Essay name: Devi Tantra, Mantra, Yantra (study)
Author:
Srider Basudevan Iyer
Affiliation: University of Mumbai / Sanskrit, University Department
This essay studies the history of Devi (the Goddess) in relation with worship using Tantra, Yantra and Mantra. The study explores the concept of the 'Female Principle' or Goddess, examining her role and significance in ancient Indian society.
Chapter 4 - Worship and The Worshipper
36 (of 95)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Worship & worshipper Offerings. 337 The worship of virgins as mentioned before yields completeness to the
ritual undertaken by the s盲dhaka. As per the requirement the sadhaka is
supposed to choose the specific virgin caste-wise to attain the desired result.
The amount of merit of virgin worship is so great that, whatever is offered to
small girls yields its specific fruit apart from the great merit of a complete
worship process. The following table will bring the different offerings and
the result thereof instantly.
Sno.
Offering.
1.
Flower
2. Feeding
3.
Water offered
4.
Food
Result of the offering.
Equivalent to the Mt. Meru.
Equivalent to feeding the three worlds.
Equivalent to the sea.
Equivalent to a kula mountain.
The sway of the feminine genre over the ritual proceedings of the
tantra is indeed noteworthy. Infact it can be said that the tantra echoes the
philosophy of the Dev墨m膩h膩tmayam that "indeed all the females are indeed
the manifestations of your form O! Goddess." Another point worth
mentioning is the role and importance of female preceptors in the Tantra
mode. This point will be taken in for analysis in the next section 'The
Worshipper'.
