From the Sequence of the Sun-Goddess (bhānavīkrama) to Time-Consumption (kālagrāsa): Some Notes on the Development of the Śākta Doctrine of the Twelve Kālīs

Abstract

The doctrine of the twelve Kālīs is one of the earliest developments of the Śākta tradition of the Kālīkula/Kālīkrama/Mahānaya and it is well known in the later exegetical works of Abhinavagupta (10th–11th c.), Kṣemarāja (11th c.), and Maheśvarānanda (13th–14th c.). Although the twelve Kālīs have been treated to some extent in secondary literature, a systematic study of the development and reception of this doctrine has not been undertaken yet. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the Kālīkula scriptures are available in manuscript form, and methodical analysis of their contents remains a desideratum. In this article, I intend to examine selected tantric scriptures teaching the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, focusing on the development of the constituent elements of this doctrine, as they appear in different tantric sources. This article traces the origins of the twelve Kālīs to the esoteric teaching of the Sun-Goddess, linked to the tradition of the Skeleton of Kālī (kālīkaṅkāla/kaṅkāla). It will argue that in the subsequent phase of the doctrine’s development the solar context gradually diminished and an emphasis on the twelve goddesses’ function as the destroyers of time became more and more pronounced. This tendency, in turn, influenced the codification of the twelve Kālīs as the fully-fledged doctrine of time-consumption (kālagrāsa), popular in the Trika and the Trika-inspired Krama sources.

Introduction

The doctrine of the twelve Kālīs has been traditionally referred to as the “arising of the sequence of the wheel of Kālīs” (kālīcakrakramodaya) and recognized as the core teaching of the northern tradition (uttarāmnāya/*uttaragharāmnāya) of Śaivism. The Kashmiri exegetical writers often refer to the twelve Kālīs collectively as the ‘wheel of consciousness/energies’ (saṃviccakra, ciccakra or śakticakra). For the tenth-eleventh-century polymath Abhinavagupta, the founder of the Trika, the twelve Kālīs represent the “arising of the wheel of consciousness” (saṃviccakrodaya) unfolding in the wheel of the inexplicable (anākhyacakra) and they are described as such in detail in chapter IV of his Tantrāloka.¹ Abhinavagupta’s disciple Kṣemarāja, in his commentary (nirṇaya) on the first verse of the Spandakārikā, identifies the twelve Kālīs—called the ‘ray-goddesses’ (marīcidevīnām)—with the ‘wheel of powers’ (śakticakra), which he glosses, in cosmological terms, as the cause (hetu) of the creative evolution of the universe (vibhava) that goes through the four stages of exertion, manifestation, relishing, and dissolution.² Kṣemarāja, probably drawing on Abhinavagupta’s Kramastotra,³ also adds theological interpretation to the understanding of the twelve Kālīs when he associates them with Manthānabhairava, the ancient god of the Jayadrathayāmala, who resides amidst the twelve goddesses as the lord of the wheel (cakreśvara). ⁴ Among the later adaptations of the twelve Kālīs, one has to mention the concept of kramamudrā attested, for example, in the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, which teaches the practice of assimilating into one’s own self the sequences of emission, permanence, and dissolution.⁵ These formulations represent, however, later versions of the kālīcakrakramodaya, and are the outcome of the development that occurred in connection with philosophical, theological and ritualistic changes the doctrine underwent.

This article aims to examine some aspects of this development by focusing on the doctrinal changes, and, in some cases, intertextuality existing between earlier and later tantric texts attesting the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs. My analysis intends to demonstrate that the changes displayed by those sources have a double focus. On the one hand, it shows that earlier texts contributed to the set of core ideas that had a direct influence on the development of the doctrine in later texts. On the other hand, doctrinal modifications call our attention to the fact that those concepts, which provided different emphases in the formulation of the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, were directly affected by the type of discourse that appear to have been dominant at the time when a particular text was composed. With this in mind, I argue that the development of the doctrine proceeded from a more esoteric Kula/Kaula phase to a more philosophically oriented Trika-Pratyabhijñā phase. As the twelve Kālīs drifted away from their early Kula/Kaula orientations—deeply rooted in the teaching of the Sun-Goddess (bhānavīkrama)—, they became enveloped with a new philosophical outlook that combined the Krama notion of the four-fold sequence⁶ with a Trika notion of the cognizer, the cognition, and the cognizable, under the concept of anākhyakrama. This process of ‘rationalization’ reached its peak in Abhinavagupta’s formulation of saṃviccakrodaya where the key metaphysical concepts associated with the twelve Kālīs, such as ‘fire of time’ (kālāgni) or ‘great time’ (mahākāla), became equated with the different levels of the cognizer borrowed from the Pratyabhijñā system. Due to the abundance of textual material, most of which has not yet been edited, this study can only provide a preliminary outline of the development mentioned above, and also point to some new lines of inquiry about this understudied tantric doctrine.

The Twelve Kālīs and the Sun-Goddess in the Kālikākramapañcāśikā and the Jayadrathayāmala

The doctrine of the twelve Kālīs has its roots in the esoteric teachings of the Sequence of the Sun-Goddess (bhānavīkrama) or the Kula of the Sun-Goddess (bhānavīkula) propounded by Niṣkriyānanda. Niṣkriyānanda was one of the early Krama siddhas and the preceptor of the Higher Krama of the Oral Instruction (Sanderson, 2007a, p. 333), who transmitted the teachings to his spiritual son, and the siddha whose appearance was that of a tribal (śabara), by the name Vidyānanda or Vidyāśabara.⁷ Both Niṣkriyānanda and Vidyānanda feature as the earliest ‘human’ teachers of the Krama tradition in the Devīpañcaśataka.⁸ The exposition of the bhānavīkrama attributed to Niṣkriyānanda and transmitted to Vidyānanda is found in the Kālikākramapañcāśikā, one of the two texts comprising the tradition of the *Uttaragharāmnāya (Sanderson, 2007a, p. 252). The Kālikākramapañcāśikā is found in chapter seven of the twelfth century Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya. Despite the rather late date of this scripture, internal evidence indicates that the Kālikākramapañcāśikā is likely to contain some early material on the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, for it aligns on critical points with the Jayadrathayāmala, as will be shown below. Unlike other Kālīkula/Kālīkrama scriptures and exegetical works, the Kālikākramapañcāśikā does not place the twelve Kālīs in the anākhyakrama, but treats them independently as the central teaching of the bhānavīkrama. The names of the twelve Kālīs⁹ worshipped as part of the pūjākrama correspond to those given in the Devīpañcaśataka, known also as the Kālīkulapañcaśataka, with the exception of the thirteenth Kālī in the middle, who is substituted by the goddess Kumārī. While the twelve Kālīs should be worshipped with the mantra hrīṃ śrīṃ, Kumārī should be worshipped at the end of the twelve (dvādaśānta),¹⁰ i.e., at the end of the worship of the twelve Kālīs and at the symbolic location of the yogic body that is twelve inches above the head (the place of the praśānta). The latter, sometimes identified with the rise of the kuṇḍalinī, is the place where the mantra becomes the most subtle (beyond any perception in uccāra).

