Gavin Flood - Bhutashudhi

8/3/2019 Gavin Flood - Bhutashudhi

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GAVIN FLOOD

THE PURIFICATION OF THE BODY INTANTRIC RITUAL REPRESENTATION1

The purification of the elements in the body, the bhutasuddhi ordehasuddhi, is an important part of the tantric practitioners sequence ofdaily rites. Indeed, if any practice is characteristic of tantric traditions it isthe bhutasuddhi. It signifies the destruction of the impure, material bodythrough the absorption of the elements within it, which is followed bythe creation of a divine body through the imposition of mantras (nyasa),mental or internal worship (antara-/manasayaga), and external worship(bahyayaga). One of the interesting issues in the study of the bhutasuddhi,and of tantric ritual in general, is the relation between its representation inthe texts, actual ritual performance, and theology or doctrine. Assuming adistinction between ritual performance and its textual representation, thepresent paper will firstly examine with reference to the bhutasuddhi, theclaim that tantric traditions share a common ritual substrate. This claim ofritual invariance in the face of theological divergence has been made by anumber of scholars, most notably by Alexis Sanderson,2 Andr Padoux3

and Hlne Brunner,4 and the present study supports this general claimthrough examining the bhutasuddhi in the Jayakhya-samhit a, but also with

reference to the Isanasivagurudevapaddhati. Secondly, I shall examinethe language of ritual description in these accounts of the bhutasuddhi,showing how a pragmatic analysis throws light on the relation of thePacaratra reader to the text and has implications for the nature ofself-identity implicit within them. That is, the language of the texts allowsfor the identification of the reader with the subject matter while at thesame time maintaining an impersonal voice concordant with the presenta-tion of these texts as revelation. This kind of mechanism ensures culturalreplication through the generations.

TEXTUAL SOURCES OF THE BHUTA SUDDHI

The origins of the bhutasuddhi practice are unclear. One of its earliestand most elaborate representations is in the Jayakhya-samhit a (JS), aPacaratra text quoted by the Kasmr author Utpalacarya (c. 925975 c.e.)

Indo-Iranian Journal 45: 2543, 2002. 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.


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and so predating him.5 The purification of the elements is also found inBuddhist Vajrayana ritual, although the Anuttarayoga Tantras are them-selves derived from Saiva prototypes.6 The roots of the bhutasuddhi may,

however, be much older. There are arguably two sources here. Firstlythere are offerings made into the sacrificial fire in vedic ritual, alongwith early cosmological speculation of Samkhyan and proto-Samkhyanmetaphysics. For example, the Br. had aran. yaka-upanis. addescribes makingofferings of ghee into the sacred fire to the earth, atmosphere and sky, 7

although making offerings to the sequence of elements does not occur. Thegeneral idea of the identification of the body with the cosmos is, of course,ancient with textual antecedents in the Veda.8 Secondly its origins mayarguably be found in early Buddhist meditation traditions with the kr. tsna-

/kasin. ayatana exercises and the cultivation of the meditative sign (nimitta)that leads into meditative absorption (jhana). Indeed, it is possibly herethat we find the origins of the visualization methods that were to become

so important in the tantric traditions, both Hindu and Buddhist. Thekasin. ayatana are ten among forty objects of meditation (kammat.t.hana)described in Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga,9 although they also occur inthe Pali canon itself.10 The kasin. as comprise the five elements and fivecolours,11 focussing upon which leads into the levels of meditation (jhana).For example, the earth kasin. a is a clay disc, an object of concentrationthat becomes internalised. In this way the kasin. a is akin to the internallyarising sign (nimitta), like an afterimage, which leads into jhana.12 Tracesof these practices can perhaps be found in the bhutasuddhi, particularlyin the visualization of the vajra, possibly a disc of light that occurs in thesequence of purifying the earth element.

In a Hindu context, the bhutasuddhis earliest occurrences are inthe JS and the Saiva K amik agama.13 There is a passage in the Netra-tantra, a Saiva text, which mentions the five elements in connectionwith the pots required for consecration (abhis. eka) of the acarya andsadhaka, although no ritual details are given.14 In Saiva Siddhanta astandard source for the bhutasuddhi is the Somasambhupaddhati (SSP),itself based on the K amik agama and the Acintyavisvasar akhya which,Brunner-Lachaux observes, in places Somasambhu follows line by line.15

The Isanasivagurudevapaddhati (ISP) follows the Somasambhupaddhati(11th cent.) as does the Aghorasivacaryapaddhati (12th cent.). The termbhutasuddhi also occurs in other Saiddhantika treatises, including a textcalled the Bhutasuddhi.16 Later the bhutasuddhi is found in Ayurvedic

practices within the regime of cleansing the bodys impurities.17 Todemonstrate a common structure in the bhutasuddhi rite, upon which are


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THE PURIFICATION OF THE BODY IN TANTRIC RITUAL REPRESENTATION 27

established divergent sectarian theologies, I shall take examples from theJS and ISP.

THE BHUTA SUDDHIIN THE TANTRIC REVELATION

The Pacaratra and Saiva Siddhanta traditions maintained distinct revela-tions, each regarding the other as either heretical, in the former case, oras a lower level of revelation, in the latter case. In defending the revealedstatus of the Pacaratra Samhitas, largely against its orthodox detractors,Yamuna argues that although they share the name oftantra, the Pacaratrais revelation (sruti), whereas the Saiva Tantras are not and were promul-gated by Siva to deceive the world.18 Similarly Saiva theologians, bothfrom the dualist Saiva Siddhanta and the non-Saiddhantika traditions,regarded only certain Saiva Tantras as the highest revelation and rele-

gated the Pacaratra texts to a lower level. The Saiddhantika Ramakan. t.hamaintains that the Pacaratra only reaches the level of prakr. ti and thatthe supreme Pacaratra deity, Narayan. a, is identified with this level,

19 asdoes the monist Ks.emaraja.

