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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 122 of 129
महायोगा महाभद्रा महायोगेन्द्रतारिणी | महादीपशिखाकारा महादीपप्रकाशिनी
mahāyogā mahābhadrā mahāyogendratāriṇī | mahādīpaśikhākārā mahādīpaprakāśinī
महादीपप्रकाशाख्या महाश्रद्धा महामतिः | महामहीयसी मोहनाशिनी महती महा
mahādīpaprakāśākhyā mahāśraddhā mahāmatiḥ | mahāmahīyasī mohanāśinī mahatī mahā
महाकालपूजिता च महाकालकुलेश्वरी | महायोगीन्द्रजननी मोहसिद्धिप्रदायिनी
mahākālapūjitā ca mahākālakuleśvarī | mahāyogīndrajananī mohasiddhipradāyinī
आहुतिस्थाहुतिरता होतृवेदमनुप्रिया | हैयङ्गबीजभोक्त्री च हैयङ्गबीजसुप्रिया
āhutisthāhutiratā hotṛvedamanupriyā | haiyaṅgabījabhoktrī ca haiyaṅgabījasupriyā
हे सम्बोधनरूपा च हे हेतोः परमात्मजा | हलनाथप्रिया देवी हिताहितविनाशिनी
he sambodhanarūpā ca he hetoḥ paramātmajā | halanāthapriyā devī hitāhitavināśinī
हन्त्री समस्तपापानां हलहेतुप्रदाप्रदा | हलहेतुच्छलस्था च हिलिहिलिप्रयागिनी
hantrī samastapāpānāṃ halahetupradāpradā | halahetucchalasthā ca hilihiliprayāginī
हुतासनमुखी शून्या हरिणी हरतन्त्रदा | हठात्कारगतिप्रीता सुण्टकालङ्कृता इला
hutāsanamukhī śūnyā hariṇī haratantradā | haṭhātkāragatiprītā suṇṭakālaṅkṛtā ilā
हलायुधाद्यजननी हिल्लोला हेमबहीणी | हैमी हिमसुता हेमपर्वतशृङ्गसंस्थिरा
halāyudhādyajananī hillolā hemabahīṇī | haimī himasutā hemaparvataśṛṅgasaṃsthirā
हरणाख्या हरिप्रेमवधीनी हरमोहिनी | हरमाता हरप्रज्ञा हुङ्कारी हरपावनी
haraṇākhyā haripremavadhīnī haramohinī | haramātā haraprajñā huṅkārī harapāvanī
हेरम्बजननी हट्टमध्यस्थलनिवासिनी | हिमकुन्देन्दुधवला हिमपर्वतवासिनी
herambajananī haṭṭamadhyasthalanivāsinī | himakundendudhavalā himaparvatavāsinī
होतृस्था हरहाला च हेलातीता अहर्गणा | अहङ्कारा हेतुगर्ता हेतुस्था हितकारिणी
hotṛsthā harahālā ca helātītā ahargaṇā | ahaṅkārā hetugartā hetusthā hitakāriṇī
हतभाग्यनिहन्त्री च हतासद्बुद्धिजीविका | हेतुप्रिया महारात्री अहोराख्या हरोद्गमा
hatabhāgyanihantrī ca hatāsadbuddhijīvikā | hetupriyā mahārātrī ahorākhyā harodgamā
अर्हणादिप्रिया चार्हा हाहाकारनिनादिनी | हनुमत्कल्पसंस्थाना हनुमत्सिद्धिदायिनी
arhaṇādipriyā cārhā hāhākāraninādinī | hanumatkalpasaṃsthānā hanumatsiddhidāyinī
हलाहलप्रियाघोरा महाभीमा हलायुधा | हसौः बीजस्वरूपा च हसौं प्रेताख्यजापिनी
halāhalapriyāghorā mahābhīmā halāyudhā | hasauḥ bījasvarūpā ca hasauṃ pretākhyajāpinī
आह्लादिनी इहानन्दा अर्घ्यक्रान्ता हरार्चना | हरभीतिहराहःका बीजहःकामहक्षरा
āhlādinī ihānandā arghyakrāntā harārcanā | harabhītiharāhaḥkā bījahaḥkāmahakṣarā
हेरम्बयोगसिद्धिस्था हेरम्बादिसुतप्रिया | हननाख्या हेतुनाम्नी हठात् सिद्धिप्रयोगदा
herambayogasiddhisthā herambādisutapriyā | hananākhyā hetunāmnī haṭhāt siddhiprayogadā
उमा महेश्वरी आद्या अनन्तानन्तशक्तिदा | आधारार्हसुरक्षा च ईश्वरी उग्रतारिणी
umā maheśvarī ādyā anantānantaśaktidā | ādhārārhasurakṣā ca īśvarī ugratāriṇī
उषेश्वरी उत्तमा च ऊर्ध्वपद्मविभेदिनी | ऋद्धिसिद्धिप्रदा क्षुल्लाकाशबीजसुसिद्धिदा
uṣeśvarī uttamā ca ūrdhvapadmavibhedinī | ṛddhisiddhipradā kṣullākāśabījasusiddhidā
तृतकस्थातृतकस्था तृस्वराखर्वबीजगा | एरण्डपुष्पहोमाढ्या एश्वर्यदानतत्परा
tṛtakasthātṛtakasthā tṛsvarākharvabījagā | eraṇḍapuṣpahomāḍhyā eśvaryadānatatparā
ओड्र्पुष्पप्रिया ओंकाराक्षरा औषधप्रिया | अर्वणासारः अंशाख्या अःस्था च कपिला कला
oḍrpuṣpapriyā oṃkārākṣarā auṣadhapriyā | arvaṇāsāraḥ aṃśākhyā aḥsthā ca kapilā kalā
कैलासस्था कामधेनुः खर्वा खेटकधारिणी | खरपुष्पप्रिया खड्गधारिणी खरगामिनी
kailāsasthā kāmadhenuḥ kharvā kheṭakadhāriṇī | kharapuṣpapriyā khaḍgadhāriṇī kharagāminī
गभीरा गीतगायत्री गुर्वा गुरुतरा गया | घनकोटिनादकरी घर्घरा घोरनादिनी
gabhīrā gītagāyatrī gurvā gurutarā gayā | ghanakoṭinādakarī ghargharā ghoranādinī
घनच्छाया चारुवर्णा चण्डिका चारुहासिनी | चारुचन्द्रमुखी चारुचित्तभावार्थगामिनी
ghanacchāyā cāruvarṇā caṇḍikā cāruhāsinī | cārucandramukhī cārucittabhāvārthagāminī
छत्राकिनी छलच्छिन्ना छागमांसविनोदिनी | जयदा जीवी जन्या च जीमूतैरुपशोभिता
chatrākinī chalacchinnā chāgamāṃsavinodinī | jayadā jīvī janyā ca jīmūtairupaśobhitā
जयित्री जयमुण्डाली झङ्कारी झञ्जनादिका | टङ्कारधारिणी टङ्कबाणकार्मुकधारिणी
jayitrī jayamuṇḍālī jhaṅkārī jhañjanādikā | ṭaṅkāradhāriṇī ṭaṅkabāṇakārmukadhāriṇī
ठकुराणी ठठङ्कारी डामरेशी च डिण्डिमा | ढक्कानादप्रिया ढक्का तवमाला तलातला
ṭhakurāṇī ṭhaṭhaṅkārī ḍāmareśī ca ḍiṇḍimā | ḍhakkānādapriyā ḍhakkā tavamālā talātalā
तिमिरा तारिणी तारा तरुणा तालसिद्धिदा | तृप्ता च तैजसी चैव तुलनातलवासिनी
timirā tāriṇī tārā taruṇā tālasiddhidā | tṛptā ca taijasī caiva tulanātalavāsinī
तोषणा तौलिनी तैलगन्धामोदितदिङ्मुखी | स्थूलप्रिया थकाराद्या स्थितिरूपा च संस्थिरा
toṣaṇā taulinī tailagandhāmoditadiṅmukhī | sthūlapriyā thakārādyā sthitirūpā ca saṃsthirā
दक्षिणदेहनादाक्षा दक्षपत्नी च दक्षजा | दारिद्र्यदोषहन्त्री च दारुणास्त्रविभञ्जिनी
dakṣiṇadehanādākṣā dakṣapatnī ca dakṣajā | dāridryadoṣahantrī ca dāruṇāstravibhañjinī
दंष्ट्रकरालवदनी दीर्घमात्रादलान्विता | देवमाता देवसेना देवपूज्या दयादशा
daṃṣṭrakarālavadanī dīrghamātrādalānvitā | devamātā devasenā devapūjyā dayādaśā
दीक्षादानप्रदा दैन्यहन्त्री दीर्घसुकुन्तला | दनुजेन्द्रनिहन्त्री च दनुजारिविमदीनी
dīkṣādānapradā dainyahantrī dīrghasukuntalā | danujendranihantrī ca danujārivimadīnī
देशपूज्या दायदात्री दशनास्त्रप्रधारिणी | दासरक्षा देशरक्षा दिगम्बरदिगम्बरी
deśapūjyā dāyadātrī daśanāstrapradhāriṇī | dāsarakṣā deśarakṣā digambaradigambarī
दिक्प्रभापाटलव्याप्ता दरीगृहनिवासिनी | दर्शनस्था दार्शनिका दत्तभार्या च दुर्गहा
dikprabhāpāṭalavyāptā darīgṛhanivāsinī | darśanasthā dārśanikā dattabhāryā ca durgahā
दुर्गा दीर्घमुखी दुःखनाशिनी दिविसंस्थिता | धन्या धनप्रदा धारा धरणी धारिणी धरा
durgā dīrghamukhī duḥkhanāśinī divisaṃsthitā | dhanyā dhanapradā dhārā dharaṇī dhāriṇī dharā
धृतसौन्दर्यवदना धनदा धान्यवधीनी | ध्यानप्राप्ता ध्यानगम्या ध्यानज्ञानप्रकाशिनी
dhṛtasaundaryavadanā dhanadā dhānyavadhīnī | dhyānaprāptā dhyānagamyā dhyānajñānaprakāśinī
ध्येया धीरपूजिता च धूमेशी च धुरन्धरा | धूमकेतुहरा धूमा ध्येया सर्वसुरेश्वरैः
dhyeyā dhīrapūjitā ca dhūmeśī ca dhurandharā | dhūmaketuharā dhūmā dhyeyā sarvasureśvaraiḥ
धर्मार्थमोक्षदा धर्मचिन्ता धर्मप्रकाशिनी | धूलिरूपा च धवला धवलच्छत्रधारिणी
dharmārthamokṣadā dharmacintā dharmaprakāśinī | dhūlirūpā ca dhavalā dhavalacchatradhāriṇī
धवलाम्बरधात्री च धवलासनसंस्थिता | धवला हिमालयधरा धरणी साधनक्रिया
dhavalāmbaradhātrī ca dhavalāsanasaṃsthitā | dhavalā himālayadharā dharaṇī sādhanakriyā
धवलेश्वरकन्या च धवलाध्वाधलामुखी | धीरकन्या धर्मकन्या ध्रुवसिद्धिप्रदायिनी
dhavaleśvarakanyā ca dhavalādhvādhalāmukhī | dhīrakanyā dharmakanyā dhruvasiddhipradāyinī
ध्रुवानन्दा ध्रुवश्रद्धा ध्रुवसन्तोषवधीनी | नारिकेलजलस्नाता नारिकेलफलासना
dhruvānandā dhruvaśraddhā dhruvasantoṣavadhīnī | nārikelajalasnātā nārikelaphalāsanā
नारी नारायणीशाना नम्रपूजनसुप्रिया | नरदेवरता नित्यगणगन्धर्वपूजिता
nārī nārāyaṇīśānā namrapūjanasupriyā | naradevaratā nityagaṇagandharvapūjitā
नरकविहारिणी चैव नरकान्तककारिणी | नरक्षेत्रकलादेवी नवकोशनिवासिनी
narakavihāriṇī caiva narakāntakakāriṇī | narakṣetrakalādevī navakośanivāsinī
नाक्षत्रविद्या नाक्षत्री नक्षत्रमण्डलस्थिता | नृपोन्नाशकरी नारायणी नूपुरधारिणी
nākṣatravidyā nākṣatrī nakṣatramaṇḍalasthitā | nṛponnāśakarī nārāyaṇī nūpuradhāriṇī
नृत्यगीतप्रियानीता नवीना नामशायिनी | नौनूतनास्त्रधरा नित्या नवपुष्पवनस्थिता
nṛtyagītapriyānītā navīnā nāmaśāyinī | naunūtanāstradharā nityā navapuṣpavanasthitā
नवपुष्पप्रेमरता नवचम्पकमालिनी | नवरत्नहारमाला नवजाम्बूनदप्रभा
navapuṣpapremaratā navacampakamālinī | navaratnahāramālā navajāmbūnadaprabhā
नमस्कारप्रिया निन्दा वादनादप्रणाशिनी | पवनाक्षरमाला च पवनाक्षरमालिनी
namaskārapriyā nindā vādanādapraṇāśinī | pavanākṣaramālā ca pavanākṣaramālinī
परदोषभयङ्कारा प्रचरद्रूपसंस्थिता | प्रस्फुटिताम्भोजमालाधारिणी प्रेमवासिनी
paradoṣabhayaṅkārā pracaradrūpasaṃsthitā | prasphuṭitāmbhojamālādhāriṇī premavāsinī
परमानन्दसप्तानहरी पृथुनितम्बिनी | प्रवालमाला लोभाङ्गी पयोदा शतविग्रहा
paramānandasaptānaharī pṛthunitambinī | pravālamālā lobhāṅgī payodā śatavigrahā
पयोदकरुणाकारा पारम्पर्याप्रसादिनी | प्रारम्भकर्मनिरता प्रारब्धभोगदायिनी
payodakaruṇākārā pāramparyāprasādinī | prārambhakarmaniratā prārabdhabhogadāyinī
प्रेमसिद्धिकरी प्रेमधारा गङ्गाम्बुशोभिनी | फेरुपुण्यवरानन्दा फेरुभोजनतोषणी
premasiddhikarī premadhārā gaṅgāmbuśobhinī | pherupuṇyavarānandā pherubhojanatoṣaṇī
फलदा फलवर्धा च फलाह्लादविनोदिनी | फणिमालाधरा देवी फणिहारादिशोभिनी
phaladā phalavardhā ca phalāhlādavinodinī | phaṇimālādharā devī phaṇihārādiśobhinī
फणा फणीकारमुखी फणस्था फणिमण्डला | सहस्रफणिसम्प्राप्ता फुल्लारविन्दमालिनी
phaṇā phaṇīkāramukhī phaṇasthā phaṇimaṇḍalā | sahasraphaṇisamprāptā phullāravindamālinī
वासुकी व्यासपूज्या च वासुदेवार्चनप्रिया | वासुदेवकलावाच्या वाचकस्था वसुस्थिता
vāsukī vyāsapūjyā ca vāsudevārcanapriyā | vāsudevakalāvācyā vācakasthā vasusthitā
वज्रदण्डधराधारा विरदा वादसाधिनी | वसन्तकालनिलया वसोर्द्धारा वसुन्धरा
vajradaṇḍadharādhārā viradā vādasādhinī | vasantakālanilayā vasorddhārā vasundharā
वेपमानरक्षका च वपूरक्षा वृषासना | विवस्वत्प्रेमकुशला विद्यावाद्यविनोदिनी
vepamānarakṣakā ca vapūrakṣā vṛṣāsanā | vivasvatpremakuśalā vidyāvādyavinodinī
विधिविद्याप्रकाशा च विधिसिद्धान्तदायिनी | विधिज्ञा वेदकुशला वेदवाक्यविवासिनी
vidhividyāprakāśā ca vidhisiddhāntadāyinī | vidhijñā vedakuśalā vedavākyavivāsinī
बलदेवपूजिता च बालभावप्रपूजिता | बाला वसुमती वेद्या वृद्धमाता बुधप्रिया
baladevapūjitā ca bālabhāvaprapūjitā | bālā vasumatī vedyā vṛddhamātā budhapriyā
बृहस्पतिप्रिया वीरपूजिता बालचन्द्रिका | विग्रहज्ञानरक्षा च व्याघ्रचर्मधरावरा
bṛhaspatipriyā vīrapūjitā bālacandrikā | vigrahajñānarakṣā ca vyāghracarmadharāvarā
व्यथाबोधापहन्त्री च विसर्गमण्डलस्थिता | बाणभूषापूजिता वनमाला विहायसी
vyathābodhāpahantrī ca visargamaṇḍalasthitā | bāṇabhūṣāpūjitā vanamālā vihāyasī
वामदेवप्रिया वामपूजाजापपरायणा | भद्रा भ्रमरवर्णा च भ्रामरी भ्रमरप्रभा
vāmadevapriyā vāmapūjājāpaparāyaṇā | bhadrā bhramaravarṇā ca bhrāmarī bhramaraprabhā