The goddess of the Kālikākramapañcāśikā is called Sūryakulakṛśodarī and her name points to the early Kālīkula’s association with the Saura tradition that has already been mentioned by Sanderson.¹¹ She is defined in Nāgārjunian terms as being ‘empty of inherent existence’ (niḥsvabhāva). From her own nature, a wheel arises, which is established in the solar course of consciousness, consciousness being identified with the sun. ¹² The wheel manifests (lit. “shines”) as the reflection (pratibimba) eager only to devour the mirror.¹³ The text gives the following definition of the kālikākrama (The Sequence of the Kālīs): “Kālikākrama is the tradition of the twelve”.¹⁴ In another passage, we read: “Kālī, the terrible one, she, who is black as collyrium, is the Sun-Goddess (bhānavī) of the twelve risen suns.”¹⁵ The solar symbol is also employed to denote the epistemological goal of the bhānavīkrama, namely the “sun of knowledge” (jñānārka, bodhabhāskara). In one passage, a more elaborate description of the practice that leads to this goal is given:

When the act of abandoning and grasping [the perceptions], [which takes place] through the distinction of giving up and taking, has been dissolved, then the one who knows the [true] reality, seeing the sun of knowledge, may make it manifest.¹⁶

In another passage of the Kālikākramapañcāśikā, bhānavīkula is compared to the wheel of destruction that is imagined, in cosmological terms, as the devouring fire of consciousness (grāsaghasmara) that consumes the three worlds.¹⁷ This fiery image, often termed as the fire of time (kālāgni) will persevere in other Krama sources and Trika scriptures and will be commonly employed to designate the all-consuming function of the twelve Kālīs.¹⁸

Among other features of the goddess Sūryakulakṛśodarī that seem to form an important part of the bhānavīkrama teaching is her association with the process of sensory experience. In this regard the goddess is identified with Kaulinī Śakti/Kuleśī, which points to the Kula/Kaula roots of the Kālīkula.¹⁹ Kaulinī Śakti is primarily the enjoyer of all sensory experience (sarvabhogabhuk). The process of sensory experience is conceptualized, in phenomenological rather than theological terms, as one of withdrawal (saṃhāra), in which the obtainment of the object of perception (i.e., sound, touch, etc.) generated through the bliss of relishing (rasanā) becomes dissolved in the activity of the sense-organs; once this activity ceases, the supreme wonder arises.²⁰ In order to explain the actual practice that helps to achieve “the supreme wonder”, the Kālikākramapañcāśikā seems to allude to the Kaula method of sexual intercourse as follows:

Having united the sexual organs in the course of reciprocal rite, when, upon abandoning one mental state, the mind (citi) does not grasp another, which immediately arises, then, the supreme reality, which is one’s own true nature, manifests.²¹

One has to notice that the practice of focusing attention on an interval between the two perceptions, similar to the one described above, also features in a number of Trika and Spanda texts, such as Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa²², the Spandakārikā (v.41),²³ and the Vijñānabhairava (v.62). Another point worth noticing is that the Kālikākramapañcāśikā considers the bhānavīkrama to be a part of the tradition of the Skeleton of Kālī (kālīkaṅkāla), of which we unfortunately know nothing about. In this regard, the Kālikākramapañcāśikā avers thus:

O goddess, [I will tell you] the tradition of the Skeleton of Kālī²⁴, the one taught by the guru, its single characteristics being one’s own perception, the supreme plane of the inexplicable (anākhya). Listen, o goddess, I will tell you the supreme sequence of the Kālīs. O Bhadra, I will tell you the supreme tradition of the twelve.²⁵

Importantly, the association of the solar Kālī with the tradition of the “Skeleton” is also attested in the fourth ṣaṭka of the Jayadrathayāmala, the tantra of the Bhairavasrotas where Bhairava wants to teach the goddess about the “the highest Kaula teaching which is concealed within the closed hand [of the teacher].”²⁶ The goddess expresses her interest in obtaining this teaching, saying:

I am satisfied, o Lord; I have truly understood the highest goal. By your favour, o Lord of all, great Śiva, I now want to hear the Kaulārṇava teaching, called, the “Skeleton” (kaṅkāla) in which the goddess Kālī becomes manifest arising from the sun of consciousness (cidarka). She is the one who is located on the summit of Bhairava’s crest, and who radiates out in the form of the mass of [twelve] rays [i.e. raśmipuñja= 12 Kālīs]. O you who are venerated by the foremost of gods, o Lord, I wish to know the sequence in accordance with its two aspects, external and internal.²⁷

Although no records about this tradition seems to be currently extant, the Kālīkaṅkāla/Kaṅkāla appears to have been known to the Kaula Kramācāryas, who adopted it as part of their Kāpālika practice. In the third ṣaṭka of the Jayadrathayāmala, the wandering vratī addresses himself in the following words: “I am a skull-bearing Kāpālika of the skeleton (kaṅkālī), eager to taste the fusion of the rays (of consciousness).”²⁸ In the post-Jayadrathayāmala texts, references to the tradition of the kaṅkāla in the context of the Kāpālikas or the Kālīkula doctrine are rare. The only evidence I was able to find that clearly links it to the fully-fledged Krama practice of sensory experience, and thus may be a reminiscent of the Kālīkaṅkāla tradition, is Yogarāja’s commentary on Abhinavagupta’s Paramārthasāra. There we come across an explanation of the Kāpālika vow, called by Yogarāja the “skeleton posture” (kaṅkāla-mudrā). The hero (vīra) following this vrata assumes the skeleton-posture in which he drinks the drink of the heroes (vīrapāna), i.e., the essence of all entities in the universe, from the skull of the sensory objects. The skull is held in his own hands that are glossed in terms of the Kālīkula doctrine as the ‘rays of consciousness’ (saṃvitkara). The ‘rays’ are the goddesses that are the senses, such as the eye, the ear, etc. while the sensory experience they offer to Bhairava brings about the final repose (viśrānti) in one’s own consciousness.²⁹ Yogarāja’s commentary is a good example of the later tradition associated with the exegetical works of the Kashmiri Kālīkrama,³⁰ where the purpose of the sensory experience, as well as the goal of the cycle of the twelve Kālīs is the final repose (viśrānti) in one’s own consciousness.³¹

Another striking intertextual similarity between the Kālikākramapañcāśikā³² and the Jayadrathayāmala, already noted by Sanderson (2009, pp. 57–58), is attested in the exposition of the solar teaching that distinguishes between the plurality of suns that seem to correspond to the outer sense faculties, the inner cognitive faculties and the ultimate sun beyond them. In this regard, the Jayadrathayāmala avers thus:

This sun has emerged from within the sun [located] within the light of illuminator. Within this sun, is [yet another] sun, which illuminates the entire universe. The universe is overflowing with the mass [of rays] of Kaulinī, who is the sun-goddess (bhānavīkaulinī), and who embodies the Kaula absolute. It is from there that the great mantras, which are the wombs of sixty-four Bhairavas have arisen. Not located in light, nor in the void, not in one, nor in both, not in neither, the sun, all-pervading, shines, free of all obscurations […]. This sun, which is fearsome and terrible, shines at the limit of the fourth state of the sun with the rays that are ever arisen; those rays belong to the supreme sun, which is self-awareness. That person and him alone who realizes the wheel of the sun (bhācakra), overcomes time.³³

