02 The *Navarātra Homa*

LIVER, ENCHANTMENT, AND ENGENDERING THE DIVINE ŚAKTIS

Nawaraj Chaulagaini

INTRODUCTION

This essay discusses the homa rituals as performed during the annual navarātra (literally, “nine-day festival,” also known as the navadurgāpūjā) in the former Nepalese royal palaces of Gorkhā and Hanumānḍhokā during the rule of the Śāha kings (ca. 1559–2008). The homa was part of a series of navarātra rituals observed in the lunar fortnight of Āśvina (September–October).1 The rituals were carried out for the propitiation of the goddess Kālī, who is often portrayed in the violent and terrifying form of the goddess Durgā (consort of the god Śiva) and represented in various forms such as divine icons (images), plants, virgins, concentric magical/mystical diagrams (yantras), mantras, and weapons. This festival was observed in commemoration of the victory of the goddess over the demonic forces as recounted in popular mythological texts such as the Devī Māhātmya, which forms part of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, the Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and the *Kālikā Purāṇa.*2 With the conquest and expansion of the Nepali nation-state, especially in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the navarātra was gradually made into a national festival and appropriated for the cultural unification of Nepal under the leadership of the Hindu kingship. Even after the demise of the Hindu kingship in 2008, the core forms of these rituals have persisted. However, the meaning of the rituals has shifted from its relation to the king and kingship to its importance for the welfare of the nation and national unity.

This essay concentrates on three types of homa performed during this festival: the first was meant for waking up the goddess in the magical diagram; the second type was an elaborate rite whose central part consisted of offering the liver of a sacrificed black goat into the fire; the third one was for empowering weapons and royal insignia, such as the throne and conch. I argue that these forms of homa have both Vedic and magical-tantric orientations, and were performed mainly for engendering the divine powers of the goddess for the king and kingship.

This study is based on the actual ritual manuals, interviews, and secondary literature on the topic. I adopt the textual and ethnographic method for my interpretation. For this study, I consulted and interviewed the purohitas and palace officials as well as those of the military and police headquarters. In my research, I utilized the following manuals important in these places: a short text of about fifteen pages, a Sanskrit manual credited to Nārāyaṇ Dās Arjyāl, the royal purohita of Dravya Śāh, who conquered Gorkhā in 1559; two other short manuals composed in 1907 and 1931 ; and the recently published Durgā pūjā manual by Balaram Aryal of the royal priestly clan.3 Most of the rituals mentioned in these manuscripts are the short forms of the elaborate description of navarātra as given in these Sanskrit texts supposedly composed and compiled by the Śāh kings themselves: the Bṛhatpuraścaryārṇavaḥ by Pratāpa Siṃha Śāhdev (r. 1775–1777 C.E.) and the Satkarmaratnāvalī (Uttarārdha) by Gīrvāṇayuddha Bikram Śāhdev (r. 1805–1816 C.E.).4

Lok Prasād Śarmā Bhaṭṭarāī’s description of the navarātra rituals contains a good amount of information, and I also correlated with his description. Rājārām Subedī, a prominent historian and Professor of History at Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, helped me by sharing all descriptive details of navarātra he had collected through his interviews with the Gorkhā palace official Sūryanāth Aryal. Now retired and an elderly person of about ninety years, Aryal served at the Gorkhā palace for many years and trained his own son to be a royal priest in the Gorkhā and Hanumānḍhokā royal palaces in Kathmandu.5

Some of the manuals mentioned above were composed and compiled during the expansion and consolidation of the Gorkhā Hindu kingdom, which was officially called Nepal in the 1930s, and they are foundational for the later composition. The “short” manuscripts do not, however, mention what particular mantras are recited on what ritual occasions. The priests possibly did not need any elaboration of the mantras in written form as it may have already become a standard practice, and so they already knew the viniyoga (i.e., the system of employing mantras depending on the rituals and ritual occasions). Part of the reason for the specific mantras not being mentioned in the manuals could also be that the ritualists wanted to maintain secrecy and the sacredness of the mantras for ritual efficacy. All the manuals consulted for this research may be regarded as “ideal” forms of the rituals, and they provide some insights into how these rituals were conceived and performed.

Coinciding with Birendra’s coronation year, Dhanaśamśer Jaṅg Bahādura Rāṇā, a tantric practitioner and a Royal Nepalese Army general, published a detailed ritual manual of the navarātra Durgāpūjā as part of the Nepali state’s professed aim of creating standard practices across the kingdom. He was one of the close associates of the kings of Nepal (Mahendra and Birendra) and belonged to the palace secretariat. He was also involved in the publication of different ritual handbooks and culturally important documents during the reigns of Mahendra (1955–1972) and Birendra (1972–2001): “King Birendra had arranged a mystical group of three persons at the royal palace. This group, affiliated with the King’s Principal Secretariat, was headed by Lt. General Dhana Shamsher Rana.”6 Dhanaśamśer Jaṅg Bahādura Rāṇā published important religious texts, such as the navarātra manual entitled Śāradīyadurgāpūjāpaddhati, with the support of and in collaboration with the royal purohitas (e.g., the Agnisthāpanāvidhiḥ).7 His texts and those of the royal purohitas, including that of Balarām Aryāl, are the closest I have been able to get for my study.8 Along with the interviews and secondary literature and descriptions found in the Royal Nepalese Army’s journal, Sipāhī, these materials provide us with reliable accounts of these rituals.

