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Rudrayāmala Uttara Tantra
A Yāmala of the Vidyāpīṭha, a Śākta compendium of the eastern schools, and a title cited far more often than it can be found — the text the Vijñāna Bhairava names as its source.
Few titles are quoted more often in tantric Sanskrit than the Rudrayāmala, and few are harder to hold. Abhinavagupta cites it; Jayaratha cites it; the Bengali Śākta digests cite it constantly; the Vijñāna Bhairava names it as its own parent. The book that now circulates under the name will not account for most of what is credited to it — and that discrepancy is itself one of the more instructive facts about how this literature travelled.
What a yāmala isयामल
Yāmala means a pair, a couple, a union; the ordinary Sanskrit word for twins stands beside it. A Yāmala tantra is revelation arising from the union of Rudra and his Śakti rather than from Śiva alone, and the consequence is formal as well as doctrinal. Texts of this class are dialogues throughout — Bhairava and the Goddess in alternating question and answer, neither of them merely the audience. The teaching that Śakti and the possessor of Śakti are never separate is, in a Yāmala, a statement about the shape of the book as much as about the nature of things.
Within the Bhairava stream the Yāmalas belong to the Vidyāpīṭha, the goddess-centred half of the revelation, and the canonical lists count eight of them — a yāmalāṣṭaka. Which eight varies from source to source. Brahmayāmala, Viṣṇuyāmala, Rudrayāmala, Skandayāmala, Ruruyāmala, Vetālayāmala, Svacchandayāmala, Ātharvaṇayāmala are among the names that recur, in shifting combinations and sometimes with others in their place. As with the twenty-eight Āgamas and the sixty-four Bhairava tantras, the number describes how the tradition conceived its canon rather than what can be counted on a shelf.
One Yāmala survives in something close to its early form, and it shows what the class was. The Brahmayāmala, also called the Picumata, is preserved in a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript copied in the eleventh century, and it is uncompromising: its deity is Kapālīśabhairava with the goddess Caṇḍā Kāpālinī, its practitioner carries the skull-staff and the skull-bowl, and its rites belong squarely to the cremation ground and the cult of the yoginīs. That is the world the Yāmalas came out of — older, fiercer and far more concretely ritual than the philosophical Trika that grew from the same soil.
Two Rudrayāmalas
The Rudrayāmala that the Kashmirian authors knew is not extant. Abhinavagupta and Jayaratha quote a text of that name; later digests quote it at length; and no manuscript answering to those quotations has been identified. What does survive, printed repeatedly in Calcutta and Varanasi since the later nineteenth century, is the Rudrayāmala Uttara Tantra — the "latter" Rudrayāmala, a long Śākta work whose language, cast of goddesses and ritual assumptions place it in eastern India and centuries after the Kashmirian citations. Estimates of its date differ and none is secure; few would put its present shape earlier than the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and portions of it are probably later still.
What the Uttara Tantra contains
None of that makes the surviving text uninteresting. It is a substantial and wide-ranging Śākta compendium, and it is one of the places where a reader can watch several currents run together.
- Mantroddhāraमन्त्रोद्धार · extraction
- The drawing-out of mantras from a lettered diagram. The syllables are not simply given; they are extracted from a grid by a stated procedure, so that a mantra arrives as an operation rather than as a word. A great deal of the text is taken up with this, and it is the most technical thing in it.
- The Goddess
- Tārā above all, but also Kālī, Bhairavī and material belonging to the Śrīvidyā, together with the hymns, protective kavacas and thousand-name litanies that attend them. The theology is that of the Mahāvidyās, the eastern Śākta cult of the ten great goddesses — one of the clearest indications that the text as we have it is not an early Kashmirian Vidyāpīṭha work.
- Cīnācāraचीनाचार · the way of Mahācīna
- The text carries the well-known story of Vasiṣṭha, who fails to propitiate Tārā by orthodox austerity, is directed to Mahācīna, and finds there a teaching conducted in wine and flesh and the company of women, which he is made to accept before he can succeed. It is one of the tradition's own accounts of why a transgressive rite exists at all, and it is largely through this text that the story is known.
