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 98 of: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
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92
he supplements and contextualizes the statements of
Svacchandatantram by cross-references in a way suggesting that
the passage of the text and its ancillary tradition had not been
preserved. 1
This reclamation of the text, especially of its Bhairava
sections, which had induced apologetic exegesis from the other
commentators, apparently had its limits, however, even for
K峁mar膩ja岣�. His perfunctory and abbreviated remarks on some of
these sections reflect the distance that also separated him from the
circles where these elements of Svacchandatantram.had originated
and thrived. These circles evidently cultivated, transmitted, and
promulgated direct, self-contained practices that promised liberation
(mukti岣�) and enjoyment (bhukti岣�) or specific powers (siddhi岣�). As
noted, Svacchandatantram has retained these rites, often now
embedded in larger structures, but still echoing these self-laudatory
assertions of efficacy. For the later Siddh膩ntins the entire concept
of enjoyments and powers had fallen into disrepute and disuse
along with the initiatory category of the adept sadhaka岣�. And
even for K峁mar膩ja岣�, though these allegedly abrupt magical rites
formed an integral part of his antecedent tradition, those
promising malevolent powers required moral and mystical
reinterpretation. 2
1 For an example of a passage requiring extensive
supplementary explanation v. bk.5, pp. 21-23. Here, in the course of
describing the master's construction of a ritual diagram,
Svacchandatantram provides only the briefest instructions about its
doors, which K峁mar膩ja岣� then must elaborate by citing two other
texts, the Lak峁ikaul膩r峁嘺va岣� and Par膩 and a pair of general verses
received through tradition ("guruparamparye峁嚹亂膩tam"). As if
offering an apologetic for his procedure, he notes that in these cases,
the procedure stated in other texts and in other parts of
Svacchandatantram should be followed in order to carry out the
necessary operation.
2 V. bk.6, pp. 164. After commenting upon a series of such
rites, K峁mar膩ja岣� concludes with the summary qualification that