The description of the supreme sun endowed with the rays that are ever-arisen (nityodita), the knowledge of which leads the sādhaka to transcend the limits of time, is directly linked to the description of the twelve Kālīs. For the Jayadrathayāmala ‘rays’ (raśmicakra) stand for the twelve Kālīs.³⁴ The sādhaka, insofar that he established himself in the twelve signs of the zodiac, is said to embody those ‘rays’. He now manifests in the form of the sun itself, the nature of which is the expansion of the domains of the sense-faculties.³⁵ In that capacity he becomes the leader of the twelve Kālīs.³⁶ Although the Jayadrathayāmala talks about the sādhaka who embodies the twelve rays of the sun, it gives the names of the thirteen Kālīs who “emerge in the void-awareness of the rays as they begin to expand”.³⁷

Although Abhinavagupta, as we shall see below, was more interested to present the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs as the philosophical model of saṃviccakra, he probably knew about the solar tradition associated with the twelve Kālīs. This is hinted at in Abhinavagupta’s commentary (vivaraṇa) on the Parātrīśikā, where he adopts the solar metaphor to assert the soteriological validity of true reasoning (sattarka), the single method applied in the śāktopāya. In the śāktopāya, whose core are the twelve Kālīs in the Tantrāloka and Tantrasāra, cultivation of correct mental representations (vikalpa-saṃskāra) is purported to remove the pertinacity of duality, which is nothing else but ignorance covering one’s own true self.³⁸ The shedding away of ignorance is simultaneous with the self’s uncovering of its own luminous nature. In the Parātrīśikā, Abhinavagupta adopts the solar metaphor to assert the soteriological validity of sattarka as the method that enables an instant dissolution of ignorance, which like the flecks of clouds, cover the ‘sun of consciousness’:

Among all the lights of yoga, sattarka has been determined in the Mālinīvijayottaratantra to be the blazing sun by which one is liberated and liberates others. And this [sattarka] has to be grasped and reflected upon at all times by those wise ones who, having given up the envy, so common in human beings, for a moment, want to reach the supreme. The aspirant is established in one’s own self immediately after the sattarka [ālocana], and the flecks of clouds [that cover] the sun of consciousness are dissolved at once, through the relish of one’s own true nature.³⁹

The aforementioned passage distinguishes between the sun-like sattarka as the method of realization and the ‘sun of consciousness’ as its goal. The former is the process of purifying reflection, which suddenly disperses the clouds of ignorance or the malas; the latter represents the pure luminosity of consciousness that becomes “fully revealed” through this method. In accord with Abhinavagupta’s reformulation of liberation as consisting of enjoyment/savouring (bhogamokṣasāmarasya), the goal of this practice is the “relish of one’s own nature”. It is quite certain that by adopting the solar metaphor Abhinavagupta alludes to the Kālīkula doctrine of the Sun-Goddess that formed an esoteric background of the early teaching of the twelve Kālīs, but gives it, instead, a rational outlook of sattarka.

Post-Abhinavagupta Trika authors, such as Jayaratha and Yogarāja, were aware of the solar context linked to the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, and did not shy away from affirming its soteriological value. One example in case is Jayaratha’s commentary on Abhinavagupta’s passage of the Tantrāloka describing the three Trika goddesses (parā, aparā, and parāparā), who arise as the twelve Kālīs. According to Abhinavagupta, those twelve goddesses embody the fully expanded nature of consciousness, and those who venerate those twelve are directly established in Śiva’s nature.⁴⁰ Jayaratha clearly pays heed to the earlier solar tradition by quoting from a text where the twelve goddesses constitute the supreme sun of one’s own consciousness (svasaṃvitparamāditya), which is the imperishable mass of light.⁴¹ Similar example is found in Yogarāja’s commentary on the Paramārthasāra, where, in accordance with the passage of the Parātrīśikā quoted above, the revelation of the “sun of consciousness” is instigated by the destruction of the “veil of delusion”. A person who has reached this state shines as the “sun in the guise of Śiva”, “with his rays unhindered”, “with the host of rays of consciousness”. For such a person, liberation ensues, which is described as “the state wherein his own energies are fully deployed.”⁴² This description echoes the passage of the Jayadrathayāmala referred to above where the sādhaka manifests as the sun with the ‘rays’ (i.e., the twelve Kālīs), fully expanded.

The Twelve Kālīs as the Kalās of Mahākālī in the Devīpañcaśataka

Much like the Kālikākramapañcāśikā and the Jayadrathayāmala, the Devīpañcaśataka—which together with the Kālīkulakramasadbhāva and the Yonigahvaratantra belongs to the groups of texts that are believed to have been revealed in the Northern Sacred Seat (uttarapīṭha) by Jñānanetra or Śrīnātha, known also as Śivānandanātha⁴³—knew about the esoteric teaching of the Sun-Goddess Kālī. This is attested in the seventh paṭala, where the text refers to the secret teaching of the supreme sun, which is the circle of consciousness (citimaṇḍala) located at the end of Śiva (śivānta). Unlike the Kālikākramapañcāśikā and the Jayadrathayāmala, however, the main goddess of the Devīpañcaśataka—who both embodies the supreme sun and is endowed with the twelve rays—is equated with the plane of repose of consciousness (cittaviśrāmabhūmika). In effect, an adept who knows this goddess attains the state of the sky-farer. The Devīpañcaśataka speaks of it in the following words:

I will tell you the secret and most excellent Kālikākrama. One should think of the supreme sun, whose nature is the abode, the supreme and all-pervading, endowed with sentience [in the form of] the circle of consciousness and radiant like a crore of moons. It has the brightness of the thousand fires at the end of the eon and a splendour equal to the great sun. Established in [everything], from the worlds situated at the very bottom of the universe⁴⁴ up to Śiva, it is intent on causing all beings to arise. Through the sudden dissolution of the energy (kalā), there, one should know the space [that is] the circle of consciousness, which is tranquil, pure and resembling Brahmā. It is where the goddess, who is the plane of repose of consciousness, resides. She whose nature is the supreme sun has emanated with the twelve divisions. With the twelve rays, she resembles one hundred thousands rays. […] He who knows her, immediately, in that moment, becomes a sky-farer;⁴⁵ he measures out the whole universe, and playfully devours it again. Thus, in this world, the sādhaka has no comparison: he who abides in the three worlds, is supreme, and on the account of being the lord, he is like Īśvara.⁴⁶

