supernatural enjoyments (bhukti) and powers (siddhis)... whereby he feels integrated within an all-embracing system of micro-macrocosmic correlations.[5]
It represents the centrality of the idea of siddhi in the domain of Tantrism.
The cult of 驰辞驳颈苍墨蝉 is central to the Kula tradition.[6] The female practitioners as well as the teachers of the Kula rituals, who are the authorities of all the siddhis, are called 驰辞驳颈苍墨蝉. They are actually characterized in their multiplicity than individual identities, and hence are reckoned with in distinct forms such as an ordinary woman; a supernatural human being or a female deity.[7] Along with this complexity in definitions, strong possibilities are there to transform them into the earliest forms of 艢补办迟颈. The activities like manifestation, encounters, protection and flight assure the same.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
For an analysis of later exegetical tendencies to implicate the meaning into the esoteric tendencies of early systems for the indirect establishment of the superiority of philosophical 鈥榠nternality鈥� over the ritualistic 鈥榚xternality鈥�, see. Alexis Sanderson, Meaning in Tantric Ritual; Judit Torzsok, 鈥淪earch for Meaning in Tantric Ritual in the 艢补颈惫补 Scriptures鈥�, Dominic Goodall and Andre Padoux (Eds.), Tantric Studies in Memory of Helene Brunner, Institute of Francais De Pondichery, 2007, p.472 ff.
[2]:
Judit Torzsok discusses about the questions raised against the meaning of the ritual practices in Tantrism, and arrives at the conclusion that the kula rituals reject most external rites as meaningless. Ibid., p.478. This must be viewed as the later response (that holds certain aims) to the primary exegetical tendencies; q. v. Chapter, 4 in this study, p.125.
[3]:
[4]:
The fact that about two third of the 厂颈诲诲丑补测辞驳别艣惫补谤墨尘补迟补 is devoted to illustrate various magic of Siddhi in Kula practice:鈥�
鈥�蝉补谤惫补蝉颈诲诲丑颈辫谤补诲补峁� br奴hi siddhayoge艣avar墨matam鈥�: I. 17 cd;
鈥�辫补谤别测补尘补苍补测腻 蝉颈诲诲丑颈岣� 蝉补谤惫补办补谤尘补辫丑补濒辞诲补测腻鈥�: III. 46,52cd;
鈥�艣补办迟颈迟谤补测补峁� devi 诲颈惫测补蝉颈诲诲丑颈辫谤补诲腻测补办补尘鈥�: III. 53cd;
鈥�sarvasiddhikara峁� n峁涐箛膩m鈥�: VII. 1 cd;
鈥�蝉腻诲丑补办补蝉测补 尘补丑腻产丑腻驳补岣� 蝉补谤惫补办补谤尘补辫丑补濒补辫谤补诲补岣�鈥�: XII. 21 ab;
Also see, 鈥�kulaj膩 devi sv膩峁兣沘siddhiprad膩yik膩鈥�: 叠谤补丑尘补测腻尘补濒补迟补苍迟谤补, I. 47 cd.
Though numerous types of supernatural powers and their effects have been mentioned in the texts like 厂颈诲诲丑补测辞驳别艣惫补谤墨尘补迟补, it is difficult to trace back the original patterns of purely earliest Kula practices. Only such references can only be analyzed as the earliest available ones which closely related to the primal features of the cult.
[5]:
David Gordon White, Op.cit., p.16.
[6]:
驰辞驳颈苍墨蝉 might have existed even before the term started to indicate them. But the scholars like H. V. Dehjia try to adhere on to the perception that the 驰辞驳颈苍墨蝉 originated from the 艢aivite Tantrism.
[7]:
For eightfold polythetic cultural classification of Yoginis, see. David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogin 墨, University of Chicago Press, 2003, p.23: 鈥楾he 驰辞驳颈苍墨蝉 whose cults were central to Kaula practice had the following features: (1) they were a group of powerful, sometimes martial, female divinities with whom human female witches鈥� were identified in ritual practice; (2) their power was intimately connected to the flow of blood, both their own sexual and menstrual emissions, and the blood of their animal (and human?) victims; (3) they were essential to Tantric initiation in which they initiated male practitioners through fluid transactions via their 鈥�mouths鈥�; (4) they were possessed of the power of flight; (5) they took the form of humans, animals, or birds, and often inhabited trees; (6) they were often arrayed in circles; (7) their temples were generally located in isolated areas, on hilltops or prominences and were usually round and often hypaethral; and (8) they were never portrayed as practicing yoga for the simple reason that yoga as we know it had not yet been invented.鈥� Also cf. Shaman Hatley, 鈥淲hat is a 驰辞驳颈苍墨?: Towards a Polythetic Definition鈥�, Istvan Keul (Ed.), Yogin 墨 in South Asia: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Routledge, New York, 2013, pp.23-30.