20 Yet in spite of the professed divergence ofthe Saiva and Pacaratra systems and the desire of their protagonists todistance their traditions from each other, there is a high degree of overlap,not only in terms of theology, but especially at the level of ritual repre-sentation. This similarity of ritual process in our texts points to a ritualsubstrate common to the theologically distinct Pacaratra and Saiva tradi-tions. Although ritual contents in terms of mantras and deities vary, thesequence of daily and occasional rites cuts across sectarian distinctionsand points to an almost independent life of ritual representation in thesetexts.

Part of this textually represented ritual substrate are various hierarch-ical cosmologies such as the six ways (s. ad. adhvan), which are parallelritual courses through the cosmos inscribed on the body.21 These waysincorporate the cosmological categories (tattva) and their division into fiverealms (kala). In the Saiva system we have thirty-six tattvas, which addseleven Saiva ones to the twenty-five Samkhya ones, while the Pacaratraassumes only the Samkhya categories, although it has cosmological func-tions analogous to the higher Saiva ones. There is a common overallstructure here of a pure, mixed and impure creation, although for themonistic Trika Saivism, the broad distinction is between the pure and the

impure creations. While these cosmologies are theologically important as can be seen in Bhojadevas linking of higher beings to different levelsof the cosmos in the Tattvaprak asa22 their primary importance is asritual rather than theological entities; cosmology has a primarily ritual


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function in these traditions.23 This can be illustrated particularly well inthe bhutasuddhi sequence where the cosmos is mapped onto the body anddissolved, as the lower levels of the cosmos are dissolved into the higher

during the cosmic dissolution (pralaya). The terminology here is that of thetattvas of Samkhya in which the gross elements (bhuta) which comprisethe physical world, are dissolved into the subtle elements ( tanmatra)which are their source. The purification of the body through dissolving itsconstituent elements into their cause, would seem to be a characteristicallytantric practice as its absence from Vaikhanasa ritual manuals indicates.24

Within all tantric or agamic ritual, visualization of ritual action anddeities is of central importance in daily and occasional rites, and in boththe Pacaratra and the Saiva Siddhanta to perform a visualization is toperform a mental action which has soteriological effects. Once initiated,the Saiva or Vais.n. ava adept into these cults was expected to perform oblig-atory daily worship. For the Pacaratrin, according to Gupta, this involved

the five obligatory acts adopted from vedic orthopraxy, characterised byGupta as the recitation ofstotras (brahmayaja), daily liturgy (devayaja),making offerings to malevolent supernatural beings (bhutayaja), makingofferings to the ancestors (pitr.yaja) and the feeding of (Vais.n. ava) guests(nr.yaja).

25 The Saiddhantika similarly follows the orthoprax injunctionsof the Dharmasastra, performing rites at the junctures (samdhya) of theday, particularly the puja at dawn (as do the Pacaratrins).26 The purposeof this daily ritual, apart from its being a sign of his adherence to thecult of his initiation, was to enable the devotee to eventually destroy thelimiting factors (mala) which constrain his soul (jva) within the cycleof reincarnation (samsara), and so to be ready for liberation (moks. a) by

receiving the grace of the Lord (Siva or Vis.n. u) at his death. In this sensethe Pacaratra and Saiva Siddhanta are very different from the monistic

traditions of non-Saiddhantika Saivism, as Sanderson has demonstrated.27

The JS describes four classes of disciple, the samayaja, putraka,sadhaka, and acarya,28 each having undergone a particular ablution(abhis. ekah. ) as part of his initiation (d ks. a).

29 Only the initiated Pacaratrinis authorised to perform the daily liturgical rites, the broad parameters ofwhich common to all tantric traditions are ablutions ( snanam), thepurification of the body (dehasuddhi or bhutasuddhi), the divinization ofthe body through the imposition of mantras upon it (nyasa), inner or mentalworship (antara-/manasayaga) performed purely in the imagination, andexternal worship (bahyayaga) with offerings of flowers, incense and so

on to the deity.30 Chapter 10 of the JS is devoted to bhutasuddhi and thespiritual ascent of the soul (jva) ready for the creation of the divinizedbody. Through symbolically destroying the physical or gross body, the


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adept can create a pure, divinized body (divyadeha) with which to offerworship to the deities of his system. He (the initiate in our texts is male)does this firstly only in imagination and secondly in the physical world, for

as in all tantric systems only a god can worship a god. The textual repre-sentation of the bhutasuddhi is set within a sequence in which the physicalor elemental body (bhautika sar ra) is purified and the soul ascends fromthe heart through the body, and analogously through the cosmos, to theLord Narayan. a located at the crown of the head. The text presents us witha detailed account of this process, which can be summarized as follows.

