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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 78 of 129
हठात्कारेणतो चामो नाचामो विनयक्रिया | सर्व सर्वसुखाच्छन्नो जिताजितगुणोदया
haṭhātkāreṇato cāmo nācāmo vinayakriyā | sarva sarvasukhācchanno jitājitaguṇodayā
भास्वत्किरीटो राङ्कारी वरुणेशीतलान्तरा | अमूल्यरत्नदानाढ्यो दिवारात्रिस्त्रिखण्डजा
bhāsvatkirīṭo rāṅkārī varuṇeśītalāntarā | amūlyaratnadānāḍhyo divārātristrikhaṇḍajā
मारबीजमहामानो हरबीजादिसंस्थिता | अनन्तवासुकीशानो लाकिनी काकिनी द्विधा
mārabījamahāmāno harabījādisaṃsthitā | anantavāsukīśāno lākinī kākinī dvidhā
कोटिध्वजो बृहद्गर्गश्चामुण्डा रणचण्डिका | उमेशो रत्नमालेशी विकुम्भगणपूजित
koṭidhvajo bṛhadgargaścāmuṇḍā raṇacaṇḍikā | umeśo ratnamāleśī vikumbhagaṇapūjita
निकुम्भपूजित कृष्णो विष्णुपत्नी सुधात्मिका | अल्पकालहरः कुन्तो महाकुन्तास्त्रधारिणी
nikumbhapūjita kṛṣṇo viṣṇupatnī sudhātmikā | alpakālaharaḥ kunto mahākuntāstradhāriṇī
ब्रह्मास्त्रधारक क्शिप्तो वनमालाविभूषिता | एकाक्शर द्वयक्शरश्च षोडशाक्शरसंभवा
brahmāstradhāraka kśipto vanamālāvibhūṣitā | ekākśara dvayakśaraśca ṣoḍaśākśarasaṃbhavā
अतिगम्भीरवातस्थो महागम्भीरवाद्यगा | त्रिविधात्मा त्रिदेशात्मा तृतीयात्राणकारिणी
atigambhīravātastho mahāgambhīravādyagā | trividhātmā trideśātmā tṛtīyātrāṇakāriṇī
कियत्कालचलानन्दो विहङ्गगमनासना | गीर्वाण बाणहन्ता च बाणहस्ता विधूच्छला
kiyatkālacalānando vihaṅgagamanāsanā | gīrvāṇa bāṇahantā ca bāṇahastā vidhūcchalā
बिन्दुधर्मोज्ज्वलोदारो वियज्ज्वलनकारिणी | विवासा व्यासपूज्यश्च नवदेशीप्रधानिका
bindudharmojjvalodāro viyajjvalanakāriṇī | vivāsā vyāsapūjyaśca navadeśīpradhānikā
विलोलवदनो वामो विरोमा मोदकारिणी | हिरण्यहारभूषाङ्गः कलिङ्गनन्दिनीशगा
vilolavadano vāmo viromā modakāriṇī | hiraṇyahārabhūṣāṅgaḥ kaliṅganandinīśagā
अनन्यक्शीणवक्शश्च क्शितिक्शोभविनाशिका | क्शणक्षेत्रप्रसादाङ्गो वशिष्ठादिऋषीश्वरी
ananyakśīṇavakśaśca kśitikśobhavināśikā | kśaṇakṣetraprasādāṅgo vaśiṣṭhādiṛṣīśvarī
रेवातीरनिवासी च गङ्गातीरनिवासिनी | चाङ्गेशः पुष्करेशश्च व्यासभाषाविशेषिका
revātīranivāsī ca gaṅgātīranivāsinī | cāṅgeśaḥ puṣkareśaśca vyāsabhāṣāviśeṣikā
अमलानाथसंज्ञश्च रामेश्वरसुपूजिता | रमानाथ प्रभु प्राप्ति कीतीदुर्गाभिधानिका
amalānāthasaṃjñaśca rāmeśvarasupūjitā | ramānātha prabhu prāpti kītīdurgābhidhānikā
लम्बोदर प्रेमकालो लम्बोदरकुलप्रिया | स्वर्गदेहो ध्यानमानो लोचनायतधारिणी
lambodara premakālo lambodarakulapriyā | svargadeho dhyānamāno locanāyatadhāriṇī
अव्यर्थवचनप्रक्ष्यो विद्यावागीश्वरप्रिया | अब्दमानस्मृतिप्राण कलिङ्गनगरेश्वरी
