Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume II Part 31

[Footnote 693: But the Brahmans of isolated localities, like Satara in the Bombay Presidency, are said to be Saktas and the Kan~culiyas of S.

India are described as a Saktist sect.]

[Footnote 694: The law-giver Baudhayana seems to have regarded An?ga and Van?ga with suspicion, I. 1.13, 14.]

[Footnote 695: See especially the story of Manasa Devi in Dinesh Chandra Sen (_Beng. Lang. and Lit_. 257), who says the earliest literary version dates from the twelfth century. But doubtless the story is much older.]

[Footnote 696: Viratap. chap. VI. (not in all MSS.). Bhishmap. chap.

XXIII. Also in the Harivam?sa, _vv._ 3236 ff. Pargiter considers that the Devi-Mahatmya was probably composed in the fifth or sixth century.

Chap. XXI. of the Lotus Sutra contains a spell invoking a G.o.ddess under many names. Though this chapter is an addition to the original work, it was translated into Chinese between 265 and 316.]

[Footnote 697: But he does mention the wors.h.i.+p of the Divine Mothers.

Harshacar. VII. 250 and Kadamb. 134.]

[Footnote 698: Hymns to the Devi are also attributed to him but I do not know what evidence there is for his authors.h.i.+p.]

[Footnote 699: As pointed out elsewhere, though this word is most commonly used of the Sakta scriptures it is not restricted to them and we hear of both Buddhist and Vaishn?ava Tantras.]

[Footnote 700: The Adhyatma Ramayan?a is an instance of Saktist ideas in another theological setting. It is a Vishnuite work but Sita is made to say that she is _Prakr?iti_ who does all the deeds related in the poem, whereas Rama is _Purusha_, inactive and a witness of her deeds.]

[Footnote 701: XI. iii. 47-8; XI. V. 28 and 31. Probably Vishnuite not Saktist Tantras are meant but the Purana distinguishes between Vedic revelation meant for previous ages and tantric revelation meant for the present day. So too Kulluka Bhat?t?a the commentator on Manu who was a Bengali and probably lived in the fifteenth century says (on Manu II. i.) that Sruti is twofold, Vedic and tantric. _Srutisca dvividha vaidiki tantrikica._]

[Footnote 702: II. 15.]

[Footnote 703: See for full list Avalon, _Principles of Tantra_, pp.

lxv-lxvii. A collection of thirty-seven Tantras has been published at Calcutta by Babu Rasik Mohun Chatterjee and a few have been published separately.]

[Footnote 704: Translated by Avalon, 1913, also by Manmatha Nath Dutt, 1900.]

[Footnote 705: a.n.a.lysed in _J.A.O.S._ XXIII. i. 1902.]

[Footnote 706: Edited by Taranatha Vidyaratna, with introduction by A.

Avalon, 1917.]

[Footnote 707: See Avalon, _Principles of Tantra_, p. lxi. But these are probably special meanings attached to the words by tantric schools. _Nigama_ is found pretty frequently, _e.g._ Manu, IV. 19 and Lalita-vistara, XII. But it is not likely that it is used there in this special sense.]

[Footnote 708: Edited by Avalon, 1914.]

[Footnote 709: Satirical descriptions of Saktism are fairly ancient, _e.g._ Karpura Manjari, Harvard edition, pp. 25 and 233.]

[Footnote 710: Tantrism has some a.n.a.logy to the Feng-shui or geomancy of the Chinese. Both take ancient superst.i.tions which seem incompatible with science and systematize them into pseudo-sciences, remaining blind to the fact that the subject-matter is wholly imaginary.]

[Footnote 711: For what follows as for much else in this chapter, I am indebted to Avalon's translation of the Mahanirvan?a Tantra and introduction.]

[Footnote 712: Pasu-, vira-, divya-bhava.]

[Footnote 713: Avalon, Mahan. Tan. pp. lxxix, lx.x.x.]

[Footnote 714: "The eternal rhythm of Divine Breath is outwards from spirit to matter and inwards from matter to spirit. Devi as Maya evolves the world. As Mahamaya she recalls it to herself.... Each of these movements is divine. Enjoyment and liberation are each her gifts." Avalon, Mahan. Tan. p. cxl.]

