a guru, but also contain sections on temple building, architecture, and occa-
sional rites such as funerals. Indeed, each Tantra of the S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta theo-
retically rests on the four “feet” (pa ̄da) of doctrine (the vidya ̄orjña ̄na pa ̄das), yoga,
ritual (kriya ̄-pa ̄da), and behavior (ca ̄rya-pa ̄da), although most texts do not follow
this rather artificial scheme. The majority of the tantric corpus is concerned with
ritual of some kind and the texts follow a common ritual structure, as we shall
see, for the purposes of attaining liberation and above all, magical power and
pleasure in higher worlds. These rituals involve the enacting of elaborate
hierarchical cosmologies, are concerned with the divinization of the body, with
divine energy or power (s ́akti), and with possession (a ̄ves ́a) and exorcism.
We do not yet have a full picture of the groups of ascetics and the social
context in which the Tantras originated, although Sanderson’s work on manu-
script sources will clarify the picture (Sanderson 1985, 1988, forthcoming).
Any statements are therefore preliminary and must remain conjectural and pro-
visional until the publication of Sanderson’s more recent work. The Tantras
probably originated with groups of ascetics similar to the La ̄kula Pa ̄s ́upatas, on
the edges of brahminical society who were supported by low castes, although
the low-caste origins of Tantra is contentious as the Tantras are linked to courtly
circles and royal power (Sanderson, forthcoming). Cremation ground asceticism
is a very old tradition in the subcontinent and meditation on death is an import-
ant feature in the meditation practice of early Buddhist monks (e.g. Norman
1973: 123). The Tantras became more popular and tantric images and ideas
became pervasive in later Hindu traditions. Although generally distancing them-
selves from the Tantras, the Pura ̄n.as nevertheless absorb tantric elements (Hazra
1983; Dyczkowski 1988: 8) and tantric ideas and practices become absorbed by
the eleventh century into mainstream, brahminical society and courtly circles.
The divine power (s ́akti) of the Goddess becomes identified with the power of the
King in different regions such as Vijayanagara. But it is in Kashmir, above all,
where we see this process of the brahmanization of tantric ideology and prac-
tice. This history has been traced by Sanderson through the sequences of texts
and the divisions of the S ́aiva tantric canon. It is to this canon and the traditions
it expresses that we now turn.
The path of Mantras can be divided into the texts and teachings of the S ́aiva
Siddha ̄nta on the one hand and the teachings of Bhairava of non-Siddha ̄nta
groups on the other. While the former, although accepting 28 “dualist” Tantras,
adhered to vedic social practice and made generally vegetarian offerings to a
milder form of S ́iva known as Sada ̄s ́iva, the latter accepted a large body of texts
which were often hostile to vedic orthopraxy. This distinction between orthoprax
and heteroprax S ́aivism is identified in the sources, as Sanderson has shown, as
a distinction between traditions of the right (daks.ina), namely the S ́aiva
Siddha ̄nta, and traditions of the left (va ̄ma), namely the non-Saiddha ̄ntika tra-
ditions (Sanderson 1995: p.18). While the S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta is a dualistic
tradition, maintaining a distinction between the soul and the Lord, the non-
Saiddha ̄ntika groups, especially the tradition known as the Trika, are nondual-
istic, claiming that the self and S ́iva are identical. This dualistic and nondualistic
the s ́aiva traditions 209