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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 119 of 129
हेतुयुक्तं श्रद्धया मे करुणासागरस्थिते | शीघ्रं विरचयानन्द कवचं सारमङ्गलम्
hetuyuktaṃ śraddhayā me karuṇāsāgarasthite | śīghraṃ viracayānanda kavacaṃ sāramaṅgalam
आदौ शृणु महावीर परमानन्दसागर | कवचं हाकिनीदेव्याः संसारार्णवतारकम्
ādau śṛṇu mahāvīra paramānandasāgara | kavacaṃ hākinīdevyāḥ saṃsārārṇavatārakam
यस्य स्मरणमात्रेण योगी योगस्थिरो भवेत् | अन्तरिक्षे च भूलोके पाताले ये चराचराः
yasya smaraṇamātreṇa yogī yogasthiro bhavet | antarikṣe ca bhūloke pātāle ye carācarāḥ
स्तम्भिता वेपमानाः स्युवीद्याज्ञानादिपाठतः | कवचध्वनिमात्रेण भूतप्रेतपिशाचकाः
stambhitā vepamānāḥ syuvīdyājñānādipāṭhataḥ | kavacadhvanimātreṇa bhūtapretapiśācakāḥ
गण्डयुग्मं सदा पातु वाग्भवाद्या मनोरमा | श्रीं ह्रीं पातु कर्णयुग्मं हाकिनी परदेवता
gaṇḍayugmaṃ sadā pātu vāgbhavādyā manoramā | śrīṃ hrīṃ pātu karṇayugmaṃ hākinī paradevatā
महाविद्या सदा पातु ममोष्ठाधरसम्पुटम् | दन्तावलियुगं पातु ह्रीं श्रीं स्वाहा परेश्वरी
mahāvidyā sadā pātu mamoṣṭhādharasampuṭam | dantāvaliyugaṃ pātu hrīṃ śrīṃ svāhā pareśvarī
क्लीं ह्रीं श्रीं हाकिनीदेवी स्वाहा पातु रसप्रियाम् | सृक्कनीं पातु सततं शक्तिः कामवरा मधुः
klīṃ hrīṃ śrīṃ hākinīdevī svāhā pātu rasapriyām | sṛkkanīṃ pātu satataṃ śaktiḥ kāmavarā madhuḥ
स्वाहा पातु शिखा शक्तिर्भ्रूमध्यं पातु सर्वदा | हाकिनी मण्डलं पातु परानाथेश्वरी परा
svāhā pātu śikhā śaktirbhrūmadhyaṃ pātu sarvadā | hākinī maṇḍalaṃ pātu parānātheśvarī parā
सुन्दरी सर्वदा पातु द्विदलं कामसुन्दरी | अमृताख्या सदा पातु भ्रूप्रकाशस्थलं मम
sundarī sarvadā pātu dvidalaṃ kāmasundarī | amṛtākhyā sadā pātu bhrūprakāśasthalaṃ mama
वह्निज्वाला सदा पातु भ्रूश्मशानस्थलं मम | सुरभी पातु मायास्त्रं स्वाहा मे भ्रूगतच्छदम्
vahnijvālā sadā pātu bhrūśmaśānasthalaṃ mama | surabhī pātu māyāstraṃ svāhā me bhrūgatacchadam
त्रिकोणं पातु कामाख्या हाकिनी परमेश्वरी | त्रिपुरा सुन्दरी पातु द्विषट्कोणं सदा मम
trikoṇaṃ pātu kāmākhyā hākinī parameśvarī | tripurā sundarī pātu dviṣaṭkoṇaṃ sadā mama
हिङ्गुलादेश्वरी पातु षट्कोणबिन्दुमण्डलम् | सप्तभूबिम्बमापातु भूतलान्तःप्रकाशिनी
hiṅgulādeśvarī pātu ṣaṭkoṇabindumaṇḍalam | saptabhūbimbamāpātu bhūtalāntaḥprakāśinī
महाशतदलं पातु शतकोटिमरुप्रिया | गुरुविद्यामयी पातु वाणी मे मत्तगामिनी
mahāśatadalaṃ pātu śatakoṭimarupriyā | guruvidyāmayī pātu vāṇī me mattagāminī
चतुर्द्वारं सर्वचक्रं पातु मे परमेश्वरी | अत्यन्तदुःखहन्त्री मे मनश्चक्रं सदाऽवतु
caturdvāraṃ sarvacakraṃ pātu me parameśvarī | atyantaduḥkhahantrī me manaścakraṃ sadā'vatu
