Vac: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras

464 Pages·1990·18.28 MB·English

by  Andre Padoux

The SUNY Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir
Harvey P. Alper, Editor
Editorial Board
Edward Dimock
Wilhelm Halbfass
Gerald J. Larson
Wendy Doniger
André Padoux
Navjivan Rastogi
Ludo Rocher
Alexis Sanderson
Väc
The
CONCEPT OF THE WORD
in Selected Hindu Tantras
André Padoux
Translated by Jacques Gontier
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
® 1990 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York
Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Padoux, André.
Väc, the concept of the word in selected Hindu Tantras/Andre
Padoux.
p. cm.—(The SU NY series in the Shaiva traditions of
Kashmir)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index,
ISBN 0-7914-0257-6. — ISBN 0-7914-0258-4 (pbk.)
I. Tantras—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Sanskrit language—
Religious aspects—Tantrism. 3. Tantrism™ Doctrines. 4. Kashmir
Saivism—Doctrines, L Title, II. Title: Word in selected Hindu
Tantras. 111. Series.
BL114l.27.P33 1990
294,5'95-dc20 89-11436
CiP
Contents
Preface j vii
Introduction j ix
Chapter One
Early Speculations about the Significance and Powers of the Word
1
Chapter Two
Tantrism—The Texts of Kashmirian Saivism
30
Chapter Three
The Manifestation of Sound
86
Chapter Four
The Levels of the Word
166
Chapter Five
The Phonematic Emanation
223
Chapter Six
The Sixfold Course (Çadadhvan)
330
Chapter Seven
The Mantra
372
Conclusion / 427
Select Bibliography / 431
Periodicals and Collections Quoted in Abbreviated Form / 449
Index of Sanskrit Terms / 451

