History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.149

v7.c92.149

in the worship of the seven tongues of Agni. The Mahānirvāṇa (VIII. 214-215) prescribes Gītā IV. 24 (brahmārpaṇam brahma havir) as the mantra to be recited by the leader of the Tattvacakra in offering the five tattvas and in sanctifying them In spite of all this lip service to the Veda the tantras ignore the great moral dangers involved in their persistent teaching of five makāras and also pay no heed to the impressive advice of the Gītā (III. 21) that whatever a great or honoured man does or holds as authoritative is followed by all common people. There are several late medieval works about the Kaula cult that speak of drinking wine, eating flesh and maithuna in the vulgar sense as means of Devī worship and yet assert that by doing so *mukti* (liberation) would be secured. Two verses from a ms of a tantrik work called Kaularahasya (containing one hundred verses) will bring home to the reader how common people understood the cult of the *makāras*.¹⁷⁶¹