Male Vision Dominates (Pg 35-41).Pmd
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Male Vision Dominates Female Presence in the Shakta Tantra Jae-Eun Shin Woman is the creator of the universe. The universe is her form. Woman is the foundation of the world; she is the true form of the body. Whatever form she takes is the superior form. In woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world” (SHST 2. 13. 43-45). ** “For women there is no necessity to go on pilgrimage, to fast or to do other similar acts, nor is there any need to perform any devotion except that which consists in the service to their husband. Husband, for a woman, is the place of pilgrimage, the performance of penance, the giving of alms, the carrying out of vows, and her spiritual teacher.” (MT 8. 100-101) In Shakta tantric and some of Shaiva tantric traditions which awesome Kali occupies the supreme selfhood, but a spark that inheres contribute to the Shakta tendency position. She is the nurturing mother naturally as a part of their being at women seem to have been positively of created beings as well as the birth” (M. Khanna 2000, 14). Shakta valorized and the female manifestation sovereign cosmic ruler who maintains Tantras recognize that women can be called Shakti has been viewed as a cosmic law and order through her spiritual preceptors, and initiate significant agent in the cosmogony invincible power and irresistible lineages and thus are a source of and the material cause of creation. energy (S. Gupta 2001, 462). She is spiritual power. However, there are substantial affirmed in many places to be the most Therefore, some scholars have differences in this matter among important of the Mahavidyas (the been inspired by the divine, various tantric schools and texts. The circle of Ten Goddesses in tantric passionate and independent images universe is Shakti—the primal energy traditions), the primordial or primary of women and by the egalitarian of the cosmos, and all material objects Mahavidya, the adi Mahavidya. (NT as well as conscious souls are nothing aspects of tantric traditions. Outside 1.6 f. ; TT 1. 1-2, 3. 9-13). mainstream Hinduism, Tantricism is but limited manifestations of her. As Exaltation of Women the world is both created from her and considered by some as a kind of Most of Shakta Tantras proclaim held in her, she is looked upon as the attempt to create a distinct “world- the exalted position of women as the cosmic mother who has created the of-their-own” setting, in which physical incarnation of Shakti and as world as if from her womb (often women can engage in religious the embodiment of the Great Mother. symbolized by a triangle) and who discipline freely and seriously on their “All women at birth are naturally the nurtures it herself (S. Gupta 1991, 206). own initiative, beside the patriarchal bearers of an intrinsic Shakti. This The goddess as an embodiment ethos of brahmanical religion (N. N. Shaktihood is not extrinsic to their of Shaktioccupies a distinctive Bhattacharyya 1992, 5; M. Khanna female experience as something to be position in the Shakta Tantra texts 2000, 110). Furthermore, it has been acquired from outside of their own from the early medieval period onward. suggested that the tantric goddesses The Tantras of Shrikula claim an presented ‘anti-models’ for women exclusive status for Tripurasundari The goddess as an who violate approved social values, and represent one of the most embodiment of Shakti customs, norms or paradigms and sophisticated models of Shakta mock the pativrata (D. Kinsley 1998, Tantra. Shiva, the male principle, is occupies a distinctive 6). In comparison with the earlier the static or inert principle, and Shakti position in the Shakta Orientalistic and androcentric is the dynamic aspect of creation Tantra texts... hypotheses, which have cast the (NSA 4. 5-6). In the Kalikula Tantras, stereotypical passive and oppressed No.151 35 images of women as ‘ritual objects’ even within a single tradition may vary or ‘downtrodden prostitutes’ (K. Although women were and are not necessarily consistent. Smith 1987, 219-231; J. McDaniel entitled to initiation, Women may have a number of 1989, 171-175), indigenistic and permission for it was religious roles and their positions as feministic discourses trying to re- required from men. subjects of religious discourse may evaluate and re-interpret women’s be developed somewhat differently roles in Tantra (to demonstrate that in each of them. (A. Cameron 1994, they do not accord) are in contrast depending upon how the question is 152) In fact, in Shakta Tantra texts, with religious traditions that framed and who is doing the asking even within a single text, a number of unequivocally highlight male and answering (A. Hiltebeitel and K. passages presenting inconsistent dominance (M. Shaw 1998, 4-19, 2000, M. Erndl 2000, 11). An essentialist perspectives