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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 87 of 129
कुलधर्मस्थितः कौला कुलमार्गः कुलातुरा | कुलजिह्वः कुलानन्दा कृष्णः कृष्णसमुद्भवा
kuladharmasthitaḥ kaulā kulamārgaḥ kulāturā | kulajihvaḥ kulānandā kṛṣṇaḥ kṛṣṇasamudbhavā
कृष्णेशः कृष्णमहिषी काकस्थः काकचञ्चुका | कालधर्मः कालरूपा कालः कालप्रकाशिनी
kṛṣṇeśaḥ kṛṣṇamahiṣī kākasthaḥ kākacañcukā | kāladharmaḥ kālarūpā kālaḥ kālaprakāśinī
कालजः कालकन्या च कालेशः कालसुन्दरी | खड्गहस्तः खर्पराढ्या खरगः खरखड्गनी
kālajaḥ kālakanyā ca kāleśaḥ kālasundarī | khaḍgahastaḥ kharparāḍhyā kharagaḥ kharakhaḍganī
खलबुद्धिहरः खेला खञ्जनेशः सुखाञ्जनी | गीतप्रियो गायनस्था गणपालो गृहाश्रया
khalabuddhiharaḥ khelā khañjaneśaḥ sukhāñjanī | gītapriyo gāyanasthā gaṇapālo gṛhāśrayā
गर्गप्रियो गयाप्राप्तिर्गर्गस्थो हि गभीरिणा | गारुडीशो हि गान्धर्वी गतीशो गार्हवह्निजा
gargapriyo gayāprāptirgargastho hi gabhīriṇā | gāruḍīśo hi gāndharvī gatīśo gārhavahnijā
गणगन्धर्वगोपालो गणगन्धर्वगो गता | गभीरमानी सम्भेदो गभीरकोटिसागरा
gaṇagandharvagopālo gaṇagandharvago gatā | gabhīramānī sambhedo gabhīrakoṭisāgarā
गतिस्थो गाणपत्यस्था गणनाद्यो गवा तनूः | गन्धद्वारो गन्धमाला गन्धाढ्यो गन्धनिर्गमा
gatistho gāṇapatyasthā gaṇanādyo gavā tanūḥ | gandhadvāro gandhamālā gandhāḍhyo gandhanirgamā
गन्धमोहितसर्वाङ्गो गन्धचञ्चलमोहिनी | गन्धपुष्पधूपदीपनैवेद्यादिप्रपूजिता
gandhamohitasarvāṅgo gandhacañcalamohinī | gandhapuṣpadhūpadīpanaivedyādiprapūjitā
गन्धागुरुसुकस्तूरी कुङ्कुमादिविमण्डिता | गोकुला मधुरानन्दा पुष्पगन्धान्तरस्थिता
gandhāgurusukastūrī kuṅkumādivimaṇḍitā | gokulā madhurānandā puṣpagandhāntarasthitā
गन्धमादनसम्भूतपुष्पमाल्यविभूषितः | रत्ना द्यशेषालङ्कारमालामण्डितविग्रहः
gandhamādanasambhūtapuṣpamālyavibhūṣitaḥ | ratnā dyaśeṣālaṅkāramālāmaṇḍitavigrahaḥ
स्वर्णाद्यशेषालङ्कारहारमालाविमण्डिता | करवीरा युतप्रख्यरक्तलोचनपङ्कजः
svarṇādyaśeṣālaṅkārahāramālāvimaṇḍitā | karavīrā yutaprakhyaraktalocanapaṅkajaḥ
जवाकोटिकोटिशत चारुलोचनपङ्कजा | घनकोटिमहानास्य पङ्कजालोलविग्रहा
javākoṭikoṭiśata cārulocanapaṅkajā | ghanakoṭimahānāsya paṅkajālolavigrahā
घर्घरध्वनिमानन्दकाव्याम्बुधिमुखाम्बुजा | घोरचित्रसर्पराज मालाकोटिशताङ्कभृत्
ghargharadhvanimānandakāvyāmbudhimukhāmbujā | ghoracitrasarparāja mālākoṭiśatāṅkabhṛt
घनघोरमहानाग चित्रमालाविभूषिता | घण्टाकोटिमहानादमानन्दलोलविग्रहः
ghanaghoramahānāga citramālāvibhūṣitā | ghaṇṭākoṭimahānādamānandalolavigrahaḥ
घण्टाडमरुमन्त्रादि ध्यानानन्दकराम्बुजा | घटकोटिकोटिशतसहस्रमङ्गलासना