Going to a pure, unfrequented, but charming place, the adept offersobeisance to Hari, pays homage to the lineage of teachers (gurusantati),and having received the mental command (manas aja) from the Lordand lineage of teachers, he is ready to perform mental action (manasm.nirvahet. . . kriyam).31 The practitioner purifies his hands with the weapon(astra) mantra, and the place through visualising Vis.n. u like a thousand

suns, vomiting flames from his mouth, and the earth baked by the fireof mantra.32 In this process we see the construction of a ritual bodyin opposition to the genetic or biological body which, in its non-ritual state, is impure (malina), subject to decay (ks. ayin), not autonomous(asvatantra), and made from blood and semen (retoraktodbhava).33 Thenon-purified body is the opposite of the Lords body possessed of thesix qualities.34 The purification of the body entails the construction of theritual body; a process which had begun with bathing and which continueswith the selection of the place and the placing of a blade of sacred grass,flower or leaf in the tuft of hair with mantra.35 The symbolic destruction ofthe body takes place through dissolving the elements of the cosmos within

it. As in the final dissolution of the cosmos when each element or categoryretracts into its source, so in daily ritual this process is recapitulatedwithin the adepts body. The actual process occurs through linking togethersequences of syllables to form mantras associated with the elements, suchas the OM SLAM PR. THIVYAI HUM PHAT. corresponding to the earthelement, which are modified for each element, replacing the bjas SLAMwith S. VAM. , HYAM and KSMAM as necessary.

36 Each of the elementsis visualized in a certain way, associated with particular symbols, andas pervading a particular part of the body in a hierarchical sequence.Each element is in turn symbolically destroyed in the imagination throughbeing absorbed into its mantra and into the energies (saktayah. ) of thepowers (vibhavah. ) or subtle elements (tanmatr ah. ) which gave rise to it. For

example, the JS describes the purification of the earth element as follows:

turyasra m ptabha m bh umi m cintayed vajralacita m / sabdadyaih. pacabhir yukt a m

nagadrumasamakulam // puraprakarasusariddvp arn. avaparis. kr. tam / samvisant m


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smared bahyat puraken. a svavigrahe // proccaraya ms ca tan mantram visrantam atha

cintayet / janvoh. padatala m yavat taya vyapta m kramen. a tu // kumbhakena dvijasres. t.ha

mantramurtau svake tatoh. / sanaih. sanair layam yatam gandhasaktau ca mantrarat. //

gandhasakti m ca tam pascad recakena bahih. ks. ipet/

(The practitioner) should visualize a quadrangular, yellow earth, marked with thesign of thunder, connected with the five, sound etc. [i.e. sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa andgandha] and filled with trees and mountains, adorned with oceans, islands, good rivers andwalled towns. He should visualize (that earth) entering his own body from the outside withan inhaled breath, and uttering the mantra he should imagine it as tranquilized, pervadingin due order from the knees to the soles of the feet by means of the retained breath, Obest of twice born ones. Then, (he should visualize the earth) gradually dissolved in itsmantra-form, and this mantra-king dissolved in the energy of smell. After that he shouldemit the energy of smell with the exhaled breath.37

This process of inhaling the visualized element that pervades a particulararea of the body, dissolving it into its mantra, then into its subtle cause, and

exhaling it, is followed with the other elements. Having exhaled the energyof smell into the substratum of water, the water element is then imaginedas having the form of a half moon, marked by a lotus, and containing allaquatic media the oceans, rivers, the six flavors (rasas. ad. ka) and aquaticbeings. Inhaling the image, it pervades the adepts body from the thighs tothe knees and is dissolved into its mantra, then into the energy of taste(rasasakti) which he emits with the exhaled breath.38 The same processoccurs with the remaining elements. The triangle of fire containing all fieryand bright things, including beings at higher levels of the cosmos withself-luminous bodies (svaprak asasar ra), is inhaled, pervades the bodyfrom the navel to where the water element had begun, is dissolved into itsmantra, into the energy of form (r upasakti), and exhaled as before.39 Simil-arly the air element is inhaled, pervades from throat to navel and is exhaledas the energy of touch (sparsasakti).40 This merges into space (ak asa)which, in the same way, is inhaled, pervades to the aperture of the absolute(brahmarandhra), dissolves into its mantra, then into the energy of sound(sabdasakti), and is emitted through the aperture at the crown of the head(brahmarandhra).41 All this is accomplished by the power of the mantrasof the elements. Having left the body through the brahmarandhra, indi-vidualized consciousness (caitanya jvabhuta) has transcended the cageof the elements (bhutapajara) by rising through the upanis.adic stages ofspace, the stars, lightening, the sun and moon.42 In this way the soul (jva)ascends in imagination up the central channel (sus. umn. a) from the heart,

through the levels of the cosmos (pada), to the Lord at the crown of thehead. He is envisaged in his supreme body (paravigraha) as a mass of radi-ance (tejopuja) standing within a circle of light;43 a standard identificationof Narayan. a with the sun. The joy that arises is the supreme energy of


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Vis.n. u (par a vais. n. av sakti)44 and results in a state of higher consciousness

(samadhi) that is the ineffable freedom from ideation (sankalpanirmuktaavacya).45

Although enjoying this state of bliss, the process of purification isnot yet complete. Having transcended the subtle elements along with thegross body, the sadhaka should burn it with the fire arising from his feet,generated by the power of his mantra. All that remains is a pile of asheswhich are then washed away to the quarters in his imagination by theflood of milky water arising from his meditation.46 With the universe ofhis imagination now filled with the ocean of milk, a lotus emerges outof it containing Narayan. a, whose essence is his mantra, the truth of thesix paths.47 The sadhakas body, identified with Narayan. a, is purified,freed from old age and death and has the appearance of pure crystal andthe effulgence of a thousand suns and moons.48 Having created a puri-fied body in this way, his soul enters the inner lotus of this subtle body

(puryas. t.akakajantara) through the aperture of the absolute from which ithad earlier vacated its residence. With a calm awareness (prasannadh) theadept is ready to perform worship of the deity (yajed devam),49 that is,ready to perform the mental sacrifice (manasayaga) and external sacrifice(bahyayaga) described in the following chapters.