The aforementioned passage, parts of which are also found in the Yonigahvaratantra, proves that the solar elements in the worship of the goddess Kālī⁴⁷ were still strong in the period when the tantras of Uttarapīṭha flourished. At the same time, it is in the Devīpañcaśataka where we find, for the first time, the fully-fledged doctrine of the twelve Kālīs who—as the ‘energies’ or kalās of the goddess Mahākālī—are worshipped in the anākhyakrama. Nevertheless, at this stage, the twelvefold cognitive structure of the anākhyakrama that became the key-concept associated with the twelve Kālīs in later scriptures is not yet attested. Like the Jayadrathayāmala, the Devīpañcaśataka refers to the “tradition of the twelve” [Kālīs] (dvādaśadhāmnāya), but gives the names of the thirteen Kālīs worshipped in the anākhyakrama. Those twelve constitute the essential nature (svabhāva) of Mahākālī, who, through her own capacity, brings forth destruction and terminates the reality of time. Each of the twelve Kālīs is called the energy (kalā) and as such it belongs to the goddess Mahākālī, who embodies the supreme energy (parā kalā),⁴⁸ called the nectar (amṛta).⁴⁹ Although Mahākālī still retains the characteristics of the Sun-Goddess, in that she is described as the absence of bliss (nirānanda),⁵⁰ abiding in the middle of the sun, where she shines as the rays of consciousness; the tendency to refer to the goddess through the discourse of emptiness is also strongly attested. Thus, we find the expressions that have a clear śūnyavādin orientation and define Mahākālī as the energy of emptiness, established in emptiness, made of emptiness, etc.⁵¹ Further, Mahākālī is described through the epithets that point to her transcendental nature. Thus she is the unmovable place of bindu, eternal, fixed, alone, a single heroine (ekavīra), very subtle, imperishable. She is described through the use of apophatic language as “neither the object of perception, nor the object of speech, free of attributes.”⁵² The Devīpañcaśataka also draws attention to another, fierce aspect of Mahākālī in which she, as the very fierce one (mahāghora) and the end of the syllable phaṭ, devours the Lord Bhairava.⁵³ This trait is also found in a number of other early and later texts, such as the Kramasadbhāva, Mahānayaprakāśas of Arṇasiṃha and Śitikaṇṭha, and Jñānanetra’s Kālikāstotra, where Bhairava becomes unequivocally associated with the principle of time, which the goddess successfully devours.

The Devīpañcaśataka gives two alternatives for the worship of the twelve Kālīs: the saṃvitkrama and the pūjākrama, the distinction still retained in Jayaratha’s commentary on the Tantrāloka. In the saṃvitkrama, the twelve goddesses are worshipped internally as the succession of one’s own cognitive process (svasaṃvitti). In the pūjākrama, the instructions are given to worship the twelve goddesses in the external ritual setting as the retinue of the thirteenth goddess located in the middle. The text refers to these as follows:

O supreme Lord, one should worship those [twelve Kālīs] at the Brahmā-lotus, which is inexplicable and complete, at the end of the sixteen, at the end of the nine, or at the of cit. O Three-eyed one, worship them with the succession of one’s own cognitive process (svasaṃvitti), or else, externally, on a red cloth. One should make a circle of emptiness with lapis lazuli powder. Outside of that [circle], on should place the circle of the twelve.⁵⁴ Having worshipped Mahākālī in the middle, one should worship the other twelve [located] on the outside, in due sequence, beginning with the east, O one delighted in yoga. [The sādhaka] should be wearing female clothes, or be naked; he should be wise, devoid of thought-constructs, propitious, and be an expert in the ritual procedure.⁵⁵

The ṣoḍaśānta, navānta, and cidanta are symbolic locations present in the yogic body that are often correlated with the points in the rise of kuṇḍalinī. The “End of the Sixteen” represents the location at the distance of the sixteen fingers above the head, and as such it is unknown to the Svacchandatantra, Netratantra, Siddhayogeśvarīmata and rarely mentioned in the Tantrasadbhāva, and the Mālinīvijayottaratantra. Abhinavagupta never refers to the “End of the Sixteen”. For him, the “End of the Twelve” (dvādaśānta) is the highest point in the ascent of kuṇḍalinī, and this is a standard description borrowed from the Svacchandatantra. The “End of the Sixteen” is, however, known to the Jayadrathayāmala, and the Kramasadbhāva. In the Kramasadbhāva, Mahākālī is praised as the one established at the “End of the Sixteen”.⁵⁶ It is clear that by mentioning the “End of the Sixteen” as the location to worship the twelve Kālīs, the Devīpañcaśataka aligns with the Jayadrathayāmala and not the Kālikākramapañcāśikā, where the reference to the more common location at the “End of the Twelve” is found (see above).

The Devīpañcaśataka is an important text for understanding the development of the twelve Kālīs, for it reflects a transitional point between the early doctrine of the Sun-Goddess with twelve rays and the teaching of Mahākālī with twelve kalās, intent on devouring time-Mahākāla. The text is also relevant for linking the teaching on the solar goddess with the concept of cittaviśrāma that will be adopted as the goal of the anākhyakrama by the Mahānayaprakāśas as well as the Trika exegetical authors.

The Śrīkālikāstotra of Jñānanetra: The Twelve Kālīs and the Codification of the Twelvefold Anākhya

The Śrīkālikāstotra of Jñānanetra marks a shift away from the descriptions of the goddess Kālī as emptiness, prevalent in the tantras revealed in the Uttarapīṭha, to the goddess representing consciousness. Moreover, Jñānanetra’s ideas are strongly influenced by the concept of sahaja usually translated as ‘spontaneity’, ‘co-emergent’, or ‘inborn’. Sahaja was a popular notion in the Indian Buddhist tantras, such as Hevajra, and it was widely associated with the 9^th century mahāsiddha Saraha, who in his spiritual songs (dohās), propagated sahaja both as the method and the soteriological goal. Jñānanetra uses the word sahaja in compounds to describe the nature of the goddess Kālī. Thus, she is the ‘supreme spontaneity’ (niruttarasahaja) that emerges from Śiva’s consciousness and assumes the form of pure will. She is the ‘spontaneity of recognition’ (sahajasaṃvitti) that can be attained by means of pure consciousness, devoid of any limiting adjuncts (anupādhi). She is the ‘innate spontaneity’ (sahajasvarūpa), when she divides herself thirteenfold.⁵⁷ Although Jñānanetra never mentions the twelve Kālīs directly, nor does he refer to the goddess’ solar aspects, there is a sense that some of the verses refer to the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs. According to Jayaratha—who in his commentary on Abhinavagupta’s exposition of saṃviccakrodaya quotes a couple of verses from the Śrīkālikāstotra—, Jñānanetra was a recipient of the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs.⁵⁸ He further argues that even when Jñānanetra mentions the goddess divided into thirteen forms, he actually means the twelve, and not the thirteen Kālīs.⁵⁹ In order to substantiate his argument, Jayaratha quotes the following verse of the Śrīkālikāstotra:

Hail to your form propelling the whirlpool of the manifestation of the universe, having made your innate nature thirteenfold. Your own unique nature is three-fold through distinction into emission (prasara), permanence (sthiti), and withdrawal (vilaya), and that is fourfold in each case by the reason of arising (udaya), preserving (saṃsthiti), dissolution (laya) and repose (viśrama).⁶⁰

