David Kinsley - Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine

Acknowledgments

I first became aware of the group of Hindu goddesses known as the ten Mahavidyas while conducting research on the goddess Kali in Calcutta during the academic year 1968-69. Kali is nearly always listed as the first of this group often unusual goddesses and in many ways is the exemplary Mahavidya. It was not until 1983-84 in Varanasi, however, that I began to undertake detailed research on this group. With the help of a fellowship from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, I investigated literary sources and did field research on Mahavidya temples, iconography, and worship. I returned to Varanasi in 1992-93 to continue my research, this time with the help of a grant from McMaster University Arts Research Board.

During my research in Varanasi I was fortunate to have the assistance of many people. Om Prakash Sharma was indispensable in helping me locate several Mahavidya temples and paintings, putting me in touch with many knowledgeable people, and finding relevant texts. Virendra Singh, who patiently attempted to teach me Hindi, was always encouraging about my work. Mahant Sri Rama Shankar Tripathi of the Kashi Vishvanath temple held frequent useful discussions with me during 1983-84 and translated several relevant Sanskrit texts about the Mahavidyas for me. Hemendra Nath Chakravarty was especially important in helping me think through the meaning of several of the Mahavidyas and in locating and translating for me several crucial passages relating to the Mahavidyas as a group and to individual Mahavidyas. I also appreciated the many discussions I had with Mark Dyczkowski at his home overlooking Assi Ghat. I remember these chats as a pleasant blend of sober scholarly inquiry and amusing speculation on the mysteries presented by this unusual group of Hindu goddesses.

Introduction

What is one to make of a group of goddesses that includes a goddess who cuts her own head off, another who prefers to be offered polluted items by devotees who themselves are in a state of pollution, one who sits on a corpse while pulling the tongue of a demon, another who has sex astride a male consort who is lying on a cremation pyre, another whose couch has as its legs four great male gods of the Hindu pantheon, another who prefers to be worshiped in a cremation ground with offerings of semen, and yet another who is a haglike widow?

Are these goddesses, who are known as the ten Mahavidyas, bizarre creations of radical groups within the Hindu tradition, obscure beings whose significance is peripheral to the basic themes of Hindu spirituality? Should we dismiss them as tangential, perhaps even irrelevant, to Hindu religion? After years of studying and musing on them, it seems to me that there is a logic to the group as a whole and that even its most outrageous members, if understood within their proper context, reveal important spiritual truths.

We know the Mahavidyas from a variety of sources. Many goddess temples across North India contain paintings and images of them. Contemporary lithographs portray them both as a group and individually. Dhyana mantras describe them for liturgical and meditative purposes, and they are the subject of several tantric digests.

The Mahavidyas have been known as a group since the early medieval period (after the tenth century Ce.).1 Some of them predated this development and continue to be very well known in their own right, such as the fierce black goddess Kali. She is also usually the primary, or aid, Mahavidya. Kamala, who is the same as the very popular goddess SriLaksmi, is also a member of the group. Tara and Tripura-sundari, lesser known but still far from obscure, are other examples of Hindu goddesses who are popular on their own and as part of the group. On the other hand, Bagalamukhi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, and Matarigl are rarely mentioned apart from the Mahavidyas.