***The **Goddess **Who **Guides **through **Troubles ***
In lists of the Mahavidyas, Tara almost always follows Kali. This suggests a certain importance in the group. Indeed, she is more like Kali in appearance than any of the other Mahavidyas. As we shall see below, interpretations of her significance often come close to those of Kali.
Tara occupies a central place in Tibetan Buddhism and to a great extent plays the role of a Tibetan national deity. In her Buddhist context, she is almost always a benevolent, compassionate, gentle, playful young woman who indulges her devotees and never lets them come to harm. In her Hindu context, on the other hand, particularly as one of the Mahavidyas, Tara is almost always fierce, often horrible to behold, and potentially dangerous. Although Tara also has fierce aspects in Buddhism and benign ones in Hinduism, she generally manifests gentle features in the former and fierce ones in the latter. Historically, it is likely that the Hindu Mahavidya Tara developed from the Buddhist bodhisattva Tara and that the Hindu preference was for her fierce manifestations.
Tara’s Place in Buddhism
Tara seems to have been important in the Buddhist tradition first and to have become known in the Hindu tradition later. The earliest reference to Tara, in Subandhu’s *Vasavadatta, *which was probably written in the seventh century, puts her in a Buddhist context. The reference occurs as part of a pun and reads: “The Lady Twilight was seen, devoted to the stars and clad in red sky, as a Buddhist nun [is devoted to Tara and clad in red garments].“1
In Buddhist tantric mythology and iconography, Tara belongs to the family of the Dhyani Buddha Amoghasiddhi, but she is also related to the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, who is in the family of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha. In one account of Tara’s origin, all the creatures of the world begin to lament when Avalokitesvara is about to achieve *nirvana *(final liberation and freedom from rebirth), which means he will leave the world behind. Hearing them, Avalokitesvara sheds a tear of compassion for the suffering of all beings. That tear becomes Tara, who is thus understood to be the essence of the essence of compassion.2 As we shall see, Tara’s essential nature in Tibetan Buddhism is that of a compassionate savior who rescues her devotees from peril. Her inclusion in the Amitabha family therefore seems fitting, since both Amitabha and Avalokitesvara are renowned for their great compassion.
Tibetan Buddhists know other legendary or mythological accounts of Tara’s origin. One legend identifies Tara with the wives of the first great Tibetan king, Songsten gampo (617-50 C.e.). The king himself is said to have been an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, while his Chinese wife is said to have been an incarnation of Green Tara and his Nepalese wife an incarnation of White Tara (there are several different forms of Tara in Buddhism, as we shall see).3 Another Tibetan legend, ancient and preBuddhist in origin, says that the Tibetan people arose from the union of a monkey and a rock ogress. By the fourteenth century, however, when Buddhism dominated Tibet, the monkey had come to be identified with Avalokitesvara, and the rock ogress, despite her lustful nature, with an incarnation of Tara.4 An interesting aspect of these Tibetan legends is that they associate Tara with the origins of the Tibetan people and the Tibetan royal line. They affirm that she is dear to the Tibetan people in a special way. She is in a legendary sense their queen and mother.5
Historically, Tara was known in Tibetan Buddhism as early as the eighth century, that is, around the time when Buddhism was introduced to Tibet from India. Until the time of Atlsa (eleventh century), however, the worship of Tara does not seem to have been very widespread there. Atisa is usually associated with popularizing the cult of Tara in Tibet; biographical accounts emphasize the many visions he had of her and his special devotion to her. Atisa is credited with translating a series of Sanskrit texts about Tara into Tibetan. The texts were soon circulated as a coherent cycle and came to be known by the name *Cheating **Death.6 *Another text that was to become popular in Tibet was also brought there and translated in the eleventh century, by the spiritual master Darmadra. *Homages **to **the **Twenty-One **Tarns *to this day is well known to most Tibetans.7
Despite Tara’s many forms and functions it seems clear wherein lies her extraordinary power and appeal in the Tibetan context. She is approached primarily as a savior, as a being who specializes in dramatic appearances when her devotees call on her in dire circumstances. She is often said to rescue her devotees from such desperate predicaments as being lost in an impenetrable forest, foundering in a storm at sea, being under threat of imminent execution, or being trapped and bound in prison.8 In many folk stories Tara appears at the request of her devotees to snatch them from the jaws of death.9 Tara’s compassion for suffering beings, then, is revealed primarily in her role as the cheater of death. In this sense her chief blessing to her devotees is a long life. Other stories featuring Tara also emphasize that regular worship of Tara brings about longevity.10 In Tibetan monastic traditions, when novices are initiated into the ceremonies in honor of Tara, the rituals are referred to as an “initiation into life.“11 Unlike goddesses who are associated with life as embodiments of fertility, Tara is approached primarily as the one who protects, preserves, and saves life. She is not a fertility goddess (although she does give her blessing in this way from time to time)12 but a greatly compassionate being who cannot tolerate the suffering of her devotees.