The above passage is important for it is the first time we come across the formulation of the twelvefold anākhya. Abhinavagupta clearly incorporates this very sequence into his exposition of the saṃviccakrodaya, where he correlates each phase of the twelvefold process with the name of a specific Kālī. He also substitutes the cosmic functions of prasara, sthiti, and vilaya with their cognitive equivalents, corresponding to prameya, pramāṇa, and pramātṛ.⁶¹The Cidgaganacandrikā of Śrīvatsa (12th–13th century), which according to Sanderson (2007a, pp. 297) is rephrasing Arṇasiṃha’s ideas in a more poetic style, adheres to the same model. There, the face of the goddess resembling the sun of consciousness consists of the aggregate of powers (śaktivṛnda) as the plane of the twelvefold sequence expanded out into the universe through the squaring of triads. These twelve reside within the abodes of the moon, sun, and fire, which are the three eyes of the goddess in the form of cognizable object, the means of cognition, and the cognizing subject.⁶²

Another concept that the Śrīkālikāstotra shares with the Cidgaganacandrikā is the identification of the twelvefold body of Kālī with the principle of time. The Śrīkālikāstotra says:

Hail to you who, having divided the body of the Kālī of Time, split twelvefold. You then shine, making that form radiant in itself.⁶³

For Jayaratha this verse proves that Kālī maintains her true identity of all-inclusive light (prakāśa) even in the external projection as time. He says further that Kālī’s ability to manifest time in the manner of the reflection in the mirror belongs to the goddess’s nature as anākhya.⁶⁴ In another passage, Jñānanetra refers to Bhairava as the form of time, who creates the world from the [first] cause to the last insect. The goddess is intent on devouring the dreadful and terrible Mahākāla who has consumed the three worlds, and as such she is called the Thin-bellied (Kṛśodarī).⁶⁵ The Cidgaganacandrikā praises the goddess Kālī, whose twelvefold body of time is represented by the twelve vowels, and diversified in accordance with the signs of the zodiac; the same association is also present in the Jayadrathayāmala (see above).⁶⁶ In another verse introducing, as it were, the exposition of each of the thirteen Kālīs, which, according to Sanderson (2007a, pp. 297), is based on Eraka’s Kramastotra, yet another identification is found. The Kālī of Time, who abides on the plane of Śiva, is defined both as the ferocious fire of time (kālaghasmarī) and the twelvefold sun (dvādaśātmāravi).⁶⁷ These appellations are absent in Jñānanetra’s stotra.

The Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṇasiṃha: Devīkakrama as Varṇakrama

The Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṇasiṃha—one of the three texts bearing the same title—represents a later stage in the development of the twelve Kālīs doctrine, filtered, as it were, through the technical terminology present also in the Kashimirian Krama exegesis. Arṇasiṃha’s exposition of the twelve Kālīs, as revealed in the description of the anākhyakrama, is also, in many ways, dissimilar to the presentation given in the Kālikākramapañcāśikā or the Devīpañcaśataka. The most apparent difference is the absence of any reference to the Sun-Goddess. There are also noticeable dissimilarities in the overall presentation of the doctrine. First, Arṇasiṃha develops the idea of the twelve vowels that we have already encountered in the Jayadrathayāmala (see above) and explains the process through which the twelve vowels of the previously described wheel of light (prakāśacakra) become the twelve Kālīs in the anākhyakrama. The reference to the twelve vowels—beginning with ‘a’ and ending with ‘ḥ’, but devoid of the four neuter letters⁶⁸—, indicates that Arṇasiṃha is referring to the Sequence of Letters (varṇakrama), one of the three modes of the Mahānaya worship.⁶⁹ It is worth noticing that in Abhinavagupta’s exposition of the śāmbhavopāya, we also find the twelve Kālīs being referred to as the twelve vowels.⁷⁰ According to Arṇasiṃha,⁷¹ however, in the anākhyakrama, those twelve vowels enter the process of reversion (pratyāvṛtti),⁷² which takes place when they, full of the relish of cognition (ciccamatkārabharito), are withdrawn from their objects.⁷³ Once this happens, the twelve Kālīs arise to destroy the manifested and unmanifested nature of these twelve vowels.⁷⁴ At the same time, he adopts the twelvefold structure of anākhyakrama and labels it as creative imagination (kalpanā) of the thirteenth Kālī.⁷⁵ Second, drawing on the Kaula terminology, Arṇasiṃha identifies the sequence of the goddesses (devīkakrama) with the ‘rays’ (raśmayaḥ, raśmipuñja), which are devoid of ego, and free of thought-constructs, beyond the sequence and the non-sequence, and transcending any contact with the sensory experience.⁷⁶ Third, the activity of destruction that those ‘rays’ instigate is described through the use of technical terms, such as ‘forceful withdrawal’ (haṭhasaṃhāra), and ‘fire of total devouring’ (alaṃgrāsaikaghasmara).⁷⁷ In another place, Arṇasiṃha also uses the term sahasā⁷⁸ to refer to the process of sudden withdrawal activated by the twelve goddesses. The references to haṭhākarṣa and grāsaghasmara are also found in Niṣkriyānanda’s Kālikākramapañcāśikā, but they are not found in the Devīpañcaśataka, which only mentions the term sahasā. These terms are also found in other Mahānayaprakāśas⁷⁹ and in the Kashmirian Trika exegesis.⁸⁰ Fourth, Arṇasiṃha gives additional identification of the anākhyakrama, when he correlates it with the fourth state (turīya),⁸¹ on the one hand, and with the condition of oneness (sāmarasya),⁸² on the other. Finally, Arṇasiṃha postulates the existence of the thirteenth Kālī, who as the source of other twelve goddesses, presides over the great wheel of withdrawal of all things and is intent on emitting and devouring these twelve goddesses.⁸³

Arṇasiṃha’s exposition of the twelve Kālīs summarized above represents the stage in the development of the doctrine that was already drawing upon the established set of concepts, such as pratyāvṛtti, ciccamatkāra, alaṃgrāsa or sāmarasya found also in the Trika and the Trika-influenced Krama sources. This indicates that at the time of Arṇasiṃha, the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs was already more or less codified and it was adopted in that form as a core of the later Kashmirian Krama exegesis. Arṇasiṃha’s explanation of the twelve Kālīs had a great influence on Maheśvarānanda’s formulation of the same concept in his 13th–14th century Mahārthamañjarī.

