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Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c12: Chapter Eight: The Pantheon

Gorakhnāth and the Kānphaṭa Yogīs c12

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Chapter Eight: The Pantheon

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Yogīs are essentially Śaivites. The range of their interests and of their historical connections includes, however, other elements. In the first place, Viṣṇu is not without attention. The images on the face of the *Dharamśāla* on the top of Dhinodhar serve as an illustration. Hanumān and Rām Chandra have their shrines at certain monasteries, such as that at Ṭilla, and both, together with aspects of Vaisṇavism, and even Viṣṇu himself, are assimilated to certain divisions of the Gorakhnāthīs and are constantly noted in the legends.¹ The image of Garuḍa is found in the establishment at Purī. Hanumān is represented in certain forms of the ṭīkā. The rudrākṣa of ten faces symbolizes the ten *avatāras* of Viṣṇu. Many of the Vaiṣṇavite Bhaktas of Western India trace their doctrines through Gorakhnāth. At Gorakhpur the decorations on the *samādhs* and shrines contain many Vaiṣṇavite symbols and images. According to the *Śiva Saṃhitā* the chanting of the name of Viṣṇu is necessary in Yoga practices when the attention is directed to the *cakras*.²

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¹ See chapters on ‘Sacred Places’; and also tables of the divisions of the Gorakhnāthīs in the appendix to chapter four, and their *Paramparās* in Abbott’s books.

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² 3. 35.

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Buddhist elements and contacts are numerous. Not only is the Tāntra-Yoga system, which the Yogīs follow, a mixture of late Buddhism with Brahmanistic elements, but also the history of the Kānphaṭas shows many Buddhist marks. In Bengal, Matsyendranāth, Gorakhnāth, Hāḍi and others are claimed as Buddhist saints. According to Bengal traditions Gorakhnāth was originally a Buddhist by the name of Ramanavajra belonging to the Vajrayāna.¹ He became a convert to Śaivism, took the new name, and became the great protagonist of the latter cult. These men were related also to the Dharma movement. One of the Yogi castes of Bengal is still known as the Dharmagiri Yogī. Śākya, one of the godlings of the death ceremonies, mentioned on page forty-two, points in the same direction. In Nepāl, Matsyendranāth is identified with Avalokiteśvara, and his annual festival there swings around an ancient Buddhist image (Levi). A book in tenth-century character Bengali is attributed to him. It is not a Buddhist work. Furthermore, the struggle between movements, indicated at the beginning of Chapter Four may point to this period. Śaṅkara was a great protagonist of Śaivism in the east. The struggle which he inaugurated was continued for centuries before Buddhism was overcome, yet elements of it persist and continue in modern forms of Tāntric Hinduism. Ramifications of the sect of the Kānphaṭas in the north-west and beyond the borders of India, point to Buddhist influences.

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¹ Consult Sen, p. 28; Or., especially the Introduction; Tāranāth; The Art of the Pal Empire, by French, which illustrates this period, especially Vajrayāna. The stages of Buddhist development in Bengal from about the seventh century of our era were: Mantrayāna, which substituted invocations for Dhāraṇīs, in the use of short words and letters in invoking the spirits of the Buddha and the Bodhisāts; Vajrayāna, in which a mixture of mystical philosophy and sensuality with the worship of Nirātma Devi, the Formless Void into whose embrace the devotee, bent on bodhi lept, there enjoying something like the pleasures of the senses, and finally disappearing; and Kālacakrayāna, through which deliverance from the wheel of destruction was achieved. These Buddhist elements were absorbed into the Nāthamārga. This form of religion arose outside of Buddhism. Matsyendranātha was a Nātha. Tradition shows him carrying his sectarianism into Nepāl, and Gorakhnāth as his disciple. Of the Great Nāthas, Gorakhnāth was the only heretic (from Buddhism).

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Jāin contacts are not wanting; and the sons of Matsyendranāth, Nīmnāth and Pārasnāthpūj are both Jāin saints. A Jāin temple near Pāe Dhūnī in Bombay city shelters an idol of Ghorajīnāth, bedecked with gems.

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The Islamic contacts with the organization are evidenced in the modern possession of such shrines as that at Hing Lāj by Muslims and in the worship conducted at the tomb of the Muslim at Devī Pātan. Here, at four o’clock in the morning, and at six in the evening, milk, rice, incense and a lamp are placed. There are groups of Musalmān Yogīs. These notices are merely suggestive, not exhaustive.

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The chief concern of the Yogīs is, however, with Śiva and the Śaivite faith. In the symbols everywhere in evidence at their sacred places, in the legends and in ceremony, Śiva and his consort are always to the front. The festivals at numerous establishments of the Kānphaṭas are peculiarly Śaivite. And at Dhinodar, to cite one example, the head of the monastery repeats a hymn in Śiva’s honor on the second of every month.¹ Or, it might be said that his Śakti is paramount.

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¹ Bombay Gazetteer, vol. V, p. 87.

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In this account of Śiva, attention is confined to such aspects of his history, character, and activities as are pertinent to the beliefs and practices of the Yogīs.

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While the beneficent aspects of his character are persistently emphasized, his name being the expression of his auspicious character, and while he is an object of devotion by his followers, still, Śiva’s other and sinister aspects, in which he appears as extremely irascible in temper and as easily aroused to deeds of violence, are conspicuous; and his fierce, wild character is never lost sight of. It is Śiva the destroyer, the terrible, at the same time reproducer, or recreator, who is constantly worshipped. These characteristics are brought to the fore in the great part that Bhāiroṁ (Bhāirava) plays in the worship of the Kānphaṭas and in the place that the yoni-liṅga and the adoration of Śakti occupy in their cult. Moreover, Śiva is the ascetic *par excellence*, the chief of the Yogīs, Yogeśvar. Indeed, it is Śiva who revealed to Pārvatī the secret doctrine of the Yoga, and it was because a certain Matsyendranāth, in the form of a fish, overheard Śiva as he expounded the teaching, that the Gorakhnāthīs are now in possession of this secret of Śiva. (Pārvatī went to sleep while Śiva was expounding the doctrine.) And it is he who has taught by example that the attainment of bliss is by voluntary torture of the flesh, by the subjugation of the turbulent passions, and by undisturbed meditation. In the cult both meditation and physical discipline are emphasized, while even licence of every kind is made to serve in the attainment of *samādhi*. Their Haṭha Yoga includes the use of *dhāuti* and certain secret practices as well as the practice of the *śrīcakra* and other *vāmacāra* rites, and of the use of drugs, all aiming at *rapport* with the mystic, superhuman, creative forces of the universe. Thus, both Śiva and his consort are inseparably involved in the cult and its traditions.