- The subtle body
- The channels, the centres, the ascent of kuṇḍalinī, the retention and movement of breath. This is the material that made the book useful far outside its own school, and it is the physiology that the breath teachings assume throughout.
- Yoga and observance
- Long stretches on posture, prāṇāyāma and mudrā, on the discipline and the grades of the practitioner, and on initiation, the qualifications of the guru, and the calendrical and domestic ritual of a Śākta household.
A conduit
The Uttara Tantra's real historical importance is as a channel. Material passed through it into compilations that had a far wider circulation than any Vidyāpīṭha scripture ever enjoyed — the Bengali Śākta digests, the ritual handbooks that depend on them, and from there into the printed devotional literature of the nineteenth century and after. A very large number of hymns, armours and mantra-prescriptions in ordinary use carry a colophon assigning them to the Rudrayāmala. Some of them are in the printed Uttara Tantra. Many are not, and were attached to the name for the authority it conferred.
That is worth stating plainly rather than treating as a scandal. Attribution in this literature is a claim about lineage and legitimacy, not a bibliographical statement, and a tradition which holds that its scriptures are fragments of an unbounded revelation has no difficulty at all with the idea that a teaching may be from the Rudrayāmala without being in any particular copy of it. The historian's problem and the tradition's self-understanding are simply not the same problem, and the honest course is to keep them apart.
The Vijñāna Bhairava's claim
The most consequential of these attributions is the Vijñāna Bhairava's. Its colophons place it within the Rudrayāmala and the tradition has always cited it so: one hundred and twelve dhāraṇās, a dialogue between Bhairava and the Goddess, presented as an extract drawn from the greater Yāmala.
What the claim is worth needs care in both directions. It cannot be verified, because the Rudrayāmala it refers to is lost; and it cannot be refuted from the surviving Uttara Tantra, which does not contain the Vijñāna Bhairava and is in any case too late to be the text meant. But the Vijñāna Bhairava's own antiquity does not rest on the attribution. It was known and quoted in Kashmir in the tenth and eleventh centuries; Kṣemarāja began a commentary on it, the Uddyota, which breaks off after the opening verses; and Śivopādhyāya completed the exegesis long afterwards with his Vivṛti. The text stands on that evidence whatever its parentage.
