RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 217 



observances they prescribe have, indeed, in Bengal, almost superceded the 

 original ritual. The question of their date is involved in considerable 

 obscurity. From the practices described in some of the Purdnas, parti- 

 cularly that of the Dikshd or rite of initiation, in the Agni Purdna, from 

 the specification of formulae, comprising the mystical monosyllables of 

 the Tantras in that and other similar compilations, and from the citation 

 of some of them by name in different Paurdnic works,* we must conclude 

 that some of the Tantras are prior to those authorities. But the date of 

 the Purdnas themselves is far from determined, and whilst some parts of 

 them may be of considerable antiquity, other portions of most, if not of 

 all, are undoubtedly subsequent to the tenth century of the Christian era. 

 It is not unlikely,, however, that several of the Tantras are of earlier com- 

 position, especially as we find the system they inculcate, included by 

 Anandagiri, in his life of Sankarach£rya, amongst the heterodoxies 

 which that Legislator succeeded in confuting. On the other hand, there 

 appears no indication of Tdntrika notions in the Mahdbhdrat, and the 



" The five Scriptures issued from ray five mouths, and were the east, west, south, north, and 

 upper. These five are known as the paths to final liberation. There are many Scriptures, but none 

 are equal to the Upper Scripture." Kulluka Bhatta, commenting on the first verse of the second 

 chapter of Menu, says, the Sruti is two-fold — Vaidika and Tdntrika ; 



^f<?re Wrei tfost ?nt^^t x? u 



* As in the Kurma Purdna, the Kapdla, Bhairava, Vdma and Ydmala, and the Panchardtra 

 in the Vardha : we have also a number mentioned in the Sankara Vijayas, of both Anandagiri and 

 Mddhava, as the Siva Gitd, Siva Sanhitd, Rudra Ydmala, and Siva Rahasya. It is also said in 

 Anandagiri's work, that the Brahmanas were cursed by Gdyatri, to become Tdntrikas in the 

 Kali age. 



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gfcra ^vwilsn^r flitWcSixrrc: cnrou 



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*ro^%i w^ra - ftrftT^i^i^En^^T u 



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" She being angry said to them, in the Kali age, after abandoning the Veda ritual, become 

 followers of the Tdntrika observances. 



I 1 



