Reflections on the Vira in Tantric Texts

8/12/2019 Reflections on the Vira in Tantric Texts

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SomeReflectionsontheHeroinTantricTextsirgitMayer Kdnig

isseminationHero {vim isatechnicalterm signifyingan advanced typeo fadeptfo l lowingTantricpractices TheherohasbeenmentionedinnumerousSanskrittextspertainingtovariousTantrictraditions.ThesetextsincludeBhavacudamapi,Guptasadhanatantra,KalivilasatantraKVT ].KaulajtenanirnayaKJN ,KubjikamatatantraKMT ,KularnavatantraKT ,Matfkabhedatantra,Rudrayamalaor UttaratantraRY ,Tantraloka,Taratantra,Yoginlhrdaya

YH whichisthelastparto ftheVamakesvaratantra,an dYoginltantra.Therearemanymoretextswhichdealwiththissubject especiallythenibandhatexts aboveallthePurascaryarnava,theSaktisaiigamatantraandtheTarabhaktisudhaiyava. T hemannerandthelengtho fthedescriptionsvary.escriptionofthe ero

Acomplexdescriptiono ftheheroandadetailedanalysiso fthisconceptwil lbe presentedinaforthcomingstudy;hereafe wexampleswil lgivean ideao fthesubject.Theherovlra isdefinedasan advancedadepto ftheTantricsadhana.TheKVTsaysthathismindisraisedvJrascoddhata-manasahVI.9d .ThesametextrepeatedlyemphasisesthatsuchadeptsdonotexistintheKaliage.2However thistextadmitsthatadeptso ftheheroicdispositionexistedintheTretaandDvaparaages.3ItreferstoRavanaandKumbhakarnaasexampleso fheroes.4

Varioustextsdeclarethatahero vira hasachievedahighdegreeo finsightintosupremereality.Hehas accomplishedadifferentqualityinhiscognitiveexperience.AccordingtotheKJN theheroavertshisthoughtfromthemanifoldexternalobjects;heconcentrates oninternalprocessesandissteepedinmeditation.In thisway hereachesthenon dualexperience Endowedwithknowledgeandwisdomheisdevotedtothepracticeo fnon duality.5Hethusbecomesindifferenttoexternalstimulantsto theextentthatthesmello faperfumeorafoulstenchisthesametohim.Thedualisticvisionisdiscreditedasthe enemywhichmustbe destroyedandreplacedbythe non dualisticexperienceo ftheselfineverything.N onotiono fan objectoutsideo ftheexperienceshouldremain.HeshouldrecogniseeverythingastheSupremeSelfw hoisidenticalwithhisownself.ThishasbeenexplainedinthecommentaryY H DonY H1.65abbyamuchcitepassage.6Heroesare suchkindo fadepts whoareintentuponeffectingdissolutiono ftheenemy[whichis ]objectivenessinthebattle field[whichisthethought

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of]ego. W orshipped by the heroes [means] worshipped by these. [The goddess is] visualisedbymeans o f [intense] contemplation on the [divine] subject (/ego ) as [one 's ow n] self. It hasbeensaid in thePavapancasTka: Effe cting the dissolution o f the oppone nt [which is] theobjectiveness,in the subject, he wh o is intent upon pow er (/h ero ism ) enj oy s the natural state(/innatedisp osition ) [wh ich is] the destroyer o f [all that is] notsiva(/inauspicious).

Ina well-k no w n metaphor the same text ( Y H D ) describes the dualistic apprehensionasa disease(roga)w hich one should get rid o f. Th e cure, how ever, can o nly be broughtaboutby a change in the quality o f one's cog nitive experience. The expe rience o f dualitymustbe replaced by the clear apprehension o f non-du ality. On ce the non-du al vision isgainedthe person is cured.7T he pain and suffering wh ich co m e along with the cognitionofdifferences have ceased.