Although Tara’s primary appeal in Buddhism seems to be as the cheater of death, the prolonger of life, and a charming, playful young girl, she does have a variety of forms, some of which are fierce, even terrifying. *Homages **to **the **Twenty-One **Yards, *probably her most popular hymn of praise, contains several verses that invoke Tara in fierce forms.
Homage, Lady who annihilates the heroes of Mara,
TURE, the terrible lady,
slaying all enemies
by frowning the brows of her lotus face.
Homage, Lady who strikes the earth with her hand,
who pounds upon it with her feet,
shattering the seven underworlds
with the sound HUM made by her frowning brows.
Homage, Lady who strikes with the feet of TURE,
whose seed is the form of the syllable HUM,
shaking Mount Meru, Mandara, Kailasa,
and all the triple world.13
A particularly fierce form of Tara is Tara Kurukulla.14 She is described as follows:
Homage and praise to her
who stands in the dancing pose
haughty with furious rage,
who has a diadem of five skulls,
who bears a tiger’s skin.
I pay homage to the red one,
baring her fangs, whose body is frightful,
who is adorned with the five signs of ferocity,
whose necklace is half a hundred human heads,
who is the conqueress of Mara.15
Tara Kurukulla’s special power lies in her ability to subjugate and destroy evil spirits or one’s personal enemies.16 Through the rituals in which Kurukulla is invoked, she comes to reside in the practitioner himself (the texts almost always assume a male adept). The rituals thus require a strong and accomplished adept, for Kurukulla is a potent force. The adept dresses in red garments and visualizes himself taking on the form of the goddess. Then he recites her mantra ten thousand times. Then he makes certain offerings to her and asks her to subjugate the person or demon who is the object of the rituals.
When these preliminaries are complete, when he has firmly grasped the vivid appearance and ego of the goddess, the visualization is ready to be performed. Light radiates forth from a HRIH in the practitioner’s heart and places the person to be subjugated, naked and with unbound hair, upon a wind mandala arisen from YAM: that is, the seed of wind transforms into the round shape symbolic of the air element, and this wind propels forward the person to be subjugated; he is bound around the neck by a noose radiated from the practitioner’s—Kurukulla’s—lotus flower, drawn forward by an iron hook stuck into his heart, summoned by the strength of the mantra, and laid down helpless upon his back before the practitioner’s feet. If the person to be subjugated is male, the text adds, Kurukulla’s iron hook is stuck into his heart; if female it is stuck into her vagina.17
Other fierce forms of Tara in Buddhism include Mahamayavijayavahini-tara,18 who is called The Blue She-Wolf,19 and Mahacinatara. Mahacina-tara (also known as Ugra-tara) is described in both Buddhist and Hindu sources. Here is an account from a Buddhist work, the *Sadhanamdld: *
The worshiper should conceive himself as (Mahacina-Tara) who stands in the Pratyalidha attitude [an aggressive pose in which the left foot is put forward], and is awe-inspiring with a garland of heads hanging from the neck. She is short and has a protruding belly, and her looks are terrible. Her complexion is like that of the blue lotus, and she is three-eyed, onefaced, celestial and laughs horribly. She is in an intensely pleasant mood, stands on a corpse, is decked in ornaments of snakes, has red and round eyes, wears the garments of tigerskin round her loins, is in youthful bloom, is endowed with the five auspicious symbols, and has a protruding tongue. She is most terrible, appears fierce, with bare canine fangs, carries the sword and the Kartri in the two right hands and the Utpala and Kapala [skull] in the two left. Her Jatamukuta [bound-up hair] of one coil is brown and fiery and bears the image of Aksobhya within it.20
Vasistha and Mahacina-tara
It is likely that Tara first became important in Indian Buddhism and then, after being introduced into Tibet, assumed a central position there. Her place in Hinduism is not as prominent as it is in Tibetan Buddhism: she probably entered the Hindu tradition through Buddhist tantric influence. Clear indications of Tara’s Buddhist affiliation remain in Hindu sources. She is said, for example, to have Aksobhya set in her hair. Aksobhya, “the unperturbed one,” is said to be an epithet of Siva, but it is also the name of a Buddha. In the *Rudrayamala *and *Brahmaydmala, *furthermore, Tara is sometimes called Prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom), which is definitely a Buddhist name.21
The most convincing testimony to Tara’s earlier Buddhist association is a myth that features the sage Vasistha’s attempts to worship Tara. Once upon a time, he did austerities for ten thousand years, but got no results. He went to the god Brahma and asked for a powerful mantra that might help him. Brahma told him about the glory of Tara. It is through Tara’s power, he said, that he creates the world, Visnu protects it, and Siva destroys it. She is infinitely more glorious than millions of suns, she is the source of all light, and she reveals the Vedas. Brahma then told Vasistha to recite the Tara mantra for success. Vasistha went to Kamakhya, the famous goddess shrine in Assam, and undertook Tara’s worship. After one thousand years he still was unsuccessful. At this point the sage became angry and was about to curse Tara for her indifference. The whole earth trembled in fear, and even the gods were disturbed. At that moment Tara appeared in front of Vasistha. She told him that he had been wasting his time because he did not understand her or know how to worship her. She said that Vasistha did not know her appearance in the form of Cina-tara and that she could not be propitiated through yoga and austerities. “Only Visnu in the form of Buddha knows my form of worship,” she said, “and to learn this kind of worship you have to go to China.” Tara then disappeared.
