History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.262

v7.c92.262

The above passages show that the item of nyāsa was taken over from Tāntrika works in the Purāṇas for the rites of the orthodox people several centuries before Yogayājñavalkya, Aparārka (first half of 12th century A. D.) and the Smṛticandrikā. The Varṣakriyākaumudī¹⁸³³ (about first half of 16th century) shows that long before it the Garuḍa and the Kālikā purāṇas contained provisions on nyāsa. The Devapratiṣṭhātattva of Raghunandana (p. 505) speaks of Mātṛkānyāsa and Tattvanyāsa The Pūjāprakāśa section of the Vīramitrodaya dwells upon Mātṛkānyāsa, Aṅganyāsa, Gāyatrīnyāsa on pp 130, 131, 132 respectively. The Bhaktiprakāśa (pp. 88-89) of the same work deals with Mātṛkānyāsa. In modern times some orthodox people still perform two kinds of nyāsas as follows; The Antarmātṛkā which consists in the mystic assignment (mentally) of the letters of the alphabet (from 'a' to 'kṣa') on the fingers of the hands and on the palm and back of the hands and on several parts of the body viz. the throat, organs of generation, the ādhāra place and the middle of the eyebrow (as the seats of the six psychic cakras mentioned in note 1715 above). The Bahirmātṛkānyāsa consists in assigning the individual alphabet letters with *anusvāra* on each on the limbs from head to feet in such forms as 'āṁ namaḥ mūrdhni' and so on.