Saiva Officiants

ALEXIS SANDERSON
RELIGION AND THE STATE: S
AIVA OFFICIANTS
IN THE TERRITORY OF THE KINGS
BRAHMANICAL CHAPLAIN
1. INTRODUCTION
The literature of the S
aiva Mantramarga is dominated by the pre-

scription of the rituals through which the S
aivas initiated candi-

dates into their religious discipline (dks
a), consecrated successors

to oce (abhis
ekah
), installed images and other substrates of wor-

ship ( pratis
ha), and performed the repeated services of worship

(yagah
) and propitiation (mantrasadhanam) required of all or cer-

tain classes among them.
1
By studying this literature, which extends
1
I adopt Mantramarga (the Path of Mantras) as the S
aivas term for what

Indologists have commonly called Tantric or

Agamic S
aivism. It serves to dieren-

tiate this S
aivism from that of the Atimarga, the Path Beyond [the brahmanical
socio-religious order], the earlier and contemporaneous S
aivism of the Pas u-

pata divisions, principally the Pancarthikas, Lakulas/Kalamukhas and Soma-
siddhantins/Kapalikas. The Mantramarga comprises a number of related systems.
The principal among them and their principal surviving scriptures are (1) the Sid-
dhanta taught in the Nisv asa, the Paus
kara, the Sv ayambhuvas utrasam
graha, the
Rauravasutrasam
graha, the K alottaras, the Mata nga, the Kiran
a, the Mr
gendra, the
Par akhya, the Br
hatk alottara, etc., (2) the Vamas aiva cult of Tumburu and his four
sisters taught in the Vn
asikha, (3) the Daks
in
as aiva cult of Svacchandabhairava

taught in the Svacchanda, (4) the Yamala cult of Kapals a and Can
a Kapalin
taught in the Picumata =Brahmay amala), (5) the Trika cult of the goddesses Para,
etc. taught in the Siddhayogesvarmata, the Tantrasadbh ava, the M alinvijayottara,
etc., (6) the Kalkula cult of Kalasam
kars
an
/Kal taught in the Jayadrathay amala

and the scriptures of the Krama (K alkulapa ncasataka, K alkulakramasadbh ava,
etc.), (7) the cult of Kubjika taught in the Kubjik amata, etc., (8) the cult of Tripura-
sundar taught in the Nity as
dasikarn
ava, etc., and (9) the cult of Amr
tesvara and/
or Amr
talaks
m taught in the Netra.

Indo-Iranian Journal 47: 229300, 2004.
DOI: 10.1007/s10783-005-2927-y
* Springer 2005
from scriptural texts claiming the authority of divine revelation
through commentaries and treatises on these texts to manuals
( paddhatih
) of both transregional and local reach, we can make out

a detailed picture of the procedures they advocated and through
comparative analysis arrive at some understanding of how these
model rituals changed over time, were adapted in dierent regions,
and were related to those of the similar systems of ritual seen in
the literatures of the Pancaratrika Vais
avas and the Mahayana-Bud-

dhist Way of Mantras (mantranayah
, mantrayanam).
But these sources are much less revealing about agency, social
milieu, and historical context. They do provide us with some gen-
eral rules of restriction and permission concerning which categories
of person may or may not be initiated or ociate and concerning
the extent to which their mundane social status inuences their sta-
tus in the community of co-initiates, and these rules are dierent in
the dierent S
aiva systems, which reveals something of their charac-

ter and interrelation within the larger social world. But they provide
no data, and we are not likely to discover any from other sources,
that would enable us to judge, for example, what percentage of the
population in a given region and time was involved in the practice
or support of the religion, or how its followers and supporters were
distributed between castes, economic classes, age-groups, genders
and levels or type of involvement. In other words the texts tell us
what was possible for various groups but not the extent to which
these possibilities were put into practice. There is nothing here like
the evidence provided by the records of the government departments
that supervised the conduct of religion in China and Japan. The
kingdoms of South and Southeast Asia engaged in some such super-
vision and must have maintained the sort of records that would have
enabled us to address these questions. But they have not been pre-
served. All we have from that quarter are what happens to have sur-
vived and come to light of inscriptions on stone or copper plates
recording major grants or pious works. This is crucial information
for the historian of S
aivism, as it is for students of all Indian reli-

gious traditions, and in some areas, such as that of the Khmers, it
and archaeology provide the only evidence that we have. But at best
it instantiates or challenges the model of possibilities conveyed by
the prescriptive literature. It does not enable us to go beyond its
range into detailed social history. Nonetheless it is possible, I would
say necessary, to read the literature and inscriptions with the sort of
questions in mind that a social historian would wish to ask.
230 ALEXIS SANDERSON
In this perspective it seems to me that active initiates are likely to
have been few in number and to have been concentrated among,
though by no means conned to, brahmin men. Yet S
aivism exerted
an inuence on the religious life of the Indian world that far exceeds
what might be expected of such a minority, especially from one out-
side the mainstream of brahmanical observance. For there can be
no doubt that for several centuries after the sixth it was the princi-
pal faith of the elites in large parts of the Indian subcontinent and
in both mainland and insular Southeast Asia. Only Mahayana Bud-
dhism was able to rival it during this period; and when it achieved
success in this rivalry, either equalling or excelling S
aivism as the
beneciary of patronage, it was in a form led by the Way of Man-
tras, a system of ritual, meditation and observance in which Bud-
dhism had redesigned itself, if not in essence, then at least in style
and range of functions, on the model of its rival.
I attribute this success to three factors. The rst is that though
the practice of the religion proper was restricted to the initiated,
they cultivated the support of a wider community of uninitiated,
lay devotees. An unpublished corpus of texts comprising principally
the S
ivadharma and the S
ivadharmottara, contains the observances

recommended to this laity, revealing that following the example of
the Buddhists the S
aivas had propagated a lesser religion of merit-

gathering that centred on the support and veneration of the persons
and institutions of the religion proper, promising that those who
followed it would be rewarded in death by a period in the paradise
of S
iva (sivalokah
, rudralokah
) before returning to the world in the

most desirable of rebirths.
2
The second is that the S
aivism of the Mantramarga developed

in practice a thorough accommodation of the brahmanical religion
that it claimed to transcend, thus minimizing, even eliminating, the
oence it gave as a tradition whose scriptures, like those of the Bud-
dhists, were seen to be, and claimed to be, outside the corpus of the
Vedas. These S
aivas were to accept that the brahmanical tradition

alone was valid in the domain it claimed for itself and that they
2
For further information on this corpus of texts and for evidence in it of inter-
action with the king and his court see Sanderson, forthcoming.
231 S
AIVA OFFICIANTS THE KINGS BRAHMANICAL CHAPLAIN

were bound to follow its prescriptions and incorporate its rituals
beside their own wherever practicable.
3
Similarly, where they established themselves at the many S
aiva
temple sites that pre-existed them they did not attempt to reform
worship by restricting it to the narrow pantheon that they propiti-
ated as initiates. This they imposed on the worship of S
iva in the
Lin ga at the heart of these foundations; but they also took over,
preserved, and regulated in accordance with the expectations of the
uninitiated laity a much wider range of ancillary deities, deities that
have no place in the scriptures and ritual manuals of the Man-
tramarga other than in treatments of their installation and iconog-
raphy in this special context.
4
The third and most vital factor is that the religion succeeded in
forging close links with the institution of kingship and thereby
with the principal source of patronage. I see four main elements
3
Transgressing the rules of the brahmanical socio-religious system, known to
the S
aivas as the mundane religion (laukiko dharmah
), is forbidden in a much-
cited passage from the lost Saiddhantika Bh argavottara: iti varn
asram ac ar an
manasapi na la nghayet=yo yasminn asrame tis
han dks
itah
sivas asane/sa tasminn

eva sam
tis
hec chivadharmam
ca p alayet So he should not transgress the practices

of his caste-class and order of life even in thought. He should remain in the order
in which he was when he was initiated into the S
aiva religion and [at the same

time] maintain the ordinances of S
iva. It is cited at, e.g., Naresvaraparks
aprak asa
ad 3.76. See also Sarvaj n anottara cited in Tantralokaviveka ad 4.251ab, and
Mata ngap aramesvara, Cary ap ada 2.27b. That the S
aivas, at least those following

the Saiddhantika forms of observance, came to be widely accepted as co-religion-
ists in traditional brahmanical circles is evident from the report of the Kashmirian
philosopher Jayantabhat
a, a contemporary of king S
a nkaravarman (r. 883902),

in Nyayama njar vol. 1, p. 636, l.15p. 637, l.4; p. 637, ll. 1619; p. 638, ll. 1213.
He defends the validity of the S
aiva scriptures and claims that his position is that

of the society of respectable

Aryas (mah ajanah
), which he denes as comprising all

who live within the system of the four caste-classes and orders of life in accor-
dance with the ordinances of the Veda. See also Sanderson, 1995, pp. 2738.
4
The principal of these ancillaries were Durga Mahis
asuramardin, Uma,
Gan
es a, Skanda, Vis
u, Brahma, S urya, Laks
m, Sarasvat, the Lokapalas, the

Grahas, the Mother goddesses (Mat
rs), and a number of non-Mantramargic S
iva
forms: (1) a simple single-faced S
iva with two or more arms, (2) Harihara or S
a nka-
ranarayan
a, in which the left half of S
ivas body is Vis
u, (3) Ardhanars vara or

Gaurs vara, inwhichthis half is his consort Uma, (4) the dancing Rudra, called vari-
ously Nr
tyarudra, Nr
ttes vara, Nr
tyes vara, Nat
es vara, Nat
akes vara and Nat
yes vara,
and (5) Umamahes vara, also called Umes a and Umarudra, in which Uma sits on
S
ivas left thigh with his arm around her. Early sources that cover their iconography
are the Pratis
hatantras Devy amata, Mayasam
graha, Pi ngal amata, and Mohac uro-

ttara, and the general scripture Kiran
a (Pat
ala 52). See Sanderson, 2005, pp. 435440.

here: (1) the occupying by S
aiva ociants of the oce of Royal

Preceptor (rajaguruh
) and in this position their giving S
aiva initia-
tion (dks
a) to the monarch followed by a specially modied version

of the S
aiva consecration ritual (abhis
ekah
) as an empowerment to
rule beyond that conferred by the conventional brahmanical royal
consecration (rajyabhis
ekah
); (2) the promoting by S
aiva ociants
of the practice of displaying and legitimating a dynastys power by
their ociating in the founding of S
aiva temples in which the new

S
ivas that they enshrined bore as the individuating rst half of their
names that of the royal founder or, where complexes of royal S
iva
temples were established, those of the founder and any kin that he
might designate for this purpose; (3) the provision of a repertoire of
protective, therapeutic and aggressive rites for the benet of the
monarch and his kingdom; and (4) the development of S
aiva rituals
and their applications to enable a specialized class of S
aiva ociants
to encroach on the territory of the Rajapurohita, the brahmanical
expert in the rites of the Atharvaveda who served as the personal
priest of the king, warding o all manner of ills from him through
apotropaic rites, using sorcery to attack his enemies, fullling the
manifold duties of regular and occasional worship on his behalf,
and performing the funerary and other postmortuary rites when he
or other members of the royal family died.
5
In a forthcoming monograph I have provided detailed evidence
of the rst of these four factors.
6
Here I consider the fourth, and,
by way of introduction, the third. For the two overlap. As we shall
see, a S
aiva Guru acting in the role of a kings personal chaplain

was expected, like his brahmanical counterpart, to perform rites to
protect the king and kingdom. But the two factors must be distin-
guished, since the performance of such rites was also commissioned
from independent S
aiva Gurus acting outside this role.

2. STATE PROTECTION BY INDEPENDENT
S
AIVA OFFICIANTS
An inscription of the fth year of the reign of the Cola emperor
Rajadhiraja II (r. 116379 or 116682) tells us that when an army
from Sri Lanka had invaded the mainland, removed the door of the
Rames varam temple, obstructed the worship, and carried away all
5
See Sanderson, forthcoming, for textual sources requiring the royal chaplain to be an
Atharvavedin or expert in the apotropaic and other rites of the Atharvavedic tradition.
6
Sanderson, forthcoming.
233 S

the temples treasures, a certain Jnanas iva, whose name shows him to
have been a Saiddhantika S
aiva ociant, was engaged by the em-

peror to perform a ritual that would bring destruction on those
responsible for this desecration. According to the inscription the cere-
mony was continued for twenty-eight days and at its end the invad-
ing army was indeed defeated.
7
Another example of a ritual performed by a S
aiva ociant for

the good of the state is seen in a Sanskrit and Old Khmer inscrip-
tion of AD 1052 from Sdok Kak Thom. This reports that a certain
Hiran
yadama was commissioned by Jayavarman II (r. 802c. 835)

at the time of his founding of the unied kingdom of the Khmers
to perform a ritual of the Vamasaiva system that would guarantee
that unity and the kingdoms independence from Java:
8
man vrahman
a jmah
hiran
yadama praj na siddhi vidya mok amvi jana-

pada pi vrah
pada paramesvara a njen thve vidhi leha le n kam pi kamvu-

jadesa neh
ayatta ta java ley le n ac ti kamrate n phdai karom
mvay guh
ta ja cakravartti vrahman
a noh
thve vidhi toy vrah
vinasikha pratis
ha
kamrate n jagat ta raja vrahman
a noh
paryyan vrah
vinasikha nayottara
sam
moha sirascheda sva n man svat ta mukha cu n pi sarsir pi paryann

ste n a n sivakaivalya nu gi
K. 235, Old Khmer text, ll. 7174
Then a brahmin called Hiran
yadama, who was learned in the Mantras

that bestow Siddhi, came from Janapada. The Venerable Parames vara
[Jayavarman II] requested him to perform a ritual so that this land of
7
ARE 20 of 1899 at

Arppakkam, a village eight miles SSE of Kancpuram;
SII 4, no. 456; summary in Sastri (1984, p. 368). For a translation of the relevant
part see ARE 1899, paragraph 34.
8
Cde`s thought (1968, p. 100) that this Java was the island of Java. But the iden-
tication is uncertain. Vickery proposes that it was Champa (Skt. campa), the land of
the Chams to the east in Southern Vietnam, claiming that java/chvea/ has been used
in Khmer until modern times to designate the Cham (1998, p. 29; see also pp. 387
and 405). Champa and the Chams are frequently mentioned in the inscriptions but
never under this name, and in modern Khmer, according to the Cham scholar Phoen
(1987, p. 78), the term cited refers not to the Chams but to Malays descended from
Muslim immigrants from the Indonesian archipelago and the Malay peninsula in the
fourteenth and fteenth centuries. The Khmer expression cam jva [i.e. cham chvea]
refers, he reports, to the Muslim community in Cambodia in general as compris-
ing both Chams and these Malays. Guesdon (1930, s.v.) gives chvea in the mean-
ing Java and by extension the Malay peninsula (malaisie). It is therefore more
probable that the independence to which the inscription refers was from a king-
dom in maritime Southeast Asia, probably that of the S
ailendras of S
rvijaya cen-
tred in southeastern Sumatra.
the Kambujas would no longer be subject to Java and only one king
would rule over it with sovereign power. That brahmin performed the
ritual [for those ends] following the venerable Vinasikha
9
and es-
tablished the [image of the] Kamrate n Jagat ta Raja. The brahmin
[then] taught the Vinasikha, the Nayottara, the Sam
moha and the

S
irascheda. He recited them from beginning to end so that they could

be written down, and taught them to Ste n an S
ivakaivalya.
In none of these cases is it clear that the ociants engaged were
placing themselves beyond the domain of occasional rites for the
benet of others by becoming priests tied to the service of the king
or the state.
Much material in the S
aivas prescriptive literature is similarly

ambiguous. For example, the Uttarabhaga of the Li ngapuran
a, which
in spite of its claim to be a Puran
a, is in large part a thinly-disguised

Paddhati text of the S
aiva Mantramarga, teaches in addition to the

rituals of Saiddhantika Linga worship and installation (1) re-sacri-
ces in which oerings are made to the Aghora aspect of S
iva
(in fact to the principal Daks
in
asaiva deity Svacchandabhairava,

though this is not made explicit in the text) for the benet of the
king, to ward o danger from him and to restore his health,
10
and
9
This is evidently the published Vn
asikha, the only complete Vamas aiva

scripture to have reached us. The form Vin asikha in the Old Khmer text is con-
rmed by the Sanskrit (v. 28, cited below), where the metre requires the rst syl-
lable to be short. The error may be attributed to the passage of two and a half
centuries between the introduction of these texts and the inscription. There is no
reason to assume that the Sanskrit original continued to be studied alongside the
Paddhati based on it throughout this period.
10
See especially Li ngapuran
a, Uttarabh aga, chapters 1927 and 4654. As a text

seeking acceptance as a Puran
a and thereby as a work within the corpus of Veda-

derived revelation, it disguises its properly S
aiva character by jettisoning such

distinctively S
aiva doctrines as that of the thirty-six reality-levels (tattvani). It is, I

surmise, in the same spirit that it has avoided identifying its Aghora as Svaccha-
ndabhairava, the deity of the Svacchandatantra. That this is the true identity of the
deity is apparent in chapter 26, which is devoted to the worship of Aghora in the Li nga
or, less desirably, on a Sthan
ila, as an alternative to the regular Saiddhantika S
iva
worship in the Li nga taught, with the necessary dks
a and ritual of Li nga installa-

tion, in chapters 1925 and 4647. A royal re-sacrice to this deity is taught in 49
and a ritual for destroying the kings enemies in which the worshipper visualizes
himself as the same is taught in 50. The true name of the deity is not used, no doubt
because of its strongly non-Vedic associations, but his visualization (dhyanam) in
26.1521b reveals his identity since it is of the ve-faced and eighteen-armed Sva-
cchandabhairava taught in Svacchanda 2.81c97. All the hand-attributes are identi-
cal if, as I propose, we emend to mun
am
the inappropriate dan
am
seen in 26.19c of
the published text.
235 S

(2) an elaborate S
akta S
aiva procedure to guarantee that the king

will be victorious when he goes into battle.
11
All this is very much
within the purview of the purposes of the rituals of the brahmanical
royal chaplain, but nothing in the text tells us whether the ociant
envisaged is a person acting in that role or an independent Guru
condescending to act for the benet of the king in special circum-
stances, like Jnanasiva in the reign of Rajadhiraja II or Hiran
yadama
in that of Jayavarman II.
3. THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF STATE PROTECTION
In the last of these cases we have a record of a single ritual per-
formed for state-protection by a Guru who was not in the kings
service. But this instance also shows how such rituals could become
regularized by transference to priests who were in such service. For
the S
ivakaivalya to whom Hiran
yadama taught these four texts, the

principal scriptures of the Vama division of the S
aiva canon, was

Jayavarman IIs Rajapurohita.
12
The king had him appointed to
perform the regular worship of the image, the Kamrate n Jagat ta
Raja (Skt. Devaraja), that Hiran
yadama had established after this

ritual as the focus of a cult to protect the state; and it was agreed
that the duty and right to worship before this image should be
passed down through ascetics in S
ivakaivalyas matriline:
25 jayavarmmamahbhr
to mahendra-
vanibhr
nmurdhakr
taspadasya sasta
kavir aryavara ngavandita nghrih
sivakaivalya iti prattir ast

26 hiran
yadamadvijapu ngavo gryadhr

ivabjayonih
karun
ardra agatah
ananyalabdham
khalu siddhim adarat

praka say am asa mahbhr
tam
prati
11
The large number of S
akta goddesses worshipped in the one thousand vases

for the consecration for victory ( jayabhis
ekah
) taught in chapter 27 are drawn

from various parts of the Kaula Kubjikamata (14.7779, 8185, 87, 91; 15.67, 20,
22, 27, 30, 48; 9.3c4, 5, 6; 10.120c123, 124c127; 21.1620b; 22.16A, 19, 1025
end; 2.59; 14.75, 7779, 81, 8485, 87, 91, etc.). But the procedure also includes
Saiddhantika, Daks
in
a and Vaidika elements.

12
The Sanskrit part of the inscription refers to S
ivakaivalya as the Guru and

Hotar of Jayavarman II (v. 25: jayavarmmamahbhr
to . . . s ast a=kavir . . .
sivakaivalya iti; v. 27bc: asmai/hotre). The Khmer refers to him as the Guru and
Purohita of the king (C ll. 6162: ste n a n sivakaivalya ta
a
ji praj na ja guru ja
purohita ta vrah
pada paramesvara).
27 sa bhudharen
anumato grajanma
sasadhanam
siddhim adiks
ad asmai
hotre hitaikantamanah
prasattim
sam
bibhrate dhamavibr
hanaya
28 sastram
siraschedavinasikhakhyam
sam
mohanamapi nayottarakhyam
tat tumvuror vaktracatus
kam asya
siddhyeva vipras samadarsayat sah
29 dvijas samuddhr
tya sa sastrasaram
rahasyakausalyadhiya sayatnah
siddhr vvahanth
kila devaraja-
bhikhyam
vidadhre bhuvanarddhivr
ddhyai
30 sa bhudharendras sahavipravaryyas
tasmin vidhau dhamanidhanahetau
vtantarayam
bhuvanodayaya
niyojayam asa munsvaran tam
31 tanmatr
vam
se yatayas striyo va
jata + + + tra niyuktabhavah
tadyajakas syur na katha ncid anya

iti ks
itndradvijakalpanast
. . .
61 samadhikadhis
an
as te surivaryyas tada tair

dharan
ipatibhir abhyarn
arhan
abhyarhan
yah
nagaranihitasam
stha devar ajasya nanye

sayamaniyamayatnah
pratyaha n cakrur arccam

K. 235, 2531, 61
King Jayavarman, who had made his residence on the summit of Mount
Mahendra,
13
had as his Guru a poet called S
ivakaivalya, whose feet had

been honoured by [contact with] the heads of [prostrating]

Aryas. Hir-
an
yadama, an excellent brahmin, like Brahma himself in his great wis-

dom, being moved by compassion came and with due respect revealed
to the king a Siddhi which no other had attained. To increase [the
kings] splendour this brahmin, with the kings permission, taught the
Siddhi and the means of achieving it to that oerer of the [kings] sacri-
ces, [knowing that he was one] whose tranquil mind was devoted
entirely to [his monarchs] welfare. The Brahman revealed to him as
though by means of [this] Siddhi the four faces of Tumburu that are the
[Vama scriptures] S
irascheda, Vinasikha, Sam
moha and Nayottara, and

in order to increase the prosperity of the realm he carefully extracted the
essence of [those] texts through his mastery of the esoteric [teachings]
and [with it] established the Siddhis that bear the name Devaraja. Then
the king with [the support of ] this excellent Brahman appointed [S
iva-
kaivalya,] this lord among sages, to ociate in this ritual that is the
cause of the treasure of power, in order that the realm should prosper
without impediments. The king and the foremost of brahmins provided
13
Phnom Kulen.
237 S

that ascetics or women born in the latters maternal lineage, and no oth-
ers under any circumstances, should be appointed to this . . . and per-
form its worship.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Excellent scholars of the highest intelligence, settled by these kings in
the capital because they wished to have them nearby to venerate them
as they deserved, they and they alone, performed the daily service of
the Devaraja, zealously maintaining the major and minor restraints
[of the ascetics discipline].
We see similar cases of regularization of rites of royal protection in
our evidence for the Buddhist Way of Mantras. The Rgya gar chos
byu n, the Tibetan history of Indian Buddhism completed by Taranatha
in AD 1608, reports that in order to protect his dynasty, expand its rule,
and spread the Buddhist religion the Pala king Dharmapala (r. c. 775
812) had a re-sacrice performed regularly for many years by Tan-
tric ociants under the direction of his Guru Buddhajnanapada at
an overall cost of 902,000 tolas of silver.
14
An inscription of the reign of Jayavarman V (r. c. 968c. 1000/1)
reveals a similar arrangement in the Khmer court of Angkor. It tells
us that one Krtipan
ita, a Mahayanist scholar and adept of the

Buddhist Yogatantras, who had been adopted by the royal family as
their Guru, was frequently engaged by the king to perform apotro-
paic, restorative and aggressive Mantra rituals within the royal pal-
ace for the protection of his kingdom.
15
4. S
AIVA OFFICIANTS IN THE ROLE OF THE

R
AJAPUROHITA
Even in the case of the hereditary Khmer priests of the Kamraten
Jagat ta Raja there is no reason to think that they were Rajapuro-
hitas in the narrow sense of the term, that is to say, personal chap-
lains performing the whole repertoire of ritual duties, namely
14
For these reports see Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya (1970, pp. 274, 278279).
At present one tola (Skt. tul a) is approx. 11.7 grammes. By that standard the
expense said to have been incurred would have been that of 10,553.4 kg. of silver.
15
K. 111, 36: r as
raman
alaraks
artham
satkr
tyayu nkta yan nr
pah
/*mandirabhyan-
tare (corr.: man
irabhyantare Ep.) bhks
am
santipus
yadikarmmasu In order to pro-

tect his realm the king bestowed honours on him and frequently engaged him within
the palace to perform rituals for the quelling of dangers, the restoration of health
and the rest. The rest I presume to be abhicarah
, that is to say rituals for the harming

of enemies. For evidence that Krtipan
ita was an adept of the Yogatantras see

Sanderson, 2005, p. 427, n. 284.
(1) rituals to ward o dangers and ills of every kind from the king
and his kingdom (santikam
karma), some of them simple rites to

protect the kings person to be performed at various times every
day, others much more elaborate ceremonies to be performed peri-
odically, (2) rituals to restore his health and vigour ( paus
ikam
karma), (3) rituals to harm his enemies (abhicarikam
karma), (4) the

regular and occasional rituals (nityam
karma and naimittikam
karma)
required of the king,
16
(5) reparatory rites ( praya scittyam
karma),
and (6) postmortuary rites (aurdhvadehikam
karma) when the king or

any other member of the royal family dies.
17
4.1 The Netratantra
For unambiguous evidence of S
aiva Gurus tied to the service of

kings in that sense we are forced to turn from inscriptions recording
events to a scriptural text regulating practice. This is the S
aiva
Netratantra, a work of approximately 1,300 stanzas that sets out rit-
ual observances based on the propitiation of the deity Amr
tesvara
(/Amr
tes a), also known as Amr
tes abhairava, and/or his consort

Amr
talaks
m.
18
It has come down to us in Kashmirian manuscripts with a learned
commentary written from the non-dualistic S
aiva point of view by

the Kashmirian Ks
emaraja in the early part of the eleventh century

and it was published therewith on the basis of two of these manu-
scripts in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies in 1926 and 1939.
19
16
The daily, periodic and occasional religious duties of the king and his per-
sonal chaplain are set out in the Atharvavedaparis
a. See also Vis
udharmottara 2,
Adhyayas 5, 1823, 132144, 151162, 176177 (see n. 68 below for a listing of
the rituals covered); Nlamata 810848;

Adipuran
a-Tithikr
tya ll. 26183010;

Br
hatsam
hita, Adhyayas 42 (Indra festival) and 43 (Nrajanasanti).