avyarthavacanaprakṣyo vidyāvāgīśvarapriyā | abdamānasmṛtiprāṇa kaliṅganagareśvarī
अतिगुह्यतरज्ञानी गुप्तचन्द्रात्मिकाऽव्यया | मणिनागगतो गन्ता वागीशानी बलप्रदा
atiguhyatarajñānī guptacandrātmikā'vyayā | maṇināgagato gantā vāgīśānī balapradā
कुलासनगतो नाशो विनाशा नाशसुप्रिया | विनाशमूलः कूलस्थः संहारकुलकेश्वरी
kulāsanagato nāśo vināśā nāśasupriyā | vināśamūlaḥ kūlasthaḥ saṃhārakulakeśvarī
त्रिवाक्यगुणविप्रेन्द्रो महदाश्चर्यचित्रिणी | आशुतोषगुणाच्छन्न मदविह्वलमण्डला
trivākyaguṇaviprendro mahadāścaryacitriṇī | āśutoṣaguṇācchanna madavihvalamaṇḍalā
विरूपाक्शी लेलिहश्च महामुद्राप्रकाशिनी | अष्टादशाक्शरो रुद्रो मकरन्दसुबिन्दुगा
virūpākśī lelihaśca mahāmudrāprakāśinī | aṣṭādaśākśaro rudro makarandasubindugā
छत्रचामरधारी च छत्रदात्री त्रिपौण्ड्र्जा | इन्द्रात्मको विधाता च धनदा नादकारिणी
chatracāmaradhārī ca chatradātrī tripauṇḍrjā | indrātmako vidhātā ca dhanadā nādakāriṇī
कुण्डलीपरमानन्दो मधुपुष्पसमुद्भवा | बिल्ववृक्शस्थितो रुद्रो नयनाम्बुजवासिनी
kuṇḍalīparamānando madhupuṣpasamudbhavā | bilvavṛkśasthito rudro nayanāmbujavāsinī
हिरण्यगर्भ कौमारो विरूपाक्शा ऋतुप्रिया | श्रीवृक्शनिलयश्यामो महाकुलतरूद्भवा
hiraṇyagarbha kaumāro virūpākśā ṛtupriyā | śrīvṛkśanilayaśyāmo mahākulatarūdbhavā
कुलवृक्शस्थितो विद्वान् हिरण्यरजतप्रिया | कुलपः प्राणप प्राणा पञ्चचूडधराधरा
kulavṛkśasthito vidvān hiraṇyarajatapriyā | kulapaḥ prāṇapa prāṇā pañcacūḍadharādharā
उषती वेदिकानाथो नर्मधर्मविवेचिका | शीतलाप्त शीतहीनो मनःस्थैर्यकरी क्शया
uṣatī vedikānātho narmadharmavivecikā | śītalāpta śītahīno manaḥsthairyakarī kśayā
कुक्शिस्थ क्शणभङ्गस्थो गिरिपीठनिवासिनी | अर्धकायः प्रसन्नात्मा प्रसन्नवनवासिनी
kukśistha kśaṇabhaṅgastho giripīṭhanivāsinī | ardhakāyaḥ prasannātmā prasannavanavāsinī
प्रतिष्ठेश प्राणधर्मा ज्योतीरूपा ऋतुप्रिया | धर्मध्वजपताकेशो बलाका रसवद्धीनी
pratiṣṭheśa prāṇadharmā jyotīrūpā ṛtupriyā | dharmadhvajapatākeśo balākā rasavaddhīnī
मेरुशृङ्गगतो धूर्तो धूर्तमत्ता खलस्पृहा | सेवासिद्धिप्रदोऽनन्तोऽनन्तकार्यविभेदिका
meruśṛṅgagato dhūrto dhūrtamattā khalaspṛhā | sevāsiddhiprado'nanto'nantakāryavibhedikā
भाविनामत्त्वजानज्ञो विराटपीठवासिनी | विच्छेदच्छेदभेदश्च छलन्शास्त्रप्रकाशिका
bhāvināmattvajānajño virāṭapīṭhavāsinī | vicchedacchedabhedaśca chalanśāstraprakāśikā
चारुकर्म्या संस्कृतश्च तप्तहाटकरूपिणी | परानन्दरसज्ञानी रससन्तानमन्त्रिणी
cārukarmyā saṃskṛtaśca taptahāṭakarūpiṇī | parānandarasajñānī rasasantānamantriṇī
प्रतीक्श सूक्ष्मशब्दश्च प्रसङ्गसङ्गतिप्रिया | अमायी सागरोद्भूतो बन्ध्यादोषविवजीता