शब्दब्रह्ममयी पातु चन्द्रमण्डलमेव मे | अकालतारिणी दुर्गा सर्गस्थित्यन्तकारिणी
śabdabrahmamayī pātu candramaṇḍalameva me | akālatāriṇī durgā sargasthityantakāriṇī
महापुरुषसंस्थानं हाकिनी मण्डलं मम | पातु वर्णमयी तारा चन्द्रार्धं मे सुरेश्वरी
mahāpuruṣasaṃsthānaṃ hākinī maṇḍalaṃ mama | pātu varṇamayī tārā candrārdhaṃ me sureśvarī
उन्मनीनगरं पातु वह्निकुण्डनिवासिनी | मदिरा पातु सततं भालं विषहरा मम
unmanīnagaraṃ pātu vahnikuṇḍanivāsinī | madirā pātu satataṃ bhālaṃ viṣaharā mama
धर्मदा ज्ञानदा पातु धर्मज्ञानपदं मम | तालपत्नीश्वरी पातु अमृतानन्दकारिणी
dharmadā jñānadā pātu dharmajñānapadaṃ mama | tālapatnīśvarī pātu amṛtānandakāriṇī
वैराग्यनिकरं पातु बिन्दुस्थानं महाबला | त्रितारी कूटशक्तिर्मे सदा पातु विशुद्धकम्
vairāgyanikaraṃ pātu bindusthānaṃ mahābalā | tritārī kūṭaśaktirme sadā pātu viśuddhakam
शाकिनीशं सदा पातु शाकिनी कुलभैरवी | सप्तद्वीपेश्वरी पातु मम षोडशपङ्कजम्
śākinīśaṃ sadā pātu śākinī kulabhairavī | saptadvīpeśvarī pātu mama ṣoḍaśapaṅkajam
शाकिनी भैरवी पातु चण्डदुर्गा सरस्वती | कुमारी कुलजा लक्ष्मीः सिद्धार्थं मे सदाऽवतु
śākinī bhairavī pātu caṇḍadurgā sarasvatī | kumārī kulajā lakṣmīḥ siddhārthaṃ me sadā'vatu
हृदयं पातु सततं शाकिनी परमेश्वरी | बीजरूपा सदा देवी महामहिषघातिनी
hṛdayaṃ pātu satataṃ śākinī parameśvarī | bījarūpā sadā devī mahāmahiṣaghātinī
उदरं पातु सततं योगिनीकोटिभिः सह | उमा महेश्वरी पातु प्रचण्डा मम पृष्ठकम्
udaraṃ pātu satataṃ yoginīkoṭibhiḥ saha | umā maheśvarī pātu pracaṇḍā mama pṛṣṭhakam
चामुण्डा भैरवी बाला पार्श्वयुग्मं सदाऽवतु | परमा चेश्वरी पातु देवमाता स्तनद्वयम्
cāmuṇḍā bhairavī bālā pārśvayugmaṃ sadā'vatu | paramā ceśvarī pātu devamātā stanadvayam
सौभाग्यहाकिनी देवी पायात्तु यक्षसः प्रियम् | आद्या देवी शिखारूपा भुजयुग्मं सदाऽवतु
saubhāgyahākinī devī pāyāttu yakṣasaḥ priyam | ādyā devī śikhārūpā bhujayugmaṃ sadā'vatu
सर्वापराधहर्त्री मे कामविद्या दशच्छदम् | मणिपूरं सदा पातु दशवर्णात्मिका शिवा
sarvāparādhahartrī me kāmavidyā daśacchadam | maṇipūraṃ sadā pātu daśavarṇātmikā śivā
नाभिचक्रं सदा पातु लाकिनी पद्मवासिनी | नित्यदेशदलं पातु पार्वती वेदपालिनी
nābhicakraṃ sadā pātu lākinī padmavāsinī | nityadeśadalaṃ pātu pārvatī vedapālinī
महारुद्रेश्वरी पातु पीठरूपं मणिं मम | तेजोमण्डलमापातु रुद्राणी शूलधारिणी
mahārudreśvarī pātu pīṭharūpaṃ maṇiṃ mama | tejomaṇḍalamāpātu rudrāṇī śūladhāriṇī
अभया सर्वदा पातु योगविद्या नितम्बकम् | नितम्बाधारचक्रं मे पातु शैलं नितम्बिनीं
abhayā sarvadā pātu yogavidyā nitambakam | nitambādhāracakraṃ me pātu śailaṃ nitambinīṃ
तरुणी मन्त्रजालस्था वैष्णवी लिङ्गमण्डलम् | सदा पातु हाकिनीशा महाविष्णुस्थलं मम