Vasistha went to Tibet to find out what to do. Near the Himalayas, he had a vision of the Buddha surrounded by many beautiful girls and intoxicated with wine. They were all naked, drinking and carousing. Vasistha was shocked and refused an invitation to take part in the frolic. Then a voice from the sky said to him: “This is the best way of worshiping Tara. If you want immediate success, you have to adopt this type of worship.” Vasistha then took refuge in Visnu in his form as the Buddha and asked to be instructed in this method. The Buddha revealed to him the *kula **mdrga, *a tantric type *oisadhand *(spiritual practice), warning him that it was very secret. A central feature of this path is the ritual of the five forbidden things. With this ritual, and on this path, one can live in the midst of good and bad things while remaining aloof from them, the Buddha told him. On this path there is no need for traditional types of rituals. Worship is mental and not physical. All times are auspicious; nothing is inauspicious; there is no difference between pure or impure; there are no restrictions on what one can eat or drink; worship can be done any place and any time; a friendly attitude toward women should be cultivated, and worship of women should be practiced.
Receiving this knowledge from the Buddha, Vasistha did the ritual of the five forbidden things and became a very powerful *sadhaka *(religious adept). He went to Tarapur to practice his new spiritual path. This place, now known as Taraplth, is located in Birbhum district in Bengal and is the place where the famous adept Bamakhepa (1843-19n) did his *sadhand. *It is located near a cremation ground.
This myth makes several important points. First, the proper worship of Tara is associated with the Buddha, who is understood to be a form of Visnu.23 That is, the myth implicitly acknowledges that Tara worship is derived from Buddhism. Second, the type of worship is tantric, specifically of the left-handed type featuring the ritual of the five forbidden things. Third, Vasistha’s going north to discover the true form and worship of Tara suggests Tibetan influence. Fourth, the myth mentions Kamakhya in Assam and Taraplth in Bengal as important centers, which implies that worship of Tara in Hinduism was strong and perhaps centered in eastern India.
The Fierce Tara of Hinduism
There are several forms of Tara described in Hindu sources, but nowhere do we find the playful, charming girl that dominates her iconography in Tibetan Buddhism. Nearly every description of Tara in Hindu sources stresses her fierce, often horrifying, appearance and reminds us of the terrifying Tara Kurukulla and Mahacina-tara of the Buddhist tradition. While Tara is said to have benign and compassionate aspects in the Hindu setting (see below), these tend to be overshadowed by her terrible ones. The *dhyana *mantra for Ugra-tara from the *Mantra-ma**hodadhih *describes her thus:
I meditate upon the Divine Mother of the three worlds, who is sitting on a white lotus situated in the centre of the waters enveloping the entire universe. In her left hands she holds a knife and a skull and, in her right hands, a sword and a blue lotus. Her complexion is blue, and she is bedecked with ornaments. . . . She is decorated with three beautiful serpents and has three red eyes. Her hair is bunched into a single plait of tawny colour. Her tongue is always moving, and her teeth and mouth appear terrible. She is wearing a tiger skin around her waist, and her forehead is decorated with ornaments of white bone. Sage Aksobhya, in the form of a serpent, is situated on her head. She is seated on the heart of a corpse, and her breasts are hard. Thus should one meditate on Bhagavati Tara, who is the mistress of all three worlds.24
Other forms of Tara are equally forbidding. The *dhyana *mantra of Tara in her form as Nlla-sarasvatl from the *Tantrasara *is as follows:
I bow to you mother Nllasarasvati. You give well-being and auspiciousness. You are situated on the heart of a corpse and are advancing aggressively You have three fearful, bright eyes. You carry a skull bowl, scissors, and a sword. Your form shines like a blazing fire. Give me refuge. Give me golden speech. Please let your gracious nectar drench my heart, remover of pride. You are decorated with snakes as ornaments, you wear a tiger skin as a skirt, you ring a bell loudly, and wear a garland of chopped off heads. You are frightening and remove fear.25
Another of her *dhyana *mantras from the *Tantrasara *describes her as follows:
Tara should be conceived as emerging from a white lotus. She advances with her left foot forward, and she is dreadful in appearance. She is short in stature and has a protruding and long belly. She wears a garland of skulls and a tiger skin for a skirt. She is eternally young. Her forehead is decorated with a row of five skulls. She has a lolling tongue; she is very dreadful and has four arms in which she carries a sword, a pair of scissors, a cut head, and a lotus. She has a smiling face. Her hair is in the form of a mat*ted **jata *(a braided knot) on which sits Aksobhya in the form of a serpent. Her complexion is like that of the bright moon. She has three eyes; she stands on a blazing funeral pyre; her teeth are dreadful; she is adorned with ornaments.26
Tara’s description and character in Hindu texts emphasize two important and related features that are absent from the Buddhist Tara: (1) she is strongly associated with the goddess Kali, whom she closely resembles, and (2) she is often located in the cremation ground. Both of these associations emphasize her fierce, terrifying nature and distinguish her from the gentle forms of Tara that dominate Tibetan Buddhism.
The similarities in appearance between Kali and Tara are striking and unmistakable, especially in the two most common images of each goddess, Daksina-kali and Ugra-tara. They both stand upon a supine male figure, often discernible as Siva but sometimes said to be an anonymous corpse. Sometimes the figure they stand upon is being consumed in a cremation fire. Both goddesses are black, dark blue, or blue-black. Both are naked or wear minimal clothing, sometimes a tiger skin. Both wear a necklace of severed heads or skulls and a girdle of severed arms. Both are usually shown in the cremation ground. Both have a lolling tongue, and blood oozes from their mouths. Their appearances are so strikingly similar that it is easy to mistake one for the other. Indeed, they are often said to be manifestations of each other; for example, in their thousand-name hymns they share many epithets as well as having each other’s names as epithets. Tara, for example, is called Kalika, Ugra-kali, Mahakall, and Bhadra-kali.27 The devotional poetry of Ramprasad Sen, an eighteenth-century Bengali saint, uses the names Kali and Tara interchangeably. At time it seems that Ramprasad favors the name Tara when explicitly referring to the goddess’s more benign or gentle aspects, but this is not consistent.28
Like Kali, furthermore, Tara in her Hindu context enjoys blood. In her hymn of a hundred names from the *Mwidamdla-tantra, *she is called She Who Likes Blood, She Who Is Smeared with Blood, and She Who Enjoys Blood Sacrifice.29 The *Tara-tantra *describes Tara’s delight in both animal and human blood but says that the latter is more pleasing to her. The blood of devotees is to be taken from specified parts of the body, such as the forehead, hands, breast, head, or area between the eyebrows; some of these areas may correspond to the different *cakras, *spiritual centers within the body (5.15). Throughout this text, the worship of Tara is described as part of left-handed tantric rites, in which wine, meat, and sexual union figure prominently; in this respect also, Tara resembles Kali. That is, her worship seems to play upon the power of the forbidden and the attempt to transmute forbidden objects or acts into spiritually transformative instruments.
Like Kali, Tara is also associated with Siva, although not as consistently as Kali is. The male figure beneath her feet is often identifiable as Siva, and many of her names associate her with Siva. She is called, for example: Siva (the feminine form of Siva), Sankara-vallabha and Haravallabha (both mean “beloved of Siva”), Hara-patnl (wife of Siva), Dear to Bhairava (Bhairava is a form of Siva), and Wife of Mahabhairava.30 Tara also wears her hair knotted on top of her head in *ajatd, *the style of an ascetic, which is the way Siva wears his. This associates her with the world of asceticism and yogis, Siva’s world par excellence.
Although we find Tara linked with Siva by her epithets and iconography, there are few myths about her in Hindu texts, and scarcely any that connect her with Siva. In the oral tradition, however, I have come across a particularly intriguing story about the two. The myth begins with the churning of the ocean. Siva has drunk the poison that was created from the churning of the ocean, thus saving the world from destruction, but has fallen unconscious under its powerful effect. Tara appears and takes Siva on her lap. She suckles him, the milk from her breasts counteracting the poison, and he recovers.31 This myth is reminiscent of the one in which Siva stops the rampaging Kali by becoming an infant. Seeing the child, Kali’s maternal instincts come to the fore, and she becomes quiet and nurses the infant Siva.32 In both cases, Siva assumes the position of an infant vis-a-vis the goddess. I have also been told that the particular form of Bhairava Siva associated with Tara is Batuk-bhairava, the bachelor Bhairava (Siva), who is an adolescent. That is, the oral tradition seems to see the relationship between Tara and Siva as that of mother and son as well as that of wife and husband.