Awakening the Goddess in Her Yantra Form and Offering Homa

On the first day, called the “day for the installation of an earthen water jar” (ghaṭasthāpanā), the homa is performed for awakening the goddess in the form of the diagram (maṇḍala).9 The eight directions of the diagram are presided over by eight goddesses, with the center occupied by the main goddess, Durgā.10 This homa is part of a series of pūjā rituals; that is, the homa is not an independent ritual at this point and the awakening of the goddess in the embodied form of the diagram includes other additional rituals.

It is important to describe in some detail the context in which the yantra is worshiped and the homa ritual is performed. For the first-day rituals, the royal purohita11 and the king (yajamāna) undergo outward and inward purifications. The outward purification mainly consists of bathing while the inward purification is a lengthy process that includes the purification of cosmic elements (bhūtaśuddhis)12 and the ritual of touching and inscribing different parts of the body with mantras (nyāsa).13 The pavilion is consecrated and yantras are drawn with the husks removed from rice grains (akṣatā) or with the sandalwood paste (candana). The yantra of the goddess is placed at the center of the pavilion. Above this yantra, a well-decorated water pitcher—itself regarded as a symbol of the embodied power of the goddess (śakti)—is placed and worshiped. Another yantra is installed on top of the pitcher, and it is for the awakening of this yantra that homa is performed. See diagram in figure 12.1.

Yantra of the Goddess

The yantra installation follows the pattern of the consecration of the deities in the form of the divine icon. The purification, bathing and besprinkling, infusion of vital life breath, and offering of various services are the main ritual activities for divine installation, whether in the form of the icon or in the form of the yantra. The purification of the yantra is done with five products of the cow (pañcagavya)—milk, curds, clarified butter/ghee, urine, and dung, together with the “five sweet things” (pañcāmṛta) used in the worship of deities: milk, clotted or sour milk, butter, honey, and sugar. Once the yantra is cleansed with relevant mantras,14 which are said to be charged with divine powers or considered to be divine expressions, it then becomes a suitable habitation for the deity.

An extensive ritual of infusing the vital breath (prāṇapratiṣṭhā) is then carried out with the following mantra, which is repeated either 10, 27, 54, or 108 times.15 The purohita first takes up a flower in his hand, infuses it with the divine power, and places it on the diagram while uttering this mantra:

āṃ hroṃ kroṃ yaṃ raṃ laṃ vaṃ śaṃ ṣaṃ saṃ hroṃ | Oṃ kṣaṃ saṃ haṃ saṃ hrīṃ | Oṃ saḥ śrimad dakṣiṇakālikāyāṣ prāṇā iha prāṇāḥ. | ām hrom … hrīṃ saḥ śrimad dakṣiṇakālikāyā jīva iha stitha.| āṃ hroṃ … hrīṃ saḥ śrimad dakṣiṇakālikāyā sarvendrīyāṇī iha stitha

(Let the vital breath of the glorious Dakṣiṇakālikā be here in this place through the utterances of these syllables āṃ, hroṃ … let the soul of the glorious Dakṣiṇakālikā be here in this place through the utterances of these syllables āṃ, hroṃ… . Let all the senses of the glorious Dakṣiṇakālikā be here in this place through the utterances of these syllables āṃ, hroṃ… .)

āṃ hroṃ … hrīṃ saḥ śrimad dakṣiṇakālikāyāṣ vāṅ manaś cakṣuś śrotra ghrāṇa prāṇā iha āgatya sukhaṃ ciraṃ tiṣṭhantu svāhā

(Let the speech, mind, eye, hearing, organs of smell, vital breaths, having come here, remain happily for a long time through the utterances of these syllables āṃ hroṃ … hrīṃ.)

oṃ mano jūtir juṣaṭāmājyasya bṛhaspatir yajñamimam tano tu | aristam yajñam samimam dadhātu viśvedevāsa iha mādayantam oṃ pratiṣṭhā || Asyai prāṇāḥ kṣarantu ca | Asyai devatā saṅkhai svāhā

(May his mind delight in the gushing [of the] butter! May Br̥haspati spread (i.e., carry through) this sacrifice! May he restore the sacrifice uninjured! May all the gods rejoice here!) (Śatapathabrāhmaṇa 1.7.4.22)16

