History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.4

v7.c92.4

The Amarakośa states that *tantra* means 'principal matter or part', 'siddhānta' (i. e. doctrine or śāstra), a loom or paraphernalia But it does not state that tantra means a certain peculiar class of works. Therefore, the inference is not altogether unjustifiable that in its time works bearing the peculiar character of what are called Tantras were either not composed or had not at least attained great vogue. In Ṛg. X. 71. 9 the word 'tantra' occurs and appears to mean a loom 'These ignorant¹⁶⁶⁰ men do not move about lower down (in this world) nor in a higher world, being neither (learned) brāhmanas nor some-extracting priests, these resort to speech (of a vile kind) and with that vile speech they engage in handling ploughs and looms'. The Atharvaveda (X 7 42) ('tantram-eke yuvatī virūpe abhyākrāmam vayatah san-mayūkkham') employs the word tantra in the same sense and so does the Tai Br. II 5. 5. 3 in a closely similar passage Pāṇini (V. 2 70) derives the word 'tantraka' (a cloth that is recently taken away from a loom) from '*tantra*'. The Āp. Śr employs the word¹⁶⁶¹ tantra in the sense of 'procedure containing many parts'. The Śān. Śr. applies the word tantra to what being once done serves the purpose of many other actions. The Mahābhāṣya on Pāṇini IV. 2 60 and Vārtika 'sarvasāderdvigośca lah' cites 'sarvatantrah' and 'dvitantrah' as examples meaning 'one who has studied all the tantras' or 'one who has studied two tantras', tantra probably meaning 'siddhānta'. In Yāj. I. 228 ('tantram va vaiśva devikam') the word tantra is employed in the sense in which the commentary on the Śān. Śr. takes it The 15th adhikarana of Kautilya's Arthaśāstra bears the title 'Tantrayukti' (vide J. O. R, Madras, vol. 4, 1930, p. 82 ff) meaning the main canons or propositions or principles of exposition of a sāstra. Caraka (Siddhisthāna, chap 12. 40-45) also speaks of '36 tantrasya yuktayah' and Susruta (Uttaratantra, chap. 65) names 32 tantrayuktis In Bṛhaspati and Kātyāyana and in the Bhāgavata the word tantra is employed in the sense of 'doctrine' or 'śāstra'. Śabara in his *bhāṣya* on Jaimini XI. I. 1 remarks that when any thing or act, once done, becomes useful in several¹⁶⁶² matters, that is called 'tantra'. Sankarācārya in several passages of his bhāṣya on the Vedāntasūtras speaks of the Sānkhya system as sānkhya-tantra and of the Pūrvamīmāmsā as 'prathama-tantra'.¹⁶⁶³ In the Kālikā- purāṇa (87. 130) the works of Uśanas and Bṛhaspati on Rājanīti (the science of statecraft) are called tantras and in 92. 2 the Viṣṇudharmottara-purāṇa is called tantra. In all these cases the peculiar meaning attached to the word tantra- in medieval times does not occur.