Brief outline of the Vārāhī Tantra

The Vārāhī Tantra that we used in this work deals with many śāstras, shares similar verses with other Tāntrik texts and even includes a few whole texts.

The first chapter of the Vārāhī Tantra narrates how the mantra of the Goddess Vārāhī was revealed in association to an account in the Rāmāyaṇa; parts of the second, third and fourth chapters, the whole fifth chapter and almost all the thirteenth chapter of the Vārāhī Tantra are also found in the Bṛhattantrasāra of Kriṣṇānanda Āgama Vagīśa, a great Bengali paṇḍit of the sixteenth century; the second, sixth, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth chapters share similar verses with the Meru Tantra (in particular with the twenty-third chapter of the Meru Tantra); the tenth chapter is related to the Yoginīhṛdaya and follows the Śrīrasamahodadhi, which is the commentary to the Vāmakeśvaramata, attributed to Śrī Īśvaraśiva, the prominent tenth-century Kashmiri paṇḍit; the eleventh chapter shares the arguments of the first chapter of Jñānasaṅkulītantra; the fourteenth chapter explains the Durgāsaptaśatī;^[1] from the sixteenth to the twenty-first chapter is included the whole Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya; from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth chapter are given the views of the six āmnāyas and prayoga following the exposition of the Parātantra, of which are included Chapters 2-9; the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh chapters comprehend almost the entire Haṭhayogapradīpikā by Svātmarāma, a yogi of the sixteenth century; from the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth chapter is described the Durgāpūjā as given in the Durgābhaktitaraṅginī, a compilation composed by Vidyāpati, a great Maithili poet of the fifteenth century; the thirtieth and the thirty-first chapters have verses similar to the Tārābhaktisudhārṇava, a treatise compoused by Narasiṃha Ṭhakkur, a Mithili paṇḍit of the seventeenth century.^[2]

Thus the Vārāhī Tantra seems to be a compendium of Tāntrik–in particular, Kaula–views and practices, centred on the worship of the Goddess in her various aspects, mainly as Vārāhī, Kālī, Tripurasundarī, Siddhilakṣmī, Kubjikā, Tārā and Durgā, and of her multiple manifestations, such as the Eight Mothers (Aṣṭamātṛkā), the Six Mistresses of the Traditions, (Ṣaḍāmnāyanāyikā) and the Sixty-four Yoginīs (Cauṃsat Yoginī).

The Vārāhī Tantra seems to be related to the Tāntrik tradition of Nepāl (where the cult of Kubjikā and Siddhilakṣmī are prominent),^[3] which incorporates Bauddha Tāntrik elements to the Śākta/Śaiva doctrines.^[4]

The Vārāhī Tantra is connected to the Śrīkula/Śrīkrama,^[5] i.e. the doctrine where the deity Śrī and the sequence of her various manifestations are worshipped through a succession of ritual acts. The Śrīkula (or Śrīkrama) system is usually identified with the tradition of Mahātripurasundarī, who is Śrī, but sometimes it can also designate the school of Kubjikā.^[6]

The Vārāhī Tantra also describes the Kālīkulakrama, wherein Kālī, who is Kālasaṅkarṣiṇī, is worshipped in a sequence of Five Kālīs.^[7] It is then said that Kālī herself is Siddhilakṣmī and Tripurasundarī.^[8]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The Durgāsaptaśatī, i.e. the “Seven hundred verses on Durgā”, also called the Caṇḍīpāṭha or the Devīmahātmya, forms Chapters 81 through 93 of the Markāṇḍeya Purāṇa and is considered to be the principal text of the Śākta Tradition, mainly recited during the festival of Navarātrī.

[2]:

For more details see Appendix 3.

[3]:

Regarding the worship of Kubjikā and Siddhilakṣmī, no modern scholar has devoted more work to the Kubjikā Tradition than Mark S. G.—Dyczkowski: see his translation and edition of the “Manthānabhairavatantram” (Indira Gandhi Centre of Arts, Delhi 2009, 14 vols); see also his “The Canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition” (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1989) and his “A Journey in the World of the Tantras” (Indica, Varanasi 2004). Here he explains: “[In Nepāl] Kubjikā is the priest’s goddess. She is the Goddess of creation, and so is relatively mild and erotic. The king’s goddess is Siddhalakṣmī, a form of Kālī, the goddess of destruction. Her name–Accomplished Royalty (or Wealth)–reminds us that she destroys her opposite, impotence and poverty. Her awesome ferocity imparts to her royal devotee the power he needs to be king while she draws energy from the emanation of the energy of creation of the goddess Kubjikā, from which the king and his goddess ultimately derive their authority. So while the king’s goddess devours and consumes his enemies, material and spiritual, the priests' goddess nourishes and replenishes.”

[4]:

Both the manuscripts of the Vārāhī Tantra, one of which has been found in Nepāl, present also few characters of the Nevārī script (see Appendix 1). Some of the names of the Eight Mothers are given in Nepālī language, as Brahmāyaṇī and Indrāyaṇī. Together, the main holy place of the Goddess is said to be Guhyeśvarī (the śaktipīṭha in Nepāl), whose Goddess Guhyakālī is also the revealer of the Vārāhī Tantra together with Pracaṇḍa Bhairava.

[5]:

In the Vārāhī Tantra the words Śrīkula and Śrīkrama are usually interchangeable. Sometimes the word “kula” is related more to the doctrine, while “krama” specifically indicates the ritual.

[6]:

S.G. Mark Dyczkowski (Delhi: 1989), p.77.—It is perhaps for this that the Vārāhī Tantra includes the entirety of the Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya, a text of the Kubjikā school. Discussed herein are the four sacred Transmissions and their Mistresses, which are the Pūrvāmnāya, presided over by Kuleśvarī; the Dakṣiṇāmnāya, by Kāmeshvarī; the Uttarāmnāya by Kālī and the Paścimāmnāya by Kubjikā.

[7]:

See Chapters 24 and 25 of the Vārāhī Tantra Here the Vārāhī Tantra follows the exposition of the Parātantra. In Chapters 18 and 19 (Vārāhī Tantra 18.151-156, 19.1-88) it is described the Kālīkrama, according to the Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya, where the Goddess is worshipped in a sequence of ten Kālīs.

[8]:

Vārāhī Tantra 25.