Tara in Hinduism is also strongly associated with the cremation ground. The figure she stands upon is often said to be either a corpse or *apreta *(ghost) and is often shown being cremated. In some depictions of Tara, cremation fires are visible in the background. Jackals are also often shown. It is common for worship manuals to specify that Tara should be worshiped in the cremation ground, usually in the dead of night. Tara’s epithets also sometimes associate her with the cremation ground. For example, in both her *kvaca *(a type of invocation that literally means “armor”) and her thousand-name hymn, she is called Smasana-bhairavl (terrible one of the cremation ground).33 In this respect also, Tara resembles Kali. They both haunt cremation grounds, and their temples are often established in or near them. Kali’s most famous temple, Kalighat, is adjacent to one of the largest cremation grounds in Calcutta, and Tarapith temple, probably the most famous of Tara’s temples, is similarly located next to a cremation ground. Although cremation grounds are generally believed to be sacred places in Hinduism, and temples to other deities may be established in or near them, Kali and Tara are consistently associated with such sites. Indeed, Tara is sometimes said to be the fire of the cremation pyre itself, the personified expression of this awesome, religiously powerful symbol.
Despite the variations in sequence found among lists of the Mahavidyas, Kali and Tara are almost invariably named as first and second, respectively. There is little doubt that this signifies their preeminent position in the group, particularly insofar as they are described in very similar terms. That is, it seems that Tara’s position as second only to Kali in importance is directly related to her being so similar to Kali in appearance. If Kali in her form as Daksina-kali is taken to be the highest expression of wisdom *(vidyd), *liberating knowledge, which many texts imply and contemporary informants insist upon, then Tara, listed just after Kali and appearing so much like her, must be a close approximation of that highest truth. We might think of Tara as Kali’s first, leastdiffused, least-refracted emanation, an expression of ultimate truth that is very close to the original totality. Or we might think of Tara as the penultimate stage in the progressive sojourn toward complete dissolution of the ego in its merging with the absolute, the penultimate stage in the *pralaya *(cosmic dissolution) of the ego, as it were. A modern commentator says that “at the time of *pralaya, *Tara becomes furious and changes into Kali.“34
The Symbolic Significance of Tārā
Most of the symbolic meanings associated with Kali apply to Tara. Indeed, she appears to be a variant expression of Kali, a kindred spirit, as it were, who expresses the same truths as Kali, only in a slightly different form. She dominates the male figure associated with her. She stands upon Siva or a male corpse, or she mothers the infant Siva. Like Kali, Tara suggests the preeminence or dominance of Sakti in a vision of the cosmos that is constituted or pervaded by Siva and Sakti.
Like Kali also, Tara is primarily a liminal symbol. She embodies and expresses realities that belong to the edges of the civilized order or that tend to be excluded as dangerous or polluting. Like Kali, she is naked or dressed in animal hides. Her hair is disheveled, and she stands on, as opposed to standing by or kneeling before, her male associate. Like Kali, she reverses the expectations of the female role in male-dominated Hindu culture. She is unrestrained, wild, and dominant. As primordial power, she is uncircumscribed and uncontrolled.
