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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 77 of 129
मार्कण्डेयो मुहुःप्रीतो मातृकामण्डलेश्वरी | मानसंस्थो मानदाता मनोधारणतत्परा
mārkaṇḍeyo muhuḥprīto mātṛkāmaṇḍaleśvarī | mānasaṃstho mānadātā manodhāraṇatatparā
मयदानवचित्तस्थो मयदानवचित्रिणी | महागुणधरानन्दो महालिङ्गविहारिणी
mayadānavacittastho mayadānavacitriṇī | mahāguṇadharānando mahāliṅgavihāriṇī
महेश्वरस्थितो मूलो मूलविद्याकुलोदया | मायापो मोहनोन्मादी महागुरुनिवासिनी
maheśvarasthito mūlo mūlavidyākulodayā | māyāpo mohanonmādī mahāgurunivāsinī
महाशुक्लाम्बरधरो मलयागुरुधूपिता | मधूपिनी मधूल्लासो माध्वीरससमाश्रया
mahāśuklāmbaradharo malayāgurudhūpitā | madhūpinī madhūllāso mādhvīrasasamāśrayā
महागुरुर्महादेहो महोत्साहा महोत्पला | मध्यपङ्कजसंस्थाता मध्याम्बुजनिवासिनी
mahāgururmahādeho mahotsāhā mahotpalā | madhyapaṅkajasaṃsthātā madhyāmbujanivāsinī
मारीभयहरो मल्लो मल्लग्रहविरोधिनी | महामुण्डलयोन्मादी मदघूणीतलोचना
mārībhayaharo mallo mallagrahavirodhinī | mahāmuṇḍalayonmādī madaghūṇītalocanā
महासद्योजातकालो महाकपिलवतीनी | मेघवाहो महावक्त्रो मनसामणिधारिणी
mahāsadyojātakālo mahākapilavatīnī | meghavāho mahāvaktro manasāmaṇidhāriṇī
मरणाश्रयहन्ता च महागुर्वीगणस्थिता | महापद्मस्थितो मन्त्रो मन्त्रविद्यानिधीश्वरी
maraṇāśrayahantā ca mahāgurvīgaṇasthitā | mahāpadmasthito mantro mantravidyānidhīśvarī
मकरासनसंस्थाता महामृत्युविनाशिनी | मोहनो मोहिनीनाथो मत्तनर्तनवासिनी
makarāsanasaṃsthātā mahāmṛtyuvināśinī | mohano mohinīnātho mattanartanavāsinī
महाकालकुलोल्लासी महाकामादिनाशिनी | मूलपद्मनिवासी च महामूलकुलोदया
mahākālakulollāsī mahākāmādināśinī | mūlapadmanivāsī ca mahāmūlakulodayā
मासाख्यो मांसनिलया मङ्गलस्था महागुणा | मायाछन्नतरो मीनो मीमांसागुणवादिनी
māsākhyo māṃsanilayā maṅgalasthā mahāguṇā | māyāchannataro mīno mīmāṃsāguṇavādinī
मीमांसाकारको मायी मार्जारसिद्धिदायिनी | मेदिनीवल्लभक्षेमो मेदिनीज्ञानमोदिनी
mīmāṃsākārako māyī mārjārasiddhidāyinī | medinīvallabhakṣemo medinījñānamodinī
मौषलीश मृषार्थस्थो मनकल्पितकेशरी | मनस श्रीधरो जापो मन्दहाससुशोभिता
mauṣalīśa mṛṣārthastho manakalpitakeśarī | manasa śrīdharo jāpo mandahāsasuśobhitā
मैनाको मेनकापुत्रो मायाछन्ना महाक्रिया | महाक्रिया च लोमाण्डो मण्डलासनशोभिता
maināko menakāputro māyāchannā mahākriyā | mahākriyā ca lomāṇḍo maṇḍalāsanaśobhitā
मायाधारणकर्ता च महाद्वेषविनाशिनी | मुक्तकेशी मुक्तदेहो मुक्तिदा मुक्तिमानिनी
māyādhāraṇakartā ca mahādveṣavināśinī | muktakeśī muktadeho muktidā muktimāninī