The ritual of infusing the divine breath is followed by a short fire ritual, in which the clarified butter is offered into the fire with the recitation of the tantric gāyatrī mantra ten times:17

oṃ yantrarājāya vidmahe, mahāyantrāya dhīmahi tanno yantra pracodayāt

(Ọṃ we know [for] the king of yantra, we wish to obtain [for] the great yantra, may that yantra stimulate (i.e., impel) our [prayers].)18

This is followed by tantric visualization in which the goddess is envisioned as having matted hair with the top adorned with the crescent moon; having three eyes and a face like the beauty of the full moon; having all sorts of ornaments; having ten arms with a trident in the uppermost right hand and a sword, discus, pointed arrow, and spear (śakti) in her other right hands in descending order; and in her left hands, from the top a staff, bow, noose, goad, and bell. She is in her three-bend or “tri-bent” pose (tribhaṇga), and she has beautiful eyes and well-formed breasts. Below her is a buffalo whose head has been severed and the demon is emerging from the neck. The goddess’s spear pierces the demon’s chest; the demon is shown with the red eyes and his body is engulfed by a noose that is like a serpent.

After the meditation on the goddess in the form of killing the buffalo demon (mahiṣa), various services, such as water for rinsing the mouth (ācamanīya) and for the reception of the guest (argha), perfume (gandha), a flower (puṣpa), and a lamp (dīpa) are offered to the embodied (divine) form of the yantra. These rituals for the consecration of the yantra do not seem to be sufficient for the habitation of the deity into the icon, and the purohita continually invites the goddess, both through the smarta type of mantra19 and through various tantric gestures:

oṃ ehi durge mahābhāge rakṣārthaṃ mama sarvadā |

āvāhayāmi ahaṃ devī sarvakāmarthasiddhaye |

asmin mūrtau samāgaccha sthitiṃ matkṛpayā kuru |

rakṣāṃ kuru sadā bhadre viśveśvarī namo’stute ||

(O Durgā, O Mahābhāgā, come for my protection at all times. I invite [you], O Devī, for the accomplishment of all the desires. Come to/join this image [and] be seated by my grace (!), [and] always protect, O Bhadrā, O Viśveśvarī, obeisance to you!)

For the invitation of the goddess through tantric gestures (mudrās), the purohita first turns his palms upward and, touching the ends of the fingers with the thumbs, he utters durge devī iha āgaccha āgaccha (O Durgā Devī, come here, come here.) Then, turning the palm down in the same position, durge devī iha tiṣṭha iha tiṣṭha (O Durgā Devī, remain here, remain here.) Then, making a fist with the thumb inside the fingers, sannidhehi, sannidhehi (come close by, come close by), and then turning the hands upward, with the same mudrā, sammukhī bhava, sammukhī bhava (remain face to face, remain face to face). Then, with the dhenu mudrā,20 amr̥tī bhava, amr̥tī bhava (be immortal, be immortal), and finally, making a fist but turning the thumb upward, paramīkr̥tā bhava (be well satisfied). With these ritual acts, the awakening of the goddess in the yantra form is completed, and the goddess is believed to reside in this form until she is bidden farewell at the end of the rite.

Midnight Fire Ritual and Feeding the Goddess with the Liver and Other Oblations

On the nights of the eighth and the ninth days, called “the dark nights” (kālarātri) and identified with Durgā as the night of destruction, the purohita performs an esoteric homa, offering the liver of a sacrificial animal. After the preparatory rituals,21 a black goat with a black tongue is consecrated and immolated. The liver of the animal is taken out, cut into pieces, and used for the midnight homa.22

Like other rituals, the midnight homa is quite extensive, beginning with the ritual of lighting the fire and concluding with the extinguishment of the fire, symbolized by the gesture of reabsorption (saṃhāra mudrā). One may call this tantric form an independent homa, in that it is not part of the pūjā rituals, as in the earlier case. The three ritual acts remain prominent in this process: the tantric visualization of the union of the divine male and female polarities; propitiation of the goddess in the form of the firepit (agnikuṇḍa) through gestures (mudrās), touching (nyāsas),23 pūjās, and mantras; and extensive homa offering with the liver and an oblation of rice or barley boiled for presentation to the gods and manes (dead ancestors) (caru).

