orthoprax mainstream. Its “folk” roots may be linked in an agricultural
respect for soil and furrow but manifest themselves in veneration of the
female genitalia. The famed “squatting goddess,” Lajja ̄ Gauri, for example,
apparently represented this early relation between furrow and vagina. She
was the goddess seated on her haunches, naked, her genitalia clearly
visible – the earliest forms of this figure found to date in the upper Deccan
plateau are first century CE.^27 Also part of this “folk” background was the
belief that one could be “possessed” by the deity, or, more accurately
perhaps, become one with the goddess. Tantrics further affirmed the senses
(long eschewed by the orthoprax as “distracting”) and celebrated all of
matter, including things the orthoprax thought defiled, such as meat and
liquor. Tantrics assumed the divine was present in all such things and hence
they could be used ritually.
Mixed with these “folk” elements are aspects which have their roots
invaidikapractice. This included the ritual use of sounds. Sound had cosmo-
gonic power; hence, chants or mantraswere thought to link one to the
cosmos at large. Vidya ̄(“magical speech”) was used in tantric ritual. This
included meditation on a cryptic sentence and directing chants to the deity,
almost always a goddess. Further, the body could be used symbolically
in ways that resonate with the yogic tradition – winds were thought able to
move from various cakras(centers on the body) through mythical veins.
Gestures (mudra ̄s) were used ritually as were postures (a ̄sanas) of various
kinds.Pra ̄n.ayama(breath control) was similarly borrowed from hat.ha yoga.
The body, in short, was congruent to the universe and to the alphabet of
sounds and to the deities.
In tantra, a man usually worked with a guru, often female, who was believed
to be able to lead the devotee to liberation and the use of occult powers. The
culmination of the tantric experience was the reattainment of primordial
androgyny, the collapsing of distinctions between separate selves, between
males and females, and between deity and devotee. This was ritually
expressed by sexual union in which no bodily fluids were ejected. Rather the
couple became one.
Hindu tantrics understood their discipline to have seven steps. The first
three were common to most Hindu devotees and included basic devotion
to Vis.n.u and meditation on S ́iva. The fourth stage, sometimes referred to
as right handed worship (daks.ina ̄ca ̄ra) entailed worship of the supreme
goddess in ways consistent with orthoprax patterns. It is in the next stage,
“left handed” worship (va ̄ma ̄ca ̄ra) when ritual use of the five “m’s” assumed
a significant role: mam.sa(meat);matsya(fish);mudra ̄(fried rice); mada
(intoxicants);maithuna(intercourse). These practices were developed with
the careful guidance of a guru and were accompanied by a complex system
of symbols, including the use of geometric designs (yantra) and special
110 The Post-classical Period