Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshipping Siva in Medieval India [Course Book ed.] 9781400862382

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION. Locating the Tradition
CHAPTER ONE. Ritual and Human Powers
CHAPTER TWO. Oscillation in the Ritual Universe
CHAPTER THREE. Becoming a Siva
CHAPTER FOUR. Summoning the Lord
CHAPTER FIVE. Relations of Worship
CONCLUSION
Notes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Ritual in an Oscillating Universe

Ritual in an Oscillating Universe WORSHIPING SIVA IN MEDIEVAL INDIA

Richard H. Davis

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Copyright © 1991 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton Univeisity Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford All Rights Reserved Library cf Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davis, Richard H. Ritual in an oscillating universe : worshiping Siva in medieval India / Richard H. Davis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-07386-4 (alk. paper) 1. Siva (Hindu deity—Cult—India—History. 2. India—Religious life and customs. I. title. BL1218.2D38 1992 294.5'38—dc20 91-3954 CIP Publication of this book has been aided by the Hilles Fund of Yale University This book has been composed in Adobe Times Roman Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Illustrations

vii

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments Abbreviations

xiii xv

INTRODUCTION

Locating the Tradition

3

CHAPTER ONE

Ritual and Human Powers

22

CHAPTER TWO

Oscillation in the Ritual Universe

42

CHAPTER THREE

Becoming a Siva

83

CHAPTER FOUR

Summoning the Lord

112

CHAPTER FIVE

Relations of Worship

137

CONCLUSION

163

Notes

165

Glossary

181

Selected Bibliography

189

Index

195

Illustrations

FIGURES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Emission and reabsorption of the tattvas Imposition of mantras onto the hand Locations of domains Subtle anatomy and domains Diagrams for establishing pots Siva's entourages Transfer of five kalas to the pasasutra Siva's supports Divine throne and divine body Locations of the twelve kalas ThemeetingofworshiperandSiva

PLATES

{following page 74) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Nataraja (Rajaraja Museum, Thanjavur) Imposition of brahmamantras onto the hands Imposition of brahmamantras onto the worshiper Ejection of the attributes Imposition of brahmamantras onto the linga Ascending pronunciation and invocation

43 49 54 56 65 67 97 122 127 130 135

Preface

IN THIS ESSAY, I attempt to take seriously a simple postulate that seems to

me fundamental to the study of ritual: that those who compose and perform the ritual are conscious and purposeful agents actively engaged in a world they themselves constitute, in large measure, through their practices of knowing and acting. The "world" in which Saiva ritual takes place is not the familiar world of Western science or "common sense" that modern Westerners often believe common to all people. Nor does it occur in some sociologically defined uni­ verse of a particular community or society, as social anthropology might portray. Rather, Saiva liturgy is performed in a world that is ontologically organized and constituted by Saiva siddhanta: a world that oscillates, that is permeated by the presence of Siva, in which humans live in a condition of bondage, and where the highest aim of the human soul is to attain liberation from its fetters. Within that world, the Saiva worshiper acts with and upon forces, objects, and categories that are defined for him by Saiva ontology, and his goals in practicing ritual are based on the possibilities and purposes of human attainment depicted in Saiva soteriology. My aim in this study is to explicate, insofar as I am able, both the world envisioned in Saiva siddhanta and the way in which daily worship reflects and acts within that world. This world is assuredly not the one we think we live in, but nevertheless it is a world we can enter, partially and temporarily, through a mental "reenactment," as R. G. Collingwood put it. The Saivas themselves would call it bhavana, "imaginative re-creation." For the Saivas, as for Collingwood, this reconstructive praxis is primarily intellec­ tual and rational, rather than simply a matter of empathy. By rethinking ourselves the convictions and intentions a well-versed Saiva ritualist of the twelfth century would have brought to his daily practice, we can mentally place ourselves in his temple and reenact his worship of Siva. To enter that world, it will be necessary to attend to two different modes of discourse in Saiva literature: the propositional discourse of philosophical knowledge (jMna) and the practical discourse of ritual action (kriya). These are, in the Saiva view, integral and necessary to one another. According to the Saiva siddhanta tradition, a Saiva agama should have four sections or "feet" (padas) to be a complete, self-standing treatise. One section, the jhanapada, describes how the world is; it sets forth, in metaphysical and theological terms, the fundamental order of the universe as envisioned by Saiva siddhanta. A second section, the kriyapada, prescribes how one should conduct oneself in that world, utilizing the most powerful and effica-

χ · Preface cious forms of action. (The other two sections, dealing with yogic discipli­ nary practices [yogapada] and proper day-to-day conduct [carydpada], are also necessary but clearly subordinate in importance to the first two.) And just as jnanapada and kriyapada are equally necessary to a complete agama, Saiva authors insist that an aspirant who wishes to advance within the world of Siva must exert himself both to know that world and to act properly and effectively within it. Unfortunately, the applicability of this principle to my own study was not always so apparent to me. When I first began to study the Saiva agamas, I was likea commentator whom Ramakantha criticizes. In his own commentary on the Matangaparame&varagama, Ramakantha contrasts himself with this other, unnamed commentator of the same text who ended his explication after the jnanapada. A certain commentator who knew only philosophy completed an extensive exam­ ination of the knowledge section (Jnanapada), and altogether disregarded the three practical sections concerning ritual action, yoga, and proper conduct. Whereas I, honoring the Lord Siva, will here compose a lucid exposition of those sections as well, because the types of action prescribed here conform (anuga) completely with the meanings of the philosophical discourse. He was engaged only by philosophy; I was concerned solely with ritual. As a historian interested in temple ritual and its relation to medieval Indian po­ litical formations, I wished to read only those practical portions of the agamas dealing with kriya, and not waste time with what I considered spec­ ulative metaphysics. I believed I would be able to discern the significance of medieval Saiva ritual texts directly by locating them in the context of the social and political structures of medieval South India. I was certainly mis­ taken in this presumption. To be fair to myself, the commentator that Ramakanfha criticized and I are not the only ones ever to have pursued such shaky, one-legged inquiries. In fact, the large majority of scholarly studies dealing with Indian rituals make no recourse to the philosophical foundations on which the rituals are based. They characteristically present Indian rituals as instances of highly elaborate routinized behavior either divorced from any formative consciousness or based on severely flawed apprehensions of the world. On the other side, it is only the rare study of an Indian philosophical school that makes any ex­ tended reference to such practical corollaries as modes of proper conduct or ritual activity. Scholars most often portray Hindu theology as the exercise of great intellectual ingenuity with little or no concern for practical conse­ quence. So in focusing my attention on only one limb of the body of thought and action I wished to study, I was simply following the habitude of my scholarly field.

Preface · xi As I commenced reading the account of daily worship in Kamikagama, however, I soon realized that I was missing something. At first I saw it as a problem of terminology or technical language. What were the five kalas, or the twelve kalas, or the thirty-eight kalas, to which the text kept refer­ ring? Who were the VidyeSvaras, the Man