The homa is carried out with the recitation of the verses from the eighth chapter of the Devī Māhātmya, which narrates a story of the cosmic battle between the demon Raktabīja and the goddess. The homa continues with the recitation of the main mantra of the goddess consisting of nine letters (the navārṇa mantra) for 1,000 repetitions: aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ cāmuṇḍāyai vicce.24 A mixture of clarified butter (sarpis), white sesame (śuklatilaḥ), and an oblation of milk, rice, and sugar (pāyasa)25 are also employed in the continuation of the homa ritual. As the homa is being conducted inside the worship room of the goddess, a number of animals are tethered to sacrificial poles (which are also worshiped as the goddess through another set of rituals), and these animals are then killed in the sacrificial space outside the worship room. This sacrificial space is filled with other yantras, which are worshiped as forms of the goddess. This homa continues for many hours and is finished only at the conclusion of the animal sacrifice outside the worship room.26

**Homa with the Mantras for Consecrating Weapons

Apart from worshiping the weapons through services and mantras, an independent homa ritual was also performed every day until the eighth day of the navarātra. Called “the act of taking up iron arms” (lohābhihārikaṃ karma), this ritual was done with the mantras used for the consecration of weapons. The nineteenth-century king Gīrvāṇayuddha Bikram Śāh’s ritual handbook stipulates that a king who wants to achieve victory in battle should perform this ritual, for which (theoretically) all important weapons should be brought to the ritual pavilion (maṇḍapa). The brāhmin, wearing a pure “white” garment, should offer into the fire a mixture of rice gruel and ghee, along with the mantras related to weapons and other royal implements such as the sword, knife, bow, arrow, armor, drum, conch, and elephant. Every verse of the mantra should begin with oṃ and end with svāhā. After this ceremony, the king and his royal horse should receive the remainder of the offering (in the form of prasāda), which is also said to empower the king, on his horse, as the leader of the army. The temple priests mention that this ritual was not limited to navarātra but was also performed whenever the institution of kingship and the security of the nation were in grave danger, and whenever the royal army had to conduct difficult wars.

In this homa, the installation of the fire is performed through Vedic methods and by employing verses from Vedic texts, while the verses for the consecration of weapons are of the smarta type. The installation of homa is done according to the ritual manual Agnisthāpanāvidhiḥ, which largely follows the Vedic paradigm but includes the installation of one fire. During the installation, the Vedic “gods” are invited to receive the fire offerings and bless the offerer(s). The mantras used during the installation are Vedic, as they are from Vedic texts.

In the Vedic context, the fire sacrifice is related to the cycle of nature and maintenance of nature’s plenty. It is based on an ancient understanding that the ritual fire takes the burnt offerings to the sun, and as a result rain falls, helping to nourish the natural world and giving continuity to the natural cycle.27 The underlying belief of the Vedic homa is that by influencing the gods to partake of the offerings, the ritual specialist can gain divine power and also influence his surroundings. The homa also illustrates the notion that the gods and humans are dependent on each other; the gods receive nourishment through offerings, and humans are blessed with worldly and other worldly benefits.28 The sacrifice brings together the deity and the sacrificer, connecting these three different realms (sacrificer, ritual object, and deity), thereby ritually reordering or reintegrating the cosmic disintegration that began with the creation of the cosmos via sacrifice of the primal puruṣa (RV X.90). The symbolic relations internal to these rituals, and the relation established between their performance and societal and cosmic order, depend upon a “correlative logic” that can be traced to Vedic origins.

VEDIC ORIENTATION AND THE NAVARĀTRA HOMA

One of the main features of the Vedic thought, according to Michael Witzel, is the use of an “identification” technique that establishes links, equivalences, nexuses, or correlations (bandhu or nidāna) between, or establishes the identity of, two entities, things, beings, thoughts, or states of mind.29 Witzel, however, disproves some of the long-standing opinions that such homologies were merely the wild fantasies of brāhmins.30 He instead argues that the aim of the Vedic priest and theologian is to discover such relationships of cause and effect, to establish their bandhu, with the understanding that everything in the world is closely interrelated and interdependent with its particular cause.31

The basis of the Vedic śrauta, or “solemn” rituals,32 therefore, is the identification of the offering ground and the fires with the universe and its entities, and that of the priests with the gods.33 In the installation of fire during the navarātra, fire is produced from the rubbing sticks, drawing the sacrifice out of the sacrificer himself, or in this case, the priest on behalf of the offerer. One may take this ritual act symbolically and argue that the sacrificial fire, the offerer, and the longed-for result are connected to each other: “Independent from the mortal world it cannot but be immortal and inalienable, hence, the inextricable junction of fire, self and immortality.”34 For the Vedic ritual, especially during the Brāhmaṇa period, the bandhu is not just a symbolic simulacrum of the macrocosmic world with multiple divine realities but a point of control over the forces that operate in impersonal and esoteric ways.

Although the navarātra fire sacrifice is not a public śrauta ritual, the identification of the sacrificer, sacrifice, and the deity is strongly maintained. It is argued that the priest should know the deeper identification in order for the ritual to be effective—that is, for the fulfillment of his wishes as expressed during the ritual of making solemn declaration (saṃkalpa). He should also know the secret meanings of words and should perform the ritual without any fault. He should also have complete faith (śraddhā) in the power of the yajña and its effects in this world and after death. In this homa ritual, the brāhmaṇa priest is identified with the deities, and during the fire installation he repeatedly stresses that he acts with his arms, which have become those of the Aśvins, and his hands, which are those of the god Pūṣan (TS 1.3.1.1).35 His words, being drawn from the Vedic texts, are considered to be divinely potent and they are recited with precision, with proper intonation, formulation, and meter.36

The sacrificer is made godlike through consecration (dīkṣā) in order for the sacrifice to be acceptable to the deities, because, according to traditional conceptions regarding Vedic ritual, only a god can offer to the gods or deities. In the navarātra ritual, following the mythic narrative as given in the Devī Bhāgavata and the Kālikā Purāṇa, it is the god Śiva (the primal puruṣa) who becomes the sacrificial victim, the Mahiṣa demon.37 In the sacrifice of Mahiṣa, as explained in these Purāṇas, the goddess and Mahiṣa are also symbolically united through both devotional love and violence. Additionally, the sacrificial animal becomes a substitution of the sacrifice¹ and the deity as the ritual brings together sacrificer, sacrificial object, and deity.39 The fact that the sacrificial object is also a devotional self-sacrifice is shown literally in the narrative of the Devī Māhātmya. There we find the king Suratha and the merchant Samadhi offering devotional worship, including their own blood, to the goddess.

Specific aspects of the navarātra offer evidence of its connections with Vedic ritual practices. These include the centrality of identification, most importantly the identity of sacrificer, sacrifice, and deity. In addition to considering the navarātra in relation to Vedic ritual practices, it is also revealing to consider its characteristics as a form of magic.

MAGICAL ORIENTATION AND THE NAVARĀTRA HOMA

Hermann Oldenberg regards Vedic sacrifice as a gift and contends that it was the way to gain a god’s sympathy “through the awakening of his enormous goodwill in favor of human beings” and “not through coercion.”40 However, he also notes that the surroundings in which Vedic sacrifice exists and its past foundations are “full of the conceptions and practices of magic that claims to guide directly the course of events without the aid of external goodwill.”41 Witzel argues that certain parts of the Vedic texts and rituals are filled with magic as the priest-cum-magician performs rituals “aimed at controlling impersonal supernatural forces held responsible for the succession of event.”42 Similarly, though rather pejoratively, Arthur B. Keith suggests that the desire to see “magic in everything was growing in the period of Brāhmaṇas, which degrade the sacrifice from the position of an appeal to the bounty of heaven to the greatest power on earth, which controls the gods and produces whatever is desired by the priest.”43

Underlying magic is the notion that the natural world is governed by impersonal laws, and one can control and use the forces of nature to one’s benefit if these laws are correctly understood and rituals are appropriately carried out. According to B. R. Modak, the notion of magic assumes that essentially all aspects of being stand on the same footing, as all share an all-pervading magical potency, which is substantive and is sometimes represented in the Vedas as asu.44 The difference between one object or being and another is, therefore, based on differing quantities of this magical potency possessed by each.45 According to this law, even the gods are part of a larger impersonal cosmic system, and they can be easily bent according to the wishes of the magician. Key to understanding the magical logic of the navarātra is the role played by the liver that is sacrificed in the course of the ritual.

The Liver in Esoteric Rites: What Ideas Can We Glean from Other Traditions?

The ritual significance of the liver organ is very popular across the world, both in the ancient period and in some traditional societies in modern times. The inspection of a liver taken from a sacrificial animal seems to have been one of the earliest recorded modes of divination across ancient Central Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe,46 and the practice seems to have migrated to the Nepali hills at least from the sixteenth century C.E. Ritual practices related to the liver have been popular across the continents, and the organ is believed to have magical properties in different cultures.

As an important symbol in occult physiology, the liver was prominent in ancient Babylonian and Assyrian temples, as seen through the twenty-first chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel; in modern-day Morocco (north Africa) and in a healing ritual from Iban (Borneo), the liver of the sacrificed animal (in this instance, a pig) is used for inspection.47 It is also used for medicinal purposes (especially the ashes of a burned liver)48 and for shamanistic ceremony among the Yakuts, for example.49 In relation to royal rituals, we have at least two modern examples from Swaziland, a landlocked Southern African country, and from Mamprusi, Ghana. In the Great Incwala, in Swazi royal ritual, the king’s black ox is put in contact with the nude king, who then makes the gesture of eating the liver of the sacrificed ox bull for increasing his supernatural attributes.50 In Mamprusi, the king seems to eat a stew made with the “liver” of a dog captured on the night of the king’s investiture ceremony, something that is forbidden to eat but which is considered very important for medicinal and magical purposes.51

Regarding the liver offering in ritual fire, Norman H. Smith notes that in the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 3:1, 14; VI.III.14 ff.) ancient Hebrew sacrifices also involved burning the liver of certain animals, such as goat and sheep, on the altar.52 The Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens mentions the use of liver for divination and also as a source for the powers employed in sorcery (France). Willy de Craemer also mentions the prevalent belief in Central Africa that some harmful substance is hidden in the body of the witch that gives powers to him or her, and one of the locations of this harmful substance is the liver.53 This widespread conception of the magical efficacy of the liver demonstrates that its role in the navarātra is far from unique to Nepal. The liver’s spiritual potency, however, must be made accessible through ritual means.

