224 SKETCH OF THE 



Where the object of the ceremony is to acquire an interview with 

 and controul over impure spirits, a dead body is necessary. The adept 

 is also to be alone, at midnight, in a cemetery or place where bodies are 

 burnt or buried, or criminals executed : Seated on the corpse, he is to 

 perform the usual offerings, and if he does so without fear, the Bhutas, 

 the Yoginis, and other male or female goblins, become his slaves. 



In this, and many of the observances practiced, solitude is enjoined ; 

 but all the principal ceremonies comprehend the worship of Sakti, and 

 require for that purpose the presence of a female, as the living represen- 

 tative and the type of the goddess. This worship is mostly celebrated 

 in a mixed society, the men of which represent JBhairavas or Viras, and 

 the women JBhairavis and Ndylkds. The Sakti is personated by a naked 

 female, to whom meat and wine are offered, and then distributed amongst 

 the assistants, the recitation of various Mantras and texts, and the per- 

 formance of the Mudrd, or gesticulations with the fingers, accompanying 

 the different stages of the ceremony, and it is terminated with the most 

 scandalous orgies amongst the votaries.* The ceremony is entitled the 

 Sri Chakra, or Purndbhisheka, the Ring, or Full Initiation. 



* It might have been sufficient to have given this general statement, or even to have referred 

 to the similar but fuller account of Mr. Ward : his information was, however, merely oral, and may 

 therefore be regarded as unsatisfactory ; and as it seems to be necessary to show that the charge is 

 not altogether unfounded, I shall subjoin the leading rites of the Sakti Sodhana, or Sri Chakra, as 

 they are prescribed in the Devi Rahasya, a section of the Rudra Yumala. 



SAKTI SODHANA. 



The object of the ceremony should be either — 



