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[Full title: Svacchandatantra, chapter 11 (Summary) part 2: The Maintenance and Reabsorption of the Planes]

After announcing the end of the stated topic of the book, the emanation of the universe, dialogue then (p. 114) introduces as new topics, the maintenance (sthitih) and the reabsorption (samharah) of the universe. Maintaining or reabsorbing the universe, Kshemaraja explains, depends upon the principles of Kalah or time, and Niyatih, or restriction. Accordingly, the text begins by exhaustively enumerating the standard divisions of time, (pp. 114-126) from an instant (ksanah) to a day of Brahma. 2 Following well established tradition, the text then (pp. 126-134) connects these measures to maintenance and reabsorption. A day of Brahma, it declares, equals the duration of the seven underworlds and seven worlds. At the beginning of a night of Brahma, when he falls asleep, there commences the reabsorption of his sphere. Seeing him asleep, Kalagnih, the rudrah at the base of the underworld, emits a monstrous flame from his right face that burns through the underworlds up to Svarlokah. * anuvadabhangya 鈽� 1 V. his commentary, p.110: upsamharan sivajnanamahatmyam eva adhikavapena 2 The text here defines the ksanah or instant, which designates the shortest measured duration, as one-eighth of the nimesah, the length of the blinking of an eye. For other comprehensive lists of the standard units of time up to the lifespan of Brahma, similar to that of Svacchandatantram, cf., for example, Bhagavatapuranam, III, 11, in Sastri, et al., eds., Srimadbhagavatapuranam 3, 4: 395 ff, and Sivapuranam, "Vayaviyasamhita, purvabhagah," 8, in Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, publisher, Srisivamahapuranam (Bombay: Shri Venkateshwar Press, n.d.), pp.510 ff.

325 The smoke from this fire also rises and destroys Maharlokah, Janalokah, and Taparlokah, and renders the inhabitants in Brahma's own world, Satyalokah, unconscious. Exhaling in his sleep, Brahma blows away the ashes of these burnt up worlds, and sweating from the heat, he inundates his desolate sphere until it becomes a gigantic ocean. The souls remain submerged there, with their activity suspended but their latent impressions that will necessitate future experiences intact, until the dawn of a new day of Brahma. When Brahma awakes, in order that these souls can undergo their preset experiences, he re-emanates the worlds, and fills them with a new set of existents structured according to the same pattern of constituents as the previous emanation. After describing the process of reabsorption and re-emanation in the egg of Brahma, the text continues (pp. 134-140) the enumeration of temporal measures. The day and night in each nychthemeron of Brahma have equal duration, and each of his years has three hundred and sixty of these nychthemera. In order to ease the burden of calculating such large numbers, the text introduces the godly (daivika-) year, which equals three hundred and sixty normal (laukika-) years. The text then calculates the length of a mahakalpah, or the hundred years which constitute the lifespan of Brahma, in both measures, and to ensure their comprehension includes a short aside naming and defining the place value of the numbers from one to ten to the eighteenth power (parardham).1 After these calculations, the text continues (pp. 139-141) describing the sequence of reabsorption. At the end of a mahakalpah, Brahma becomes reabsorbed in the next higher 1 His lifespan equals by Ksemaraja's calculation, written in numerals in his commentary, 870,912,000,000 godly years.

