Expiatory Rites in Keralite Tantra
by T. S. Syamkumar | 2017 | 59,416 words
This page relates ‘Expiatory Rites in Nishvasatattvasamhita’ of the study on Expiatory Rites in Sanskrit literature and ancient Indian religion and society, with special reference to Keralite Tantra. Further references to texts include those found in Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism as well as Dharmashastra literature. This study also investigates temple records and inscriptions of Kerala in order to demonstrate the connection between social life and expiatory rites and its evolution.
1.1. Expiatory Rites in Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, the earliest surviving Śaiva Tantra,[1] has discussed little on expiatory rites; because expiatory rites were not the central theme of the Śaiva Tantra.[2] Mainly Niśvāsatattva-saṃhitā described eight kinds of causes leading to expiation. They are: insulting lord Śiva, insulting a devotee of Śiva, insulting a Guru, consuming the Nirmālya, giving the Nirmālya as Bali to a Paśu,[3] taking a material touched by a menstruating woman, insulting Śaiva scripture and stepping on the shadow of a Liṅga.[4] Vidyādīkṣā is the main expiation recommended by Niśvāsatattva-saṃhitā for the removal of impurities and bad effects. Other remorseful acts are chanting of Mantra, consecration with the Kalaśa, Homa and Vratas.[5] In course of time, the number of expiatory rites increases in the history of Śaiva Tantra.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
It is observed that the date of Niśvāsatattva-saṃhitā is before the 8th century CE. Vide Dominic Goodall, ed., Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Institute Francise De Pondicherry, 2015, p. 71. Anna A. Slaczka observes: “A plausible date for the earliest layer of Niśvāsa is the 5th or the 6th century CE and it might be the oldest surviving Śaiva Tantra. The Niśvāsa was, in its time, widely known across the Indian subcontinent and beyond, for instance in Cambodia: recent epigraphic research identifies the Niśvāsa-corpus with treatises mentioned in the 9th to 12th century Sanskrit and Khmer inscriptions of Cambodia: those of Banteay Kdei, Preah Vihera, Phnom Sandak, Prasat Tor, Sdod Kak Thom.” Cf. “The Two Iconographic Chapters from the Devyāmata and the Art of Bengal”, Tantric Studies -Fruits of a Franco-German Project on Early Tantra, p. 184.
[2]:
Dominic Goodall, Śaiva Rites of Expiation, Introduction, p. 17.
[3]:
According to Goodall a Paśu which could mean here a non initiate. Ibid., p. 27.
[4]:
nirmālyabhakṣaṇe vāpi balidāne paśorapi |
ādatte cārtavispṛṣṭaṃ śāstranindāṃ karoti ca ||
liṅgacchāyāvilaṅghīca caṇḍīśo bandhate bhṛśam |
pratijñāvratamārūḍho punastyaktvā śivaṃ vratam ||
anyatantravrataṅgṛhṇeddevī tena nibandhati |
śivatantramadhītvā tu śivayajñaṃ prakurvvate ||
yajate vaidikairyajñaiḥ śivabhaktāṃśca nindate | Niśvāsatattva-saṃhitā, Nayasūtra, 1.104-107.
[5]:
vidyādīkṣā bhavedghyeṣā sakale yojyadāyikā |
vidyādīkṣā samāptau tu kalaśenābhiṣecayet ||
śatāṣṭādhikajaptena iṣṭamantreṇa sādhakam |
sthanaṃ kālaṃ sahāyaṃ ca liṅgaṃ vedīṃ japaṃ tathā ||
prāyaścittākṣamālā ca vighnāṃśā homameva ca |
bhakṣābhakṣaṃ tathā śaucaṃ siddhasiddhibalābalam |
vratāni samyagbuddhyā tu tataḥ sādhanāmārabhet || Niśvāsatattva-saṃhitā, Mūlasūtra, 4.18.