Varahi Tantra (English Study)
by Roberta Pamio | 2014 | 29,726 words
This English essay studies the Varahi Tantra and introduces the reader to the literature and philosophy of the Shakta Tradition to which this text belongs. These Shakta Tantras are doctrines where the Mother Goddess is conceived as the Supreme deity who is immanent and transcendental at the same time. The Varahitantra (lit. the "Doctrine of th...
The Vārāhī Tantra (Introduction)
The Vārāhī Tantra (lit. the "Doctrine of the Boar-Goddess") on which is based this research (i.e., the Vārāhī Tantra) is a Śākta Tantra. As we have seen before, it is found in various lists of the sixty-four Bhairava Tantras, such as the Sarvollāsa (2.10) and the Kaulāvalī (1.4-16). In the Mahāsiddhasāratantra,[1] a Vārāhī Tantra is nominated as one of the sixty-four Bhairava Tantras of the Viṣṇukrāntha region. In the Nityaṣoḍaśikārṇavatantra (Nṣ1.15) and the Kulacūḍāmaṇitantra (KCu 1.5) one finds a list of the Sixty-four Highest Tantras of the Mothers, where is mentioned a group of eight Tantras called the Bahurūpāṣṭaka. According to Śivānanda in his Ṛjuvimarśiṇī, these eight Tantras are the eight Śaktitantras; in his commentary to the Saundaryalaharī, Lakṣmīdhara says that these Śaktitantras are Brahmītantra, Māheśvarītantra, Kaumārītantra, Vaiṣṇavītantra, Vārāhītantra, Mahaindrītantra, Camuṇḍātantra and Śivadūtītantra.[2] Thus a Vārāhītantra is included in a list of the Bahurūpāṣṭaka.[3]
The Vārāhī Tantra, consisting of 2545 verses, refers of a Vārāhī Tantra of 6303 verses,[4] which are approximately the same number of verses as in the Vārāhī Tantra
In any event, we can neither be assured that the Vārāhī Tantra on which this research is based is the same one mentioned in the various lists of sixty-four Bhairava Tantras, nor that these lists actually refer to the same text, since there are at least four Tantras carrying this same name.[5]
Great paṇḍits of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries such as Devanāthā Ṭhakkura, Brahmānandagiri, Śri Kṛṣṇānanda Āgamavāgīśa Bhaṭṭācārya, Yadunātha and Narasiṃha Ṭhakkura, among others, quote often verses of a Vārāhī Tantra, a few of which are also included in this Vārāhī Tantra[6]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
[2]:
Another group of texts which are also called the Bahurūpāṣṭaka is found in a list from the Śrīkaṇṭhasaṃhitā given by Śrī Jayaratha in his commentary to the Tantrāloka of Śrī Abhinavaguptapadācarya. Here, the Bahurūpāṣṭaka (instead of the Śaktitantras) is comprised by the following Tantras: Andhaka, Rurubheda, Aja, Mala, Varṇabhaṇṭa, Viḍaṅga, Mātṛrodhana and Jālima.
[3]:
Concerning the Bahurūpāṣṭaka, see also the previous chapter, note 36.
[4]:
See Vārāhī Tantra, folio 5.
[5]:
See Introduction.
[6]:
For more details see Appendix 2.