Preface
This book is a complete revision of my main doctoral thesis,
Recherches sur la symbolique et l'énergie de la parole dans
certains textes tantriques, presented at the University of Paris
in 1964. One of the few merits of that thesis, begun some thirty
years ago, was that it was one of the first attempts at a systematic
study of the subject. It was, however, very far from perfect.
There were inaccuracies, mistakes and an inordinate number
of misprints. In those days very little had as yet been written
concerning the Word—väc—and the Indian cosmogonies related
to it. A number of Sanskrit texts which are easy to consult
nowadays were not accessible then. Such was the case with the
manuscripts from Nepal, which have now been microfilmed
under the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project.
In spite of its many shortcomings the original version was
approved by some colleagues and deemed useful as a (somewhat
heavy) introduction to the subject. A second edition, cleansed
of most of the misprints and incorporating a number of minor
emendations, was issued in 1975. But despite such corrections
I still found the work very unsatisfactory, and would gladly
have forgotten it, together with other sins of my youth. It so
happened however that some Indologists and historians of
religion (including Harvey P. Alper, of Southern Methodist
University, Dallas) thought it was not all that bad and suggested
I should make it available to a wider audience by having it trans-
lated into English. With some misgivings I gave in to this
suggestion, on condition that the text be entirely revised,
corrected and expanded where necessary. This book is the
result.
VII
viii Preface
As the original title was both imprecise and too long, I
have adopted one suggested by H. P. Alper but I have kept to
the overall pattern of the original text. Chapters 1, 3, 4 and 5
have been reworked and supplemented, but incorporate no
major changes: the plan is the same and some pages have been
translated or transposed more or less directly into English. On
the other hand, I have entirely rewritten chapters 2, 6 and 7.
The reason for all these changes lies not only in the imperfections
of the original but also, and sometimes mainly, in the progress
made during the last thirty years in the field of tantric studies.
My views on a number of points have been modified by these
advances. Not only did I go on working on the subject, but
Alexis Sanderson and Teun Goudriaan, to mention but two
scholars, have opened up entirely new vistas in some of these
fields. For example, no one could write nowadays what I wrote
in the early sixties on the subject of tantrism or Kashmirian
Saivism. On certain topics, also, new and reliable studies are
now available, and there would have been no point in restating
here what I or others have written elsewhere. Finally, on the
assumption that some readers of this book might have read
the original in either the 1963 or the 1975 edition, I have some-
times rewritten a passage, not to correct it, but simply to include
new material or quotations. Generally speaking, I quote more
Sanskrit texts now than before.
Since Harvey P. Alper was the first person to suggest this
English translation—he also suggested that the SUNY Press
might publish it—it is only fair that I should dedicate the present
volume to the memory of this greatly missed friend. My thanks
also go to William D. Eastman, director of SUNY Press, for
undertaking to publish a work which has proved far from easy
to translate and edit, and which is hardly likely to sell like
hot cakes.
It goes without saying that the bibliography and the foot-
note references have been updated and adapted as far as possible
for the use of English readers.
Introduction
My purpose in this work was to examine the speculations
relating to the Word—vâc—such as found in various Sanskrit
texts of Tantric character, with special emphasis on those
relating to the power or the energy (sakti) of the Word. It is
therefore a study concerned with Tantric conceptions about the
Word and its powers. It cannot claim to be a general review. It
deals only with a very limited sphere of the Indian religious and
philosophical literature, and must necessarily leave aside various
conceptions, however interesting. Since in this culture so much
emphasis has been placed on the Word for over three thousand
years, it was not of course possible to consider the subject in
its entirety. It was not even possible to study all the available
tantric scriptures in Sanskrit dealing with this topic. Therefore
the work (as the title of my 1963 dissertation implied) is restricted
to "selected Tantras," that is, chiefly to scriptures belonging to
the nondualistic Saivism as it arose in Kashmir, probably in
the early part of the ninth century A.D., and developed there
before rapidly spreading throughout India. The reason for such
a selection is understandable in that these traditions provide
what is perhaps the most interesting and sometimes the most
subtle, articulated, and reasoned developments on the subject.
However, other non-Saiva or non-"Kashmirian'M works have
also been consulted and will be cited occasionally. Resorting to
!. I write "Kashmirian" because in the Kashmirian nondualistic Saiva
tradition, the texts quite often do not originate from Kashmir but from
elsewhere, particularly from South India.
x Introduction
other traditions was desirable not only to broaden the scope of
our investigation, but also because there have been interactions
between Vaiçnavism and (dualistic or nondualistic) Saivism
in Kashmir itself, and probably longstanding contacts and
exchanges of ideas between Kashmir and other areas of the
Indian subcontinent. Similar developments in ideas also took
place in Buddhism, which, however, has not been included as
part of our investigation.
Indian speculations about the word obviously embrace
those on language. They cover phonetics and grammar, both
well developed in India even before our era, and whose basic
notions are often to be met with in Tantric texts. As for Saivism,
it was often the religion of grammarians or grammarian-
philosophers, some of whose conceptions are borrowed from
Tantrism. There is a very close interrelation between Tantrism
and the speculations about the Word. Although originating
from two different backgrounds, both, however, have very
ancient Indian sources.
This being so, to show how the present research fits into
the general framework of Indian thought (Vedic/Brahmanic,
and then Hindu), it seemed useful to outline, in an initial
chapter, the antiquity of Indian speculations about the Word—
vac- The latter was conceived from the very beginnings as a
creative power, the "mother of the gods." On the other hand—
at least as far as its forms unrelated to current speech are
concerned—the Word was very early regarded as a symbol of
the Godhead, or more exactly as revealing the divine presence
within the cosmos, as the force that creates, maintains, and
upholds the universe. Those ancient notions, while subjected
to transformations, have never been obliterated: change in
continuity, as is well known, is a characteristic feature of India,
whose culture has always succeeded in remaining unmovable in
its essence, while following a constant process of evolution
and adjustment. The ancient notions about väc were restated
and developed in Tantric Hinduism, a tentative definition of
which will be given in the second chapter, where we shall also
attempt to delineate a picture of the Kashmirian Saiva schools
or traditions, whose scriptures have been selected for our study.
Both chapters will emphasize the continuity and the develop-
Introduction xi
ments of the notion, present from the very outset, that the Word
is an energy, and that the latter may be tapped and used by
anyone who is able to penetrate its secret nature and mysteries.
To the Indian mind indeed, in the beginning was the Word; but
here the Word is a force: it is active and can be used for action.
Chapters 3 to 7, which form the core of the book, will be
devoted to a description of the various aspects of this energy
of the Word, according to selected Tantras. This exposition
will, I believe, show a constant ambivalence, a continuous shift
in the descriptions from the human to the cosmic and vice-versa,
which is a distinctive feature not only of the Tantric mind, but
more generally of the Indian mind, to which, as early as Vedism,
the knowledge of the supreme reality, the highest understanding,
was founded on the knowledge of anthropocosmic correlations.
The energy (sakti), as we shall see, is at the same time Word
(väc), consciousness (cit, samvid), breath, and vital or vibrative
energy (präna): there are no absolute distinctions, no dis-
continuity between the human and the cosmic, the vital, the
psychic, or the spiritual. All the developments of the Word
which will be described can occur homologously within man or
the cosmos. Such is the case with the evolution of the primal
sound-vibration and the movement of the kuridalini as a form of
phonic energy (chap. 3). Thus this ambivalence originates from
the very premises of a system that views the creative act as an
utterance which is a human act, but chooses to reverse the
order and to see in this act nothing but the reproduction at the
human level of an archetypal, divine act or process. So we shall
see (chap. 4) how the universe emerges within divine conscious-
ness, through the four stages or levels of speech, just as language
or explicit thought does within human consciousness, while
the process in its cosmic transposition will serve to account for
the human process, and more especially for the cognitive validity
of speech. Similarly (in chap. 5), we shall see how the categories
(tattva) of the cosmic manifestation arise concurrently with
the Sanskrit phonemes (varna) arranged in their grammatical
order, while grammar—as well as traditional phonetics—will
serve to account for the cosmogony. Of course, Sanskrit, the
language of revelation, is divine; whereas grammar—"the gate-
way to salvation," "close to brahman, and the ascesis of ascesis"