Saturday, April 11, 2015

KAUL TANTRA(Kaulism) ;The Matsyendranath’s cult

 The Nāth order is traditionally associated with the practice of yoga and → Tantra, certain varieties of which are said to have originated from their first gurus, Matsyendra and Goraksa, but today ̣ few pursue . Despite their founder’s reputation as its first teacher, almost no Nāths practice Hatha Yoga (see ̣ → Yoga). The initiatory, funereal, and other important rituals of the order are tantric, with the goddess Bālā/ Tripurāsundarī  being the focus of worship, but for many ascetic Nāths, their daily religious observance consists of living a renunciate life and worshipping the order’s deities and gurus in a manner consistent with typical North Indian → bhakti.

Matsyendranath is associated with both the Pūrvāmnāya and Paścimāmnāya (“Eastern” and “Western”) transmissions of Kaula Tantra, as well as their later southern variant Nath Sampradaya_ Nāth Sampradāya 5 known as Śāmbhava, and a variety of texts associated with these traditions are attributed to him. He is mentioned in → Abhinavagupta’s approximately 1000 CE Tantrāloka  as a Siddha by the name of Macchanda whose consort is called Kuṅkuṇāmbā (“The Goddess from the Konkan”). This and the provenance of the texts of the cults associated with him (see below) indicate that Matsyendra lived in southern India, probably the Deccan, in the 9th to 10th centuries. He is said to have reformed the practices of the Kula, which were associated with → yoginīs living in cremation grounds thirsty for blood and other bodily fluids, into the slightly tamer practices of Kaulism  Matsyendra’s cult, as evinced by the 13th-century Matsyendrasaṃhitā, still involved sexual and other unorthodox practices. Nāth tradition and legends found in a number of texts including the Matsyendrasaṃhitā and the early 15th-century Maithili Goraksavijaya ̣ maintain that Matsyendra’s disciple Goraksa further ̣ reformed Matsyendra’s licentious ways, rescuing him from ensnarement in the land of women.

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