In the texts of the Saiva Siddhanta we find a similar process occur-ring. The SSP and ISG (which quotes the former), are separated fromthe JS by at least a couple of centuries and their origins are in differentparts of the sub-continent: the JS is probably from the Kashmir region, 50

Somasambhu was the abbot of a mat.ha in South India, himself in a lineageof compilers of ritual manuals,51 and the ISG is probably from Kerala.52

Considering the regional, temporal and cultic diversity of these texts, itis therefore very striking that such invariance occurs at the level of ritualrepresentation. There is of course, a clear line of development from theSSP to the ISG, as Isanasiva quotes the SSP and closely follows the textin ritual sequences such as the dehasuddhi, but there is no such clear lineof historical development from the JS into the Saiva material. It wouldtherefore seem likely, from an examination of the purification of the bodysequences in texts of diverse lineages, that we are looking at a commonritual substrate articulated within the spectrum of tantric traditions.

The ISG sequence uses the term dehasuddhi and follows the accountgiven in the SSP: the terms used are often identical and it seemsprobable that Isanasiva is following Somasambhus text. As in the JS,

self-purification (atmasodhanam) occurs through the purification of theelements (bhutasuddhi). After bathing, the adept (putraka) should go tothe place of worship (yagalaya), meditate upon the syllable HUM breaking


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the knots at the heart, throat, palate, between the eyes, and on the head,and visualize Siva at the crown of the head in the dvadasanta.53 The adeptshould meditate upon the cutting of the dark and filthy knots, which are

pierced with the exhaling of the breath to allow energy to flow in theesoteric channels (nad. ).54 He should imagine his soul (jva), identified

with the mantra HAMSA, in the pure lotus of the heart. By the force ofthe air (vayu) in the central channel he should lead the soul up to Sivalocated in the dvadasanta at the crown of the head, seated in the centre ofa lotus.55 The adept then meditates upon his own body as an inverted treewhose roots are in his head, pervaded by the thirty six tattvas, dissolvedin imagination, each into its cause.56 Then begins the description of thebhutasuddhi and we are back on territory familiar from the JS.

Although new elements have been introduced in the Saiva Siddhantascheme, namely the idea of purifying the body through breaking its knots(granthiprabheda), the terminology of the subtle channels (nad ), and the

use of thirty-six levels of the cosmos (tattva), there is nevertheless a signifi-cant degree of overlap with the JS. As regards the first stage in the processof purifying the earth element, the text reads:

bhuman. d. alam yac catura srapta m vajr ankitam gandhagun. am sasadyam /

ghran. endriya m tat kalay a nivr . ttya yuktam ca daivena caturmukhena / /

hlambjatah. purakakumbhakabhya m vy apta m tad a padatala m sirastah. / sodhya m

taduddmatakapacakat syad vayau pravis. t.am paribhavayec ca //

The image of the earth (bhuman. d. ala) is a yellow square, marked with the sign ofthunder bolt (vajra), whose quality is smell and associated with the Sadya mantra. Itis connected to the sense organ of smell, the nivr. tti-kala, and by the four-faced one(Brahma). With the filling and holding breaths, the seed syllable HLAM pervades (the

body) from the soles of the feet to the head. He should (repeat the seed) five times for thepurpose of purification, and he should (then) meditate upon it as entered into the air [i.e heexhales the earth element into the air element].57

As in the JS the earth diagram (pr. thivman. d. ala) is a golden square markedby a vajra and associated with the sense of smell, but unlike the JS it isassociated with the tattvas, with nivr. tti, one of the five regions (kala), andpervades the entire body, rather than from feet to knees. But this pattern isnot wholly consistent in the Saiva Siddhanta and the V amadevapaddhatifollows the JS model with the earth pervading from feet to knees. 58 Theother elements follow the same general pattern, using the same symbols(the crescent moon for water, a red triangle for fire marked with svastikas,air as a hexagonal form marked by six drops (bindu), and space assymbolized by a round crystal). As with the JS, the adept burns the body inimagination and then floods it with the water arising from his meditation in


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order to create a pure, divine body for worship. The text follows the samepattern as the SSP on which it heavily relies.

A general picture therefore emerges of the bhutasuddhi as a shared

ritual substrate that becomes identified with particularSaiva cosmolo-gies. On the one hand the actual visualization represented in the texts has

become minimalized, from the JSs elaborate visions of each element tothe ISGs formal representation. On the other, more elaborate cosmolo-gical overlays have occurred. Indeed, the system of the bhutasuddhi hasbecome identified with an independent system of the five knots along thecentral channel of a subtle anatomy, and the five elements have becomeassociated with the five faces of Sadasiva.59 We can therefore see herestrong continuity of ritual representation, although with later structuralelaboration. But I wish now to examine this element of structural invari-ance through a closer analysis of the kind of language used in these texts.Particularly, I wish to argue that the use of language allows for imagination

and the identification of the brahmanical reader of the text with the ritualprocesses prescribed. This identification is also the means whereby a textis reconstituted through the generations and the way in which its meaningis constructed through the interaction of the both the texts structures andcontent, and the reader.

