01Agama and Nigama

Most Tantras are a dialogue. When Shiva answers and Parvati asks, the text is called Agama; when Devi teaches and Shiva listens, Nigama. The Saundarya Lahari, attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, speaks of the sixty-four Tantras by which Pashupati deluded the world before giving the Shri Vidya, the independent Tantra of the Devi. Among the Tantras most read are the Kularnava, the Rudrayamala, the Tantraraja, and Lakshmana Deshika's Sharada Tilaka.

02Shiva with Shakti

The first verse of the Saundarya Lahari gives the Shakta faith in one breath. Shiva, when he is joined with Shakti, is able to create; without her the deva cannot so much as stir. So how could anyone without merit bow to her or praise her, she whom Hari, Hara and Virinchi worship? For Shaktas, Adi Parashakti is the supreme, and Shiva and Shakti are one as fire and its heat are one. The Parashurama Kalpa Sutra puts the same truth from the other side: the jiva is Shiva wrapped in the sheaths of the body, and Parashiva is the same Shiva unwrapped. Worship is the unwrapping.

03Sixty-four Tantras and one

Verse 31 of the Saundarya Lahari tells the katha. Pashupati first filled the world with sixty-four Tantras, each yielding its own siddhi and each bound to it. Then, at the Devi's insistence, he brought down her own Tantra, independent, able to grant all four aims of life together. Lakshmidhara's commentary names the sixty-four and calls the Devi's Tantra the Shri Vidya. Shakta teachers speak of two great families, the Shrikula of Lalita and the Kalikula of Kali and Tara, and of two ways of worship: kaula, with outer ritual under a guru, and samaya, worship held entirely within the heart, which Lakshmidhara and the Shankaracharya mathas follow.

04Mantra, yantra, diksha

Tantra is learned from a guru, never from a book alone; the Kularnava Tantra gives long chapters to the guru and the disciple. The Devi is worshipped in her mantra, in the yantra, of which the Shri Chakra of nine interlocking triangles is the best known, and in the image. Kundalini, the Shakti coiled at the base of the spine, is raised through the six chakras to meet Shiva at the crown. Dakshinachara, the right-hand path, is the path of most householders; other paths are for initiates under a guru.

05Shri Vidya

Shri Vidya is the worship of Lalita Tripurasundari, the Devi who is beautiful in the three worlds. Its mantra is the fifteen-syllable panchadashi, in three groups called kutas, given only at diksha. Its yantra is the Shri Chakra: nine triangles, four pointing up for Shiva and five pointing down for Shakti, making forty-three, with lotuses and a square gate around them and the bindu at the centre. The worshipper moves through nine enclosures (avaranas) from the outer gate to the bindu, meeting the attendant devis of each. The Lalita Sahasranama of the Brahmanda Purana is Shri Vidya's hymn, chanted on Fridays and through Navaratri in homes across the South.

06The Parashurama Kalpa Sutra

Shri Vidya has its own sutra text, attributed to Bhagwan Parashurama, in ten khandas: diksha, the worship of Ganapati, the Shri Krama, Lalita, Shyama, Varahi, Para, homa, and the rites common to all. Its first khanda lays down the sadhaka's rule of life in short sutras. Everything is won through the tradition and through faith. Do not revile any darshana. Serve one guru without doubt. Act without seeking the fruit. Be fearless everywhere. Umanandanatha's Nityotsava, written in the eighteenth century, expanded it into the daily manual that many Shri Vidya upasakas follow today.

07Bhaskararaya

The great Shri Vidya scholar of the eighteenth century was Bhaskararaya Makhin, a Maharashtrian pandit who lived on the banks of the Kaveri under Maratha patronage. His Saubhagya Bhaskara on the Lalita Sahasranama explains each of its thousand names from the Vedas, the Puranas and the Tantras, and is still printed with the hymn. His Setubandha comments on the Nityashodashikarnava, and his Varivasya Rahasya explains the panchadashi mantra. Umanandanatha, author of the Nityotsava, was his disciple. Bhaskararaya held, as the Shankaracharya mathas do, that Shri Vidya rests on the Veda; he performed Vedic yajnas himself.

08Kashmir and Abhinavagupta

In Kashmir the Tantras of Shiva and Shakti were read together as Trika. Around 1000 CE Abhinavagupta wrote the Tantraloka, thirty-seven chapters (ahnikas) that set out the whole of Tantric practice and its meaning, taking the Malinivijayottara Tantra as his root. His teaching is that the world is the free play of consciousness, Shiva knowing himself through his Shakti. The Vijnana Bhairava, which names the Rudrayamala as its source, belongs to the same world. In it Devi asks Bhairava what his true nature is, and he answers with a hundred and twelve ways of meditation, many as simple as watching the space between two breaths.

