Tantric Power
In the medieval era, kingship was shaped by historical circumstance and justified by textual tradition.
The rise of feudal kingdoms and the increasing awareness of regional identity with the rise of important regional centers focused on temples and the development of region-specific styles of art and architecture characterize India's history in political terms from the early medieval period to the rise of the Delhi Sultanate.
Kingdoms such as the Rastrakutas in the Deccan, an early form of the Rajputs known as the Gurjura-Pratiharas of Malava-Rajasthan, and the Palas of Bengal were engaged in bitter rivalry after the Gupta empire collapsed, and generally from the mid-eighth century.
Kings and princes pursued policies of military adventurism, and an ideology of warfare developed, which shown them as divine beings, the king was the male consort of the Goddess's realm.
During this time, Brahmans were granted land in exchange for legitimizing the new rulers and initiating a process of Sanskritization, in which local traditions and deities were absorbed into the overarching, Brahmanical paradigm.
- The Candella clan of the Gond tribe, for example, is responsible for the renowned Khajuraho monuments.
- They had significant authority and influence, and could, for example, restore their nominal Pratihara ruler, Mahipala, to his throne (c. 900).
- The Chalukya and Cola empires (c. 870-1280 CE) succeeded the Pallavas as the most powerful dynasty in the Deccan, but it was the Pallavas who introduced the worship of the divine monarch to Southeast Asia in the kingdom of Fu-nan, which fell to the Khmers.
- Indeed, Indie kingdoms flourished throughout Southeast Asia, with the Sailendras of Orissa's Indonesian empire reaching colonies as far as Bali and Java.
An inscription from Cambodia dating from 1072 ce (Saka period 974) mentions the entrance of Tantras into the Khmer kingdom under the reign of Jayavarman II, with the continuing of writings from the left stream, which had been banned in India, in Cambodia and Java.
These are known from the Sdok kak Thorn inscription in Cambodia.
With the Cholas, we witness the rise of Tamil culture and the magnificent temple towns of Thanjavur (the Cola capital), Cidambaram, Darasuram, and Gangaikondacolapuram, whose Saiva temples show not just imperial strength but also a vibrant Brahmanical, Agamic civilization.
Tantric culture, on the other hand, disappeared in Kashmir from about 1320 to 1819 ce, when the region was under nearly continuous Muslim control and the bulk of the people converted to Islam.
The rulers of these medieval countries had a divine kingship philosophy, in which the monarch was a god or a manifestation of a deity.
This resulted in the "feudalization of divinity," in which "the gods were seen as warriors and rulers of the world."
- As reflected in the word deva, which may signify both deity and monarch, the king is not simply a'secular' ruler, but a divine king, a god incarnate.
- The monarch, became the pinnacle of the social system associated with the sun, with the rest of society below.
- The queen is associated with the ground, whereas officialdom is associated with lesser gods of the sky.
- The commoners who lived underneath it were likewise a part of the overall system.
The divinity of that kingship may be viewed as a problem of "reason" and "will" in the creation and re-formation of political communities in ancient India, according a "world ordering rationality."
- The universe was ordered by kingship, and a world without a monarch (arajaka) was chaotic.
- It's also important to note that the medieval Hindu kingdom was not the same as a European monarchy.
- Rather, it was segmentary in nature, consisting of a pyramid of nested socio-political institutions.
- The village was embedded inside the locality, the locality within the supralocality, and the supralocality within the kingdom, according to this structure.
- Lesser monarchs paid ceremonial homage to higher, more powerful rulers within this hierarchy.
- As a result, Tantric ideas of kingship are readily incorporated into an already established organization.
Although the concept of divine kingship has been criticized, particularly in a postcolonial setting, it is necessary to keep it in mind in order to comprehend monarchy and its legitimization in the tantric context.
- The king's duties, according to dharma literature, are to protect the people, to preserve social order via the preservation of caste boundaries, and to administer justice.
- The monarch is also the patron of ritual, taking on the traditional vedic function of sacrificial patron (yajamana).
- The king, according to Manu, is the guardian of caste (varna) and dharmic phases of life (asrama).
However, according to the new tantric view of monarchy, the king is a divine warrior whose strength is drawn from the violent and sexual warrior goddesses adored as the retinue of a deity such as Bhairava, who is worshipped at a certain degree of revelation.
- The king's authority was connected to the Goddess or goddesses' power, which was bestowed at coronation or via tantric initiations by specialized priests.
- Indeed, these monarchs sought legitimacy from literary traditions via consecration and initiation, and sought power by connection with deities and the employment of their mantras.
- Even in the Laws of Manu, where the monarch is seen as containing pieces of the gods, there are continuities with more ancient notions of kingship.
- However, throughout the medieval era, a new concept of divinity emerged, as well as an aggressive, power-hungry lordship seeking legitimacy from religion.
- The Goddess's erotic violence is contained inside the monarch and regulated via a scripturally and ritually legitimated governmental system.
The 'ancient texts,' or Puranas, formally concerned with the five topics of cosmogony (sarga), the regeneration of the cosmos (pratisarga), the genealogy of populations (vamsa), the great epochs of Manu (manvantara), and the genealogy of kings, were the first to achieve this legitimacy and new concept of kingship (vamsdnucarita).
- The Vimudharmottara-purdn is an important text that illustrates this.
- Pancaratra, or tantric Vaisnava doctrine, was represented in these scriptures.
- Despite the fact that the scripture is not a Tantra, but rather the pinnacle of a 'scale of writings' within the Puranic, orthodox tradition, it reflects tantric Vaisnavism's theology.