The Thirteen Kālīs as Time-Consumption (kālagrāsa): The Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum

The anonymous Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum, a post-Abhinavagupta scripture written by the 12th century and certainly influenced by the Pratyabhijñā school, is undoubtedly our most useful source to understand the philosophical foundation of the doctrine of the thirteen (and not the twelve) Kālīs. The text formulates this concept in terms of the practice of anākhyakrama built upon the notion of atemporal temporality (kramākrama), or, in other words, the non-sequential sequence that belongs to the single, manifesting consciousness (saṃvit-sphuraṇa). According to the text, anākhya has two states: on the one hand, it penetrates plurality, for it contains within itself the sequences of sṛṣṭi, sthiti, saṃhāra; on the other, it is established at the same time in its own state of final repose (viśrānti), beyond the reality of the sequence. This finds its theological extension in the worship of the Kālīs. The Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum is clearly influenced by the Kashmirian Krama exegesis, when it associates the twelve Kālīs with the twelvefold cognitive process, as follows:

The single nature of one’s own nature (svasvarūpa) functions as pervading the fields of the knowable (meya), the instruments of knowledge (māna) and the knower (pramātṛ). These three, who are being one with the phases of emission (sarga), permanence (avatāra), and withdrawal (saṃhāra) become fourfold through the aspects beginning with sṛṣṭi, sthiti, etc. The fourfold expansion starting with the udaya, to the final moment of the kālagrāsa, has a single point of repose (viśrānti), and that is the reason why there are thirteen goddesses [worshipped in the pūjākrama].⁸⁴

The text briefly touches upon the subject of repose (viśrānti) represented by the thirteenth goddess:

Within any [sequence comprising of sarga, etc.], there is a final repose, which transcends the polarity of sequence and non-sequence, and which is present as the inseparable essence that cannot be penetrated by the adjunct, which is time.⁸⁵

The argument that in any sensory perception the non-successive aspect (i.e., viśrānti) is inherently present ensues. By way of example, the text refers to the appearance of the colour ‘blue’, which seems to be external to the perceiver, and yet is only seemingly so, for the subjective experience of ‘blue’, which results in ‘relish’, is also present non-successively. The text says:

Clearly, the manifestation [of consciousness] must be present in the [external perception of] ‘blue’ and that manifestation [of consciousness] is certainly located in the [subjective experience of] relish. If they weren’t present non-successively, there could be no perception of ‘blue’.⁸⁶

Thus, the non-successive aspect is posited as the underlying substratum for each of the cognitive sequence. Its function is to unify the sequences of cognition appearing within consciousness as its contents. The following verses expand on this issue by describing the non-successive aspect as something that must be presupposed in any sensory experience; the absence of which would result in the fragmentation of cognition into discrete phases, such as ‘blue’, ‘manifestation’, etc.:

If we first had the ‘blue’, then the ‘manifestation’, and then, the ‘relish’ mutually excluding one another, there would be no perception of ‘blue’. The sequence is declared to be of the nature of temporal succession; as a result of mutual exclusion, there would be no cognition in this way, because of the division between distinct parts. [Thus] it is [only] through the experience of the power of anākhya, which consists of the enjoyment of partless cognition accomplished in any experience, that the worldly experience is established.⁸⁷

The philosophical analysis of anākhya is complemented by a more detailed discussion of its practice. The practice of anākhya is built upon the notion of time-consumption (kālagrāsa), whose goal is to reach the non-successive state of repose (viśrānti) suddenly. The Mahānayaprakāśa states thus: “by concentrating on the non-successive essence of time, which takes the form of coloring time⁸⁸ by succession, there is a sudden devouring of time, and this comes about through a direct sensual experience (saṃkrama).”⁸⁹ Time is constructed with a metric symmetry as the set of moments applicable to the sequence. However, in the midst of this regularity an unexpected split comes, namely a sudden opening that causes time to be devoured by non-time. Beneath the formal logic of this passage, there is a conviction that liberation from temporality comes—paradoxically enough—via the use of time as the vehicle for reaching the goal of viśrānti. The practice of kālagrāsa starts with engagement in ordinary sensory experience (saṃkrama). The text enlarges on the saṃkrama as follows:

The manifestation of anākhya is effortlessly present in whichever object of sense the ‘rays’ penetrate.⁹⁰

The concept of the senses as ‘rays’ is reminiscent of the Kaula tradition, as it echoes the passage of Niṣkriyānanda’s Kālikākramapañcāśikā, already referred to above, where anākhya is defined as being the basis of one’s own personal experience (svānubhūti). The sensory experience is structurally ascertained within the fourfold division that arises in the object (parijñeya), subject (mātṛ) and instruments of cognition (māna) as: (1) spontaneous effulgence (akalitollāsa), (2) sensual enjoyment of that (tatsaṃbhoga), (3) subjective relishing (carvaṇa), and (4) rest (virāma). In all these twelve cases, there is one repose (viśrānti), which is free of limiting adjuncts.⁹¹ This twelvefold structure is reflected in the worship of the twelve Kālīs, wherein pūjā is described as the reflection (parāmarśa) on the twelve goddesses:

Through the power of reflection on these twelve goddesses, the state of non-differentiated awareness (nirvikalpa), which is devoid of latent traces of cognition, clearly manifests.⁹²

A close affinity between this cognitive aspect of worship and its ritualistic equivalent is ascertained in the next paragraph dedicated to the description of the Kaula ritual. The text refers to the worship of the twelve goddesses through the panorama of typically Kaula ritual that includes consumption of wine, meat, and sexual enjoyment of women. Both dimensions of worship serve as the means for kālagrāsa. In each case, kālagrāsa leads to one viśrānti, which is the thirteenth goddess. This unique explanation that correlates the twelve Kālīs with the Kaula substances is not found in other Krama texts.

In the next part, the text turns to the exposition of kālagrāsa represented by the twelve Kālīs of the anākhyakrama. The names of the Kālīs are derived from the semantic analysis of the root kal, which echoes a similar passage found in Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka.⁹³ Unlike in Abhinavagupta, however, these different meanings of kal are correlated with the ritual ‘substances’, namely, women, wine, and meat.

The first group of the four Kālīs who are intent on kālagrāsa in the field of the object (prameya) derives its name from the root kal in the sense of kṣepa, and it is applied to the enjoyment of women. Kṣepa (“casting forth” or “projection”) means here the “extroverted sensual desire” that arises through the contact with women. Therefore, those who are strongly attracted to women enter into the supportless state of kālagrāsa: some simply by seeing an attractive woman, other by touching her limbs, and other by copulation. In this way, those who are attracted to women perceive three levels of experience (i.e., akalitollāsa, tatsaṃbhoga, and carvaṇa), but when time dissolves away, they attain the state of viśrānti, which is free of limitations.⁹⁴

The second group of the four Kālīs instigates kālagrāsa in the field of the instruments of cognition (pramāṇa) and derives its name from the root kal in the sense of śabda (“to resonate”), and saṃkhyāna (“to enumerate”). Therefore, those who are addicted to wine can reach kālagrāsa merely by seeing, touching, or drinking the wine. Once the wine is swallowed, the sense of duality is destroyed. As a result, the state of blissful relish becomes firm, without any contact with the object of experience. Through the expansion of this intermediate state (between prameya and pramātṛ), which is the great experience of reflection,⁹⁵ the four Kālīs are present resting on the field of pramāṇa.⁹⁶

The third and final group of the four Kālīs derives its name from the root kal in the sense of gati (“to go” or “to know”). These four Kālīs arise for those who are immersed in the enjoyment of meat insofar as they penetrate the state of inner relish whose nature is the subject (pramātṛ). Ultimately, the enjoyment of meat leads to the kālagrāsa.⁹⁷

Drawing upon the method of “effortless” attainment advocated in the Svabodhodayamañjarī of Vāmanadatta,⁹⁸ the Mahānayaprakāśa asserts that the practice of kālagrāsa is easy to attain because, in reality, both time and the devouring of time represented by the twelve Kālīs are only one thirteenth goddess, who is the final repose and the point of dissolution of all cognitions, whether discursive or non-discursive:

In this way, with all the phenomena in all states of experience, kālagrāsa is easy to attain through the Mahārtha teaching, “I venerate that structure of the self in which the bliss of the awakening of consciousness has been obtained without any effort, after having correctly examined the nature of things as having no reality of their own.” In accordance with the oral teaching of the Siddhas, there is no independent reality of anything with regard to which this time, whose nature is differentiation (kalana), applies. This whole structure manifesting of and by itself is nothing but the expansion of the self. So what is this time, which is devoured by the bliss of the arising of consciousness and what are those twelve Kālīs, which are intent on devouring time? When these are analyzed [the conclusion is reached that], there is nothing at all. There exists only one state of repose (viśrānti), which is the supreme goddess, free of limiting adjunct, which is time. She is characterized as both consciousness and non-consciousness; bliss and non-bliss and absence of both (nirbhoga). She is the point of dissolution of all cognitions, both discursive and non-discursive. She is the one who transcends the states of sequence and non-sequence and is the expansion of those. She is unmoving, devoid of pulsation, but she also experiences all pulsation. Although she is directly perceptible to everyone with different facets, nonetheless, she is realized by various methods such as oral instruction, worship, and direct transmission. She who is figuratively called “the thirteenth” is the ground in which the twelve goddesses dissolve. Therefore, she is present as the highest object of worship, because she is that ultimate goal to be realized.⁹⁹

In the concluding verses, the text briefly refers to viśrānti as the state that comes about through the eradication of the residual traces arising from vikalpas, suggesting that kālagrāsa and haṭhapāka¹⁰⁰ lead to the same end. The conclusion also contains an idea that it is in the world of sensory experience, perceived through the prism of non-sequential sequence, where one is expected to attain liberation from saṃsāric existence. This should be read in connection with another passage where the state of liberation in life is defined as “recognition of reality as it is”:¹⁰¹

The highest repose, devoid of any desires, arises through the total destruction of the most latent impressions generated by various thought-constructs. In this manner, this sequence of worship (pūjanakrama) [of the Kālīs] is present to all people as a direct experience in all states of phenomenal experience that take place in the state of extroversion. For the wise ones, the highest consciousness blazes up brilliantly by means of those same concrete realities, which others have rejected as factors obscuring consciousness.¹⁰²

The Absence of the Twelve Kālīs in the Mahānayaprakāśa of Śitikaṇṭha

The last of the three Mahānayaprakāśas, which might have been written in the eleventh century in Kashmir (Sanderson, 2007a, p. 302), does not mention the twelve Kālīs at all; however, its exposition of the anākhyakrama in some respects echoes the other two Mahānayaprakāśas. Like the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum, Śitikaṇṭha accepts that the Ādidevī—the goddess representing pure unconditioned consciousness—manifests in three divisions (sṛṣti, sthiti, saṃhāra) through her anākhya nature, which is coloured by the reality of the sequence (kramārtharūṣitena).¹⁰³ The similarity between the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum and that of Śitikaṇṭha is also apparent in the formulation of the concept of anākhya as the form of repose (viśrānti). However, unlike the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum, which asserts a single repose for all the twelve moments, Śitikaṇṭha says that the anākhyakrama contains all three types of repose for each sequence, namely sṛṣṭyanākhya, sthityanākhya, and saṃhārānākhya, while other sequences merely rest in their own nature and do not contain all three.¹⁰⁴ This particular way of formulating the concept of anākhya is based on Abhinavagupta’s Kramakeli, the lost commentary on Eraka’s Kramastotra, quoted in the Mahārthamañjarī of Maheśvarānanda, which is also followed by the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum.¹⁰⁵ According to Śitikaṇṭha, however, those three separate anākhyas represent the conditioned state (sopādhikā) of the fourth anākhya, which is their ultimate ground, free of all limitations (nirupādhikā). It is in this nirupādhikā anākhya, where the three conditioned anākhyas are brought to the state of rest in the state of unity (sāmarasya).¹⁰⁶ The understanding of viśrānti as the ground devoid of limiting adjuncts is also found in the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum.¹⁰⁷ At the same time, Śitikaṇṭha echoes the Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṇasiṃha, when he says that the anākhyakrama consists of the state of unity (sāmarasya) through falling away of the sense of differentiation (bheda).

Abhinavagupta’s Reception of the Twelve Kālīs

For the Kashmirian Abhinavagupta, the founder of the Trika, the twelve Kālīs represent the “arising of the wheel of consciousness” (saṃviccakrodaya). This term stands for the phenomenology of the twelvefold cognitive process, taking place in the wheel of the inexplicable (anākhyacakra). Despite the fact that Abhinavagupta considers the Devīpañcaśataka as the authority on the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, he distances himself from the teaching of the Sun-Goddess. For Abhinavagupta Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī, out of her freedom, ideates (kalayantī) each of the twelve Kālīs as if there were different from her, when, in reality, they are not different. The key-term employed by Abhinavagupta is kalayantī, which he understands primarily through the etymology of the root kal. It is noteworthy that this term also appears in the Jayadrathayāmala to refer to the activity of the ultimate, thirteenth Kālī, whose nature is the sun.¹⁰⁸ The commentator Jayaratha, however, aligns with more traditional notion of kālagrāsa, repeatedly found in the Krama texts and uses it to describe the relation between Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī and the other twelve Kālīs, where the supreme goddess-consciousness (saṃviddevī) “manifests as eager to devour the stains of the projection of time”.¹⁰⁹ Jayaratha arranges the twelve Kālīs into three groups of four: the first group is delighted in devouring the aspect of the object (prameya), the second group does the same with the means of cognition (pramāṇa), and the third group with the subject (pramātṛ). The names of the twelve Kālīs given in the Tantrāloka are identical with that of Eraka’s Kramastotra, an influential work on which Abhinavagupta wrote a now lost commentary, the Kramakeli. Abhinavagupta rejects the order of the thirteen Kālīs given in the Devīpañcaśataka, by eliminating Sukālī. He also reshuffles the order of the Kālīs by placing Raktakālī after Sṛṣṭikālī, while other scriptures, including the Devīpañcaśataka, place Raktakālī after Saṃhārakālī. Jayaratha explains that Abhinavagupta did so to conceal the order of worship (pūjākrama) followed by other great teachers who intended to hide the true order of consciousness (saṃvitkrama). Instead, Abhinavagupta’s order of Kālīs follows the true order, so that the saṃvitkrama can be accomplished.¹¹⁰

