Abstract
Some of the most distinctive and complicated tantric traditions of mediaeval Bengal are those known to scholars as the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, a fascinating range of lineages and ritual systems that flourished from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries and continue in some forms even today. They not only express beliefs and practices from Śaiva tantric schools, but also incorporate an impressive range of influences from the Nāths, Siddhas, Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, and Śaktism. Greater Bengal has been a dynamic centre of not only many forms of Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, but also various Śākta traditions of the goddesses and regional vernacular traditions such as those of Dharma-thākur. Bengal was also the centre of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, especially the dynamic flowering of the Caitanya movement, based on the renowned god-man Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486–1533 CE) and his many followers, including the Six Gosvāmins theologians of Vṛndāvana (such as Rūpa Gosvāmin), and hagiographers such as Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, whose Caitanya-caritāmṛta (ca. CE 1575) has been so influential.
This paper was presented at the conference of the Society for Tantric Studies (STS), held in Flagstaff, Arizona on 27–29 September 2019. An earlier version was presented in December 2018 at the International Conference on the Historical, Sociological, Philosophical and Spiritual Significance of Shaktatantra with Special Reference to Srividya Tradition, held at the Sanchi University of Indic-Buddhist Studies in Barla, Madhya Pradesh. The author wishes to thank Dr. Tony K. Stewart of Vanderbilt University for his suggestions regarding the Bengali translation, Dr. Bruce Sullivan, emeritus from Northern Arizona University for his help with the Sanskrit verses, and Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina of San Diego State University for his many useful comments and suggestions.
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Notes
- 1.
See Dimock and Stewart (1999) for a superb translation and study of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
- 2.
For early studies of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, see Basu (1932) (in Bengali), Dasgupta (1969), Bose (1986). The standard work remains Dimock (1989). I have also discussed many texts and aspects of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās in my own publications: see e.g. Hayes (1995, 2000, 2012a). I explore using cognitive science in the study of Tantra in Hayes (2012b) and 2014. Recent superb fieldwork by Sarbadhikary (2015) shows that there are a number of modern Sahajiyā communities in West Bengal, although they seem to have little connection with the medieval schools in terms of subtle-body systems.
- 3.
For a discussion of the Buddhist and Vaiṣṇava uses of the term sahaja, see Hayes (2015).
- 4.
For a useful study of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, including its connections to the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, see Stewart (2010).
- 5.
For the details of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava system of rāgānugā bhakti sādhana, which involves the devotee ritually creating, and then inhabiting, a character in the celestial drama, see Haberman (1988).
- 6.
See Stewart (2010: 348–365) for a discussion of this intertextuality between the Caitanya-caritāmṛta of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and the Vivarta-vilāsa of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās.
- 7.
This claim has been criticized by the late Joseph T. O’Connell. See his “Hybrid Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās,” 2019.
- 8.
I have translated the entire text, and in this essay I have used the relevant page numbers of the Bengali text in Basu’s edited text to be found in the anthology Sahajiyā-sāhitya.
- 9.
See Dimock (1989: 55–67) on how the figure of Caṇḍīdāsa is claimed by Sahajiyās.
- 10.
For details on āropa-sādhana, see Dimock (1989: 164) and infra.
- 11.
See Hayes (2000) for a translation and study of selected portions of the Amṛtaratnāvalī.
- 12.
- 13.
On the issues involving different models of the subtle or yogic body, see, for example White (2003b).
- 14.
- 15.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Vaiṣṇava tantric text associated with the name of Bhairava; however, in this text Bhairava is said to be a court minister, not the fearful manifestation of Śiva. Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina from San Diego State University, in a personal communication (9/7/20), notes that there are several dozen manuscripts with the name Ānandabhairava in archives in Nepal. Most of these texts are associated with the Kaula Śaiva traditions. He also observes that there are also a few Ānandabhairava temples, from around the fourteenth century as well as a Licchivian inscription regarding Vajra Bhairava that dates back to the sixth century. I suspect that this Sahajiyā use of the term Bhairava is an example of their attempts to appeal to Śaiva devotees in an effort to attract new followers.
- 16.
See Chakravarti (1985).
- 17.
See Sarbadhikary (2015).
- 18.
Nijathājatheñjetrininigāpanuchayāsujemāsvarikānta. I have shown this śloka to many Sanskritists, including Han van Buitenen back in grad school, and all agree it is mostly jibberish.
- 19.
SS 126–127.
- 20.
SS 128–129.
- 21.
The point is that bhakti is easy, while jñāna is difficult.
- 22.
This makes sense only if one omits the single syllable “khor.”.
- 23.
SS 129–132.
- 24.
This is the central channel of the subtle-body system in the dehatattva of the Mukunda schools.
- 25.
On the Dharma-maṅgala creation story, see Frank Korom, “The World According to Ghanarām: A Partial Translation of his Gitarambha.” In Festschrift in Honour of Rahul Peter Das on his 65th Birthday. Edited by H. Harder and C. Brandt. Berlin: CrossAsia, in press.
- 26.
Personal communication by email from Frank Korom, 9 September 2018.
- 27.
SS 132–133.
- 28.
The moon nectar is a Nāth image, while the cakora bird is standard Vaiṣṇava imagery.
- 29.
This may be connected to the use of paraś in the opening lines of the text.
- 30.
Ondracka (2011). My thanks to James Mallinson for directing me to this essay.
- 31.
- 32.
- 33.
See Hayes (2000) for more details.
- 34.
SS 136–137. Should any readers have more information on this name of the goddess, I ask them to contact me.
- 35.
This is, of course, a standard trope and venerable concept in classical, ascetic, and yogic literature.
- 36.
See Dasgupta (1969).
- 37.
SS 139–147.
- 38.
The late Joseph O’Connell has contested these claims by the Sahajiyās. See O’Connell (2019).
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Hayes, G.A. (2022). Prema and Śakti: Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Appropriations of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and Śāktism in the Ānandabhairava of Prema-Dāsa. In: Khanna, M. (eds) Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3022-5_3
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