What the attribution does tell us is what its transmitters took its pedigree to be, and the choice is exact. A Yāmala is revelation issuing from the union of the two; and the Vijñāna Bhairava's opening argument, before it reaches a single practice, is that Śakti and the holder of Śakti are never in fact two, so that to enter Śakti is to enter Bhairava. A text that begins there names as its source the one class of scripture defined by precisely that union. Whether or not the descent is historical, the claim is doctrinally well judged — and that, in a tradition where lineage is a statement of what a teaching is, is not a trivial thing to have got right.
7,694 verses · page 76 of 129
श्रीकृष्णबीजमुद्धृत्य पृथ्वीबीजत्रयं तथा | घोरघोरतरे पश्चान्मरीचकुलसुन्दरि
śrīkṛṣṇabījamuddhṛtya pṛthvībījatrayaṃ tathā | ghoraghoratare paścānmarīcakulasundari
नीला त्वं भव देहे मे शरीरं शोधयद्वयम् | द्विठान्तोऽयं मनुः प्रोक्तस्तत्पश्चाद् दुग्धशोधनम्
nīlā tvaṃ bhava dehe me śarīraṃ śodhayadvayam | dviṭhānto'yaṃ manuḥ proktastatpaścād dugdhaśodhanam
आदौ मरीचं भुक्त्वा तु दुग्धपानं महाबलम् | चर्वयित्वा मरीचं तु दुग्धपानं महाबलम्
ādau marīcaṃ bhuktvā tu dugdhapānaṃ mahābalam | carvayitvā marīcaṃ tu dugdhapānaṃ mahābalam
कृष्णबीजं समुद्धृत्य कामेश्वरीमनुं ततः | शिवबीजद्वयं पश्चात् कृष्णगोवसवासिनी
kṛṣṇabījaṃ samuddhṛtya kāmeśvarīmanuṃ tataḥ | śivabījadvayaṃ paścāt kṛṣṇagovasavāsinī
योगविग्रहमुद्धृत्य मम कामप्रसाधिनि | तत्पश्चाद् योगसिद्धीनामीश्वरि क्षेत्रवासिनि
yogavigrahamuddhṛtya mama kāmaprasādhini | tatpaścād yogasiddhīnāmīśvari kṣetravāsini
शरीरं वसमन्ते च चालयद्वयमेव च | विघ्नान् वारययुग्मं तु स्वाहान्तोऽयं महामनुः
śarīraṃ vasamante ca cālayadvayameva ca | vighnān vārayayugmaṃ tu svāhānto'yaṃ mahāmanuḥ
द्वादशवारमुच्चार्य चाथवा पञ्चवारकम् | वारत्रयं मुदा शोध्य सर्वत्रायं विधिः स्मृतः
dvādaśavāramuccārya cāthavā pañcavārakam | vāratrayaṃ mudā śodhya sarvatrāyaṃ vidhiḥ smṛtaḥ
यदि पिबेत् खेचरत्वं तथा दुग्धं द्विपादकम् | यदि चेत् केवलं दुग्धं तदा प्रस्थं चतुर्दश
yadi pibet khecaratvaṃ tathā dugdhaṃ dvipādakam | yadi cet kevalaṃ dugdhaṃ tadā prasthaṃ caturdaśa
लघ्वाहारी महाज्ञानी पञ्चमादि विरागवित् | मणिपूरे मनोयोगं समाकृत्यामरो भवेत्
laghvāhārī mahājñānī pañcamādi virāgavit | maṇipūre manoyogaṃ samākṛtyāmaro bhavet
चतुर्वर्गः करे तस्य यो मणेः पीठमाश्रयेत् | मणिपूरभेदनार्थं मनोयोगसुसिद्धये
caturvargaḥ kare tasya yo maṇeḥ pīṭhamāśrayet | maṇipūrabhedanārthaṃ manoyogasusiddhaye
खेचरादिमहायोगसिद्धये सर्वसिद्धये | मृत्युञ्जयस्य देवस्य रुद्रशक्त्याश्च दर्शनात्
khecarādimahāyogasiddhaye sarvasiddhaye | mṛtyuñjayasya devasya rudraśaktyāśca darśanāt
तथा पीठस्थिरार्थाय कालजालवशाय च | सहस्रनामबीजानि चाष्टोत्तरशतानि च