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Śiva, Mahādeva, as the great ascetic, appears quite naked, with one face, with matted hair, ash-besmeared, sitting in profound meditation under a banyan tree, or under a canopy formed of hooded serpents, or in a remote mountain retreat, passionless, motionless, immovable, rooted to the spot for millions of years.¹ In the *Purāṇas* he is depicted as a mendicant dressed in a tiger’s skin, with matted locks and with snakes serving as ribbons and apron strings. He carries a trident. His half-shut eyes are watery, and his garb and demeanour suggest a person under the influence of wine and narcotics.² Dakṣa’s description of Śiva is as follows.³ He roams about in dreadful cemeteries, attended by hosts of goblins and spirits, like a mad man, naked, with dishevelled hair, laughing, weeping, bathed in the ashes of funeral piles, wearing a garland of skulls and ornaments of human bones, insane, beloved of the insane, the lord of beings whose nature is essentially darkness. In another passage he is described as bearing the liṅga desired by devotees, ashes, a staff, a tuft of hair, an antelope’s skin and a digit of the moon, his body shining like an evening cloud. He has great powers of concentration, and once, when disturbed, by the fire of his third eye he burned Kāma to ashes.⁴ He is called Bōlānāth, Lord of Forgetfulness, and as such wanders about in abstraction, drowsy with drugs, or sinks in meditation.’ ‘Bom, Bom,’ is a cry meaning ‘forgetfulness.’⁵

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¹ See *Brahmanism and Hinduism*, chap. four.

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² *BCHS*, p. 367.

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³ Quoted from the *Mahābhārata* by Atkinson in *The Himalayan Districts*, vol. II, p. 722.

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⁴ Here belongs the whole history of the site, Kāmrup, and the goddess Kāmākyā. See below, pp. 166 ff.

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⁵ *Bengali Religious Lyrics*, Śākta, pp. 16, 42.

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In like character he appears in the *Great Epic*.¹ There we have the typical Yogī, intent on the attainment of ecstatic and magical powers through self-torture and self-induced vacuity, apathy and trance, accompanied by intervals of morbid nervous and cerebral exaltation.² Another description of Śiva will intensify the picture. ‘He wears an ornament of serpents made of leather; has a third eye painted with soap-stone on his forehead; holds a trident in his fist; carries a cunningly designed lute; has a mass of braids piled like a diadem on his head; puts on a black cloth like an elephant’s skin; daubs his body with ashes; and has a garland of skulls hanging about his neck.’³ With this description are associated awful rites of black magic. Barth says: ‘From the outset, and more than any other Hindu religion, Śaivism has pandered to ascetic fanaticism. No other has exhibited so many horrible and revolting observances, or has worn with so much ostentation the badge, often singular enough, of devotion.’⁴ These descriptions lend significance to the study of the Śaivite cults that preceded that of the Kānphaṭas and of which these later Yogīs are the descendents.

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¹ E.g., 12, 328; 8, 23.

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² Compare Gough, *Philosophy of the Upanishads*, pp. 18, 19.

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³ Hemavijaya’s *Kathāratnākara*, Story 133, rendered by Bloomfield, *JAOS*, vol. XLIV, p. 209.

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⁴ *Religions of India*, p. 214.

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In besmearing his body with ashes, Śiva relates himself to goblins and all the horrors of the cemetery. And in this practice the later ghastly and ghoulish aspects of asceticism come into view. Such sects as the Kāpākika⁵ which were the precursors of the Gorakhnāthīs, and the Aghorīs made much use of some of these elements.

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⁵ See chap. ten.

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With Śiva is associated the bull, and the phallic element in his worship is always present. The samādhs of the Yogīs are surmounted by the yoni-liṅga; these emblems are symbolized in the siṅgnād and the pāvitrī of their sacred thread; the brand mark which Yogīs receive at Koṭeśvar is a representation of these same figures; and, of course, every temple of their sect contains these symbols. The worship of the liṅga is very old in India,¹ and it is probable that it owes its origin to aboriginal sources. It is possible that this worship, like that of Śiva himself, in some of his aspects, found its way into Brāhmanic culture slowly at first. At any rate, early references to phallic worship are few. There are two in the *Rig Veda* (7, 21, 5; 10, 99, 3), if such be the meaning of *śiśna*. The term is one of reproach and descriptive of non-Aryans. In later times, Sāyaṇa remarked that those who sported with the *śiśna* were unchaste. The *Rāmāyaṇa* does not know the *liṅga*² but in the *Didactic Epic* it, like Śiva himself, is fairly well-known.³

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¹ *Iconography, Indian*, vol. II, pt. 1, p. 55; Muir, *Sanskrit Texts*, vol. IV, p. 345. The earliest known representations of the liṅga are of the first century: (1) from Bhīṭā, now in the Lucknow museum; (2) at Gudimallam in North Arcot. See *ERE*, vol. XI, p. 92. See also Marshall, vol. I, pp. 58 ff. There seems to have been a counterpart of Śiva in the ancient Indus civilization.

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² ORLI, p. 48.

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³ E.g., 8, 33 : 45; 7, 200-1, 93-96, 202, 203; 13, 14: 233 ff.

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‘Śiva’ is not the name of a god either in the *Rig-* or in the *Atharva-Veda*, but the word, which means ‘auspicious,’⁴ is used to describe Rudra. As a god, Śiva does not appear before 200 B.C.

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⁴ Rig Veda, 1, 64: 8.