17
For this classication see Atharvavedaparisis
a 3.1.10: yasyanyakulopayuktah
purodhah
santikapaus
ikaprayascittyabhicarikanaimittikaurdhvadehikany atharvavi-
hit ani karman
i kuryat.
18
Amr
tes vara is also known as Mr
tyunjaya/Mr
tyujit and as Netranatha. The Ais a

form Amr
ts a (Amr
ts a) is also attested. The name Amr
talaks
m is found not in the

Netra itself, where she is simply S
r/Laks
m, but in the ritual manuals based on that

text. Amr
tes vara and Amr
talaks
m may be worshipped independently or as a pair.

19
Hitherto the only substantial scholarly attention paid to this work as a whole
has been an account of its contents published by Brunner (1974). While generally
accurate that is a summary rather than an analysis and it is one that does not rec-
ognize what I identify as the distinctive and pervasive character of this text,
namely that it envisages atypical S
aiva ociants operating outside their traditional

territory in that of the kings chaplain.
239 S

Its high standing in Kashmir is indicated by the composition and
preservation of this commentary, by the fact that the cult of its dei-
ties, taught only in the Netratantra, is one of the two principal bases
of the S
aivism of the Kashmirian ritual manuals in use until recent

times,
20
by the survival of three previously unidentied images of
Amr
tesvara and his consort Amr
talaks
m in the small corpus of

known non-Buddhist Kashmirian bronzes,
21
and by the fact that a
20
The other is that of Svacchandabhairava taught in the Svacchandatantra. In the
Kashmirian S
aiva manuals of ritual the principal deities (mantracakram) are gener-

ally Svacchandabhairava (Sakalabhat
araka [=Aghora] and Nis
kalabhat
araka)
with Aghores var and Amr
tes varabhairava with Amr
talaks
m at the centre of
the Yaga surrounded by the Bhairavas of the Svacchandatantra. See, e.g.,
Kaladks
avidhi . 25v830v8; Agnikaryapaddhati A f. 16r; and S
ivanirvan
avidhi pp.
257, l.12263, l. 11. The Kashmirian digest Nityadisam
grahapaddhati, compiled by
Rajanaka Taks
akavarta at an unknown time after the completion of the Somasam-

bhupaddhati in AD 1095/6, that being the latest of the datable works cited by him,
distinguishes among the S
aiva initiates he is addressing between followers of the

Siddhanta, followers of the Netratantra, and followers of the Svacchandatantra.
21
Two have been reproduced in Pal, 1975, plates 6 and 7. He assigns the rst
toKashmir or Afghanistan and the tenth to eleventh century and the second to
Kashmir or Himachal Pradesh (?) and the tenth century. The rst has also been
published by Reedy, who assigns it to Kashmir and the same period (1997, K85).
A third found its way to a Buddhist temple in Ladakh and has been reproduced
in Snellgrove and Skorupski, 1977, vol. 2, p. 77, Fig. 66. These scholars were not
aware of the identity of the image. Nonetheless, Pal, followed by Reedy, asserts
that it is Uma-Mahes vara, and Snellgrove and Skorupski that it is Vis
u with
Laks
m.
According to the visualization-texts (dhy anam) of these deities (Netra 3.17-23b;
18.6369), to which these three bronzes conform precisely, Amr
tes vara is crowned,

white, one-faced, three-eyed, and four-armed, sitting on a white lotus at the centre
of a lunar disc. In the proper right of his two inner hands he holds a vase of nec-
tar at his heart and a full moon held at head height in the left, the upper arm hor-
izontal and the forearm vertical. The outer right and left hands show the gestures
of generosity and protection. The latter is invisible behind Amr
talaks
ms back in
the bronzes. Amr
talaks
m has the same appearance except that she carries the dis-
cus and the conch rather than the vase and moon in her inner right and left hands.
Her gesture of protection is visible in the bronzes. She sits in Amr
tes varas lap, on

his left thigh, and, in the bronzes is considerably smaller than her consort.
Among the other known non-Buddhist bronzes from Kashmir I am aware of
only two others that belong to the domain of the S
aiva Mantramarga. Both are

images of the Kalkulas goddess Siddhalaks
m, identied in Sanderson (1990). No

bronze of the Siddhantas Sadas iva or the Daks
in
as Svacchanda has come to

light, though there are some modern paintings of the latter. The remaining non-
Buddhist bronzes are Pancaratrika images of Vis
u and images of S
iva and other

gods proper to the domain of regular brahmanical observance.
visualization verse for these deities recited in the S
aiva rituals
22
was
given pride of place in the non-S
aiva re-sacrice of the Kashmirian

brahmins, being recited before pouring the oblations that accompany
the recitation of the S
atarudriya of the Kat
haka Yajurveda, the rst in

a series of ve Vedic hymns to Rudra (the rudrapa ncakam).
23
The Netratantra was not limited in its distribution and inuence
to Kashmir. We have a Nepalese manuscript of the text from the
beginning of the thirteenth century;
24
we have manuscripts in the
same region of two texts, one of the early thirteenth century and
the other probably so, that set out the procedures of its initiation cer-
emony and of the regular postinitiatory worship of its deities; and
the inclusion of their worship in larger ritual contexts in the anony-
mous manuals in Newari and Sanskrit used by the Tantric ociants
of the Kathmandu valley shows that the cult became and remained
an integral part of Newar S
aivism. Thus in the autumnal Navaratra

ceremonies Amr
tes abhairava and his retinue are the deities of the

vase-worship (kalasapuja) at the beginning of the installation of the
royal sword (khad
gasthapanavidhih
) on the eighth day (mahas
am ).
25
The Nepalese texts that set out the procedures for initiation and
subsequent regular worship reveal that the cult was practised in the
royal family. The text on initiation, the Amr
te svarad ks
avidhi, envis-
ages no initiand but the king, since when it turns to the duties of
the initiand on the day after the ceremony it requires him to return
to the Guru in a full military parade accompanied by his minis-
22
See, e.g., S
ivanirvan
avidhi p. 261: devam
sudh akalasasomakaram
trinetram
pa-
dm asanam
ca varad abhayadam
susubhram/sa nkhabhay abjavarabh us
itaya ca devya va-

me nkitam
samanabha ngaharam
nam ami I prostrate myself to the god who frees

us from the torture of death, three-eyed, perfectly white, holding a vase of nectar
and the moon, [showing the gestures of ] bestowing boons and protection, seated
on a lotus, marked on his left by the goddess adorned with a conch, [the gesture
of ] protection, a lotus and [the gesture of ] bestowing boons.
23
See Vedakalpadruma pp. 1516.
24
NAK MS 1-285: Amr
tesatantram. In the colophons of this manuscript the

work is referred to as the Mr
tyujidamr
tsavidh ana. In Kashmirian sources it is also

known as the Mr
tyu njaya or Mr
tyujit, often with the honoric -bhat
araka; see,
e.g., Ks
emaraja, S
ivas utravimarsin ad 1.1, 1.13, 1.19, 3.16, etc. In citations of the

Netra below this manuscript will be referred to as N and the Kashmirian edition
as Ed. For the date of the manuscript see n. 28 below.
25
Navar atrap uj a f. 2r4v8.
241 S

ters.
26
Its author, Visvesvara,
27
may well be the person of that name
reported by the scribe of our Nepalese manuscript of the Netratantra
as having commissioned the copying, which was completed in Febru-
ary/March of AD 1220.
28
If so, then Visvesvara may have produced his
treatise in the context of initiation given to the Nepalese kings Arimalla
(b. 1153, r. 1200/011216) and/or his son Abhayamalla (b. 1183, r.
12161255).
29
Be that as it may, it is certain that the latter received this
initiation, since it was he who, at some time before his accession, com-
posed our Nepalese ritual manual on the regular postiniatory worship.
30
The fact that evidence of the text and its traditions is known from
Kashmir and Nepal does not, of course, reveal its provenance; and
in general one would not expect to be able to determine that from
the text itself, since such works tend to lack the references to locat-
able realities that allow us to draw conclusions of this kind. The
Netratantra, however, is exceptional in this respect. I propose that it
contains evidence sucient to justify the conclusion that it was
26
For this reference to the newly initiated kings procession in full military
parade see Sanderson, forthcoming.
27
Amr
tesvaradks
avidhi f. 19r1: bhairavasy amr
tsasya dks
at
ippan
akam
sphut
am/
visvesvaren
a racitam
sajjanas carcayantv idam.

28
Amr
tesatantra f. 89v45: sam aptam idam
mr
tyujidamr
tsavidh anam
sam
purn
am
iti subham: sam
vat 320 caitra sudi 9 sanidine ++ visvesvaralikhapitam idam
pusta-
kam
: pam
itakrttidharalikhitam
may a. That this text is Nepalese is not certain, but

it is probable. The account of initiation is supplemented by a passage on the S
akta
vedhadks
a incorporated from the Kubjik amata, a text of central importance in the

S
akta-S
aiva tradition of the Newars (f. 16r11v1110.8392b, 94, 9698 and 100107).
29
For these dates see Petech (1958, pp. 76 and 82).
30
See Amr
tesvarap uj a f. 7v23: srdev abhayamallena sad ac aryopadesin a=srmr
tyu-
njayadevasya nityap uj avidhih
kr
tah.
ity amr
tesvarap ujanam
sam aptam (see also Petech,

1958, p. 89, citing its palm-leaf exemplar NAK MS 11365.5); Amr
tesvarap uj a f. 1v56
(v. 2): py us
asindhulaharsatasiktapadmamadhye sphurattuhinarasmimarcisubhram=
natva mahesam amalam
kamal asah ayam abhyarcanam
vitanute bhayamalladevah
.
NAK MS 11365.5 was copied on June 8, 1216 just before the end of the reign of Abha-
yamallas father Arimalla (Petech, 1958, p. 84). Other relevant Nepalese manu-
scripts are Amr
tesvarap uj agnik aryavidh ana, Amr
tas uryap uj avidhi with drawings of the

deities, P uj ak an
a, which contains inter alia an Amr
tabhairav arcanavidhi penned in

AD 1277/8, an Amr
tsabhairavabhat
arak ahnikavidhi, and an Amr
tas ury arcanavidhi.

Amr
tas urya is Amr
tes vara in the form of the Sun God, the worship of this ectype
being prescribed before that of the deity proper, as was standard procedure in the
Siddhanta, whose Paddhatis prescribe a cult of S
ivas urya before that of S
iva. There
is no such preliminary in the Netra itself. The icon of Amr
tas urya created for this pur-

pose was the three-faced, eight-armed variant of the Sun God holding the weapons of
the eight Lokapalas taught (13.21c25b) in the section of that text devoted to the ico-
nography of various non-S
aiva deities, one of three forms of that God taught there.

indeed produced in one of the two places in which we see evidence
of its presence, namely Kashmir, and that it was composed there be-
tween c. 700 and c. 850, probably towards the end of that period.
31
With the exception of an insertion of 95 verses seen in the Nepalese
manuscript
32
the only major dierence between the transmissions of the
Netratantra in that and the Kashmirian manuscripts is that the deviations
from strictly grammatical Sanskrit that abound in the early S
aiva scrip-
tures are much fewer in the latter, most of whose divergent readings are
best explained as the result of rephrasing to remove such anomalies. In the
citations that follow I have therefore privileged the readings of the Nepa-
lese manuscript (N) as evidence of an earlier state of the Kashmirian text.
33
31
My reasons for proposing this provenance and date are set out in the Appendix.
32
This insertion (. 47r153r2) is placed after 18.3 of the published edition. The
Nepalese manuscript treats this as the remainder of the 18th chapter (18.499). It
then gives the whole of the editions chapter 18, so repeating 18.13, as its chapter
19, and so on to the end, so that it has 23 chapters rather than the editions 22. The
subject-matter of the additional verses is hostile visualization rituals and re-sacrices
in which the deity takes the form of Mahabhairava. It has drawn on the Svacchanda:
18.62c68b9.6267; 18.6971a9.7173a; 18.72ab9.76ab; 18.73786.72c78b;
18.7985a6.85c91c; 18.85b876.9294; and 19.9295a6.68c71c.
33
Particularly notable among the Ais a usages accepted in my edition of the pas-
sages cited below is the use of genitives, instrumentals, locatives and ablatives/datives
plural side by side in a single construction without dierence of meaning: e.g. pis acais
c apy anekasah
=brahmaraks
agrah adibhyah
kot
iso yadi mudritah
2.14bcd; nr
p an
am
nr
papatnn am
tatsut an am
dvij adis
u 15.20cd; nr
patau tatsut an am
18.112ab; duh
sva-
pnair m atars
u ca 19.98d; gos
u br ahman
araks
artham atmanah
svajanes
u ca 19.104ab;
s aly adis
u ca sasyes
u phalam ulodakena ca=durbhiks
avy adhik aryes
u utp atais c apy

anuttamaih
19.108. This licence surely reects the development of the case endings in
Middle Indo-Aryan as witnessed in the Apabhram
s a stage, in which the locative and

instrumental plural have merged, as have the dative, genitive and ablative plural (Ta-
gare 1987, pp. 141150). Other typical features of the MIA-inuenced register of San-
skrit seen here are the extended stems of m atrbhir 2.13c, m atars
u 19.98d, d
avy a 2.13d,
bh ubhr
t an am
12.7d, aris
acihnit atm ano (nom. sg.; conj.; cf. Picumata f. 238v [52.15a]:
s adhakas tu mah atm ano) 19.107a, and pasaves
u (conj.; cf. Picumata f. 224r [46.34b]:

pasav an am
) 19.120c; the contracted stems of sreyam in 19.105a and digv asam in

13.10c; -eta for -ayeta in the optative in abhimantreta 19.90c, 19.117d, and 19.119a;
the dispensability of nal t=d revealed in ks
ipe nale (18.118b) for ks
iped anale; the loss

of declension in the numerals (catuh
for catv arah
in 18.121a); the neuter plural siddhni

in 18.79c and 19.115c; so for sa in 16.113c; the non-causative base in the pseudo-causa-
tive abhis
incayet in 19.109d; and yeta for -ayeta in p ujyeta in 19.104c. Untypical is the
use of pratis
h apyah
in an active sense governing an object in the accusative in the

phrase pratis
h apyah
. . . guruh
. . . bhs
an
am
r upam the Guru should install the fright-

ening [Bhairava] form in 18.119120. For the termAis a (uttered by God) in this con-
text see the references in Sanderson, 2002, n. 27. For the readers convenience I have
retained the chapter and verse numbers of the published edition (Ed.).
243 S

4.2 The Netratantras S
aiva Ociant
Now the S
aiva ociant in our Netratantra has very much the charac-

ter of a personal chaplain to the king. He is presented as the per-
former of rites for the protection and prosperity of all members of
society, but this wider constituency is generally mentioned only after
the text has specied the king, his wives and their children, who are
the principal intended beneciaries and in many cases the only ones.
After various preliminaries the text introduces its subject as follows:
2.13 bh utayaks
agrahonmadasakinyogingan
aih
bhaginrudramatrbhir d
avyad
amarikadibhih
14 r upikabhir apasmaraih
pisacais capy anekasah
brahmaraks
agrahadibhyah
kot
iso yadi mudritah
15 apamr
tyubhir akrantah
kalapasair jigham
sitah
rajano rajatanaya rajapatnyo hy anekasah
16 vipradipran
in
ah
sarve sarvados
abhayarditah
yena vai smr
tamatren
a mucyante tad bravmi te

13c matrbhir corr. : matrbhi N : matradi Ed. : 13d d
avyad
amarikadibhih
N : d
avd
amarikadibhih
Ed. 14b anekasah
Ed. : anekasaih
N 14c
raks
agrahadibhyah
N : raks
ograhadyais ca Ed. 15b jigham
sitah
Ed. :
jigh am
sata N
I shall tell you that [Mantra] by whose mere remembrance [the Guru]
can free kings, their wives and children, and [indeed] all creatures begin-
ning with learned brahmins, if they have been dominated by any of the
countless hordes of [possessing spirits:] Bh utas, Yaks
as, Unmadas, S
a-
kins, Yogins, Bhagins, Rudramatars, D
avs, D
amars, Rupikas, Ap-

asmaras, Pisacas, Brahmaraks
as, Grahas and the like, if they have been

attacked by Apamr
tyus, if they are in danger of falling victim to the

snares of Death, or are suering from the danger of any ill.
From this point until the end of the sixth of the works twenty-two
chapters we are told the Mantra, its worship, the ceremony of initia-
tion to that worship and then a number of procedures for its applica-
tion. The benets specied are the restoring of physical vitality
(pus
ih
) (3.77), longevity ( purn
am ayuh
) (3.78), wealth (srh
) (3.78),
rule (rajyam) (3.79), good health (3.79), rescuing the dying from
death (mr
tyuttaran
am) (6.911b), the warding o of all ills

(mahasantih
) (6.11c13b) and the banishing of fevers ( jvaranasah
)
(6.15cd). The last half of the sixth chapter sets out a procedure for
the protection of the king (rajaraks
avidhanam). A Yantra, that is to

say a diagram on birch bark inscribed with the Mantra and the name
of the beneciary, is worshipped; a re-sacrice is performed; and
the king is consecrated from a vase into which the Mantra has been
infused. The ceremony is to destroy the pride of his enemies when he
goes into battle, to free him from all illnesses, and to bestow on him
the highest sovereignty.
34
Chapters 7 and 8 outline subtler, meditational practices, but the
context is unchanged, as it is in chapters 9 to 14, which teach that
the Mantra is absolutely universal in its range and can therefore be
used in conjunction with any deity and its retinue, not merely with
Amr
tesvara as visualized in the cult proper. So we are given the

appropriate substitute deity-visualizations for the four main divi-
sions of the S
aiva Mantramarga, namely the Siddhanta, the Vama,

the Daks
in
a and the Kaula, and then, beyond S
aivism, for the cults

of Vis
u, the Sun, S
iva in the lay context, Brahma, the Buddha,

Skanda, Kama, the Moon, Gan
esa, the Lokapalas, and all other

deities. The context, though mostly only implicit in this long sec-
tion, surfaces in the chapter on the Kaula modication. There we
are told that the eight Mothers (who form the circuit of Amr
tesvara
in this case) must be worshipped with abundant oerings to bring
about the warding o of ills (santih
), but with exceptional lavish-

ness when the beneciary is the king, because it is by their favour
that he will enjoy untroubled rule:
12.6 pa nktistha va yajed devh
sarvabhs
aphalapradah
sarves
am
caiva santyartham
pran
inam
bhutim icchata
7 bhuriyagena yas
avya yathakamanurupatah
vi ses
en
a tu yas
avya bhubhr
tan am
tu daisikaih
8 asam eva prasadena rajyam
nihatakan
akam
bhu njate sarvarajanah
subhaga hy avantale
6c sarves
am
caiva N : sarves
am eva Ed. 7b yathakamanurupatah
Ed. :
yathakarmanurupatah
N 7c vises
en
a tu N : vises
ad devi Ed. 7d bhu-

bhr
tanam
tu N : bhubhr
t am api Ed.
Alternatively [the ociant] should worship these goddesses that
bestow all the benets one desires in a row [rather than a circle], in
order to bring about the warding o of ills from all, desiring the pros-
perity of [all] creatures. O Goddess, ociants should make lavish
34
Netra 6.35c50, beginning r ajaraks
avidh anam
tu *bh ubhr
tanam
(conj. [cf. 12.7d

below]: bh ubhr
t ama N: bh ubhr
t am
tu Ed.) prakasayet=sam
gramakale varadam
ri-
pudarp apaham
bhavet; 6.40: sarvama ngalaghos
na sirasi hy abhis
ecayet=sa mucyeta
na *sam
deho (N [Ais a sandhi] : sam
dehah
Ed.) sarvavyadhiprapd
itah
; 6.46d:
*bh ubhr
to (N : bh ubhr
t am
Ed.) r ajyam uttamam.

245 S

oerings to them in accordance with the benet desired, but especially
on behalf of kings. [For] if a kingdom is free of enemies and fortunate
kings enjoy [their sovereignty] on earth, it is by their favour.
35
In the 15th chapter the text returns to the detail of protecting the royal
household (rajaraks
a), and this theme continues in the chapters that

follow. The Yantra taught in the 17th will bestow victory on kings
who are under attack from beyond their borders and should be used at
all times to protect the kings wives, his sons, brahmins and others.
36
Chapter 18 teaches the procedures for the worship of S
r
(Amr
talaks
m) without her consort. We are told:

sam
gramakale dhyatavya khad
gapatralatasthita
18.86 jayam
prayacchateva syam
ripudarpapaha bhavet
sam
gramagre sad a yajy a parar as
rajigs
un
a
87 ava syam
jayam apnoti devadevyah
prasadatah
86a prayacchate va syam
N : prayacchate tasya Ed. 86d pararas
raji-
gs
un
a Ed. : ripudarpapaha bhavet N (dittography of 86b)

The Supreme Goddess should be visualized on the blade of the [kings]
sword at the time of battle. She bestows certain victory, crushing the
pride of his enemies. A king who desires to conquer another kingdom
should always sponsor her worship before the battle. By her favour he
is bound to win.
37
The long 19th chapter details procedures for countering possession
by various classes of being. Here the Gurus role is portrayed almost
exclusively as that of priest to the royal family. He is told that he
may use his knowledge to help his own family and pupils but other-
wise he is to do these rites only for the king, his queens and their
children. And there is a further restriction that emphasizes his tie to
35
According to Kalhan
a Circles of the Mothers (matr
cakran
i) were set-up at the

passes leading into the kingdom of Kashmir, no doubt as the guardians of the realm.
Rajataran gin
1.122: dvaradis
u pradeses
u prabh avogr an
y udagraya=s anadevya
tatpatny a m atr
cakr a ni cakrire
Isanadev, the wife of this [Jalauka, son of As oka],

set-up Circles of the Mothers, terrible in their power, at the passes and other places.
36
17.5c7: sarvasantipradam
cakram
pus
isaubhagyadayakam=ayurvryapradam
*pun
yam
(N : caiva Ed.) jvararogavinasanam=pararas
ravibhtanam
nr
pan
am
vija-
yavaham=rajastrn
am
*sutanam
ca (N : tatsutanam
Ed.) vipradnam
ca sarvasah
=
raks
a hy es
a prakartavya sarvopadrava*nasan (N : nasin Ed.)