- Unlike the Puranas, few tantric writings express explicit concern for the nature of kingship.
- While books like the Netra-tantra may come from courtly circles, they have a direct effect on the medieval concept of monarchy.
- As we've seen, the Tantras are concerned with daily and infrequent rituals, mantra creation, cosmology, symbol placement, and temple construction.
Although orthodox Brahmans kept a safe distance from hazardous or defiling tantric mantras, the impact of a tantric philosophy of power is firmly entrenched in medieval notions of monarchy, and the Puranas themselves are inspired by Tantrism, Tantrism's influence on kingship stretches from India to Southeast Asia.
The ceremonial diagram, the mandala, is at the core of the tantric concept of kingship, in which the god and his spouse are surrounded by a retinue of deities who are either emanations or belong to the same sphere, clan, or lineage.
- The king of the clan Kulesvara and his spouse Kulesvarl, accompanied by deities such as the eight mothers, are the traditional paradigm.
- The monarch is the Kulesvara equivalent, and his queen, from whom he gets authority via sex, is the Kulesvari analogue.
- Power passes from her to the monarch, then to the clan's deities, and finally to the rest of the community.
- White has persuasively shown that the goddesses of clans and land are at the heart of this system, and that the development of alliances between ruling families is crucial to this concept.
At one level, the king is identified with the high god Visnu or Siva, and thus transcends specific political alliances within the kingdom, whereas the tutelary goddesses represent ties to land and powerful ruling families, who 'ratified and energized the pragmatic religious life of the kingdom as a whole.'
This mandalic form of monarchy can be observed in Nepal, where three gods are essential for royalty and from whom the king gets his power: the sovereign deity Visnu, the master of ascetics and of Nepal, Pasupati, and the hidden tantric goddess Taleju.
- Indeed, the Goddess's power is based on monarchy among the Nepalese Newars.
The king's consecration or anointing (abhiseka) is the most significant tantric ritual associated with monarchy, and the link between royal consecration and tantric initiation.
- The jfayakhya-samhitd connects the anointing (abhiseka) of four classes of initiates with four types of political actors in an intriguing way.
- The samayin, putraka, sadhaka, and acarya processes include the rituals for anointing a military commander (senapati), a prime minister (mahamantrin), a prince (yuvarclja), and a king (yuvarclja) were modeled by (raja).
The process of anointing is explicitly linked to a political institution, with the king similar to the master (acarya); just as the master embodies the deity revealed by the text, so does the monarch reveal the god.
- At Viyajanagara, and an early monarch of Nepal, for example, there is historical proof that rulers were consecrated with tantric mantras, a tradition that lasted until modernity.
- These tantric rituals of anointing during coronation with tantric mantras fit neatly into a divine kingship worldview, and merely added another layer of literary empowerment to the puranic system.
The institution of kingship taps and controls the tantric deities' transgression violence and sexuality.
It is clear from a number of sources such as Jayanthabhatta's play, Agamadambara, which we have cited that this layer of further empowerment was regarded with suspicion by the orthodox in the case of Kashmir, but it is also the case that kingship was supported by wholly orthodox Brahmans who used Puranas as their core texts, but whose theology was tantric, as in the case Some tantric scriptures deal specifically with kingship.
- According to the Netra-tantra, the tantric instructor (acarya) must worship the eight mothers for the king's and kingdom's protection.
- He should draw a 'lotus' pattern for appeasement, prosperity, good luck, the protection of ladies and sons, and the protection of the monarch from other rulers.
- The instructor should utilize mantras for the king's health, protection from sickness, a good night's sleep, and proper digestion.
The Isanasivagurudeva-paddhati includes some kingship content, and it is clear that its teachings are intended for both royalty and initiated Saivas.
- This is evident in the scriptures on wars as well as the lengthy sections on temple construction and architecture.
- Only kings go to battle with their armies, and although others may construct temples, it is kings who construct big, prominent temples that honor the god and therefore themselves.
The scripture offers five birds associated with Siva's five acts and various mantric syllables in the chapter on combat defense.
- These birds are also linked to five phases in a king's life:
- childhood,
- youth,
- kingship,
- old age, and
- death,
- Which are linked to five activities:
- pleasure,
- sacrifice,
- marching to battle,
- governing,
- retirement or cessation of activity, and dying.
- We may predict the favorable or bad result of a fight for a certain individual by studying the omens of birds, and that person should prepare appropriately by, for example, donning armor for excellent physical protection (suguptadeha) or dividing his riches if the augury is gloomy.
The monarch becomes the tantric Brahman's counterpart via consecration.
- The king's body is divinized in consecration, much as the practitioner's body becomes an indicator of a tradition-specific subjectivity, and the practitioner's body becomes an index of the broader societal body, as stated in the scriptures.
- The king's physique, in a manner reminiscent of medieval Europe, is a symbol of the society's overall health.
- In one sense, the king is the ideal householder, capable of achieving the goals of dharma in the projection of the people, artha in the pursuit of wealth and political success, and kama in the pursuit of pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure with courtesans;
- In another, he is similar to the Brahman in mediating transcendent power and, indeed, becoming divinized himself.
- The divine's violent and sensual force is absorbed by the monarch and transformed into political expansion and consolidation tactics.
- The king's ceremonial anointing, in which power falls upon him, is a formal empowering in which he becomes divinized.
- The king's body becomes divine, just as the practitioner's body becomes divine via initiation (and every day following that).
- The king's body gets entextualized via tradition-specific mantras as a practitioner.