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Rudra, of the Vedic pantheon, is quite un-Aryan in his character, but he exhibits some characteristics which are of interest in this study, both from the point of view of the physician, of one manipulating the storms, and of his horrible and terrible acts. In the *Rig Veda*⁵ he is intelligent; bountiful; a healer of cattle, kine, men and children; a dispenser of healing remedies; a granter of prosperity. He is ruddy in colour. Withal, he is strong, impetuous and crooked, and he injures vengefully; he is described as having braided hair and as the unshorn ascetic; he is fierce, purifying, rain-dispensing;⁶ he is the father of the storm gods (Maruts),⁷ the wielder of the thunderbolt, the bow and arrow; he is renowned as youthful, mounted on his chariot, and like a wild beast, destructive, fierce, a terrible and manslaying god; he is the roaring god of the monsoon, of the lightning in its destructive function.¹ In the *Satarudriya*² the god's one hundred aspects are set forth. The older characteristics, already enumerated, are repeated and his terrible, cruel, fierce nature is emphasized. He is blue-necked. A sinister phase of his character is brought out in that he is a patron of robbers, rogues, pilferers and murderers, and the guardian of roads. Withal he is auspicious (*śiva*).³ If in the *Ṛig Veda* he is malevolent, in the later Vedas he is more fierce and terrible.⁴ It is in the *Yajur Veda* that Rudra is first called Īśvara and Mahādeva, and that he begins to appear as Śaṅkara and Śiva as well. In the *Atharva Veda* and in the *Brāhmaṇas* Rudra is called the Lord of Animals, Paśupati.⁵ In the *Atharva Veda* his wide-mouthed, howling dogs, who swallow their prey unchewed, are mentioned.⁶ He gives consumption and poison and is the destructive lightning.⁷ In the *Upaniṣads* he takes on the characters of creator and sage and is described pantheistically.⁸ In the *Atharva Śiras* Rudra is set forth in similar fashion; is identified with Gāurī, Umā, Viṣṇu, Brahmā, and Maheśvara, and is spoken of as immortal, imperishable, the creator, sustainer and destroyer.

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⁵ 1, 143 : 1-11. Compare 1, 114.

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⁶ 1, 64: 2.

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⁷ 1, 85 : 1, etc.

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¹ The references are (besides those quoted): 1, 122 : 1; 2, 33 : 1-15; 3, 2 : 5; 4, 3 : 1; 5, 41 : 2; 5, 42 : 11; 5, 59 : 8; 5, 60 : 5; 5, 28 : 7; 6, 66 : 3; 6, 74 : 1 ff; 7, 10 : 4; 7, 35 : 6; 7, 40 : 5; 7, 46 : 1, 2; 7, 56 : 1; 7, 58 : 5; 8, 13 : 20; 8, 20 : 17; 8, 29 : 5; 8, 61 : 3; 10, 64 : 8; 10, 66 : 3; 10, 92 : 5; 10, 93 : 7; 10, 125 : 6; 10, 126 : 5; 10, 126 : 1; 10, 169 : 1.

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² *Vājasaneyi saṃhitā*, 16, 1-66.

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³ E.g., verses 2, 3, 41.

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⁴ See references in Macdonell's *Vedic Mythology*.

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⁵ A root Śaivite sect of the Yogīs are the Pāśupatas.

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⁶ 11, 2.

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⁷ 11, 2: 26.

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⁸ *Śvet. Up.*, 3, 1 ff.

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His epithet, Paśupati, brings to view his character as sparing cattle, as significant of his beneficent aspects.⁹ As the Lord of the open fields, he is Lord of the cattle which roam in them. Also he was the god that held sway over regions away from home, over fields, wildernesses, cemeteries, mountains, old trees and rivers. Whenever a man came to anything which inspired awe and terror, Rudra was the god thought of and prayed to to protect. . . . In Rudra-Śaivism the sentiment of fear is at the bottom, however concealed it may have become in certain developments of it, and this sentiment it is that has worked itself out in the formation of the various Rudra-Śaiva systems of later times.¹

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⁹ Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, etc., p. 102.

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¹ Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, etc., p. 106.

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In the *Rāmāyaṇa*, Rudra is called Mahādeva and Śiva, as in the *Didactic Epic*. He curses Kāma;² receives Umā from Himāvat;³ his cunnubial life with her is described;⁴ and he catches Gaṅgā as she falls from heaven.⁵

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² I, 12: 10 ff.

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³ I, 36: 20.

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⁴ I, 37: 5 ff.

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⁵ I. 43: 48.

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With the *Didactic Epic* Rudra has become Mahādeva, or Śiva; and Śiva meets with growing recognition as the equal of Brahmā and Viṣṇu, is worshipped by Kṛṣṇa⁶ and even transcends the gods.⁷ One of his female devotees thus describes him (Mahādeva, Śiva;⁸)

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⁶ Vanaparva, 1, 513-1,656; Droṇaparva, 2,838 ff; 2,862 ff.

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⁷ Anuśāsanaparva, 588 ff; 839 ff.

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⁸ Anuśāsanaparva, verses 731 ff., 742 f., 745, 746, 748, 749, 751, 742. Quoted from Muir, Sanskrit Texts, vol. IV, p. 160.

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He assumes many forms of gods (as Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Indra, Rudra) and of men, of goblins, demons, barbarians, tame and wild beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, with many varieties of human disguises etc. He is the soul of all the worlds, all-pervading, residing in the heart of all creatures, knowing all desires. He carries a discus, a trident, a club, a sword, and an axe. He has a girdle of serpents, ear-rings of serpents, a sacrificial cord of serpents, an outer garment of serpents’ skins. He laughs, sings, dances charmingly, and plays various musical instruments. He leaps, gapes, weeps, makes others weep; speaks like a mad man or a drunkard, as well as in sweet tones. He laughs terrifically. He is both visible and invisible, on the altar, on the sacrificial post, in the fire, a boy, an old man, a youth. He dallies with the daughters and the wives of the Ṛiṣis, with erect hair, obscene appearance,⁹ naked, with excited look. He is one-faced, two-faced, three-faced, many-faced.

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⁹ Ingenti membro virili proeditus.

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All through the *Anuśāsanaparva*, Mahādeva is exalted and his old character as the terrible is emphasized. Even the gods, at the sound of the twang of his bow, are afraid.

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Again Rudra (Śiva) burns up the three cities (Tripura) of the Asuras,¹⁰ in the heaven of gold, in the atmosphere of silver on the earth of black iron. These he destroyed with a single arrow with one half of the strength of the gods.¹¹ He eats flesh, blood, marrow, and is fiery and fierce. He frequents cemeteries, performs awful rites there, and is very terrible. Kings offer human sacrifice to him¹ and make such offerings as are now made in his temples. He is the chief of Bhūtas (Demons) and he is served by Bhūtas, and Pisācas, and is called Bhāirava.

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¹⁰ Karṇaparva, 1,402 ff. Compare the story of Dharamnāth and the destruction of cities in Kacch.