Like Kali also, she is identified with destruction. Kali is strongly associated with the dissolution of all things through the wearing down by time. Tara, on the other hand, is more strongly linked to destruction by fire. She is often identified with the actual fires of cremation and thus represents the final destructive but purifying force that marks the transition from life to death or from one type of existence to another. As the cremation fire, that is, she is more than just a destructive force: she is purifying and transformative. As we shall see below, there are creative and transformative aspects to Tara’s character. She is also identified with the excess heat of the sun. A contemporary author says thatTara appears as the first manifestation of creation after *pralaya *in the form of the sun. The primordial sun burns extravagantly, wildly, and dangerously and must be tempered with offerings of grain. Tara represents its untamed, excessive heat, which can completely dry up the creation by consuming the sap of life in all creatures.35 The same author points out that even the snakes that adorn Tara are part of her destructive nature. By emitting poisonous gas at the end of the world, they destroy it.36 He also interprets the skull that Tara holds, and sometimes drinks from, as an emblem of her role as mistress of destruction. According to him, the head is the primary repository of *rasa, *the sap of life. Tara consumes this in her destructive bent.37
Tara’s necklace of skulls and girdle of severed arms suggest the same meanings as in the case of Kali. The skulls (which are sometimes said to correspond in number to the number of letters in the Sanskrit alphabet) probably are meant to suggest the sounds of the alphabet and to associate Tara with *sabda **brahman, *the primoridal creative force in the form of sound. They almost surely also suggest her destructive aspect and are meant to signify death. The girdle of severed arms signifies her destruction of accumulated karma, which frees the individual from bondage to *samsara *(the realm of rebirth). Her sword and scissors, like Kali’s sword, symbolize her ability to cut through the fetters that bind a person to ignorance and limited consciousness. With her sword she certainly destroys, but this destruction can be positive and transformative. A contemporary devotee of Tara understands the severed heads she wears as symbolizing her elimination of the mind that is overwhelmed by ignorance or crippled with limited consciousness. “She does want to kill you—the false you, the limited personality which has accrued over so many births. . . . When she cuts off your head, your mind becomes firm, unwavering in its concentration, which enables you to succeed.“38 Of the girdle of severed arms, the same devotee says: “Most people clothe themselves in their karmas, and She wants to cut them off, remove them from you completely.“39
The Gentler Side of the Hindu Tārā
Several aspects of Tara’s iconography differ from Kali’s, some of them suggesting a dimension to Tara that is less destructive and more maternal than the fierce Tara we have looked at so far. Tara is said to have large, full breasts and to be “potbellied.” It is not clear if she is pregnant, but these features do suggest her maternal character. One informant interprets Tara’s large breasts and swollen belly as suggesting that she represents the first impulse toward creation and individuation. Kali is the void, *nirguna **brahman (ultimate reality without qualities), as it were, reality in its complete, essential form, orpralaya *(cosmic dissolution). Tara, so closely resembling Kali in most ways, but differing from her in the large breasts and swollen belly, has attributes of creation. She is filled with the universe, which is about to emerge from the void.40 Conversely, Tara may be seen as the last stage just prior to dissolution, represented by Kali. She wears some clothes (Kali does not), suggesting less-than-complete freedom, for example. In either case, Tara is close to Kali, either as the first step toward creation or the last stage prior to dissolution.41
Despite Tara’s strong connection with destruction, there are indications that she is understood as a creative, nourishing, maternal presence as well. This is most clear in her hymn of one thousand names. She is called, for example, Jalesvari (mistress of rain), Jagaddhatri (mother of the world, world nurse), Prthivi and Vasudha (both mean “earth”), Vrksamadhyani-vasini (she who dwells in trees), Sarvavamayi (she who creates everything), and She Who Likes Fresh Flowers.42
Tara is also said to be a savior of her devotees and in this respect reminds us of the Tibetan Buddhist Tara. In many places it is said: “She who takes one across *samsdra, *she is Tara.“43 Access to her is easy: her mantra, which has power to enlighten, is said to be accessible to all without special initiation or qualification. She gives her blessing readily and does not require her devotees to *do puja *(worship) *Japa *(repetition of her name), or *dhyana *(meditation) or make any effort to win her favor.44 She is called Sarhsaratarinl (she who carries across the ocean *of samsdra),45 *and her name is said to be derived from the meaning “to cross over,” implying that she helps beings cross the ocean of ignorance to enlightenment. Some iconographic representations show her with an oar in her hand, emphasizing her role in ferrying her devotees across the river *of samsdra.46 *A contemporary author says: “She helps to cross over three types of problems: bodily, those associated with fate, and those associated with material happiness. The meaning of Tara is she who liberates, ‘The Liberator.’ “47
Some texts describe Tara as living on an island to which devotees are taken by boat. She herself is sometimes said to be the chief deity in transporting them across the lake.
