The Sanskrit term Śaktitantu can be transliterated into English as Saktitantu or Shaktitantu, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).

In Hinduism

Shaivism (Shaiva philosophy)

Source: Brill: Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions

Śaktitantu (शक्तितन्तु) (or Śaktisūtra) refers to the “cord of power”, according to the Brahmayāmala-tantra (or Picumata), an early 7th century Śaiva text consisting of twelve-thousand verses.—[The padmamālā-vidhi prescribes installing deities within series of nine, seven and eight lotuses].—What renders the lotuses into garlands is the thread which binds them. The  Brahmayāmala first introduces this idea in presenting the second garland (that of the Yoginīs), describing the lotuses as “bound together by the cord of śakti, like gems [strung] by a cord”. The terms utilized are śaktitantu and śaktisūtra, meaning, respectively, a thread or a cord of śakti. This divine power binding the lotuses together is consubstantial with the supreme Goddess herself, the Nine-Syllable Vidyā whose being encompasses the deities of the maṇḍala.

References to śaktitantu occur almost entirely in the context of the “method of the lotus garlands” (padmamālā-vidhi).—The principal series of nine lotuses spans the body’s axis from crest (śikhā) to feet (pāda), linked by the śaktitantu and thus forming a vertical strand. This vertical sequence of bodily lotuses connected by a cord of śakti has obvious similarities with models of the yogic body in which suṣumnā-nāḍī, the central channel, links together an ascending series of cakras or lotuses. This ubiquitous paradigm is exemplified by the system of seven cakras common to Śrīvidyā and Haṭhayoga as being first attested in the Kubjikāmata.

context information

Shaiva (शैव, śaiva) or Shaivism (śaivism) represents a tradition of Hinduism worshiping Shiva as the supreme being. Closely related to Shaktism, Shaiva literature includes a range of scriptures, including Tantras, while the root of this tradition may be traced back to the ancient Vedas.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Partial matches: Shakti, Tantu.

Full-text: Sushumna, Sutra, Tantu, Shaktisutra, Sushumnanadi, Tattvakrama, Bhedita, Yogamarga, Yaga, Avadhutatanu.

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