Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

deration when search is made for the origin of the Agamas. If they be correct, then in this, as in other cases, the beliefs and practices of the soil have been upheld until to-day against the incoming cults of those “ Aryas” who followed the Vaidik rites and who in their turn influenced the various religious communities without the Vaidik fold.

The Smartas of to-day represent what is generally called the Shrauta side, though in these rites there are mingled many Puranic ingredients. The Arya SamAja is another present-day representative of the old Vaidika Achara, mingled as it seems to me with a modernism, which is puritan and otherwise. The other, or Tantrik side, is represented by the general body of present day Hinduism, and in particular by the various sectarian divisions of Shaivas, Shaktas, Vaishnavas and so forth which go to its making.

Each sect of worshippers has its own Tantras. In a previous Chapter I have shortly referred to the Tantras of the Shaivasiddh4nta, of the Pancharatra Agama, and of the Northern Shaivaism of which the Malinivijaya Tantra sets the type. The old fivefold division of worshippers was according to the Panchopasana, Saura, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta whose Mila Devatas were Stryya, Ganapati, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti respectively. At the present time the threefold division Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, is of more practical importance, as the other two survive only to a limited extent to-day. In parts of Western India the worship of Ganesha is still popular and I believe some Sauras or traces of Sauras here and there exist, especially in Sind.

Six Amnayas are mentioned in the Tantras. (Shadamnayah). These are the six Faces of Shiva, looking East (Parvamnaya) South (Dakshinamnaya) West {PashchimAamnaya) North (Uttaramnaya) Upper (Urddhvamnaya) Lower and concealed (Adhamnaya). The six Amnayas are thus so called according to the order of their origin. They

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