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¹¹ Karṇaparva, 1,433 ff.

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¹ *Sabhāparva*, 626. See *Sabhāparva*, 653, 861 ff.

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Śiva is, then, the terrible Rudra, whose qualities are thus preserved.

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Still, there is evidence that Śiva had not fully attained to equality with the other gods when the *Epics* were being rewritten.² He evidently gained his position of equality partly by bullying the gods. One of the most famous stories about him is concerned with the sacrifice of Dakṣa.³ To this sacrifice Śiva was the only one of the gods not invited. In the same epic he is represented as having a contest with Kṛṣṇa⁴ after which no difference is discernible between Viṣṇu and him.⁵ Kṛṣṇa acknowledges his greatness and receives eight boons from both⁶ Mahādeva and Umā.

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² *Rāmāyaṇa*, V, 89: 6 ff.

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³ *Śāntiparva*, 13,265, 10,226–58, 10,275 ff.; *Rāmāyaṇa*, I, 66, 7, ff.

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⁴ *Harivaṃśa*, 10,648.

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⁵ *Harivaṃśa*, 10,660 ff.

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⁶ *Anuśāsanaparva*, 1,023 ff.

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In the *Liṅga Purāṇa* is found the description of the famous appearance of the liṅga whose extremities neither Viṣṇu nor Brahmā was able to reach.

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Śiva evidently owes his origin, in part at least, to the north, to the mountains.⁷

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⁷ See Gough, *Philosophy of the Upanishads*, p. 18.

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One or two other acts attributed to Śiva need to be recorded. His third eye is of great significance. The story of the burning of Kāma has been mentioned. When Umā put her hand over his eyes, the whole world became dark and lifeless. Suddenly the gloom is dispelled by a great flame which burst from Mahādeva’s forehead, in which a third eye, luminous as the sun, was formed. By the fire of this eye the mountain was scorched and everything upon it consumed. But, when Umā stood in a submissive attitude before him he restored the Himālaya to its former condition.⁸

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⁸ *Anuśāsanaparva*, 6,355 ff.

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The Epics show Śiva also as the sage, the philosopher. Śiva is often depicted wearing the ear-rings of the Kānphaṭas¹.

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¹ See e.g., the carved liṅga at the temple of Paraśurāmeśvara in North Arcot. See chap. eleven. See also Wi, p. 212, note 1, where it is stated that images depict Śiva with the great rings.

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Thus the descriptions of Śiva (and Rudra) exhibit, both as to form and practice, certain beliefs of the Yogīs.

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Śiva now dwells on Kāilāsa,² beyond the Himālayas. There he has in his company Pārvatī and a considerable following, including the Gaṇas, the Nāthas and the Siddhas. This is his abode.

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² See Vanaparva, 15,801.

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References in other chapters show that Śiva is variously worshipped under such names as Paśupati and Śambhunāth, whose votaries in Nepāl offer sacrifices of blood. Yogīs in their worship give special attention however, to Bhāirava, or Bhāirom, and to Śakti, and this worship is often both intemperate and licentious. It is to Bhāirava, as the embodiment, in human form, of the most terrible aspect of Śiva,³ that the Kānphaṭas, as did the sects that preceded them, give special reverence. Bhāirom is worshipped both by Yogīs and by Śaktas.⁴ He has from eight to twelve forms, but he is best known as Kāl Bhāirom.⁵ Particularly, in North India he is represented with a dog; in middle India as a snake-girdled drummer or by a red stone. He is often pictured with eight arms, with a garland of skulls, with ear-rings and armlets of snakes, with a serpent coiled around his head, in his hands a sword and a bowl of blood. As worshipped by Kunbi cultivators of the Deccan, he is represented as a man standing, in one hand a trident, in the other a drum shaped like an hour-glass, while he is encircled by a serpent. He lives in an unhewn stone smeared with oil and vermilion.¹ His name, Bhāiroṁ, Lord-of-Malignant Ghosts, intensifies his aspect of terror. He is identified with Kapālin, who creates and destroys. His sign of authority is the trident. Again, Bhāiroṁ carries a club and a black bottle and is accompanied by a black dog, or rides on a dog. When he uses a dog as a vehicle he is called Śvāśva (‘He whom the dog serves as a horse’). He plays a considerable part in legend as a great eater. Śiva is approached through him, and he commands the demon hosts as the lieutenant of Śiva. He is the guardian, or door-keeper, of Śiva’s temple, particularly as Kāl (black) Bhāiroṁ. In Benares he is the guardian of all the temples of Śiva, and is known as the Kotwāl (police officer) of that city. In the hills of Kumaun and Garhwāl the popular worship of Bhāiroṁ is in the hands of the Yogīs² and the principal place of worship is at Kedār.³ In Gorakhpur his station is marked by massed triśules about a red masonry mound in front of the veranda and to the left of the main door of the shrine of Gorakhnāth. In the monastery at Purī, Bhāiroṁ is represented with three heads and one leg and his image is protected by a roof of straw. Images of Bhāiroṁ are to be found at the establishments at the Takṣila Gate, Lahore, and at Amritsar. In Trimbak he is represented by huge stones painted red and having eyes of silver. In many places triśules of bamboo or of iron, large and painted red, mark his station and huge pictures of triśules, painted red are often in evidence.

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³ In his terrible form he is said to have frightened even Akbar, as he appeared before that great Moghul.

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⁴ A group of ascetics allied to the Yogīs, who are special devotees of Bhāirom, besmear themselves with vermilion and oil, go about the bazaars begging and singing his praises, striking themselves with whips. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore, p. 97.

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⁵ The Census Report of the North-Western Provinces & Oudh, 1891, p. 207, gives the following names: Kāl Bhāiron, Bhūt Bhāiron, Nand Bhāiron (Nand = happiness), Suth Bhāiron, Batuk Bhāiron. (Tradition says that Batukanāth, a Kāpālika, was a follower of Śaṅkara). Dawson, Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, etc., p. 45, gives the eight names as follows: Asitāṅga (black-limbed), Saṃhāra (destruction), Ruru (a dog), Kāla (black), Krodha (anger), Tāmra cūḍā (red-crested), Candra cūḍā (moon-crested), Mahā (great). He is also known as Kapāla, Rudra, Bhīṣaṇa. Un-matta, Kupati, Bāl Bhāiron (Bāl = child) and Laṭh Bhāiron (Laṭh = club).