मुक्ताहारधरो मुक्तो मुक्तिमार्गप्रकाशिनी | महामुक्तिक्रियाच्छन्नो महोच्चगिरिनन्दिनी
muktāhāradharo mukto muktimārgaprakāśinī | mahāmuktikriyācchanno mahoccagirinandinī
मूषलाद्यस्त्रहन्ता च महागौरीमनःक्रिया | महाधनी महामानी मनोमत्ता मनोलया
mūṣalādyastrahantā ca mahāgaurīmanaḥkriyā | mahādhanī mahāmānī manomattā manolayā
महारणगत सान्तो महावीणाविनोदिनी | महाशत्रुनिहन्ता च महास्त्रजालमालिनी
mahāraṇagata sānto mahāvīṇāvinodinī | mahāśatrunihantā ca mahāstrajālamālinī
शिवो रुद्रो वलीशानी कितवामोदवधीनी | चन्द्रचूडाधरो वेदो मदोन्मत्ता महोज्ज्वला
śivo rudro valīśānī kitavāmodavadhīnī | candracūḍādharo vedo madonmattā mahojjvalā
विगलत्कोटिचन्द्राभो विधुकोटिसमोदया | अग्निज्वालाधरो वीरो ज्वालामालासहस्रधा
vigalatkoṭicandrābho vidhukoṭisamodayā | agnijvālādharo vīro jvālāmālāsahasradhā
भर्गप्रियकरो धर्मो महाधामीकतत्परा | धर्मध्वजो धर्मकर्ता धर्मगुप्ति प्रसृत्त्वरी
bhargapriyakaro dharmo mahādhāmīkatatparā | dharmadhvajo dharmakartā dharmagupti prasṛttvarī
महाविद्रुमपूरस्थो विद्रुमाभायुतप्रभा | पुष्पमालाधरो मान्य शत्रूणां कुलनाशिनी
mahāvidrumapūrastho vidrumābhāyutaprabhā | puṣpamālādharo mānya śatrūṇāṃ kulanāśinī
कोजागरो विसर्गस्थो बीजमालाविभूषिता | बीजचन्द्रो बीजपूरो बीजाभा विघ्ननाशिनी
kojāgaro visargastho bījamālāvibhūṣitā | bījacandro bījapūro bījābhā vighnanāśinī
विशिष्टो विधिमोक्शस्थो वेदाङ्गपरिपूरिणी | किरातिनीपति श्रीमान् विज्ञाविज्ञजनप्रिया
viśiṣṭo vidhimokśastho vedāṅgaparipūriṇī | kirātinīpati śrīmān vijñāvijñajanapriyā
वर्धस्थो वर्धसम्पन्नो वर्णमालाविभूषिता | महाद्रुमगत शूरो विलसत्कोटिचन्द्रभा
vardhastho vardhasampanno varṇamālāvibhūṣitā | mahādrumagata śūro vilasatkoṭicandrabhā
महाकुमारनिलयो महाकामकुमारिका | कामजालक्रियानाथो विकला कमलासना
mahākumāranilayo mahākāmakumārikā | kāmajālakriyānātho vikalā kamalāsanā
खण्डबुद्धिहरो भावो भवतीति दुरासना | असंख्यको रूपसंख्यो नामसंख्यादिपूरणी
khaṇḍabuddhiharo bhāvo bhavatīti durāsanā | asaṃkhyako rūpasaṃkhyo nāmasaṃkhyādipūraṇī
सद्मनाद्यमना कोषकिङ्किणीजालमालिनी | चन्द्रायुतमुखाम्भोजो विभायुतसमानना
sadmanādyamanā koṣakiṅkiṇījālamālinī | candrāyutamukhāmbhojo vibhāyutasamānanā
कालबुद्धिहरो बालो भगवत्यम्बिकाऽण्डजा | मुण्डहस्तश्चातुराद्यः विवादरहिताऽवृता
kālabuddhiharo bālo bhagavatyambikā'ṇḍajā | muṇḍahastaścāturādyaḥ vivādarahitā'vṛtā
पञ्चमाचारकुशलो महापञ्चमलालसा | विकारशून्यो दुर्धर्षो द्विपदा मानुषक्रिया
pañcamācārakuśalo mahāpañcamalālasā | vikāraśūnyo durdharṣo dvipadā mānuṣakriyā
