History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.117
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.117
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The teaching of Tāntrika texts about the five *makāras* must have created a very unhealthy and debased state among all classes, particularly the lower orders of Society. The centuries from the 7th to the 12th A. D. were the peak period of Tāntrik works and cults, both Hindu and Buddhist. In a certain cult of the Vajrayāna the gurus wore a blue vesture. A story is narrated of a guru (a monk) of the *sammitīya* sect who went dressed in a blue dress to a courtezan. He did not return to the monastery at night. When asked in the morning by his disciples why he put on a blue dress, he explained the great spiritual merit of the blue-coloured dress. Since then his followers began to wear blue dress and in their book called ‘Nīlapaṭadarśana’ it is written ‘the god Kāmadeva (Eros) is a jewel, a courtezan is a jewel, wine is a jewel, I bow to these three jewels; other so-called jewels are three glass beads’. It should be remembered that for devout Buddhists, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are three Ratnas (jewels). The followers of the Nīlapaṭadarśana deemed these last three to be as worthless as glass beads. Vide Bhikṣu Rāhula Sānkṛtyāyana’s paper ‘On Vajrayāna or Mantrayāna’ in J. A. vol. 225 (1934) p. 216 where this is narrated. False gurus must have gone about deluding people with rosy prospects of bliss and liberation by the easy method of drinking wine, eating flesh and free association with all sorts of women.
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The Indian literature of those centuries is full of condemnation and caricatures of the methods of Tāntrik worship by means of wine, flesh and sexual laxity. A few instances may be cited here. In the *prākṛit* play called Karpūramañjarī of Rājaśekhara (about 900 A. D.), a character called Bhairavānanda¹⁷³⁷ who was supposed to possess wonderful powers is introduced and he says (while representing that he was somewhat tipsy) 'owing to the favour of our guru we know nothing about mantras or tantras or meditation. We drink wine, dally with women and yet, being devoted to the Kula path, we reach *mokṣa*. A fierce strumpet is given *dīkṣā* and made a lawful wife, wine is drunk and flesh is consumed, our food is got by begging for alms, our bed is a piece of hide. To whom would the Kauladharma not appear attractive? Even gods headed by Viṣṇu and Brahmā declare that liberation is attained by meditation, Veda study and performance of Vedic sacrifices; only one God, the husband of Umā, perceived that mokṣa (can be attained) by dalliance with women and by wine'. The Yaśastilaka-campū (composed in 959 A. D.) after referring to the Dakṣiṇa and Vāma paths of Śaivāgama quotes a verse of the great poet¹⁷³⁸ Bhāsa "a person should drink wine, look at the face of the woman dear to him, wear a dress naturally charming and free from being odd; may the adorable Śiva be long-lived, who (first) discovered such a path to mokṣa!" The Daśāvatāra-carita of Kṣemendra (3rd quarter of 11th century A.
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D.) states in one verse what the Tāntrik gurus and their followers did 'Gurus declare that liberation follows by the drinking of wine from the same goblet by various craftsmen such as washermen, weavers, workers in hides, *kāpālikas*, in the procedure of cakrapūjā, and by dalliance with women without the least scruple and by always leading a life of festivities."¹⁷³⁹ The Rāja-taraṅgiṇī (middle of 12th century A. D) has several references to the Tāntrikas and their doings. In V. 66 Kalhana says that during ¹⁷⁴⁰ the reign of Avantivarman of Kashmir, *siddhas* (persons possessed of miraculous powers like *ammā*) such as Bhatta Kallata were born for the benefit of the world. In describing the effects of the rule of a good king Yaśaskara (939-948 A. D.), Kalhana ¹⁷⁴¹ remarks that during his reign were not seen housewives figuring as divinities at the rite of *gurudīkṣā* and shaking their heads for detracting from the eminent character (attributed to) of their husbands.' King Kalaśa of Kashmir (1063-1089 A. D.) became a pupil of Pramadakantha, son of Amarakantha who was a good brāhmana, but Kalaśa, who by nature was evil-minded, was instructed in evil practices by his guru Pramadakantha and the latter made the former ignore the distinction between women who are approachable and who are not.
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In this connection, Kalhana bitterly ¹⁷⁴² bewails "what other unscrupulousness of this guru (of Kalaśa) should be described by me, when, leaving aside all scruples, he committed incestuous intercourse with his own daughter." This establishes that in the 11th century A. D.