05 Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Pattattalmangalam Grant of Nandivarman,” EI 18 (1925–1926): 115–124; Minakshi 1977: 85–86.

2. Rea 1909: Plate LXIV; EITA 1.1 Text: 68–74.

CHAPTER 1

1. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

2. Another tritala-vimana, whose sitting icon shares the bottom floor with icons of the goddesses Shri and Bhumi, was built in Nemali north of Kuram, perhaps during the reign of Nandivarman’s great-great grandson, Aparajitavarma (ca. 875–889). During Chola rule, one was built in the Chola realm at Dadapuram (1006), and two in the Pandya realm, at Mannarkoyil (1024) and at Chermadevi (1035).

Among Shaivas, the Dharmaraja Ratha (630–700) at Mamallapuram is the only example of a tritala-vimana that uses each of its three floors for an icon. Between 600 and 1000, the Shaivas built at least fifteen temples of three or four stories, only one housing an icon, all in the northeastern section of the Tamil realm where the Pallavas, Cholas, and Muttaraiyars ruled. Beginning with the Dharmaraja Ratha, the Pallavas erected the first nine of such temples, the Muttaraiyars erected one, and the Cholas five. During those four centuries, no Shaiva temple with three or more stories appears to have been built in the southern and western areas ruled by the Pandyas, the Cheras, and the Ays. At the end of the tenth century, the newly powerful Cholas began to build even taller vimanas, one with sixteen stories at Tanjavur (985–1012) and one with nine stories at Gangaikondacholapuram (1012–1044) (EITA 1.1 Text; and Gopalan 1972).

3. This discussion of dynasties is based on EITA 1.1 Text: 87–89; and EITA 1.2 Text: 104–108.

4. EITA 1.2 Text: 107; Gupta and Mahajan 1962: 120–121 and Plates LXXVI–LXXIX; and Huntington 1985: 341–350.

5. For a translation and discussion of this poem, see Hudson 1999.

6. Padmaja 2002: 63. This dynastic account follows EITA 1.1 Text: 80–82; 111–112.

7. Hardy 1983: 254–255 and notes. Hardy cites Tiruviruttam 100; TVM 4.5.11; 4.10.11; 2.8.11; 3.6.11; 5.6.11; 9.2.11. [Maran and Chatakopan are alternative names for Nammalvar—ed.]

8. Ramanujan 1981: 29.

9. Ramanujan 1981: 67.

10. Ramanujan 1981: 76. See Appendix 1 for the full translation.

11. Ramanujan 1981: 3.

12. I discuss the ancient evidence for “Krishna’s Mandala” in Hudson 2002b.

13. I have adopted “spacetime” to translate brahmanda from contemporary cientific usage, as discussed by Geza Szamosi 1986: 146–147.

14. shri-parameshvara-mahakashtkaran; “Kasakudi Plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla,” SII 2: 353, line 136.

15. The term perumanatikal was used in an 894 inscription of Rajakesarivarman this way: “before the midday serving of auspicious food at the feet of the Bhagavan (perumanatikal) in the Puvanimanikka Vishnu-house of our village, daily twelve Brahmans versed in the Veda shall eat from the interest of this gold…” (SII 3.1.3). Leslie C. Orr of Concordia University brought this to my attention.

16. The inscription is undated, but appears in eighth-century letters. The earliest dated inscription is in the tenth year of the reign of Dantivarman (about 806–807; Gros and Nagaswamy 1970: 80–83).

17. vitelvitukennuntiruvanai natavi. From label 10 of the prakara inscription discussed in chapter 4.

18. EI 18: 116, 118 n 1, 122. It may be that only one Imperial Architect served Nandivarman along with his son Shri Dandi. He could have designed the first three Bhagavata tritala-vimanas: the Emperor’s Vishnu-house facing west in Kanchipuram completed ca. 770, the Shri Veli Vishnu-house completed ca. 806 and facing east in Uttaramerur (known today as the Sundaravarada Perumal Temple), and the one facing east in Kuram completed 808 (EITA 1.1 Text: 96–97). By the time of Nandivarman’s death in 795–796, the second and third tritala-vimanas may already have been in the planning stage.

19. According to the Tamil Lexicon 1983, patakam is a street or section of a village, and in Kanchipuram the location of a Vishnu shrine (vishnusthala). Aimpanaiccheri may mean “the five (aim) palmyra palm (panai) section (cheri),” or “the five decorations (punai) section.”

20. Gros and Nagaswamy 1970: 73; EITA 1.1 Text: 92–96.

21. The Emperor’s Vishnu-house is the only one of those three early tritala-vimanas that faces west. The primary meaning of its name is that it embodies Vasudeva as emperor of the universe sitting inside the bottom sanctum. This appears to be the paradigmatic mode of this mandala. In contrast, the Shriveli Vishnugriha in Uttaramerur faces east and its icons are in a different sequence: standing on the bottom, sitting on the middle, and reclining on the top (Gros and Nagaswamy 1970: 70–80). Since the icon on the bottom of such vimanas occupies the primary position for worship, the standing icon on the bottom floor of this vimana suggests that it is the “purity (veli) of majesty (shri),” which is a plausible interpretation of Shriveli as a Sanskrit-Tamil compound. Gros and Nagaswamy (1970: 80–81) suggest that Shriveli was one of Nandivarman’s titles (see also K. V. Soundara Rajan in EITA I.1 Text: 95).

The east-facing icon standing in the bottom shrine of the Shriveli Vishnu-house and the west-facing icon standing in the top shrine of the Emperor’s Vishnu-house may have the same meanings (that is, Shakta and its tejas), but differ in their liturgical, and therefore architectural, contexts. In the case of the east-facing vimana at Kuram, we do not have its original name, and not all of its original icons remain. Nevertheless, the sculptures in its porch of Goddess Chandika Durga with her lion and of Ganapati suggest a concern with tejas. Kuram’s standing icon on the bottom floor, however, is not the original (EITA 1.1 Text: 96–97).

CHAPTER 2

1. The following discussion is guided by Gupta 1989; Gonda 1977: 57–65; Schrader 1916: 27–93; and BP 3–26.

2. See also Jaiswal 1967: 34.

3. Gupta 1989: 227; Gupta 1971: 189–204.

4. Sanjukta Gupta suggested this in correspondence. For a concise description of an early portrayal of this vishakhayupa concept in sculpted form, see T. S. Maxwell’s discussion of the Kushana-period (ca. 50–200 CE) column from Nand in Rajasthan (Maxwell 1988: 14–16 and plates 3–9). For a discussion of the concept, see Gupta 1971.

5. For the problem of interpreting this stanza (1.155.6), see Griffith 1976: 104 n 6. An implied Bhagavata answer to the question of the identity of the deva who looks down as “master of progeny” (prajapati) on his creatures in Rig Veda 10.129 and 10.121 is Vishnu, the Person with a thousand heads of 10.90, who acts within the spacetime He produces.

6. The last is sometimes known as the Uddhava Gita and it functions as a commentary on portions of the Bhagavad-gita. It will be discussed at greater length in chapter 15.

7. For the Upanishads I follow Olivelle 1998.

8. Vaikuntha as “invincible” is Shankara’s interpretation of Brihadaranyake Upanishad 2.1.6 (Deussen 1980: 426 n 1; and Radhakrishnan 1953: 186).

9. The following discussion draws from an analysis of sources in the Bhagavata Purana. For a detailed narrative and metaphysical description of the emergence of Vasudeva’s bodies, see BP 3.5–10. The sitting Vasudeva prior to the conception of the subtle body is described in 3.5.23–25. The conception of the embryo of the reclining subtle body at the center of the sitting Vasudeva is described in 3.5.26–50. The gestation of this embryo into a fetus by time is described in 3.6. He is the first avatara, the Unobstructed formation (aniruddha-vyuha) reclining on the Snake, in whom all beings emerge, as described in 3.6.8. The manifestation of Brahma in the lotus is described in 3.7–8. The gestation of Brahma in the lotus into the gross body is described in 3.9–12 and in 5.16–26.

10. For a concise discussion of the topic, see Gonda 1977: 59–61.

11. This upanishad appears in the aranyaka supplement to the Tattiriya Brahmana of the Black Yajur Veda.

12. This axis also appears as the khatvanga: one or more skulls stand on the top of a spinal staff which has the ritualist’s hand as its supporting posterior.

13. E. Valentine Daniel (1984) reports that contemporary Tamils similarly understand the atman to be located at the base of the spine. Tantra later identifies this location in the four invisible sheaths or persons as the “wheel that supports the root” (muladharachakra). But in the Bhagavata Purana’s story of King Prithu’s death by yoga, no mention is made of the muladhara or any other chakra. Prithu uses his heel to press on his anus to prevent the downward-moving apana from escaping. He then gently drives the wind (vayu) in his body upward to the navel in the region of his stomach, to his heart in his chest, to his throat, to his head, and then he drives it to the highest step and is then free from contact with sensual objects (nih-spashah, BP 4.23.14). The story of King Prithu is discussed in chapter 10 and appendix 3 below.

14. This concept of jiva resembles the soul in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 2.7). As Jack Bemporad explains, God gives the “life-breath” (nishmat hayyim) to Adam to make him a “living soul” (nefesh hayyah), which in postbiblical Hebrew is commonly called neshamah. Neshamah implies breathing, but sometimes conscious life or intelligence in particular. See Sullivan 1989: 205.

15. For a detailed summary of these texts, see Smith 1975.

CHAPTER 3

1. In his urai on the stanza, P. B. Annankaracariyar identifies it as a banner, but does not explain why. C. Minakshi suggests that it refers to the khatvanga standard, which in the Kailasanatha temple is sculpted as a cobra winding around a staff and sheltering the skull at its top with its hood (1977: 56–57). But the khatvanga appears in the next stanza.

2. Pallavas dominated the region for about two and one-half centuries (600–850) and 24 of its 1,809 temples were built during this period (Chockalingam 1971: xxiv, 117–118, and note).

CHAPTER 4

1. See Mahalingam 1977: 25–41; Mahalingam 1969:137–185; and K. R. Srinivasan in EITA 1.1 Text: 22–79.

2. Label eight of the inscription on the south wall of the prakara.

3. Label four of the inscription on the south wall of the prakara.

4. For example, during consecration to the “Man-lion Mantra in the Anustubh Meter,” the candidate agrees to become the “son” of the presiding acharya (Ishvara-samhita 3.38–44; Smith 1975: 89). Such a rite also coincides with beliefs that ancestors take rebirth as children in their lineage.

5. Vappa [Bappa] bhattaraka-pada bhakta parama bhagavato bharadvaja sagotra pallavanam dharmma maharajah sri nandi varmma (lines 9 and 10, slightly modified, in Foulkes IA 8: 168).

6. K. R. Srinivasan dated it 741–742.

7. Vikramaditya II left a Kannada inscription in the Rajasimeshvara Temple to report his conquest of the city and his gift to Shiva residing in the splendid building (EI 3: 359–360). Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha) built the temple and his son Mahendravarman III, the yuvaraja during his father’s lifetime, added onto it (Soundara Rajan in EITA 1.1 Text: 59).

8. Foulkes in IA 8: 275 (line 46) and 278. Mahalingam identifies Nandipuram as contemporary Nathankovil, three miles south of Kumbhakonam. In the eighth century it was a suburb of the city of Parayarai in the domain of the Muttaraiyars. We know from the thirteen inscriptions on the prakara of the Vaikuntha Perumal temple that the Muttaraiyar named Kataka (or Khatakka) played an important role in Nandivarman’s unction at age twelve. Mahalingam suggests that the Kataka Muttaraiyar is the same as Perumbituku Muttaraiyar II, known also as Suvaran Maran. He fought alongside Nandivarman’s general, Udayacandra, against the Pandyas and Cheras in at least twelve battles (Mahalingam 1969: 172 and 176 n 119; see also Govindasamy 1965: 38–70). Parayarai was the residence of early members of the Chola line, for example, Sundara Chola. Mahalingam suggests that Nandipuram had been founded as the residence for Nandivarman Pallavamalla and his followers when he stayed in the area. Nandipuram was probably the same as Nandigrama, where Pandya forces besieged Nandivarman and where Udayacandra beheaded “Chitramaya” (Skandasishya) and defeated the Pandyas. K. R. Srinivasan, however, suggests that Nandigrama may have been the same as Nandivaram in Chingleput District (Srinivasan 1964: 10). It seems unlikely, however, that it was the Nandipuri located in Latadesa, a region under Chalukya rule and Dantidurga’s first independent conquest (Soundara Rajan in EITA 1.2 Text: 107).

9. The village was given to “Ma[dha]vasarma-bhatta, of the Vatsa gotra (and) of the Pravachana sutra….” Hultzsch notes that the Pravachanasutra is the same as the Baudhayanasutra (in EI 5.8: 52). The grant was given in his fourteenth year. If we date his accession to 731 (while others of the court had gone to find Nandivarman), it would have been 745–746, the year Pallavamalla was restored to the throne with Dantidurga’s help. The grant would have been made prior to Skandasishya’s flight from Kanchipuram that same year.