37
A ritual for the empowering of the sword with the Mantra of Kal before the
king goes into battle is part of the repertoire of the Paippalada Atharvavedin
Rajapurohitas of Orissa seen in the Paippaladavasadis
at
karmapaddhati, pp. 7172

(

A ngirase Kalikamantravidhanam).
them: he may exorcise his own family and pupils only if they are
devout, whereas he is obliged to exorcise the royal family regardless
of their personal qualities, for the king, we are told, is the head of
all the religious orders of life (sarva sramagurutvat).
38
The chapter continues with services of protection that the oci-
ant is to render to the king during the course of each day:
mukhe praks
alite nityam
tilakam
svetacandanam
19.89 saptabhimantritam
karyam
dos
anivr
ttaye tada
snanakale tatha karyam
tilakam
svetabhasmana
samalabhanapus
pam
va tambulam
vabhimantritam
90 dyate yasya tasyaiva na him
santha him
sakah
88d tilakam
svetacandanam
N : tilakah
svetabhasmana Ed. 89a sapta-

bhimantritam
k aryam
N : saptabhimantritah
karyo Ed. 89b dos
anivr
-
ttaye tada N : matr
dos
anivr
ttaye Ed. 89cd This line is in N only.

39
89e samalabhana N : samalambhana Ed. 89f tambulam
vabhimantritam
N : tambulenabhimantritam Ed. 90a tasyaiva Ed. : tasyeha N
Whenever the [kings] face has been washed [the ociant] should give
[him] a forehead mark of white sandal paste that has been empowered
by reciting [the Mantra of Amr
tes vara] over it seven times, in order to

prevent assaults [by the Mothers
40
] at that time. He should also give
[him] a forehead mark of white ash at the time of bathing. Harmful
[spirits] will not attack [that king] to whom he gives betel or a ower
with fragrant powder.
38
19.86 bhaktanam
svasutanam
ca svadaran
am
*tu (N : ca Ed.) karayet=svasi-

s
ya nam
*tu (N : ca Ed.) bhaktanam
nanyatha tu prayojayet/87 sarvasramagurutvac

ca bhupatnam
ca sarvada=tatsutanam
ca patnnam
*kartavyam
tu hitarthina (N : ka-
rtavyo hitam icchata Ed.) He may do it for his sons, wife and his pupils only if they
are devoted [to S
iva]. Otherwise he must not employ [this procedure]. [But] if he

desires the welfare [of all] he must always do it for kings, for the king is the head
of all the orders, and likewise for the kings sons and wives. For this reference to
the king as the patron (-guruh
) of the orders (asrama-), of the caste-classes (varn
a-)
and of both (varn
asrama-) cf. Kathasaritsagara 12.6.85 (varn
asramaguruh
) and the
sources cited in Sanderson, forthcoming, especially Brahmasambhus Paddhati
Naimittikakarmanusam
dhana, in which it is said that the purpose of the S
aiva modi-
cation of the royal consecration following the S
aiva initiation of the king is to quali-

fy him to hold oce as the patron of the caste-classes and orders (f. 74v1 [4.118]:
varn
anam asraman
an ca gurubhavaya bhupateh
=yo bhis
ekavidhih
sopi procyate
dks
itatmanah
).
39
N shows that the text seen in the edition has been corrupted by an eyeskip
from the sveta of svetacandanam in 88b to the sveta of svetabhasmana in 89d. That
19.89 has three lines here is simply because I have kept the numeration of the edi-
tion for the readers convenience.
40
That the assaults prevented are those of the Mothers is conveyed by the read-
ing m atr
dos
anivr
ttaye of the Kashmirian edition.

247 S

He must infuse the Mantra of Amr
tesvara into the kings food be-

fore he eats and protect him with a visualization:
bhojanam
cabhimantreta mantren
anena mantravit
19.91 ubhayoh
candrayor madhye bhunjano mr
tam asnute
sarvavyadhivinirmuktas tis
hate nr
patih
ks
itau
90c cabhimantreta Ed. : cabhimantryaiva N 91a candrayoh
N : parsva-
yoh
Ed.
41
The Master of Mantras should empower [the kings] food by reciting
this Mantra upon it. If the king eats between two [visualized] moon
discs he consumes the nectar of immortality
42
and lives [long] on
earth, free of all disease.
He is also to use his art to protect the kings person before he
begins his daily training in the arts of war:
43
19.92 atha krd
anakales
u gajasvasahites
u ca
astrakrd
asu sarvasu raks
artham
kalasam
yajet
93 krd
artham
vijayartham
ca raks
artham
him
sakadis
u
yasmad dus
as ca bahavo jigham
santi nr
pes
u ca
92b gajasvasahites
u em. : gajasvamahis
es
u N : gajasvasahitasya Ed.
93a ca Ed. : tu N 93d nr
pes
u ca N : nr
padikam Ed.
41
Ns reading candrayoh
has more attack. It is also supported by Ks
emaraja ad
loc.: anena mantren
a proktadr
sa sam
put
k arayukty a dhy ato bhimantritas candrad-

vayamadhyasthitam
bhojanam
bhunj ano mr
tam asnute mr
tatvam eti nr
patih
If the
king is empowered with this Mantra while visualized enclosed by it on either side in
the manner already taught and eats [his] food between two moons [likewise visual-
ized on either side of it] he obtains ambrosia, i.e. becomes immortal.
42
Literally he obtains ambrosia. The point of the visualization is that the
moon is the embodiment of nectar (amr
tam), as is Amr
tes vara, who is visualized

at the centre of a lunar disc, holding in two of his hands a vase of nectar and a
lunar disc. See n. 21 above.
43
Such activities are prescribed as part of a kings daily routine, after he has at-
tended to aairs of state, heard petitions and the like, in Vis
udharmottara 2.151.31
32b: mantram
kr
tv a tatah
kury ad vy ay amam
pr
thivpatih
=rathe nage tathaiv asve

khad
ge dhanus
i c apy atha=anyes
u caiva sastres
u niyuddhes
u tatah
param When the

king has dealt with aairs of state he should exercise, by riding a chariot, an elephant
and a horse, then in training bouts with sword, bow and other weapons. Cf. 2.65.3d
4b concerning the training of the crown prince: dhanurvedam
ca siks
ayet=rathe sve;
ku njare caiva vyay amam
k arayet sad a [The king] should teach him the art of archery
and make him regularly exert himself in riding his chariot, his horse and his elephant.
Moreover, whenever [the king] engages in sport with elephants and
horses
44
or takes part in contests with weapons [his ociant] should
perform the vase-worship [of Amr
tes vara] in order to protect [him.

Indeed he should do so whether the king is riding and ghting] for
recreation or for victory [in battle], in order to guard him against the
harmful ones. For many are the evil [spirits] that seek to harm kings.
And he is to perform a ritual for protection in the kings sleeping
quarters when he retires for the night:
tatah
suptasya nr
pater nidrakalasam arcayet

19.95 raupyam aus
adhisam
yuktam
candanagurucarcitam
ks
ren
odakapurn
am
va yajen mr
tyujitam
param
96 sarvasvetopacaren
a pus
padhuparghapayasaih
agre sthita mahanidra jagatsam
mohakarin
97 sukhartham
nr
pate ratrau jrn
artham
bhojanadike
arabdha devadevena ajna datteti bhavayet
98 tato ratrim
samagram
tu tis
hate nidraya saha

yaks
araks
ah
pisacadyair duh
svapnair matars
u ca
99 bhayaih
sam
trasaduh
khais tu muktas tis
hed yathasukham
lokapales
u sastres
u raks
artham
nr
pasam
nidhau
100 pujanam
carghapus
padyaih
kalase pujite sati

yasyaivam
satatam
kuryaj jnanavan daisikottamah
101 purvoktam
sarvam apnoti praheti bhagavan sivah
94cd nr
pater nidrakalasam arcayet N : nr
pate raks
artham
kalasam
yajet
Ed. 95a raupyam aus
adhi N : raupyam
caus
adhi Ed. 95b carcitam N :

lepitam Ed. 95c ks
ren
odakapurn
am
va conj. : ks
ras codakapurn
am
va
N : ks
ren
a cambhasa purn
am
Ed. 96c agre Ed. : gram
the N 97d
aj na datteti N : aj nam
dattveti Ed. 98b tis
hate N : tis
hed vai Ed. 98d

duh
svapnair Ed. : dusvapne N matars
u ca N : matr
sambhavaih
Ed.
99a bhayaih
sam
trasa N : bhayais tattrasa Ed.

Then he should worship a sleep-vase [to be set-up] for the king when
he sleeps. It should be silver, contain the [various protective] herbs, be
smeared with sandal-paste and aloe-powder, and be lled with milk or
water. [In it] he should worship the supreme Mr
tyujit [Amr
tes vara]
with all his oerings white, with owers, incense, guest-water and rice
boiled with milk and sugar. [If the Lord has been worshipped in this
way
45
] [the Goddess] Mahanidra (Great Sleep) who deludes all the
world will be present [before the king]. [The ociant] should imagine
44
Literally on occasions of sport that are accompanied by elephants and
horses. The reading of N adds bualoes (mahis
es
u) after the horses where I con-

jecture sahitesu accompanied. But this is surely a corruption since bualoes are
inappropriate to the context. Ed.s reading sahitasya supports the emendation. It
was no doubt substituted for sahites
u to improve the sense, since it is more natural

to describe the king than the occasions as accompanied by these animals.
45
Ks
emaraja introducing 96c97: ittham
bhagavaty arcite.
249 S

that the God of Gods has commanded her to undertake [this task] so
that the king may sleep contented through the night and be able prop-
erly to digest his food and [drink]. Then he will sleep the whole night
through. He will remain at ease, free of [the assaults of ] Yaks
as,
Raks
ases, Pisacas and the like, bad dreams, the Mothers, dangers,
and the suerings caused by terror. When the vase has been wor-
shipped [the ociant] should worship the Lokapalas and their Weap-
ons near the king with guest-water, owers and the rest. Lord S
iva
has taught that a [king] for whom [this] learned and most excellent
Guru performs these [services] attains all the [benets] that have been
stated [in the course of this work].
Cognate rites of protection to be performed around the kings bed
are prescribed among the duties of the brahmanical royal chaplain.
He is to install an image of the goddess Night in front of the kings
bed, worship it, scatter mustard seeds and sugar around the bed, give
the king a protective wrist-thread ( pratisarah
), and [a forehead-mark
of ] ash (bhutih
), and then conduct him into the bed-chamber

(vasagr
ham);
46
and the placing of a silver sleep-vase (nidrakalasah
) at
the head of the royal bed is mentioned by the seventh-century poet
Ban
a in his description of the bed-chamber to which a prince and his

bride retire on the night of their wedding.
. . . sayanasirobhagasthitena ca kr
takumudasobhena kusumayudhas ahaya-

kay agatena sasineva nidrakalasena rajatena virajamanam
vasagr
ham. . .
Hars
acarita, pp. 2089

. . . the private apartment illuminated by a silver sleep-vase adorned
with lotuses placed at the head of the bed, as though it were the
moon come to aid the ower-arrowed [God of Love] . . . .
47
After speaking of these daily rites for the kings personal protection
the Netratantra goes on to the ceremonies that the S
aiva ociant
must perform on special occasions for the more general benet of the
46
Atharvavedapari sis
a 4.3.14.5.16, 6.1.16.2.8. The same source teaches a night-

ceremony in which a lamp is to be carried three times round the king (7.1.111).
47
According to the Kashmirian Kal adks
avidhi the Guru is also to set up a vase

of this kind by the head of the initiands bed when he sleeps in the presence of the
deities in the hall of worship between the days of his initiation; f. 86r: nisakalasam
c asijaptam
sayy asirah
pradese pran
avap ujite sam
sth apya . . . Having installed a

night-vase, empowered by reciting the Weapon [Mantra of Svacchanda] over it, on
a spot at the head of the bed, after worshipping that [spot] with OM
[thus prepar-
ing it as a throne] . . .. This detail is not found in the Svacchanda, the text on
which the Kaladks
avidhis procedure for initiation is based.

king and his kingdom. This part of the text begins with the rule that
he must undertake the worship of Amr
tesvara on all such occasions:

nimittes
u ca sarves
u amr
tesam
yajet sada
19.102 kamarup bhaved yasmat sarvakaman avapnuyat
101d yajet sada N : yajeta ca Ed. 102a kamarup N : kamarupam
Ed.
bhaved conj. : yajed B : sada Ed.
Since [Amr
tes vara] can take on any form at will [the ociant] should
always worship him on any festal day.
48
[In this way] he will secure all
that he desires.
After this general rule the text sets out how he is to proceed in a
particular case. This is the royal festival of Indras pole (indro-
tsavah
, indradhvajotsavah
) to be celebrated on the twelfth day of

the bright fortnight of the month Bhadrapada (July/August).
The procedures of the brahmanical prototype are described in
the Kashmirian Vis
udharmottara, Khan
a 2, chapter 155.
49
Ac-
cording to that account the rites start on the rst day of the light
fortnight of Bhadrapada. First the king worships Indra and his
consort S
ac on Pat
as.
50
Then the pole is prepared by felling an
appropriate tree and fetched from the forest on a cart drawn by
48
I understand nimittam, literally an occasion requiring [special worship], to
refer here to all days that occasion a naimittikam
karma in the sense of a calendrical-

ly xed recurrent non-daily act of special worship (vises
apuj a). Cf. Y aj navalkyasmr
ti
1.203ab: d atavyam pratyaham patre nimittes
u vises
atah
. That this is the sense is

apparent from the specic occasions that exemplify this rule in the verses 19.102c .
49
For evidence that the Vis
udharmottara originated in Kashmir or its neigh-

bourhood see the Appendix.
50
A Pat
a (Skt. pat
ah
) is a tanka (Tibetan tha n ka), a painting of a deity or deities

on burnished cotton cloth to which several layers of a gesso have been applied;
Pi ngal amata (f. 27v46 [5.25]): bhogamoks
aprasiddhyartham
pat
am
karp asikam
varam=*kesaj ady anyath a (conj. : kosajady anyath a Cod.) devi vipart adis adhane=pre-
tavastradikam
slaks
am
*sada sam
(corr.: sadasam
Cod.) dvistriks
alitam=khalitam
pin
itam
mr
dyam
sa nkhadyena su sobhane=tintad
bja sam
gr
hya susvinnam
ps
ayed
budhah
=tasyordhvam
kharparam
pis
v a *caikkr
tva (corr. : cekkr
tv a Cod.) tu marda-
yet=svacchodakena c alod
ya tena vastram
pralepayet=vajralepah
smr
to hy es
a punah
punah
sam acaret. When a Pat
a is not in worship its painted surface should be con-

cealed by a layer of cloth; see op. cit. f. 29r3 (5.45c46b): vastrair acch adayen nityam
sarvacitres
u yatnatah
=p uj adhyanajapakale udgh at
ya vidhim acaret. Tibetan practice

indicates that it was stitched on to the upper edge of the Pat
as cloth border and

rolled up and secured with ties at the time of worship.
251 S

cows or by men. On the eighth the king enters the city followed by
the citizens carrying fruits and wearing their best clothes. The capi-
tal must be decorated with banners and ags, the royal highway
sprinkled, and the children adorned. It must be full of actors and
dancers, and its deities, both public and domestic, must be wor-
shipped to the accompaniment of loud music. The pole is placed on
the ground prepared for it facing east, covered with ne cloths, and
worshipped until the twelfth. On the eleventh the king has fasted
and held a vigil with his chaplain, his astrologer, and all the citi-
zens. Dramatic spectacles must be staged all over the city during
the night and the king must worship Indra with dance and song.
On the twelfth he bathes his head and has the pole raised. He wor-
ships the pole and the Pat
as of Indra and S
ac with various Balis

and by means of the honouring of brahmins. The chaplain per-
forms a re-sacrice with the Mantras of Indra and Vis
u and wor-
ships Indra with dance and song. The king honours brahmins with
gifts of money, particularly his chaplain and astrologer. On the fth
day of the festival the pole is dismissed. After oering reverence to
it in the presence of his army he has it born away by elephants and
disposed of with the two Pat
as into a river. The citizens celebrate

by playing in the water.
51
Now the Netratantra tells us that on this occasion the S
aiva o-
ciant is to worship not Indra but Amr
tes vara as Indra:

prajanam
raks
an
arthaya salnam
sasyasampade
19.103 sutapatns
u raks
artham atmano ras
ravr
ddhaye
indrarupam
yajet tatra vijayartham
nr
pasya ca
102d sasyasampade N : capi sam
pade Ed. 103c indrarupam
Ed. :
indrarup N
For the protection of the [kings] subjects, for abundant crops of rice
[and other] grains, for the protection of his [kings] sons and wives,
for the prosperity of the kingdom and the kings victory [in war] he
should worship [Amr
tes vara] on that [day]

52
in the likeness of Indra
(indrarupam).
51
For detailed accounts of this festival see also (1) Br
hatsam
hit a, Adhyaya 42,

following Garga, and (2) Atharvavedapari sis
a 19a (indramahotsavah
). In the sec-
ond Khan
a of the Vis
udharmottara Adhyayas 154157 are devoted to it.

Adhyaya 154 is introductory. 155 covers the procedures. 156 deals with overcom-
ing the dire consequences for the king and citizens if the pole falls or is damaged
in some way. Adhyaya 157 gives the text of the Mantra of Praise (stavamantrah
)
that the king must recite when the Indra pole is being raised.
52
Ks
emaraja ad 103c: tatreti naimittike indradine.

Since the text has just stated that Amr
tesvara can take on any form I

infer a rule that on all calendrical occasions on which the worship of a
certain deity was required, the S
aiva ociant was to worship Amr
tes-
vara (and/or Amr
talaks
m ) as that deity. This is certainly how Ks
e-
maraja understands the matter. He explains that when the text says in
19.102a that Amr
tesvara is able to take on any form at will (kama-

rupam in his version) it means that he assumes the form of whichever
is the deity of the special occasion in question (tattannaimitti-
kadevatakaram). In other words the ociants cult is always that of
Amr
tesvara (and/or Amr
talaks
m), unchanging in its essence, since

that resides in the Mantras, but it can be inected to take on the form
of any other cult as required, by substituting the form and other exter-
nals of the appropriate deity with or without his or her consort.
53
I propose that this inference provides the key to understanding why
the text did not restrict itself to the icons of Amr
tesvara and Amr
ta-
laks
m but after setting out the cult of Amr
tesvara in chapters 2 to 8
devoted chapters 9 to 13 to his visualization rst as the deities of the
four specic S
aiva divisions (Siddhanta, Vama, Daks
in
a and Kaula)
and then, in chapter 13, as the principal deities beyond the boundaries
of the Mantramarga, including the non-
Agamic, lay forms of S
iva him-
self.
54
For these deities outside the ve S
aiva systems of the text (the

four and the uninected cult of Amr
tesvara) are evidently those of

brahmanical calendrical worship, among whom S
iva himself is num-

bered. I therefore interpret the absolute universality of Amr
tesvara,
53
I propose that if the deity were male then Amr
tes vara alone would be in-

voked; if female, then Amr
talaks
m; and if accompanied by a female consort, as

in the case of Indra and S
ac in the Indra festival of the Vis
udharmottara, then
Amr
tes vara and Amr
talaks
m. Evidence that Amr
talaks
m was invoked when the

worship of a goddess was required will be presented in due course in the case of
the worship of the royal sword.
54
These are the four-armed form of S
iva (13.2930) cited in the Appendix as

relevant to the date of the text, the multi-armed dancing form (=Nr
tyarudra,
Nr
tyes vara, etc.) (nat
yastham
19.31ab), Ardhanars vara/Gaursvara (umardha-

dh arin
am
19.31c), Harihara (vis
u-r-evardhadharin
am
19.31d), S
iva and Parvat at

their wedding (vivahastham
) 19.32a) (19.32a), and S
iva and Parvat side by side (?)

(sampastham
18.32b, = Umamahes vara?). Cf. n. 4 above.

253 S

much vaunted in the text,
55
not as an expression of ontological tran-
scendence, though the liberationist S
aiva learning of the non-dualists

could overcode it in that sense,
56
but as a device to enable the ociant
to penetrate the territory of brahmanical observance, shadowing the
rites of the brahmanical royal chaplain at every step or subsuming them
within his oce. For the Kashmirian

Adipuran
a-Tithikr
tya requires the

king to oer worship, that is to say, to have worship performed by his
chaplain, for the whole range of brahmanical deities on the days in the
lunar month that are sacred to them.
57
It might be urged against this interpretation that the Netratantra
includes the Buddha among the forms that may be assumed by
Amr
tes vara. For the Buddha is evidently not a brahmanical deity.

That objection might hold for other areas of the Indian world but
not for Kashmir. For in its account of the local religious calendar
the Kashmirian Nlamatapuran
a requires the worship of the Bud-

dha in celebration of the days of his birth and Nirvan
a during the
3 days of the moons passing from Pus
ya to Magha in the bright

half of Vaisakha.
58
Moreover, the Netratantra refers to the Buddha
at the end of its description of his iconic form as bestowing the
reward of liberation upon women.
59
This suggests that the wor-
ship of [Amr
tesvara as] the Buddha was a duty that the S
aiva o-
ciant was required to perform for the special benet of the women
of the palace. Patronage of Buddhism in Kashmir was not provided
by royal women alone, but in the political history of the kingdom
completed by the poet-historian Kalhan
a in AD 1148/9 they do
gure conspicuously in this role in his account of events immedi-
ately before and during the Karkot
a dynasty (c. 626855/6), the

55
Netra 9.17 b: *sarvasadharan
o hy es
a (N : sarvas ta + + + + hy es
a Ed.);
13.44: sarvasadharan
o devah
sarvasiddhiphalapradah
/sarve
sam eva *var
nan am
(N :
mantra
n am
Ed.) jvabhuto yata
h sm
rta
h; 13.46ab: vikalpo naiva kartavya
h sarva-
sadhara
no yata
h; 14.8ab: sadhara
no mantranatha
h sarve
s am eva vacaka
h; 16.23c24:
dvaitadvaitavimisre vap
to vai siddhido bhavet=yasm at sarvagato deva
h visvarupo
ma
nir yatha=sadhakasyecchaya ce
ta
h siddhido bhavati dhruvam; and 19.82cd: sarva-

tantre
su samanyo m
rtyujit praka
tk
rta
h.
56
See, e.g., K
semaraja ad 6.8cd (param
sarvatmakam
caiva mok
sadam
rtyu-
jid bhavet): mahasamanyamantravryarupatvan m
rtyujinnathasyettham
nirdesa
h. sa-
rv atmakam
paramadvayam:
57

Adipuran
a-Tithikr
tya ll. 28282843.

58
Nlamata 689695.
59
Netra 13.36cd: *dhyatva hy evam
prapujyeta (N : evam
dhyatah
pujitas ca Ed.)
strn
am
moks
aphalapradah
He who bestows the reward of liberation on women

should be visualized in this way and then worshipped.
period towards whose end I hold the Netratantra to have been
composed.
60
Immediately after instructing the ociant to worship Amr
tes vara as
Indra on the occasion of the pole festival the Netratantra goes on to rule
that on the Great Ninth (Mahanavam), the ninth day of the bright
half of the next month,

As vayuja (August/September), he should
make lavish oerings to the deity and worship the kings weapons:
19:104 gos
u brahman
araks
artham atmanah
svajanes
u ca
mahanavamyam
pujyeta bhuriyagena vesmani

105 purvoktasreyam apnoti ayurarogyasam
padah
astrayagam
prayatnena kartavyam
siddhihetutah
106 astrasiddhim avapnoti prayokta phalam asnute

104a gos
u brahman
a conj. : gobhubrahman
a N : gobrahman
es
u Ed.
61
105a purvoktasreyam apnoti N : purvoktam
samavapnoti Ed. 105b

sam
padah
N : sam
padam Ed. 105cd astray agam
prayatnena kartavyam
siddhihetutah
N : astrayagah
prakartavyah
prayatnat siddhihetave Ed.