326 regent, Visnuh, whose day equals Brahma's lifespan. 2 The pattern of reabsorption repeats itself with the same temporal proportions for Visnuh, who becomes reabsorbed after a hundred of his years. in the next higher regent Rudrah, whose day equals Visnu's lifespan. Each regent, in turn, re-emanates the regent below him at the end of his own night. Then there follows a short digression (pp. 141-143) explaining that these processes actually operate through the conation (iccha) of Shiva embodied in his undivided power (saktih), which divides herself in lower manifestations as powers such as Vaisnavi, in order that the corresponding regents, such as Visnuh, can exercise their functions of maintenance and reabsorption. After this parenthetical Saiva theologizing of the cosmic cycles, the text directly picks up (pp. 144-147) the interrupted sequence of reabsorption. According to the pattern already established, Rudrah becomes reaborbed in the hundred rudrah. When their lifespan ends, then the egg of Brahma, celebrated as the support of multiform existents, itself dissolves into the surrounding water. At the same time, Kalagnirudrah becomes reabsorbed into the plane of time. The mention of time then leads 2 Describing the end of a mahakalpah (p.139, vs. 264 a), the text says simply that Brahma dissolves in the next (pare) level ("mahakalpasya paryante brahma yati pare layam"). This would appear to indicate, according to the accepted view in which each successively higher plane pervades and includes the one beneath it, that Brahma would be reabsorbed in the next higher level of Visnuh. Later on, however, when describing the dissolution of Rudrah (p.144, vs. 274 a), the text says that when dissolved he goes to the highest (param) place and becomes the lord without parts (niskalah) ("so 'pi yati param sthanam yadgatva niskalo bhavet"). Recognizing the text's conflicting use of para-, Kshemaraja explains both senses as possible outcomes of dissolution, dependent upon whether or not the regent has received divine grace. (V. his commentary, p.140: "avrttaparasaktipatah pare iti sapeksataya prakrste samanantare karane liyate vrttaparasaktipatastu paramasive .*).

327 to short aside (pp. 147-149) that sets out the regents in charge of the reabsorption of the planes. The supreme lord, who is time, the text declares, controls the main phases of reabsorption through his manifestation as the triad of rudrah, specified by Kshemaraja as: Kalagnirudrah, already described, who rules over the reabsorbing of earth; Anantah, in the form of the Kalarupi, who rules over the reabsorbing of the planes from water to Maya; and finally, Mahesvarah, himself, who rules over the reabsorbing of the pure planes that end in the power. After this second parenthetical assertion of Siva's control over the dissolution of the universe, the text describes (pp. 149-156) the next major phase in the sequence of reabsorption. At the end of his hundred year lifespan, Amaresah, the regent of water, becomes reabsorbed into the next plane fire. Each day of the regent of fire, Kshemaraja explains, equals as before, the lifespan of the lower regent of water. The text then generally declares that the reabsorption of the rest of the elements, sensory media, organs, ego, and intellect occurs in the same pattern and with the same proportional measures of time, up to the level of matter. In matter these planes all lie dissolved in an ungraspable, subtle, isolated atomic state. Continuing its description of the unmanifest (avyakta-), viz., matter in its unmanifest state, the text mentions the range of creatures, such as the ancestors (pitarah), manifest sounds, such as the Pranavah, sect adherents, such as of the Samkhyam, and deities, such as of the intellect, which it has reabsorbed. 1 Over this realm, the text adds, presides, as supreme lord (paramesah) and leader of the universe (visvanayakah), Srikanthah, whose lifespan equals that of thirty-six thousand manifestations of 1 V. p. 153, vss.289-290: *prajah prajanam patayah pitaro manavaih saha /sankhyajnanena ye siddhah vedena brahmavadinah // chandah samani conkaro buddhistaddevatah priye ahni tisthanti te sarve paramesasya dhimatah. "

328 Brahma. Kshemaraja explains that this Brahma refers to the rudrah who rules over the plane of the intellect immediately below. Ksemaraja's remarks point to an earlier identification of the intellect with Brahma as the regent of the egg of Brahma. Supporting this supposition, the text's description cited above of what has been dissolved into the unmanifest or Prakrtih reads as if a description of the dissolution of the egg of Brahma.1 Accordingly, many Puranic accounts of cosmogony identify Brahma as the intellect, and the egg of Brahma as the first manifestation of Prakrtih that contains all its manifest planes. 2 In its theistic varieties, these cosmogonies may have the supreme lord as the twenty-sixth principle, outside of the egg of Brahma and beyond Prakrtih, just as the verses here designate the regent rudrah, Srikanthah. 3 This would also parallel the declaration in the preceding book that locates Srikanthah above the world of Brahma. 4 These verses in Svacchandatantram, therefore, still 1 As a reflection of this identification, in the preceding book (pp. 397 ff, vs. 968) Brahma, residing at the plane of the intellect, emanates the various matrices of existence. 2 V. Agrawala, The Matsya Purana- A Study, pp.5 ff, for the many variants of the basic cosmogonic myth of the universe as a golden egg (andam) associated with Brahma. 3 on the twenty-sixth principle as the supreme lord beyond the twenty-five principles up to Purusah, v., for example, the Mahabharata, "Moksadharmaparvan" 12, 306, vss.52-79 (pp.1692- 1696). 4 In the preceding book (p.426), Srikantha's world lies above Brahma, in the plane of the intellect, but not in the plane of the person. As explained by Kshemaraja (p.155), twenty-six refers to Srikantha's location here at the plane of Purusah, above the twentyfive preceding planes that by counting the constituents as a separate plane end at Prakrtih. This would also explain his subsequent (p.156) identification with the planes of the jacket (kancukam) that function to restrict, as explained before, the consciousness to a limited person