pratīkśa sūkṣmaśabdaśca prasaṅgasaṅgatipriyā | amāyī sāgarodbhūto bandhyādoṣavivajītā
जितधर्मो ज्वलच्छत्री व्यापिका फलवाहना | व्याघ्रचर्माम्बरो योगी महापीना वरप्रदा
jitadharmo jvalacchatrī vyāpikā phalavāhanā | vyāghracarmāmbaro yogī mahāpīnā varapradā
वरदाता सारदाता ज्ञानदा वरवाहिनी | चारुकेशधरो मापो विशाला गुणदाऽम्बरा
varadātā sāradātā jñānadā varavāhinī | cārukeśadharo māpo viśālā guṇadā'mbarā
ताडङ्कमालानिर्मालधरस्ताडङ्कमोहिनी | पञ्चालदेश संभूतो विशुद्धस्वरवल्लभा
tāḍaṅkamālānirmāladharastāḍaṅkamohinī | pañcāladeśa saṃbhūto viśuddhasvaravallabhā
किरातपूजितो व्याधो मनुचिन्तापरायणा | शिव वाक्यरतो वामो भृगुरामकुलेश्वरी
kirātapūjito vyādho manucintāparāyaṇā | śiva vākyarato vāmo bhṛgurāmakuleśvarī
स्वयम्भू कुसुमाच्छन्नो विधिविद्याप्रकाशिनी | प्रभाकरतनूद्भूतो विशल्यकरणीश्वरी
svayambhū kusumācchanno vidhividyāprakāśinī | prabhākaratanūdbhūto viśalyakaraṇīśvarī
उषतीश्वर सम्पर्की योगविज्ञानवासिनी | उत्तमो मध्यमो व्याख्यो वाच्यावाच्यवराङ्गना
uṣatīśvara samparkī yogavijñānavāsinī | uttamo madhyamo vyākhyo vācyāvācyavarāṅganā
आंबीजवादरोषाढ्या मन्दरोदरकारिणी | कृष्णसिद्धान्तसंस्थानो युद्धसाधनचचीका
āṃbījavādaroṣāḍhyā mandarodarakāriṇī | kṛṣṇasiddhāntasaṃsthāno yuddhasādhanacacīkā
मथुरासुन्दरीनाथो मथुरापीठवासिनी | पलायनविशून्यश्च प्रकृतिप्रत्ययस्थिता
mathurāsundarīnātho mathurāpīṭhavāsinī | palāyanaviśūnyaśca prakṛtipratyayasthitā
प्रकृतिप्राणनिलयो विकृतिज्ञाननाशिनी | सर्वशास्त्रविभेदश्च मत्तसिंहासनासना
prakṛtiprāṇanilayo vikṛtijñānanāśinī | sarvaśāstravibhedaśca mattasiṃhāsanāsanā
इतिहासप्रियो धीरो विमलाऽमलरूपिणी | मणिसिंहासनस्थश्च मणिपरजयोदया
itihāsapriyo dhīro vimalā'malarūpiṇī | maṇisiṃhāsanasthaśca maṇiparajayodayā
भद्रकालीजपानन्दो भद्राभद्रप्रकाशिनी | श्रीभद्रो भद्रनाथश्च भयभङ्गविहिंसिनी
bhadrakālījapānando bhadrābhadraprakāśinī | śrībhadro bhadranāthaśca bhayabhaṅgavihiṃsinī
आत्मारामो विधेयात्मा शूलपाणिप्रियाऽन्तरा | अतिविद्यादृढाभ्यासो विशेषवित्तदायिनी
ātmārāmo vidheyātmā śūlapāṇipriyā'ntarā | atividyādṛḍhābhyāso viśeṣavittadāyinī
अजराऽमरकान्तिश्च कान्तिकोटिधरा शुभा | पशुपाल पद्मसंस्थ श्रीशपाशुपताऽस्त्रदा
ajarā'marakāntiśca kāntikoṭidharā śubhā | paśupāla padmasaṃstha śrīśapāśupatā'stradā
सर्वशास्त्रधरो दृप्तो ज्ञानिनी ज्ञानवधीनी | द्वितीयानाथ ईशार्द्धो बादरायणमोहिनी
sarvaśāstradharo dṛpto jñāninī jñānavadhīnī | dvitīyānātha īśārddho bādarāyaṇamohinī
शवमांसाशनो भीमो भीमनेत्रा भयानका | शिवज्ञानक्रमो दक्श क्रियायोगपरायणा
śavamāṃsāśano bhīmo bhīmanetrā bhayānakā | śivajñānakramo dakśa kriyāyogaparāyaṇā