ghaṇṭāḍamarumantrādi dhyānānandakarāmbujā | ghaṭakoṭikoṭiśatasahasramaṅgalāsanā
घण्टाशङ्खपद्मचक्रवराभयकराम्बुजा | घातको रिपुकोटीनां शुम्भादीनां तथा सताम्
ghaṇṭāśaṅkhapadmacakravarābhayakarāmbujā | ghātako ripukoṭīnāṃ śumbhādīnāṃ tathā satām
घातिनीदैत्यघोराश्च शङ्खानां सततं तथा | चार्वाकमतसङ्घातचतुराननपङ्कजः
ghātinīdaityaghorāśca śaṅkhānāṃ satataṃ tathā | cārvākamatasaṅghātacaturānanapaṅkajaḥ
चञ्चलानन्दसर्वार्थसारवाग्वादिनीश्वरी | चन्द्रकोटिसुनिर्माल मालालम्बितकण्ठभृत्
cañcalānandasarvārthasāravāgvādinīśvarī | candrakoṭisunirmāla mālālambitakaṇṭhabhṛt
चन्द्रकोटिसमानस्य पङ्केरुहमनोहरा | चन्द्रज्योत्स्नायुतप्रख्यहारभूषितमस्तकः
candrakoṭisamānasya paṅkeruhamanoharā | candrajyotsnāyutaprakhyahārabhūṣitamastakaḥ
चन्द्रबिम्बसहस्राभायुतभूषितमस्तकः | चारुचन्द्रकान्तमणिमणिहारायुताङ्गभृत्
candrabimbasahasrābhāyutabhūṣitamastakaḥ | cārucandrakāntamaṇimaṇihārāyutāṅgabhṛt
चन्दनागुरुकस्तूरी कुङ्कुमासक्तमालिनी | चण्डमुण्डमहामुण्डायुतनिर्मलमाल्यभृत्
candanāgurukastūrī kuṅkumāsaktamālinī | caṇḍamuṇḍamahāmuṇḍāyutanirmalamālyabhṛt
चण्डमुण्डघोरमुण्डनिर्माणकुलमालिनी चण्डाट्टहासघोराढ्यवदनाम्भोजचञ्चलः
caṇḍamuṇḍaghoramuṇḍanirmāṇakulamālinī caṇḍāṭṭahāsaghorāḍhyavadanāmbhojacañcalaḥ
चलत्खञ्जननेत्राम्भोरुहमोहितशङ्करा | चलदम्भोजनयनानन्दपुष्पकरमोहितः
calatkhañjananetrāmbhoruhamohitaśaṅkarā | caladambhojanayanānandapuṣpakaramohitaḥ
चलदिन्दुभाषमाणावग्रहखेदचन्द्रिका | चन्द्रार्धकोटिकिरणचूडामण्डलमण्डितः
caladindubhāṣamāṇāvagrahakhedacandrikā | candrārdhakoṭikiraṇacūḍāmaṇḍalamaṇḍitaḥ
चन्द्रचूडाम्भोजमाला उत्तमाङ्गविमण्डितः | चलदर्कसहस्रान्त रत्नहारविभूषितः
candracūḍāmbhojamālā uttamāṅgavimaṇḍitaḥ | caladarkasahasrānta ratnahāravibhūṣitaḥ
चलदर्ककोटिशतमुखाम्भोजतपोज्ज्वला | चारुरत्नासनाम्भोजचन्द्रिकामध्यसंस्थितः
caladarkakoṭiśatamukhāmbhojatapojjvalā | cāruratnāsanāmbhojacandrikāmadhyasaṃsthitaḥ
चारुद्वादशपत्रादि कणीकासुप्रकाशिका | चमत्कार ग टङ्कारधुनर्बाणकराम्बुजः
cārudvādaśapatrādi kaṇīkāsuprakāśikā | camatkāra ga ṭaṅkāradhunarbāṇakarāmbujaḥ
चतुर्थवेदगाथादि स्तुतिकोटिसुसिद्धिदा | चलदम्बुजनेत्रार्कवह्निचन्द्रत्रयान्वितः
caturthavedagāthādi stutikoṭisusiddhidā | caladambujanetrārkavahnicandratrayānvitaḥ
चलत्सहस्रसङ्ख्यात पङ्कजादिप्रकाशिका | चमत्काराट्टहासास्य स्मितपङ्कजराजयः
calatsahasrasaṅkhyāta paṅkajādiprakāśikā | camatkārāṭṭahāsāsya smitapaṅkajarājayaḥ
चमत्कारमहाघोरसाट्टाट्टहासशोभिता | छायासहस्रसंसारशीतलानिलशीतलः
camatkāramahāghorasāṭṭāṭṭahāsaśobhitā | chāyāsahasrasaṃsāraśītalānilaśītalaḥ