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¹ Crooke, in ERE, vol. V, p. 10. See p. 121, above.

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² Atkinson, The Himalayan Districts, vol. II, p. 808.

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³ Atkinson, The Himalayan Districts, vol. II, p. 770. This is the famous Kedār in Garhwāl.

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In the Panjab he is identified (but this has been questioned) with the godling of the homestead. He receives offerings of grain, and animals are sacrificed to him. Liquor is poured out to him. He wards off disease and death and protects both men and cattle. Some worship him for the gift of children.¹ Since it is believed that Mother Earth is his consort, he symbolizes fertility. Young girls of the Dhīmār, or water-carrier caste, used to be married to him at Basdāda in Rewāri. They always died soon afterwards, so the practice was discontinued. The Mallāh boatmen of Agra used to marry their daughters to him. This was because the god once saved a sinking boat. Afterwards the family used to marry one of their girls to him and leave her at his shrine where she survived less than a year; so now a doll made of dough is formally wedded to him.²

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¹ Briggs, *The Chamars*, p. 156.

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² *Popular Religion and Folklore*, p. 246.

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In the Panjab every important town has a shrine of Bhāirom. He is worshipped on Sundays and Tuesdays with offerings of *urd* cakes, flesh, milk, spirits, flowers and sweetmeats (*laḍḍu*) and the offerings are consumed by the worshippers.³ At Devī Pātan the noonday offering is a saucer heaped with cooked rice, which is placed before Bhāirom’s platform, after water has been poured all around it. The rice is then thrown to dogs. In Benares images of dogs, made of sugar candy, are offered to him. Those who die at his chief temple at Benares believe that they undergo expiatory punishment known as *Bhāiravī-yātanā*, and then proceed immediately to final bliss. These persons are known as *Rudrapiśāca* (Rudra’s spirits). Other men, on dying, fall into Yama’s hands and have to return to the earth in successive births. He has many worshippers in Benares and in the adjoining districts. Hopkin’s rather final statement is that his adherents are ignorant peasants and dissolute beggars.⁴ Sārangihār Yogīs beg in the name of Bhāirava.

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³ *CTC*, vol. III, pp. 157, 158.

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⁴ Hopkins, in *ERE*, vol. II, pp. 538, 539.

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This god seems to be of Dravidian, or aboriginal, origin,⁵ and to have been inherited from the Kāpālikas and others of the same sectarian strain. In the famous *Prabodhacandrodaya*, a Kāpālika controls Bhāirava.⁶

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⁵ Crooke in *ERE*, vol. I, p. 10.

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⁶ Crooke, *Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India* (ed. 1926) contains much material on Bhāirom, which has been freely used.

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As worshippers of the consorts of Śiva, Yogīs are Śāktas. A study of the sacred places of the Kānphaṭas and of their traditions makes plain this aspect of their cult.

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Śakti means ‘force’ and, consequently, the divine power or mysterious force of creation is personified in the Goddess. This creative energy is personified also in goddesses and nymphs of every order and in every woman, as well as in the females of every beast. All females are of the same source and order.

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Śakta worship is always related to the adoration of the phallus, which is in every instance associated with the vulva in symbol.¹

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¹ See Sir John Marshall on Śaktism in the ancient Indus civilization. Marshall, vol. I, pp. 52 ff. See above, pp. 154, 155.

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It is said that since children bear neither the marks of Brahmā (the lotus) nor of Viṣṇu (the discus) nor of Indra (the thunderbolt), but are marked either with the male or the female organs, therefore offspring is derived from Mahādeva. So all are marked either with the organ of Devī (Umā) or that of Mahādeva.²

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² Anuśāsanaparva, 822 ff.

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Turning then to the worship of Śakti, it is to be noted that Devī, in her more general character, is Ambā, the mother-goddess, the great power of nature and mother of the universe (Jaganmātā, Jagadambā), mighty, mysterious force. Śakti has two functions, (1) to direct and control the working of the natural appetites and passions, whether for the support of the body by eating or drinking, or for the propagation of living organisms through sexual cohabitation, and (2) to direct and control the acquisition of supernatural faculties (siddhi) whether for man’s own individual exaltation, or for the annihilation of his opponents.³

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³ Brahmanism and Hinduism, pp. 185, 186.

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Back of this conception of Śakti lies the emergence of self-consciousness in the One Being. In this Universal Reality there appears a double nature as soon as self-consciousness is born, a nature partly male, partly female. As the word (Ardhanārī) indicates, the female aspect of the duality is the more significant. In this duality the female aspect is looked upon as the active energy or substance through which creation takes place. It is in this aspect of Reality that the goddess becomes the object of devotion. This idea is very old. In the *Rig Veda* (10, 129: 4) the statement is made:

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Desire entered the One in the beginning:
It was the earliest seed, of thought the product.
The sages searching in their hearts with wisdom,
Found out the bond of being in non-being.
* * * *
Creative force was there, and fertile power:
Below was energy, above was impulse.¹

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¹ Macdonell, *Hymns from the Rig Veda*, p. 19.

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The notion that the universe proceeds from the female principle brought into union with the male is developed in the description of the parenthood of Dyaus-Pṛthivī.² The *Rig Veda* has also its female deities, such as Aditi, mother of gods, and Uṣas. Early the idea appears that the one being, unhappy alone, divided itself, becoming male and female, and that through these, human beings and other forms of life arose.³ The idea appears also in *Manu*⁴ and in the *Purāṇas*.⁵ These two, male and female, are identified with the *puruṣa* and *prākṛti* of the Sāṃkhya system. The goddess is *mūla-prākṛti* and *māyā*, mother of gods and men.⁶ In mediæval Indian sculpture, Śiva is represented as *ardhanārī*, a form in which his left side is female and his right male.⁷ A present-day representation of this view is the yoni-liṅga symbol.

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² *Rig Veda*, 10, 110: 9; 3, 3: 11; 1, 155: 3.

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³ *Śat. Bṛh.*, 14, 4, 2, 4, etc.; *Bṛh. Up.*, 1, 4, 3, etc.; *Chānd. Up.*, 6, 2: 3.

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⁴ 1, 5, etc.; 1, 32.

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⁵ E.g., *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, 1, 7: 6 ff.

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⁶ See *Prakṛti Kaṇḍa* of the *Brahma Vāivratha Purāṇa*.

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⁷ See for example, the caves of Elephanta, eighth century A.D.