106b prayokta Ed. : prayukta N
On the Great Ninth he should worship [Amr
tes vara] with lavish oer-

ings in his home for the protection of cows, the land, brahmins, himself
and his household. He will attain the above-mentioned benets, long
60
Amr
taprabha, queen of Meghavahana, probably early in the sixth century,

constructed the monastery Amr
tabhavana for foreign Buddhist monks (Rajatara ngin
3.9); his wife Y ukadev competed with her fellow-wives by founding a splendid Bud-
dhist monastery at Nad
avana (3.11); Indradev, another wife of this king, founded

the monastery Indradevbhavana and a Stupa (3.13); many other monasteries were
built in their names by Khadana, Samma and other wives of his (3.14). Amr
ta-
prabha, wife of Ran
aditya-Tunjna III (probably in the late sixth century), installed a

Buddha statue in a monastery built by Bhinna, another of Meghavahanas wives
(3.464). Ana ngalekha, wife of Durlabhavardhana (r. c. 626662), founded the monas-
tery Ana ngabhavana (4.3) and Prakas adev, wife of Candrapd
a (r. c. 712720/1),
the monastery Prakas ikavihara (4.79). Support for Buddhism within Kashmirian
royalty appears from the Rajatara ngin
to have reached its highest point during

the reign of Lalitaditya (c. 725761/2). The king himself, though personally a
Bhagavata, founded several Buddhist monasteries and Stupas and installed Bud-
dha images (4.188, 4.200, 4.20304, 4.210), as did his Central-Asian chief minister
Ca nkun
a (Chin. jiangjun General) (4.211, 4.215, 4.262). There is no evidence of

royal support for Buddhism after this reign in the Rajatara ngin
. It records no
Buddhist foundations or installations for the period of the Utpala dynasty (855/
6980/1) and thereafter only one, the construction of a monastery by Bhadre-
s vara, the chief minister of Sam
gramaraja (r. 10031028) (7.121).

61
The conjecture gives an irregular syntax; but it is one seen repeatedly in the
Nepalese manuscript of this text, and it agrees with the sense of Ed.s reading.
That is readily explained as an attempt to remove this anomaly and Ns gobhu as
a scribal error prompted by common usage in contexts of donation, as here in
gobhuhiran
yavastradyaih
(16.112c).
255 S

life, good health and wealth. He should perform the ceremony of wor-
shipping the weapons [on that day
62
] with special care in order to bring
about Siddhi. He will indeed accomplish their Siddhi, and he who com-
missions [the ceremony] will achieve [victory in battle as his] reward.
Ks
emaraja interprets the attaining of the Siddhi of the weapons to

be their transformation into weapons with celestial power (divyani)
and the person who commissions the ceremony to be the king or
the like (rajadih
). The like, I propose, are others with troops

under their command, such as provincial governors (man
ale sah
).
63
Since the purpose of the ritual is that they should be victorious in
battle, the weapons can only be theirs.
The deity of this autumnal festival, which marked the beginning of
the season of military campaigns and did indeed include a ceremony in
which the royal weapons and insignia were worshipped, is the martial
goddess Bhadrakal. According to the Vis
udharmottaras account of
this festival
64
the king should have a pavilion for the worship of Bha-
drakal (bhadrakalgr
ham) constructed on the northeast side of his cap-

ital. He should worship her there on a painted Pat
a on the ninth day

of the bright half of the month after worshipping the weapons, armour,
parasol, banner and all the other royal insignia (rajali ngani) on the
previous day.
65
The Nlamatapuran
a tells us that the weapons are to

be worshipped in a shrine of Durga during the preceding night.
66
No doubt when Amr
tes vara was made to take on this form, or

indeed that of any other goddess in the calendar, he did so in his
62
Ks
emaraja ad 105cd: mah anavamy am eva.

63
Ks
emaraja ad 106ab: divyany astr an
i mantraprabh av at sam
padayati: raj adis ca

vijayam apnotty aha: prayokt a purvoktay ajayit a Through the power of the Mantra [of
Amr
tes vara] he makes the weapons celestial. He now states that the king or other [com-
mander] achieves victory in the words He who commissions will achieve [his] reward.
He who commissions is the person who has the aforesaid sacrice performed.
64
Vis
udharmottara 2.158.18.
65
Vis
udharmottara 2.158.4: tatraiv ayudhavarm adyam
chattram
ketum
ca pujayet=
rajali ngani sarv an
i tath astran
i ca pujayet. The same is seen in Agnipur an
a 268.1314:
bhadrak al m
pat
e likhya pujayed asvine jaye=suklapaks
e tath as
amy am ayudham
k ar-
mukam
dhvajam=chatram
ca r ajali ng ani sastr adyam
kusum adibhih
.
66
Nlamata 780782. This practice of worshipping the royal weapons and other
insignia during the Navaratra festival was not restricted to Kashmir. See, e.g.,
Sivapriyananda (1995), plates 5558, 9192, and 96 for photographs of the royal
swords, the royal crown and y-whisk installed for worship beside the image of
Camun
es var, the lineage goddess of the Maharajas of Mysore, in their royal pal-
ace during the Navaratra festival that culminates on this ninth; and Tod (1920,
p. 683) for the worship of the royal sword, shield and spear on Mahanavam in
the royal palace in Udaipur.
female aspect, through his consort Amr
talaks
m. This would have

prevented an awkward clash of genders. But it is suggested indepen-
dently by the ruling seen above that it is Amr
talaks
m that is to be
worshipped in the kings sword. For the underlying identity of the
deity of that weapon is indeed Bhadrakal. The worship of Bhad-
rakal on the kings sword before he goes to war is treated at some
length in a text attributed to the

A ngirasakalpa of the Atharvavedins
ancillary literature and included in the Orissan Paippaladavasadi-
s
at
karmapaddhati, a work that sets out a large number of rites that

should or may be performed by chaplains for their royal patrons.
67
That the Netratantra should mention only these two calendrical
ceremonies, the Indra festival and the worship of the royal weapons
[and Bhadrakal] on the Great Ninth (Mahanavam), is in keeping
with the proposition that the ociant in this text is one who is
working in the territory of the kings personal chaplain, since these
two are the principal festivals that engage the king. That can be seen
from the fact that in the detailed account of the kings ritual obliga-
tions in the Vis
udharmottara they are the only calendrically xed

annual ceremonies with a marked civic dimension apart from the
Vais
ava festivals that mark the four months of Vis
us sleep.
68
After prescribing the worship of Bhadrakal and the royal weapons
and insignia on the Great Ninth the Vis
udharmottara goes on to
67
See Paippaladavas adis
at
karmapaddhati pp. 105113. I am very grateful to Dr.

Arlo Griths of the University of Groningen for sending me rst a copy of this
publication, of which, according to its Sanskrit title page, he was the promoter
( prots ahakah
), and then an electronic text of the same.

68
The Vis
udharmottara briey lists the kings periodic ritual duties (nityakarma)

in 2.152.17. They are (1) a monthly ritual bath when the moon is in the asterism
under which he was born ( janmanaks
atrasn anam) and (2) another when it is in the

asterism Pus
ya (pus
yasn anam), (3) worship of Surya (the Sun) and Candra (the Moon)
on the days on which the sun moves from one zodiacal sign into the next, (4) the wor-
ship of a planet (Graha) when it has been eclipsed by the Sun, (5) worship to be oered
on the day of the heliacal rising of the star Agastya (Canopus) (agastyap uja), (6) the
worship of Vis
u during the 4 months mentioned, (7) an annual Ghr
takambala-
Kot
ihoma, a re-sacrice requiring a number of priests working simultaneously over

many days to make 10 million oblations timed to end at the end of the 4 months of
Vis
us sleep followed by a ritual in which the king is covered with a blanket (kamba-
lam) and then rst has melted butter (ghr
tam) poured over him from eight, twenty-

eight or one hundred and eight vases, and then, after the blanket has been removed, is
bathed with consecrated water, (8) a ritual for Rudra (rudrapuj a) at the end of each
regnal year, and (910) the celebration of these two public festivals. Chapters 153158
then cover the major topics in detail. Chapter 153 deals with the worship of Vis
u
during the 4 months, chapters 154157 with Indras pole festival and chapter 158 with
the worship of Bhadrakal and the royal weapons on Mahanavam.
257 S

another ceremony to be performed at this time. This is the lustration
(nrajanasantih
) of the kings soldiers, horses and elephants, which, we

are told, should be done for their welfare, but also for the greater pros-
perity of the kingdom and the destruction of its enemies.
69
A section col-
ophon after Nlamata 78082 conrms the association of this ceremony
with the Great Ninth by identifying that day as nrajananavam the lus-
tration ninth. The section requires that the weapons be worshipped in
the temple of Durga during the night of the eighth and that the lustra-
tion take place on the next day according to the procedure of the Atha-
rvaveda, that is to say, the Veda of the kings personal chaplain. The
lustration of the kings horses and elephants is indeed scheduled for this
day in the section on the annual royal ceremonies to be performed by
the kings domestic chaplain in the Atharvavedaparisis
a.
70
In the Netratantra too a lustration ceremony is taken up immedi-
ately after its treatment of the rites of the Great Ninth, though here
it is a lustration of the king himself. Moreover there is no statement
that it is to be performed during the autumnal festival. The only ex-
plicit instruction is that it is to be adopted when there is some ill to
ward o such as a life-threatening illness of the king or other mem-
ber of the royal family:
71
yad a mr
tyuvas aghratah
kalena kalito nr
pah
19:107 aris
acihnitatmano desam
va tatsutadayah
br ahman
adis
u sarves
u paurajanapades
u ca
69
This is taught in Vis
udharmottara 2.159.147 and the ascribed benets are

declared there in 4647: santir nr ajan akhyeyam
kartavy a vasudh adhipaih
=ks
emya
vr
ddhikar r ama naraku njarav ajinam = 47 dhany a yasasy a ripun a san ca sukhavah a
s antir anuttam a ca=k ary a nr
pai ras
ravivr
ddhihetoh
sarvaprayatnena bhr
gupravra.
70
Atharvavedaparisis
a 17.1.18, 18.1.118.3.12, and 18b.2.19 (18b.2.1: mahana-

vamy am
hastyasvadks
a the lustration of the [kings] elephants and horses is on

the Great Ninth). The 6th-century Br
hatsam
hit a of Varahamihira says in the

chapter devoted to this ceremony (nr ajanasantih
) that it should take place on

the twelth, eighth or fteenth day of the bright half of Kartika or, as here, during
[the bright half of]

As vayuja (43.2). Kat
hakagr
hyasutra 57.1 rules that one should

honour horses and all transports on the full moon day of

As vayuja: asvayujyam
asv an mahayanti sarv an
i ca vahan ani; and

Adityadars ana ad loc. explains all trans-
ports as as elephants, mules, bualoes, camels and the like: sarv an
i ca v ahan ani:
hastyasvataramahis
akharos
r adni ca.
71
We see a lustration prescribed both on the ninth of

As vayuja and as a special
rite to be performed when the need arises in Artha s astra 2.30.51: n rajanam asvayuje
k arayen navame hani=y atr ad av avasane v a vy adhau v a santike ratah
Devoted to
rites for the warding o of ills [the superintendent of the kings horses] should have a
lustration ceremony performed [by the Purohita not only] on the 9th day of

As va-
yuja, [but also] at the beginning or end of a military expedition or in time of sickness.
108 salyadis
u ca sasyes
u phalamulodakena ca
durbhiks
avyadhikaryes
u utpatais capy anuttamaih
109 tada nairajanam
karyam
raj nam
ras
rasya vr
ddhaye
purvavad yajanam
kr
tva kalasenabhis
i ncayet
110 nih
sa nkam
nirjane ratrau subharks
e ca tatham
sake
jayapun
yahasabdena vedama ngalasvastikaih
111 abhis
i nceta rajanam
siddhartha n juhuyad bahun

nairajanavidhanena nama nkam
juhuy at priye
112 vahnau sam
kruddhamanasa ajam
s ca proks
ayed bahun
tr
ptyartham
bhutasa nghasya mantr raks
artham udyatah
113 sakunoktyam
sagatya va vij naya sakunam
hitam
yaks
endrasivavarun
yam
niryatah
sarvasiddhidah
114 atha purvoktavidhina gr
he yagam
tu karayet
yavat saptahnikam
devi bhurihomena siddhidam

115 tasyacala mahalaks
m rajyam
va yad abhpsitam
bhaumantariks
asiddhni prapnuyan nr
patih
sukh
116 tada nairajanam
khyatam
sarvasreyaskaram
param
purvoktam
nasyate dos
am
devi nasty atra sam
sayah
106d kalito nr
pah
Ed. : kalitam
nr
pam
N 107a aris
acihnitatmano conj. :
aris
acihnitadana N : aris
acihnitatma vai Ed. 107b de sam
N : deso Ed.
107d paurajanapades
u ca N : nase janapadasya ca Ed. 108a salyadis
u ca
sasyes
u Ed. : salicurn
adisasyes
u N 108b phalamulodakena N : phalamu-

lodakes
u Ed. 108d utpatais capy anuttamaih
N : utpates
u mahatsu ca Ed.
109a nairajanam
N : nrajanam
Ed. 109b rajnam
N (cf. 19.129b): rajno Ed.

ras
rasya vr
ddhaye N : ras
ravivr
ddhaye Ed. 109d kalasenabhis
im
cayet
N : kalasenabhis
ecayet Ed. 110a nih
sam
kam
N : nih
sa nko Ed. 110b su-

bharks
e ca tatham
sake Ed. : subham etat tu daisikah
N 110c sabdena N :
sabdais ca Ed. 110d svastikaih
N : nih
svanaih
Ed. 111a abhis
i nceta conj. :
abhis
im
cata N : abhis
i ncet tu Ed. 111c nairajana N : nrajana Ed. 111d

namam
kam
juhuyat pr
ye N (=15.8ab) : nama nke sam
skr
te priye Ed. 112a

sam
kruddhamanas a corr. (=15.8c) : sam
kruddhamanaso N : sam
ruddha-
manas a Ed. 113a sakunoktyam
sagatya Ed. : sakunom
tyasagaty a N 113c
yaks
endra Ed. : yajem
dra N varun
yam
N : varun
ya Ed. 114a purvokta

Ed. : purvoktena N 114b gr
he Ed. : gr
ha N 115a tasyacala N (sic also 18.79

in N and Ed.) : asyacala Ed. 115c siddhni N (sic also 18.79c in N) : siddhs
ca Ed. 116a nairajanam
N : nrajanam
Ed. 116c purvoktam
nasyate dos
am
conj. : purvoktam
na pasyate dos
am
N : purvoktan nasayed dos
an Ed.
If the king is touched by the power of death, if time has him in his sway, if
he, the country or his sons or [wives] are marked by signs of impending
death, if all the inhabitants, both of the capital and elsewhere, both brah-
mins and others, the rice and other crops of grain together with fruit, roots
and water [are in danger], or if there arises famine, an epidemic, or any
other ominous abnormality of nature (utpatah
),
72
then [the ociant] should
72
For utp atah
in this sense see Br
hatsam
hit a 45.12.
259 S

undertake the ceremonies of lustration (nrajanam) so that kings and their
kingdoms may prosper. After worshipping as before he should do an
Abhis
eka [by sprinkling with water] from the [consecrated] vase. When the
asterism and degree are auspicious he should give this Abhis
eka to the king

in an isolated place to the accompaniment of cries of Victory!, Meritori-
ous Day!,
73
auspicious [chanting of ] the Vedas, and [the eulogies of ]
bards.
74
He should [then] oer into the re a large quantity of mustard
seeds.
75
Beloved, he should oer them into the sacricial re with the pro-
cedure of lustration, indicating the beneciarys name,
76
with angry mind.
The ociant, determined to accomplish this protection, should [then] asper-
ge [and sacrice] numerous goats to gratify the hostile spirits and the horde
[of Mothers, Yogins and the rest
77
].
If when he has determined the auspi-
cious moment following the instruction of the [royal] astrologer or by cal-
culating the degree [of the zodiac] the ociant goes out [of the capital
accompanied by the king
78
]
to the north, the northeast, or the west, he
will bestow all supernatural benets [on him]. Then, O Goddess, fol-
lowing the procedure taught above he should perform the Siddhi-
73
The text refers here to the brahmanical practice of pun
yahav acanam, the

uttering of the word pun
y aham meritorious day thrice at the beginning of any rite

to promote its success (ma ngalam).
74
For these auspicious, apotropaic accompaniments at the time of Abhis
eka cf.,
e.g., Br
hatsam
hit a 47.49 concerning the kings Pus
yasnana: vandijanapauravipra-
praghus
apun
y ahavedanirghos
aih
=samr
da ngasankhaturyair ma ngalasabdair hatanis
-
t
ah
; and Nlamata 824 concerning the brahmanical consecration of the king: snanak ale
ca kartavyam
mahat kalakalam
tath a=v aditrasa nkhapu
ny ahasutavandijanaih
saha. The
same applies in the Abhis
eka of an initiate; see, e.g., Bhojadeva, Siddh antasarapaddhati

f. 34r4v2: bhadr asanam
vinyasya tasmin sis
yam
vinyasya sa nkhat uryavn
aven
usvasti-
pun
y ahavedadhvanibhih
kr
tama ngalam
. . . abhis
ecayet.
75
Mustard seeds, also called sars
apah
and raks
oghnah
, are believed to have the

power to fend o evil. See Netra 15.711.
76
Ks
emaraja ad loc.: amukasya nrajanam astu sv ah a ity atra prayogah
The for-
mulation here is May there be lustration of [name], SV
AH
A . For [name] (amu-

ka-) the ociant is to substitute the name of the king and, of course, to precede
this formulation with the Base-Mantra (mulamantrah
) of Amr
tesvara. The expletive

SV
AH
A is the closure ( jatih
) required when making a regular oblation into the re,

taking the place of the NAMAH
at the end of other oerings. Thus for King S
a nka-
ravarman, for example, the Mantra to be uttered with each oblation would be:
OM
JUM
SAH
IS
AN
KARAVARMAN
O N
IR
AJANAM ASTU SV
AH
A.
77
The most natural understanding of the expression bh utasa nghah
is as a Tatpu-
rus
a meaning the horde of hostile spirits. Ks
emaraja, however, no doubt with rit-

ual procedure in mind, takes it as a singular Dvanda meaning hostile spirits and
the horde specifying the latter as that of the Mothers, Yogins and others
(bhutani ca sam
ghas ceti sam asah
: sam
gho m atr
yoginy adigan
ah
).
78
That the ociant goes out with the king is a detail added by Ks
emaraja ad
loc.: vijayabhimukhena r ajna saha niry atah
gone forth with the king intent on vic-

tory. The sense is that the king and his chaplain enact the kings matching forth
to war after lustration.
bestowing ritual of [Amr
tes varas] worship in the [S
anti] temple
79
for seven days, together with lavish oerings into the sacricial re.
He [for whom this sacrice is performed
80
]
will achieve permanent
great wealth, sovereignty or whatever else he may desire. The king
will be contented and attain the Siddhis of both earth and sky.
81
Then, O Goddess, it is said that he has received the highest lustra-
tion, that which bestows all benets. The aforesaid evils cease to exist.
Of this, O Goddess, there is no doubt.
There is no reference here to the lustration of the kings soldiers,
horses and elephants, as there is in the Vis
udharmottara, but the

Netratantra follows its lustration of the king with instruction in the
means by which the S
aiva ociant should protect the kings cattle,

horses, elephants, goats and other livestock:
19:117 gos
u madhye yajed yasmat sada vardhati gokulam

sinduram
gairikam
vapi abhimantreta mantravit

118 yoktavyam
gos
u raks
artham
sr
ngordhve sarvados
ajit
asvanam
raks
an
arthaya purvoktavidhina yajet

79
The Netra says only that the ritual should take place gr
he in the house or
in the temple. Ks
emaraja understands this to mean raj no gr
he, i.e., in the royal

palace. I conjecture that the unspecied gr
ham is the temple known as the

s antigr
ham, the temple for the performance of S
anti rituals to protect the king

and the kingdom. This does not necessarily contradict Ks
emarajas opinion,
which might be expected to be well-informed on such a point. For according to
the S
aiva Pratis
hatantras this temple could be built in the northeast quarter of

the royal palace or of the residence of [his] S
aiva Guru. See Mayasam
graha f.
33v (5.188abc): atha bh ubhr
nniv aso tra kury ad vedhasi tad gr
ham ais anye

s antigr
ham
; Pi ngal amata f. 74v4 (10.151ab) (concerning the cumbakagr
ham the
residence of the Guru): b ahye nyasam
punar devi tatrese s antikam
gr
ham.
80
This is Ks
emarajas interpretation ad loc.: yadartham
caivam ijyate asy acala

mah alaks
m . . ..
81
The same language is used in 18.79 to describe the benets that accrue to
someone who has received Abhis
eka from a vase of water in which [Am
ta]
laks
m has been installed and worshipped, except that to Siddhis of earth and
sky that passage adds those of heaven: tasy acal a mah alaks
m rajyam
va yad
abhpsitam=bhaum antariks
a *siddhni (N : siddhim
ca Ed.) divy am
*caivaisvarm
(Ed. : caivesvar N) subh am
. I have not encounted the notion of the Siddhis of

these realms elsewhere in the literature and Ks
emaraja oers no explanation on

either of its two occurrences in this text. Elsewhere the adjectives bhaumah
,
antariks
ah
=antariks
agah
and divyah
occur together with reference to phenomena

that portend calamities (utpat ah
) (e.g. Atharvavedaparisis
a 2.2.3: divyantariks
a-
bhaum an am utp atan am; Br
hatsam
hita 47.53ab) or to hostile spirits (e.g. Svacchanda

3.20). The sense is probably that the king gains power over these phenomena in the
sense that he is immunized against their inuence.
261 S

119 abhimantreta kalasam
siras tes
am
pradapayet
siddharthakam
japitva tu kan
he karyam
tu murdhani
120 sarvados
avinirmuktan gajam
s caiva tu raks
ati
ajes
u pasaves
v evam
raks
am
sarvatra karayet
121 sarvapran
is
u raks
artham
yoktavyam
nr
pateh
sada
mahasantir bhavet tes
am
durbhiks
am
nasyate sada
117b vardhati N : vardheta Ed. 117c gairikam
Ed. : gaurikam
N 117d
abhimantreta N : abhimantryaiva Ed. 118a yoktavyam
N : yojayed Ed.
118c asvanam
raks
an
arthaya N : asvanam api raks
artham
Ed. 119a abhi-

mantreta N : abhimantryaiva Ed. 119b siras tes
am
pradapayet N :
murdhni tes
am
prapataye Ed. 119c siddharthakam
japitva tu N : si-
ddhartho mantrajaptas tu Ed. 119d karyam
tu N : karyo tha Ed. 120b

caiva tu N : caiva ca Ed. 120c ajes
u pasaves
v evam
conj. (Ais a): ajes
u
pasavo hy evam
N : ajadis
u pasus
v evam
Ed. 120d sarvatra N : sarves
u
Ed. 121b yoktavyam
N : yoktavyo Ed. 121d nasyate sada N : na-

syati ks
an
at Ed.
The ociant should worship [Amr
tes vara] in the midst of the [kings]

cows, since [by this means] his herd will constantly increase. He
should empower vermilion powder or red chalk with the Mantra and
apply it to the tips of their horns to protect them, for it will overcome
all evils. To protect the [kings] horses he should oer the cult in the
manner stated above, empower with the Mantra a vase [lled with
water] and pour it[s contents] on their heads. He should empower
mustard seeds by repeating the Mantra over them and then place
them on their necks and heads. [Mantra-empowered mustard seeds
82
]
also protect the [kings] elephants, [so that they become] free of all
evils. He should do the same rite of protection for the [kings] goats
and [all his other] domestic animals.
83
He should employ his Mantra
at all times for the protection of all the kings living creatures. They
will benet from a general warding o of ills (maha santih
). Famine
will cease forever.
The Netratantra also requires its S
aiva ociant to perform the wor-

ship of Amr
tes vara as a S
anti ritual whenever the realm

(man
alam) is aected by an earthquake, the falling of a meteor

(ulkapatah
), a drought, excessive rains, a swarm of mice or other

pests, phenomena such as the untimely appearance of owers, the
destruction or splitting of an image of a god, fevers, [illnesses
82
I follow Ks
emaraja in taking these mustard seeds (siddhartho mantritah
) to
be the subject here.
83
I take the causative k arayet here in the non-causative sense, a licence com-
monly seen in such scriptural texts. See, e.g., Svacchanda 423c4: tato ghr
tena
sam
pl avya abhim anam
tu k arayet=aham eva param
tattvam
par aparavibhagatah
=
tattvam ekam
hi sarvatra nanyam
bh avam
tu k arayet.
caused by] spiders and other poisonous insects (lutadi), and un-
timely deaths (apamr
tyuh
) (19.122124b); or if there is suering

caused by some evil action in the past (karmados
ah
), by a seizing
spirit (grahados
ah
), by some oence against a god or Guru