छदपद्मप्रभामानसिंहासनसमास्थिता | छलत्कोटिदैत्यराजमुण्डमालाविभूषितः
chadapadmaprabhāmānasiṃhāsanasamāsthitā | chalatkoṭidaityarājamuṇḍamālāvibhūṣitaḥ
छिन्नादिकोटिमन्त्रार्थज्ञानचैतन्यकारिणी | चित्रमार्गमहाध्वान्तग्रन्थिसम्भेदकारकः
chinnādikoṭimantrārthajñānacaitanyakāriṇī | citramārgamahādhvāntagranthisambhedakārakaḥ
अस्त्रकास्त्रादिब्रह्मास्त्रसहस्रकोटिधारिणी | अजामांसादिसद्भक्ष रसामोदप्रवाहगः
astrakāstrādibrahmāstrasahasrakoṭidhāriṇī | ajāmāṃsādisadbhakṣa rasāmodapravāhagaḥ
छेदनादिमहोग्रास्त्रे भुजवामप्रकाशिनी | जयाख्यादिमहासाम ज्ञानार्थस्य प्रकाशकः
chedanādimahogrāstre bhujavāmaprakāśinī | jayākhyādimahāsāma jñānārthasya prakāśakaḥ
जायागणहृदम्भोज बुद्धिज्ञानप्रकाशिनी | जनार्दनप्रेमभाव महाधनसुखप्रदः
jāyāgaṇahṛdambhoja buddhijñānaprakāśinī | janārdanapremabhāva mahādhanasukhapradaḥ
जगदीशकुलानन्दसिन्धुपङ्कजवासिनी | जीवनास्थादिजनकः परमानन्दयोगिनाम्
jagadīśakulānandasindhupaṅkajavāsinī | jīvanāsthādijanakaḥ paramānandayoginām
जननी योगशास्त्राणां भक्तानां पादपद्मयोः | रुक्षपवननिर्वातमहोल्कापातकारुणः
jananī yogaśāstrāṇāṃ bhaktānāṃ pādapadmayoḥ | rukṣapavananirvātamaholkāpātakāruṇaḥ
झर्झरीमधुरी वीणा वेणुशङ्खप्रवादिनी | झनत्कारौघसंहारकरदण्डविशानधृक्
jharjharīmadhurī vīṇā veṇuśaṅkhapravādinī | jhanatkāraughasaṃhārakaradaṇḍaviśānadhṛk
झर्झरीनायिकार्य्यादिकराम्भोजनिषेविता | टङ्कारभावसंहारमहाजागरवेशधृक्
jharjharīnāyikāryyādikarāmbhojaniṣevitā | ṭaṅkārabhāvasaṃhāramahājāgaraveśadhṛk
टङ्कासिपाशुपातास्त्रचर्मकार्मुकधारिणी | टलनानलसङ्घट्टपट्टाम्बरविभूषितः
ṭaṅkāsipāśupātāstracarmakārmukadhāriṇī | ṭalanānalasaṅghaṭṭapaṭṭāmbaravibhūṣitaḥ
टुल्टुनी किङ्किणी कोटि विचित्रध्वनिगामिनी | ठं ठं ठं मनुमूलान्तः स्वप्रकाशप्रबोधकः
ṭulṭunī kiṅkiṇī koṭi vicitradhvanigāminī | ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ manumūlāntaḥ svaprakāśaprabodhakaḥ
ठं ठं ठं प्रखराह्लादनादसम्वादवादिनी | ठं ठं ठं कूर्मपृष्ठस्थः कामचाकारभासनः
ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ prakharāhlādanādasamvādavādinī | ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ kūrmapṛṣṭhasthaḥ kāmacākārabhāsanaḥ
ठं ठं ठं बीजवह्निस्थ हातुकभ्रूविभूषिता | डामरप्रखराह्लादसिद्धिविद्याप्रकाशकः
ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ ṭhaṃ bījavahnistha hātukabhrūvibhūṣitā | ḍāmaraprakharāhlādasiddhividyāprakāśakaḥ
डिण्डिमध्वानमधुरवाणीसम्मुखपङ्कजा | डं डं डं खरकृत्यादि मारणान्तःप्रकाशिका
ḍiṇḍimadhvānamadhuravāṇīsammukhapaṅkajā | ḍaṃ ḍaṃ ḍaṃ kharakṛtyādi māraṇāntaḥprakāśikā
ढक्कारवाद्यभूपूरतारसप्तस्वराश्रयः | ढौं ढौं ढौं ढौकढक्कलं वह्निजायामनुप्रियः
