Essay name: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
Author: William James Arraj
The essay represents a study and partial English translation of the Svacchandatantra and its commentary, “Uddyota�, by Kshemaraja. The text, attributed to the deity Svacchanda-bhairava, has various names and demonstrates a complex history of transmission through diverse manuscript traditions in North India, Nepal, and beyond.
Page 444 of: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
444 (of 511)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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touching, and distribution;/6/
for discharge of urine and elimination, for the entering of
food and drink;
Touching (sparśanam), i.e., grasping by external and internal
touch; distribution (vyūha�), i.e., arrangement; discharge
(uccāra�), i.e., the processing of impurities; elimination
(visarga�), i.e., expulsion.
Thus, in this fashion,
the wind, established with these, in the body, should be
known having a double characteristic. /7/
With these, i.e., with [these] functions [the wind] is secondarily
characterized (upalakṣita�); [having a double characteristic, i.e.,]
that for which there are the two, i.e., sound and touch, as the
characteristic, i.e., cause of knowledge, has a double characteristic
(dvilakṣaṇa�), i.e., has a double property (dviguṇa�).
I tell how the ether, having a single property, is established;
[Having a single property, i.e.,] of which there is one property,
viz., sound. Therein, [in regard to these properties: first, for
sound,] earth has the form of khaṭakhata; water has the condition
of chalachala; fire has the form of dhagadhaga; wind has the
nature of sukaśuka; ether [5] has the sound which is called
echo; [second, for touch,] earth also has touch, not produced by
cooking, not hot and not cold; water has a cold [touch]; fire has a
hot [touch]; wind has a not hot and not cold [touch], not
produced by cooking; [third, for color-form] earth has various
[visible] color-forms, white, etc.; water is white; fire glowing;
[fourth, for taste,] earth has a sixfold taste, sweet, etc.; water
has a sweet [taste]; but [for the fifth, odor] only earth has odor,
which has the form of fragrance. With these specific properties, in
the body, the elements, earth, etc., are to be characterized.
He clarifies what was stated [just before,] how [ether] is
established [in the body]:
[ether] should be known, [as] consisting of pores (suṣiram),
[and as] having the characteristic of the ninefold
