FAQ

Purity and Impurity in Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism

Publication date: 12.05.2015

Studia Religiologica, 2015, Volume 48, Issue 2, pp. 101 - 115

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.15.008.3554

Authors

Raffaele Torrela
Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome
All publications →

Titles

Purity and Impurity in Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism

Abstract

Indian civilisation has been strongly characterised by the work of containment erected by the Brahmanical elite over the almost two thousand years of its grandiose attempt at culturally and socially dominating the Indian world as a whole. Lacking any direct power, the Brahmans have replaced it by successfully imposing, as an alternative, an opposition between purity and impurity that has marked every aspect of Indian culture: purity of spirit, purity of philosophy, purity of rites, purity of language, purity of social and religious conduct, etc. Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism’s response starts by questioning the legitimacy and very basis of the division between pure and impure, destined to crumble progressively beneath the thrust of deliberate “non-dual” behaviour (advaitācāra). Purity or impurity are not properties of things. They are qualifications pertaining to the knower depending on whether he perceives the object as united with consciousness or not. “Impure is what has fallen away from consciousness: therefore everything is pure if it has achieved identity with consciousness.” Moreover, if Śiva “is” the universe, there may be no impurity. In the Tantric texts special emphasis is laid on the necessity to overcome śaṅkā (“hesitation, inhibition”), viewed as the ultimate purpose of the Brahmanical rules concerning purity/impurity, acting as a subtle and effective instrumentum regni.

References

Primary sources

Abhinavagupta, Parātriṃśikāvivaraṇa, Gnoli 1985.

Abhinavagupta, Tantrāloka with Commentary by Rājānaka Jayaratha, edited with notes by Madhusudan Kaul Shastri, vols. I–XII, KSTS 23, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 41, 47, 52, 57, 58, 59, Allahabad-Srinagar-Bombay 1918–1938.

Kiraṇa-tantra, D. Goodall 1998.

Kṣemarāja, Spandanirṇaya, edited by Madhusudan Kaul Shastri, KSTS 42, Srinagar 1925.

Kṣemarāja, Śivasūtravimarśinī, edited by J.C. Chatterji, KSTS 1, Srinagar 1918.

Mālinīvijayottaratantram, edited by Pt. Madhusudan Kaul Shastri, KSTS 37, Bombay 1922.

Patañjali, Vyākaraṇa-mahābhāṣya, edited by F. Kielhorn, 3 ed., revised [...] by K.V. Abhyankar, vols. 1–3, Poona 1962–1972 [1880].

Somānanda, Śivadṛṣṭi with the vṛtti by Utpaladeva, edited by Pandit Madhusudan Kaul Shastri, KSTS 54, Srinagar 1934.

Utpaladeva, The Śivastotrāvalī with the Sanskrit Commentary of Kṣemarāja, edited with Hindy Commentary by Rājānaka Lakṣmaṇa, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series 15, Varanasi 1964.

Vijñānabhairava with commentary partly by Kṣemarāja and partly by Śivopādhyāya, edited by Mukunda Ram Shastri, KSTS 8; with commentary Kaumudī by Ānanda Bhaṭṭa, KSTS 9, Bombay 1918.

Secondary sources

Bisschop P., Griffith A., The Practice Involving the Ucchuṣmas (Atharvavedapariśiṣṭa 36), “Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik” 2007, no. 24, pp. 1–46.

Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, Carman J.B., Marglin F.A. (eds.), Leiden 1985.

Douglas M., Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Tabou, London 1984 [1966].

Dumont L., Pocock D., Pure and Impure, “Contributions to Indian Sociology” 1959, no. 3, 
pp. 9–39.

Goodall D., Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Commentary on the Kiraṇatantra. Vol. I: Chapters 1–6, critical edition and annotated translation, Pondichéry 1998.

