History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.137.1

v7.c92.137.1

The Tāntrikas clothe their practices in bombastic and high-sounding words. The five makāras are called pañca-tattvas, kuladravyas or kulatattvas. Maithuna is generally referred to as pañcamatattva, the woman with whom sexual intercourse is to be had or who was at least to be associated with a male in Tantra worship is called Śakti (vide Kulārṇava VII 39-43 and Mahānirvāṇa VI. 18-20) or *prakṛti* or *latā* and this special ritual is called ‘Latāsādhana’ (Mahānirvāṇa I. 52). Wine is called tīrthavāri (holy water) or kāraṇa (VIII. 168 and VI. 17). The Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, though a reformist work and in certain cases asking the king to punish drunkards (XI. 113-121), waxes eloquent over wine and praises it as Tārā in the form¹⁷⁵³ of a fluid substance, as the saviour of individual souls, as the mother (or producer) of bhoga (enjoyment) and mokṣa (liberation) and as the remover of misfortunes and diseases and after some further praise of wine winds up by saying that those men who drink wine according to the rules and with a well-controlled mind are gods on earth (XI. 108). For the worship of Śakti the five tattvas are absolutely necessary (Mahānirvāṇa-tantra V. 21-24 quoted in note 1695 above and¹⁷⁵⁴ Kulārṇava V. 69 and 76). Some tantras say that the meaning of tattva differs according as the person concerned is Tāmasika (*a paśu* kind of worshipper), Rājasika (*a vīra* as he is called), sāttvika (*a divya*, a person who is godlike).