Rituals and Techniques of Magic

One magical technique employed for gaining power over others by ritual means is guided by the notion that “like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause”54 another technique is that of substitution, a “scapegoat” mechanism, according to which “we can transfer our guilt and sufferings to some other beings [or objects, in the case of wiping off the disease or guilt with the help of certain plants, apāmārga], who will bear them for us.”55 Ritual correspondence, an important technique of magic, is maintained during the navarātra by a variety of symbolic associations: the choice of the black goat for the black goddess Kālī; the recitation of the eighth chapter for the eighth-night ritual; the nighttime ritual for the black or dark Kālī; the mythic narrative of the “regeneration” of the demon Raktabīja (literally, “seed of blood”) out of his own drops of blood and the regenerative symbolism of the liver, which is said to be the only part of the body that regenerates (similar to the Prometheus myth); animal sacrifices, and repeated recitation of the mantras in magic numbers such as 9, 54, and 108; the recitation of the Devī Māhātmya nine times every day until the ninth day of the festival; and finally, the ritual battle that mimics the mythical one for one’s own victory (e.g., the king slays the image of his enemies in the midnight ritual, and chops up a gourd/ash-melon as an embodiment of his enemy/demon).

The use of amulets, expiation rituals, wiping off the demons, and burning away the hostile power (sun magic through the homa with the animal liver/flesh) are other magical acts meant for driving away inimical forces and safeguarding the sacrificer. The magic also seems to work through the strongly expressed “wishes” of the priest-cum-magician as they are coupled with the ritual actions in magic. The Nepalese ritual manuals show how wishes are often directed to the betterment of the king and the destruction of his enemies, including the destruction of their wisdom and powers.56 Against the background of Vedic and magical ritual conceptions, the magical potency inherent in these symbolic associations is made present in the navarātra by means of Śākta tantric rituals.

Reversals of Traditional Ritual Norms and Construction of Order

The magical aspects are channeled through Śākta tantric rituals (sarvāmnāya, or sacred traditions) that are said to more effectively ensure divine power. The purohitas speak about the eight attainments (aṣṭasiddhis) of tantric rituals such as accomplishment through the sword (khaḍgasiddhi) and going swiftly anywhere on earth (bhūcara).57 The tantric rituals also defy traditional Vedic norms and hierarchies and create their own unified order by dismantling the old forms. In the Vedic sacrifice, the ritual fire (Agni) was regarded as a medium to convey the sacrifice to gods, ancestors, or to the waters and forests: “Agni, call forth the gods… . Convey this sacrifice to the gods in heaven” (RV VII.11.5); “O Jātavedas, go with the omentum (caul) to the gods (Fathers) … may the wishes of the sacrifice come true” (ĀśvG. 10; MB. 2.3.16 f.; MG. 5; GG.4.4.22 ff.).58 In contrast, both the altar constructed in the shape of the female yonī59 and the fire of the homa of the eighth and ninth nights are regarded as embodying Kālī herself—sometimes the raging fire is said to represent her tongue. Instead of Vedic gods, the goddess Kālī is the recipient of the sacrifice, including the blood and severed heads of the sacrificial animals.

Being involved in an act of extreme blood-letting, and thus breaking what is, at least from the orthodox Brāhmaṇic point of view, the boundary between pure and impure, the sādhaka (worshiper), as Hugh Urban notes, “breaks the worldly bondage of duality, oversteps the limitations of social order, and affirms the śakti and unity of the phenomenal world.”60 The magical aspect of the ritual is here concerned with maximizing the attainment of specific goals for the sādhaka by means of manipulation of rituals and their symbols. The goddess Kālī, as she is involved greatly with blood, wine, and weapons, is associated with death and destruction, and her power, that is, her demonic aspect, is harnessed through sacrifices, in both external blood sacrifice as well as forms of inner sacrifice.

