The Lotus Garland (padmamālā) and Cord of Power (śaktitantu): The Brahmayāmala’s Integration of Inner and Outer Ritual

Abstract

The significance of the Brahmayāmala to the history of Śaivism was first identified by Alexis Sanderson (1988), whowas gracious enough to read a section of this voluminous textwithmeatOxford, in 2004, at an early stage of mydoctoral research. This was a formative professional experience, and I remain touched by his generous hospitality towards me as an unknown visiting student. In the present essay, I revisit a particular thread which emerged from these reading sessions: the śaktitantu or śaktisūtra, the “thread” (tantu) or “cord” (sūtra) of divine power (śakti). This is a technical term of ritual distinctive to the Brahmayāmala to which Professor Sanderson first drewmy attention. Inquiry into the Cord of Power leads me to examine the ways in which the Brahmayāmala (hereafter BraYā) integrates meditational discipline with the somatic performance of ritual, and to query its understanding of the category yoga. In chapter 15 of the Tantrāloka, Abhinavagupta invokes the authority of the BraYā concerning the inseparability of “external” (bāhya) and “inner” or “internal” (adhyātma)worship.The passage (15.43cd–44) reads as follows in the printed (Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies) edition: