Appendix IV
The Sacred literature of Smarth Dharma consists of the Smritis or the Law Books. These law books contain what may be called the Canon Law. This Canon Law as will be seen later on is vast in its compass and treats of such subjects as law, government, civic rights and duties of the different classes in society, penances for sins and punishments for offences. The purely secular part of this Dharma is not relevant for the purpose in hand. What is relevant is that part, of it which is accepted as belonging strictly to religion.
The Smarth Dharma i.e. Dharma based on Smritis is based on five dogmas. The first dogma of Smarth Dharma is the belief in Trinity of Gods, composed of three Gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh or Shiva. In this Trinity, Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer. Instead of the thirty-three Gods of the Srauta Dharma, Smarth Dharma limits the pantheon to only three.
The second dogma of the Smarth Dharma is the recognition of the purificatory ceremonies which are called Sanskaras or sacraments. According to the Smarth Dharma every householder must perform certain ceremonies. If he does not he becomes a patit i.e. one who is fallen from grace and therefore……… Punishments and Penances occupy very prominent place in Pauranik Dharma. In the Srauta Dharma Yama has nothing to do with the future punishment of the wicked. The idea of penal retribution after death for sins committed during life is unknown. But the Puranas have considerably enlarged the Powers of Yama in this respect.
“Yama fulfils the office of judge of the dead, as well as sovereign of the damned; all that die appearing before him, and being confronted with Chitragupta, the recorder, by whom their actions have been registered. The virtuous are thence conveyed to Swarga, or Elysium, whilst the wicked are driven to the different regions of Naraka, or Tartarus”.
“ The dreadful Chitragupta with a voice like that issuing from the clouds at the mundane dissolution, gleaming like a mountain of collyrium, terrible with lightning like weapons, having thirty-two arms, as big as three yojans, red-eyed, long-nosed, his face furnished with grinders and projecting teeth, his eyes resembling oblong ponds, bearing death and diseases.”
Sin will be punished after death. So also there is expiation for sin if the- sinner wishes by performing certain penances for removing sin.
But what is sin? According to the Pauranik Dharma it does not mean the commission of a moral wrong. It means the non-performance of the observances prescribed by the Puranas. Such is Pauranik Dharma.
III TANTRIK DHARMA
What is known as the Tantrik Dharma centres round the worship of Shakti. Shakti literally means power or energy. But in Tantrism it means the female partner of a male God. The literature of the Tantrik Dharma is quite vast and forms quite a separate branch of the Hindu Religious literature. It is necessary to observe that the Shakta form of Hinduism is equipped with a vast mythological personnel of its own, an immense array of female personalities, constituting a distinct division of the Hindu Pantheon.
In its origin the Tantrik Dharma is only an extension of the Pauranik Dharma. It is the Puranas which first began with the recognition of the female unmarried goddesses or as objects of worship. This was followed by the recognition of married females who were the wives of the Gods. It is in support of their recognition of the right of the wives of the Gods to be worshipped as goddesses that the Puranas set out the principle of Shaktism. According to the Puranas a deity though single has a dual character. In one it is quiescent, in the other active. The active nature of the deity is called his Shakti (i.e. his power). This Shakti of the deity is personified by the Puranas as the wife of the deity. This is the foundation of what is called Shaktism or the worship of the wife of certain deities.
The essence of Shaktism lies in the exclusive worship of the female deity in her most comprehensive character as the great power (Sakti) of Nature, the one mother of the Universe (Jagan-Mata, Jagad-Amba)— the mighty mysterious Force whose function is to direct and control two quite distinct operations; namely, first, the working of the natural appetites and passions, whether for the support of the body by eating and drinking, or for the propagation of living organisms through sexual cohabitation; secondly, the acquisition of supernatural faculties and magical powers (siddhi), whether for a man’s own individual exaltation or for the annihilation of his opponents.
And here it is necessary to observe that the Sakta form of Hinduism is equipped with a vast mythological Personnel of its own—an immense array of female personalities, constituting a distinct division of the Hindu Pantheon.
Yet the whole array of the Tantrik female Pantheon spreading out as it does into countless ramifications, Shaktism has its root in the wife of Shiva. By common consent she is held to be the source or first point of departure of the entire female mythological system. She also stands at its head; and it is remarkable that in every one of the male God Shiva’s characteristics, his consort is not only his counterpart, but a representation of all his attributes intensified. We have already pointed out how it came to pass that the male God gradually gathered under his own personality the attributes and functions of all other divinities, and thus became to his own special worshippers the great God (Mahadevah) of Hinduism. Similarly and in a much greater degree did his female counterpart become the one great goddess (Maha-devi) of the Sakta hierarchy: representing in her own person all other female manifestations of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and absorbing all their functions. For this reason even the wives of Brahma and Vishnu were said to be her daughters. As to the opposite and contradictory qualities attributed to her, these are no source of difficulty to a Hindu mind. She is simply in all respects a duplicate of her husband but a duplicate painted in deeper or more vivid colours.
And just as Shiva is at one time white (Sveta, Sukla) both in complexion and character, at another black (Kala); so his female nature also became one half white (whence one of her names Gauri) and the other half black (whence her name Kali).
Then, again, each of these opposite characters became variously modified and endlessly multiplied. The white or mild nature ramified into the Saktis called Uma, Gauri, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, etc., the black or fierce nature into those called Kali, Durga, Candi, Camunda, etc. And just as Shiva has 1008 names or epithets, so his wife possesses a feminine duplicate of nearly everyone of his designations. At least one thousand distinct appellations are assigned to her, some expressive of her benignant, some of her ferocious character. Notably it is declared in the Tantras that if any one repeats eight of her names containing the letter m, kings will become his servants, all men will love him, and all his difficulties come to a happy termination.
In short, all the other Saktis came to be included by the Saktas under the Sakti or female energy of Shiva, which eventually developed into innumerable separate manifestations and personifications.
But it began in a rather modest way by starting the worship of the Durga along with Shiva, Laxmi along with Vishnu, Radha along with Krishna and Sita along with Rama. The number of Shaktis was not defined.
Sometimes only eight Saktis are enumerated and sometimes nine, viz, Vaishnavi, Brahmani, Raudri, Mahesvari, Narasinhi, Varahi, Indrani, Karttiki, and Pradhana. Others reckon fifty forms of the Sakti of Vishnu, besides Laxmi; and fifty of Siva or Rudra, besides Durga or Gauri. Sarasvati is named as a Sakti of Vishnu and Rudra, as well as Brahma. According to the Vayu-purana, the female nature of Rudra (Siva) became two-fold, one half Asita or white, and the other half Sita or black, each of these again becoming manifold. The white or mild nature includes the Saktis Uma, Gauri, Laxmi, Sarasvati, &c, the black or fierce nature includes Durga, Kali, Candi, Camunda, &c.
Soon however all the Shaktis were universalized under the Shakti or female energy which eventually developed into innumerable separate manifestations and personifications.
These personifications, following the analogy of some of Vishnu’s incarnations, are sometimes grouped according to a supposed difference of participation in the divine energy, such for example as the full energy (purna sakti), the partial (ansarupini) the still more partial (kala-rupini), and the partial of the partial (kalansa-rupini), this last including mortal women in various degrees, from Brahman women downwards, who are all worshipped as forms of the divine mother manifesting herself upon earth; for it must not be forgotten that in the Sakta creed every female is a present divinity.
The more usual classification, however, begins with the Mahavidyas. These are held to be ten in number, that number being probably selected to match the ten chief incarnations of Vishnu. They are called Mahavidyas as sources of the goddess’ highest knowledge; that is to say, of the knowledge which confers preternatural powers. They have all different attributes, and are thus designated: (1) Kali (sometimes called Syama), black in colour, fierce and irascible in character. (2) Tara, a more benign manifestation, worshipped especially in Kashmir. (3) Shodasi, a beautiful girl of sixteen (also called Tripura worshipped in Malabar). (4) Bhuvanesvari. (5) Bhairavi. (6) Chinna-mastaka, a naked goddess holding in one hand a blood-stained scimitar and in the other her own severed head, which drinks the warm blood gushing from her headless trunk. (7) Dhumavati, in the form of smoke. (8) Vagala or Bagala, having the face of crane. (9) Matangi, a woman of the Bhangi caste. (10) Kamalatmika. Of these the first two are especially Mahavidyas, the next five vidyas, and the last three Siddhavidyas.