taruṇī mantrajālasthā vaiṣṇavī liṅgamaṇḍalam | sadā pātu hākinīśā mahāviṣṇusthalaṃ mama
वैष्णवी ललिता माया रमादेवी कटिं मम | स्वाधिष्ठानं सदा पातु गुह्यरूपा सरस्वती
vaiṣṇavī lalitā māyā ramādevī kaṭiṃ mama | svādhiṣṭhānaṃ sadā pātu guhyarūpā sarasvatī
भवानी भगवत्पत्नी श्मशानकालिका गुदम् | पातु मे रणमातङ्गी राकिनी कुलमण्डलम्
bhavānī bhagavatpatnī śmaśānakālikā gudam | pātu me raṇamātaṅgī rākinī kulamaṇḍalam
व्यक्ताव्यक्तस्वरूपा मे मूलाधारं सदाऽवतु | चतुर्दलं चतुर्वर्णं पातु मे ज्ञानकुण्डली
vyaktāvyaktasvarūpā me mūlādhāraṃ sadā'vatu | caturdalaṃ caturvarṇaṃ pātu me jñānakuṇḍalī
तपस्विनी सदा पातु पावनी मूलमावतु | रतिका घटिका वेश्या धरिणी कामसुन्दरी
tapasvinī sadā pātu pāvanī mūlamāvatu | ratikā ghaṭikā veśyā dhariṇī kāmasundarī
वह्निकान्ता सदा पातु ममोरूयुगलं सदा | उल्कामुखी क्षेत्रसिद्धा जङ्घायुग्मं सदाऽवतु
vahnikāntā sadā pātu mamorūyugalaṃ sadā | ulkāmukhī kṣetrasiddhā jaṅghāyugmaṃ sadā'vatu
बालामुखी पातु सम्पत्प्रदा श्रीकुलभैरवी | पादाम्बुजद्वयं पातु सर्वाङ्गं परहाकिनी
bālāmukhī pātu sampatpradā śrīkulabhairavī | pādāmbujadvayaṃ pātu sarvāṅgaṃ parahākinī
मदना मेदिनी धन्या चामुण्डा मुण्डमालिनी | रमा कामकला ज्येष्ठा तथाज्ञा रतिसुन्दरी
madanā medinī dhanyā cāmuṇḍā muṇḍamālinī | ramā kāmakalā jyeṣṭhā tathājñā ratisundarī
मनोयोगा सदा पातु निर्मला विमलामला | काञ्चनी बगला रात्रिः पञ्चमी रतिसुन्दरी
manoyogā sadā pātu nirmalā vimalāmalā | kāñcanī bagalā rātriḥ pañcamī ratisundarī
सर्वत्र सर्वदा पातु योगाद्या प्रेमकातरा | पर्वते विपिने शून्ये रणे घोरतरे भवे
sarvatra sarvadā pātu yogādyā premakātarā | parvate vipine śūnye raṇe ghoratare bhave
श्मशानवासिनी पातु सर्ववाहनवाहना | सर्वास्त्रधारिणी पातु पञ्चमी पञ्चमप्रिया
śmaśānavāsinī pātu sarvavāhanavāhanā | sarvāstradhāriṇī pātu pañcamī pañcamapriyā
चतुर्भुजा सदा पातु हाकिनी देहदेवता | सहस्रायुतकोटीन्दुवदना परमेश्वरी
caturbhujā sadā pātu hākinī dehadevatā | sahasrāyutakoṭīnduvadanā parameśvarī
योगिनीभिः सदा पातु सर्वदेशे तु सर्वदा | अनन्ता सर्वदा पातु महाविघ्नविनाशिनी
yoginībhiḥ sadā pātu sarvadeśe tu sarvadā | anantā sarvadā pātu mahāvighnavināśinī
जले चानलगर्ते वा व्याधिभीतौ रिपोर्भये | व्याघ्रभीतौ चौरभीतौ महोन्मादभयादिषु
jale cānalagarte vā vyādhibhītau riporbhaye | vyāghrabhītau caurabhītau mahonmādabhayādiṣu
ग्रहभीतौ देवभीतौ दानवाद्रिभयेषु च | अभया निर्भया भीतिहारिणी भयनाशिनी
grahabhītau devabhītau dānavādribhayeṣu ca | abhayā nirbhayā bhītihāriṇī bhayanāśinī
महाभीमा भद्रकाली भैरवी मारकामला | महाभूतेश्वरी माता जगद्धात्री सदाऽवतु
mahābhīmā bhadrakālī bhairavī mārakāmalā | mahābhūteśvarī mātā jagaddhātrī sadā'vatu