10. Soon, however, Vikramaditya II died and Kirtivarman faced a struggle to gain the Chalukya throne for himself. Mahalingam speculates that Kirtivarman then sought Nandivarman’s assistance even though he had recently invaded Kanchipuram. A stone inscription from the fifteenth year of Nandivarman’s rule (746–747) suggested that interpretation (Mahalingam 1969: 169).

11. Mahalingam 1969: 136–185, esp. 181 n 140 and 182.

12. Subrahmanya Aiyer 1925–1926; Minakshi 1977: 85–86.

13. A guide for their interpretation may be found in the sculpted sequence moving west to east on the south prakara wall of the west-facing Vishnu-house of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

14. Minakshi (1941) discusses them in relation to the panels (pp. 33–38) and provides transliterated originals (pp. 54–55). Mahalingam translates and discusses them in Mahalingam 1969: 139–155, and in Mahalingam 1977: 25–32. Transcribed (but not transliterated) originals are available in SII 4: 10–12.

15. My translation is based on those of Minakshi (1941: 33–38, 54–55) and of Mahalingam (1969: 139–155). I have modified both interpretations according to my own reading of the original as found in SII 4: 10–12.

16. Commentaries on Manu 7.155–156 identify four mulaprakriti: the king in the mandala’s center, an adversary, an indifferent ruler capable of aiding or defeating the former, and an opposing ruler.

17. As Mahalingam notes, chivikai (shivika) in Pali usage means the balcony of a mansion (Mahalingam 1969: 141 n 16). The Pali-English Dictionary lists shivika-gabbha as a room shaped like a palanquin, an alcove. Its Sanskrit meaning as vehicle (shibika) does not fit the context. In the original Tamil-grantha inscription as published, what Mahalingam and Minakshi read as vidai (leave to go) appears as patai (army). Army makes sense, for we know from the next panel that Pallavamalla traveled with an army and the gift of it must have been an important ceremony. Nevertheless, I have kept Minakshi and Mahalingam’s reading of vitai for patai since they consulted the original inscription (Mahalingam 1969: 27 n 7). For the Tamil-grantha script, see C. Sivaramamurti 1966: plate 1.

18. Mahalingam interprets pallavati karaiyar as “junior member of the Pallava ruling family” (pallavadi araiyar) on analogy with gangadhi araiyar, which means “Ganga princes ruling over provinces” (1969: 144–145 and n 25). But it may refer to the forces depicted in the panel as “many” (palla) great men (atikar [adhika]) who are noble men (aiyar).” Mahalingam singles out one man wearing a kirita on his head, who greets Nandivarman on horseback, as the Pallavadi Araiyar (Mahalingam 1969: 145).

19. The meaning of vitelvituku may be “who routs (vituku) [enemies] instantly (vitel).” Vitelvituku may have been a title as well as an oath in the lineage descending from Bhimavarman (Mahalingam 1969: 138–139). Nandivarman bore it as the title Vitelvituku Pallava, as we know from the man who inscribed Nandivarman’s grant to sixteen Brahmins in 792–793. He signed himself as the son of “the master architect of Vitelvituku Pallava” (vitelvituku-pallava-peruntaccan) living in the Aimpanaicceri in Kaccippetu (Subrahmanya Aiyer 1925–1926: 116 and 118 n 1).

20. SII 2: 501–517, esp. 508, 510, stanzas 5–8; D. Srinivasan 1979: 15–21.

21. Gurumurthy 1979: 4–11; D. Srinivasan 1979: 10–11, 17, 20.

22. For Arumuga Navalar and his schools, see Hudson 1992a, 1992b, 1995b, and 1996b.

23. Snodgrass 1985: 141–152; Manimekalai 1, see Cattanar 1989, 1994.

24. Gomez and Woodward 1981: 93. Fontein 1981 cites relief number Ib38 in the depiction of the Divyavadana.

25. N. J. Krom describes the scene this way: “The king … sits on a wide couch with a back, in a pendapa; on this same seat is the queen and between them a rather-damaged third figure.… Next to the throne some female attendants stand and kneel. Outside the pendapa we see the king’s guard armed with sword and shield, and in the background the royal umbrella and an elephant with his mahout. On the left of the pendapa opposite the king a figure kneels on a bench, dressed in royal or godlike garments, and judging by the flowers in his hands, offering homage. His retinue are sitting on the ground behind him, first the umbrella-bearer and next the unmistakable figure of Airavata, with the elephant’s trunk in his headdress, elephant ears and the angkuca on his shoulder. This makes it certain that the kneeling visitor can be no other than Cakra. The rest of the attendants are armed with sword and shield or bow and arrows, while in the background a standard and a fruit tree are to be seen” (Krom 1927: 268–269).

26. An unexplored source for Bhagavata, Shaiva, sramana, and other religious influences in West Asian literatures and practices in the pre-Christian centuries is this ancient royal cult of Indra and Airavata. After Alexander returned from the Indus River, West Asian courts imported Indian elephants and engraved the elephant-head hood or crown on coins. Imported Indian elephants could not have survived without mahouts and men specializing in elephant care and rites, and since they were to be abroad for years, they would have brought families with them. A single elephant in a West Asian court implied a number of resident Indians, perhaps for generations, and they would have patronized their own religious leaders. The cult of Indra and Airavata in West Asian courts may therefore have been more directly influential on religions developing in the area than anyone has realized. I am indebted to Sonia Rhie for this information about the elephant cult in West Asia.

27. Katavar-kon appears in the Periya Puranam as the title of a Pallava king in Kanchipuram named Aiyatikal Katavarkon (Arumuka Navalar 1933: 404). Although he was an ardent Shaiva devotee and Nayanar, that title suggests his lineage originated with Bhagavata Pallavas. If katavan derives from the Tamil katu, which means forest, the title means “Aiyatikal the king (kon) of the forest people (katavar).” But aiyatikal itself denotes “the [slave] at the feet (atikal) of the master (ai)”; that suggests the status of an “Indra of Men” consecrated to the service of God through an acharya. The katavar he ruled therefore may have been the habitants of the forest region (katu) identified by Bhagavata Pallava clans with Indra’s Khandava forest (katava) where Arjuna and Krishna built Indraprastha.

28. Tiruvaymoli 2.7.1 and Periya Tirumoli 7.2.6. See also Narayanan 1987: 52–54.

29. Hiram W. Woodward, Jr., in a personal communication, kindly alerted me to what may be the “sandcastle” nature of the following argument. Nevertheless, because of the documented liturgical connections between the Pallava realm and Cambodia in these centuries, I think it worth making.

30. Coedes 1968: 113. In this inscription, Pancharatras, like Shaivas, may denote Brahmin priests following their respective Agamas, perhaps including acharyas. Bhagavatas, like Pashupatas, may denote householders consecrated to their respective Agamas. Sattvatas, like Tapasvins, may denote renouncers and people consecrated to ascetic disciplines according to their respective Agamas. Buddhists presumably refers to bhikshus and may include those of the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Agamas.

31. Minakshi (1941: 47–50) gives a slightly different interpretation to this sequence.

32. E. Hultzsch, “Kasakudi Plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla,” in SII 2: 342–361.

33. [This scene is not shown in the illustrations here—ed.] Minakshi suggests that the elephant may be the one named Pattavardhana, which Nandivarman had captured from the Ganga king along with a necklace containing the gem called the Ugrodaya, and that the rider may be holding the necklace in a vessel above his head (SII 2: 529, stanzas 6–7).

34. BP 10.58.32–55. These emblems resemble the urdhva-pundra insignia worn today by consecrated Bhagavatas on their body, notably the forehead, suggesting that the bearer of the emblem is a demonic “bull” Krishna has conquered.

35. Minakshi (1977: 207–208) notes that it does not depict persecution of “heretics,” but rather judicial punishment. The public display of criminal bodies appears to have been customary practice for centuries. In about 1693, the Marava ruler of Uraiyur west of Tanjavur executed the Jesuit John De Brito in public and left his decapitated body with severed hands and feet hanging on a tall post for animals to eat (Neill 1984: 307).

36. The word chilai, as the Sanskrit shila, means stone or statue; as a Tamil word it also means “sound” or “twang” and “bow.” Kalikanri’s usage in stanza two appears to draw upon both meanings. The implication is that Udayachandra’s victories function as the stone icon’s firm bow.

37. As H. Daniel Smith’s summary of the text explains: “Just as the Sudarshana discus represents Visnu’s own shakti-Power and divine Will to rule wisely and benignly (yet powerfully), so when a king employs his royal arms and army he is exercising an analogous (mundane) power to arrest his enemies and protect his subjects…. From the face of Sudarshana come certain weapons (e.g., arrows), from his chest others (e.g., slings), from his thighs some others (e.g., combustibles) and from his feet yet others (e.g., spears); moreover from other parts of his body other weapons of warfare have their divine source in Sudarshana” (Smith 1975: 54–55).

38. Vishnuchittan (Periyalvar) indicates in Tiruppallantu 7 that Bhagavatas were branded with the wheel, which implied branding by the conch. In Perumal Tirumoli 2.8., where Kalikanri records Nandivarman’s consecration at the temple of the Eight-Armed Lord, he refers to the brands in stanza four. The contemporary rite of branding for Sri Vaishnavas has been filmed by H. Daniel Smith (Smith n.d.).

CHAPTER 5

1. [Figure 5.1 is misleading; it is not clear why it was “revised” to eliminate the innermost wall, shown in Figure I.2 and other ground plans of the temple. There is, in fact, an intermediate wall between the sanctum wall and the outer wall of the vimana, and there are two pradakshinapathas, one on either side of it. The inner pradakshinapatha contains the stairs that lead to the second floor; the outer pradakshinapatha contains the panels with the Samkarshana and Anirudha vyuhas, which can be glimpsed through door-slits in the outer vimana wall. The Pradyumna vyuha is on the outer wall of the sanctum itself, and is visible through the east-facing doorway.—ed.]

2. Sri Sundaravaratha Pattachari reported that the place where the standing icon once stood is still evident on the sanctum’s floor. It may have stood alone without icons of the Goddesses Shri and Bhumi, because in Periya Tirumoli 2.9.9, Kalikanri identified it as Krishna, the heroic lover of Pinnai, and because in what appears to be a depiction of the missing icon on the prakara wall, the icon stands alone. See Figure 4.8.

3. Following Patrick Olivelle’s translation of BU 4.3–4 (Olivelle 1998: 111–127).

4. Hudson 1980: 544.

5. Levy defines “mesocosm” as “an organized meaningful world intermediate to the microcosmic worlds of individuals and the culturally conceived macrocosm, the universe” (Levy 1990: 2).

6. For circumambulation in the BP, see 1.14.13. “Resorb,” which means to swallow or suck in again, and to break down and assimilate something previously differentiated, is particularly apt for the counterclockwise sequence of formations.

7. [This doorway does not appear in the plans in this volume. The plan in EITA 1.1 Text: 69 shows that there was once a doorway from the sanctum to the inner pradakshinapatha, which contains the stairs. There does not appear ever to have been direct access from the sanctum to the outer pradakshinapatha with the vyuha panels, though there were once doorways to it from the ardhamandapa.—ed.]

8. See BP 10.61.22; 10.54.60, 55.1–2; and 3.1.30.

9. The latter, as I have argued elsewhere, may have been addressed to a Kanchipuram audience (Hudson 1997).

10. Cilappatikaram 6.39–63. Swaminatha Aiyar (1965: 37 n 125) lists the eleven dances as “heroic dances” (puranatakam), and they appear to match the eleven listed in Cilappatikaram 6.39–63. Pradyumna’s dance parallels Shiva’s dance as hermaphrodite, which is one of the eleven in the Cilappatikaram and is enacted in Cilappatikaram 28.71–75.

11. [The six bhagas are not discussed in this chapter; Figure 5.13, which was among the materials Dennis Hudson had not incorporated into the draft on which this book is based, illuminates discussions throughout the book, however, and so seems useful to include.—ed.]

CHAPTER 6

1. At least four descriptions of Vasudeva with eight arms appear in the Bhagavata Purana. When he appears to Daksha at his sacrifice he holds the lotus (BP 4.7.18–22). But when he appears to Daksha reborn as the son of the Prachetasas brothers (BP 6.4.35–40), and in the Narayana-kavacha mantra that Vishvarupa teaches Indra (BP 6.8.12), a noose replaces the lotus. The description of Trivikrama, however, omits the shield and variable hand and retains the wheel, bow, conch, mace, sword, and quiver (BP 8.20.30–33).

2. The Attiyur rites in Periya Tirumoli 2.8, and the Sri Rangam rites in Periya Tirumoli 5.7.

3. The dismemberment of other victims is described in SB 3.8.2.12–18 and 3.8.3.3–29; of the horse in 13.3.1–2. Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (1988: 7–25) translates portions of the ashvamedha from the Shatapatha and Taittiriya Brahmanas.

4. See Mahabharata 2.30.10–15 and 2.36.1–4 (van Buitenen 2: 87; 95); and Bhattar 1983: no. 23, pp. 149–150, and nos. 654–655, pp. 581–582.

5. BP 10.39.46–55. The devis (10.39.55) may be nine or twelve depending on the interpretation of the last four as separate individuals, or as descriptions of the single Maya (see Tagare 1976–1979 4: 1498; and Tapasyananda 1980–1982 3: 200–201).