Another distinguishing mark is that in Vedic ritual the deity is invoked to descend from heaven, while in tantric pūjā he/she is drawn from the heart of the worshiper and asked to become manifest in some concrete object in the ritual.61 The divine presence is maintained through a vivid visualization of the deity as part of worship/devotion. In this, the deity “does not remain just a subtle abstraction of the transcendent source of the cosmos but, through the liturgy, develops into a complex embodiment of the entire created universe,” the singular reality with which the identity of the individual is constantly affirmed. In contrast, in Vedic sacrifice, “while also aiming to overcome the separation between man and god,” it assumes the “ultimate reality of that distinction.”62 With regard to the use of mantra, Vedic liturgy employs many mantras to state the various bandhus (correlations) between ritual object and cosmic force, while the tantric liturgy operates to realize the one, all-encompassing bandhu.63

Ś**ākta Tantra: Its Theology and Investiture of Powers

Tantra64 is a collection of practices and symbols of a ritualistic, sometimes magical character (e.g., mantra, yantra, cakra, mudrā, nyāsa).65 Tantrism66 is also regarded as “a practical path to supernatural powers and to liberation”:

Tantrism may be briefly characterized as a practical way to attain supernatural powers and liberation in this life through the use of specific and complex techniques based on a particular ideology, that of a cosmic reintegration by means of which the adept is established in a position of power, freed from worldly fetters, while remaining in this world and dominating it by union with (or proximity to) a godhead who is the supreme power itself.67

The type of tantric rituals performed during the navarātra may be categorized as Śākta tantra. It is characterized as the worship of śakti, the universal and all-embracing dynamic that “manifests itself in human experience as a female divinity … inseparably connected … [with] an inactive male power, at whose power of action and movement the Śakti functions.”68 Tāntrism and Śāktism may therefore be understood as “two intersecting but not coinciding circles,”69 with the former referring to an integrated convergence of doctrine and practice having specific characteristics, and the latter to worship of the central power (śakti) of the universe as a female deity.70 The rituals in the Gorkhā palace bring together both traditions of Śākta tantrism, namely Śrīvidyā and Kālī, but the focus of the ritual attention is on the worship of the goddess Kālī elevated as the singular reality.

In tantra, the ritual is not just obeisance to the deity; it attempts to harness the power of the deity and unite the sādhaka (practitioner) with the deity. Although the ultimate result of tantric ritual is said to be liberation by way of union, the sādhaka is said to gain various powers, both material and spiritual, through the performance of these rituals.71 Tantric rituals as performed in the palaces employ a variety of techniques through the medium of sound (mantra), form (yantra), postures and gestures (nyāsas and mudrās), breath control (prāṇāyama), meditation (dhyāna), and offerings. External and internal purification methods are employed to make the body divine, or help realize the divine body of the sādhaka, and that which is gross is regulated and ritually transformed into that which is more subtle until the sense of unity is attained.

In the ritual process, the deity that is the object of worship is viewed as part of one’s own self, or one’s self is viewed as an inalienable part of the deity. The sādhaka is initiated by the guru with the ritual called mantradikṣā (initiation by imparting mantras), or represented by the royal priest on behalf of the king.72 One of the tantric rituals to effect divine power is nyāsa, in which the priest touches various parts of his body while uttering a mantra in order that “with the mantra’s powerful resonance the adept may gradually project the power of divinity into his own body.”73 During the navarātra, the ritual placing of the mantra on six different body parts is very common: touching the heart with the palm while reciting the mantra oṃ hr̥dayāya namaḥ (oṃ obeisance to the heart); forehead with four fingers, with the mantra oṃ klīṃ śirase svāhā (oṃ klīṃ, hail to the head); the top of the head with the tip of the thumb while the fingers are closed into a fist, with oṃ sauḥ kavacāya huṃ (oṃ sauḥ, huṃ, to the shield); touching the closed eye with the fore- and middle fingers, with oṃ bhuvaḥ netratrayāya vauṣaṭ (oṃ, atmosphere; vauṣaṭ, to three eyes); and finally placing those two fingers on the left palm, with oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ phaṭ (oṃ, earth atmosphere phaṭ).74

As seen above, the ritual act of touching (nyāsa) is also accompanied by the hand gestures called mudrās. The yoni mudrā, for example, represents the śakti’s yantra and is “performed with the sole object of invoking the divinity to bestow her energy and infuse it into the sādhaka.”75 This is followed by the ritual of purification of elements (bhūtaśuddhi), in which the grosser elements of which the body is composed are dissolved back into more subtle ones, along with the mantras. Here the body is envisioned as the microcosmic universe and the sādhaka undergoes a process of cosmic involution within his body. After destroying any guilt hidden in the psychosomatic body (pāpīpuruṣa), he recreates within himself the universe that is pure and which unites the self to the larger cosmos.

After thorough ritual purification, the sādhaka performs kuṇḍalini yoga, gradually raising the kuṇḍalini power via various energy points (mūlādhāra, svādhiṣṭhāna, maṇipura, anāhata, viśuddha, ājñā, and sahasrāra) of his body until the kuṇḍalini śakti unites with the divine on top of his head (often symbolically called Śiva). At this point there is an integration of the opposite poles of the divine within the practitioner’s own body. By undoing the knots of the energy centers of his body, the sādhaka gradually transforms himself and realizes the divine unity within himself. This process is also called the tantric quest “for salvation by realizing and fostering the … divinity within one’s body.”76

This shows that the sādhaka must be ritually and mentally pure in order to perform such worship, and the rituals become effective only when they are performed in the proper mental state, with devotion, submission, and knowledge of the inherent connection between the divine power and one’s self/body, which can also be described as a deep sense of connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm. The self is here rooted to the absolute and the ritual is a means to manifest this inalienable connection. In this process of maintaining connection, the sādhaka (the king, or the priest who works on his behalf) is said to gain the divine power (śakti) of the goddess, which he extends outside through his own being and brings back to himself, illustrated through the act of transferring the divine power onto the flower, placing it on the ritual space or yantra, and drawing it back into himself at the end of the ritual.