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In the *Tantras* the association of male and female functions is carried out in great detail. The pairs as aspects of the one appear in less and less subtle form as the evolution of the world proceeds. In each level there is both their potential and their actual activity. And the Śakti as the formative, creative principle is the receptacle of the seed (*bindu*) of Śiva. So also in all the cakras appears this duality. Through Śiva and Śakti a bindu (drop) is formed which develops into a female element, Nāda (sound), containing in itself the names of all things to be created. With Bindu and Nāda are associated male and female elements so that a substance *Kāma-Kāla* is formed from which creation ensues. This is their manifestation.

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The Śākta system is more closely associated with Śiva, in practice and interest, than with either Brahmā or Viṣṇu. The emphasis on Śakti is strongest in the *Tantras*¹ where force is personified as a female deity and where the wives of Śiva receive undue attention to the neglect of Śiva himself. Today Śāktism is essentially a branch of Śaivism.² And this form of Hinduism looks to the consort of Śiva for its exemplification. Devī is often confused with his consort, and the word ‘Devī’ must be viewed both as the name of the divine goddess and as that of the wife (as Umā, Pārvatī, etc.), of the dread god.

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¹ The *Tantras*, which are viewed as the direct revelation of Śiva to Pārvatī, are later than the better known elements of the religious literature of India. They deal with esoteric and erotic elements of Śākta worship, opening their way to all persons regardless of caste and sect. These works are concerned with Yoga and with the coiled or sleeping goddess (Kuṇḍalinī). They are spoken of as the Fifth Veda. See chap. thirteen.

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² *Brahmanism and Hinduism*, p. 181.

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In Śakti all of the characteristics of Śiva are intensified. Since he has his two colours, so she has her white half and her black half. And each of these aspects has its personification. In her milder character she is known as Umā, Gāurī, Pārvatī, Jaganmātā, Bhavānī. In her fiercer character she is Durgā, Kālī, Śyāmā, Cāṇḍī, Bhāiravī, Kālikā.³ Other names are employed, *e.g.*, Mahābhavānī is prominent in creation, Mahābhāiravī in destruction.

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³ Dawson, *Classical Dictionary*, etc., p. 87.

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Umā is the gracious consort of Śiva. She is known as early as the *Kena Upaniṣad*⁴ and the *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka*.⁵ She is often known as the daughter of Dakṣa⁶ and again as the daughter of Himāvat (the Himālayas). As the active power, or energy, of Śiva, she assumed a body in order that she might be united with him in due form. In the account of the sacrifice of Dakṣa it is related how Umā died of mortification because Śiva, her consort, was not only not invited, but was ridiculed. As having died then, she is called Satī.¹ She was reborn in the family of Himāvat, and is thus called Pārvatī (Daughter-of-the-Mountain).² Śiva and Pārvatī are described as living together on Kailāsa, and as either making love to each other or as engaged in deep philosophical discourse.

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⁴ 3: 12. As early as fourth century B.C.

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⁵ 10: 1, 150.

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⁶ *E.g.*, *Rāmāyaṇa* 1: 66, 7 ff.; *Śāntiparva*, 10,226-58; *Bhagavata Purāṇa*, 4: Sections 2-7.

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¹ Compare *Bhagavad Purāṇa* 4: Sections 2-7. Mention has been made of the dismemberment of his body by Viṣṇu. The little book *Satī* by D. C. Sen tells the same story.

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² Thus also in the *Bhagavata* and *Viṣṇu Purāṇas*. Umā is known to the *Rāmāyaṇa*; e.g., 1, 36. In the *Harivaṃśa* she is one of the daughters of Mena and the wife of the austere Mahādeva. Also in the *Anuśāsana*, 997 ff., Umā (and in verses 837-41 Pārvatī) is known. These references are to but a few of the passages that might be cited.

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Pārvatī was of very dark complexion, and on this account a quarrel arose between herself and Śiva. But she took to severe penance the result of which was that she was changed to a light, golden colour, whence her name Gāurī (‘white’).³ The conventionalized pattern on Indian prints is of the foot of Gāurī.⁴

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³ Mentioned in the *Atharva Śiras* (age of the *Didactic Epic*).

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⁴ Underhill, *The Hindu Religious Year*, p. 51.

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She is sometimes identified with Ambā.

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Turning now to the more formidable aspects of Śakti, there are several names to consider.

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Durgā, ‘the Unapproachable,’ is Śiva’s consort in the aspect of warrior. Her name is derived from that of the demon whom she slew. She is sometimes identified with Pārvatī. One of Durgā’s chief forms is that of the four-armed Kālī, who thirsts for blood, preferably that of human beings, although in these days, she has to be satisfied with that of animals. She is most terrible of aspect, garlanded with heads of demons, gorged in blood, with skulls about her blood-besmeared throat, having dead bodies for ear-rings, carrying two dead bodies in her hands, and inhabitant of burning grounds (for the dead). Kālī is the most terrible aspect of Durgā and Śakti, excepting perhaps that of Bhāiravī. In the *Bhīṣmaparva* she is Kāpālī. By the Kāpālikas and the Kālā-mukhas her fierce spirit was appeased both by animal and by human sacrifices. Durgā represents the destructive forces of the world.

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EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF GĀURI’S FOOT-PRINT

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There are other forms of Śakti, essentially of her darker aspect, to which reference has been made. Of these the first to be mentioned is Kāmākhyā, a local name for Durgā, chiefly because her shrine in Assam seems to have been the headquarters of the Tāntric worship, the place of its origin and that from which it spread into Nepāl and Tibet.¹ She is especially connected with the Vajrayāna. It is said that the Assamese shrine was the headquarters of the Vāiṣṇava sect of the *Mahāpuruṣias*.²

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¹ *ERE*, vol. II, pp. 479-501; *Wi*, p. 29; Gait, *History of Assam*, p. 57.

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² Eliot, *Hinduism and Brahmanism*, vol. II, pp. 280, 289. See also *Imperial Gazetteer* (1886), vol. VII, p. 349, and Gait, *History of Assam*. Mahāpuruṣias are a Vāiṣṇavite sect of Upper Assam; disciples of Sankaradeva (b. 1449), not of the Cāitanya, Rādhā-Kṛiṣṇa type, but of that of the *Bhagavad Gītā*. See *Social History of Kāmarūpa* by N. N. Vasu, vol. II, pp. 115 ff.

