The Brahmayamala Tantra or Picumata (The Religious Observances and Sexual Ritual of the Tantric Practitioner: Chapter 3, 21 and 45)

Book Specification

Book Description

About the Book

The Brahmayamalatantra (aka Picumata) is probably one of the earliest surviving Saiva tantras, and possibly the earliest one known to us of the Bhairavatantra tradition. The present volume contains a critical edition and annotated translation of three of its chapters: one on the central mandala of the cult, one on preliminary religious observances (vrata) prescribed for all practitioners (sadhaka), and one on instructions for each individual category of sadhaka instructions on transgressive sexual rituals for the Talaka, on strict rules of conduct for the chaste Carubhojin, and on a combination of these for the Mixed Practitioner. This unique system of sadhakas marks an early phase in the development of classification of practitioners seeking liberation and magical powers, and gives us an insight into the tantric world of extremes: of rule-bound sexual encounters involving several female partners and highly impure substances on the one hand, and of asceticism, strict vegetarianism and chastity on the other.

The introduction deals with the main topics raised by the selected chapters, as well as with problems of the sometimes extremely non-standard (Aisa) Sanskrit that the oldest manuscript transmits. One of the appendices provides a summary of the first twenty-five chapters (about one quarter of the Brahmayamala) to facilitate further study. The extensive index includes all important keywords and all major Aisa phenomena.

Introduction

1.1 General Introduction

In this volume, I focus on the obscure and intriguing figure of the tantric practitioner (sadhaka) of mediaeval India, investigating his (and her) obligatory daily rituals as well as the occasional and optional rites he (and she) are entitled to perform, many times together as sexual partners, as presented in an early Saiva tantra, the 12000-verse Brahmayamala (BraYa). This text is also known as the Picumata, the Navaksaravidhana, the Dvadasasahasraka, the Ucchusma and the Vimala.1 The BraYa is one of the oldest surviving Bhairava-tantras if not simply the oldest of them, dated recently to around the seventh century. Its importance for mediaeval India, and mediaeval Indian authors can be inferred, among other things, from the fact that Abhinavagupta cites it frequently in his Tantraloka The fact that Buddhist tantras, especially the Laghusarpvara, contain extensive passages that are borrowed from the BraYa add considerably to its importance for the reconstruction of the history of mediaeval Indian religions.

The practitioners of later Saiva tantra are very commonly classified into four classes, and thus are given instructions on and entitled to pursue one of four kinds of ritual life: that of the samayin, the sadhaka, the putraka or the acarya. The case of the BraYa, and of other early tantric texts such as the Nisvasatattvasamhita (Nisv), is different: the practitioner is commonly and generally called sadhaka, and is variously classified into a number of groups. Early chapters of the BraYa mention three such groups or classes of practitioners, Sadhakas. This is what is expounded in great detail in one of the chapters edited, translated and analysed in the present volume (patala 45).

One of the two other chapters edited here (patala 3) gives us a general and basic overview of the cult’s pantheon and initiation mandala. The core of the pantheon consists of the main deities Kapalisa and Canda Kapalini (her Vidya OM KANDE KAPALINI SVAHA, is the central mantra of the Bra’Ya), who are surrounded by the four Devis/Guhyakas (Rakta, Karali, Candaksi, Mahocchusma), the four Kinkaris/Dutis (Karala, Dantura, Bhimavaktra, Mahabala), the six Yoginis (Krostuki, Vijaya, Gajakarna, Mahamukhi, Cakravega, Mahanasa) and the eight Mothers/Matrs (Mahesvari/Mahesvari, Brahmi, Vaisnavi, Kaumari, Vaivasvati, Indrani/ Mahendri, Candika/ Camunda/Carcika, Aghori). Presenting this chapter here seemed useful to contextualise and locate many of the rituals described in the subsequent chapters, most of which are to be performed actually inside the mandala.

The third chapter I have choosen to edit for this volume is very closely related to patala 45 mentioned above, being nothing less than an elaboration on one phase in the Sadhaka’s religious career touched upon briefly in patala 45, namely on the ascetic observances (vrata) required before setting foot on one of the three paths of the Sadhaka.

There has been relatively little scholarly work done on the BraYa. There are two scholars who are definitely to be mentioned in this respect. One is Alexis Sanderson, the first scholar to contextualise the BraYa within the Saiva tantric tradition and to give a detailed account of its general characteristics. He comments on various aspects of the text in many of his seminal articles. The other is Shaman Hatley, who devoted his ground breaking PhD thesis to the Bra’Ya (HATLEY 2007).

My present contribution is a very modest one. The BraYa being a very extensive text, no comprehensive study of all its important features or a complete critical edition seems a feasible task at the moment. It took me a considerable time to narrow down all the possibilities offered by the text to the topic of the Sadhaka. The 674-verse-Iong main Sadhaka chapter (BraYa 45) gives a detailed description of its subject matter and is relatively coherent: this is one of the reasons why it seemed a good idea to focus on it. The edition of the Mandala chapter (BraYa 3) can be seen as a continuation of HATLEY’S edition of the first two patalas in HATLEY 2007, which is an additional reason to include it here. Finally, BraYa 21 is not only related to BraYa 45, but provides interesting confirmation for the BraYa’s close relationship with the Jayadrathayamala (JRY, see section 1.3 on pp. 31ff.).

In the following, I will analyse each of the three patalas critically edited, translated and annotated in the second half of this volume. After the analyses, and some general remarks on the available manuscripts and my editorial policy,