GRAMMAR, METAPHOR AND INDEXICALITY

The verbs used for ritual meditation or visualization are from the roots smr.,dhya, bhu caus., and cint. The term smr. , to remember, is particularlyinteresting, having a wider semantic field than simply recalling some-thing past. Although this would need to be different study to sustain theclaim, it would seem that, along with these other terms, it here refers tothe construction of a mental image in the imagination.60 These verbs aregenerally used in the third person optative, apart from gerundives, which isall-pervasive in these texts and is nothing unusual. Let us take an exampleof each from the JS. They are as follows: (1) In the destruction of theearth element we read, (The practitioner) should visualize a quadrangular,yellow earth, marked with the sign of thunder (turyasr am pt abhambhumim cintayed vajralacit am);61 (2) at the completion of the dissolutionof the water element, with the inhaled breath he should bring to mind,O twice-born one, the body as its own sacred diagram, completely filled

with that (water element) (. . .

sar ram man. d. alam svakam / tenakhilamtu samvyaptam kumbhakena smared dvija);62 (3) in the dissolution of theair element he should meditate upon (the air element) pervading from thethroat to the place of the navel (akan. t.han nabhidesantam tena vyaptam


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tu bhavayet);63 and (4) in the destruction of the space element he shouldvisualize it (the space element) transformed in its own mantra (dhyayet

parin. atam . . . svamantre).64 Again, an example of the verbs used in the

ISG simply reinforce this usage: (5) he should lead (the soul) toSivalocated in the dvadasanta (tam dvadasantasthasivam nayet);65 and (6) he

should meditate by degrees the piercing of the knots (granthiprabhedamkramaso vidadhyat).66

In these examples the main verb is in the third person singular optative,a mood which, according to Pan. ini, is used in five senses to denote acommand (vidhi), a summons (nimantran. a), an invitation (amantran. a), arespectful command (adhs. t.a), a deliberation (samprasna), or a request(pr arthana).67 All of these senses have the implication of conditions;that the performance of certain actions will lead to certain future effects.Indeed, the optative implies action and its effects in future time, as itcannot refer to the past nor to the actualised present. As used here, the

optative corresponds to Pan. inis analysis in that the Pacaratrins reli-gious discipline (vrata) is a command from the lord (vidhi, as in youmust go to the village gr amam bhavan gacchet), and is also an invita-tion (amantran. a, as in do sit here iha bhavan asta) or request froman authoritative source (pr arthana, I would like to study grammar vyakaran. am adhyya).

The analysis of the optative mood within different schools tendedto focus upon the relationship between the person or text uttering theinjunction, the receiver, and the action to be performed. According toone commentator on Pan. ini, Nagesabhat.t.a, the first four definitions (vidhietc.) can be included within a fifth, namely pravartana or instigation,

an activity on the part of one person which leads to anothers performingan action. There is a sequence of implication in the use of the optative.Namely, that the instigation is uttered by an authoritative person ( apta);that there is nothing inhibiting the instigation; and that the instigateeinfers that the action he is being asked to perform is something he desiresand is achievable.68 Nagesa defines the qualified person as being onewho is free from confusion, anger and so on, and who does not performactions that lead to undesired results. According to Nagesa a vidhi isconnected with certain properties of an action, the property of being ameans to something desired (is. t.asadhyatva), its feasibility (kr. tisadhyatva),and the absence of inhibitory factors (pratibandhak abhava).69 The use ofthe optative in our texts is therefore consonant with this understanding.

There is therefore an imperative to perform mental action as prescribedin these texts, in the sense that if a certain course of action is undertaken,then certain results will follow, a fact that can be inferred from the imper-


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ative coming from an authoritative source. Indeed, the terms smaret (e.g.at 10.34a), cintayet(e.g. at 10.28a), dhyayet (e.g. at 10.54a) and bhavayet(e.g. at 10.46a) are the same grammatical form as terms denoting physical

actions, such as imposing or infusing the body with mantra (nyaset, e.g.at 10.66b). In this sense, it would seem that the use of the optative in theTantras is akin to its use in the Vedas, as in the injunction one desirous ofheaven should perform the jyotis. t.oma sacrifice (jyotis. t.omena svargak amo

yajet).70 There is no grammatical distinction within these texts betweenactions performed in the mind and actions performed with the body.Indeed the grammar points in quite the opposite direction to a mind/bodydualism, namely that mental action is directly akin to physical action, andthat as physical action has effect in the ritual realm, so too does mentalaction. This is because the hierarchical cosmology assumed in these ritualoperations is a magical cosmology that enables actions (including mentalaction) to have effects at spatially and temporally distinct locations.