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The following account of Kāmākhyā and her shrine is essentially that given by Eliot,³ but with some additional notes. The chief sanctuary of Śāktism is at Kāmākhyā (or Kāmākṣā) on a hill which stands on the banks of the Brāhmapūtra, about two miles below Gāuhāti, in the Kāmarūp District of Assam. The place is mentioned in the *Padma Purāṇa*. The Kāmarūpa kingdom was of some antiquity,⁴ being mentioned in the *Mahābhārata*. Copper plates of these kings, dated in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries are known. The hill on which the shrine stands, also known as Kāmagiri and as Nīlācal, marks the spot where the organs of generation of Sati fell when her body was dismembered by Viṣṇu. It is, therefore, one of the famous pīṭhas. Besides, this is supposed to be in the country where Kāma, who had been reduced to ashes by the fierce glance of Śiva, recovered his natural form (Kāmarūpa).¹ The temples at this place have been rebuilt several times; and, in the eighteenth century, were munificently endowed by an Ahom king, and placed under the management of a Brāhman from Nadia in Bengal, with reversion to his descendants who bear the title of Pārbatiya Gosāins. Considerable estates are still assigned to their upkeep. There are ten shrines on the hill, dedicated to various forms of the Śakti. The situation is magnificent, commanding an extensive prospect over the Brāhmapūtra and the plains on either bank, but none of the buildings are of much architectural merit. The largest and best is that dedicated to Kāmākhyā herself, the goddess of sexual desire. It is of the style usual in Northern India, an unlighted shrine surmounted by a dome, and approached by a rather ample vestibule, which is also imperfectly lighted. An inscription has been preserved recording the restoration of the temple about 1550, but only the present basement dates from that time, most of the structure being recent. Europeans may not enter the shrine, but an image of the goddess may be seen from the side door. In the depths of the shrine is said to be a cleft in the rock, adored as the yoni of Śakti. In front of the temple are two posts to which each day at noon a goat is tied, and decapitated. Below the principal shrine is a temple of Bhāiravi. The spot attracts a considerable number of pilgrims from Bengal, and a wealthy devotee once built a villa on the hill and paid visits to it for the purpose of taking part in the rites. The most esteemed scriptures of the sect are *Yoni Tantra*, *Mahānirvāṇa Tantra*, and the *Kālika Purāṇa*. Kāmākhyā is worshipped both by love and by sacrifice. The rites of the five M's² are frequently performed here. The horrible side of worship is attested by the fact that Aghoris are often found in the temple. Furthermore, Kāmākhyā requires sacrifices of blood. Human sacrifices were offered to her down to quite recent times. In 1832 Government put a stop to the practice.¹ It is not denied that such sacrifices would be offered there now if the law allowed. She requires the sacrifice of a man without blemish.² At the dedication of the temple in 1565 the heads of 140 men were offered to her on salvers made of copper.³ There used to be a class of persons called Bhogīs⁴ who were voluntary victims to the goddess. From the time that they announced that the goddess had called them they were treated as privileged characters and could do whatever they desired. Every woman was at their command. But they were put to death and offered at the annual festival. The Kālika Purāṇa devotes a chapter to rules covering the performance of the human sacrifice.⁵ It

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³ *Hinduism and Brahmanism*, vol. II, pp. 286 ff.

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⁴ Hiuen Tsiang visited King Bhāskara Varman in the first half of the seventh century. See Gait, *History of Assam*, p. 30.

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¹ Gait, History of Assam, pp. 11, 12.

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² See pp. 172 ff.

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¹ C. J. Lyall, *Jr. Soc. of Arts*, vol. LI, pp. 612–31.

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² *ERE*, vol. II, p. 134.

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³ Gait, *History of Assam*, second edition, p. 58.

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⁴ Bhogīs were dedicated to Āi, a goddess at Kāmarūpa. Gait, *History of Assam*, p. 58. Cf Āi panthi.

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⁵ The following account is from *Asiatic Researches*, vol. V, pp. 371 ff. and is based upon the *Rudhirādhyāya* (‘The Sanguinary Chapter’) there translated.

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Śiva says that the proper sacrifices include cattle, the rhinoceros, men, and blood drawn from the offerer’s own body. The second has nine months value, while that of the third satisfies the goddess for a thousand years. The flesh of the rhinoceros pleases her for five hundred years, while the sacrifice of three men satisfies her for 100,000 years. The goddess is Kāmākhyā, Cāṇḍeka or Bhāiravī. The head of the human victim goes to the second. Human blood should be offered in an earthen or in a metallic vessel. Females, except human, are not to be offered. For human sacrifice the consent of the prince is necessary. Human heads and blood should be presented on the right side with eyes averted. On the day preceding the sacrifice, the preparations include the use of *mantras*, and the touching of the head with the sacrificial axe. In the sacrifice the head of the victim should fall just right—there are good and bad omens connected with the facial expressions and sounds which arise.

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If the face smile, the indication is prosperity and long life. If it speak, whatever it says will come to pass, should the sound be ‘hoont,’ the prince will die. Should phlegm issue from the mouth, the sacrificer will die. Should the name of a deity be uttered, the sacrificer will obtain wealth. At the time of presenting the blood, should the victim void fæces or urine, or turn about, certain death awaits the sacrificer. The sacrificer must take some of the blood between his states that they should not be performed by the first three castes, which is perhaps a way of saying that though they may be performed by non-Āryans under Brāhmanic auspices, they form no part of the Āryan religion. But they are recommended to princes and ministers and should not be performed without the consent of princes. The ritual bears little resemblance to Vedic sacrifices, and the essence of the ceremony is the presentation to the goddess of the victim’s severed head in a vessel of gold, silver, copper, brass or wood, but not of iron. The axe with which the decapitation is to be performed is solemnly consecrated to Kālī and the victim is worshipped before immolation. The sacrificer thinks of Brahmā and the other gods as being present in the victim’s body and then prays to him directly as being all the gods in one. ‘When this has been done,’ says Śiva, who is represented as himself revealing these rules, ‘the victim is even as myself.’ This identification of the human victim with the god has many analogies elsewhere, particularly amongst the Khonds. Added to these horrible and abominable acts of the Vāmacāra rites and the bloody sacrifice is the reported practice of divination by the examination of a child cut out of a pregnant woman at full time.¹

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¹ History of Assam, p. 58.