Gnoli R., Il Commento di Abhinavagupta alla Parātriṃśikā (Parātriṃśikātattvavivaraṇam), traduzione e testo, Serie Orientale Roma 58, IsMEO, Roma 1985.

Hanneder J.Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Revelation: An Edition and Annotated Translation of Mālinīvijayavārttika I, (I.1–399), “Groningen Oriental Studies” 1998, no. 14.

Harper E.B., Ritual Pollution as an Integrator of Caste and Religion, “Journal of Asian Studies: Aspects of Religion in South Asia” 1964, no. 23, pp. 151–197.

Hatley S., The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of the Yoginīsdissertation in Religious Studies presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 (unpublished).

Jaini P.S., The Pure and Auspicious in the Jaina Tradition [in:] Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, J.B. Carman, F.A. Marglin (eds.), Leiden 1985, pp. 84–93.

Kane P.V., History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. IV, Pune 1976 (2 ed.).

Madan T.N., Concerning the Categories Śubha and Śuddha in Hindu Culture: An Exploratory Essay [in:] JPurity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, .B. Carman, F.A. Marglin (eds.), Leiden 1985, pp. 11–29.

Madan T.N., Non-renunciation: Themes and Interpretations of Hindu Culture, Delhi 1987.

Malinar A., Purity and Impurity [in:] Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vol. 2, K.A. Jacobsen (ed.), Leiden 2010, pp. 435–449.

Olivelle P., Caste and Purity: Study in the Language of Dharma Literature, “Contribution to Indian Sociology” 1998, no. 32 (2), pp. 190–216.

Sanderson A., The Doctrine of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra [in:] Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honor of André Padoux, T. Goudriaan (ed.), Albany 1992, pp. 281–312.

Sanderson A., Commentary on the Opening Verses of the Tantrasāra of Abhinavagupta 
[in:] 
Sāmarasya: Studies in Indian Arts, Philosophy, and Interreligious Dialogue in Honour of Bettina Bäumer, S. Das, E. Fürlinger (eds.), Delhi 2005, pp. 89–148.

Sanderson A., The Śaiva Age [in:] Genesis and Development of TantrismS. Einoo (ed.), Tokyo 2009, pp. 41–349.

Smith B.K., Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varṇa System and the Origins of Caste, Oxford 1994.

Srinivas M.N., Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India, Oxford 1952.

Tambiah S.J., Purity and Auspiciousness at the Edge of the Hindu Context – in Theravāda Buddhist Societies [in:] Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, J.B. Carman, F.A. Marglin (eds.), Leiden 1985, pp. 94–108.

Torella R.Śaiva Nondualism [in:] Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics, J. Tuske (ed.) (forthcoming).

Torella R., The Kañcukas in the Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava Tantric Tradition: Few Considerations between Theology and Grammar [in:] Studies in HinduismMiscellanea to the Phenomenon of Tantras, G. Oberhammer (ed.), Wien 1998, pp. 55–86.

Torella R., Inherited Cognitions: prasiddhi, āgama, pratibhā, śabdana (Bhartṛhari, Utpaladeva, Abhinavagupta, Kumārila and Dharmakīrti in Dialogue) [in:] Scriptural Authority, Reason and Action, Proceedings of Panel at the XIV World Sanskrit Conference, Kyoto, September 
1st–5th 2009
, V. Eltschinger, H. Krasser (eds.), Wien 2013, pp. 455–480.

Törzsök J., Nondualism in Early Śākta Tantras: Transgressive Rites and Their Ontological Justification in Historical Perspective, “Journal of Indian Philosophy” 2014, no. 42, pp. 195–223.

Information

Information: Studia Religiologica, 2015, Volume 48, Issue 2, pp. 101 - 115

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Purity and Impurity in Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism

English:

Purity and Impurity in Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism

Authors

Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome

Published at: 12.05.2015

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Raffaele Torrela (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 2204

Number of downloads: 2330

<p> Purity and Impurity in Nondualistic Śaiva Tantrism</p>