329 apparently echo the context of an earlier and simpler cosmogony. The incomplete adaptation of this earlier account into the later Saiva schema thus required adjusting commentary by Kshemaraja. In particular, as another sign of an earlier context, the text apparently describes the process of reabsorption of the planes from water to matter, in a linear, vertical sequence; the element water, for example, dissolves into fire, fire into air, and so forth, and then the elements into their originating sensory media. Kshemaraja, in contrast, reads these verses to conform with the standard cumulative sequence of emanation or reabsorption; there the earth dissolves into five sensory media, water into four, and so forth. 1 After discussing the second major phase of reabsorption, which occurs in Prakrtih, and which Kshemaraja calls the intermediate dissolution, the text describes (pp. 156-160) the next phase which covers the planes up to Maya. In this phase, Srikanthah, and all the rest of the planes of the jacket become reabsored into the plane of Maya. This reabsorption, Kshemaraja notes, occurs simultaneously; the hierarchical sequence described by the previous book applies only to their location in space, and not to their temporal manifestation. 2 The text characterizes Maya, as the root matter (mulaprakrtih) of the universe, and the regent of Maya, as the cave lord (gahanesah), referring to Anantesah who presides over the lower universe from the central cave or (purusah). The text, however, does not refer to the constituents, nor explicitly refer to the plane of the person. 1 V. pp. 150-151, vss. 284 b-285: "apastejasi liyante tattejascanile punah // tathanilo 'mbaram prapya saha tenaiva liyate tanmatresu praliyante yathotpannani ca kramat. "On the historical relationship and development of these two different sequences, v. Erich Frauwallner, "Zur Elementenlehre des Samkhya," Erich Frauwallner Kleine Schriften, hrsg. Gerhard Oberhammer und Ernst Steinkellner, Glasenapp-Stiftung 22 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982), pp. 140-144. 2 V. his commentary, p. 157: "srstirapi yugapadeva ukta."

330 world matrix in the plane of Maya. 1 As previously, the passing of his day signals the dissolution of the lower universe. The relation between his lifespan and those of the planes below him, however, does not follow the previously established pattern in which each day of the higher regent equals the lifespan of the lower. Instead, as interpreted by Kshemaraja, the text declares that each day of Maya lasts not as long as the lifespan of the preceding plane but ten parardhani as long. 2 These increased proportions also apply to the duration of the higher planes discussed in the next section (pp. 160-165). Thus the text declares that a day of Isvarah lasts a hundred parardhani as long as the lifespan Maya, and a day of Sadasivah a hundred parardhani as long as the lifespan of Isvarah. Kshemaraja, however, understands the plane of Vidya, to be implied between Maya and Isvarah; this interpretation would then maintain the increase by factors of ten parardhani up to Sadasivah. As fitting for the great duration of time indicated, a verse calls the dissolution that occurs in between two days of Sadasivah, the great dissolution (mahapralayah). At this point, the text briefly enumerates the upper planes as if enumerating the higher progressions in the meditative formula ascent. The great body of the five formula, i.e., according to Kshemaraja the lower, gross Sadasivah, dissolves in Binduh. Then, the formula, after splitting Binduh, Ardhacandrah, and Nirodhika, dissolves in Nadah, and finally piercing through the 1 Cf. section II.10.5 for the summary of bk.10, pp.470 ff. 2 Cf. the preceding discussion of pp.138-139 for these numbers. Dropping the equivalence between day and lifespan disrupts the coordination between emanation and reabsorption of the the lower regent and day and night of the higher regent. The text does not explain, for example, whether or not reabsorption of the lower regent still occurs when the lifespan of the lower regent runs out and the upper is still experiencing his day.