There is a great hall called “manas” whose middle enclosure comprises the nectar-lake. There is no way to get into it save the conveyance of a boat.There is the great sakti, Tara by name, who controls the gate. There are many attendants of Tara who are dark like the blue lotus and are sporting in the waters of the lake with thousands of boats of jewels. They come to this shore [presumably *samsara, *or “this world”] and go back to the other shore [presumably *moksa *or *mukti *(the state or condition of liberation from rebirth), or Tara’s heaven]. There are millions of boat-women under Tara who are in the prime of youth. They dance and sing the most sacred fame of the goddess. Some hold oars and others conches in their hands. They are drinking the nectar-water of the lake and going hither and thither on hundreds of those boats. Of these saktis who guide the boats and have dark colour the chief one is Tara, the mother who can calm the floods. . . . Thus Tara, the mother, surrounded by various boats and herself occupying a large boat, shines exceedingly.48
One of the most dramatic Hindu images of Tara’s gentler aspect is found at Tarapith temple in Bengal, where she is shown suckling Siva, whom she holds on her lap. The myth in the oral tradition of this temple that explains this maternal appearance of Tara is a variation and elaboration of the story of the sage Vasistha, who went to China to find the true method of worshiping Tara. There he found devotees worshiping her with rites using women, meat, and intoxicants. According to the Tarapith tradition, the Buddha, after initiating Vasistha into this lefthanded tantric worship, instructed him to return to India to practice his new *sadhana. *He was instructed to go to Bengal, to the very place, in fact, where Tarapith was subsequently established near the Dwaraka River. The Buddha, with his superior mystical insight, knew this spot to be sacred to Tara. Vasistha positioned himself on a seat of five human skulls and proceeded to recite the Tara mantra three hundred thousand times. Tara was pleased with his *sadhana *and appeared to him. She offered him a boon, and he requested that she reveal herself to him in her maternal aspect, as a mother suckling Siva at her breast, the image the Buddha had described to him. She manifested this form to Vasistha, and it then turned to stone; this became the central image of Tarapith temple.49
The stone image of Ugratara which was seen by Vasistha had actually existed before that time. The eye of Sati (some say the third or spiritual eye) which fell to earth at Tarapith turned to stone and sprang up in the form of the image which Vasistha saw. This statue relates to the story of Siva (as Nllakantha) having saved Creation by drinking poison which had emerged from the ocean after it had been churned. He was stricken with burning in the throat from the poison, which caused his throat to turn blue [hence he is called Nilakantha, “blue throat”]. To relieve burning, Sakti offered Siva her breast, which he took and was relieved.50
As we have already indicated in a few instances, Tara’s terrifying or fierce aspects also may be interpreted in positive ways that conform to her role as “the liberator.” The cremation fire that she represents or often stands in is said to symbolize the burning of the dross of one’s past karma, the purifying of one’s mind of ignorance, the burning away of attachments.51 Her scissors and sword are said to represent her role in cutting through the bonds that keep people in ignorance and selfdelusion. The severed heads represent the destruction of false ideas and self-enchantment. Her standing on a corpse represents, according to one modern commentator, her “triumph over calamities.“52
In short, although Tara’s appearance and habits initially seem to be almost totally terrifying and fearsome, she has a gentler side. She is a savior who takes special care of her devotees, and in this respect she reflects the personality of the gentle Tārā of Tibetan Buddhism. The Hindu Tara’s means of helping her devotees are more abrasive and frightening than those of the Tibetan Buddhist Tārā, but the end result—liberation— is similar. The Hindu Tārā tends to shock her devotees into liberating knowledge, while the Tibetan Tārā overwhelms them with compassion.
Worship of Tārā at Tārāpī#h
Although the Hindu Tārā is not as widely worshiped as Kali or Laksmi, there are several temples dedicated to her in North India and Nepal. Compared to Chinnamasta, Bagalamukhl, Matarigi, and Dhumavati—Mahavidyas who receive barely any public worship—Tārā has a fairly flourishing temple cult. Perhaps her most famous temple is at Tarapith in Birbhum district of rural Bengal. The temple is not particularly large, and the flow of worshipers is modest, but the temple and deity are widely known, and Tarapith is reputed to be a very powerful center of goddess worship. The temple’s founding myths, its type of worship (which includes blood offerings), the hymns sung there, the powers of the nearby tank, and the inhabitants and rituals of the adjacent cremation ground combine to give a good picture of Tārā worship.
There are two mythical traditions that tell of the origin of the Tarapith temple. The first is the story about the sage Vasistha. The second concerns the well-known story of the dismemberment of Sati’s corpse and the establishment of the *saktapithas *(“seats *oisakti” *places sacred to goddesses) throughout India. Wherever a piece of her body fell, a center of goddess worship was established. According to the Taraplth myth, Sati’s third, or spiritual, eye fell to earth at the place where the temple is now located. It was this sacred *path **a *that the Buddha saw with his mystical vision and to which he directed Vasistha. These two mythical traditions, then, combine to associate the temple with the Satl myth, and hence an all-India goddess network, and with left-handed tantric worship brought from the north, the source of Buddhist Tārā worship.