ḍhakkāravādyabhūpūratārasaptasvarāśrayaḥ | ḍhauṃ ḍhauṃ ḍhauṃ ḍhaukaḍhakkalaṃ vahnijāyāmanupriyaḥ
ढं ढं ढं ढौं ढ ढं ढ कृत्येत्थाहेति वासिनी | तारकब्रह्ममन्त्रस्थः श्रीपादपद्मभावकः
ḍhaṃ ḍhaṃ ḍhaṃ ḍhauṃ ḍha ḍhaṃ ḍha kṛtyetthāheti vāsinī | tārakabrahmamantrasthaḥ śrīpādapadmabhāvakaḥ
तारिण्यादिमहामन्त्र सिद्धिसर्वार्थसिद्धिदा | तन्त्रमन्त्रमहायन्त्र वेदयोगसुसारवित्
tāriṇyādimahāmantra siddhisarvārthasiddhidā | tantramantramahāyantra vedayogasusāravit
तालवेतालदैतालश्रीतालादिसुसिद्धदा | तरुकल्पलतापुष्पकलबीजप्रकाशकः
tālavetāladaitālaśrītālādisusiddhadā | tarukalpalatāpuṣpakalabījaprakāśakaḥ
डिन्तिडीतालहिन्तालतुलसीकुलवृक्षजा | अकारकूटविन्द्विन्दुमालामण्डितविग्रहः
ḍintiḍītālahintālatulasīkulavṛkṣajā | akārakūṭavindvindumālāmaṇḍitavigrahaḥ
स्थातृप्रस्थप्रथागाथास्थूलस्थित्यन्तसंहरा | दरीकुञ्जहेममालावनमालादिभूषितः
sthātṛprasthaprathāgāthāsthūlasthityantasaṃharā | darīkuñjahemamālāvanamālādibhūṣitaḥ
दारिद्र्यदुःखदहनकालानलशतोपमः | दशसाहस्रवक्त्राम्भोरुहशोभितविग्रहः
dāridryaduḥkhadahanakālānalaśatopamaḥ | daśasāhasravaktrāmbhoruhaśobhitavigrahaḥ
पाशाभयवराह्लादधनधर्मादिवधीनी | धर्मकोटिशतोल्लाससिद्धिऋद्धिसमृद्धिदा
pāśābhayavarāhlādadhanadharmādivadhīnī | dharmakoṭiśatollāsasiddhiṛddhisamṛddhidā
ध्यानयोगज्ञानयोगमन्त्रयोगफलप्रदा | नामकोटिशतानन्तसुकीतीगुणमोहनः
dhyānayogajñānayogamantrayogaphalapradā | nāmakoṭiśatānantasukītīguṇamohanaḥ
निमित्तफलसद्भावभावाभावविवजीता | परमानन्दपदवी दानलोलपदाम्बुजः
nimittaphalasadbhāvabhāvābhāvavivajītā | paramānandapadavī dānalolapadāmbujaḥ
प्रतिष्ठासुनिवृत्तादि समाधिफलसाधिनी | फेरवीगणसन्मानवसुसिद्धिप्रदायकः
pratiṣṭhāsunivṛttādi samādhiphalasādhinī | pheravīgaṇasanmānavasusiddhipradāyakaḥ
फेत्कारीकुलतन्त्रादि फलसिद्धिस्वरूपिणी | वराङ्गनाकोटिकोटिकराम्भोजनिसेविता
phetkārīkulatantrādi phalasiddhisvarūpiṇī | varāṅganākoṭikoṭikarāmbhojanisevitā
वरदानज्ञानदान मोक्षदातिचञ्चला | भैरवानन्दनाथाख्य शतकोटिमुदान्वितः
varadānajñānadāna mokṣadāticañcalā | bhairavānandanāthākhya śatakoṭimudānvitaḥ
भावसिद्धिक्रियासिद्धि साष्टाङ्गसिद्धिदायिनी | मकारपञ्चकाह्लादमहामोदशरीरधृक्
bhāvasiddhikriyāsiddhi sāṣṭāṅgasiddhidāyinī | makārapañcakāhlādamahāmodaśarīradhṛk
मदिरादिपञ्चतत्त्वनिर्वाणज्ञानदायिनी | यजमानक्रियायोगविभागफलदायकः
madirādipañcatattvanirvāṇajñānadāyinī | yajamānakriyāyogavibhāgaphaladāyakaḥ
यशः सहस्रकोटिस्थ गुणगायनतत्परा | रणमध्यस्थकालाग्नि क्रोधधारसुविग्रहः
yaśaḥ sahasrakoṭistha guṇagāyanatatparā | raṇamadhyasthakālāgni krodhadhārasuvigrahaḥ