One might speculate further that the use of the optative with its implica-tion of possible future action, is related to the imagination or the meta-phorical space in which events and abstractions are projected; a projectionwhich is permitted by the very structure of languages with at least threetenses.71 While, as Lakoff and Johnson have shown, all of language ispervaded by metaphor,72 the use of the optative is particularly suggestiveof the possibility of metaphor and of the kinds of mapping and overcodingonto the body that we find in our texts. The terms ks. ipetand nyaset implythat the adept should project the mantra or image into the metaphoricalspace of his creative imagination. This is indeed a mental action thathas effect in that metaphorical space, and will have consequences for the

practitioner in terms of liberation at death.Lastly, if we read these texts through a dialogical lens, the use of theoptative tells us something of the relationship between the reader and thetext, and tells us something about the nature of the self assumed. In struc-turalism, semiotics is conceived as an addresser transmitting a message toan addressee who receives it, almost in a passive fashion, and decodes it.This requires contact between the two, a code in which the message isformulated, and a context that gives sense to the message.73 In the case ofthe JS the addresser, the redactor of the text, sends the message of the text(the ritual representation) to an addresser, the Pacaratrin who receives it.If, however, we look at ritual representation through the lens of dialogism,we are presented with a different picture. The dialogists reject the emphasis

on language as a purely abstract system, seeing it rather as constantlychanging and adapting to concrete, historical situations and not, to useVoloshinovs phrase, as a stable and always self-equivalent signal.74 On


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this view the meaning of words is governed by the contexts of their occur-rence, so utterance can be accounted for only as a social phenomenon.Language is a process generated in the interaction of speakers within social

contexts. Turning to our texts, whereas a structuralist reading of the JSand ISP presents the Brahmanical addressee in purely passive terms as thedecoder of a message from the text (and from the past), a dialogical readingwould see both addresser and addressee as constructing the texts meaning.That is, there is a dialogical relationship between sender and receiverand meaning is constructed between the two rather than passively receivedand an original meaning decoded.

This general relationship between the reader and the addresser canbe more closely analyzed and textually instantiated in terms of what mightbe called a relationship between extra-textual indexicality and intra-textualanaphora. The dialogical relationship is between the implicit (Brahman)reader, a notional I, and the characters of the text who yet can function

indexically as Is. Let me explain this. In Pragmatics, deixis or indexicals,such as first and second person pronouns and locative and temporal adverbssuch as here and there, are contrasted with anaphoric terms which referto a previous item in a discourse (such as he, she, it and they). Thus,indexicality always refers outside of itself to a context (as would be indi-cated by you or there) whereas anaphora does not refer outside of theutterance; the term he, for example would refer to a previously namedperson. The qualities of indexicality are both generalised and referential,inexorably linked to the context of utterance. When we shift to anaphoricterms, to the third person for example, discourse ceases to have the index-ical qualities of deixic language. Anaphora is always discourse-internal

in that terms such as he or her are substitutes for some previouslynamed person or entity. As has been discussed by Urban in an importantpaper, a complication arises when apparently indexical terms are usedanaphorically in direct discourse.75 I becomes anaphoric, for example,when placed in a sentence such as She said Im going to the river, where the I does not refer to anything outside of the narrative itself. TheI is an empty sign in the sense that it is not referential with respect to aspecific reality. This is important in the context of the ritual representationsin tantric texts. For example, in the JS the following from early in thebhutasuddhi sequence is typical of the style of ritual prescription:

hastasuddhi m tatah. kuryad yatha tac chr. n. u n arada /

Hear this, O Narada, how one should then perform the purification of the hands.76

In this dialogue between the Lord (Bhagavan) and the sage Narada,Narada is addressed in the second person. The Lord uses the imperative,


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hear this (tac chr. n. u), which is anaphoric in that the implied tvam (you)refers to the sage named in the vocative. On the other hand, the ritualprescription is in the third person singular optative, he should perform

(kuryad). The third person therefore takes the place of the second persondirected to Narada and indirectly to the reader of the text, but its use servesto formalize and distance the discourse from any direct indexical reference.This you of discourse, an indexical used in an anaphoric way, is replacedin the text by the clearly anaphoric third person. The ritualist reader ofthe text is being addressed by the Lord indirectly through Narada, whostands in for the practitioner. Indeed the Mmam. sa school of philosophycorroborates this general point when in claiming that the use of the thirdperson optative in vedic injunction actually refers to me, the reader ofthe text, performing the ritual injunction.77 We might make a similar claimof the ritual injunction here. This linguistic form, the objectification ofthe ritual performer, has the effect of controlling the dialogic relations

between the characters and the reader. In the passage from the JS theanaphoric third person is indirectly understood by the texts receiver orreader to be referring to the indexical I. The reader understands that thethird person actually refers to the indexical I, through Narada. The objectof the second person discourse is also the grammatical subject of the thirdperson optatives, and moreover indirectly refers outside of the text to thereader.

In this way, the texts meaning is constructed through the identificationof the indexical I, that is the brahmanical reader of the text, with the thirdperson understood as though indexical. Yet being articulated in the thirdperson optative also maintains an impersonal voice concordant with the

claimed universality of the revelation. Furthermore the use of the optativeallows for the imaginative identification of the indexical I with the impliedI of the text itself. The grammar of the text allows for the imaginativeidentification of the reader with the representation of the ritual practitioner.

Certainly one of the functions of these texts is the cultural replicationof ritual representation. Through this kind of analysis we can see howthe text achieves the replication of ritual processes, and so the perpetu-ation of tradition, through the identification of the indexical I with theanaphoric third person in the optative mood. The third person optativefunctions as a substitute for an anaphoric I in the text: the anaphoric Iis deferred through the third person. The social agent the brahmanicalreader in our case wishes to close the gap between the indexical I and

the deferred anaphoric I of the texts through imagination and projectioninto the metaphorical space allowed by the use of the optative. Imaginationprovides awareness of the possibility of transformation and the possibility


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of behaving in a way that allows the goals of the tradition, internalizedthrough the identification of the two Is, to be realized. The replication ofthe text and the truth-value it contains for a community, suggests further-

more that the text, as Urban and Silverstein have argued, is a trope ofculture which is constantly decontextualised, or liberated from a specifichistorical context, and recontextualised in a new context. These processesthey have called entextualisation and co(n)textualisation.78 Texts are theresult of continuous cultural processes that create and recreate them overagain as meaningful objects or tropes, which are constructed as havingde-temporalised and de-spacialised meanings.

