DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0217
The Tantras. 205
four festivals, nine nights in each of the months Asvina,
Caitra, Pausha, and Ashadha are also observed as holy-
nights. It is declared that ceremonies performed on any of
these nights must of necessity confer superhuman power
(siddhi).
Before concluding this part of our subject, it may be well
to note a few more particulars in regard to the works we have
so often quoted as the chief authority for the doctrines and
practices of the Saktas.
The Tantras, I repeat, are the bible of Saktism. Like the
Puranas, they are sometimes called a fifth Veda. Very com-
monly, too, the name Agama is given to them in contradis-
tinction to Nigama, which is a general name for the Vedas,
Dharmasastras, Puranas, and other Smriti works. Sometimes
the authorship of the Tantras is attributed to Dattatreya, who
is worshipped as an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,
but the more general opinion is that they were revealed by
Siva alone. None of them have as yet been printed or
translated in Europe. They are said to be sixty-four in
number, without counting a large collection of works of a
Tantrik character and Sakta tendency. As a general rule
they are written in the form of a dialogue between the god
Siva and his wife; and every Tantra ought, like a Purana,
to treat of five subjects—the creation, the destruction of the
world, the worship of the gods, the attainment of superhuman
power, and the four modes of union with the Supreme Spirit
(see p. 41). In some of the Tantras it is stated that five
Amnayas or sacred systems of teaching have been handed
down from primeval times, one having issued from each of
Siva's five mouths. As a matter of fact very few conform to
any systematic arrangement. Those I have examined seem
to be mere hand-books for the practices I have attempted to
describe, which to Europeans appear so monstrous that the
possibility of any persons believing in their efficacy seems in
itself almost incredible.
four festivals, nine nights in each of the months Asvina,
Caitra, Pausha, and Ashadha are also observed as holy-
nights. It is declared that ceremonies performed on any of
these nights must of necessity confer superhuman power
(siddhi).
Before concluding this part of our subject, it may be well
to note a few more particulars in regard to the works we have
so often quoted as the chief authority for the doctrines and
practices of the Saktas.
The Tantras, I repeat, are the bible of Saktism. Like the
Puranas, they are sometimes called a fifth Veda. Very com-
monly, too, the name Agama is given to them in contradis-
tinction to Nigama, which is a general name for the Vedas,
Dharmasastras, Puranas, and other Smriti works. Sometimes
the authorship of the Tantras is attributed to Dattatreya, who
is worshipped as an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,
but the more general opinion is that they were revealed by
Siva alone. None of them have as yet been printed or
translated in Europe. They are said to be sixty-four in
number, without counting a large collection of works of a
Tantrik character and Sakta tendency. As a general rule
they are written in the form of a dialogue between the god
Siva and his wife; and every Tantra ought, like a Purana,
to treat of five subjects—the creation, the destruction of the
world, the worship of the gods, the attainment of superhuman
power, and the four modes of union with the Supreme Spirit
(see p. 41). In some of the Tantras it is stated that five
Amnayas or sacred systems of teaching have been handed
down from primeval times, one having issued from each of
Siva's five mouths. As a matter of fact very few conform to
any systematic arrangement. Those I have examined seem
to be mere hand-books for the practices I have attempted to
describe, which to Europeans appear so monstrous that the
possibility of any persons believing in their efficacy seems in
itself almost incredible.