6. Compare BP 10.40.44–57 with 10.89.22–26.

7. [Using the sandhi rules, the parenthetical phrase is yogeshvaro harih, a stock phrase in the Mahabharata and elsewhere. I am grateful to Travis Smith for this explanation.—ed.]

8. The Krishnakatha does not say that Krishna and Balarama get dressed after they wrestle and before they dance, but the designers portray Krishna that way here, and Krishna and Balarama that way in the depiction of Kamsa’s imminent destruction.

CHAPTER 7

1. In their Sanskrit texts, early Pallavas identified the Cholas with Nagas, which explains the Tamil names Nagai for the region and Nagapattinam for its harbor town. For the intermarriage of Pallavas with the Naga rulers of Kanchipuram during the fourth century CE, see C. R. Srinivasan 1979: 1–68; and Hudson 1997.

2. BP 8.4.6–12. Airavata emerges from the churning of the Milk Ocean depicted in Panel 7.

3. This “season” (ritu) begins with the period of menstrual discharge and lasts for sixteen days. Girls who have attained the age of menstruation are also called ritumat (Monier-Williams 1964: 244a–b).

4. BP 4.24.35. Accoring to Narada in Satvata-samhita 5.82–87, once Vasudeva activates all things, he makes the Plower formation to deliver them, the Pre-eminently Mighty formation to control them, and the Unobstructed formation to protect them.

5. For Dvala’s curse of Huhu, see Tagare 1976–1979 3: 1014 n 1.

6. We know this from the “Narayaniya” portion of the Mahabharata (12.321–353) found in the critical edition (Mahabharata 16.2.B: 1812–2014), and in the translation by K. M. Ganguli (Ganguli 1982, 1992 10: 114–217). Once Narada left the ashram of Narayana and Nara at Badari and went to the top of Mount Meru. In the northwest he saw White Island rising from the Ocean of Milk. It is also called Vaikuntha, which refers to a palace in a town of the same name. The palace contains a throne room and an inner bedroom. The Unobstructed resides there; sometimes he sits, sometimes he reclines, and sometimes he stands, but his archetypal posture is the royal one of sitting under an umbrella, fanned with flywhisks.

The Bhagavata Purana provides at least four descriptions of Vaikuntha (3.15–16; 10.39.38–57 and 40.1–30; 10.89.8–12; and 10.89.47–62). Swami Tapasyananda summarizes the information in 1980–1982 1: xxx–xxxi. The Linga Purana (Part 2.1.42–82) says that Brahma saw Narayana on White Island seated on a holy seat (bhadra pitha) in the middle of an aerial chariot with a thousand doors (chariot and palace are both called vimana). The Bhagavan Narayana has just awakened from yogic slumber and Goddess Lakshmi joins him. The gandharva named Tumburu entertains them by playing the lute and singing. The Kurma Purana (1.49.45–61) describes White Island in detail and notes that the Bhagavan reclines there on the Snake. Similarly, the Matsya Purana (249) says that Vaikuntha shines like a white lotus and Narayana reclines there in deep meditation, his left hand under his head while Lakshmi massages his feet.

The northwest portion of the Milk Ocean is also the location of other islands. The “Narayaniya” tells of the mountain Vaijayanta in the Milk Ocean where Brahma taught his son Rudra about the one and the many purushas. Somadeva in Kathasaritsagara 54.19–23 tells of the island Narikela in the middle of the great sea, from which devas go through the air to White Island.

7. According to P. V. Kane, darbhas are blades of the grass that do not sprout other blades, while kushas are blades that do. Grasses collected on the New Moon day of the month of Shravana may be used repeatedly because they do not grow stale (Kane 1974 Part 1: 657).

8. As we shall see in the discussion on the south-facing panels of the vimana, the word astra, which denotes an arrow, is used in rites of prayoga to denote a mantra.

9. Explained by translator of Valmiki 1995: 3.1441.

10. The text does not explain the purpose of the unction, but the rite of abhisheka in this context indicates that it was the ritual completion of Rama’s crossing the ocean to Lanka.

11. Pravarasena was known in Cambodia in the last decade of the ninth century (Pravarasena 1976: 17–18).

12. K. K. Handiqui’s translation (1976) is modified in all cases.

13. Van Buitenen 2: 632. The entire story of Kausika in “The Devoted Wife, and the Hunter” (van Buitenen 2: 614-638) appears to be Bhagavata Dharma very similar to the Pancharatra Agama, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Alvar poems.

14. In a Mahabharata version of the churning story (1.15–17), the “bucket of the Ocean” that surrounds the inhabited world becomes milky from the juices of herbs and resins of trees on the golden mountain Mandara that flow into it when it is churned (van Buitenen 1: 72–76). These juices contain amrita. When Brihaspati later finds it muddy, he curses it to be infested with creatures. Elsewhere in the epic, the Ocean is said to have become milky from the milk of the four cows that support the four quarters. In Ganguli’s translation of Udyoga Parva 102 of the Mahabharata, the same story refers to another Milky Ocean that was created by a single jet of milk from Surabhi, the mother of all cattle (Ganguli 1982, 1990 4: 208–209).

15. Another version of the churning, one that Hayagriva told to Agastya in Kanchipuram, is given in the Lalita-mahatmya, a text appended to the Brahmanda Purana, which dates after the tenth century. That version moves from the story of the Milk Ocean churning directly into the story of the Goddess Kamakshi. See Brahmanda Purana 3.4.9–30 (Tagare translation 1984 4: 1057–1223).

16. Tagare (1976–1979 3: 1031) interprets BP 8.7.12 as it is portrayed here. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2: 322) interprets it to mean that the Bhagavan stands on the top of the mountain and presses it down with one of his hands.

17. G. P. Quackenbos, in his translation of Mayura’s Suryasataka 42, translates kalakuta as “black deception,” citing a commentary that likens it to tamas, “because of its possessing the essence of illusion (moha)” (Quackenbos 1965: 158–159).

18. Shiva’s emblem as the bull is mentioned in BP 8.8.1; and 8.12.1 says Shiva has the bull on his flag (vrisha-dhvaja). Along with the khatvanga, the Pallavas had the bull as their emblem on flags and copper plates.

19. For example, Narasimhavarman Mamalla (630–668) appears to have depicted the doctrine of Shiva’s “five faces” in a west-facing cave-temple with one shrine devoted to each “face”: Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva, and Sadyojata. K. R. Srinivasan suggests Sadyojata was in the middle; Ishana to his right; Tatpurusha to his left; Vamadeva in the northern recessed shrine and Aghora in the southern recessed shrine (K. R. Srinivasan 1964: 141 n 1).

20. The destruction of the Three Cities (Tripura) occurs during the auspicious midday abhijinmuhurta when Boar kills Hiranyaksha (Golden Eyes). The Bhagavata version of the Tripura story is told in BP 7.10.52–71.

21. Brahma says that he and Bhava (Shiva) are fractions (kala) of a portion (amsha) of the avatara who emits all beings (BP 8.5.21). The first avatara is the Unobstructed formation reclining in the dark waters of Vasudeva’s womb, as depicted inside this middle-floor sanctum, and his portion is Ajita on White Island in the Milk Ocean.

22. Chitraratha, king of gandharvas, tells Arjuna that “Whatever is a means to success in the world is known as an embodiment of the thuderbolt [Indra’s vajra]…. The thunderbolt of the baronage is their steeds—the steeds are known to be indestructible” (Mahabharata 1.158.45–50; van Buitenen 1: 322).

23. Stanza two of the six that introduce the recitation of the “Thousand Names of Vishnu” makes this indentification (Bhattar 1983: 45).

24. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 1: 328) and Tagare (1976–1979 3: 1038) identify the months as Chaitra and Vaisakha.

25. Asuras’ delight in liquor is an example of their correlation to the ritual class (varna) of Shudras, who were viewed as drinkers and in Tamil literature were associated with Varuna (Hudson 2000a, chap. 5). As R. S. Sharma observes, “Drinking seems to have been a vice specially associated with the sudras, for the list of words for spiritous liquor and various processes of its preparation and for intoxication are enumerated by Amara in the sudra-varga [of the Amarakosha (2.10.39–43)].” See R. M. Sharma 1980: 285.

26. Monier-Williams: 509. The meaning of dhanvantari, “moving in a curve,” and the northeast location of his offerings suggest the sun rising in a curve that begins in the east, ascends to the apex, and descends in the west. In the Mahahharata, Monier-Williams says, the name also means “of the sun.” Dhanvantari’s appearance here on the way to the northeast corner indicates that the churning takes place in the last hour of night as the sun begins to lighten the eastern horizon, but has not yet risen above it. In this context the churning denotes the sadhaka’s use of mantra in audible recitation (japa) during the brahmamuhurta.

Dhanvantari appears to pair with Ganesha. Krishna describes Ganesha’s attributes to Parvati in Brahmanda Purana 3.42.30–44. Ganesha is the guardian of Shiva in the Pancharatra text Jnanamritasara-samhita 1.7 (Smith 1975: 135). In some cases the pair appears on the south-facing side of the Pancharatra mandala that governs the design of this and other temples. One case is the Varadarajaswami Temple, which follows the Padma-samhita based on the Jayakhya-samhita of the Pancharatra Agama and is connected by tradition to worship in Kanchipuram (Smith 1975: 198). This temple contains a west-facing Man-lion shrine dating at least to 1053 CE. In the enclosed verandah surrounding it, a Dhanvantari shrine is at the southeast corner and a Ganesha shrine is at the southwest corner. They may date to the late Chola period. Dhanvantari sits with two hands, one holding the amrita pot. Ganesha’s trunk turns to his right, rather than to his left, as is more common (Raman 1975: 45, 116–117). Another case is at the early sixth-century sanctum of the Vishnu-house at Deogarh (Devgadh), which appears to have been built according to the same Pancharatra mandala. It, too, faces west. Facing south on its southwest pilaster sits Ganesha. Facing south at its southeast pilaster sits a figure that appears to be Dhanvantari (Vats 1952; Hudson 1991).

27. Milk is used as soma in the Sautramani, a sacrifice employing sura and soma to regenerate the patron after he has performed the Soma Sacrifice (Satapatha Brahmana 12.7–9.3).

CHAPTER 8

1. One example appears at the three-story vimana in Kottiyur (Koshtiyur) near Madurai.

2. The root of desire and anger is lobha (Manu 7.4.9) or sanga (BG 2.62) produced by the rajas-guna (BG 3.37).

3. [The story is narrated in the order that it is told in the Bhagavata Purana, with the frames numbered in the order of their nesting, number 1 being the outermost frame. Figure 8.1 clarifies the structure.—ed.]

4. The process is described in Rig Veda 10.90. The first four stanzas of this “Praise of the Person” (purusha-sukta) describe the Person and summarize the events detailed in the following twelve stanzas. Stanza five is the pivot on which the Person turns himself into spactime. It cryptically describes his birth as his son through his womb called viraj (ruling far and wide). This son is the vairaja purusha (person born of viraj). As described in the following stanzas, the Person then offers his son to himself by means of himself as deva priests, who use spring, summer, and autumn. His dismembered body is burned up entirely and fashioned into directional space, chronological time, and all creatures. The concluding stanza sixteen summarizes the teaching: The Person sacrifices himself as victim to himself as patron and produces spacetime. Interpreted more abstractly, this Person is pure consciousness possessing the essence (pradhana) of matter as his queen “ruling far and wide.” Pure consciousness enters into her and becomes embodied by her material essence. This embodied consciousness then transforms itself into the denser modes of matter (prakriti) that constitute spacetime. This threefold process takes place “inside” pure consciousness as a dynamic interaction between king and queen.

The sponsor of a Vedic sacrifice, who must be married, reenacts this process by playing all the roles through substitutes. The patron is a man together with his wife; he is the Person and she is his womb (viraj) represented by the ground on which the sacrificial arena is to be constructed. The husband as Person constructs the sacrificial arena on the earth by means of priests, who use his bodily measurements for its architectural plan. Their construction constitutes his insemination of her and his birth as the vairaja purusha son. The husband as this son now sits with his wife inside the arena and is represented by the animals to be sacrificed. Priests playing the roles of devas smother the son, butcher him, and offer him into the fire. He thus becomes spacetime. But the patron can become a renewed participant in it only when he steps out of his role as sponsor by means of concluding dakshina gifts to the priests.

In the Bhagavata Dharma, the Person is Narayana and viraj is Shakti as his womb’s primordial matter (pradhana). Narayana “inseminates” Shakti with a seed (bija) or embryo (garbha) of his self and becomes his son Narayana reclining in her uterine water as vairaja purusha. The son’s embodiment as the material shape of spacetime is his ego “awakening” as Brahma in the lotus, who turns himself into a body of seven layers and then wakes and sleeps for one hundred of his years under the gaze of Narayana the son, the vairaja purusha.

5. The same later happened to Dantavaktra when Krishna killed him with his mace Kaumodaki (BP 10.78.1–16). These two stories appear on the southern side of this sanctum (Panels 21 and 22) and will be discussed in chapter 10.

6. His blood offering parallels Parashurama’s blood offerings to his ancestors in Mahabharata 3.115–117 and 3.81.20–34 (van Buitenen 2: 443–447 and 379–389).