By way of conclusion then, we can see this process occurring in thebhutasuddhi sequences of the JS and ISG. These texts transcend theboundaries of their production and are reconstituted through the genera-tions, especially through the identification of the reader of the text withthe ritualist represented. To use a more technical terminology, this is the

process of the identification of the indexical I with the I implied by thetext. The bhutasuddhi is a ritual representation that functions as a trope,informing the individual practitioner through the process of the indexicalidentification with the anaphoric pronouns in the discourse. The textualrepresentation of the bhutasuddhi is made meaningful by both the contentof the texts and by the construction of its meaning in the imagination bythe brahmanical reader. One of the primary tasks in the study of tantrictraditions therefore becomes the inquiry into the ways in which these textshave been transmitted, their internalisation by the individual practitioner,and the function of these texts within the practices of the tradition. Throughfocussing on the bhutasuddhi, it is hoped that the present paper has made

some contribution to this understanding.

NOTES

1 I should like to thank Dr. Marion Rastelli for her helpful comments on the paper.2 Sanderson (1988), pp. 660704.3 Yog. p. 19. See also the account of the sixfold course (s. ad. adhvan) in Padoux (1990),pp. 330338.4 SSP 3, pp. xxixxii.5 Spand. pp. 67, 12, and 56. The passages quoted are JS 20.233239, 10.69, and 1.63c64b.6 See Sanderson (1991), pp. 152160.7

Br. hadaran. yaka-upanis. ad6.3.3. Olivelle (1996), p. 85.8 Cf. Purus.a Sukta R. g-veda 10.90. For the Indo-European ancestry of the symbolicidentification of body and cosmos, see Lincoln (1986).9 Vism 123126; 170172; Pe Maung Tin (1975), pp. 143146, 196198.10 MN II.14, DN III.268, AN III.5.46,60.


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11 Although the actual sequence is as follows: earth, water, fire, air, blue, yellow, red,white, light, and space.12 For a discussion of the kasin. as see Guenther (1976), pp. 116120. On early Buddhistmeditation see Cousins (1992), pp. 137157; Cousins (1984), pp. 5668.

13 KA 3.4 ff. The text follows the pattern of Saiva Siddhanta worship with a system ofkalas, using thirty-one identified with the body (3.6).14 NT 5.2.15 SSP 1, p. xxi.16 This text in the manuscript collection of the French Institute at Pondichry follows theSaiva Siddhanta model as articulated by Somasambhu. Bhut. pp. 1320.17 See White (1996).18 Mim. 8791. Yamuna writes: The consideration that due to its tantric nature(tantratva) the Pacaratra is equal (to other tantric systems, is like saying that)Brahmin murder and horse sacrifice are equal in that they are both action.(pacaratren. a s adharmya m tantratvenabhidhitsitam / kriyatvena tu sadharmya m brahma-hatyasvamedhayoh. // srutipratyaks. ayos tatra yato mulatvaniscayah. /) Agamapraman. ya87. Van Buitenen (1977), p. 46.19 Mat. 15.7 comm. p. 369: . . . the Pacaratras say: Lord Vasudeva has the qualitiesof highest prakr. ti. They say that he is unmanifest, eternal, there is nothing beyond himthat is yad ahuh. pacaratrah. bhagavan vasudevo sau gun. ebhyah. prakr. tih. para /avyakta m nityam ahus tam param asman na vidyate //.20 Prat. 8. Singh (1980). pp. 6667.21 See SSP 3, pp. xiixxii. Padoux (1990), pp. 330371.22 Tattva. 1.8.23 Flood (1992), pp. 167177.24 See Goudriaan (1970), p. 209.25 See Gupta (1992), p. 178. There are some passages in the Sat. (e.g. 6.163ff., 17. 142147) that prescribe these rites without calling them brahmayaja etc.26 See SSP 1, pp. xxivxxvi.27 Sanderson (1996), pp. 1595.28 JS 18.2033.29

This pattern is directly paralleled by the Saiva classification of samayin, putraka,acarya and sadhaka. See Brunner (1975), pp. 411443. See also Davis (1991), pp. 89100.30 See Gupta (1992); Flood (1992), pp. 167177.31 JS 10.27.32 JS 10.913.33 JS 10.16.34 The six qualities possessed by Narayan. a/Vasudeva are jana, aisvarya, sakti, bala,vrya, tejas. See LT 2.2636; Schrader (1973), pp. 3640.35 JS 10.13.36 JS 10.18a21.37 JS 10.2630ab.38 JS 10.3136.39 JS 10.3942.

40 JS 10.4348.41 JS 10.4957.42 This echoes the Chandogya Upanis. ad8.1.2, which speaks of the space within the heart


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containing earth and sky, fire and wind, sun and moon and lightening and stars. Also 8.6.4where the deceased rises to the crown of the head and reaches the sun: Olivelle (1996).43 JS 10.5868.44 JS 10.69.