Besideshis advances in the cognitive experience, the hero has made considerableprogressin self-con trol. Th e texts define that a hero is no longer a vic tim to e motions likepassion,pride, affliction , anger, envy. He has ove rcom e delusion as we ll as doubt and fear.Hehas lost shame and cur iousity.8It does not matter to him whe n the peo ple turn aw ay fromhimin disgust. He rem ains indifferent even when he transgresses the Ved ic rules o f puritysauca).It is on account o fhiss elf-co ntro l that his contact with and consu mption of forbiddensubstancessuch as liquor, meat, fish and wom en pose no harm to him . H e uses thesesubstanceson the instruction o f his teacher. He also meditates at the crem ation ground atnightsitting on corpses.9En dow ed with exceptional courage and determination a herosucceedsin mastering fe arsom e and repugnant ritual practices. T he extrem e Tantric practicesprovidefor him an op portunity to stabilise and prove h is indiffere nce . It is said that a heroperformsthese rites in order to gain perfection o f his pow ers(siddhi).

Readingthe verses on extrem e Tantric practices one m ust consider that the languageusedis deliberately cryptic; it has hence been called 'intentional language'(sandha-bha a)lor'twilight language '(sandhya-bha?a)n.T he teaching was m eant for initiates only andpassedon orally. Therefore it remains difficult to determine whether a term has been em ploye dinits literal sense or me taphorically, e.g. whethermadyasignifies 'liquo r' or refers to thenectarin stream issuing from the cav ity o f the brain where the soul resides .12It is generallyacknowledgedthat different practices existed side by side.Developmentof the Description and the Scheme of Three Mental Dispositions

Theimportance and length given to the description o f the hero varies. Som e textsmentionthe hero brie fly in connection w ith an epithet o f the goddess,e.g. vlravandita ( Y H1.65ab),viravall (K M T 2.2) andvlramatr ( K M T 21.45). Other texts, how ever, such as theKVT,describe the hero in a larger scheme w hich c lassifies persons in three way s accordingtotheir respective mental disposition(bhavatraya),the other classes being characterised bythedispositions o f the limited being(pasu)and the d ivine(divya).So me later texts, suchasthe R Y in the form which has co m e dow n to us, elaborate on this concept in longpassages.It seem s that while the notion o f the hero as an advance d adept given to extremepracticesis widespread and present from the early Tan tric texts onw ards, the threefoldclassificationtermedbhavatrayais less co mmon and m uch later.

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Theoryand PracticeThetheory o fthehero(vJra)sketched out ab ove is based o n written sources in Sanskrit.Thisfact inv olves a few problem s in regard to the correspondence be tween the descriptionsof therituals and the pe rform ing agents in the texts on the one hand, and the actual practicesandstandards on the other hand.13It is well kno wn that Sanskrit is a diffic ult language

requiringyears o f disciplined study to master. Som e practitioners kn ew Sanskrit and actedasauthors and commen tators o f Tantric texts; famou s amon g these is Abhinav agup ta wh olivedin the second ha lf o f the 10th century to the beginn ing o f the 11th century A .D . inKashmir.How ever, it remains doubtful that know ledge o f Sanskrit was com m on am ong thepractitioner.It is not surprising that in general Agh orin ascetics toda y are not reputed fortheirco mm and of Sanskrit. Th e written texts are not o f mu ch avail to them as their teachingsarepassed on orally from teacher to disciple. Som e may h ave so me reading kno wle dge o fSanskritand possess certain manuscripts wh ich they recite and hold in high esteem ; in casethereshould occur a language problem they can consult a w ell-tra ine d Pandita. To som epractitionersSanskrit texts may not even be w ell -kn ow n.

Itis therefore po ssible that theories propound ed in the Sanskrit texts do not ful ly agreewithactual practices. We d o not kn ow whether the Sanskrit descriptions o f the hero tallywiththe definitions given by adepts themselves; the texts may depict hig hly idealised norms.Vulgarpractices m ay h ave been secondarily re-interpreted in a more accep table theoreticalscheme.Th e high standard o f self-co ntro l and cognitive pr econditioning m ay have beenintroducedapologetically. It is possib le that the textual descriptions correspond to som ecases,but not to all. W he n the famous poet Ksesmendra points out the mis chie f that can bedoneby the use o f ink he would not go so far to say that every cou rt writer(kayastha)isacheat.14In the same way , we should not assume that licentiousness was the c om m oninteresto f Tantric practitioners, although it could have been the case with s om e as thecriticismsfrom renowened poets as Ksemendra express.