दानस्थो दानसम्पन्नो दन्तुरा पार्वतीपरा | प्रियानन्दो दिवाकर्ता निशानिषादघातिनी
dānastho dānasampanno danturā pārvatīparā | priyānando divākartā niśāniṣādaghātinī
अष्टहस्तो विलोलाक्शो मनःस्थापनकारिणी | मृदुपुत्रो मृदुच्छत्रो विभाऽङ्गपुण्यनन्दिनी
aṣṭahasto vilolākśo manaḥsthāpanakāriṇī | mṛduputro mṛducchatro vibhā'ṅgapuṇyanandinī
अन्तरिक्शगतो मूलो मूलपुत्रप्रकाशिनी | अभीतिदाननिरतो विधुमालामनोहरी
antarikśagato mūlo mūlaputraprakāśinī | abhītidānanirato vidhumālāmanoharī
चतुरास्रजाह्नवीशो गिरिकन्या कुतूहली | शिशुपालरिपुप्राणो विदेशपदरक्षिणी
caturāsrajāhnavīśo girikanyā kutūhalī | śiśupālaripuprāṇo videśapadarakṣiṇī
विलक्शणो विधिज्ञाता मानहन्त्री त्रिविक्रमा | त्रिकोणाननयोगीशो निम्ननाभिर्नगेश्वरी
vilakśaṇo vidhijñātā mānahantrī trivikramā | trikoṇānanayogīśo nimnanābhirnageśvarī
नवीन गुणसम्पन्नो नवकन्याकुलाचला | त्रिविधेशो विशङ्केतो विज्वरा ज्वरदायिनी
navīna guṇasampanno navakanyākulācalā | trividheśo viśaṅketo vijvarā jvaradāyinī
अतिधामीकपुत्रश्च चारुसिंहासनस्थिता | स्थापकोत्तमवर्गाणां सतां सिद्धिप्रकाशिनी
atidhāmīkaputraśca cārusiṃhāsanasthitā | sthāpakottamavargāṇāṃ satāṃ siddhiprakāśinī
सिद्धप्रियो विशालाक्शो ध्वंसकर्त्री निरञ्जना | शक्तीशो विकलेशश्च क्रतुकर्मफलोदया
siddhapriyo viśālākśo dhvaṃsakartrī nirañjanā | śaktīśo vikaleśaśca kratukarmaphalodayā
विफलेशो वियद्गामी ललिता बुद्धिवाहना | मलयाद्रितप क्षेम क्शयकर्त्री रजोगुणा
viphaleśo viyadgāmī lalitā buddhivāhanā | malayādritapa kṣema kśayakartrī rajoguṇā
द्विरुण्डको द्वारपालो बलेवीघ्नविनाशिनी | मायापद्मगतो मानो मारीविद्याविनाशिनी
dviruṇḍako dvārapālo balevīghnavināśinī | māyāpadmagato māno mārīvidyāvināśinī
हिंगुलाजस्थित सिद्धो विदुषां वादसारिणी | श्रीपतीश श्रीकरेश श्रीविद्या भुवनेश्वरी
hiṃgulājasthita siddho viduṣāṃ vādasāriṇī | śrīpatīśa śrīkareśa śrīvidyā bhuvaneśvarī
मतिप्रथमजो धन्यो मिथिलानाथपुत्रिका | रामचन्द्रप्रिय प्राप्तो रघुनाथकुलेश्वरी
matiprathamajo dhanyo mithilānāthaputrikā | rāmacandrapriya prāpto raghunāthakuleśvarī
कूर्मः कूर्मगतो वीरो वसावर्गा गिरीश्वरी | राजराजेश्वरीबालो रतिपीठगुणान्तरा
kūrmaḥ kūrmagato vīro vasāvargā girīśvarī | rājarājeśvarībālo ratipīṭhaguṇāntarā
कामरूपधरोल्लासो विदग्धा कामरूपिणी | अतिथीश सर्वभर्ता नानालङ्कारशोभिता
kāmarūpadharollāso vidagdhā kāmarūpiṇī | atithīśa sarvabhartā nānālaṅkāraśobhitā
नानालङ्कारभूषाङ्गो नरमालाविभूषिता | जगन्नाथो जगद्व्यापी जगतामिष्टसिद्धिदा
nānālaṅkārabhūṣāṅgo naramālāvibhūṣitā | jagannātho jagadvyāpī jagatāmiṣṭasiddhidā