मयदानवकर्मस्थो विधातृकर्मबोधिनी | कलिकालक्रियारूढ. वायवीघर्घरध्वनि
mayadānavakarmastho vidhātṛkarmabodhinī | kalikālakriyārūḍha. vāyavīghargharadhvani
सर्वसञ्चारकर्ता च सर्वसञ्चारकत्रीका | मन्दमन्दगतिप्रेमा मन्दमन्दगतिस्थिता
sarvasañcārakartā ca sarvasañcārakatrīkā | mandamandagatipremā mandamandagatisthitā
साट्टहासो विधुकला चाघोराघोरयातना | महानरकहर्ता च नरकादिविपाकहा
sāṭṭahāso vidhukalā cāghorāghorayātanā | mahānarakahartā ca narakādivipākahā
पञ्चरश्मिसमुद्भूतो नगादिबलघातिनी | गरुडासनसम्पूज्यो गरुडप्रेमवधीनी
pañcaraśmisamudbhūto nagādibalaghātinī | garuḍāsanasampūjyo garuḍapremavadhīnī
अश्वत्थवृक्शनिलयो वटवृक्शतलस्थिता | चिराङ्गो प्रथमाबुद्धि प्रपञ्चसारसङ्गति
aśvatthavṛkśanilayo vaṭavṛkśatalasthitā | cirāṅgo prathamābuddhi prapañcasārasaṅgati
स्थितिकर्ता स्थितिच्छाया विमदा छत्रधारिणी | दाडिमाभासकुसुमो दाडिमोद्भवपुष्पिका
sthitikartā sthiticchāyā vimadā chatradhāriṇī | dāḍimābhāsakusumo dāḍimodbhavapuṣpikā
द्राढ्यो द्रवीभरतिका रतिकालापवधीनी | रत्नगर्भो रत्नमाला रत्नेश्वर इवागति
drāḍhyo dravībharatikā ratikālāpavadhīnī | ratnagarbho ratnamālā ratneśvara ivāgati
प्रसिद्धः पावनी पुच्छा पुच्छसुस्थ परापरा | खेचरी खेचर स्वस्थो महाखड्गधरा जया
prasiddhaḥ pāvanī pucchā pucchasustha parāparā | khecarī khecara svastho mahākhaḍgadharā jayā
किशोरभावखेलस्थो विखनादिप्रकारिका | महाशब्दप्रकाशश्च महाशब्दप्रकाशिका
kiśorabhāvakhelastho vikhanādiprakārikā | mahāśabdaprakāśaśca mahāśabdaprakāśikā
चारुहासो विपधन्ता शत्रुमित्रगणस्थिता | वज्रदण्डधरो व्याघ्रो वियत्खेलनखञ्जना
cāruhāso vipadhantā śatrumitragaṇasthitā | vajradaṇḍadharo vyāghro viyatkhelanakhañjanā
गदाधर शीलधारी शशिकर्पूरगाऽबला | वसनासनकारी च वसनावसनप्रिया
gadādhara śīladhārī śaśikarpūragā'balā | vasanāsanakārī ca vasanāvasanapriyā
महाविद्याधरो गुप्तो विशिष्टगोपनक्रिया | गुप्तगीतागायनस्थो गुप्तशास्त्रगलप्रदा
mahāvidyādharo gupto viśiṣṭagopanakriyā | guptagītāgāyanastho guptaśāstragalapradā
योगविद्यापुराणश्च यागविद्या विभाकला | एककालो द्विकालश्चात्र कालफलाम्बुजा
yogavidyāpurāṇaśca yāgavidyā vibhākalā | ekakālo dvikālaścātra kālaphalāmbujā
अष्टादशभुजो रौद्री भुजगा विघ्ननाशिनी | विद्यागोपनकारी च विद्यासिद्धिप्रदायिनी
aṣṭādaśabhujo raudrī bhujagā vighnanāśinī | vidyāgopanakārī ca vidyāsiddhipradāyinī
विजयानन्दगो मन्दो महाकालमहेश्वरी | भूतिदानरतो मार्गों महद्गीताप्रकाशिनी
vijayānandago mando mahākālamaheśvarī | bhūtidānarato mārgoṃ mahadgītāprakāśinī
केशाद्यावेशसन्तानो मङ्गलाभा कुलान्तरा | द्विभुजो वेदबाहुश्च षड्भुजा कामचारिणी