The central image of Tārā depicts her nursing Siva and thus emphasizes her maternal, protective, and nourishing aspects.53 Tara’s presence in a busy temple, where she is worshiped with traditional rituals on a regular basis, also mitigates the fierce aspect that is dominant in her Hindu manifestation. As the center of an active temple, she is carefully tended by priests and approached routinely with petitions from her devotees. She holds court in her temple and dispenses favors to the faithful like an understanding mother. In her aspect as the nursing mother and as the center of attentive priests and devotees who are regularly serving and supplicating her, Tārā at Taraplth has a domesticated quality. The tank adjacent to the temple also emphasizes her benign aspect. This “tank of life” is reputed to have the power to restore the dead to life and to heal most maladies. Pilgrims routinely bathe in it before and after worship of the goddess in the temple.
Tara’s benign, maternal aspects are also emphasized in devotional poems associated with Taraplth and often sung there by worshipers. As in the case of Bengali Kali devotion, these poems exploit the metaphor of the goddess as mother and cast the devotee in the role of her loving, dependent child, whom she cannot deny. The following poem by Gyan Babu, the organizer of an *asrama *(ashram) in Taraplth, is a good example of this genre.
Come, come to Tarapith,
If you want to see “Ma,”
Here you will get the touch of your own Mother,
There is no doubt about it.
Here there is no distinction of caste,
Because my Ma is the Mother of the universe,
Only call out “Ma, Ma,”
Mother will place you on her lap.
Come here and see,
Mother sitting with spread lap,
To relieve the burning sensation of poison,
She is breast-feeding Nilakantha [“blue throat,” i.e., Siva],
If you come here you will see Vamakhepa,
The Mother’s darling son.
He ate with jackals and the gods,
Calling them his brothers,
To give rice to the hungry,
The mother is calling her children,
Wherever you may be,
Come, come, come here.54
Tara’s fierce aspect and her association with left-handed tantric *sadhana *with its often fearsome rites, however, reveal themselves in the practice of blood sacrifice at the temple and the importance of the nearby cremation ground. Her frightening aspect is also seen in the metal image of her that is usually available to worshipers for *darsan *(viewing). This threefoot-tall image recalls the *dhyana *mantras of Ugra-tara cited above. She has four arms, wears a garland of skulls, and has a lolling tongue. She is fierce in appearance, and while this is not the primordial image around which the temple was built (that image being equated with the rough stone image), it is the one that most worshipers see.
Blood sacrifices are offered to Tārā daily. Normally two or three goats are offered each day, but on festival days, such as Durga Puja and Kali Puja, one hundred fifty to two hundred goats may be sacrificed. The animals are almost always offered to the goddess by individual worshipers as part of a vow that the goddess will be given a sacrificial victim in return for some favor she has done for the devotee. Before being slain, the animals are bathed in the tank to purify them. The worshipers also undergo purification rituals in the temple prior to the sacrifice. The animals, almost always goats, are killed at a sacrificial pit near the temple. Within the sandy enclosure is a two-pronged stake that holds the animal firm while a priest decapitates it in one blow with a special sword. After it has been killed, a bit of blood is taken in a pot and offered to the image in the temple. The sacrificial pit itself is revered by worshipers; some dip their fingers in the blood of a freshly killed animal and mark their foreheads with it.55
In iconographic representations and descriptions of Tārā, she typically stands on a corpse, which often lies on a cremation fire. In her most popular Hindu forms she haunts cremation grounds and is associated with death and destruction. An important element of the religious atmosphere at Taraplth is the large cremation ground or cremation grove, located near the temple. Here is where the Bengali saint Bamakhepa (or Vamakhepa in Sanskrit) (1 843-1911) lived and undertook his spiritual exercises for several decades prior to his death. His name may be translated as the mad or crazy *(khepd) *follower of the left-handed path *(vdmd *means “left”). Indeed, he behaved like a lunatic, which is often said to be one of the marks of a saint.56 Legend says that, after Bamakhepa had been meditating on Tārā for a long time in the cremation ground, surrounded by corpses, funeral pyres, and jackals, Tārā appeared to him in a burst of flames in her dreadful form and then took him to her breast.57 A tradition at Taraplth says that Bamakhepa was an incarnation of Tārā’s fierce husband, Siva, in his form as Bhairava. Like Bhairava, the legend says, Bamakhepa was fierce and mad on the outside but full of mercy on the inside.58
The cremation ground has been a site of tantric *sadhand *for generations and continues to be so used today. Several *sadhakas *dwell more or less permanently in the cremation ground, which is probably an ancient tradition, and wandering *sadhakas *often visit it for extended periods. It is a place where *smasdna **sadhand *(spiritual practices appropriate to cremation grounds) and *sava **sadhand *(spiritual practices using a corpse) may be performed. It is included on the itinerary of many pilgrims to Taraplth and is an integral part of the sacred complex. It reinforces the theme apparent in much Tārā iconography that she favors cremation grounds and that it is appropriate to propitiate her there.