Thefacts are known to the initiates. It wo uld therefore be interesting to know h ow apractitionerdefine s the qualities and duties o f a hero. Wha t was or is the actual standard o fself-controland non-d ual istic vision achieved by h im? T his issue needs to be carefullyinvestigatedby interviews and observations in the field; here w e can on ly mark out itsimportance.W hil e scrutinising the comp lex theories o ftheSanskrit texts w e should remem berthatthe texts do not necessarily coinc ide w ith the practices. W e must be aware o f therestrictedrelevance o f written texts and the influence o f oral transmissions. Alth oug h theherois described in nu me rous Tan tric texts, the facts about real heros and their actualpracticesare yet to be explored.

ibliographySanskritSourceshSvacucjamani tw o mss at the Asiat ic Society , Calcutta.

Guptasadhanatantra ed by Baldevpras ad MTsra (First ed 1909) 1988. Bom ba y: K hem ara j SrTkrsoadas.

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Kallvilasatantra.(Arthur Av alo n, ch ief d.), Tantric Texts Vo l.. 5, ed. by ParvatT Charana TarkatTrtha. 1917.London:Luzac and Co.

KaulajnananinjayaPraqbodh Ch andra Ba gchi (ed., intr.). Calcutta San skrit Series No . I l l 1934. Calcutta :Metropolitan.

Kubjikamatatantra.Kulalikamnaya Version, Critical Edition by T. Goudriaan and J.A. Schoterman. 1988. Leidenet.al.: E.J. Brill.

Kularnavatantra,also known asUrdhvamnayatantraSanskritText ed. by Taranatha Vidyaratn a, with an English introduction by Arthur A va lon . Tantrik Texts Vol.

V.1917. London : Luzac and Co .Purasearyarpavao f His Majesty Shri Pratap Singh Sah Dev K ing o f Nepal. A Treatise dealing with Th eory and

Practiceof Tantrjc Worship. The Vrajajivan Prachyabharati Granthamala No. 10 Ed. by Muralidhar Jha.(Varanasi1901-04). Reprint 1985. Delhi, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratishthan.

Rudrayamala.Yo gatantra -Granth ama la vol . V II Ed. by Yogatantra department, Sampurnanand Sanskr itVishvavidyalaya.Bh agirath a Prasada Tripathi (Super\'isor). 1980. Varanas i.

Saktisamgamatantra.C ritical ly ed. with a Preface in English, in four volum es by B enoyto sh Bhattacha iyya. Vol.IITarakhanda. 1941. Baroda: Oriental Institute.

Tantralokaby Abhinava gupta. Ed. by R.C. D wive di and Navjiv an Rastogi. 8 vo l . (First edition K S TS , Srinagar,1918-1938)1987. Delhi et. al.: Motilal B anarasidass.Tarabhaktisudharnavaby Narasirpha from M ithila. Ed. by Bhattacarya, Panchanan a. W ith an Introduction inEnglish.Tantrik Texts Series ed. by Arthur Av alo n. Reprint 1983 Delhi/Varan asi: Bhartiya Vi dy a Prakashan.

Taratantva,ed. by Girish Chan dra Vedantatirha. With an Introduction in English by Ak sh ay K um ar Maitra. 1913.Rajshahi(Be nga l): Varendra Research Society.

Yoginlhrdaya,with thedlpika (Y H D ) by Amrtananda. Ed., Vraja Vallabha Dv iveda. 1988, Delhi: Moti lalBanarsidass.Trans lation into French by A ndre Padou s, Paris 1994.

Yoginltantra,ed. with a Preface and Introduction in English by B iswana rayan Sh astri, 1982. Delh i, Varanasi:BhartiyaV idya Prakashan.

SecondarySourcesBharati,Ageh anan da. 1993TannicTraditions.(Re vised and Enlarged Edition ofThe TannicTradition,1965).

Delhi:H industan Publishing Corporation.Bose,D.N . 1956.Tantras-Their Philosophical and OccultSecrets.CalcuttaChattopadhyaya,Sudhakar. 1978Reflections on theTantras.Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Goudriaan,Teun and San jukta G upta. 1981Hindu Tannic and SaktaLiterature.A History ofIndian Literature.