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Other forms of the Śakti need less description here. The temple and the worship of Hiṅg Lāj Devī has been referred to already.

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Āśāpūrā Devī, or Mātā, has been mentioned in connection with the white beads which pilgrims visiting Hiṅg Lāj wear. She is the fulfiller of desire and is widely known. Images of her are found in the temple at Hiṅg Lāj, at Chāul, in the Kolāba District of Bombay, and at Madh, about fifty miles north-west of Bhūj, and she has a temple at Koteśvar. She is the household goddess of the Rao of Kacch, and the image in the temple there is a rock, about six feet high and six feet broad at the base, painted red. She grants children.

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thumb and third finger and discharge it towards the south-west, on the ground. The human victim must be twenty-five years old. In some cases an image may be substituted. And there may be magic substitution of a human enemy. The sacrificer’s own blood must be drawn above the navel. A burning wick on the flesh may be used as sacrifice. . . .

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There was a sect known as Āśāpūrīs, the sect of Mekhapanthīs.

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The worship of a young girl is exemplified in Bālasundarī, Tipurāsundarī, Tipurākumārī. She is one of the Mahāvidyas.¹ The worship of a girl of sixteen is common in Malabār. In the Himālayas she is worshipped for the protection of children as well as to obtain them. In Almora a Yogī took the author to see the temple of this goddess. Tipurā Devī has a shrine on the top of Dunagiri, near Dwārahāt, which is under the care of Girī Jogīs, as is the temple of Kedār (in Dwārahāt). An old woman of the Girī Jogīs resided (1924) at the latter place, and the shrine at the top of the hill is in charge of a member of the same family. No flesh is offered there. As is sometimes done in prayer before the gods in India, barren women stand the whole night before Tipurā, holding the right hand clasped over the left and a one-wicked lamp in the right hand. The lamp is kept burning all through the night. The goddess will remove their reproach.

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¹ These are ten in number and are the sources of the goddess's highest knowledge, i.e., knowledge which confers preternatural powers.

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After a bath in the morning, persons in Almora offer flowers before the goddess as a protection against false accusation. The Yogī attempts to identify the self with Tipurāsundarī by thinking of himself as a woman.² Tipurāsundarī is the goddess in view in the sensual worship of Śakti.

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² See *Vaisnavism, Śaivism*, etc., p. 146.

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Bhāiravīs and Nāyakas are represented in Vāmacāra rites, where the men impersonate Bhāirava. The Nāyakas, eight in number, are mistresses, not necessarily mothers. With them is connected no other idea than that of illegitimate sexual love.³ In the *Chandrodaya*,⁴ Mātā Bhāiravī is described as follows:

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³ They are Balinī, Kāmeśvarī, Vimalā, Aruṇā, Medinī, Jayinī, Sarveśvarī, Kāuleśī. See Monier-Williams, *Brahmanism and Hinduism*, p. 188. To this list should be added Lalatī.

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⁴ Taylor's translation, p. 47.

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Her aspect is horrible, her ear-rings are human skulls; thunderbolts are shot from her eyes; her fingers are deformed by hair which is the colour of pale yellow flame; and she rolls her tongue between her tusks, being like the moon in her phases.

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The Mātrīs are also recognized. At Dhinodhar, Mātā (Ambā) has her song of praise (stotra) sung on the seventh of each month.¹ Khakhar reported that ‘they (i.e., at Dhinodhar) worship Śiva, following the ritual of Mātā.’²

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¹ Bombay Gazetteer, vol. VII, p. 51.

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² p. 10.

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Yoginīs, sometimes eight in number, are fairies or sorceresses created by and attending on Durgā. At other times they are looked upon as mere forms of Durgā, sixty to eighty-five in number, and capable of increase to the number of 10,000,000. They are terrific in form, malignant in disposition, possessing magical powers. Like the Dākiṇīs, who are fiends of most repulsive habits, and who are impish servants of Kālī, the Yoginīs are perpetrators of all mischief. Both the Sākiṇīs and Dākiṇīs play a considerable part in the symbolic representations of the cakras of the Haṭha Yoga.

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Descriptions of Kuṇḍalinī will be found in the chapters expounding the Gorakṣaśataka. She is the coiled, or sleeping, goddess whose awakening is the object of the Haṭha Yoga as practised by the Kāṇphaṭas.

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Of the remaining goddesses, Bimbā or Mumbā, specially worshipped in Bombay and in the vicinity of that city, should be mentioned. She may be Vimalā of the Nāyakas (?)

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The worship of the Yogīs includes both aspects of Śakti ritual, that of the right-hand path which follows the Purāṇas and does not display undue preference for the erotic elements,³ and that of the left-hand path (Vāmacāra), which follows the Tantras. The right-hand worship does not contemplate impure practice, although bloody sacrifices and the cruel beating of animals to death with the fists is not considered ‘impure.’ Many rites connected with the Durgāpūja border on Vāmacāra. Left-hand worship is not in good repute and is not readily acknowledged by worshippers. All forms of the Vāmacāra (left-hand practice) require the use of all or some of the five makāras. The predecessors of the Yogīs, the Pāśupatas, the Kālāmukhas and the Kāpālikas were Vāmacāras.⁴ The Durgāpūja and the Cakrāpūja are among the chief elements of the worship. Bloody, horrible and erotic elements are to the front.

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³ See BHCS, pp. 409 ff.

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⁴ Śakti and Śākta, p. 89.

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Kānphaṭas, who worship both the liṅga and the yoni, hold that restraint of the passions is unnecessary for the attainment of samādhi. They worship the female herself as the entire manifestation of the male.¹ Consequently much attention is given to Vāmacāra rites, rituals of the left side, or female side, of the undivided Supreme. These rites centre around the cakra and are the cakrapūja, the worship of the holy circle. Mystic ends are sought through concentration of the mind on Devī as sitting in the lap of Śiva in the Lotus Garden; by the worship of a picture of the female organ drawn in the centre of a figure representing nine such, the Śricakra of ten; or by the worship of a living, beautiful woman; or in secret forms of intercourse where there are no distinctions of caste, in the Bhāiravīcakra.²

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¹ CTC, vol. III, p. 159.

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² Compare the posture of Yab-yum, below. See Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, etc., p. 146 f, where the matter is more fully stated. The Bhāiravī-and the Tattva-cakras are described in The Serpent Power, pp. 175 ff., 181 ff.

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