keśādyāveśasantāno maṅgalābhā kulāntarā | dvibhujo vedabāhuśca ṣaḍbhujā kāmacāriṇī
चन्द्रकान्तमाल्यधरो लोकातिलोकरागिणी | त्रिभङ्गदेहनिकरो विभाङ्गस्था विनोदिनी
candrakāntamālyadharo lokātilokarāgiṇī | tribhaṅgadehanikaro vibhāṅgasthā vinodinī
त्रिकूटस्थस्त्रिभावस्थस्त्रिशरीरा त्रिकालजा | एकवक्त्रो द्विवक्त्रश्च वक्त्रशून्या शिशुप्रिया
trikūṭasthastribhāvasthastriśarīrā trikālajā | ekavaktro dvivaktraśca vaktraśūnyā śiśupriyā
श्री विद्यामन्त्रजालस्थो विज्ञानी कुशलेश्वरी | घटासरगतो गौरा गौरवी गौरिकाऽचला
śrī vidyāmantrajālastho vijñānī kuśaleśvarī | ghaṭāsaragato gaurā gauravī gaurikā'calā
गुरुज्ञानगतो गन्धो गन्धभोग्या गिरिध्वजा | छायामण्डलमध्यस्थो विकटा पुष्करानना
gurujñānagato gandho gandhabhogyā giridhvajā | chāyāmaṇḍalamadhyastho vikaṭā puṣkarānanā
कामाख्यो निरहङ्कार कामरूपनृपाङ्गजा | सुलभो दुर्लभो दुःखी सूक्ष्मातिसूक्ष्मरूपिणी
kāmākhyo nirahaṅkāra kāmarūpanṛpāṅgajā | sulabho durlabho duḥkhī sūkṣmātisūkṣmarūpiṇī
बीजजापपशो क्रूरो विमोहगुणनाशिनी | अर्धरो निपुणोल्लाशो विभुरूपा सरस्वती
bījajāpapaśo krūro vimohaguṇanāśinī | ardharo nipuṇollāśo vibhurūpā sarasvatī
अनन्तघोषनिलयो विहङ्गगणगामिनी | अच्युतेश प्रकाण्डस्थ प्रचण्डफालवाहिनी
anantaghoṣanilayo vihaṅgagaṇagāminī | acyuteśa prakāṇḍastha pracaṇḍaphālavāhinī
अभ्रान्तो भ्रान्तिरहिता श्रान्तो यान्ति प्रतिष्ठिता | अव्यर्थो व्यर्थवाक्यस्थो विशङ्काशङ्कयान्विता
abhrānto bhrāntirahitā śrānto yānti pratiṣṭhitā | avyartho vyarthavākyastho viśaṅkāśaṅkayānvitā
यमुनापतिप पीनो महाकालवसावहा | जम्बूद्वीपेश्वर पार पारावारकृतासनी
yamunāpatipa pīno mahākālavasāvahā | jambūdvīpeśvara pāra pārāvārakṛtāsanī
वज्रदण्डधर शान्तो मिथ्यागतिरतीन्द्रिया | अनन्तशयनो न्यूनः परमाह्लादवधीनी
vajradaṇḍadhara śānto mithyāgatiratīndriyā | anantaśayano nyūnaḥ paramāhlādavadhīnī
शिष्टाश्रणिलयो व्याख्यो वसन्तकालसुप्रिया | विरजान्दोलितो भिन्नो विशुद्धगुणमण्डिता
śiṣṭāśraṇilayo vyākhyo vasantakālasupriyā | virajāndolito bhinno viśuddhaguṇamaṇḍitā
अञ्जनेशः खञ्जनेश पललासवभक्शिणी | अङ्गभाषाकृतिस्नाता सुधारसफलातुरा
añjaneśaḥ khañjaneśa palalāsavabhakśiṇī | aṅgabhāṣākṛtisnātā sudhārasaphalāturā
फलबीजधरो दौर्गो द्वारपालनपल्लवा | पिप्पलादः कारणश्च विख्यातिरतिवल्लभा
phalabījadharo daurgo dvārapālanapallavā | pippalādaḥ kāraṇaśca vikhyātirativallabhā
संहारविग्रहो विप्रो विषण्णा कामरूपिणी | अवलापो नापनापो विक्ळ्प्ता कंसनाशिनी
saṃhāravigraho vipro viṣaṇṇā kāmarūpiṇī | avalāpo nāpanāpo vikḷptā kaṃsanāśinī