Vol.II Fasc.2, ed. by Jan Gond a. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.Guenther,Herbert vo . 1969Yuganaddha.T heTantricView of Life.Second revised edition. Varanasi: Chowkhamba

SanskritSeries.References Notes

1.Abb revatio ns are added of those texts which have been cited below .2.divya-bhavo vlra-bhavo nasti kalau yuge / K V T IV 3ab .

divya-vJra-matamnasti kali-kale su-locane. /kalau pasu-mataip tatah siddhTs'varobhavet/ / K V T V I . 21 .

3.treta-dvapara-paryantaipvira-bhavaitJritah / / K V T V l .l l cd .4.ravapahkumbhakarnasca vlraus'rou sundari / / K V T V I. 15cd .5.jnana-vijnana-sampannab advaitacara-bhavitah >

kula-kaulagamcbhakti[r] Idrsam U K J N X X . 22 //80


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Note: Edition Ba gchi 1934 : 74 has nosandhibetweenpadaa and b.6.vTra-vandite /idanta-ripor aham isamarahgaija pralaya-pratipadana-paravTruah, tair vandite atmabam -bhavanayabhavite /tad uktaippara-pancasikayam-

ahami pralayarpkurvann idamabpratiyoginab/parakrama-paro bhuhktesvabhavam asivapaham // slo.50) iti /Thispassage is repeated in Y H D on Y H 111.19 lab (1988.378). A s the original in the Y H is in the feminin evocativesingular, the same case is repeated in the comm entary. T hi s is not foll ow ed in the translation forstylisticreasons.

7.sarva-roga-haram /bbcda-lak anaip at-trhpsat-tattvatmakawsarvam evarogab,tasyaharam, abhedapratlti-hetutvat/(YUDon 1988:100).8.vata-raga-mada-klesa-kopa-matsarya-mohatab/

rajas-tamo-yiduratvadvJra ity abhidhlyate/ / KT XV II .25 //nibsankonirbbayo vTro nirlajjoni kutuhalabInirpTta-veda-sastrarthovara-daipvarunJrppibet/ /K T V.82 / /

9.madyarpmasarptatha m atsyaipmaithunameva caIIsmasana-sadhanaipbbadrecita-sadhanameva caIetattekathitambhadresiddha-vTra-matamswu/ /K V T VI .19c -20d / /Inthe context of H indu Tantric textsmudrais translated as parc hed cerea l , a substance w hich is notforbidden.For a discussion of its mean ing see Ageha nand a Bharti 1993:242.

10.C f. A . Bharati 1993:164-184.11.ibid.12.D .N. B ose 1956:137 quoted in A . Bharati 1993:170.13.On top o f this proble m (the des criptions in the texts versus the actual practices) there rem ains the problem

ofa correspondence between the practices and the philosop hical theories which had been deve loped laterinorder to exp lain and sublimate the practices. In this way , Herbert v. Guenther notes (196 9:4) : Firstofall, the Tantras are not a philosoph y. Th ey are an experience of life (...) and the basic foundation ofmanya philosop hy that has developed at a later stage. Similarly, Sudhakar C hattopa dhya ya says (1978:10)(...)it must be agreed that philosp hy can be formed in the backgroun d o f any and everythin g (...). The

Tantras(...) are more concerned with practices which have influenced the votaries more than ph ilo so ph y14.The satirical description of ink by Ksemendra above all in hisNarmamalahas been pointed out by the

Italianscholar Fabrizia Baldissera in a lecture in Heidelberg on 24.1.01. In the same text as well as in twoothersatires(Desopadcs'aandSamayamatyka),Ksem endra parodies a Tantricguru.


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utor BirgitMayer Konigm ayer koen iq@web .dertikel So m e R eflections on the Hero in Tantric T extsPages 77 81 in th eb o o k :Encyclopaediaof Indian Wi sd om . Prof . Sa tya Vrat Shast r i Fe lic i tat ion Volu m e.Editor Ramkaran Sharma

Publisher Bharatiya VidyaPrakashan IndiaYear 2005 ISBN 81 2170184 8
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Reflections on the Vira in Tantric Texts