7. [Although this is an unusual translation of linga, Monier-Williams 1964: 902b, s.v. lingin, gives “having a subtle body” as one meaning, and refers to BP.—ed.]

8. BP 7.2.50–56. The avadhuta named Dattatreya tells a similar story (11.7.52–74) and appears in south-facing Panel S3.

9. For a discussion of the idea of the devotee as extended into the bodies of others who function as his body, and of the violent consequences similar to those portrayed here, see Hudson 1989: 373–404.

10. [The level of the frame is not determined by the narrator but by its place in the nesting. This story is directly framed by Narada’s telling of Hiryanakashipu’s story (frame 3) and so is on frame level 4, even though the narrator is different from that of the previous frame 4 story, Hiryanakashipu himself. See Figure 8.1.—ed.]

11. [Though Narada is the narrator, this story is framed by Prahlada’s narration, and so is a frame 5 story, not frame 3 like the previous Narada story.—ed.]

12. F.D.K. Bosch’s analysis of the ashvattha guides this interpretation (Bosch 1960).

13. This discussion follows the rajasuya as presecribed in Satapatha Brahmana 5.2–5.5.19 (Eggeling, tr. 1882, 1885, 1894, 1897, 1900 41: 42–142).

14. BP 9.17.8–12. Saubhari descends in the patrilineage of Kanva or Angirasa from Sobhari, composer of Rig Veda 8.19–22.

15. The reference to Krishna as Ruler of Yoga’s Ruler identifies him as the ruler of Shiva, who is yoga’s ruler. This specific title picks up the theme of the kalakuta poison from the Milk Ocean churning. Shiva as Ruler of Yoga keeps the poison in his blue-stained throat, but some of it spills out and is absorbed by snakes, plants, and creatures whose “bite” cause untimely deaths. A specific ceremony in the rajasuya removes these “mordacious ones” from the newly born king so he may die by old age alone, but here Krishna’s glance of amrita is all that is needed (SB 5.4.1.1–2). The mordacious elements are thought of as reddish snakes, which are “neither worms nor non-worms.” To get rid of them the priest has them “eaten” in a rite appropriate to their anomalous status. He places a piece of “red metal” into the mouth of a “longhaired man,” a eunuch sitting in the sadas shed. The red metal “is neither iron nor gold” and the man with long hair is neither man nor woman, “for being a male, he is not a woman, and being long-haired, he is not a man.” The anomalous “snakes” given to biting are thus “swallowed” as a piece of anomalous metal by an anomalous person identified by his hair.

16. Shuka plays with the word krishna (black) and on the connection of poison to snake. The Lord who is black (krishna) perceives that the river, which is black (krishna), is poisoned by the black snake (krishna-ahi). Shuka hints that all three (Krishna, poisoned water, and snake) express Narayana’s omniscience. The white Balarama absents himself from this episode because his role as bala is completed; only the black Govinda as jnana can banish the serpent (sarpa) of kalmasha from the consciousness it poisons.

17. BP 10.16.16. The description of Balarama as bhagavan madhavo bala is translated by Tapasyananda (1980–1982 3: 111) as “the venerable Balarama, who was only a manifestation of Krishna.” Tagare (1976–1979 4: 1361) renders it “the glorious Lord Balarama.” I have interpreted it to mean “the indefatigable energy of the Bhagavan Madhava.” Madhava, the third of the twelve murtis, appears in Panel 12 concluding the sequence by way of the north, as discussed in chapter 6.

18. BP 10.16.32. Krishna’s dance of victory (tandava) parallels Shiva’s tandava dance in the Shaiva Agama. Krishna and Shiva are each believed to be the “first teacher of all the arts.” In the Tamil Tirumantiram (ca. 7th–8th centuries), Shiva is portrayed dancing on the back of the demon Muyalakan (Zvelebil 1985: 46–51). In later sculptures, Muyalakan holds a snake and Shiva wears a snake. According to M. C. Venkatacami, the snake symbolizes the anavamala, the fine (anava) defilement (mala) of ignorance, which envelopes the soul (jiva) to keep it defiled by the impurities of karma (kanmamala) and delusion (mayamala) (Venkatacami 1967: 35–37). Kaliya is the Bhagavata version of that snake; he represents the kalmasha that poisons the thread of passion (rajoguna) and obscures the atman, the final and most fundamental defilement to be removed before complete “awakening.”

19. BP 10.16.33–53. The early commentator Sridhara Svami identifies the prayer’s three divisions as: 1) acquiescence in the punishment given to Kaliya (first six verses); 2) praise of the Bhagavan (ten verses); and 3) prayer to the Bhagavan (five verses). See Tagare 1976–1979 4: 1364.

20. See Panel E5 (chapter 14), where Lakshmi in Ketumala prays to the Preeminently Mighty formation for the touch of his hands on her head.

21. BP 10.16.45: namah krsnaya ramaya vasudevasutaya ca / pradyumnaya-aniruddhaya satvatam pataye namah. Tagare (1976–1979 4: 1367) elaborates the statement with interpretation and Tapasyananda (1980–1982 3: 114) glosses over it. By stating that Balarama issues forth from Vasudeva, the point appears to be to place Krishna on one side and the three formations on the other.

CHAPTER 9

1. Prishni and Aditi appear sequentially in two poems of the Rig Veda by Bharadvaja. In Rig Veda 6.66, Prishni is the mother of Maruts, whose embryo she receives from Rudra; she is a cow that gives milk once a year. Her Marut sons are unimpeded fires in golden chariots that drive themselves. They dwell in human hearts to purify defects and in the cosmos to unite heaven and earth; they give rain and abundant fertility to their worshipers, and to the one they protect in battle they give sons, grandsons, cattle, and water. In 6.67, Aditi is the mother of Mitra and Varuna, the eldest of all existing things. They are not the same and are not worshiped with other devas, but they restrain men from evil, give unassailable shelter, bounty, and rain as they prop up the summit of the sky each day (Wilson 1990: 4.190–197). Varuna is dark night and Mitra is bright daytime and they are worshiped together as a single whole.

2. Tirtha may refer specifically to sadhakas of the Pancharatra Agama and the Shaiva Agama. The Buddhist Pali canon refers to members of other religions (other than Brahmins of the three fires teaching the path to Brahma) as tirthika (tirthiya); and it favors those matted-hair ascetics teaching karmavada and kriyavada (Mahavagga 1.38.1–7, 11; cited in Jennings 1974: 602–603). Brahmins of three fires appear in the Tevijja Sutta, Digha Nikaya 13: 13–14, 25 (Jennings 1974: 556–557). The Magadhan ruler Seniya Bimbisara advised the Shakyamuni Buddha to have his monks teach the people on the fourteenth-fifteenth and eighth of the half-month, because this is what the titthiya in Magadha did and they gained followers. He accepted his advice according to Vinaya Pitaka, Maha-vagga, Khandhaka 2.1.1–4 (cited in Jennings 1974: 89–90). Buddhist tradition in this account thus claims to follow the earlier precedence of Pancharatra and Shaiva Agamikas in Magadha.

3. In another account, a horse sacrifice sponsored by Sagara leads Bhagiratha to perform tapas to bring Ganga down to Earth. She descends from Hari’s foot onto the head of Rudra Shiva, and from there to Bharata—a story frequently depicted in Pallava temples and monuments of the seventh and eighth centuries; BP 9.8.7–31; 9.9.1–15.

4. On the fifth and final day of the soma sacrifice, after the soma has been extracted, poured into the fire, and drunk by the priests, a goat is sacrificed. Before the animal is strangled, it is positioned in front of the sacrificial post (yupa) at the east and made to face west, the region of Varuna. A rope of darbha grass (varuna-pasa) with two strands is tied around its right foreleg and fastened tightly to the right horn and then tied to the yupa. See Kane 1974 2.2: 1115–1117; Sen 1982: s.v. “Agnistoma,” 32–33.

5. According to Vishnu-sutra 1 (dated in its present form between the 3rd–4th and 11th centuries), after her rescue by Boar, Goddess Earth went to Vasudeva to learn how to sustain herself. She saw him there in White Island in the Ocean of Milk, sitting on the Snake with Goddess Lakshmi; his conch, wheel, mace, and lotus flower were present in human forms. He had one body and four faces (1.60–62; Vishnu-sutra 1880: xxxii and 3–12). This is a common depiction of Vaikunthanatha in sculpture, according to Desai 1996: 8–10; 99–106. Shaivas similarly fuse four heads into a single form to represent Shiva’s five faces of flaming light in the panchamukhalinga. See, for example, T. S. Maxwell’s discussion of “The Parel Heptad” in Maxwell 1988: 186–232.

6. Prior to this restoration little remained of the wheel except the round shape. But Trivikrama’s fingers hold it by what would be the bottom of four flames at the wheel’s quarters. The left arm is broken, but the hand remains at the north corner of the flat plane from which Bali jumps up, and it holds the damaged conch by its long end.

7. The earlier Rajasimhesvara Temple anticipates this manner of depicting Ravana in its panel at the northeast corner of the prakara wall depicting him with the monkey Valin. Ravana has three visible faces, but only six visible arms.

8. Manu 10.23, 43–44. The Mallas may include rulers in Southeast Asia, where the Pancharatra and the Shaiva Agamas were patronized at least by the seventh century (Coedes 1968: 73).

9. See “Udayendiram Plates of Nandivarman,” SII 2: 361–374; and Foulkes 1879b: 273–284.

10. Following Heesterman (1957: 15–18) and Satapatha Brahmana (SB) 5.2–5 (Eggeling 1885 41: 1–129.

11. To begin the rajasuya, the priest makes an offering to Anumati. He then goes south to a natural cleft in the earth, starts a fire, and makes an offering to Nirriti. “For Nirriti is this (Earth),” he says, “whomsoever she seizes upon with evil, him she seizes upon with destruction (nirriti): hence whatever part of this (Earth) is of the Nirriti nature, that he thereby propitiates; and thus Nirriti does not seize upon him, while being consecrated” (SB 5.2.3). This natural cleft to the south appears to denote Nirriti’s extension from earth into the underworld. Whenever the ground bursts open in a village, house, fire-house, or meeting place, Nirriti is to be worshiped by twelve days of butter offerings from the milk of four cows (“a white, a black, a red, and a one-coloured one”). The concluding offerings begin in the north, move to the south, then to the west, and back to the north, leaving the east untouched. After an offering to Vastoshpati (Master of the Dwelling), the priest pours the refuse in the cleft, completes the oblations, and sprinkles the cleft with “lustral water.” (See Eggeling’s excerpt from the Kausika-sutra 13.28 in note 2, Eggeling 1885 41: 43).

12. The father of master elephants (kunjarapati) appears to be Gajendra, and this may be the earliest known reference to the story of his release from the “grasper” (graha); the story is discussed in chapter 7.

13. Mbh 3.245–246, van Buitenen 1975 2: 700–705; and Mbh, Anusasana Parva 13.4, Ganguli 1982, 1990 10: 14.

14. Mbh 1.88, 3.131; van Buitenen 1975 2: 208–209, 470–472.

15. Mbh 12: 143–149 (Ganguli 1982, 1990 8: 322–330); and Panchatantra 3 (Ryder 1925: 334–341).

16. Sahadeva, too, follows Krishna, even though Krishna had arranged for his father’s death. Before Krishna leaves Magadha with Bhima and Arjuna, Sahadeva venerates him; and when the time of the Great War comes he aligns Magadha’s great army not with his father’s natural ally, Duryodhana, but with Jarasandha’s natural enemy, Yudhishthira (BP 10. 73; van Buitenen 3: 219).

17. Kamsa and Jarasandha are at the center of the problem that has led the Ruler of Rulers to become Krishna and Balarama: Numerous asuras ruling in the guise of kings are oppressing Goddess Earth. In distress she takes the form of a cow and goes to Brahma, who takes her with devas to the shore of the Milk Ocean. He uses the Rig Veda’s “Praise of the Person” (purusha-sukta) to invoke the Lord of the Moving Universe, God of devas, and Virile Ape (vrishakapi). While in samadhi Brahma receives a message: The Ruler of the Rulers of Multitudes will lighten earth’s burden through his energy as Time. He will be born in Vasudeva’s house and devis will be born there for his pleasure along with his unending portion of a thousand hoods, who will precede him. The Pervading Actor’s blessed maya will continue to delude the moving universe even as she takes birth to await her Master’s command (BP 10.1.17–25).

The Purusha-sukta is Rig Veda 10.90. The unusual title Virile Ape (vrishakapi) appears as the name of a friend of Indra’s in Rig Veda 10.86, where male potency is an important theme. Vrishakapi appears to conflict with Indra’s wife Indrani at a sacrifice. He is described as harito mriga (tawny wild beast), as kapi (ape), as svapna-nashana (sleep’s destroyer), and as pulvagho mriga (evil-doing wild beast); see stanzas 3, 5, 21, and 22 in Wilson 1990: 6: 288–294). Except for kapi, these descriptions match a male lion: his color is tawny (hari), he destroys sleep by roaring during Brahma’s hour before sunrise, and he is dangerous. Vishnu appears as a lion in Rig Veda 1.154: stanza one describes his acts of virya and his three strides, and stanza two describes his virya as a wild beast (mriga) ferociously wandering the mountains in whose three strides all worlds abide (see Wilson 1990: 2: 79–80). “Virile Ape” and “Thrice-striding Lion” point to Vishnu as Indra’s friend (e.g., see Rig Veda 1.155–157; Wilson 1990: 2: 81–85).