[Footnote 715: Yair eva patanam dravyaih siddhis tair eva codita--Kularn?ava Tantra, V. 48. There is probably something similar in Taoism. See Wieger, _Histoire des Croyances religieuses en Chine_, p. 409. The Indian Tantrists were aware of the dangers of their system and said it was as difficult as walking on the edge of a sword or holding a tiger.]

[Footnote 716: Vamacara is said not to mean left-hand wors.h.i.+p but woman (vama) wors.h.i.+p. This interpretation of Daks.h.i.+n?a and Vamacara is probably fanciful.]

[Footnote 717: Sometimes two extra stages Aghora and Yogacara are inserted here.]

[Footnote 718: Mahan. Tan. X. 108. A Kaula may pretend to be a Vaishn?ava or a Saiva.]

[Footnote 719: Although the Tantras occasionally say that mere ritual is not sufficient for the highest religions, yet _indispensable preliminary_ is often understood as meaning _sure means_. Thus the Mahanirvan?a Tantra (X. 202, Avalon's transl.) says "Those who wors.h.i.+p the Kaulas with _panca tattva_ and with heart uplifted, cause the salvation of their ancestors and themselves attain the highest end."]

[Footnote 720: But on the other hand some Tantras or tantric treatises recommend crazy abominations.]

[Footnote 721: Mahanir. Tant. X. 79. Bhartra saha kulesani na dahet kulakaminim.]

[Footnote 722: _Ib._ XI. 67.]

[Footnote 723: _E.g._ It does not prescribe human sacrifices and counsels moderation in the use of wine and _maithuna._]

[Footnote 724: See Frazer's _Adonis, Attis and Osiris_, pp. 269-273 for these and other stories of dismemberment.]

[Footnote 725: See Frazer, _Golden Bough: Spirits of the Corn_, vol.

I. 245 and authorities quoted.]

[Footnote 726: Images representing this are common in a.s.sam.]

[Footnote 727: Hsuan Chuang (Walters, vol. I. chap. VII) mentions several sacred places in N.W. India where the Buddha in a previous birth was dismembered or gave his flesh to feed mankind. Can these places have been similar to the piths of a.s.sam and were the original heroes of the legend deities who were dismembered like Sati and subsequently accommodated to Buddhist theology as Bodhisattvas?]

[Footnote 728: It is an autumnal festival. A special image of the G.o.ddess is made which is wors.h.i.+pped for nine days and then thrown into the river. For an account of the festival which makes its tantric character very clear see Durga Puja by Pratapachandra Ghosha, Calcutta, 1871.]

[Footnote 729: One explanation given is that she was so elated with her victories over giants that she began to dance which shook the Universe. Siva in order to save the world placed himself beneath her feet and when she saw she was trampling on her husband, she stopped.

But there are other explanations.

Another of the strangely barbaric legends which cl.u.s.ter round the Sakti is ill.u.s.trated by the figure called Chinnamast?aka. It represents the G.o.ddess as carrying her own head which she has just cut off, while from the neck spout fountains of blood which are drunk by her attendants and by the severed head itself.]

[Footnote 730: Yet the English mystic Julian, the anch.o.r.ess of Norwich (c. 1400), insists on the motherhood as well as the fatherhood of G.o.d.

"G.o.d is our mother, brother and Saviour." "As verily G.o.d is our father, so verily G.o.d is our mother."

So too in an inscription found at Capua (C.I.N. 3580) Isis is addressed as _una quae es omnia_.

The Power addressed in Swinburne's poems _Mater Triumphalis, Hertha, The Pilgrims_ and _Dolores_ is really a conception very similar to Sakti.]

[Footnote 731: These ideas find frequent expression in the works of Bunkim Chandra Chatterjee, Dinesh Chandra Sen and Sister Nivedita.]

[Footnote 732: See Dinesh Chandra Sen, _Hist. Beng. Lang, and Lit_.

pp. 712-721. Even the iconoclast Devendranath Tagore speaks of the Universal Mother. See _Autobiog._ p. 240.]

[Footnote 733: So I was told, but I saw only six, when I visited the place in 1910.]

[Footnote 734: Rudhiradhyaya. Translated in _As. Researches_, V. 1798, pp. 371-391.]