tathā pīṭhasthirārthāya kālajālavaśāya ca | sahasranāmabījāni cāṣṭottaraśatāni ca
मृत्युञ्जयस्य लाकिन्याः स्तोत्रं मकारकूटकम् | कथयस्व वरारोहे यदि स्नेहोऽस्ति मां प्रति
mṛtyuñjayasya lākinyāḥ stotraṃ makārakūṭakam | kathayasva varārohe yadi sneho'sti māṃ prati
ज्ञानदे परमेशानि शरीरं मम रक्षतु
jñānade parameśāni śarīraṃ mama rakṣatu
अथ सम्भेदनार्र्थाय वक्ष्ये षट्पङ्कजस्य च | महारुद्रस्य देवस्य श्री श्रीमृत्युञ्जयस्य च
atha sambhedanārrthāya vakṣye ṣaṭpaṅkajasya ca | mahārudrasya devasya śrī śrīmṛtyuñjayasya ca
लाकिनी शक्तिसहितं सहस्रनाममङ्गलम् | अष्टोत्तरशतव्याप्तं निगूढं भव सिद्धये
lākinī śaktisahitaṃ sahasranāmamaṅgalam | aṣṭottaraśatavyāptaṃ nigūḍhaṃ bhava siddhaye
धारयित्वा पठित्वा च श्रुत्वा वा नाममङ्गलम् | शृणुष्व परमानन्द योगेन्द्र चन्द्रशेखर
dhārayitvā paṭhitvā ca śrutvā vā nāmamaṅgalam | śṛṇuṣva paramānanda yogendra candraśekhara
तवाह्लादप्रणयनात् सर्वसम्पत्तिप्राप्तये | मणियोगसुसिद्ध्यर्थं सावधानाऽवधारय
tavāhlādapraṇayanāt sarvasampattiprāptaye | maṇiyogasusiddhyarthaṃ sāvadhānā'vadhāraya
अष्टोत्तरसहस्रनाममङ्गलस्य कहोड ऋषिर्गायत्रीच्छन्दो महारुद्रमृत्युञ्जयलाकिनी सरस्वतीदेवता सर्वाभीष्टशचीपीठयोगसिद्ध्यर्थे विनियोगः | ओं मृत्युञ्जय रुद्रादि लाकिन्यादि सरस्वती | मृत्युजेता महारौद्री महारुद्रसरस्वती
aṣṭottarasahasranāmamaṅgalasya kahoḍa ṛṣirgāyatrīcchando mahārudramṛtyuñjayalākinī sarasvatīdevatā sarvābhīṣṭaśacīpīṭhayogasiddhyarthe viniyogaḥ | oṃ mṛtyuñjaya rudrādi lākinyādi sarasvatī | mṛtyujetā mahāraudrī mahārudrasarasvatī
महारौद्रो मृत्युहरो महामणिविभूषिता | महादेवो महावक्त्रो महामाया महेश्वरी
mahāraudro mṛtyuharo mahāmaṇivibhūṣitā | mahādevo mahāvaktro mahāmāyā maheśvarī
महावीरो महाकालो महाचण्डेश्वरी स्नुषा | महावातो महाभेदो वीरभद्रा महातुरा
mahāvīro mahākālo mahācaṇḍeśvarī snuṣā | mahāvāto mahābhedo vīrabhadrā mahāturā
महाचण्डेश्वरो मीनो मणिपूरप्रकाशिका | महामत्तो महारात्रो महावीरासनस्थिता
mahācaṇḍeśvaro mīno maṇipūraprakāśikā | mahāmatto mahārātro mahāvīrāsanasthitā
मायावी मारहन्ता च मातङ्गी मङ्गलेश्वरी | मृत्युहारी मुनिश्रेष्ठा मनोहारी मनोयवा
māyāvī mārahantā ca mātaṅgī maṅgaleśvarī | mṛtyuhārī muniśreṣṭhā manohārī manoyavā
मण्डलस्थो मनीलाङ्गो मान्या मोहनमौलिनी | मत्तवेशो महाबाणो महाबला महालया
maṇḍalastho manīlāṅgo mānyā mohanamaulinī | mattaveśo mahābāṇo mahābalā mahālayā
मारी हारी महामारी मदिरामत्तगामिनी | महामायाश्रयो मौनी महामाया मरुत्प्रिया
mārī hārī mahāmārī madirāmattagāminī | mahāmāyāśrayo maunī mahāmāyā marutpriyā
मुद्राशी मदिरापी च मनोयोगा महोदया | मांसाशी मीनभक्शश्च मोहिनी मेघवाहना
mudrāśī madirāpī ca manoyogā mahodayā | māṃsāśī mīnabhakśaśca mohinī meghavāhanā