18. SB 5.4.3.7: 19–21; AB 7.3; 8.2–4; Heesterman 1957: 64, 91–93, 127–139, 140–161.

19. Ganguli 1982, 1990 10: Shanti Parva, pp. 34–55; Anusasana Parva, pp. 11–14.

CHAPTER 10

1. dakshinya-drishti-padavi (BP 8.23.7). Tagare (1976–1979 3: 1112) and Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2: 388), respectively, translate the phrase, “are made the recipients of your gracious looks” and “have become the objects of Thy condescension.” In the context of this panel on the south side, however, the literal meaning of the phrase is appropriate: “southern (dakshinya)—doctrine (drishti)—path (padavi).”

2. Tagare 1976–1979 (4: 1628, note 3) cited the commentator Sridhara Svami for that information.

3. The kalpatarus or panchavrikshas are called Mandara, Parijataka, Samtana, Kalpavriksha, and Harichandana (Monier-Williams 1964: 262c, s.v. kalpa-taru; 577b, s.v. pancha-vriksha).

4. JS 1.1–2. Sanjukta Gupta discusses the theology of these three in Gupta 1992.

5. According to Krishna in the “Narayaniya,” the name Damodara refers to him, Hari, as heaven and earth and the space in between, whom people seek to attain by restraining their senses (Ganguli 1982, 1990 10: 153).

6. These occult powers (vibhuti) are 1) animan or becoming minute; 2) laghiman, or becoming extremely light; 3) prapti, or attaining or realizing anything; 4) prakamya, or irresitible will; 5) mahiman, or illimitable bulk; 6) ishita, or supreme dominion; 7) vashita, or subjugating by magic; and 8) kamavasayita, or supressing all desires (Monier-Williams 1964: s.v. vibhuti, 978c–979a.

7. Pradhana derives consciousness from him as her atman and because of him is able to act (JS 3.14; and Bhattacharya 1967 in JS: 24). Sanjukta Gupta identifies prakriti as a material emanation from Shakti (1992: 181–182).

8. Bhattacharyya 1967 summarizes JS 2.31–6.25 on pp. 16–26. Sanjukta Gupta observes that this theology conceives of ultimate reality as “two points of a swinging pendulum: on the one hand, the unpolarized Brahman and, on the other, the polarized God (Para Vasudeva) and His shakti. Sadhana concentrates on this shakti in the form of speech.” The “unpolarized” brahman, she says, is a “state of conscious existence of ultimate reality even beyond the Nityodita state, where divine sovereignty and splendor remain unmanifest in the plenum (brahman) of pure consciousness that is conscious of nothing, not even itself.” In contrast, the “polarized” Para Vasudeva with his Shakti has the six bhagas in full display; by means of his omnipotent Shakti as speech, “God is manifest as the godhead, Vasudeva, and is revealed to His own knowledge as such” (Gupta 1992: 184, 179).

9. Sanjukta Gupta 1992: 184 and 188: “the Vyuha Vasudeva and the transcendent Vasudeva basically are the same divinity and the awareness of the one leads automatically to the other.… After reaching the stage of worshipping Vyuha Vasudeva, the sadhaka automatically passes into the stage of Nityodita Vasudeva and attains mukti. SS [Satvata-samhita] asserts total identity between these two phases of Vasudeva; it gives only one mantra for both and calls it the mantra of the single formed deity (Vasudeva). This mantra is prescribed for both the renouncer-worshipper and the nonrenouncer-devotee of the system” (SS 13–42).

10. As Sanjukta Gupta explains (1922: 187–188), once the level of Aniruddha has been crossed in sadhana, the sadhaka no longer needs to perform external worship; and by attaining the vyuha Aniruddha goes beyond to the vyuha Vasudeva, who is identical to para Vasudeva.

11. BG 13.27–34. This reading assumes that brahman in 13.30 refers to Great Brahman’s pure creation, and that param in the concluding stanza 13.34 refers to Supreme Brahman, Krishna’s “highest home” as para Vasudeva.

12. In the Shaiva Agama, that threefold tamas is represented by Tripura—”Three Cities”—an invisible vehicle in three parts made of gold, silver, and iron, respectively. Maya had built it for the asuras, who roamed in it throughout the universe, invisibly causing destruction. When the devas went to the Ruler, Rudra Shiva, for help, he shot Tripura and killed the asuras. Pallava Shaivas repeatedly sculpted that famous episode.

This famous Shaiva story is also told in the Bhagavata Purana (7.10.52–71). In the Bhagavata telling, however, Rudra Shiva’s self-sufficient effort failed, for Maya dipped the dead asuras in a well of magical amrita liquid (siddhamrtarasa) contained inside Tripura and they revived, with vajra bodies and stronger than ever. Vishnu therefore took the form of a cow, and Brahma took the form of a calf; they entered Tripura and drank up the well. And then, drawing upon the potency (shakti) of his own righteousness (dharma), insight (jnana), renunciation (virakti), lordliness (riddhi), asceticism (tapas), knowledge (vidya), and ritual (kriya), Vishnu brought forth tejas in the form of a chariot, a charioteer, a flagstaff, horses, a bow, armor, arrows, and so forth. Only when Rudra Shiva used that mode of Vishnu’s tejas could he eradicate Tripura for good. He did so at the eighth hour called “Victorious” (abhijinmuhurta), the twenty-four minutes before and the twenty-four minutes after midday (Monier-Williams: 62). On the sanctum, midday is represented by the southeast corner, which we are now approaching. That story of Tripura repeats the meaning of this story of Indra and Bali on the Milk Ocean shore.

The Bhagavan’s own brilliant conquering power born of mantra must eradicate darkened passion on behalf of the enlightened dimension; only then can the sadhaka’s “Indra” defeat his “Bali.” Yet the devas are not self-sufficient, for in the end, Indra gave up on his own vajra weapon and relied instead on foam. Presumably, the churning of the Milk Ocean had produced the foam. A version of the story in “The Great Romance” entitled “The Ocean of the Stream of Stories” (Kathasaritsagara), however, said the foam was from the Ganga River and that the vajra was hidden inside it. There Namuchi was a Danava who practiced the vow of perfection in giving. In the churning of the Milk Ocean he had received the horse Ucchaishravas. During the war with devas over the amrita, the horse restored slain asuras by smelling them. Indra therefore asked Namuchi for the horse, which, because of his vow, he could not refuse to give. Indra then lulled Namuchi into security and killed him with “foam of the Ganges, in which he had placed a thunderbolt.”

The karmic fruit of Namuchi’s perfection in giving led him to be reborn again through his mother, this time as the more powerful asura named Prabala (Powerful), still committed to the vow. After he had conquered Indra a hundred times, the devas asked Prabala to give his body as a human sacrifice, which he did, and they cut it to pieces. Due to the karmic fruit of that self-giving act, he was born this time as the man named Prabhasa (Glittering). Prabhasa entered a cave in the mountain Chandrapada, which connects to the lowest underworld, Patala. After descending to Patala, he brought up wealth and asura warriors to aid the hero Suryaprabha (Somadeva Bhatta 1: 444–446). This telling of the story matches the theme of the south side exactly, including “Glittering” (Prabhasa), the name of the place where the Yadavas destroyed themselves and the Kali Yuga began. Perhaps Mali, Sumali, and Malyavan were among the asuras Prabhasa brought up from Patala.

13. For a discussion of Sudarshana, see chapter 15.

14. In the rajasuya, the conclusion comes only after the goat of the soma sacrifice has been slain and the newly engendered king and queen have taken the concluding bath. That concluding goat sacrifice may be the ritual basis for the story of Krishna decapitating Shishupala.

PART III INTRODUCTION

1. Raghunathan (1976 1: 476) said the elephants stand beyond the Lokaloka mountain, while Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2: 87) said they stand on the four sides of the mountain. The latter makes more sense.

2. The occupants of atmosphere below Dhruva exist in the descending order of the stars of the Seven Seers, the five planets, the twenty-seven constellations (nakshatra), Moon, and Sun (BP 5.20–22; 5.23.1–3). For the story of Dhruva, see BP 4.8–12.

3. See also Puranic Encyclopaedia 2002: 456. According to the Vishnu Purana, the inhabitants of Maharloka move upward at the time of the periodical dissolution; that realm is not destroyed, but neither is it inhabited. Janaloka above is where Brahma’s sons known as the four Kumaras dwell. Tapoloka above that is inhabited by ascetics not consumed by their ascetic “heat” (tapas). Finally, Satyaloka, the world of true being (satya), lasts as long as Brahma does, because it is his most subtle bodily mode. See the notes by H. H. Wilson [1840] 1961: 175–176.

4. Because humans live south of Meru and Dhruva we therefore perceive Sun’s movement and Dhruva’s realm as to the north. Aruna drives Sun’s chariot, using the seven Vedic meters as horses. Aruna sits in the front of the chariot, but faces toward Surya the Sun (BP 5.21.15–16).

5. See Tayapsyananda’s illustration, 1980–1982 2: facing 63.

6. Bhutam used the word totarntu to convey the sense that the order was a traditional sequence; I have translated it as “seek out,” but it also means “to continue in unbroken succession” and “to succeed each other.” The verse implies that every day the Bhagavan is worshiped first by Sun, then by Brahma in the Lotus, and then by Shiva. Since those deities are all transformations of the Bhagavan himself, that sequence portrays his daily contemplation of himself at his “center.” That visual contemplation is what worshipers like Bhutam sought to experience at their “center” (hridaya, nenchu).

CHAPTER 11

1. According to Maitreya, when Indra produced the imposters (pakhanda), who were naked (Jaina shramanas), red-robed (Buddhist shramanas), and others (Kapalikas), he did so while holding a skull and a khatvanga (4.19.20–25), which suggests that they also used it in some rites.

2. This translation is based on those of Minakshi 1941: 33–38, and 54–55, and of Mahalingam 1969: 139–155. The original complete text is found in SII 4: 10–12.

3. Kalikanri’s description of the khatvanga is vita-vel-koti-verpatai. C. Minakshi (1977: 55) interpreted vita to be vitai (bull) and translated the phrase to mean, “triumphant bull-banner and the spear weapon.” If we keep Kalikanri’s form vita, however, we may interpret it differently. Guided by Alex Wayman’s discussion of the khatvanga (1973: 122–126), I read the phrase to mean “a banner resembling the spinal column raised on a spear,” which was the khatvanga Pallavamalla received at his anointing as Nandivarman. Support is found in the explanation of vita in the Tamil Lexicon, and of the related vittam of Tirumantiram 2904 as explained by P. Iramanata Pillai and A. Citamparanar (verse 2863 in their edition). Vittam in that stanza denotes the sushumna column in the subtle body. Since the sushumna runs parallel to the spinal column in the gross body, and since the khatvanga topped by a skull resembles the spinal column, I have translated vitam as “spinal column.”

4. Ahirbudhnya-samhita 28.18ab, discussed by Rastelli 2002/2003: 427–429 and Rastelli 2005: 127.

5. We live in the Varaha Kalpa, at the beginning of the second half of Brahma’s lifespan, in the seventh of fourteen manvantaras that constitute his active waking day from about 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. In other words, the span of our ruling Manu is close to noon on the first day of Brahma’s fifty-first year.

6. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 1: 193) identified them, respectively, as “feeling of total loss of oneself in the loss of objects of enjoyment”; “anger at the obstruction to enjoyments”; “keen desire for enjoyments”; “the association of the sense of ‘I’ with the body”; and “not having knowledge of one’s own nature.” Goswami (1995 1: 183) identified them respectively as “looking upon death as one’s own end”; “anger”; “the craving for enjoyment”; “self-identification with the body etc.”; and “ignorance about one’s own self.” Both translators reversed the sequence given in the Sanskrit text.

7. This description of Brahma’s body is the paradigm for all humanoid bodies. It explains the position of the vastu purusha or “person of the place,” who fills the mandala on which the vimana will be built under acharya supervision. This person of the place, according to one Pancharatra tradition, is a being of insurmountable strength born from the sweat of the Bhargava Shukra, the acharya to asuras. Devas defeated him and threw him out of heaven and he now lies on the earth face down. Builders (shilpin) hired to construct the temple offer a blood sacrifice of mutton in the vastu purusha mandala; only after purificatory rites have been performed does the acharya begin the liturgical and building activities he is to supervise (Smith 1963: 13–14).

Since the vastu purusha lies face down inside the square mandala and we know that his anus is identified with Nirriti at its southwest corner, we may assume that his spine lies on the diagonal of the southwest and northeast corners. His legs are crossed in the southwest, his head is in the northeast, and his torso and arms fill the remainder. His right (uttara) side is on the east and his left (dakshina) side is on the west. This explains the placement of the sun’s dakshinayana and uttarayana on the mandala.

