Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c8.67

c8.67

This theory of the four Śūnyas, as expounded in the Pañca-krama of Nāgārjuna-pāda seems to be the reminiscence of a similar doctrine of Śūnyas expounded in some Hindu and Buddhist texts. An exposition of the theory of seven Śūnyas is found in the old Tāntric text Svacchanda, a theory which found its echo in many of the subsequent texts of the Śaiva and Śākta literature. The Svacchanda contends that there are seven kinds of Śūnya, of which the first six are impure and contain the seeds of phenomenalism,² whereas the seventh is the Supreme Reality itself, which is Pure Being and Consciousness and is free from all Vikalpas. The doctrine of sixteen or eighteen Śūnyas as ennumerated by Asaṅga or Diṅnāga (in the Madhyānta-bibhāga or the Aṣṭa-sāhasrikā-piṇḍārtha) and also by the Nātha writers is also of a similar character.