मानभङ्गप्रियो मान्या महामान्यो महाबला | महाबाणधरो मुख्यो महाविद्या महीयसी
mānabhaṅgapriyo mānyā mahāmānyo mahābalā | mahābāṇadharo mukhyo mahāvidyā mahīyasī
महाशूलधरोऽनन्तो महाबली महाकुला | मलयाद्रिनिवासी च मतिर्मालासनप्रिया
mahāśūladharo'nanto mahābalī mahākulā | malayādrinivāsī ca matirmālāsanapriyā
मायापतिर्महारुद्रो मरुणाहतकारिणी | मालाधारी शङ्खमाली मञ्जरी मांसभक्शिणी
māyāpatirmahārudro maruṇāhatakāriṇī | mālādhārī śaṅkhamālī mañjarī māṃsabhakśiṇī
महालक्शणसम्पन्नो महालक्शणलक्शणा | महाज्ञानी महावेगी मौषली मुषलप्रिया
mahālakśaṇasampanno mahālakśaṇalakśaṇā | mahājñānī mahāvegī mauṣalī muṣalapriyā
महोख्यो मालिनीनाथो मन्दराद्रिनिवासिनी | मौनीनामन्तरस्थश्च मानभङ्गा मनःस्विनी
mahokhyo mālinīnātho mandarādrinivāsinī | maunīnāmantarasthaśca mānabhaṅgā manaḥsvinī
महाविद्यापतिर्मध्यो मध्ये पर्वतवासिनी | मदिरापो मन्दहरो मदनामदनासना
mahāvidyāpatirmadhyo madhye parvatavāsinī | madirāpo mandaharo madanāmadanāsanā
मदनस्थो मदक्षेत्रो महाहिमनिवासिनी | महान् महात्मा माङ्गल्यो महामङ्गलधारिणी
madanastho madakṣetro mahāhimanivāsinī | mahān mahātmā māṅgalyo mahāmaṅgaladhāriṇī
महाहीनशरीरश्च मनोहरतदुद्भवा | मायाशक्तिपतिर्मोहा महामोहनिवासिनी
mahāhīnaśarīraśca manoharatadudbhavā | māyāśaktipatirmohā mahāmohanivāsinī
महच्चितो निर्मलात्मा महतामशुचिस्थित | मत्तकुञ्जरपृष्ठस्थो मत्तकुञ्जरगामिनी
mahaccito nirmalātmā mahatāmaśucisthita | mattakuñjarapṛṣṭhastho mattakuñjaragāminī
मकरो मरुतानन्दो माकरी मृगपूजिता | मणीपूज्या मनोरूपी मेदमांसविभोजिनी
makaro marutānando mākarī mṛgapūjitā | maṇīpūjyā manorūpī medamāṃsavibhojinī
महाकामी महाधीरो महामहिषमद्नी | महिषासुरबुद्धिस्थो महिषासुरनाशिनी
mahākāmī mahādhīro mahāmahiṣamadnī | mahiṣāsurabuddhistho mahiṣāsuranāśinī
महिषस्थो महेशस्थो मधुकैटभनाशिनी | मधुनाथश्च मधुपो मधुमांसादिसिद्धिदा
mahiṣastho maheśastho madhukaiṭabhanāśinī | madhunāthaśca madhupo madhumāṃsādisiddhidā
महाभैरवपूज्यश्च महाभैरवपूजिता | महाकान्ति प्रियानन्दो महाकान्तिस्थिताऽमरा
mahābhairavapūjyaśca mahābhairavapūjitā | mahākānti priyānando mahākāntisthitā'marā
मालाकोटिधरो मालो मुण्डमालाविभूषिता | मण्डलज्ञाननिरतो मणिमण्डलवासिनी
mālākoṭidharo mālo muṇḍamālāvibhūṣitā | maṇḍalajñānanirato maṇimaṇḍalavāsinī
महाविभूतिक्रोधस्थो मिथ्यादोषसरस्वती | मेरुस्थो मेरुनिलय मेनकानुजरूपिणि
mahāvibhūtikrodhastho mithyādoṣasarasvatī | merustho merunilaya menakānujarūpiṇi
महाशैलासन मेरुमोहिनी मेघवाहिनी | मञ्जुघोषो मञ्जुनाथो मोहमुद्गरधारिणी
mahāśailāsana merumohinī meghavāhinī | mañjughoṣo mañjunātho mohamudgaradhāriṇī
मेढ्र्स्थो मणिपीठस्थो मूलरूपा मनोहरा | मङ्गलार्थो महायोगी मत्तमेहसमुद्भवा
meḍhrstho maṇipīṭhastho mūlarūpā manoharā | maṅgalārtho mahāyogī mattamehasamudbhavā
मतिस्थित मनोमानो मनोमाता महोन्मनी | मन्दबुद्धिहरो मृत्युर्मृत्युहन्त्री मनःप्रिया