The next class of personifications or manifestations of the goddess are the Matris or Matrika (or Maha-matris), the great mothers of the Universe. These are more important than the Mahavidyas in their connexion with the prevalence of Mother-worship, a form of religion which, among the peasantry of India, often takes the place of every other creed. This will be more fully explained in the chapter on tutelary deities.
The Matris or Mothers are: 1. Vaishnavi, 2. Brahmi or Brahmani, often represented with four faces or heads like the God Brahma, 3. Karttikeyi, sometimes called Mayuri, 4. Indrani, 5. Yami, 6. Varahi, connected with the boar incarnation of Vishnu, 7. Devi or Isani, represented with a trident in one hand as wife of Shiva. 8. Laxmi. Each of these divine Mothers is represented with a child in her lap.
Closely related to the Mothers is a class of female personifications called the eight Nayikas or mistresses. These, of course, are not necessarily mothers. In fact no other idea is connected with them than that of illegitimate sexual love. They are called Balini, Kamesvari, Vimala, Aruna, Medini, Jayini. Sarvesvari and Kaulesi.
Another class of manifestations is that of the Yoginis. These are sometimes represented as eight fairies or sorceresses created by and attendant on Durga, sometimes as mere forms of that goddess, sixty or sixty-five in number, and capable of being multiplied to the number of ten millions.
Other classes not worth enumerating are the Dakinis and Sakinis. These are simply female friends or ogresses of most repulsive habits, and are not so much manifestations of the goddess as impish servants always attendant on her.
But it is in the form Kali—the form under which the goddess is worshiped at Calcutta—that she is most terrible.
The following is a free translation of two passages in the Tantras descriptive of Kali’s appearance:
“One should adore with liquors and oblations that Kali who has a terrible gaping mouth and uncombed hair : who has four hands and a splendid garland formed of the heads of the giants she has slain and whose blood she has drunk; who holds a sword in her lotus-like hands; who is fearless and awards blessings; who is as black as the large clouds and has the whole sky for her clothes; who has string of skulls round her neck and a throat besmeared with blood; who wears ear-rings (consisting of two dead bodies); who carries two dead bodies in her hands; who has terrible teeth and smiling face; whose form is awful and who dwells in burning-grounds (for consuming corpses); who stands on the breast of her husband Maha-deva.”
The Tantrik worship is altogether different from Srauta or Pauranik worship. It is in keeping with its central philosophy namely the best form of worship is the fullest satisfaction of the carnal desires of man. The Tantrik worship is summed up in what are called five Makaras, The five Makaras are:
- The drinking of Madya (i.e. wine and liquors of various kinds).
- The eating of Mansa (meat).
- The eating of Matsya (fish).
- The eating of Mudra (parched or fried grain).
- The performance of Maithun (sexual intercourse with a woman). The Tantrik Puja consists in the performance of these acts. It is not necessary to draw attention to the fact that whatever is declared as nishidha (prohibited) is allowed in the Tantrik worship even sexual intercourse with a woman being prescribed as part of the Puja. Such is the growth of the Hindu Religion. On reading this history a student of true religion is forced to ask: Where is the place of morality in the Hindu Religion?
Religion no doubt started its career by asking many questions:
“What am I?” “Who made the Universe?” “If God made it what is the relation of Ego to God?” “What is the right way to propitiate God ?” “ What is the relation between I and the Non-I i.e. between man and universe?” “What constitutes good life or that will please God?” etc.
Most of these questions have been taken over by theology, metaphysics, philosophy and ethics, into which religion has become split. But there is one question that remains with religion to preach and propagate namely what constitutes good life. A religion which does not do so is no religion at all.
Why have the Brahmins made the Hindu religion so nude; so devoid of morality? The Hindu religion is nothing but worshipping so many Gods and Goddesses, worshipping so many trees, visiting so many places of pilgrimage and making offerings to the Brahmins. Was the religion formulating for enabling the Brahmins to earn their living? Did they ever think that morality is the foundation of society and that unless morality is imbedded in religion it (has no driving)* force. These are questions which the Brahmins must answer.
This Article is taken from Babasaheb Ambedkar’s book Riddles in Hinduism