Abhinavagupta’s saṃviccakrodaya reflects an effort to offer an integrated understanding of the twelve Kālīs from the epistemological perspectives of the Trika and Pratyabhijñā systems.¹¹¹ In order to understand the conceptual ramifications of this integration, let us first look at the Tantrasāra, where a shorter version of the twelve Kālīs constituting the essential teaching of the śāktopāya is given. Here Abhinavagupta is keen to incorporate the twelve Kālīs within the Trika system. He does so by first formulating the concept of Parameśvara who in his essence (svabhāva) is the perfect fullness of consciousness (pūrṇatāsaṃvit), capable of manifesting the totality of his powers. Even though Parameśvara has countless powers, there are in fact three particular powers that are capable of displaying the totality. These are the three goddesses of the Trika pantheon: parā-śakti, parāpara-śakti, and aparā-śakti. These three are assimilated (through the process of devouring) within another power, called śrīparā, which is the act of synthetic awareness (anusaṃdhāna) of the Lord. This assimilative yet transcendent śrīparā is renamed through the Krama terminology as ‘the one who attracts time” or Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī, and she is equated with the essence of subjectivity (mātṛsadbhāva) of the Trika.¹¹² Each of these four powers functions threefold in creating, maintaining, and dissolving, and in this way, they are twelve Kālīs of the saṃviccakra.¹¹³

The reformulation of the twelve Kālīs as constituting the saṃviccakra and thereby embodying the perfect fullness of awareness (pūrṇatāsaṃvit) of the Lord enabled Abhinavagupta to introduce the concept of Parameśvara as the lord of the wheel (cakreśvara). This, in turn, led Abhinavagupta to integrate the Trika version of the twelve Kālīs within the pan-Śaiva concept of Śiva as the Lord of Powers, prominent also in the Śivasūtras, Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, and Spandakārikā.¹¹⁴ By introducing the concept of cakreśvara, he was also able to assimilate the Pratyabhijñā model of “disclosure of powers” (śaktiprakāśa)¹¹⁵ and “discovery of one’s own powers” (śaktyāviṣkaraṇa).¹¹⁶ In so doing, Abhinavagupta was able to uphold the Pratyabhijñā precepts, which postulated the sovereignty of Śiva as the substratum of powers.¹¹⁷

An attempt to ‘clean’ the twelve Kālīs from its esoteric jargon and integrate them within the philosophical framework of the Trika and Pratyabhijñā systems is also attested in the Tantrāloka. There, some of the key metaphysical concepts associated with the doctrine that we have already encountered on previous pages, such as the ‘sun’, ‘fire of time’, and ‘great time’, became associated with the stages of the cognitive cycle and included within the Pratyabhijñā hierarchy of cognizers. Thus, the twelvefold sun loses its esoteric context of the Sun-Goddess and becomes employed to simply denote the twelve instruments of knowledge (pramāṇa), which are dissolved in the thirteenth egoity of ahaṃkāra, called the ‘supreme sun’.¹¹⁸ That supreme sun, because it is still an instrument of knowledge, gets dissolved into the agent, which is the limited subject (parimita-pramātṛ), called kālāgnirudra. That kālāgnirudra, in turn, since it is only the constructed subject (kalpita, to distinguish it from the unconstructed one, akalpita), must necessarily be dissolved in the supreme subject (para-pramātṛ), called mahākāla, which is unconditional and unconstructed. Mahākāla, who echoes the characteristics of Sadāśiva in the Pratyabhijñā system, is the perfect fullness of I-ness (paripūrṇāhaṃbhāva), but since it is coloured by the experience to assimilate the objects—which are internal, that is to say, which exist as one with the subject, according to the principle of sarvasarvātmakam “everything is of the nature of everything else”—into one’s own identity, also needs to get dissolved in the abode, which is transcendent (akula-dhāma).¹¹⁹ This assimilation takes place through the processes of ‘total devouring’ (alaṃgrāsa) and ‘forceful maturation’ (haṭhapāka). In this way, the final state is reached when only the consciousness (cinmātra) as the agent of knowing and doing remains, which does not enter into the state of the object of experience of any person in particular. At this level, the consciousness is one with the dissolver, and is, therefore, perfectly full. Abhinavagupta describes this ultimate stage represented by the final Kālī, called Mahācaṇḍograghorakālī,¹²⁰ as follows:

All the subjects, all the means of knowledge, all the knowledges in their multiplicity, and all the objects, all this is nothing but consciousness itself (cinmātra) at this level. The supreme goddess is an independent freedom of self-awareness as it adopts this diversity of forms.¹²¹

This last passage shows that Abhinavagupta’s theory represents an important departure from the Krama scriptures, investigated above, where the goal of the twelve Kālīs unfolding in the anākhyakrama is the plane of repose (viśrānti) of all discursive and non-discursive thoughts. For Abhinavagupta, the purpose of saṃviccakrodaya is to realize the innate freedom of one’s own consciousness as the agent of knowing and doing, as it adopts the diversity of forms. This echoes the definition of consciousness attested already in the Śivasūtras (2.1.7): caitanyaṃ sarvajñānakriyā paripūrṇa svatantrya. By placing freedom as the final goal of the saṃviccakrodaya, Abhinavagupta makes an attempt to bring the Krama process of complete reabsorption of consciousness¹²² into the Trika model of creation.¹²³ In other words, he subsumes the Krama goddess Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī, who represents the reabsorption of consciousness, under the Parā goddess of the Trika, who stands for the creation of consciousness. This, in turn, validates the Pratyabhijñā model of autonomy of action, which is freedom.

Conclusion

This article has presented preliminary evidence for the development of the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs focusing on the doctrinal, and in some places, intertextual relationship existing between various tantric texts teaching it. The commonality of themes, lexical similarities, especially visible in a usage of shared technical terminology, and conceptual formulations (or lack thereof) detected in the sources presented here shows that the development of the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs was the outcome of a gradual evolution that seems to have proceeded from the early Kula/Kaula phase to the later Trika-Pratyabhijñā phase. This movement brought with itself the development as well as differentiation of a set of core ideas that received different emphases in various tantras. In the first phase, the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs was formulated in the context of the esoteric teaching of the bhānavīkrama, which appears to have lost its importance in later scriptures. Although references to the twelve goddesses as the ‘rays’ continue to appear in later tantras, a growing trend was to present the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs as the concept of anākhyakrama often formulated as the practice of time-consumption (kālagrāsa) that leads to repose (viśrānti). The first text that clearly shows this transition is the Devīpañcaśataka, the tantra regarded by Abhinavagupta as an authority on the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs. Another important development was to present the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs or anākhyakrama not so much as a practice that relies on the fullest expansion of the senses, but rather as a philosophical discussion on the dynamic process of consciousness that goes through the twelvefold cycle, a tendency started with Jñānanetra. A notable exception to this rule is the Mahānayaprakāśa of Trivandrum, which tries to integrate the philosophical structure of the twelve Kālīs with the conceptual core of spontaneity of the senses under the Kaula ritual. As a result of this process of rationalization and semantization, the key metaphysical concepts of the early Kālīkula, such as the ‘sun’, the ‘fire of time’ (kālāgni), or the ‘great time’ (mahākāla), were relegated to the function of their cognitive equivalents, as seen in Abhinavagupta’s reformulation of the twelve Kālīs as the saṃviccakrodaya. Abhinavagupta presents the twelve Kālīs within the integrated framework of the Trika and Pratyabhijñā systems, in which the Krama goddess Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī fuses with the Trika goddess Parā, and where the reabsorption of consciousness instigated by the twelve Kālīs leads to the realization of one’s own consciousness as the agent of knowledge and action.