(tirobhavah
), by an error in the propitiation of a Mantra (mantra-

cchidram), by the poison of snakes and the like, by such ills as skin
eruptions caused by insect bites (kt
avisphot
akadayah
), by imbal-
ances of the humours, piles, eye-diseases, contagious skin diseases
and the like (visarpakadayah
), by every kind of illness, by grief and

other states causing insanity, and if the brahmins or others [in the
realm] have been cursed by a god or [a sage] (19.122128).
Moreover, even when no emergency has arisen:
19:129 pratyaham
havanam
karyam
raj nam
ras
ravivr
ddhaye
sukhena bhujyate rajyam
natra karya vicaran
a
84
He should oer a re-sacrice for the prosperity of the king and the
kingdom every day. [If he does so the king] will enjoy a happy reign.
There can be no doubt of this.
For:
19:130 sakr
tpujanamatre
na nasyante him
sakadayah
nas
a dasa diso yanti sim
hasyeva mr
gadaya
h
131 satatabhyasayogena daridryam
nasyati kulat
yasmin dese ca kale ca nivasen mantravit sada
132 tayo vyadhayas caiva kharkhodas tasya va grahah
sakinyo vividha yaks
ah
pisaca raks
asas tatha
133 balagrahas ca visphot
a vyantaras caparas ca ye
sarvan
i vis
ajatani durbhiks
am
grahapd
anam
134 sarvam
na prabhavet tatra mantravitsam
nidhanatah
Even if he worships [Amr
tes vara in this way] only once, the harming

spirits and other [aictions] will be crushed and will ee in all ten
directions
85
like deer and other [prey] from a lion. If he constantly
repeats [the cult], poverty will be removed from the lineage. When [a
Guru who is] a master of this Mantra is in permanent residence in a
land, his mere presence will ensure that no calamities, diseases,
Kharkhodas, siezers (Grahas), none of the various kinds of S
akin,
Yaks
as, Pisacas, Raks
asas, seizers of infants (Balagrahas), boil[-causer]s

and other Vyantara beings, no poison, famine, or oppression by planets,
will have any power over the [king] there.
84
I have not been able to collate 19.125139c with N, since they are the content
of Ns folios 68v and 69r, which are lacking in my copy of the NGMPP microlm.
85
In the cardinal directions, the intermediate directions, upwards, and down-
wards.
263 S

Finally, as is the case with the brahmanical royal chaplain, the
functions of the S
aiva ociant prescribed by the Netratantra do

not end with the kings life. If he or any of the princes dies the o-
ciant should perform a special form of postmortuary initiation
known as the Rescue of the Dead (mr
toddharadks
a). He may oer

worship to Amr
tes vara at the time of the cremation itself, installing

an image of [Amr
tes vara as] Bhairava in the cremation ground

where the body has been burned; and he should perform the subse-
quent S
raddha rites:
18:112 . . . nr
patau tatsutanam
. . .
. . .
mr
tasyoddharan
arthaya dks
artham
paramesvarah
116 yas
avyah
purvavad devo vises
at tatra cakr
tih
kartavya rajatavasyam
sadr
s dvadasa ngula
117 karya va gomayair devi kusair va snanasodhita
dks
aiva tatra sam
skarah
vyaptya yatrastham anayet

118 an
um
ca yojayet tasmin purn
ahutya ks
ipe nale
yojanya sivatattve tu tatah
sayojyatam
labhet
119 sraddhe sam
pujayed devam antyes
av athava yajet
pratis
hapyas tatha devi dagdhapin
e smasanake
120 purvoktadravyasambharair purvoktavidhina guruh
purvoktam
bhs
an
am
rupam
saktidvayasamanvitam
121 catus c as
au thava devi purvadhyanavalokitah
purvoktam
phalam apnoti ity aj na paramesvar

112d tatsutanam
N : tatsutes
u Ed. 115c mr
tasyoddhara
narthaya N :
mr
tes
uddhara
narthaya Ed. 115d paramesvarah
Ed. : paramesvaram N
116a yas
avyah
purvavad devo Ed. : yas
avyam
purva devesam
N 116b
vi ses
at Ed. : vises
as N 116c rajatavasyam
em. (= reading rejected by

Ks
emaraja ad loc.: rajatetety apapat
hah
) : rajatavasyam
N: rajasava-
syam
Ed. 117a gomayair (conj.) : gopaye N : gomayad Ed. 117d

yatrastham anayet conj. : yavastham anayet Ed. : yatra samam
nayet N
118a a
num
ca yojayet tasmim
N : a num
s ca yojayet tasyam
Ed. 118b
ks
ipenale N (Ais a for ks
iped anale) : saha ks
ipet Ed. 118d sayojyatam
labhet N : sayujyabhag bhavet Ed. 119ab devam antyes
av athava Ed. :
devam
mam
tes
itveti va N 119c pratis
hapyas N : pratis
hapyam
Ed. 120a
purvokta N : purvoktair Ed. 120b purvoktavidhina guruh
N : gurun
a
pragvidhanatah
Ed. 121a catus cas
au thava N : catasro s
av atho Ed.
121b dhyanavalokitah
Ed. : dhyanavalokitam
N 121c purvoktam
N :
purvokta Ed.
To accomplish the initiation to rescue the dead for . . . the king or [any
of ] the princes . . .
86
he should worship the Supreme Lord as above but
86
The passages omitted list other classes of dead who should receive this form
of initiation.
with the dierence that he must fashion a silver simulacrum [of the
deceased] twelve A ngulas [approx. 21 cm] in length. Alternatively it
may be made with cowdung or blades of Kus a grass.
87
He should purify
it with a bath. He should then perform the ceremony of initiation upon
it.
88
By [meditating on himself as S
iva] pervading [the universe]

(vyaptya) he should bring back the soul [of the deceased from] wherever
87
The option that the simulacrum should be made of silver is that of a reading
rajat a rejected by Ks
emaraja. I have retained it because it is supported by N

(rajat a). Ks
emaraja explains his preferred reading rajas a with powder as meaning

with rice-our (s alic urn
ena), but that is not supported by other accounts of this

ritual. In his treatment Abhinavagupta gives an open list of materials that may be
used to make these simulacra, mentioning cow-dung, blades of Kus a/Darbha grass
(Poa cynosuroides), fruit (Tantr aloka 21.22d23a, 33, 35, 40, 43) and such things
as the nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) (21.36ab: jatphaladi yad kim
cit tena v a
dehakalpan a). The Kashmirian Br
hatkalottara, borrowing from the Pancaratrika

Jay akhyasam
hit a, matches the Netra in saying that the simulacrum should be

twelve A ngulas in length, but diers in saying that it should be made with all its
limbs by shaping it out of white earth mixed with the ve products of the cow and
water, or out of the wood of the trees Palas a (Butea frondosa) or As vattha (Ficus
religiosa), or with a spray of owers ( pallavah
) (B f. 195v45): tatah
svetamr
d alod
ya
pa ncagavyena c ambhas a=dv adas a ngulam atram
tu murttim
kury at *tad akr
tim (em. :
tad akr
ttim
Cod.)= ap ada*culik antam
(corr. : culik atam
Cod.) ca *sarv a ngavaya-

v anvit am (em. : sarv avayav anvitam
Cod.)/pal asasvatthajenaiva d aru
n a *pallavena
(em. : canavena Cod.) v a. The Nepalese manuscript of the Jay akhyasam
hit a adds a
third wood as an option, but the reading is evidently corrupt: *tatah
(em. : tatada-
ta Cod.) svetamr
d alod
ya pancagavyena c ambhasa=dvadas a ngulamatrm
tu murttim
*kury at (corr. : kurya Cod.) tad akr
tim= ap adac c ulik ant a n ca sarvv a ng avayav a-

nvit am=*pal asasvatthaydarbhyotthad arun
a (conj. : pal asosvatthadarbhotth adarun
a
Cod.) *pallavena (em. : pavaluvena) v a (f. 81r34). The Jayakhyasam
hita published
on the basis of south-Indian manuscripts makes this third wood that of the birch
(Baetula bhojapatra) (24.86cd): palas asvathavalkotthad arun
a). In the same tradition

is the simulacrum made of Ficus leaves and owers known as a pus
pali nga that is

animated with the soul of the deceased by the S
aiva ociant in the Balinese postcre-

mation ritual of the purication of the soul (mukur, nyekah, neles, etc.); see Hobart
et al. (1996, pp. 1256); and Stuart-Fox (2002, pp. 923); also the yogic ensouling of
the ower-body ( pus
pasarra) in the S
aiva-Bauddha postcremation rites of the

Javanese queen of Majapahit described in the Old Javanese Desawarn
ana (64.5, 67.2

[Robson, 1995, pp. 71 and 74]).
88
Literally initiation alone (dks
aiva). Ks
emaraja takes the point of the restric-

tive particle eva to be that in this case there is no need for the preliminary rites
known as adhiv asah
that normally take place during the day before the initiation
proper.
265 S

it may be and place it in that [simulacrum].
89
As he makes the Full
Oblation [after completing the oblations that eliminate the possibility of
reincarnation on any level of the universe] he should cast [the simula-
crum] into the re while [raising the soul through his own central
energy-channel and then] uniting it with the level of S
iva. By this means

89
Neither the reading of N (yatra samam
nayet) nor that of Ed. (yavastham

anayet) makes good sense. Ns reading might be a corruption of yatra samam
na-
yet, confusion of the graphs sa and sa occurring so pervasively in manuscripts
copied by Newar scribes that it is arduous to record it. We could then take this
and the next quarter verse to mean he should place (yojayet) the soul [of the
deceased] (an
um) into that (tatra) into which (yatra) he should bring it to rest
(samam
nayet), understanding the site of the placing to be the reality-level to

which the soul is to be raised through initiation and bringing it to rest to mean
causing it to be one with that level. But at least two problems obtrude. The rst is
that the phrase samam
nayet, though common, always denotes elimination (as of

diseases or poison in the medical literature) or dissolution, as when a Yogin medi-
tates on a lower reality-level being withdrawn into the one above it; see, e.g.,
Jay akhyasam
hit a 16.263d (ks
makhyam
tattvam
samam
nayet) and Laks
mtantra
35.8d and 53.7b (aham
k are samam
nayet), and 53.8b (mul avyakte samam
nayet).
This is not the natural idiom for the uniting of the soul with a reality-level. The
second problem is that the interpretation leads to pleonasm: the action of fusing
the soul will be mentioned again in 118c and as fusion with the reality-level of S
iva
(yojany a sivatattve tu). I turn therefore to the reading yavastham anayet in Ed. This I
propose is an error, probably of the compositor of the Devanagar edition rather than
the Kashmirian scribes, for yatrastham anayet, tra and va being graphs that are
more readily confused in Devanagar than in S
arada. That Ks
emaraja had this in

his text of the Netra is not certain, since he does not gloss it directly, conrming
only anayet with anya in his introduction to the next quarter verse. But I propose
that he does so indirectly in the eleven-line citation from the Ham
sap aramesvara
that he gives in his comment on vy aptya. For that describes the Great Net pro-
cedure (mah ajalaprayogah
) by means of which the ociant is to catch the soul of

the deceased in whatever other state of incarnation it resides and place it in the
heart [of the simulacrum] uttering the seed-syllable [of Maya (HR
IM
)] and the souls

name: yatra srot antare sthitam/gr
htva tat prayoge
na mah aj alena yuktitah
=gr
htam
*hr
daye (em. : hr
dayam
Ed.) sth apyam
bj abhikhy asamanvitam. I propose that for

Ks
emaraja the point of this part of citation was that it claried the meaning of
yatrastham in the Netra.
The yogic procedure for catching the soul through visualization and the recita-
tion of the seed-syllable HR
IM
(m ay abjam) is described by Abhinavagupta in

Tantr aloka 21.2526 and by the passage cited from the Ham
sap aramesvara. The

ociant is to meditate on himself as S
iva pervading the universe, exhale, inhale,

hold his breath, raise the vital power through the central channel to the point
twelve nger-breadths above his head, and then visualize this power moving out
through all the worlds to nd the soul. He should utter the syllable HR
IM
and take
hold of that soul, visualizing it as resembling a drop of water.
it will attain union [with S
iva].
90
He should [also] worship S
iva [for the

deceased] in the S
raddha ceremonies. Optionally he may do this wor-

ship during the cremation ceremony itself. [In the latter case], O god-
dess, the Guru should install an image of the frightening [Bhairava]
form taught above
91
attended by two S
aktis
92
in the cremation
ground where the body was burned, employing the various oerings
already mentioned and the aforesaid rites. Alternatively, O goddess,
there may be four or eight [attendant S
aktis] contemplated with the

visualizations already taught.
93
90
This kind of S
aiva initiation was a conspicuous feature of Kashmirian life if

we may judge from satirical references to its practice in the eleventh-century works
of Ks
emendra (Desopadesa 8.50: mr
takoddh are; Narmam al a 3.43: mr
toddh ara-
dks
a). Moreover, it may have been distinctive of that region. For the only prescrip-
tions of the practice known to me from S
aiva sources other than the Netra and

Tantr aloka are also Kashmirian: (1) S
at
ka 3 of the Jayadrathay amala (f. 156r1v6

in the Catuscatv arim
satidks
apat
ala in the Ghoraghoratar acakra)its second and

third lines have been cited in this context without attribution by Jayaratha ad
Tantr aloka 21.69b and (2) the Antes
imr
toddharapat
ala of the Br
hatk alottara
(B . 195r3197r1, a section of that eclectic text borrowed with supercial adjust-
ments from the Pancaratrika Jay akhyasam
hit a24.76105b.
Commenting on this passage of the Netra Ks
emaraja refers to a non-Yogic alter-

native method for catching the soul of the deceased. A circular diagram is drawn
with OM
(n adah
) at the centre and the syllables of the syllabary drawn in six cir-
cuits around it. The S
ivanirv an
avidhi, which gives the text of the S
aiva cremation
ritual followed in Kashmir, illustrates this diagram and gives the full ritual proce-
dure, Mantras, and deities. The last are Mayadev, who is to be worshipped in a
dish full of oerings placed on a lamp that rests at the centre of the diagram on
top of OM
HAM
SAH
followed by the name of the soul to be drawn in, and the

eight Ks
etrapalas, who are to be worshipped around the periphery (pp. 242246).

91
The reference is to the ve-faced, ten-armed black Bhairava taught in 10.16b
as the form assumed by Amr
tes vara in the Daks
in
a division. See also Tantraloka

26.78, commenting on such public installations.
92
According to Ks
emaraja ad loc. the two S
aktis of the Bhairava to be installed at

the place of cremation are the full-bodied and the emaciated (saktidvayam
kr
sasthulam). These, I propose, are the last two of the eight Mothers, Camun
a
and Yoges var, since they are so described in the Kashmirian Br
hatk alottara A f.
251r2: atipurn
a tu c amun
a khad
gak adyasamudyat a=sav arud
h a nr
tyam ana savasrag-

damaman
it a=sus
k a yogesvar k ary a; and f. 251r34: evam
vidh a tu yoges sir ala

vikr
tanan a.
93
The four are Siddha, Rakta, S
us
ka and Utpalahasta, and the eight are these

together with their four companions (D uts): Kal, Karal, Mahakal and Bha-
drakal. Their visualizations are given in Netra 10.1737a.
267 S

The Netratantra, then, has shown us S
aiva ociants active in almost

all the areas of observance assigned by the Atharvavedic tradition
to the brahmanical royal chaplain: rituals for the protection of the
king, from rites attending his bathing, eating, exercise and sleep to
daily and periodic sacrices, rituals for his invigoration and victory,
rituals of regular worship on the kings behalf, including the great
public ceremonies of the Indra and Bhadrakal festivals, and rituals
for the kings benet after his death. Only the incidental function of
performing reparatory rites ( pr ayascittyam
karma) receives no atten-

tion here.
94
Nor is the text backward in urging that the ociants services
should be lavishly rewarded. In the fteenth chapter we read:
nr
pan
am
nr
papatnnam
tatsutanam
dvijadis
u
15:21 acaryah
kurute yas tu sarvanugrahakarakah
mantrajnah
sadhako vatha sa pujyah
sarvatha prabhuh
22 sam
manair asamair nityam
danair vividhavistaraih
22a asamair conj. : asanair N: vividhair Ed:

95
Any

Acarya or Sadhaka compassionate to all and possessing mastery
over this Mantra who does these rites of protection for kings, their
wives, their children, brahmins and the rest, should be constantly ven-
erated with unequalled marks of distinction and with gifts both vari-
ous and abundant.
and in the sixteenth:
gobhuhiran
yavastradyaih
key urakat
akadibhih
16:113 p ujyo sau paray a bhakty a s antipus
yor vises
atah
yasman mantramayo so vai sivah
s aks
at tu daisikah
114 tena pujitamatre
na sarve siddhiphalapradah
bhavanty avitatham
bhadre satyam etan na sam
sayah
115 anyatha siddhihanih
syat kr
tam
caiva nirarthakam
112c vastradyaih
Ed. : vastran
i N 113b santipus
yor conj: : santipus
ya
Ed. : santipus
ir N 113c so vai N : vai sa Ed: 114d satyam etan na sam
-
sayah
N : satyam
me nanr
tam
vacah
Ed:
That [ociant] should be honoured with the greatest devotion with
gifts of cows, land, gold, cloth and the like, with armlets, bracelets
and other [ornaments], particularly when he performs rites to ward o
ills or restore to health. For the Guru embodies the Mantra[-deities]. He is
94
For the six areas of the royal chaplains Atharvanic rituals see n. 17 above.
95
This emendation is supported by a parallel in 19.135ab: d anapujanasam
-
manair asamaih
pujyate yad a.
S
iva made manifest. My beloved, if one honours him, then for that alone
all [the Mantra-deities] will certainly bestow the success of the Siddhi [one
desires]. This is the truth. There is no doubt. Otherwise the Siddhi will be
lost and ones eort will be in vain.
and in the 19th chapter, after the passage cited above (19.139
134b) in which we are told that the permanent residence of such an
ociant in a kingdom will render it immune to all conceivable
calamities:
sa pujyah
sarvajantunam
bhupatnam
ca sarvada
19:135 danapujanasam
manair asamaih
pujyate yadi
tena pujitamatren
a sarve mantras ca pujitah
136 bhavanti sukhadas tatra

All men should honour that [ociant], and kings should do so con-
stantly. When they have honoured him with unparallelled gifts, dem-
onstrations of respect, and marks of distinction, then by this alone
they will have honoured all the Mantra[-deities], who will reward them
with happiness in that [realm].
All this is very much in the style that had been adopted in the brah-
manical context to promote the interests of the kings personal
chaplain, as can readily be seen from the following passage of
Atharvavedapari sis
a 4:
4:6:1 yasya raj no janapade atharva santiparagah
nivasasty api tadras
ram
vardhate nirupadravam
2 yasya raj no janapade sa nasti vividhair bhayaih
pd
yate tasya tad ras
ram
pa nke gaur iva majjati

3 tasmad raja vi ses
en
a atharvan
am
jitendriyam
danasam
manasatkarair nityam
samabhipujayet
1c tadras
ram
corr: : tad ras
ram
Ed:
The kingdom of that king in whose realm dwells an Atharvavedic
master of the rites for warding o ills will prosper, free of all calami-
ties. The kingdom of that king in whose realm he is not present is
oppressed by diverse dangers. It sinks like a cow in the mud. There-
fore to that Atharvan [chaplain] whose senses are controlled the king
should show exceptional honour at all times, by means of gifts, marks
of distinction, and demonstrations of respect.
I take the marks of distinction (sam
manam) to which this passage

and its S
aiva parallels refer to be those insignia that served to dis-

tinguish high dignitaries in the court culture of South and South-
east Asia, attributes such as palanquins, white parasols and
y-whisks with golden handles, which would be displayed whenever
such persons appeared in public. The term is used in this sense in the
269 S

Khmer inscriptions, a corpus rich in records of such honours;
96
and
we may compare Atharvavedaparisis
a 3.1.17:
hastyasvam
narayanam
divyam abharan
am
atapatram
hiran
yam
ks
itigodhanadhanyaratnadikam
ca gurave dady at
[The king] should give his chaplain an elephant and a horse, a palan-
quin, the nest ornaments for his person, a gold[-handled] parasol,
and [valuables] such as lands, cows, coin, grain and jewels.
Such insignia were calibrated as to status. The Vis
udharmottara
(2.13.79b) species that the pole of the kings parasol should be
six cubits (ca. 2.6 metres) in length, those of the royal chaplain,
royal astrologer and head of the army (senapatih
) ve, and those of

the chief queen (mahis
) and the crown prince (yuvarajah
) four and
a half. It seems highly probable that the S
aiva ociant would have

expected no less than is promised to the royal chaplain in this pas-
sage, thereby aspiring to recognition as a dignitary second in rank
only to the monarch himself.
5. CONCLUSION
In depicting S
aiva ociants in the role of the traditional royal chap-

lain, the Netratantra indicates the existence of a new class of S
aiva
specialists envisaged nowhere else in the corpus of the surviving
96
See K. 762, 6: svasvaminaf prasadat sa ca rajasabhadhipatyakr
tanama sauvarn
a-
kalasakara nkasitatapatradisanmanah
[ f = Upadhmanya] who had received the title

Rajasabhadhipati by the kings favour and been honoured with the golden vase, the
[golden] cup, the white parasol and other [insignia]; K. 809, 43, concerning Indravar-
mans S
aiva ociant S
ivasoma: i yasya rajena srndravarmman
a*sita
(conj. : + + Ep.) chatrapradanadisanmananam akarayat he caused him to be hon-
oured by King Indravarman with such marks of distinction as the white parasol; K.
725, 20: *atapatradisanmanair (conj.: tra dpanmanair Ed.) asakr
t tena
satkr
tah
Honoured by him more than once with such marks of distinction as the par-
asol. That the sanmanam=sanmananam of the Khmer inscriptions is used in the same
meaning as sam
manam=sam
mananam here is evident from parallels in which it is

linked, as in the Netra and Atharvavedaparisis
a, with danam, pujanam (/satkarah
)
and synonyms; see K. 436, 17: pujapradanasanmana; and K. 81 A 22: visrambha-
danasanmanaih
yogyo yaf paryyatr
pyata. For the golden-handled parasol see, e.g.,

Pi ngalamata f. 75r1 (10.159a): hemada
nd
am
sitam
chattram
. The granting of such a

parasol by the king is frequently mentioned in the Khmer inscriptions; see, e.g., K.
273, 29 , K. 289 C, 54, and K. 323, 80, in the last of which those with this honour
(hemadan
atapatrin
ah
) are assessed as a distinct class for the purpose of nes.

S
aiva scriptures.
97
But what was the nature of this encroach-
ment? Several scenarios are conceivable.
We might imagine that the ociant of this text had taken the
place of the brahmanical chaplain altogether or that he coexisted
with him, providing the monarch with parallel S
aiva observances to
double the chaplains. In the latter case the S
aiva ociant might

have matched all or only some of the chaplains activities. It is also
possible that the encroachment of the S
aiva ociant led to a

retrenchment of the brahmanical chaplains activites, leaving some
domains in the hands of the S
aiva ociant alone.