matisthita manomāno manomātā mahonmanī | mandabuddhiharo mṛtyurmṛtyuhantrī manaḥpriyā
महाभक्तो महाशक्तो महाशक्तिर्मदातुरा | मणिपुरप्रकाशश्च मणिपुरविभेदिनी
mahābhakto mahāśakto mahāśaktirmadāturā | maṇipuraprakāśaśca maṇipuravibhedinī
मकारकूटनिलयो माना मानमनोहरी | माक्शरो मातृकावर्णों मातृकाबीजमालिनी
makārakūṭanilayo mānā mānamanoharī | mākśaro mātṛkāvarṇoṃ mātṛkābījamālinī
महातेजा महारश्मिर्मन्युग स्यान् मधुप्रिया | मधुमांससमुत्पन्नो मधुमांसविहारिणी
mahātejā mahāraśmirmanyuga syān madhupriyā | madhumāṃsasamutpanno madhumāṃsavihāriṇī
मैथुनानन्दनिरतो मैथुनालापमोहिनी | मुरारिप्रेमसंतुष्टो मुरारिकरसेविता
maithunānandanirato maithunālāpamohinī | murāripremasaṃtuṣṭo murārikarasevitā
माल्यचन्दनदिग्धाङ्गो मालिनी मन्त्रजीविका | मन्त्रजालस्थितो मन्त्री मन्त्रिणांमन्त्रसिद्धिदा
mālyacandanadigdhāṅgo mālinī mantrajīvikā | mantrajālasthito mantrī mantriṇāṃmantrasiddhidā
मन्त्रचैतन्यकारी च मन्त्रसिद्धिप्रिया सती | महातीर्थप्रियो मेषो महासिंहासनस्थिता
mantracaitanyakārī ca mantrasiddhipriyā satī | mahātīrthapriyo meṣo mahāsiṃhāsanasthitā
महाक्रोधसमुत्पन्नो महती बुद्धिदायिनी | मरणज्ञानरहितो महामरणनाशिनी
mahākrodhasamutpanno mahatī buddhidāyinī | maraṇajñānarahito mahāmaraṇanāśinī
मरणोद्भूतहन्ता च महामुद्रान्विता मुदा | महामोदकरो मारो मारस्था मारनाशिनी
maraṇodbhūtahantā ca mahāmudrānvitā mudā | mahāmodakaro māro mārasthā māranāśinī
महाहेतुहरो हर्ता महापुरनिवासिनी | महाकौलिकपालश्च महादैत्यनिवारिणी
mahāhetuharo hartā mahāpuranivāsinī | mahākaulikapālaśca mahādaityanivāriṇī
मार्तण्डकोटिकिरणो मृतिहन्त्री मृतिस्थिता | महाशैलोऽमलो मायी महाकालगुणोदया
mārtaṇḍakoṭikiraṇo mṛtihantrī mṛtisthitā | mahāśailo'malo māyī mahākālaguṇodayā
महाजयो महारुद्रो महारुद्रारुणाकरा | मनोवर्णमृजोमाख्यो मुद्रा तरुणरूपिणी
mahājayo mahārudro mahārudrāruṇākarā | manovarṇamṛjomākhyo mudrā taruṇarūpiṇī
मुण्डमालाधरो मार्यो मार्यपुष्पमृजामनी | मङ्गलप्रेमभावस्था महाविद्युत्प्रभाऽचला
muṇḍamālādharo māryo māryapuṣpamṛjāmanī | maṅgalapremabhāvasthā mahāvidyutprabhā'calā
मुद्राधारी मतस्थैर्यो मतभेदप्रकारिणी | महापुराणवेत्ता च महापौराणिकाऽमृता
mudrādhārī matasthairyo matabhedaprakāriṇī | mahāpurāṇavettā ca mahāpaurāṇikā'mṛtā
मौनविद्यो महाविद्या महाधननिवासिनी | मघवा माघमध्यस्था महासैन्या महोरगा
maunavidyo mahāvidyā mahādhananivāsinī | maghavā māghamadhyasthā mahāsainyā mahoragā
महाफणिधरो मात्रा मातृका मन्त्रवासिनी | महाविभूतिदानाढ्ये मेरुवाहनवाहना
mahāphaṇidharo mātrā mātṛkā mantravāsinī | mahāvibhūtidānāḍhye meruvāhanavāhanā
महाह्लादो महामित्रो महामैत्रेयपूजिता | मार्कण्डेयसिद्धिदाता मार्कण्डेयायुषिस्थिता
mahāhlādo mahāmitro mahāmaitreyapūjitā | mārkaṇḍeyasiddhidātā mārkaṇḍeyāyuṣisthitā