The sun’s journey northward (uttarayana) begins with the winter solstice at the northeast corner. It moves from the top of the vastu purusha’s head down his right (uttara) side to his anus at the southwest corner. From there the sun begins his southward journey (dakshinayana) at the summer solstice. It moves clockwise up the vastu purusha’s left (dakshina) side and back to the top of his head.

8. Shasta is also used to refer to the Shakyamuni Buddha and to Aiyanar, born to Shiva and to Vishnu in the form of the courtesan Mohini, therefore known as “Son of Vishnu and Shiva” (Hariharaputra). That Shasta protects human settlements. Since the common element shared by those three modes of Shasta is that they appear in the Kali Yuga—Shakyamuni Buddha at its beginning, Aiyanar now, and Kalki in the future—Shasta denotes that shared identity. Shasta is the nominative singular of shastri, meaning “he who chastises or punishes; rules or commands; or teaches or instructs.” From the Bhagavata point of view, all three chastise evil beings during the Kali Yuga.

9. [The word anrita is defined by Monier-Williams 1964 as “not true; false.” It is not clear where “chaotic” came from.—ed.]

10. The word uttamashloka as used here may only mean “the one of supeme glory,” but the context suggests that it specifically means “the supreme stanza” and refers to Krishna as the one who spoke Bhagavad-gita 18.66.

CHAPTER 12

1. [Had he lived, Dennis Hudson would undoubtedly have added more commentary to the material in this chapter. At present, some of the panels lack “The Panel’s Meanings” sections, and there is no conclusion.—ed.]

2. The story of Daksha’s rebirth is told twice and relates Soma the Moon of the south side to Brahma of the north side. In one telling (BP 4.30), the ten Pracheta brothers emerged from waters in which they had worshiped Vasudeva for ten thousand years with the Rudra-gita. Enraged at the trees that in the meantime had covered the ground, they released fire to burn them until Brahma appeared and pacified them. The remaining trees gave their adopted daughter, born of the seer Kandu and an apsaras, to the ten brothers as a shared wife, and through her Daksha was reborn. Abandoned by the apsaras when she returned to heaven, she had been raised by the trees as their daughter, and Soma the Moon, ruler of vegetation, had fed her with nectar she sucked from his finger. In the other telling (BP 6.4), it was Soma the Moon who appeared to the brothers to stop their burning the trees and gave them the trees’ daughter Marisha as wife. She was, again, born of an apsaras. Soma the Moon depicted in the first panel on the south-facing side of the vimana (Panel S1) connects those two tellings; and as we shall see in chapter 15, Soma the Moon was himself the rebirth of Brahma through Atri.

3. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 1: 39) interpreted vyupashritam … yoga-kaksham simply as “established on the way of Yoga,” and Tagare (1976–1979 2: 451) as “who wore a Yoga-kaksha (a strap to secure the position of the left knee).” It appears to me, however, to mean “without recourse (vi-upashrita) to the belt for Yoga (yoga-kaksha).” Compare the figure identified as Markandeya in Panel N5.

4. D. L. Lorenzen (1972:11) quoted the Kurma Purana in which Shiva declared the Vama, Pasupata, Soma, Langal, and Bhairava systems (shastra) to be opposed to Veda and not to be served. R. A. Dunuwila (1985: 49; 55–56) cited R. C. Hazra’s analysis of the Kurma Purana as a Pancharatra document of 550–650 that received a second version from the Pashupatas 700–800. The later version condemned non-Vedic shastras as heretical (pasanda). The Shaiva Agamas of 700–800 placed the Kapalika, Kalamukha, and Aghora sects on the “left hand.”

5. That position matches the design of the temple: If one sits on the circumambulatory west of the vimana and faces northeast, one faces the panel of Boar teaching Brahma, which includes the story of Matsya the Fish.

6. The Vajasani recension of Yajur Veda (BP 12.6.66–72 and Tapasyananda 1980–1982 4:189–190).

7. In the horse sacrifice (ashvamedha or hayamedha), the victim was identified with Sun and allowed to wander unimpeded for a solar year. Strangled on the second day of the sacrifice, the Sun-horse ritually impregnated the queen to beget a vigorous heir to the throne (Rig Veda 1.162–163; Sen 1982: 43–44). The body was then dismembered and offered into the fire. The sattra is a type of soma sacrifice modeled on the twelve-day soma rite that has six soma days as its principal feature. In theory, the sattra may last up to a year or one hundred years (Sen 1982: 115).

8. Visnudharmottara Purana 3.73.42–43 and 48; and Shah 1961: 158. Due to textual corruption, Stella Kramrisch (1928: 98) translated “face of a horse [ashva]” as “face of a dog [svan]”; Pratapaditya Pal (1975–1976) corrected it.

9. Tagare (1976–1979) noted that in 3: 1121. Sridhara Svamin, who appears to have been in the parampara of Chitsukha (1220–1284), is thought to have lived in the mid-fourteenth century (Shastri 1999: ix).

CHAPTER 13

1. The shaktis are the twenty-five categories (tattva) of samkhya: the “four” (prakriti, purusha, mahat, and ahamkara); the “sixteen” (mind, ten cognitive and co-native sense-organs, the five elements) and the “five” (tanmatra: sound, touch, shape [sight], taste, and smell).

2. The Chitraketu story divides into two parts corresponding to this north-facing side and to the opposite south-facing side on the middle sanctum. Part One: Chitraketu was an emperor near Mathura who had no son until Angiras, son of Brahma, gave him one. The child was poisoned by his other wives and, while he was mourning, Angiras and Narada appeared and instructed him about death. Narada taught him a mantra that gives the experience of Samkarshana. After fourteen days, Chitraketu became leader of the vidyaharas, and after twenty-one, he saw Adishesha and sang a hymn to him. In response, Samkarshana taught him and consoled him, as this panel illustrates (BP 6.16.50–64). Part Two: After many years, Chitraketu was cursed by Parvati to become an asura for insulting Shiva. He was born as Vritra through the southern fire of the deva Tvashta, who sacrificed in it to create an agent who would destroy Indra, because Indra had killed his son Vishvarupa (BP 6.9). Vritra emerged from Tvashta’s mantra as a huge and hideous asura (BP 6.9.11–18), who nevertheless remembered and loved Samkarshana (BP 6.11.21). Indra, who was protected by the Narayana-kavacha mantra of the Atharva Veda (BP 6.8; 6.9.53), slew Vritra (BP 6.9–12), but then, because he had killed Vishvarupa, was pursued by brahmahatya, “the sin of slaying a Brahmin” (BP 6.13).

3. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2: 78) interpreted it here to mean two people, Nara and Narayana, but the mantra Narada addressed to him (BP 5.19.11) makes it clear that he is the single “seer of seers and supreme guru of paramahamsas.” When the single Naranarayana produces the dual Nara and Narayana, the role of paramahamsa will be played by Nara and the role of guru by Narayana.

4. Both Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2:78) and Tagare (1976–1979 2:732) interpret bhagavad-anubhava-upavarnana (delineation of the experience of the Bhagavan) in BP 5.19.10 to mean the Pancharatra. The reason will be clear in the story of Narada.

5. The yama and niyama of Patanjali’s Yoga, the classical system, are the discipline that leads to enstatic consciousness (samadhi), the first two in a series of eight techniques. The remaining six discipline the body and mind while sitting in the proper posture (asana). According to Mircea Eliade, Patanajli’s five yamas (restraints) are not killing (ahimsa), not lying (satya), not stealing (asteya), sexual abstinence (brahmacarya), and not being avaricious (aparigraha). His five niyama (disciplines) are cleanliness (sauca), serenity (samtosa), asceticism (tapas), the study of yoga metaphysics, and the effort to make Ishvara the motive of all actions (Eliade 1958: 48–49).

According to Krishna in “The Summary of the Brahman Doctrine” (BP 11.19.33–35), the yama and niyama of his Dharma differ and have to with the life of his devotee. His twelve yamas are minimal disciplines that apply to householders and ascetics: not killing (ahimsa), not lying (satya), not stealing (asteya), not clinging (asanga), modesty (hri), not hoarding (asamchaya), affirmation of Veda (astikya), sexual abstinence (brahmacharya), moderation in speech (mauna), constancy (sthairya), forgiveness (kshama), and freedom from anxiety (abhaya). His eleven niyamas apply to the Bhagavata consecrated by Pancharatra diksha: purification, uttering mantras to oneself, asceticism, oblations in the Vedic fire, faith, hospitality to the worthy, homage to Krishna, visits to tirthas, serving others, satisfaction, and serving the acharya.

6. For the secret, more secret, and most secret knowledge, see Tagare (1976–1979 1: 47 n 217).

7. Following Tagare (1976–1979 1: 48 v 32), the miseries are those caused by oneself (adhyatmika), those caused by the devas (adhidaivika), and those caused by the demons and animals (adhibhautika).

8. The origin parallels the origin of the asuras from Brahma’s seminal emission. See the discussion of Panel E3 in chapter 14.

9. Narada’s knowledge of Pancharatra theology derives from the Pancharatra Upanishad taught to him by the Unobstructed on White Island in the Ocean of Milk at the beginning of our kalpa. That story appears in the Narayaniya section of the Mahabharata as one of many things Bhishma taught Yudhishthira before Bhishma died after the winter solstice (BP 1.9.25–28). See K. M. Ganguli’s translation (Ganguli 1982, 1990 10: 114–217) with reference to the critical edition. In the critical edition, the Narayaniya is Shanti Parva 321–353; in the Ganguli translation, it is Shanti Parva 335–365.

10. J. Gonda dated the Satvata-samhita to the sixth century or earlier in his “Introduction” to Smith 1980. In volume one (Smith 1975: 513), Smith had noted that Utpala (ninth to tenth century) cited the Satvata-samhita as an authoritative work in his Spandapradipika. He also observed (1975: 67) that in later tradition the Satvata-samhita is associated with Melkote, the Paushkara-samhita with Sri Rangam, and the Jayakhya-samhita with Kanchipuram. Those three shastras constitute the authoritative “Three Gems” of the Pancharatra. According to the last, the Satvata-samhita, “the root of all the Vedas,” gave rise to the Ishvara-samhita (Smith 1975: 68), which Smith dated “in the neighbourhood of the tenth century” (Smith 1975: 85).

11. According to Smith’s summary, the Satvata-samhita itself does not make the distinction between svarthapuja and pararthapuja, though it is clearly implied. The distinction is explicit, however, in the derivative Ishvara-samhita (21.511–558).

12. In Bhagavad-gita 15.3 the axe that cuts the root of the asvattha tree of samsara is nonclinging (asanga).

13. In BP 3.32 Kapila described different kinds of devotees: 1) the householders who worship devas and ancestors and go by the path of Moon to the world he rules and are then reborn; 2) the wise who observe their own dharma (svadharma), practice the dharma of nonprocreation (nivritti-dharma), and go by the path of Sun to Brahma’s Satyaloka and live there as long as he lives, but are reborn when he is reborn; 3) the ritualists who desire the fruits of ritual and go to the world of Ancestors ruled by Aryaman; and 4) those who practice the discipline of devotion to the Vasudeva and quickly attain renunciation, knowledge, and the vision of brahman. See also BP 11.2.44–55.

14. Her wonder echoes Yashoda’s wonder when nursing the infant Krishna (BP 10.7.34–37) and when he ate mud (BP 10.8.32–45).

15. As Tagare explained (1976–1979 3: 1165 n 6), the story accounts for the manner of dress and tonsure of warrior peoples in the northwest who were not ethnically of Bharata. According to his translation, “some were got clean-shaven, some were left with beards and moustaches only (with no hair on the head); some had only hair on the head (but with clean-shaven face); some had only half-shaven heads; some were made to remove the under-garment, while others, the upper-garment” (BP 9.8.5–7).

16. Tagare was less clear. He said shruti means “direct expression (from the Vedas in eulogies etc.)” and artha means “direct expression … by way of purport (by episodes containing it).” He also noted that the commentator Viraraghava combined the two words to mean “as actually described in authoritative books or Vedas” (Tagare 1976–1979 1: 211 and n 594).

17. The emergence of Urvashi from Narayana and Nara at Badari is illustrated beautifully by the east-facing panel of the remaining sixth-century sanctum of the Vishnu-house at Deogarh (Hudson 1991).

18. Hamsa, literally “goose,” denotes the disciple’s consciousness “I (aham) am he (sah),” which repeated as a mantra becomes hamsa. The name plays with the identity of Nara with Narayana as differentiated (vishishta) modes of the single Narayana.

19. Goddess Shri and Goddess Bhu, respectively the pure (sattvika) and the passionate (rajasika) modes of Shakti, sit inside the palace in its inner apartment on the middle floor while their husband sleeps under the power of Yoganidra, the delusive (tamasika) mode of Shakti. At the same time, Yoganidra’s tejas protects that inner realm and the entire palace from any demonic defilement attracted to it.

Since Chandika Durga protects the “skin, bones, and flesh” of God’s body, we may understand why in her form as Auspicious Kali (Bhadrakali) she delights in human flesh and blood. Bharata, the son of Rishabha discussed in the previous chapter, was himself the proposed victim for such a sacrifice to Bhadrakali at her shrine. But the tejas emanating from his body stimulated Bhadrakali to emerge from her icon, seize the sword that was to behead him, and slay the sponsors of the rite; she then drank their blood and kicked their heads, dancing and singing all the while (BP 5.9.12–20). Bhagavatas, it appears, did not deny Bhadrakali’s taste, but following Bharata’s lead did not consider it their dharma to feed people to her.