with exalted and 166-178 ; M. Khanna 2000, 109-122). and a historical understanding of liberated female images can be Theory has tended to depict women’s religious tradition as stemming from discerned. Take Kularnava Tantra, participation in Tantra either as the a timeless source needs to be which is one of the important Kaula result of their unequivocal reconsidered. As Brooks said, “there Tantras of Shakta Tantra, as a oppression or as a vehicle for their is no primordial Tantrism, only representative example. self-empowerment. However, historical appropriations of it” (1999, In the first place, the possibility Davidson proposed that “in the case xii). The perspective of historians of of autonomous determination of of early medieval India, it was neither religion should provide not only an women’s religious life - particularly of these two extremes, for they imply interpretation of this complexity but in regard to the tantric diksha - an essenstialization of, and binary also a careful consideration of the should be taken into consideration. structure between, agency and context in which it was formulated. The initiation rite, indeed, is the most Thus, the main question relates accommodation” (R. M. Daidson, essential preliminary or precondition to whether the texts are describing a 2004, 97). for worship and spiritual training in “real” situation or an “ideal” Real vs Ideal Woman Tantricism. Although women were situation: are the “texts which insist entitled to initiation, permission for it Most textual traditions, but that reverence be shown…literally was required from men. According to particularly the Sanskrit texts, have true”, or are they “representative of a the text, “The competence of the been perpetuated by men to reflect situation where attempts were being widow for initiation is subject to the their social and religious made to create and enforce a situation consent of the son, of daughter to preoccupations. The images and where women were to be ideally the father, of the wife to the husband, positions of women and gender treated as divine?” (K. Roy 1999, 226) a women has no right of her own for relations in them are “theoretically The focus on the female images getting initiated” (KT 14. 105). In the constructed” rather than simply within tantric traditions provides a same manner, Mahanirvana Tantra presented in the texts. Feminist fruitful and fertile area of ordains the duty of women as the writings on the gender issue within investigation for exploring the Vedic or Smritic creeds do. (8. 100- tantric traditions propose very relationships between gender, 101, 106) A woman was required to important interpretive strategies. religion and society. gain her religious status only through However, some of them tend either to Initiation and Guruship her relationship to a man, i.e. by being view the divine female images of the It has been suggested that the daughter of this father, the wife texts without considering socio- religious traditions themselves are of that husband, or the mother of historical contexts within which complex, and that the positions such and such a son. If such is the tantric texts were formulated or code that was (actually?) imposed ascribed to or occupied by women interpret them solely in the context of on women, or if male members in the what some feminists want to see Tantric circle directly or indirectly reflected in them. They look for what The initiation rite, indeed, (actually?) required their observance they consider compelling, liberating, is the most essential of it, it is very doubtful that a woman provocative and inspiring. preliminary or could attain an autonomous status In fact, the question of the and exercise initiative in the religious relationship between divine female precondition for worship domain. The tale of Devi’s incarnation images and women is multifaceted and and spiritual training in in the house of Brahman, which may complex, which frequently leads to Tantricism. be the outcome of the appearance of contradictory conclusions, a famous female guru, provides us 36 MANUSHI how others, probably the male society. Family background or side, perceived female belonging to the Kula circle was guruship— regarded as the necessary “The Isvara then tells his condition for a female guru. Also, consort – ‘I gave you that a widow was to be excluded from knowledge out of kindness but guruship (RT 2. 107f.) On the you communicated it to your other hand, it is well known that followers without my girls of low castes, and permission. You were therefore courtesans played a role in some cursed by me for having thus forms of Tantra. In these cases, abused the sacred knowledge. the more a woman can be But when you implored and characterized in her society as begged for pardon I ordered you depraved and debauched, the to go and incarnate yourself in more fit she is for the rite (M.