In the absence of independent historical evidence as yet I know
of none it is impossible to determine exactly the situation underly-
ing the textual regulation. But I nd the rst scenario the least plausi-
ble, since the dominant tendency in Indian religion has been one of
accumulation rather than substitution. Furthermore, though the
Netratantra shows us the ociant at work in nearly all the areas
assigned to the chaplain it does not match every one of his activities
in each. Thus in the area of daily activities we see a close match only
in the rituals of protecting the king while he sleeps. There is no men-
tion, for example, of the early-morning routine of giving the king
his garments, ornaments, and perfume, annointing his eyes with col-
lyrium, and then ritually bestowing on him his horse, his elephant,
his palanquin, his sword and other royal insignia.
98
Similarly, in the
case of the major periodic ceremonies, the Netratantra covers the In-
dra festival and the autumnal festival of the Goddess, but does not
mention the great biannual and annual re-sacrices of one hundred
97
It may be objected that the Netratantra is a prescriptive text and that it is there-
fore illegitimate to infer practice from it, since a prescription may be an exhortation
that neither reects nor brings that about. This is true in principle, but the probabil-
ity that the Netratantra was the blueprint for an institution that never existed is
extremely remote. It is surely much more probable that its purpose, like that of the
S
aiva scriptures in general, was to authorize and regulate an already existent tradi-
tion of practice that hitherto lacked adequate scriptural sanction. The principal
defect of such materials is not fantasy but schematization. The greater the range of
practice that they seek to bring within their scope the greater their tendency to avoid
the level of detail that characterizes actual implementation, since in this way they
can avoid contradicting the specics of current variants and instead provide a matrix
of prescription within which all these variants can comfortably be accommodated.
98
These activities are set out in Atharvavedaparisis
a 4.1.124.
271 S

thousand and ten million oblations (laks
ahomah
and kot
ihomah
) that
are among the brahmanical chaplains principal periodic duties.
99
One might dismiss these discrepancies by saying that the Netratantra
gives only some examples of the ociants obligations rather than a
full account. But that would be plausible only if we had some further
reason to suppose that this was so. The alternative would be to sup-
pose that the reason why rituals such as these re-sacrices were not
taken over by the S
aiva ociant is that they were no part of the

chaplains duties. But that is improbable, since they are included in
the accounts of the rituals to be performed for the king by his chap-
lain in the Nlamatapur an
a and

Adipur an
a-Tithikr
tya, both texts con-

cerned with Kashmirian practice. The evidence tends therefore to the
conclusion that the brahmanical chaplain retained areas in which he
alone operated.
At the same time it is possible that there were areas of retrench-
ment. For while rituals such as those of the two great festivals of
Indra and Bhadrakal might have been carried out by both the brah-
manical chaplain and the S
aiva ociant working simultaneously, even

side by side, it is harder to imagine such co-ordination in the case of
the intimate domestic rituals to prepare the kings bed-chamber for
his sleep. Here perhaps the S
aiva rite had ousted the brahmanical.

Whether this new institution was present beyond Kashmir I am
unable at present to determine. The existence of an early Nepalese
manuscript of the Netratantra, of a manual based on this text for the
daily cult of Amr
tes vara and Amr
talaks
m attributed to the Malla

99
The procedure for these two sacrices is taught in Atharvavedaparisis
a 30,
30b, and 3. Vis
udharmottara 2.152.6 requires the Kot
ihoma annually: sam
vatsar at
kot
ihomam
kury ac ca ghr
takambalam (2.161 is devoted to this procedure [ ghr
ta-
kambalakot
ihomah
/ghr
takambalasantih
]). The

Adipuran
a-Tithikr
tyav requires two

Laks
ahomas each year and one Kot
ihoma (ll. 28012803): dvau laks
ahomau kur-
vta tatha sam
vatsaram
prati=ekam
tu [ko]t
ihomam
tu yatnat sarvabhayapradam=
atharvavedavidhina *sammantrya (em : sammantryam
Ed.) ca [pu]rohitaih
. The
Nlamata probably required the same (813): sam
vatsarasyatha *karyau laks
ahomau
(conj.: karyo laks
ahomo Ed.) mahks
ita=kot
ihomas tatha karya eka eva dvijottama=

tayor vidhanam
vijneyam
kalpes
v atharvan
es
u ca. Perhaps these references to the

Atharvanic procedures are to Atharvavedaparisis
a 30a, 30b, and 31. For references

to Laks
ahomas and Kot
ihomas performed for the Khmer and Nepalese monarchs

see Sanderson, forthcoming.
king Abhayamalla, of a manual for royal initiation into this cult,
and of other textual evidence of the integration of the worship of
Amr
tes vara and Amr
talaks
m into the larger framework of Newar

S
akta S
aivism only shows that this tradition took root there in the
manner of any other S
aiva system, that is to say, as a form of initia-

tion and regular worship. It is of course possible that S
aiva ociants
in the royal palaces of the Kathmandu valley were serving their kings
in the manner envisaged in the Netratantra, but the mere presence of
a manuscript of that text is not sucient to prove this, since to be
following a tradition of initiation and worship based on the
Netratantra would be enough to motivate its copying. If evidence
were to come to light that the cult of Amr
tes vara and Amr
talaks
m
did extend in Nepal beyond the shared essentials of initiation and
worship to include encroachment into the territory of the brahmani-
cal royal chaplainand this possibility cannot be excluded since
many Nepalese liturgical texts in Newari and Sanskrit remain to be
studiedthen it would be probable that it was established in yet
other regions of the subcontinent, at least in the North and East.
APPENDIX
THE PROVENANCE AND DATE OF THE NETRATANTRA
I have asserted above that the Netratantra was composed in Kashmir and at some time
between about AD 700 and 850, probably towards the end of that period. Here I set
forth the considerations that have led me to these conclusions. In the course of doing
so I shall bring forward evidence of the provenance of certain other scriptural texts,
notably the Jayadrathayamala, the Br
hatkalottara, and the Vis
udharmottara.
THE ATTRIBUTES IN SAD
AS
IVAS HANDS
Evidence of the Netratantras provenance is found in its information on the iconic
forms under which S
iva and other deities should be visualized. In 9.1725 it pre-

scribes the image of Sadas iva, the ve-faced and ten-armed form under which
S
iva is worshipped in the Siddhanta and under which Amr
tes vara should be visu-

alized when it is necessary to worship him in that context. Sadas iva is nearly
always ve-faced and ten-armed in our sources. But there is variety in the prescrip-
tion of the objects and gestures to be exhibited by the ten hands. Now the Netra-
tantra shows a strongly distinct tradition in this regard:
trisulam utpalam
ban
am aks
asutram
ca mudgaram
9.22 daks
in
es
u kares
v evam
vames
v evam atah
param
khet
akadarsacapam
ca matulu ngam
kaman
alum
273 S

21d ca mudgaram
N : samudgaram Ed. 22b vames
v evam atah
param N :
vames
u sr
v atah
param Ed. 22c khet
akadarsacapam
ca conj. : khet
akadars
a-
capogram
N : sphet
akadarsacapam
ca Ed.
In the right hands are a trident, a blue lotus, an arrow, a rosary and a cudgel.
Next [those] in the left hands, as follows: a shield, a mirror, a bow, a citron
and an ascetics water-vessel.
This tradition I have seen elsewhere only in the Vis
udharmottara:
3.44.18 dasabahus tatha karyo devadevo mahesvarah
aks
amalam
trisulam
ca saram
dan
am athotpalam
19 tasya daks
in
ahastes
u kartavyan
i mahabhuja
vames
u matulu ngam
ca capadar sau kama
nd
alum
20 tatha carma ca kartavyam
devadevasya sulinah
18d saram
em. : sara Ed.

And Mahes vara, the God of the Gods, should be made ten-armed. O great-
armed [hero], one should place a rosary, a trident, an arrow, a cudgel and a
blue lotus in his right hands. In the left hands of the Trident-wielder, the God
of the Gods, one should place a citron, a bow, a mirror, an ascetics water-
vessel, and a shield.
100
100
The same attributes are taught in 3.48.916 with the information that the
ten are ve pairs, one held by each of the ve deities said here to be fused in the
ve-faced Sadas iva image (3.48.38): Mahadeva facing forward (the rosary and
ascetics water-vessel), Sadas iva above (the bow and the arrow), Bhairava looking
to the right (the cudgel and citron), Nandin at the rear (the shield and trident),
and the goddess Uma looking left (the mirror and blue lotus). Addorsed images of
S
iva with the lateral faces of Uma, Bhairava/Mahakala and Nandin behind are a
feature of local Kashmirian tradition as seen in material evidence of the sixth to
seventh centuries. We have examples in stone from the S
iva temple at Fattegarh

(Siudmak 1994, pl. 39a,b) and the S
ailaputr temple in Wushku r village (Hus
ka-
pura) (Siudmak 1994, pl. 40a,b), and a related bronze (Pal 1975, pl. 4a,b). The tra-
dition is also represented in Kashmirian praise of the holy site of Bhutes vara, also
called Nandiks
etra, located below Mount Harmo kh. See Nandiks
etramahatmya
f. 14r14 (vv.165168): sarvanandimahakaladevvadanaman
itam=bhutesvaram
bhu-
tapatim
dr
va martyo vimucyate=pascime vadane vra mama vatsyasi yat sahe=

bhutesvarah
sarvabhutah
sutrthantargato vibhuh
=srkan
hah
purvavadane mahakalo-
tha daks
in
e=pa scime nandirudras tu dev saumye pratis
hita=bhutesvarasya devasya
nandiks
etramahaphalam=dr
syante vadanes
v ete devnandimahasivah
Mortals are lib-

erated by seeing Bh utes vara, the Lord of Creatures, adorned with the faces of
S
arva [=S
iva], Nandin, Mahakala and the Goddess. I allow, O hero, that you
should reside in my face at the rear. Bh utes vara, [though he] is all things, the
all-pervading Lord, resides within [this holy place] Sutrtha. S
rkan
ha [=S
iva]
is established in his east-facing face, Mahakala in the south-facing, Nandirudra
in the west-facing [at the rear] and the Goddess in the north-facing. In the faces
of the god Bh utes vara one beholds as the great reward of the Nandiks
etra these
[four]: the Goddess, Nandin, Maha[kala] and S
iva; cf. Nlamata 1119c1120.

and the S
arvavatara (f. 8v1415):

sulotpales
udan
aks
asutrakodan
adharin
e
kaman
alukaraspharaphaladarpan
apa
naye
[Obeisance] to [him] who carries a trident, a blue lotus, an arrow, a cudgel, a
rosary and a bow, whose hands hold an ascetics water-vessel, a shield, a fruit,
and a mirror.
The S
arvavatara can only have been written in Kashmir, since its subject matter is
restricted to the glorication of S
aiva sacred sites in that region, most of which

have no place on the pan-Indian pilgrimage map.
101
That the Vis
udharmottara was written in Kashmir or a neighbouring region

follows from a number of factors. (1) There is a strong correlation between the
Trthas invoked in the Vis
udharmottaras Mantra for the Royal Consecration

(rajyabhis
ekamantrah
) taught in chapter 22 of its second Khan
a and those sacred

sites, mostly Kashmirian, mentioned in the local Nlamata. (2) There is close agree-
ment between chapter 35 of the second Khan
a (strdevatapujananirupan
am) and
the religious calendar of Kashmir taught in the Nlamata. (3) Where the Vis
u-
dharmottara prescribes domestic Vaidika rites it adheres to the distinctive proce-
dures of the Kat
hakagr
hyasutra, also called Laugaks
igr
hyasutra, the authority

followed for these rituals by the brahmins of Kashmir. Thus its Vais vadeva deities
(2.92.315) are those of the Kashmirian brahmins as prescribed in Kat
hakagr
hya-
sutra 4.14.120.
102
The same applies to the S
raddha rituals, as can be seen by com-

paring Vis
udharmottara 1.140.843 with Laugaks
igr
hyasutramantrabhas
ya, vol. 2,
pp. 332363. (4) It fuses the old Kashmirian iconography of the S
iva image, with its

secondary faces of Uma, Bhairava and Nandin,
103
with the pan-Indic tradition of
the S
aiva Mantramarga, which equates the ve faces of Sadas iva with the ve Vedic
Brahmamantras (3.48.16). And (5) The principal Vis
u form in its prescription of

the images of deities is the four-faced Vaikun
ha, in which the forward-facing

101
Among the sacred places of Kashmir praised in this text are Mahadevagiri
and S
rdvaragiri, the mountain-ridge along the east side of the D
al lake, with its

various Trthas, notably Jyes
hes vara and Tripures vara at Tripar and Sures var

near Ish
a
ba
r.
102
For the Kashmirian Vais vadeva ritual see K asmrikakarmak an
apaddhati f.
192v and the S
aivavaisvadevavidhi.
103
See n. 100 above.
275 S

anthropomorphic face is anked by the faces of Varaha and Narasim
ha, with the

face of the sage Kapila at the rear (3.44.9c13, 3.85.42c45). This is the principal
Kashmirian Vis
u image and it is seldom seen elsewhere.

The inference that the Netratantras prescription of the hand-attributes of Sada-
s iva is that of a Kashmirian tradition outside the Saiddhantika mainstream is
strengthened by two further items of evidence. The rst is that this type of Sadas
iva has left a trace in no Saiddhantika scripture other than the Br
hatk alottara. That

teaches a close variant of the hand-attributes seen in the Netratantrait diers
only in that a sword (khad
gah
) takes the place of the cudgel (dan
ah
) in one of the
hands
104
and it contains other indications that it was redacted in Kashmir or
under Kashmirian inuence, notably the imprint of the non-dualistic S
akta S
aiva
doctrine and terminology seen in the Spandakarika, a seminal work of that tradi-
tion composed in Kashmir towards the end of the ninth century.
105
The second is that we have another variant of the Netratantras Sadas iva in
the Kashmirian liturgical tradition. This is the image of Bahur upabhairava, who is
worshipped with his consort Mayadev in the Kashmirian S
aiva cremation ritual

(sivanirvan
avidhih
). In the hands of this variant a sword takes the place of the blue
lotus (nlotpalam) and the gesture of bestowing boons (varadamudra) that of the
mace (gada).
106
104
Br
hatkalottara B f. 17r56: nlanrajanaracakhad
g aks
avalayabhayam=satrisu-
lam
harasyoktam
*daks
in
e (em. : daks
in
a Cod.) pa nca bahavah
=bjapuram
dhanus
carma varada n ca kaman
alum
=v ame tu devadevasya bahavah
pa nca krtitah
.
105
For this imprint see Sanderson 2001, pp. 1718, n. 19. As further evidence
of the Br
hatkalottaras Kashmirian origin one may cite its knowledge of the pair-
ing (to be discussed below) of the two sets of four goddesses associated in Kashmi-
rian tradition with the Vama and Daks
in
a divisions of the S
aiva scriptures. Also

consistent with this origin is its use of the term kharkhodah
, to be discussed below,
and its dependence on the Pancaratrika scripture Jay akhyasam
hita demonstrated in
Sanderson, 2001, pp. 3841. That that scripture was produced in Kashmir is highly
probable, though not certain.
106
See S
ivanirvan
avidhi p. 235, l.8p. 246, l.8 (mun
ayagah
and mayajalapuja). For

the visualization see p. 237, ll. 14: sitam
tryaks
am
pa ncavaktram
dasabahum
sasaktikam=sulaks
asutres
ukhad
gavarair daks
akarair vr
tam=matulu ngadhanuscarma-
kumbhadarpan
avamakaih
. The names of the two deities are revealed in their Mantras:

9-M
H-S-KS
-M-L-V-R-Y
UM
BAHUR
UPABHAIRAV
AYA SVADH
A NAMA
H (p. 237,
l. 4) and HR
IM
AY
ADEVYAI SVADH
A NAMAH
(p. 237, l. 9). They are worshipped

surrounded by the eight Mothers and the eight Bhairavas (p. 237, l. 9 p. 238, l. 7).
THE GODDESSES SIDDH
A, RAKT
A, S
US
A
AND UTPAL
A
In chapters 10 and 11 the Netratantra teaches substitutes for the standard icon of
Amr
tes vara to be adopted when the ociant has reason to adapt this Mantra-
deity to the context of the Vama and Daks
in
a S
aiva systems. In these cases

Amr
tes vara should be visualized as Tumburu and Bhairava respectively, those

being the presiding deities of those systems, and he should be worshipped sur-
rounded by the retinues of S
aktis proper to those two. These, to mention only

the primary circuit of goddesses, are four in each case: Jaya, Vijaya, Ajita and
Aparajita in the Vama (11.1218) and Siddha, Rakta, S
us
ka and Utpalahasta
(10.17c34) in the Daks
in
a. The rst set of goddesses is given as the inner reti-

nue of the Vamas Tumburu in all accounts of this cult, and these come from
widely separated areas of the Indic world: Kashmir, Gilgit, Nepal, Kerala, Ta-
milnadu, Cambodia and Bali. But the second sets association with the Daks
in
as
Bhairava, indeed the second set itself, is far less well attested, in spite of the far
greater abundance of the textual materials that have survived from this division.
Now the only other texts known to me in which these four goddesses, or variants of
them, are mentioned are Kashmirian: Jayarathas commentary on Abhinavaguptas
Tantraloka, the

Anandesvarapuja, the Br
hatkalottara, the Moks
opaya, and the

Jayadrathayamala.
Where the Kashmirian Abhinavagupta (. c. 9751025) says that in the Kaula
worship of the Trika the deities that surround the central triad of the Goddesses
may be twelve, sixteen, four, or indeed whatever set one prefers,
107
his compatriot
Jayaratha (. c. 1250) comments: The four here are either those beginning with
Siddha or those beginning with Jaya;
108
and where Abhinavagupta describes
wine as Mahabhairava fully radiant with the four S
aktis,
109
Jayaratha com-
ments that the four to which he refers are the set of four beginning with Siddha,
for, he adds, these are white, red, yellow and black in colour.
110
The

Anandes-
107
Tantraloka 29:51 . antar dvadasakam
pujyam
tato s
as
akam eva ca=catus
kam
va yatheccham
va ka sam
khya kila rasmis
u. The sequel reveals that the expression

as
as
akam is to be taken as a Dvandva compound meaning eight-and-eight,

referring to the eight Kaula Mothers with their eight Bhairavas.
108
Tantralokaviveka ad 29.51c: catus
kam iti siddhadi jayadi va.

109
Tantr aloka 37.42d: sakticatus
ayojjvalam alam
madyam
mah abhairavam.
110
Tantr alokaviveka ad 37.42d: saktti
siddh adicatus
kam (em.: siddh acatus
kam
Ed.). tad dhi sitaraktaptakr
avarn
am. The colours were no doubt thought to be

signicant as those of four varieties of wine.
277 S

varapuja has this same set of four worshipped as the retinue of

Anandes varabhair-
ava and his consort Suradev, the deities of wine.
111
The Br
hatkalottara covers the four goddesses beginning with Jaya and the four
beginning with Siddha, without associating them with Tumburu and Bhairava or
the Vama and Daks
in
a divisions, in a chapter devoted to the iconography of

images of the Mothers.
112
The Moks
opaya identies the four beginning with Siddha as those that sur-
round Bhairava in the Daks
in
a division (daks
in
asrotah
), pairs them with the four

surrounding Tumburu in the Vama division (vamasrotah
), and asserts that these

eight are the foremost of all the Mother goddesses.
113
In the Jayadrathayamala the two sets of four form the sixty-rst and sixty-
second cycles of the eighty-one cycles of the goddess Ravin
that occupy ever

higher centres along the axis of the worshippers body in the fourth of the four
divisions of six thousand stanzas (S
at
kas) that comprise that text. The rst set, in

the order S
us
ka, Siddha, Utpala and Rakta, is said there to comprise the S
aktis of
111

Anandesvarap uj a f. 59[2]r46: bh an
atale. ha-sa-ra-ks
a-ma-la-va-ya- um
ana-
ndesvarabhairav aya vaus
at
: sa-ha-ra-ks
a-ma-la-va-ya- um
sur adevyai vaus
at
: om
* si-
ddh ayai (conj.: siddh arth ayai Cod.) vaus
at
: evam
sus
k ayai vau. rakt ayai: utpal ayai.

Cf. in a prescription for the worship of

Anandes vara after the completion of the
re-sacrice Agnik aryapaddhati B f. 130r10: bh an
e devyas catasro.
112
The chapter, called m atr
bhairavavartana in its colophon, unnumbered in the

manuscripts, is the seventy-seventh by my count. The section on the two sets of
four is as follows (Br
hatkalottara A f. 252r24; B f. 219r4219v2):27 caturbhuja

caturvaktra jaya kundendusannibha=is
ukodan
asam
yukta pretastha nr
tyatatpara=
28 evam
tu vijaya karya raktabha svoparisthita/evam
jayant bbhatsa surya*bhmo-

paristhita (conj.: bhmaparisthita AB)/29 *megha (conj.: moha AB) stha *cotpalakara
(A: cotpatakara B) nr
tyant kr
avarcasa (A: kr
avarcas B)=aparajita pra-

kartavya nanatodyanuvartin=30 pretastha (A: pratastha B) caiva nirmam
sa siddha
kundendusannibha=khad
gacarma *dhar (A: dhura B) dev ks
urikamun
abhus
ita=31
evam
rakta kim
tu *rakta (A: bhuktam
B) sus
kam
*kalm
(conj.: kantim
) tu
karayet=*utpalaprabhavadana (conj: utpalaprabh avadan a A: utpalaprabhav ad ata B)
utpal a ngotpalasthit a.
113
The relevant passage of this unpublished part of the Moks
opaya has been

edited in Hanneder, 1998a, p. 69: jaya ca vijaya caiva jayant caparajita=vamasro-
togata etas tumburum
rudram asritah
=siddha sus
ka ca rakta ca utpala ceti devatah
/
sroto daks
in
am asritya bhairavam
rudram asritah
=sarvasam eva matr
am as
av e-
tas tu nayikah
.
the Lord of the Daks
in
a (daks
in
esvarah
), and the second set, in the order Jaya, Vi-

jaya, Aparajita and Jayant, that of the Lord of the Vama (vamavresvaresanah
).
114
The four beginning with Siddha appear again in that S
at
ka as the rst of a series of

32 S
aktis comprising the sequence called With-Support (salambakramah
) in a vari-
ant of the Krama system of the Kalkula.
115
In the second S
at
ka they (but with Rakta under the name Camun
da) are the

rst four of the twelve Mothers that form the retinue of Kal Catus cakres var
Ruler of the [Three] Cycles of Four. The other eight are the four beginning with
Jaya, followed by Vama, Jyes
ha, Raudr and Bhadrakal.

116
That Jayarathas commentary on the Tantraloka is Kashmirian requires no
demonstration. The

Anandesvarapuja is part of the corpus of Kashmirian ritual
texts, and the form of worship it teaches is a regular ancillary element in the Kash-
mirian S
aiva ritual of initiation.

117
The Kashmirian origin of the Br
hatkalottara has
114
Jayadrathay amala, S
at
ka 4, f. 91v792r: vamadaks
in
ac ar abhyam
kalitau cakra-
*nayakau conj: . n ayike Cod.)/yau pam
cadha suresani tatra sa sphurit a yada=tada

vyakt avyaktatar a sr
isam
hara*karik a (corr.: k arak a Cod.)/karam
kin
mah araudra
daks
in
esvara *sam
yut a (conj.: s am
pratam Cod.)/sus
k asiddhotpal arakt arasminatham
param
mahat=tatrodgatam
k alanaya jagaty asmin car acare=v amavresvaresanam
jaya
ca vijaya tath a=aparajita jayam
t s a cety evam
pam
cakam
smr
tam
=atra *sr
ivat
(em.: siddhivat Cod.) dev prodit a paramesvar=sam
hara*dh amni (em.: dh astri Cod.)

ya k al s a vyakt a purvvacakratah
=evam
caradvaye k al sr
isam
harak arin
.
115
Jayadrathay amala, S
at
ka 4, f. 202r26: s alambam evamay ati *vyaktim
(em.:
vyaktih
Cod.) suravararcite=atra rasmisam uhasya vibhagam
sr
u sam
pratam=si-
ddha rakt a susus
k any a utpal a parikrttit a=k al ca k alaratr ca k ala*dh ar a(em.: dh are

Cod.) kalesvar=sim
havaktr a ca m arj ar us
r a k ap alin tatha=khara*r up avir up a em: :

rupa ca virup a Cod.) ca mes
arupa mahorag a=rakt aks
raktav asa ca lam
bakarn
tat
haiva ca=pr
thodar tv ekanetr a lokan ath a bhayam
kar=ulukavadan a cany a *kolavaktra

(conj.: kalavaktr a Cod.) ca khim
khin= karam
k a bhadrakal ca tathaivanya maha-

bala=bharud
a hy at
ah as a ca r aks
as hy asur tatha=eta eva smr
ta rasmyo *dvidha-
s
as
akabhedatah
(conj.: dr
vajnas
akabhedatah
Cod.)=kulavidyapurvvayukta svana-
makr
ta*madhyakah
(conj.: madhyagah
Cod.)/*padant ah
(conj.: padartha Cod.)

p ujanyas t ah
samyak*salambasiddhidah
(em.: pr alam
basiddhid ah
Cod.) sphuracca-
krakramanta*sthah
(corr.: sth a Cod.) svasthane *pravijr
mbhit ah
(corr.: prajijr
bhitah
Cod.)=praks
abh ava*vr
ndaugh ah
(corr.: vr
daugha Cod.) sarvv ah arah
sulampat
ah
/
iti jayadrathayamale s alam
bacakrakramavidhibhedah
.
116
Jayadrathayamala, S
at
ka 2, f. 12r89 (3.4547b): tatrastham
pujayen mantr
antakantakarm
param=dvadasare tatas cakre sam
pujya matarottamah
=camun
a ca
tatha sus
ka siddha caivotpala tatha=jaya ca vijaya caiva jayant caparajita=vama

jyes
ha tatha raudr bhadrakal gan
ambika.
117
See Kaladks
avidhi f. 58r910, in the context of the concluding of the rites of

the rst day (adhivasadinam): kr
tva ca vaisvadevanandesvarabhairavapujadi brahma-

n
apujanam
ca kr
tva; f. 235r16v3, in the context of the closing rites of the last day
of the initiation: tatah
pr
thaksthale anandesvarabhairavapujam
taduktavidhina kr
tva
ks
etrapalam
s cagrelikhitaks
etrapalapaddhatikramen
a sam
pujya.
279 S

been argued above. That the Moks
opaya was composed in Kashmir has been estab-

lished by Ju rgen Hanneder, who has also tied the time of its composition to a
few years immediately after the reign of the Kashmirian king Yasaskara (r. AD 939
948).
118
As for the provenance of the Jayadrathayamala, we must distinguish between
the rst S
:
at
ka of six thousand verses and the eighteen thousand verses of the

remaining three. The rst was originally an independent whole. It presents itself as
such, predicts no sequel, and is distinct from the other S
:
at
kas, which are closely

related to each other in style, terminology and concepts.
119
In the rst I see noth-
ing that enables us to x the region of its composition. But the rest of the later
text shows clear signs of Kashmirian origin. In the second S
:
at
ka the only sign I

see is the collocation of these two sets of four S
aktis. But in both S

:
at
kas 3 and 4
there is further evidence.
When the fourth S
:
at
ka sets out the procedures and rituals that must accom-

pany the copying of a manuscript of the Jayadrathayamala it assumes that the
copying will be done on sheets of birch bark (bhurjapatran
i).
120
This was the stan-
dard writing material only in Kashmir and adjacent areas of the northwest.
The third S
:
at
ka contains a chapter devoted to the use of the Mantra of the

goddess Ghoraghoratara in order to gain access to the subterranean paradises of
Patala ( patalasiddhih
). It lists seventeen sites where there are S
rmukhas, special
apertures in the earth (bilam) through which this feat can be achieved. The rst
seven are at sites of pan-Indian fame: Prayaga, Gaya, S
rs aila, Man
ales vara,
Haris candra, the Narmada river, and the Kalinjara mountain. The last ten are
118
Hanneder, 2003, pp. 4052.
119
Sanderson, 2002, p. 2 and n. 13.
120
Jayadrathayamala; S
:
at
ka 4, f. 208v4: bhurjapatran
i camam
trya kr
takautu-
kamam
galah
=likhed varn
ani Having empowered the leaves of birch-bark with the

Mantra and tied a protective thread about his wrist he should trace the letters.
said to be at S
ulabheda, Vijaya, Varaha, Jyes
ha, the Uttaramanasa [lake], near

Tu ngasvamin, on Mahadevagiri, at Patramula, Padmasaras, and Mahama-
yuraka.
121
Two of these ten, Mahamayuraka and Tu ngasvamin, are unknown to
me, but the remaining eight can be identied as sacred sites within Kashmir. S
u-
labheda, also known as S
ulaghata, is the spring of the Naga Nla (nlakun
am),
the source of the river Vitasta/Vyath/Jhelum, so named because S
iva is believed
to have split open the earth (-bheda) here by striking it (-ghata) with his trident
(S
ula-) so that the river could emerge from the underworld;

122
Vijaya is Vija-
yaks
etra on the right bank of the Vitasta, the site of the temple of S
iva Vijayes -
121
Jayadrathayamala, S
:
at
ka 3, f. 162r47 (in Ghoratarasadhana; Patalasi-

ddhipat
ala): evam
bilavibhagam
syad deses
v adhuna mucyate=prayage ca gayayam
ca
srsaile man
alesvare=
*
hariscandre (em. : hariscam
dra Cod.) narmadayam
tatha
kali njare girau=kasmrayam
sulabhedam
*toyapurn
am
(conj. : rotapurn
a Cod.) bilo-
ttamam
=vijaye ca varahe ca jyes
he cottaramanase=tu ngasvamisampe tu mahadevagi-

rau tatha=patramule padmasare mahamayurake tatha=evamadis
u deses
u srmukhas te
prakrtitah
. The term srmukham, here masculine, denotes the superior among such
apertures. Ibid. f. 162r45: uttamam
srmukham
j neyam
bahugarbhapuracitam=ma-
dhyamam
bilasam
jnam
syad antah
purasatair yutam=samanyam
vivaram
proktam
siddhadravyasatavr
tam.
122
Nlamata 1302, 1389; Haracaritacintaman
i 12.16c17, referring to it as the

supreme aperture (bilam uttamam): *nlakun
am
(em. : nlakan
ham
Ed.) vitasta-
khyam
sulaghatam iti tribhih
=
*
abhidhanaih
(em. : abhidhanam
Ed.) prasiddham
tad
adyapi bilam uttamam; Vijayesvaramahatmya f. 11v46: sulena bhittva patalam
tasmat
sthanavarac chubhat=uddhr
ta sanad pun
ya paramabrahmacarin
=varahatanaya devi
muktida sarvajantus
u=sulabheda iti khyatam
tat trtham
parvatagrimam; Stein, 1961,

vol. 2, p. 411. It is located near Vernag.
281 S

vara, recognized beyond the Kashmir valley as the principal S
iva of the region;

123
Varaha (Varahaks
etra/Varahatrtha) is the site of the shrine of Vis
u

Adivaraha
just above the gorge through which the Vitasta leaves the valley;
124
Jyes
ha is the
site of S
iva Jyes
hes vara adjoining that of

Siva Bh utes vara (But
i
sher), a major
Kashmirian pilgrimage site below the Harmo `kh glaciers;
125
Uttaramanasa is the
Gan gabal lake at the foot of those glaciers;
126
Mahadevagiri is the mountain
peak of that name located in the ridge that separates the valleys of the Sindhu
123
See R ajatara ngin
1.38; Skandapur an
a, N agarakhan
a (6), Adhyaya 109 (list-

ing the names of the S
ivas at each of 68 S
ivatrthas throughout the subcontinent),

13a: vijayam
caiva k asmre; Nlamata 1056, 1303; Haracaritacint aman
i, chapter 10;
Tantr aloka 37.39cd; Kath asarits agara 39.36; 51.48; 66.5; Desopadesa 4.28; Stein,
1961, vol. 2, pp. 463464. This is the eponymous S
iva of the modern town of

Vèjabr or
u
(Vijayabhat
araka). The view that this is the pre-eminent Li nga of S
iva
in Kashmir is also expressed in the Vijayesvaram ah atmya (f. 2r3: kasmraman
ale
pun
ye vijaye li ngam uttamam), which also claims pan-Indian pre-eminence for the
site by saying that of all the S
ivaks
etras of the subcontinent (Kumardvpa), the ve

sets of eight and the sixty-eightfor these see Sanderson, 2005, nn. 199203 and
207209four are supreme: Avimukta (in Benares), Mahakala (in Ujjain), Varis
ha
(in Is
akapatha/Is
ikapatha?), and Vijayes vara (f. 2r15v8): ye ca pa nc as
ak a guhy a
ye v as
as
as
isa nkhay a=sth an as susobhan a hr
dy ah
sarvak amaphalaprad ah
=jant un am
bh avayukt an am
bhogad a muktid as sad a=tes
am
madhy an mah adevi proktam
ks
etraca-
tus
ayam=avimuktam
mah ak alam
varis
ham
vijayesvaram= agneyaman
al antasstham
kum ardvpam asritam=bharatasya tu madhye sya catv aro vasthit a iha=mah asmas a-
nasam
j n as ca sth an a ete prakalpit ah
=tes
am
vibh agam
vaks
y ami yath akramam anu-

ttamam=avimuktah
sthitah
p urve mah ak alo tha daks
in
e=
*
varis
hah
(corr. : varis
ah
Cod.) pascime bh age tasy ante vijayesvarah
.
124
See R ajatara ngin
6.206; 7.1310; Nlamata 115859; Haracaritacint aman
i
12.43; Kath asarits agara 39.37 (v ar aham
ks
etram
); Stein, 1961, I, p. 251, n. on

6.186. This is the source of the name of the surrounding town of Warahmul/
Baram ula (Varahamula).
125
R ajatara ngin
1.113; Nandiks
etram ah atmya of the S
arv avat ara, . 12r715r1

(vv. 142175); Nlamata 1032, 11111136 (Bh utesvaram ah atmya); Kath asarits agara
39.36 (Nandiks
etra); 51.48 (Nandiks
etra); Stein, 1961, II, pp. 407408.

126
See Nlamata 899, 960, 112430; Haracaritacint aman
i 4.87.; Kath asarits agara

39.38; Jayantabhat
a, Ny ayamanjar, vol. 2, p. 376, l.14; Moks
op aya, Vair agya-

prakaran
a 1.2.36b; the Northern recension after Mah abh arata 13.26.56 (on Kalo-
daka, Nandikun
a, Uttaramanasa and the image of Nandsvara [at Bh utes vara/

Jyes
hesvara]); K urmap ur an
a 2.36.41c42b; Stein, 1961, vol. 1, p. 111, n. on 3.448.

and the Arrah;
127
Padmasaras is the great lake at the northern end of the valley
now known as the Wòlur;
128
and Patram ula can only be the Trtha of the Naga
Patra that the Nlamata places on the course of the Vitasta between its conu-
ence with the Sindhu and its entry into the Wòlur Lake.
129
The site appears
under the name Patram ula in the Kashmirian pilgrimage text Vitastamahatmya,
which tells us that it is here that the Greater Gan ga (Mahagan ga) emerged into
the world from the subterranean paradise and that it is here that the demon
Gayasura disappeared into that underworld when pursued and struck by Vis
u
with his mace.
130
Two of these sites, Vijaya and Uttaramanasa, were famous outside Kashmir,
131
but others, such as Patramula, are registered only in local tradition. It is therefore
very unlikely that this is the work of any but a Kashmirian addressing a Kashmirian
readership.
Since, therefore, the only sources other than the Netratantra that know the set
of the four goddesses Siddha, Rakta, S
us
ka and Utpala are Kashmirian, and since

there is an abundance of non-Kashmirian sources in which their absence is signi-
cant, it is highly probable that the Netratantra too is a work of this region.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF VIS
U
Further support for this conclusion is provided by the texts iconography of Vis
u
and Brahma. Of its forms of the former the rst is one-faced and four-armed,
holding the conch, discus, mace and lotus (13.24). The second (13.59) is a three-
faced version of the four-faced Vaikun
ha, with a central anthropomorphic head

anked by those of the Boar (Varaha) and the Man-Lion (Narasim
ha), sur-
rounded by the goddesses Laks
m, Krti, Jaya, and Maya, and accompanied by

his consort Laks
m (13.59). The third (13.1013b) is a naked, ithyphallic, eight-

127
See Nlamata 1337; Haracaritacint aman
i 10.258; S
arv avat ara . 35 (Adhyaya

3); Kath asarits agara 51.48; S
ivas utravimarsin, p. 1; Stein, 1961, vol. 2, p. 422.

128
Nlamata 985997, 1351, 1353; R ajatara ngi n 4.592617; Stein, 1961, vol. 2,
pp. 42324. It is more usually called Mahapadmasaras (the lake of the [Naga]
Mahapadma), but we see Padmasaras in R ajatara ngin
8.2421.
129
Nlamata 134950.
130
Vitast am ah atmya (assigned to the Bhr
ngsasam
hit a, a traditional locus of attri-

bution for Kashmirian Puranic materials), A f. 25r911: anvadh avac ca tad raks
o
devadevo jan ardanah
=gaday a capi tam
jaghne raks
asam
bhagav an harih
=anvadravat
punas tam
ca *y avad (conj. : t avad Cod.) vai p atram ulakam=tatraiva raks
ah
p at alam
pradadr ava mahesvari=tatrodbh ut a mah aga ng a p at al aj jagadsvari=tatra sn atv a *nare

(conj. : naro Cod.) devi muktibhukt na sam
sayah
.
131
See nn. 123 and 126 above.
283 S

armed child riding a ram, playing with women, and attended by four naked god-
desses, Karp ur, Candan, Kast ur, and Ku nkum.
132
Judging from surviving stone and bronze sculptures we see that the rst and the
second were the standard forms of Vis
u in Kashmir
133
and that the second is
found almost only there, becoming four-faced from about the middle of the ninth
century through the addition of an addorsed head of the sage Kapila.
134
Ks
emaraja
identies this form and its four attendant goddesses as following the prescription of
the Pancaratrika Jay akhyasam
hit a, and he is right to have done so, except that this

text teaches the four-faced form with those goddesses. The Netratantras image re-
ects Kashmirian practice prior to the addition of the Kapila face.
135
132
Netra 13.1013b: athav as
abhujam
devam
ptavarn
am
susobhanam=mes
opa-
risthitam
*devi (Ed. : devam
N) *digv asam urdhvali nginam (corr. : digv asam
m urdhva-
lim
ginam
N: digvastram
cordhvali nginam Ed.) /11 sr
ngam
vas
abhya caikena *vy a

khy anodyatap an
ikam (conj. : coy anodyatap an
ikam N: cey arodyatap an
ikam Ed.)=
b alar upam
yajen nityam
*krd
am anam
hi yos
it am
(N: krd
antam
yos
it am
gan
aih
Ed.)/12 caturdiks
u sthit a devyo*digv as as tu N: digambara Ed.) manoram ah
=ka-
rp ur candan caiva kast ur ku nkum tath a= 13 *tadr upadh arin
r devr (conj. : tadr u-

padhar ari nm
devm
N : tadr upadh arik a devyo Ed.) icch asiddhiphala *prad ah
(Ed. :
prad a N).
133
For instances of the rst see Pal, 1975, pl. 10 (9th century) and Siudmak
1994, pl. 31 (c. 500550), pl. 34 (c. 550600), pl. 38 (c. 525550), pl. 50 (c. 600
625), pl. 52 (c. 575600), pl. 55 (early 7th century), pl. 58 (c. 525550), pl. 60 (c.
600625), pl. 72 (c. 675700), pl. 123 (c. 825850) For instances of the second see
Pal, 1975, pl. 9 (three-faced, c. 800), pl. 12a,b (four-faced, 11th century), pl. 84a,b,c
(from neighbouring Chamba, four-faced, 9th century), and Siudmak, 1994, pl. 118
(three-faced, c. 700725), pl. 120 (three-faced, c. 775800), pl. 121 (three-faced, c.
775800), pl. 122 (three-faced, c. 825850), pl. 124 (four-faced, c. 850), pls. 140143
(all four-faced, c. 85055, Avantisvamin temple), pls. 15556 (both c. 875900), pl.
170 (c. 10001025), Huntington, 1985, g. 17.19 (c. 12th century).
134
Siudmak, 1994.
135
Netroddyota after 13.8c9: evam
srjay asam
hit adr
yoktv a. Ks
emarajas Jay a-
sam
hit a is evidently the Jay akhyasam
hit a. The Kashmirian Bhagavatotpala refers

to the work as Jay a in his Spandapradpik a, p. 91 ( proktam
hi srjay ay am. The

citation that this introduces is Jay akhyasam
hit a 10.69). The visualization of the

four-faced Vaikun
ha, the central deity of that scripture, is prescribed in 6.7376.

It is highly improbable that Ks
emaraja knew this text in an earlier redaction in

which the image had only three faces as in the Netra. For the text does not merely
teach a four-faced image. It teaches a system of rites in which the distinction
between the three subsidiary faces of Narasim
ha, Varaha and Kapila, each with

its own Mantra, is central.
The third form, which is not named in the Netratantra, is said by Ks
emaraja to
follow the prescription of the Mayavamanasam
hit a, another Pancaratrika scrip-

ture, but one not known to have survived.
136
This too is very probably a Kashmiri-
an tradition. For I see evidence of it elsewhere only in the Haracaritacint aman
i, a
collection of local Kashmirian variants of S
aiva myths composed in the thirteenth

century by Rajanaka Jayadratha. In that texts account of the origin of the Kash-
mirian variant of the S
ivaratri festival a two-armed, red-clad form of this mysteri-

ous child Vis
u riding a ram, subsequently identied as a manifestation of the deity

Sam
kars
an
a, comes with Narasim
ha to rescue the Goddess Parvat when the

Yogins had magically extracted her from S
ivas heart and sacriced her to him in

his Bhairava form without his knowledge:
sivas tad vks
ya puratah
parijnaya vimr
sya ca
hr
dayam
parvats unyam
cintayan ks
obham ayayau
45 evam
vidham
tato vartam adhigamya janardanah
aruhya garud
am
mes
arupam
dvibhuja ayayau
46 sa balarupah
sauvarn
os
o raktambaro pi ca
krd
an samayayau vis
us tatha sim
hatanur narah
47 nr
sim
atanuna sakam
ks
obhayan yogingan
am
jagarja ghoragambhram
narayan
a itas tatah
Haracaritacintaman
i 31.4447
When S
iva saw that before him, understood it, and reected upon it, he
became greatly disturbed, contemplating his heart that was now empty of
Parvat. Then when Vis
u had learned that this had come to pass he arrived in

the form of a child, playing, two-armed, wearing a golden turban and a red
robe, riding Garu
da in the form of a ram. Narasi
mha [came] too. Accompanied

by his Narasim
ha form Naraya
na emitted a deep and terrifying roar [rushing]

to and fro amid the band of Yogins, causing them to quake [with fear].
The Yogins, eight in number, meditate on the eight Mothers that are their sources.
These come forth and join the Yogins in placating S
iva with a hymn. The terrible

S
ivadut then arises to devour the Yogins and a celestial voice calls on S
iva to
remember his own true nature. This he does and immediately the Supreme S
akti
136
Netroddyota after 13.8c9, introducing 10: evam
srjay asam
hit adr
yoktv a
m ay av amanik asthity apy aha. . . . Having taught [Vis
u] according to the doctrine

of the Jay asam
hit a he says, following the rule of the M ay av amanik a: . . .. The

form M ay av amanik a (/*M ay av aman ) is an abbreviation for M ay av amanasam
hit a
of the type Bhma for Bhmasena (bhmavat ). The full form M ay av amanasam
hit a
is seen in Spandapradpik a, p. 92. Dropping -sam
hit a and transferring the feminine

ending to the preceding word is a common practice when citing the names of both
Pancaratrika and S
aiva scriptures. Cf. Paus
kar a for Paus
karasam
hit a and S atvat a

for S atvatasam
hit a in Spandapradpik a, pp. 85 and 98, and K amik a for K amika-

sam
hit a in Tantr aloka 4.25c.

285 S

emerges in her terrible, universal aspect [as Kalasam
kars
an
137
]. Evidently this is
the true nature that S
iva had forgotten. The Yogins restore Parvat; a second

S
akti of Vis
u (in addition to S
ivadut) comes forth to serve her; her two defenders,

the rst, Vis
u, now identied more specically as Sam
kars
an
a, sing a hymn of
praise to the terrible Goddess; and she rewards them by granting them the honour
of residing on her person as ear-pendants.
138
Two features beyond the mere fact of the inclusion of this myth in the Haraca-
ritacintaman
i point to its Kashmirian character. The rst is the reference to the

Goddesss having rewarded Sam
kars
an
a and Narasim
ha by adopting them as her

ear-pendants, evidently an aetiological explanation of a detail of her iconography.
This detail I have encountered only in manifestations of Kalasam
kars
an
taught
in the Kashmirian part of the Jayadrathayamala.
139
137
She is not so named directly in this text. But in v. 59 we learn that at the
close of these events S
iva worshipped her in the midst of the Mothers, oering up

Time (k alah
as the sacrificial victim
: p ujit a m atr
madhye s a kruddh a dev kap alin a=

upah arkr
tastatra pasuh
k alas ca duh
sahah
. This element of the myth is surely

intended as a semantic analysis of the name Kalasam
kars
an
Withdrawer of Time.
138
Haracaritacint aman
i 31.4858: tatas t ah
ks
obhit as t abhy am
yoginyo bhayak a-
tar ah
=asmaran sv am
sa ev antah
saran
am
bh avan abal at=49 tadbh avan abal at *svasva

(conj : svam
svam
Ed.) prakat
kr
ta*vigrah ah
(em. : vigraham=ath avir asan yuga-

pad brahm an
y ady as ca devat ah
=50 par as t ah
od
aso devyah
pran
amya paramesva-
ram=astuvann a njalr baddhv a vicitraih
p avanaih
stavaih
=51 stutr vidh ayavidhin a

bh uyo py et a ath avadan=*stutavryo (conj.: stutivryam
Ed.) nijam
vryam
smara
deva nir akulah
=52 iti stute yoginbhir mah adeve samudyayau=d arit asy a siv ad ut yogi-
nbhaks
an
odyat a=53 athodabh ut par a v an
smara rudra nij am
tanum=katham
sivo-
citam
r upam
vismr
tam
te vimr
syat am=54 tay a gir a mah adevo nijam
sasm ara
vigraham=udyayau ca par a saktir adbhut ak arar upin
=55 ghor a sahasracaran
a bhak-
s
ayant car acaram=brahm an
akot
r nirmathya pibant bh uri son
itam=56 tat ks
an
e
yoginvargo ntap urv am
him adrij am=punar utp aday am asa *svayogena bhay anvit ah
(em.: svayogen abhay anvit ah
Ed.)/57 udyayau vais
av saktir apar a sevitum
ca
t am=sim
hasam
kars
an
abhy am
ca par a saktis tad a stut a=58 bhakty a viracitastotr a

dev varayati sma tau=svadh ama dehe karn
abhy am
bh us
an
artham adhatta ca.

139
See Jayadrathay amala, S
at
ka 2, f. 82r7 (visualization of Jvakal): nr
sim
hasam-
kars
an
akarn
alambin; S
at
ka 2, f. 85v8 (visualization of Ardhamun
a/Mahesanaka-
l): v amakarn
e pralam
bantam
sam
kars
an
am avasthitam=daks
in
e narasim
ham
sy ad;
S
at
ka 2, f. 99v5 (visualization of Vryakal): sphurannr
sim
ha*sam
kars
apr a-
lambasrutisobhit am (conj.: sam
karn
apr alam
bhasobhin am Cod.); S
at
ka 3, f. 92r4
(visualization of Matacakres var): sa nkars
an
amah asim
ha*sava(em. : sarva Cod.)

karn
avalam
binm.
The second is that I see no trace outside Kashmir of this novel myth
of extraction, sacrice and restoration, while in Kashmir itself it appears in
a number sources concerned with local traditions. The

Adipuran
a-Tithikr
tya
gives it in the context of Umacaturth, the festival of the goddess Uma
on the fourth day of the light half of Magha (December/January).
140
The
scripture Dutid
amara,
141
the Suresvarmahatmya of the S
arvavatara,
142
the
140

Adipur an
a-Tithikr
tya, ll. 2145, 2147: um acaturthy am
m aghe tu sukl ay am
yogi-
ngan
aih
=pr ag bhaks
ayitv a *sr
t a (Cod.: sr
v a conj. Ed.) ca bh uyah
sv a ng am
-
sajair gan
aih
(I have dropped l. 2146 as a misplaced double of l. 2152) On the bright

fourth sacred to Uma in the month of Magha the hordes of Yogins rst devoured
her and then re-created her with Gan
as that were partial incarnations of their own

bodies.
141
D utid
amara f. 71v1112 (vv. 1517 of this section): mayi nr
tyati devti
tatra cchidram
prakalpitam=m atr
bhih
tv apahr
tya tv am
devcakre nivedit a/ 16 bha-

ks
it a yoginbhis ca tato hr
as tu devat ah
=nr
tyanti ca may a s ardham
y avad eva
dinadvayam=tatas samast a visr ant a hr
di tvam
cintit a may a=na pasy ami ca devi

tv am
vismayam
paramam
gatah
O Goddess, by dancing there [in the cremation

ground] I made myself vulnerable to [their] entry. [So] the Mothers extracted you
[from your hiding place within me] and oered you up to the Cakra of the Goddess.
The Yogins devoured you. Then the deities were delighted and danced with me for
the next two days. Then they all ceased and I thought of you [, believing that you
were still hidden] in my heart, and when I could not see you there I was greatly
astonished. Bhairava in his rage smashes the Cakra of the sacrice. The terried
Yogins propitiate him with oerings and nally restore the dismembered Goddess
to him whole (tatas samagradevbhis sam
dhit a paramesvar 30ab). He is delighted

and founds the S
ivaratri festival to commemorate these events.