20. K. R. Srinivasan identified this panel as “Vishnu as Siva’s teacher” (EITA 1.1 Text: 72), and there is a resemblance between the male standing here and Shiva standing on the east side (Panel E6). But the standing male is the ascetic Nara. The seated figure under the platform resembles a description of Shiva sitting under the banyan tree on Kailasa (BP 4.6.38–393), but it depicts the seer Markandeya. Nevertheless, Shiva is implied, because Markandeya was a noted devotee of Shiva and the panel may intend to portray him as a Shaiva.

21. She appears as Kamakshi in Chivananachuvami, Kancipuranam 53; and as Lalita in the Purana called the Lalita-mahatmya. For the history of the two shrines of the Goddess at the center of the city, see Venkataraman 1968.

CHAPTER 14

1. The story of Bhairava is told from a Shaiva perspective in Shiva Purana: Satarudra-samhita: 8–9.

2. For the Shaiva version of the story of Kama and Shiva, see Shiva Purana: Rudra-samhita 1: 8–9; and Rudra-samhita 3: 17–19.

3. See Zimmer 1955 2: plates 290–293; and Rajeswari 1988, figures 70–72.

4. Tamils celebrate the winter solstice (makara samkranti) with a festival honoring Indra for having brought the rains and honoring Sun for beginning the light half of the year. Today the festival is called Ponkal, the “boiling over” of milk-rice. The precession of the equinoxes, however, has changed the pattern, and Ponkal and the solstice are now celebrated about twenty-three days after the actual solstice; the northeast monsoon falls in Aippachi and Karttikai and ends near the beginning of Markali. Except in ancient poetry, the original association of Markali (Margashirsha) with the northeast monsoon is forgotten and its completion is now associated with Karttikai.

5. If the child were carried the full term of ten moons, conception on the Pankuni full moon, for example, would result in a birth ten moons later on the full moon of Tai, the “sunrise” month of the uttarayana or “daylight” of the year. Death during the dakshinayana or “nighttime” of the year is inauspicious, and the same is presumably true for birth.

CHAPTER 15

1. In a list of twenty-three lila avataras, Dattatreya is the sixth, and he taught Alarka, Prahlada, and others about the atman (BP 1.3.11). According to the Prahlada story, Narada taught Prahlada, and Dattatreya is not mentioned (BP 7.7.1–16).

2. His location, the mountain range Riksha, is the eastern part of the Vindhya range, from the Bay of Bengal to the sources of the Narmada and Sona rivers, including the mountains of Chotanagpur and Gondwana, in which the Mahanadi River rises (Tagare 1976–1979 2: 423 n 3; and Dey 1984: 141 and map).

3. Akrura made a similar correspondence between the vyuhas and the components of the macrocosm and microcosm in his prayer in the Yamuna River portrayed on the middle floor’s east-facing side (Panel 12).

4. An inscription in a temple at Mandagapattu in the Villupuram Taluk of South Arcot District records a Shaiva version of the trimurti in the order Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu. King Vichitrachitta (ca. 580–630), known also as Mahendravarma I, had enshrined their stone icons in three niches at the south end of a north-facing temple built without bricks, timber, metal, or mortar (Joshi 1965: 78; Longhurst 1924: 15–16; EITA 1.1 Text: 23). An inscription dated 973 found at Kurda in the Deccan invokes the trimurti with their wives; it compares them to the wish-giving Kalpataru tree and their wives to creepers encircling it. There the order appears to have been Vishnu-Brahma-Shiva, which, with Brahma in the center, suggests a Jaina temple. The inscription mentions Dantidurga as the dynasty’s first king, perhaps Nandivarman’s Rashtrakuta father-in-law or a predecessor (Joshi 1965: 79).

5. Bharata is the region of earth noted for ritual action (karma bhumi), and its suffering inhabitants live at the crossroads of the endless war between devas and asuras and use prayoga rites for protection. Prayoga rites arise from the Beautiful or Handsome Wheel (sudarshana chakra), which the Bhagavan holds in his back right hand. Sudarshana is discussed further below.

6. According to the story about the asura Namuchi reborn as Prabala and then as Prabhasa, a cave in “Moon’s Realm” (Chandrapada) connected Earth to Patala. Asuras emerged from it to do battle, which explains why the asura Kali became dominant at Krishna’s “death”; he emerged with the asuras from the cave at Prabhasa (see Tawney 1968 1: 444–446).

7. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 2: 333) said only asuras prepared themselves, but the text implies both devas and asuras, as noted by Tagare (1976–1979 3: 1045–1046).

8. BP 5.24.1–3 refutes the idea that Rahu swallows Sun and Moon each time and that they pass out though his neck because it no longer has an attached body.

9. For the conclusion of the story, see chapter 10 (Panel 20).

10. Panel 19 above on the middle floor denotes the western half of the vimana’s south side as Madhusudana’s “place” of Aniruddha’s shakti.

11. The correspondence of the twelve murtis with the twelve Tamil months and the twelve divisions of day and night (ahoratra) is this: (1)Keshava is Markali and 4–6 a.m. (Brahmamuhurta–night’s end) (2)Narayana is Tai and 6–8 a.m. (sunrise) (3)Madhava is Machi and 8–10 a.m. (mid-morning) (4)Govinda is Pankuni and 10 a.m.–12 m. (late morning) (5)Vishnu is Chittirai and 12–2 p.m. (early afternoon) (6)Madhusudana is Vaikachi and 2–4 p.m. (mid-afternoon) (7)Trivikrama is Ani and 4–6 p.m. (evening) (8)Vamana is Ati and 6–8 p.m. (sunset) (9)Shridhara is Avani and 8–10 p.m. (early night) (10)Hrisikesha is Purattachi and 10 p.m–12 m. (midnight) (11)Padmanabha is Aippachi and 12–2 a.m. (late night) (12)Damodara is Karttikai and 2–4 a.m. (night’s penultimate hour)

12. Mohini appeared to Shiva playing ball in the way Twilight played ball before the asuras (BP 3.20.35–36; Tapasyananda 1980–1982 1: 234).

13. [Dennis Hudson implies, but offers no evidence, that similar ceremonies were performed in the eighth century.—ed.]

14. [The Brihatkathasaritsagara is translated by van Buitenen (1959: 1) as “Ocean of the Rivers of the Great Romance.”—ed.]

15. After the Mantrasiddhanta Path came the Agamasiddhanta Path (focusing on a standing vyuha form and open to various castes), the Tantrasiddhanta Path (using the navapadma-mandala and open to members of all four ritual classes who employ the sacraments), and the Tantrantarasiddhanta Path (using the chakrabjamandala, pot, icon, and fire, and open to members of all four ritual classes who employ the sacraments).

16. In BP 3.7.29–30, Vidura asked Maitreya to teach him about varna and ashrama, about the births, and acts, etc., of seers, about the divisions of Veda, about the details of yajna, about the path of yoga, and about the tantra pertaining to non-action and to metaphysical analysis that focuses on the Bhagavan.

17. The Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture and the Institut Française d’Indologie at Pondicherry indentified it as the Buddha. For a similar portrayal, see the standing Buddha in cave no. 19 at Ajanta in Gupte and Mahajan 1962: plate XLV.

18. See, for example, Parshvanatha in cave no. 32 at Ellora in Gupte and Mahajan 1962: plate CXLII.

19. Krishna described an avadhuta wearing a loincloth whose story resembles the Jaina story of Mahavira, but the content of his gatha reminds one of the Buddhist bhikshu’s focus on the mind (manas) as the source of pleasure, pain, and the wheel of samsara (BP 11.23). Tagare (1976–1979 V: 2064) said he was nude, but BP 11.23.34 says he wore bark cloth and rags, which people pulled at. His prayer began like a Buddhist meditation in BP 11.23.43: The mind (manas) is the cause of sukha-dukha and is the supreme cause of the turning of the wheel of samsara (repeated again in BP 11.23.60).

20. For Shuka and the Bhagavata Purana, see 1.2.2–4; 1.3.40–45; 1.4.4–8; 1.7.8–11; and 2.1.8–10.

21. Buddhists were also seen to share a use of deceit to attain goals. Nearly a millennium after Nandivarman built the temple, the Tibetan historian Taranatha wrote about Madhyamati, who lived sometime between the spread of Mahayana and the appearance of Dharmakirti: “Then, there was the lay-disciple (upasaka) called the venerable (bhattaraka) Madhyamati. He used to go to the heretics (tirthikas) in their guise and, to start with, used to preach them their own scriptures. In the course of this, he surreptitiously preached the doctrine of non-self (anatma) and the method of the path of great compassion (maha-karuna-marga-krama). Thus their views were gradually changed without their being aware of it. In this way, he converted them into Buddhists. Since he could assume various forms simultaneously, he managed to lead about ten thousand heretics (tirthikas) to the Law of the Buddha” (Taranatha 1970: 337–338). (I have revised the passage by translating the Sanskrit terms and placing them in parentheses. The story appears in Taranatha’s chapter on the doctrine in the south, by which he meant the triangular peninsula down to Rameshvaram. He described Kanchi and Kalinga on the east coast, and regions on the west coast, in Karnataka, and in the Vindhyas. Buddhist shrines were present, he said, in cities down to present-day Kanyakumari.)

Madhyamati’s ability to assume multiple forms simultaneously means he was a bodhisattva using skill in means (upaya) to win over followers of Bhagavata and Shaiva Agama (tirthika).

22. Writing in 1608 in Tibet, Taranatha recorded a Buddhst story about “The Hill of the Sacred Kites” (Tirukkalukkunram) near Kanchipuram: “During the period of Suklaraja and Candrasobha—the kings of Kanci in the south—the Garuda and other common birds of the small island were brought under control and these birds used to bring medicine, gems and various marine creatures. With these treasures, each of the kings worshipped two thousand monks. A temple was later built for the birds and it was called the Pankhi-tirtha temple, where a few birds from the small island still come and live” (Taranatha 1970: 334). The word pankhi is the same as paksin in Sanskrit, pakki in Tamil, and pakkhin in Pali, all meaning “bird.” In Tamil, kalu can denote the kite or garuda. Birds are still fed as an act of worship at the “Hill of the Kite” (Kalukkunram) (see Dey 1984: 144).

23. L. M. Joshi, JOI 16.3 (March 1967): 223–232, cited by Nakamura 1987: 314.

24. According to Nakamura (1987: 338), the idea of shakti was introduced from Tantrism into the Vajrayana or Mantrayana. A Buddhist text revealing Tara’s nature as Shakti portrayed a scene that resembles the scene of Brahma and the lotus on the mountain Manasottara in the seventh continent as depicted on the east-facing side (Panel E1). In the Buddhist scene, Avalokiteshvara rather than Brahma sits in the lotus, and he dwells on the mountain Potalaka rather than on Manasottara. But like Brahma, Avalokiteshvara is in the company of Hayagriva, kinnaras, gandharvas, and various goddesses to whom he teaches Dharma. Vajrapani, a yaksha resembling Indra, approaches Avakoliteshvara and asks how beings may be saved from birth and death. The answer is through Tara the Rescuer, conceptually identical to Shakti. Actually it was Amitabha “the Protector” who revealed the answer, because he spoke through Avalokiteshvara. In the Ahirbhudnya-samhita, Sudarshana parallels Amitabha as the protector manifesting Shakti. See Arya-tara 35–40, in Conze et al. 1964: 196–202.

25. For this quote and discussion, see Beyer 1978: 6–8.

26. Beyer 1978: 7–8. Beyer also noted that Hsuan Tsang, who visited Kanchipuram in the mid-seventh century, reported two images of to-lo near Nalanda, whom he identified as Tara. One of them was in its own temple and a popular object of worship.

27. Goda (Antal) addressed the conch as Krishna’s lover who tasted the nectar of his mouth in Nacciyar Tirumoli 7.

28. Brahma’s yoga system appears to comprise the four liturgical paths (marga) listed in Padma-samhita 21 in hierarchical order (see note 15 above). The Buddha and the Jina are treated further in Shandilya-samhita 14 (Smith 1975: 432–433). See also Smith 1980: 113.

29. Tagare, in his note to BP 7.9.10 (1976–1979 3: 943 n 1), said that Prahlada as prapanna is the interpretation of the verse by the Ramanuja school of theology. But Prahlada refers to himself as a prapanna in BP 7.9.22, and Narasimha declares him a model devotee in BP 7.10.14 and 21.

30. See also BP 3.11.36, and 3.17: Man-lion and Boar appeared at the beginning of the second half of the present Brahma’s life, during the rule of the first manu, Svayambhuva.