सर्वदेशे सर्वपीठे मातृका पातु नित्यशः | इत्येतत् कवचं सर्वसिद्धिदं दुःखनाशनम्
sarvadeśe sarvapīṭhe mātṛkā pātu nityaśaḥ | ityetat kavacaṃ sarvasiddhidaṃ duḥkhanāśanam
कथितं तव यत्नेन महाकाल प्रभो हर | यः पठेत् प्रातरुत्थाय कवचं देवदुर्लभम्
kathitaṃ tava yatnena mahākāla prabho hara | yaḥ paṭhet prātarutthāya kavacaṃ devadurlabham
स भवेत् कालजेताऽपि स देवो न तु मानुषः | ध्यानात्मा साधकः श्रीमान् परमात्मा भवेत् स्वयम्
sa bhavet kālajetā'pi sa devo na tu mānuṣaḥ | dhyānātmā sādhakaḥ śrīmān paramātmā bhavet svayam
आज्ञापद्मे स्थिरो भूत्वा नित्यो भवति निश्चितम् | अकालमृत्युहरणं संसारार्णवतारणम्
ājñāpadme sthiro bhūtvā nityo bhavati niścitam | akālamṛtyuharaṇaṃ saṃsārārṇavatāraṇam
कवचं देवदेवेश चानन्दसारमङ्गलम् | यः पठेदतिभक्त्या च जीवन्मुक्तो भवेद् ध्रुवम्
kavacaṃ devadeveśa cānandasāramaṅgalam | yaḥ paṭhedatibhaktyā ca jīvanmukto bhaved dhruvam
चतुवीधा मुक्तिमाला तद्गले संस्थिरा ध्रुवम् | भवन्ति योगमुख्यानां गुरुर्वेदान्तपारगः
catuvīdhā muktimālā tadgale saṃsthirā dhruvam | bhavanti yogamukhyānāṃ gururvedāntapāragaḥ
सर्वशास्त्रार्थवेत्ता स्याद् यामलार्थज्ञ ईश्वरः | शान्तिं विद्यां प्रतिष्ठाञ्च निवृत्तिं प्राप्य निर्मलः
sarvaśāstrārthavettā syād yāmalārthajña īśvaraḥ | śāntiṃ vidyāṃ pratiṣṭhāñca nivṛttiṃ prāpya nirmalaḥ
योगात्मा चेश्वरत्वं हि प्राप्नोति नात्र संशयः | कुजे वा शनिवारे वा संक्रान्त्यां रविवासरे
yogātmā ceśvaratvaṃ hi prāpnoti nātra saṃśayaḥ | kuje vā śanivāre vā saṃkrāntyāṃ ravivāsare
अमावास्यसु रिक्तायां धारयेत् कवचं शुभम् | पुरुषो दक्षिणे हस्ते वामा वामभुजे तथा
amāvāsyasu riktāyāṃ dhārayet kavacaṃ śubham | puruṣo dakṣiṇe haste vāmā vāmabhuje tathā
सर्वसिद्धिमवाप्नोति यद्यन्मनसि वर्तते | गोरोचनाकुङ्कुमेन चालक्तेन विलिख्य च
sarvasiddhimavāpnoti yadyanmanasi vartate | gorocanākuṅkumena cālaktena vilikhya ca
अवश्यं सिद्धिमाप्नोति हाकिनीयोगजापतः
avaśyaṃ siddhimāpnoti hākinīyogajāpataḥ
वरानने वरारोहे सर्वज्ञाननिदानदे | आनन्दहृदयोल्लासे परमानन्दवधीनि
varānane varārohe sarvajñānanidānade | ānandahṛdayollāse paramānandavadhīni
कथितं कवचं पुण्यं रहस्यं चातिदुर्लभम् | न चोक्तं ज्ञानगम्यं तु महाजालनिसेवितम्
kathitaṃ kavacaṃ puṇyaṃ rahasyaṃ cātidurlabham | na coktaṃ jñānagamyaṃ tu mahājālanisevitam
परनाथस्य कवचं सार्वज्ञज्ञानसिद्धिदम् | इदानीं वद मे यत्नादानन्दकुलभैरवी
paranāthasya kavacaṃ sārvajñajñānasiddhidam | idānīṃ vada me yatnādānandakulabhairavī
श्रूयतां योगिनीनाथ योगविद्यापते प्रभो | परनाथस्य कवचं ज्ञानगम्यं पुरातनम्
śrūyatāṃ yoginīnātha yogavidyāpate prabho | paranāthasya kavacaṃ jñānagamyaṃ purātanam