45 JS 10.71a.46 JS 10.7277.47 JS 10.8182.48 JS 10.8586.49 JS 10.103.50 The JS is quoted by the Kashmiri Utpalacarya (see note 4) along with other Pacaratratexts. See Schrader (1973), pp. 2022.51 SSP 1, p. xli.52 The location of the ISG within the history of south Indian traditions is open to dispute,although the text is very likely to be from Kerala as all the manuscripts are from there inMalayalam script, the text is still used by some Nambuthiri families of the Taranallur clanin the Alwaye region, the text represents a synthesis of deities and traditions characteristicof the Kerala tantric tradition and it contains material on possession and exorcism, strongconcerns of folk religion in the Malabar region, absent from the Saivagamas. A detailedstudy of the text, its influences, the history of the tradition and the influence of the ISGupon the Tantrasamuccaya would help to clarify its origins. This work has yet to be done.53 ISG 10.18.54 ISG 10.45.55 ISG 10.68.56 ISG 10.912.57 ISG 10.1415.58 VP 13a, p. 18.59 On the two cosmological systems see Davis (1991), pp. 5357.60 This usage is not dissimilar to medieval Europe where the term memory has thedouble implication of storing information (inventory) and creation through the imagina-tion (invention). See Mary Carruthers The Book of Memory (Cambridge University Press,1992).61

JS 10.26.62 JS 10.33b34a.63 JS 10.46a.64 JS 10.54a.65 ISG 10.7.66 ISG 10.4.67 As.t.. 3.3.161. The same also applies to the imperative (lot.).68 See Gune (1978), p. 17.69 See Gune (1978), pp. 1920.70 Quoted in Gune (1978), p. 19.71 See Whorf (1991), pp. 147, 152.72 Lakoff and M. Johnson (1980).73 Jacobsen (1960), pp. 350377, especially p. 353. See also Greimas (1983), pp. 177176; 195196.

74 Volosinov (1973), p. 68.75 Urban (1989), pp. 3839. See also Urban (1991).76 JS 10.9a.


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77 The use of the optative means that he is impelling me to action; he is engaging in anoperation which is conducive to my action. Mim. p. 40.78 Silverstein and Urban (1996), p. 1.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbreviations

AN Anguttara-nikaya, Woodward, F. L. (trans.). The Book of the Gradual Sayings,vol. 5 (London: Luzac, Pali Text Society, 1972).

AP Apadeva. Mm amsa Nyaya Prakasa, Franklin Edgerton (trans.) (New Haven:Harvard University Press, 1929).

Ast. Katre, Sumitra M. (trans.). As. t. adhyay of Pan. ini (Delhi: MLBD, 1989).Bhut. Bhutasuddhividhi T. no. 656, Pondichry: Institut Franais dIndologie, n.d.Dig. Dgha-nik aya Rhys Davids, T.W. and C.A.F. Dialogues of the Buddha, part 3

(London: Pali Text Society, 1971).ISG Isanasivagurudevapaddhati, Ganapati Sastri (ed.), 4 vols. (Trivandrum:

Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, 19201925).JS Jayakhya Samhita, Krishnamacharya, E. (ed.) (Baroda: Gaekwads Oriental

Series, 1931, reprint 1967).KA Kamikagama (Uttara Bhaga) Sri C. Svaminathasivacarya (ed.) (Madras: South

Indian Archarkar Association, 1988).LT Laks. mtantra, Krishnamacharya, V. (ed.) (Madras: Adyar Library, 1959).Mat. Ramakan. t.ha. Matangaparamesvaragama (Vidyapada) avec le commentaire de

Bhat. t.a Ramakan. t.ha, N.R. Bhatt (ed.) (Pondichry: Institut Franais dIndologie,1977).

MN Majjhima-nikaya, Horner, I. B. The Middle Length Sayings, vol. 2 (London: PaliText Society, 1975).

Mim. van Buitenen, J.A.B. Yamunas Agamapraman. ya or Treatise on the Validity of

Pacaratra, Sanskrit text and translation (Madras, Ramanuja Research Society,1977).

NT Netratantram. Srmat Ks. emarajaviracitodyotakhyavyakhyopetam, VrajavallabhaDviveda (ed.) (Delhi: Parimala Publications, 1995).

Prat. Ks.emaraja. Pratyabhijahr. daya, Jaideva Singh (text and trans.), (Delhi: MLBD,1980).

Sat. Satvata-samhita edited by Alasingabhatta (Varanasi: Sarasvatbhavanapusta-kalayadhyaks.ah. , 1982).

Spand. Utpalacarya, The Spandapradpik a, a Commentary on the Spandakarika editedby Mark S.G. Dyczkowski (Varanasi, private publication, 1990).

SSP 1 Brunner-Lachaux, Hlne. Somasambhupaddhati I: Le rituel quotidien dansla tradition sivate de lInde du Sud selon Somasambhu (Pondichry: InstitutFranais dIndologie, 1963).

SSP 3 Brunner-Lachaux, Hlne. Somasambhupaddhati III: Rituels occasionnels dansla tradition sivate de lInde du Sud selon Somasambhu (Pondichry: InstitutFranais dIndologie, 1977).

Tattva. Bhojadeva. Tattvaprakasa with Iatparyadpik a of Srkumara (Trivandrum:Trivandrum Sanskrit Series vol. 68, 1920).


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Yog. Padoux, Andr. Le Coeur de la Yogin, Yoginhr. daya avec le commentaire DpikadAmr. tananda (Paris: De Boccard, 1994).

VP Vamadevapaddhati, transcript T. 501 (Pondicherry: Institut FranaisdIndologie).

Vism Buddhaghosa. Visuddhimagga, Pe Maung Tin (trans.) The Path of Purity(London: Pali Text Society, 1975).

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