31. Shiva told Parvati about that mantra while they were on Kailasa in a teaching known variously as the “Man-lion Ceremony of Majestic Sudarsana” (shrisudarshananrisimha-kalpa), or as “The Ceremony of Man-lion” (nrisimhakalpa), or as “The Sam-hita of the Ruler Shiva” (ishvarasamhita), or simply as the Pancharatra (Smith 1975: 87). It teaches the usefulness of the anustubh mantra to all ritual classes including Shudras. Moreover, two upanishads expound the exoteric and exoteric meanings of that “king of mantra” (mantraraja), the Nrisimha-purva-tapaniya Upanishad and the Nrisimha-uttara-tapaniya Upanishad (Deussen 1980: 809–858). Prahlada’s long prayer, the “Man-lion Ceremony of Majestic Sudarshana” and those two Upanishads thus belong together.

32. According to SS 19.36–38, at the beginning of the second stage of the vibhavadiksha, the acharya places his hand on the sadhaka sitting in the mandala and recites purifying mantras; Smith 1975: 529). The vishnuhasta is also used to signify the acceptance of a disciple by a guru (JS I.40–69 and Smith 1975: 114). The same gesture is used when a man is consecrated to the status of acharya (JS 18.82b–86a and Smith 1975:123).

33. Appropriately, the destruction of Madhu and Kaitabha is depicted in the realm of the subtle above on the middle-floor sanctum (Panel 19) and Hayagriva and Brahma are depicted in the realm of the gross body on the north side’s bottom floor (Panels NP1 and NP4).

34. Prahlada’s request reveals that the metaphor of king and subject, or master and servant, breaks down when applied to the relation of the Bhagavan and devotee: Unlike the usual master and servant, Vasudeva and devotee relate to one another out of love, not out of a practical sense of self-interest. Goda (Antal) made that same request through her vision of gopis standing before Govinda in Tiruppavai 29.

35. In the Sudarshana chakra mandala, the pranava Om in the nave of the wheel is the sign “that carries across,” the taraka; with it are Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesvara. Around it in concentric circles are the six-syllable Sudarshana-mantra (Om namas chakraya); the eight-syllable Narayanam (Om namo Narayanaya); the twelve-syllable Vasudevam (Om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya); the sixteen first letters of the alphabet (fourteen vowels and the anusvara and visarga); and the thirty-two-syllable Nrisimhanustubh-mantra. The four Vedas are its spokes and maya surrounds it, within which the Vasus are to the east, the Rudras to the south, the Adityas to the west, the Vishvadevas to the north, and the sun and moon on the sides (see the diagram in Deussen 1980: 830a).

36. The region of northern Kuru is described in BP 5.19.34–39. The story of Boar is told in BP 3.13 and 3.18–19.

37. According to BP 5.24.30, Panis are the offspring of Diti and Danu, the two wives of Kashyapa, and are divided into three divisions, all enemies of devas. They live like snakes in holes, only Sudarshana supresses their arrogance, and they especially fear Veda chanted by Sarama, the female dog who is Indra’s messenger; that alludes to a Rig Veda legend of a curse Sarama set on the Panis (Tagare 1976–1979 2: 761 n 254).

38. Tapasyananda (1980–1982 1: 222–223) identified Varuna as the “Lord of Patala” but that is not in the text. He is called asura-loka-palaka, “protector of the asura world.” See Tagare’s translation of this verse (which in his edition is 3.17.27) in 1976–1979 2: 319.

39. The abhijinmuhurta (hour of victory) is the twenty-four minutes before and twenty-four minutes after midday. In the calendar of the year, midday denotes the transition from the month of Pankuni to the month of Chittirai, which is the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. In the manvantara, it is the transition of morning to afternoon in Brahma’s daytime at the beginning of the present kalpa (BP 3.18.26–27).

40. Boar’s indentity with yajna is made even more explicit in the hymn seers sing to Boar in BP 3.13.34–45.

41. Following Agama thought, the Pancharatra’s mantrashastra is a brahma-upanishad and its followers worship the supreme Vasudeva. The Shakti of the supreme Vasudeva is the shabdabrahman or shabdashakti, the brahman or shakti that is sound. Through the sound of Shakti, Vasudeva revealed the mantras of Veda and the mantrashastra of Agama.

42. This discussion is based on Gupta 1989: 240–242. Gupta and Smith seem to make contradictory statements regarding the use of mantras by non-Brahmins according to the Satvata-samhita. Summarizing 2.1–12, Smith said, “Bhagavan says that the four Vyuhas of the Lord may be worshipped by means of mantras, which mantras are normally only for brahmin’s use but which, after (Pancaratra) initiation, may be employed by any devotee of any class-origin” (Smith 1975: 516). Gupta said, “Again, driven by Brahmanical orthodoxy, the SS allows only the brahmana initiate to worship the vyuha gods with their mantras. Others (the ksatriya, vaisya and sudra) are not initiated in the vyuha mantras. But, if they are totally self-surrendering devotees, they may worship the vyuha gods without their mantras” (Gupta 1989: 242).

43. BP 3.13.39 makes that clear: He is the insight (jnana) born of renunciation (vairagya), devotion (bhakti) and self-conquest (atmajaya) and the teacher of [that] knowledge (vidya-guru).

44. [The manuscript ends abruptly here. As explained in the Editor’s Note, Dennis Hudson never wrote the Conclusion to the book, as he intended.—ed.]

APPENDIX 1

1. Apart from radical renunciants, the correspondence here between five types of householder devotees and the “five” (pancha) in pancharatra may be intentional, for Krishna’s description of them in “The Summary of the Brahman Doctrine” links them to the Pancharatra Agama of Satvatas.

2. “The One-Yet-Many Consecration” (ekaneka-diksha) described in the Satvata-samhita is open to men and women of all four ritual classes, young and old. Though it is one diksha, with minor variations it produces many results, qualifies devotees to perform puja for themselves (svartha-puja), and will lead them to isolation from matter (kaivalya), or to worldly prosperity and pleasure (bhoga), or to both (SS 18–20, esp. 18.1–7; Smith 1975: 528–530).

3. K.K.A. Venkatachari noted that among Sri Vaishnavas today, tantiram in this verse is glossed to mean the Pancharatra Agama and mantiram to mean the Vaikhanasa Agama (personal communication).

4. See the gloss by P. B. Annankaracariyar (1928, 1929).

5. That is an astika version of the nastika doctrine of detachment expressed, for example, by Sthaviravada (Theravada) Buddhists: The true basis of detachment and eradication of the craving to be (trishna) is not the empty absence of atman (anatma), but the very fullness and omnipresence of atman. By seeing the atman in everything, one’s individual desire (kama) is fulfilled, not blown out, and thus pacified and made inoperative in the spacetime realm of “things” (namarupa).

6. In the Adhivasa-diksha, for example, purification is effected by the acharya through mantras before he touches the sadhaka’s head with the ghee left over from eight homa offerings. Anyone with sin or defilement must first be cleansed before the acharya can place the vyuhas in his body and before he can receive the consecrating unction (abhisheka).

7. This interpretation follows versions given by Tagare 1976–1979 2: 1982, notes, and Tapasyananda 1980–1982 2: 66, notes. The last item, sacramental rite (samskara), probably included the branding of the conch and wheel on the sadhaka’s shoulders and his or her application of the insignia (nama) of Sri Vishnu (Tirumal) on the forehead and other parts of the body. Those rites are included in the “five sacraments” (pancha-samskara) administered at the consecration of Sri Vaishnavas today.

8. In BP 11.13.8–42 Krishna discussed the awareness of “I” at length, repeating the teaching he, in the form of a goose (hamsa), had once given Sanaka and the other Kumaras.

9. Tagare’s explanation from various commentaries (1976–1979 5: 1978–1980) guides my reading of this text.

10. Slightly revised from A. K. Ramanujan’s translation in Ramanujan 1981: 26.

11. Translation in Ramanujan 1981: 60.

12. Ramanujan 1981: 50; 169; 76.

APPENDIX 2

1. The usual twelve-syllable mantra is Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya (Om, veneration to the Bhagavan Vasudeva). Its purifying power for the sadhaka seeking worldly gains is illustrated by the story of Dhruva who attains the position of the pole star (Dhruva) directly above Mount Meru (BP 4.8–12, esp. 4.8.53–62).

2. SS 18.61–87, esp. 18.84–85; Smith 1975: 528. This Vishnu-house appears to be the visakhayupa in stone. For the concept see Sanjukta Gupta 1971, and Maxwell 1988: 15–16.

3. The branding rite, called tapa, is portrayed in the film by H. Daniel Smith and K.K.A. Venkatachari, “The Hindu Sacrament of Surrender (prapatti).” Smith 1969 placed it in its liturgical context.

4. Buddhacharita 7.3, and note 3 (Asvaghosha 1984: 92–93). E. H. Johnston discusses the date of Asvaghosha (“between 50 B.C. and 100 A.D., with a preference for the first half of the first century A.D.”) in Asvaghosha 1984: Part Two, xvi–xvii). See also Schopen 1997: 155–156.

5. See chapter 6 note 2 above.

6. See SS 19–21 (Smith 1975: 529–531). A useful analysis of similar rites performed in the Esoteric Buddhist context is found in Tucci 1970: 85–107.

7. Compare Manu 2.31–33: The first part of a male Brahmin’s name should denote something auspicious and the second part should imply happiness. The first part of a male Kshatriya’s should be connected with power and the second part should imply protection. The first part of a male Vaishya’s should be connected with wealth and the second part should express thriving. The first part of a male Shudra’s should express something contemptible and the second should denote service. The names of women should be pleasing and auspicious.

8. Dwivedi 1982: Granthabhagah 2 (Smith 1975: 516; also Deussen 1980 2: 828–833).

9. Dwivedi 1982: Granthabagah 3; SS 3 (Smith 1975: 516–517).

10. Dwivedi 1982: Granthabhagah 4; SS 4 (Smith 1975: 517).

11. Deussen 1980 2: 835–836. Regarding this final goal Deussen says, “the description in the last chapter [of] how he is to be felt and found by becoming conscious (anubhava) of him as the self in us, and not through intellectual activity is among the most beautiful and most precious that the ancient Indian plunge into the secrets of the inner self has brought to light” (Deussen 1980 2: 836).

12. The word kalmasha refers to that which destroys or poisons intentional action (from karma-so, according to Monier-Williams 1964: 263a). Kalmasha also denotes the kalakuta poison kept by Shiva in his throat (BP 8.7.43). Kalmasha poisons the thread of passion (rajoguna), causing it to produce desire (kama) and anger (krodha). When Arjuna asks Krishna why a person does evil (papa), even against his or her intentions, Krishna says the cause is the desire and anger that arise from the thread of passion. He later describes the sant immersed in brahma-nirvana as estranged from desire and anger (BG 3.37–43; Minor 1982: 137). Here the thread of rajas poisoned by kalmasha is the atman isolated in kaivalya without God at the center of consciousness. Nevertheless, as Kaliya’s wives will point out below, God is the ultimate cause of the thread of rajas and its kalmasha defilement.

13. Dwivedi 1982: Granthabhagah, chap. 5; SS 5–6; Smith 1975: 517–520.

APPENDIX 3

1. Marichi: BP 3.12. 21–24; Kashyapa: BP 4.1.13; Kashyapa’s descendents: BP 6.6.1–2, 25–45; and 6.18.

2. For these rites, see Hudson 1999b: 67–72.

3. Cattle are prescribed victims in the rajasuya, e.g., Aditi receives a pregnant reddish-white cow and the Maruts receive a pregnant dappled cow (SB 5.5.2.8–9). The slaughter of a barren cow, or of one that contains an embryo, its dismemberment, and its offering are described in SB 4.5.2.

4. BP 4.23.4–18. Tagare (1976–1979 2: 563) and Tapasyananda (1980–1982 1: 407) interpret vaikhanasa to mean vanaprastha, “forest dwelling,” which is the way Prithu lived. It is doubtful that it refers to those who follow the Vaikhanasa Agama.

5. The Tamil courtly poems Chilappatikaram and Manimekalai depict shramana patrons celebrating Indra’s annual spring and new year festivals (Hudson 1995c).

6. The Narayaniya is Mbh 12.324–353 (Ganguli 10: 114–217). The story of Vasu Uparichara is Mbh 12.323–324 (Ganguli 10: 119–129).

7. The Vasus in the Rig Veda include the Adityas, Maruts, Ashvins, Indra, Ushas, Rudra, Vayu, Vishnu, Shiva, and Kubera (Monier-Williams 1964: 930).

8. Mbh 12.322.23–24. The story of the origin of these Satvata teachings with the Seven Seers inspired by Goddess Sarasvati and approved by Narayana, and then taught by Brihaspati to Vasu Uparichara, after whose rule they disappeared, is told in Mbh 12.322.26–52.

9. Mbh 12.324.30–37 (following Ganguli’s interpretaion of brahmaloka in 10: 126 note 1).

10. Mohini, “the wondrous shape of a woman,” appears in Mbh 1.15–17 in the story of Astika (van Buitenen 1: 74-75). Her story is told at great length in BP 7.5–12.

APPENDIX 4

1. JS 22.75–20 (Smith 1975: 125). See also Padma-samhita 4.13 (Smith 1975: 232), and Vishnutilaka-samhita 3 (Smith 1975: 388). On the vimana of this Vishnu-house, the first abhigamana period corresponds to the north-facing side, the second and third upadana and ijya periods correspond to the east-facing side, the fourth svadhyaya period corresponds to the south-facing side, and the fifth yoga period corresponds to the west-facing side.