09Kali and Tara in Bengal

In Bengal and Assam the Kalikula is strongest. Krishnananda Agamavagisha of Navadvipa compiled the Tantrasara in the sixteenth century, gathering the rites of Kali, Tara and the other Mahavidyas from many Tantras, and family purohits still work from it. Bengali tradition credits him with the form of Dakshina Kali worshipped in homes and pandals today. Two centuries later Ramprasad Sen sang to Kali as a child sings to its mother, and his songs are still sung at Kali Puja on the new moon of Kartik. At Tarapith, Kalighat and Kamakhya the Devi is worshipped by Tantric rite every day of the year.

10Where it is lived

Durga Puja in Bengal follows Tantric as well as Puranic rites. At Kamakhya in Assam the Ambubachi Mela in June closes the temple for three days, and the Shakta pithas across Bharat keep their own Tantric calendars. Shri Vidya worship of Lalita Tripurasundari is kept by the Shankaracharya mathas of Sringeri and Kanchi, where the Shri Chakra is worshipped daily. Sir John Woodroffe, writing as Arthur Avalon, published many Tantras in the early twentieth century with Bengali pandits.

What it contains

1
Kularnava Tantra
On the guru, the disciple, initiation and the Kaula path. Its chapters on the marks of a true guru and a worthy disciple are among its most read. It warns again and again against taking up practice without a guru.
2
Rudrayamala
A large Tantra in the Yamala class; many stotras and kavachas recited today are drawn from texts that cite it. The Vijnana Bhairava names it as its source. The texts that circulate under its name are many and differ from one another.
3
Tantraraja Tantra
A Shri Vidya Tantra on Lalita and the Nitya devis. It describes the sixteen Nityas, the devis of the lunar days, and the ritual of each.
4
Nityashodashikarnava
Also called the Vamakeshvara Tantra, a root text of Shri Vidya. It describes the Shri Chakra and the worship of Tripurasundari, and Bhaskararaya wrote his Setubandha on it.
5
Sharada Tilaka
Lakshmana Deshika's digest of the mantras of many deities and their worship. It covers Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi alike, with chapters on kundalini and diksha, and Raghavabhatta's commentary is read with it.
6
Parashurama Kalpa Sutra
The sutra manual of Shri Vidya in ten khandas, from diksha to the rites common to all. It opens with the doctrine of thirty-six tattvas and the sadhaka's rule of life. Umanandanatha's Nityotsava expands it.
7
Tantrasara
Krishnananda Agamavagisha's sixteenth-century digest from Navadvipa. It gathers the worship of Kali, Tara and the Mahavidyas and remains the working handbook of Bengal's Shakta purohits.

Famous verses

शिवः शक्त्या युक्तो यदि भवति शक्तः प्रभवितुं न चेदेवं देवो न खलु कुशलः स्पन्दितुमपि । अतस्त्वामाराध्यां हरिहरविरिञ्च्यादिभिरपि प्रणन्तुं स्तोतुं वा कथमकृतपुण्यः प्रभवति ॥
Shiva, united with Shakti, is able to create; otherwise the deva cannot even stir. How then can one without merit bow to you or praise you, whom Hari, Hara, Virinchi and the rest worship?Saundarya Lahari 1 (attributed to Adi Shankaracharya)

चतुःषष्ट्या तन्त्रैः सकलमभिसन्धाय भुवनं स्थितस्तत्तत्सिद्धिप्रसवपरतन्त्रैः पशुपतिः । पुनस्त्वन्निर्बन्धादखिलपुरुषार्थैकघटना- स्वतन्त्रं ते तन्त्रं क्षितितलमवातीतरदिदम् ॥
Pashupati filled the whole world with sixty-four Tantras, each bound to the siddhi it yields; then, at your insistence, he brought down to earth this Tantra of yours, independent, which alone brings about all the aims of life.Saundarya Lahari 31

शरीरकञ्चुकितः शिवो जीवो निष्कञ्चुकः परशिवः ॥
Shiva wrapped in the sheath of the body is the jiva; free of the sheath, he is Parashiva.Parashurama Kalpa Sutra 1.5

सम्प्रदायविश्वासाभ्यां सर्वसिद्धिः ॥
Through the tradition and through faith, every attainment comes.Parashurama Kalpa Sutra 1.9

Influence

Shape Shakta worship from Kamakhya to Kanchi, the Shri Vidya of the Shankaracharya mathas, and the rites of Durga Puja.