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, “Uddyota�, 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 474 of: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
474 (of 511)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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skull]; [and thereon] expressed by the triple form, i.e., [the three
forms which are respectively,] the manifest form, the main form,
and the unmanifest form; the abode (dhÄma), i.e., the deity,
designated by the root formula; having written, i.e., having
praised; he, [i.e., the adept] who [worships (pūjyayet, i.e.,]
continually worships (arcati), subjugates even the quardians of the
directions.
He clarifies this [procedure] with respect to the [formula] pattern,
with a pair of verses (Å›lokÄá¸�) [in normal meter]:
And for that sage who therein completely worships the abode
[expressed by the] triple form, the manifest-unmanifest, the
manifest, and the unmanifest, /28/
[103] in the manifesting of the [formula] body of the king of
the mountain, the triple power is produced, /29/
completely, for the most determined king of the mountain.
Therein, i.e., on the skull of the man mounted on the trident; for
the king of the mountain, i.e., according to the encrypted
language, the lord of adepts.
Here he states the subjugation realized by a specific oblation of
substances:
After combining red sandal powder, rÄjikÄ, salt, /30/
and dust from the foot of the one to be effected, he should
grind [it] up, repeating the lord Svacchanda�, and rubbing
together both hands;/31/
he should [then] oblate the powder in a funeral pyre, or in
the fire of a caṇá¸Älaá¸�, [104] [and] facing the one to be
effected, he should carry out this procedure;/32/
then, when he repeats a hundred times, he [forcibly]
attracts the king.
Dust from the foot, i.e., to be taken from the right foot of a
man, and the left of a woman; after he has uttered the
[Svacchanda�, i.e.,] the Praṇava�, the lord without parts, ending
with nama�, [then] the formula, ending with the modified
pattern, let N.N. be subjugated to me, svÄhÄ, should be employed
