Essay name: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
Author: William James Arraj
The essay represents a study and partial English translation of the Svacchandatantra and its commentary, 鈥淯ddyota鈥�, by Kshemaraja. The text, attributed to the deity Svacchanda-bhairava, has various names and demonstrates a complex history of transmission through diverse manuscript traditions in North India, Nepal, and beyond.
Page 170 of: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
170 (of 511)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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164
(pp. 274-277) describes the procedure for imparting this pervasion
of 艢iva岣� to the initiate. A series of additional oblations (pp. 277鈥�
280) then impart the qualites of Siva岣�. 1
At this point, the long digression elaborating the appended
rites of joining appears to end, when the text begins to describe
(pp. 280-281) the sprinking or annointing (abhisekah), intended to
reinvigorate the body of the initiate desiccated by the intense
formul忙 applied during the initiation. In form and content, this
rite appears to restart the description of the miscellaneous
concluding rites that the excursus on the joining had interrupted.
Accordingly, after indicating the exchange of a flower, final
circumambulations, prosternations, and a contemplation of the
initiate's new condition, the text proclaims the end of the
liberation initiation. Z
An initiate who has undergone the with-seed initiation defined
in the beginning of book four, the text continues (p. 285), can
subsequently become a master (膩c膩rya岣�) by undergoing (pp. 286-
298) a special annointing or consecration (abhisekah). The
officiating master first (pp. 286-289) prepares five jugs with select
substances such as jewels and unguents. Into these prepared jugs,
he then imposes the planes, energies, and worlds, followed by
Bhairava岣� and his retinue, and finally, the guardians of the
directions. After he has installed the initiate on a special seat in a
superiority of the pervasion of 艢iva岣�. Thus the text asserts (p.272,
vs. 434): "膩tmavyaptirbhavede峁Ｄ� sivavyaptistato 'nyath膩.
1 V. pp. 278鈥�279. These include such qualities as omniscience
and autonomy. They render the initiate, K峁mar膩ja岣� explains
(p. 279), different from any other conscious subject, who might
possess one of these qualities but not others, and thus similar to
艢iva岣� alone: ekasy膩pi 艣ivanathasyetthyam vy盲v峁泃tibhedena
sarvaj帽atv膩daya岣� sat gun膩 vy膩khyey膩岣�.
2 As noted previously, this flower exchange (p. 284), as
interpreted by K峁mar膩ja岣�, represents the disinterest of the ritual
officiant in financial compensation and the honesty of the initiate in
giving it.