CONCLUSION

The fifteen-day navarātra rituals as performed in the royal palaces of Nepal underscore both the delegation of divine authority and the underlying irony of the king as divine being. It also emphasizes the obsession of the ritual performer (the king), and his inordinate thirst for power, cruelty, and worldly concerns. The outward persona of the Hindu king as the divine arbiter, an ideal and compassionate figure for just rule as seen through his association with the mythical and divine figure of Rāma and though the consecration ceremonies, is subverted in these rituals. Instead, the power-hungry image is emphasized with the ritual participant’s involvement in bloodshed, animal sacrifice, and repeated invocation of wishes such as for the destruction of one’s enemies and the extinction of their wisdom and power.

Over the course of the festival, the rituals gradually shift from relatively peaceful worship to more intense violence. In such acts, the rituals exhibit the structure of what Maurice Bloch77 terms the “rebounding violence” that is directed both inward, in terms of controlling the people under royal leadership, and outward, in terms of warfare and expansion of empire. While the ritual celebrates the triumph of the goddess over the demonic forces that are said to destabilize cosmic order, the performance of this ritual in the alternative form in royal settings largely displays and legitimizes royal authority and state-sanctioned violence.78

The offering of the liver of the sacrificial animal into the fire shows that the sacrificer is not content simply with killing his enemy; he also gives vent to his ultimate anger in the act of extracting one of the vital organs (e.g., the liver) of his projected enemy or by slaying the enemy’s effigy in the midnight ritual. Offering the liver into the fire may also be taken as the participant’s wish fulfillment, especially the desire to eliminate completely his enemy. Similarly, eating part of the cooked liver or placing the ashes of the burned liver on the forehead may be interpreted as an attempt to gain the enemy’s power through magical means. In the Nepalese royal context, these acts do not seem to be merely symbolic but may have actually happened in history. The priests of the temple recount that it was a regular practice to offer the liver of the animal into the fire, along with the appropriate mantras, before going to war. They also speculate that the actual liver of an enemy killed in battle might have been used in the same fashion.79

Despite the importance of worshiping the Mother Goddess and her multiple powers for one’s well-being and for that of the nation, the navarātra ritual as practiced in these power places underscored and promoted state-sanctioned violence, befitting the martial tradition of the Śāh kings of Nepal and their institution of Gorkhā kingship. In fact, this festival was popular among the ancient and medieval Hindu kings of India before they set out on annual military campaigns;80 the tenth day is also said to be the day on which the five Pāṇḍava brothers took up arms against the Kauravas in order to regain their throne in the great Hindu epic, the *Mahābhārata.*81 During times of conflict, the festival must have been a great impetus for the kings and their soldiers to go to war and seek conquest; at the very least, its significance in boosting the army’s morale and engendering confidence in the battle to come cannot be discounted. However, to what extent the sacrificial violence of the navarātra shaped participants’ day-to-day behavior, or whether such ritual violence could actually make participants more aggressive and prone to violence in their daily lives, is an open question.

NOTES

With a view to preserving and circulating the religious activities as given in the karmakāṇḍa (that department of the Veda which relates to ceremonial acts and sacrificial rites and the merit arising from a due performance thereof) protected by the lord (prabhu) His Majesty the king Mahendra Bir Bikram Śāhdeva, the protector of dharma and bestower of the fortune of Nepal, which is the only Hindu kingdom in the world, and with the wish of His Majesty the crown prince (Birendra), this book on Agnisthāpanā (Installation of Agni) prepared in a planned way by the general Dhanaśamśer Jaṅgabahādur Rāṇā and Paṇḍit Kṛṣṇaprasāda Bhaṭṭarai has been read thoroughly and corrected by me. (“Sammati” [Agreement], main purohita Siṃharāj)

‘May his mind delight in the gushing (of the) butter! By the mind, assuredly, all this (universe) is obtained (or pervaded, āptam): hence he thereby obtains this All by mind.—“May Brihaspati [sic] spread (carry through) this sacrifice! May he restore the sacrifice uninjured!”—he thereby restores the sacrifice uninjured!’—he thereby restores what was torn asunder.—‘May all the gods rejoice here!’—‘all the gods,’ doubtless, means the All: hence he thereby restore (the sacrifice) by means of the All.

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