331 aperture of Brahma, dissolves in the plane of Saktih. As before, Kshemaraja coordinates these formula stages with planes, and supplies their duration. Binduh, Ardhacandrah, and Nirodhika represent stages in the plane of the lower Sadasivah, and the day of each last a hundred parardhani times the lifespan of the preceding. Nadah represents the higher Sadasivah, and the mention of the middle channel Kshemaraja interprets as indicating the stages of Susumna, and so forth, discussed in the preceding book. 1 Their day he indicates to be increased in the proportions stated for the preceding. A verse then indicates the lifespan of Saktih, however, to be a parardham. Kshemaraja interprets this to indicate not a single parardham but a parardham of parardhani which he adds constitutes an extremely large number. This corresponds, he notes, to the intent of the text, where in the preceding book the spatial dimensions of the higher worlds grew at exponential rates. In ascending sequence above Saktih comes the set of regents in the plane of Shiva, Vyapi, Vyomarupah, Anantah, Anathah, and Anasritah. Kshemaraja explains the text's brief remarks on the duration of Anasritah as indicating that his day lasts a crore of parardhani times the life of Saktih, and that his life lasts a parardham of parardhani of such days. Z After noting the duration of Anasritah, the text describes (pp. 165-172) the highest Shiva. In contrast to the previous planes subject to time through emanation, maintenance, and reabsorption, Shiva is time (kalah) itself, since he articulates (kalayati) the entire universe from Vyapini to earth, with different temporal units (kala). Continuing this word play, 1 V. bk. 10, pp.530 ff. 2 Neither the text nor Kshemaraja here discuss the duration of the other regents, Vyapi, and so forth, or their relation to Anasritah. They may then be presumed to be coextensive with him.

332 following verses characterize his own nature as untouched by time (kalavarjitah), inarticulable (na kalyah), the lord devoid of articulations (niskalah), where time is not found. 1 The text then declares that when as universal agent (sarvakarta) Shiva emanates and reabsorbs the universe, he does so without desire (akamat) and without any change in his own nature. Dialogue then has the goddess explicitly place the question, which Kshemaraja saw answered in the beginning verses of the book. 2 As interpreted by Kshemaraja, she asks: since all actions (kriya) by an agent are preceded by a desire or intention (sankalpah), then how can Shiva, perfect and without desire, and therefore without action, emanate the universe. 3 The text responds in its perferred manner of teaching, not with a formal argument, but rather with a pair of similes. The first compares Shiva to the sun, and his power (saktih) to the sun-stone; just as the sun produces fire from the sun-stone, without any intention as a consequence of their innate nature, so Shiva moves his power to manifest the universe. The second compares Shiva to time and his power to a tree; just as a tree, through the passing of time, brings forth its sprout, so Shiva induces his power to manifest the universe. As Kshemaraja recognizes, however, these similes are 1 V. p. 167, vss.310 b-312: 'sa cadhah kalayetsarvam vyapinyadim dharavadhim // tutyadibhih kalabhisca devyadhvanam caracaram/urdhvamunmanaso yacca tatra kalo na vidyate // na kalyah kalyate kascinniskalah kalavarjitah / yah sankaryunmanatitah sa nityo vyapako 'vyayah." 2 Cf. Ksemaraja's commentary on vss.3 b-4 a of this book (p.4), which also state that Shiva acts without desire (akamat). 3 V. p. 170, vs.396, and commentary: "akamasya kriya nasti niskriyasca srjetkatham/etam prasnavaram guhyam kathaya sva prasadatah' sarva gamanapacanadikriya sankalpapurva sankalpasca cidanandaghane bhagavati nestah tatkathamakriyasya srastrtvam athaca citprakasatmakaparamesvarasvarupavyatiriktasya anyasya sattvameva na ghatate kimanga kartrtvam."

333 not entirely approriate for illustrating the theology of non-dualism. Extending the comparison too far, he notes, would imply that Shiva and Saktih are unconscious or separate like the sun and sun stone. 1 Thus, if these verses illustrating the action of Shiva represent a later addition to this book on the planes, then the reservations expressed by Kshemaraja on their aptness, suggest that they were not appended by redactors in his own non-dual tradition. 1 V. his commentary, p. 171: "natu jadyam bhinnatvam ca darstantike sankaniyam drstantadarstantikayoh sarvasadharmyayogat. "