142
S
arv avat ara f. 12: *dadur (em.: dadhur Cod.) dh up aya preyastv at karn
a-
mburuhakot
ar at=t am akr
ya svasakty a vai prahars
otphullalocan ah
With eyes wide

with joy [the Yogins] extracted her [Parvat ] from [her hiding-place in] the inte-
rior of his lotus-like ear and oered her up [to Bhairava] out of their love for him,
as the sacramental fumigant [prepared from her esh].
287 S

Haranagavarn
ana
143
of the Vitastamahatmya, and Jayarathas commentary on
the Tantraloka
144
give versions of it in the context of the S
ivaratri festival as
celebrated in Kashmir during the last ve days of the dark half of Phalgu
na
(January/February).
143
Vitast am ah atmya A f. 4r12 .: gav am
kot
isahasrasya d anapun
yam
labhen
narah
=yah
sn ati ca vitast ay am
haratrthasya sa ngame=yoginn am
gan
air yatra y age

vai *saivar atrike (em. : sivar atrike A : s avar atrike B)=v arun
y a saha devesi devm

* alabhya (A : ar adhya B) vai pur a=p ujayitv a bhairav aya *balir datto (em. : balim
datto
B : balim
dattv a A) mah atmane=*tad (B : tam
A) dr
v a devadeve sah
param
ks
obham
*av apa sah
(B: ag at punah
A) =dr
v a ks
obham
*mahes ani (B: param
devi A)
bhairavasya mah atmanah
=yoginn am
gan
ah
sghram
pal ayanaparo bhavat=s ulam

utth apya bhagav an yoginn am
gan
am
tad a=pal ayanaparam
dr
v a nvadh avat
svagan
air vr
tah
=dr
v a tath anudh avantam
bhairavam
yogingan
ah
=mnbh uy apatad
devi vitast ay a jale tatah
=bhagav an api tatraiv anvapatad balibhir vr
tah
(The next three

lines added in the margin of B:)= aj n apayat tad a devo gan
am
s curn
ayateti ca=
mnbh ut a yogins ca s ulena gan
asattam ah
=evam astv iti te sarve gan
as tam
yogin-
gan
am=mnbh utam
tad a s ulais c urn
ay am asur ayudhaih
=kuntaih
prah arito *hy atra

(conj. : yatra AB) yogingan
a uttamah
=tasm at kuntprah aro yam
gr amo para-
map avanah
=s ulaprotas tad a devi yoginn am
gan
o mah an=punar devm
samutth apya
darsay am asa bhairavam=dr
v a devm
tad a devah
punar utth apit am
pur a=jag ama

paramam
hars
am
samutphullavilocanah
A man wins the merit of giving ten thou-

sand million cows who bathes at the conuence of the Haratrtha and the Vitasta
where of old the bands of Yogins during the worship on the occasion of S
ivaratri
sacriced the Goddess together with wine and after worshipping great-souled Bhai-
rava gave [her] to him as the Bali oering. But when the God of Gods saw that he
became extremely agitated. Seeing his agitation, O Great Goddess, the band of
Yogins quickly tried to escape. When he saw this the Lord raised his trident and ran
after them surrounded by his Gan
as. O Goddess, when the band of Yogins saw this

they turned into sh and dived into the waters of the Vitasta. The Lord dived in after
them accompanied by his mighty [Gan
as]. He then ordered the Gan
as to use their
tridents to pierce them and they did so. This most sanctifying settlement of Kunt-
prahara has its name because it was here that the supreme band of Yogins was
attacked [!-prahara] with pikes [!Kunt-]. Then, O goddess, once the great band
of Yogins had been impaled on the tridents they restored the Goddess and showed
her to Bhairava. When he saw before him the Goddess restored he became extremely
happy, his eyes wide [with joy].
144
Tantr alokaviveka ad 28.7 (vipatpratk ara
h pramodo dbhutadarsana
m yogi-
nmelaka
h the countering of a disaster, rejoicing, seeing a marvel, mingling with

the Yogins) concerning S
ivaratri: vipada
h svasaktyapah ar adir up ay a
h. pramodo h a-
ritasya punarl abh adin a: adbhutasya visvak
sobh ade
h: anena ca vipatpratk ar adin a ca-

tu
tayena sivar atrisa
mjnakam api naimittika
m sa
mg
rhtam . . . of a disaster, e.
g. the removal of ones S
akti. Rejoicing, e.g. as a result of getting back what

had been taken away. A marvel, e.g. when the whole world shakes. By [men-
tioning] these four beginning with the countering of a disaster he means to include
the occasional ceremony known asS
ivaratri.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF BRAHM
A
The signicant features of the Netratantras image of Brahma (13.3334b) are that
it is four-faced and four-armed, with an ascetics sta, a rosary, an ascetics water-
vessel, and the gesture of protection as its hand-attributes, and that it is accompa-
nied by personications of the four Vedas, two standing on either side of it.
145
This combination of hand-attributes is found only in the Netratantra, other S
aiva
sources that teach four-armed Brahmas having only two or three of the four,
146
and the distinctive presence of the personied Vedas is a detail found in no other
145
Netra 13:3334b . lambakurca
h sutejas ca ha
msar u
dhas caturbhuja
h=dan

d ak
sa-
sutrahastas ca *kaman

dalvabhayaprada
h (N: kaman

dalvabhaye dadhat Ed.)=vedais
caturbhir sa
myukta
h sarvasiddhiphalaprada
h. Ks
emaraja explains ad loc. that the

four Vedas are embodied and standing beside Brahma: vedair iti sakarai
h parsva-
sthai
h.
146
The images as prescribed in early S
aiva Pratis
hatantras, scriptures concerned

only with the consecration of images and related matters, are four-armed but the
hand-attributes are dierent. The Devyamata (f. 69r4v1) has the rosary and water-
vessel but the two sacricial ladles (sruk and sruva
h) rather than the gesture and

ascetics sta. The Pi ngalamata (f. 23r46) and Mohacurottara (f. 8r68) have only
three of the Netras four hand-attributes: the rosary, the ascetics water-vessel, and
the sta. Instead of the fourth, the gesture of protection, the latter prescribes ba-
rhis grass, butter, etc. (barhirajy adikam). The former mentions only the rst three.
The general scripture Kira
na mentions the rosary and water-vessel and perhaps the

sta but not the fourth attribute (Pat
ala 52: brahmarupa
m prakartavya
m catu-
rvaktra
m caturbhujam=sakurca pi nganetra syaj ja
ta *ytrya
msay [for da
da?] kama-
dalum=s ak
sasutra vratastha
m tu ha
msaga
m v abjaga
m tu v a).
289 S

S
aiva authority known to me. Now this unusual iconography corresponds exactly
with that of the surviving Kashmirian images of this god.
147
LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE
Further evidence of the Netratantras origin in Kashmir is its use of the term
kharkhodah
(/kharkhodakah
),
148
which according to the commentator Ks
emaraja
denotes a supernatural device employed by an enemy for such eects as killing or
expulsion.
149
147
I am aware of four such Kashmirian images: (1) a late seventh-century bronze
in the Museum fu r Indische Kunst, Berlin (Pal, 1975, pl. 3.): four-armed with the
Netras hand-attributes, attended by four small gures rightly identied by Pal as the
four Vedas, but single-faced; (2) a black stone Brahma in the Ganapathyara temple in
Srinagar dedicated to Sultan Sikandar (r. 13891413) (I thank Dr. John Siudmak for
sending me a photograph of this image): four-faced and four-armed with the same hand-
attributes, attended by four small gures, two on each side, their heads lower than
Brahmas knees; (3) a Brahma in a relief of Brahma, S
iva and Vis
u at Nad
i
he l:
four-faced (three represented), four-armed (only the staff can be made out), with
four diminutive attendants (Siudmak 1993, p. 638, pl. 50.1 and p. 640, assigning it
to the classical Karkot
a style of the eighth and rst half of the ninth century);

and (4) an image in a private collection assigned to the late seventh or early
eighth century (Siudmak 1993, p. 64042, pl. 50.3; 1994, pl. 125). This is very
similar to the Berlin bronze. The outer right holds a staff (dan

da
h) and the inner

left shows the abhayamudr a. The other two arms are lost. It has been broken o
across the thighs but we still have the heads and necks of two small gures on
the right. These are evidently two of the four Vedas (Siudmak 1993, p. 640).
148
Netra 18.4ab: paraprayukt a nasyanti *k
rty akh arkhodak ani caN : k
rtyakhark-
hodakadaya
h Ed.) Kr
tyas, Kharkhodakas and the like employed [against a person]

are destroyed; 18.88b: k
rty akh arkhodap
dita
h tormented by a Kr
tya or a
Kharkhoda; 19.132bcd, 134a: kh arkhod as tasya v a grah a
h=sakinyo vividh a yak
s a
h
pisaca rak
sasas tatha= . . . sarvam
na prabhavet tatra Kharkhodas, Planets, S
akins,
the various kinds of Yaks
a, Pisaca and Raks
asa, . . . none of these can have power

over him in that [country].
149
Netroddyota ad 19.132b: kh arkhod a
h paraprayukt a yantr a
h; and ad 18.4b:
m
rty ucc a
tan adik
rd yantram
kh arkhoda
h. A yantram/yantra
h is a Mantra-inscribed
diagram written in various colours and with various inks on cloth, birchbark, the
hides of various animals and the like, wrapped up and then employed in various
ways (by being worn as an amulet, by being buried in a cremation ground, and so
on) for purposes such as warding o ills, harming an enemy, or forcing a person
to submit to the users will. Cf. Ks
emarajas denition of a yantracakram as a ser-

ies of Mantras written in a particular spatial arrangement (ad 20.59c): yantra-
cakram
visi
tasam
nivesalikhito mantrasam uha
h.
The word, which is of Iranian origin,
150
appears in Sanskrit sources in a
number of variants; and these form two categories according to whether the r
precedes the second consonant, as in the Netratantra, or the third. The latter
position is the original, since it is that which we see in the Iranian source as evi-
denced by Avestan kax
v
araa- (m.), kax
v
ar
e
i- (f.) denoting a kind of malevo-
lent spirit, probably associated with sorcery.
151
This is the source of the forms
khakkhorda-, khahkhorda-, khakkhorda- and khakhorda- seen in early northwest-
ern and Central-Asian Sanskrit sources
152
and in the Gandhar (Kroraina Pra-
krit) of the Kharos
h documents of the third century AD from Niya in

Xinjiang,
153
and of the kakhorda- that appears in Mahayana-Buddhist works.
154
Over against these we have the form kharkhoda- seen in the Netratantra and a
variant kharkhot
a, in which the r has migrated from the nal to the second con-
sonant. It is only in this form that the word occurs in non-Buddhist sources;
and I have found it outside the Netratantra only in works that were composed
or redacted by Kashmirians. We see it in the Rajatara ngin
of Kalhan
a,
155
in the
Kashmirian part of the Jayadrathayamala
156
and the related Tridasad
amara,
157
150
Burrow (1935, p. 780).
151
Bartholomae (1961), s.v., pointing to the fact that the Armenian loan-word
kaxard means sorcerer, wizard. These beings, male and female, are mentioned in
Yasna 61 of the Avesta among the creatures of the hostile spirit Angra Mainyu
(Pahl. Ahriman).
152
See Hoernle (1892, pp. 356, 36869); Hoernle (1893, p. 25).
153
Burrow (1935, pp. 78081) concerning the punishment khakhordastriyana of
witches and khakhordi stri a witch, reading rda for rna in the light of the Iranian
source word.
154
See, e.g., Amoghapasakalparaja f. 3v: kakhordacchedan sastren
a; f. 48v:
kakhordacchedana . . . kakhorda vinasyanti; Suvarn
abhasottamasutra p.3, l.2: kakho-

rdadarun
agrahe; p. 107, l. 8: sarvakakhordaveta
da
h; Bhai
sajyagurus utra, pp. 1314:

kakhordavetalanuprayogena jvitantarayam
sarravinasam
va kartukama
h; Mahama-
y ur p. 57: k
rtyakarman
akakhordakiran
a-.
155
Rajatara ngin
4.94: khyata
h kharkhodavidyaya=ni
hsam
bhrama
h stambhayitum
deva divyakriyam alam; 5.239: kharkhodavedinam=ramadevahvayam
bandhum abhica-
ramakarayat.
156
Jayadrathayamala, S
:
a
tka 3, f. 70v6 (9.41c42b): evam
vidham
yantranase k
rtya-
kharkhodamardane=cintayet paramesanm abhicarupramardane; f. 72r5 (10.2ab): para-
mantragrasakaram
rtyakharkhodagha
tanam; S
:
a
tka 4, f. 3v5 (2.49ab): k
rtya*
kharkhodadalan (em. : khakhodalan Cod.); f. 7v6 (2.74ab): k
rtyakharkhodav-
ighnaugham
bandhanad dhvam
sayi
syati; f. 14v7 (2.235a): k
rtyakharkhodadaman;
f. 16v6 (2.297ab): bh utavetaladaman k
rtyakharkhodamardan.
157
Tridasadamara-Pratya ngirakalpa f. 11v5: mantravadas tu *kharkhodam
(conj.:
kharkhoda Cod.) *vi
sam
(corr.: vi
sa Cod.) sthavara*ja ngamam (corr.: ja ngama

Cod.) =garajvaradayo devi anye ne
sam anekasa
h=paraprayukta nasyanti (cf. Netra

18.4ab: paraprayukta nasyanti k
rtyakharkhodakadaya
h). Since the subject-matter

and language of this text is closely allied to that of the Kashmirian part of the
Jayadrathayamala, it is not improbable that it too was Kashmirian in origin or
redacted from Kashmirian materials.
291 S

in the Br
hatkalottara,
158
in the exorcistic Ga
nesamalamantra of the Kashmirian

manual of S
aiva initiation,
159
in a Kashmirian Ga
nesastotra attributed to the
Adipura
na.
160
and, as kharkhot
a-, in the Haracaritacintama
ni of Rajanaka Jaya-
dratha.
161
Moreover it is only in Kashmiri that the word has survived into the
New Indo-Aryan languages.
162
158
B
rhatkalottara B f. 118v45 (Pavitrarohan
apa
tala): sarvavighnani nasyanti

graha vai vyadhayas tatha=vinayakopaghatas ca *k
rtyakharkhodakadaya
h (em. :
k
rtyakhakhodakadaya
h Cod.)
159
Kaladk
savidhi f. 3r69: OM
HUM
HUM
NAMAH
KS
ETRADHIPATAYE SARVARTHASID-
DHIDAYA SARVADUH
KHAPRAs AMANAYA EHY EHI BHAGAVAN SARVAKHARKHODAN STA-

MBHAYA 2 HRIM
HUM
GAM
NAMAH
SVAHA iti ga
nesamalamantra
h.
160
Ga
nesastotra v. 51, 53a: etat stotra
m pavitra
m tu ma ngala
m papanasa-
nam=sastra*kharkhoda(em. : kharkhoda Ed.)vetalayak
sarak
sobhayapaham=. . . tri-
sam
dhyam
ya
h pa
thet He who at the three junctures of the day recites this hymn,
purifying, auspicious, that destroys [all] sins, that removes the danger of weapons,
Kharkhodas, Vetalas, Yak
sas and Rak
sases . . .. That this hymn is Kashmirian is

made probable by its being assigned to the

Adipura
na, since that is one of the most

common loci of attribution for Kashmirian compositions seeking scriptural status.
It is made certain by two facts: (1) it refers repeatedly to Bhma[svamin], the prin-
cipal Ga
nes a of Kashmir (v. 10: bhmam
. . . kasmravasam; v. 17: satsaranivasinam;

v. 36: kasmre bhmar upin
am) Bhmasvamins temple is in Srinagar near the foot

of Har
a
parvat (S
arikaparvata, Pradyumnagiri) (see Stein 1961, vol. 2, p. 446)

and (2) it mentions that Ga
nes a is seated upon two [couchant] lions (v. 4:

hariyugalanivi
tam
; v. 21: sim
hayugasana
h), which is a distinctive feature of Ka-

shmirian Ga
nes a images (see Siudmak 1994, plates 73, 157 and 158; Reedy 1997,
K68, K86, K87, K89; Pal 2003, pl. 57 [Chamba, 10th century]).
161
Haracaritacintama
ni 2.125: k
rtyakharkho
tavetala ye. There are also vari-

ants in Mahayana-Buddhist sources in which ka takes the place of the initial kha:
karkhoda- in a manuscript of the

Aryataranama
tottarasataka, v. 49:
dakinyo-
starakah
pretah
*skandonmada (conj.: skandomada Cod.) mahagraha
h= chayapa-
smarakas caiva *yak
sa(conj. : tak
sa Cod.)karkhodakadayah
; and karkho
tain the
edition of the Ma njusrm ulakalpa, p. 539, l. 8: sarvakarkho
tas chinna bhavanti.

162
See Kashmiri khokh
u
, khakha-b o
t
u
, kh` okha-b o
t
u
and kh` okha-m o
t
u
bogey, bug-
bear, hobgoblin, ogre in Grierson 1915, p. 395b. The Kashmirian scholar who pre-
pared the slips for these words used by Grierson, either Pa
dit Govinda Kaula or

Pa
dit Mukunda Rama S
astr, gave Sanskrit kharkhodah
as the meaning of these

terms. Turner (1966, p. 201, s .v. kharkhoda) records no derivatives in any other
NIA language.
I conclude from this iconographical and linguistic evidence that it is highly
improbable that the Netratantra was composed anywhere other than Kashmir.
THE DATE
As for the date of its composition, I have proposed above that the approximate
outer limits are AD 700 and 850. The posterior limit is established by the fact that
the text teaches the Vaikun
ha form of Vis
u without the face of Kapila at the rear.

It is therefore unlikely to have been composed later than the middle of the ninth cen-
tury, since it was from that time that the four-faced form replaced the three-faced in
Kashmirian images.
163
The prior limit cannot be placed before the end of the formative period of
Kashmirian iconography, that is to say, the late seventh century. For it is only
after that time that the Brahma icon taught in the Netratantra is seen in the stone
and bronze images of the region.
However, the iconography of the four-armed form of S
iva taught in 13.2930

makes it probable that the work was composed towards the end of this period, c.
800850. The hands attributes are the trident paired with the gesture of protec-
tion, and the citron paired with the rosary.
164
The pairing of the citron and the
rosary is seen outside Kashmir from an early date.
165
But in Kashmir we see the
163
See nn. 133134 above.
164
Netra 13.30: caturbhujam
mahatmanam
s ulabhayasamanvitam=matulu ngadha-
ram
devam ak
sas utradharam
prabhum.
165
We see it in a fth-century Li nga with a bust of a three-headed S
iva, which, Si-

udmak proposes, (1994, pl. 43) is from the cave known in Pashtu as Kashmir Smast
(the cave to Kashmir), located 25 km north of Shahbazgarhi on a mountain top
between the Peshawar valley and Buner: the left hand holds the citron and the right
the rosary. The same two were probably in the front hands of the famous three-
faced Mahes amurti of the late sixth century in the S
iva cave at Elephanta. The cit-

ron is clear in the left hand and though the rosary is not visible in the damaged right
hand of the posture, which is raised with out-turned palm, suggests its presence.
They are also seen in the two front hands of the three-faced bust of Mahes vara in
the inner sanctum (garbhag
rham) of the S
iva temple constructed in AD 637 at Ku-

suma in the S
irohi district of SW Rajasthan (Meister, 1988, pp. 208214; pl. 437);

and a citron is held in the lower left hand of a six-armed, three-faced Mahes vara
carved in the centre of the wooden door frame of the Uttares vara temple at Ter in
the Osmanabad District of Maharashtra (early 7th century?). The lower and middle
right hands are lost, but a rosary may well have been in the former. The other three
surviving hands hold a cobra (upper right), a lotus (middle left), and a mace sur-
mounted by a Li nga (upper right) (cf. Collins, 1988, p. 117).
293 S

ascetics water-vessel rather than the fruit in the early centuries.
166
The citron
appears in our Kashmirian images only from the ninth century.
167
ABBREVIATIONS
166
This we see in Gandharan S
iva images of the fourth and fth centuries (Si-

udmak, 1994, plates 4143 and 59) and in a number of Kashmirian images whose
hand-attributes have survived: (1) the Fattegarh three-headed Mahes vara of the
fth to sixth centuries (Siudmak, 1994, pl. 39a,b ); and (23) two three-headed
Mahes varas from Pandret
han of the latter half of the seventh century (Siudmak,

1994, plates 8586). This iconography continued after the introduction of the
other, since we see it in a grey chlorite four-armed S
iva and Parvat group now in

the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. 1989.362) that is probably of the rst half
of the ninth century (Siudmak, 1994, pl. 117).
167
We see this in (1) the S
iva with consort in the Kashmirian brahmanical

triad (Pal, 1975, pl. 2: 910th century): S
iva is seated on Vr
a (his bull) with

Parvat on his left thigh and holds the rosary and citron in his inner right and left
hands. In his outer right he holds a trident, and in outer left a snake; (2) the two-
armed single-faced S
iva of a Kashmirian ekamukhali ngam (Pal, 1975, pl. 5: 89th cen-

tury) (= Reedy, K55); (3) a Kashmirian grey chlorite group of c. 850 (Siudmak,
1994, pl. 116; Pal, 2003, pl. 67 [but dated 750800]); and (4) the S
iva-Parvat image-
set in the Gaurs a nkara temple in Chamba (Pal, 1975, pl. 85: 10th century).
ARE Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy. Archaeological Survey
of India, 1887
BL Bodleian Library, Oxford
BORI Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune
Cod. The reading of the manuscript
conj. My conjectural emendation
corr. My correction
Ed. The reading of the published edition
em. My emendation
Ep. The reported reading of an inscription
K Khmer inscription, numbered as in Cde`s, 1966
KSTS Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies
N The reading of the Nepalese Amr
tesatantra manuscript
NAK National Archives of Nepal, Kathmandu
NGMPP Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project
SII South Indian Inscriptions. Archaeological Survey of India, 1980
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Citations of Netra above give only the chapter and verse numbers of this
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ALEXIS SANDERSON

RELIGION AND THE STATE: S

aiva Mantramarga is dominated by the pre-

aivas initiated candi-

a), consecrated successors

), installed images and other substrates of wor-

ha), and performed the repeated services of worship

) and propitiation (mantrasadhanam) required of all or cer-

aivas term for what

aivism. It serves to dieren-

aivism of the Pas u-

kara, the Sv ayambhuvas utrasam

graha, the K alottaras, the Mata nga, the Kiran

asikha, (3) the Daks

as aiva cult of Svacchandabhairava

/Kal taught in the Jayadrathay amala

ava, etc., and (9) the cult of Amr

m taught in the Netra.

) of both transregional and local reach, we can make out

avas and the Mahayana-Bud-

aiva systems, which reveals something of their charac-

aivism, as it is for students of all Indian reli-

ivadharma and the S

ivadharmottara, contains the observances

aivas had propagated a lesser religion of merit-

) before returning to the world in the

aivism of the Mantramarga developed

aivas were to accept that the brahmanical tradition

AIVA OFFICIANTS THE KINGS BRAHMANICAL CHAPLAIN

aivas as the mundane religion (laukiko dharmah

sivas asane/sa tasminn

ca p alayet So he should not transgress the practices

aiva religion and [at the same

iva. It is cited at, e.g., Naresvaraparks

aivas, at least those following

a nkaravarman (r. 883902),

aiva scriptures and claims that his position is that

), which he denes as comprising all

u, Brahma, S urya, Laks

m, Sarasvat, the Lokapalas, the

rs), and a number of non-Mantramargic S

iva with two or more arms, (2) Harihara or S

a, in which the left half of S

ivas body is Vis

u, (3) Ardhanars vara or

tyes vara, Nat

akes vara and Nat

hatantras Devy amata, Mayasam

graha, Pi ngal amata, and Mohac uro-

ala 52). See Sanderson, 2005, pp. 435440.

aiva ociants of the oce of Royal

) and in this position their giving S

a) to the monarch followed by a specially modied version

aiva consecration ritual (abhis

); (2) the promoting by S

aiva temples in which the new

aiva Guru acting in the role of a kings personal chaplain

aiva Gurus acting outside this role.

AIVA OFFICIANTS THE KINGS BRAHMANICAL CHAPLAIN

aiva ociant, was engaged by the em-

aiva ociant for

yadama was commissioned by Jayavarman II (r. 802c. 835)