Six Major Tantric Sects & their Deities

[s1va]

There are the 6 major Hindu Tantric sects from India.  Some of them are extinct, while others are still popular to this day.  I am starting the list with possibly the oldest.

 

1. Souryam - Worship of 'Sun' God:-    Perhaps this was the oldest sect from India.  But it is largely extinct now.  The worship of Sun God was prevalent and very popular from the early vedic days and before.  The Sun was worshipped as deity across the world in various traditions.  The Egyptians worshipped the Sun God in the form of Ra.  The Ra is said to sail his boat across the sky during the day and to carry it back through underworld at night.  Similarly the Vedic Sun deity Adithya is said to ride a  chariot across the sky.

 

There used to be many temples in India for Sun God built at various times.  Most of them are either destroyed or disappeared over time.  The famous Sun temple at Konark is one of the surviving ones.  The entire temple is constructed as a stone chariot that Surya or the Sun God drives.  I visited this temple on 2010 and was impressed by the intricate artwork.  

 

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The Konark temple presents this iconography on a grand scale. It has 24 elaborately carved stone wheels which are nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter and are pulled by a set of seven horses.^[5][2][17] When viewed from inland during the dawn and sunrise, the chariot-shaped temple appears to emerge from the depths of the blue sea carrying the sun.^[18]

 

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple}

 

 

 

To be continued with the other 5 tantric sects....

[s1va]

2. Ganapathyam:- The worship of deity Ganesha as the remover of all obstructions or impediments.  In the Vedas, Ganesha is treated as the foremost deity to be worshipped.  Ganesha is said to destroy the human ego.  He is also considered as the key holder for the Kundalini or for the energy to awaken.  The devotees of Ganesha break the hard coconut and give this as an offering.  It just symbolises the breaking of the skull or human ego (ahamkara or the  'I', piercing of the crown) and for the divine grace to enter.  It is stated that without Ganesha's grace once cannot get started in the spiritual (or any) journey.  This followers of this sect or religion worshipped Ganesha as the supreme deity who can liberate. Avvaiyar is one of the greatest devotees who is said to have followed this path.

 

Archaeologists have found deities similar to Ganesha worshipped by other native civilizations in various parts of the world.

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The Hindu God of luck, the Ganesh, was worshipped in Central-South America. Idols of Ganesh have been excavated in plenty in Mexico. This God of the Elephant's trunk is frequently depicted in Mexican manuscripts and in the temple ruins in Central America as the God with a proboscis-like horn, whence water is squirting, and his head is most frequently portrayed on the corners of temple walls, which are always built with reference to the original points. And idol of 'Ekdant Ganesh' was noticed in the temple at Kopan by great Indonologist late Dr. W.S. Wakankar.

 

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi in North America, a very auspicious day for Lord Ganesha.

 

 

 

[Fa Xin]

Really cool thread.  Great job

[s1va]

On 9/21/2018 at 10:54 PM, Fa Xin said:

Really cool thread.  Great job

 

Thank you. 

[s1va]

3. Shaivism :- The worship of Shiva as the supreme deity.  There are a variety of different branches from the dualistic views to non-dual and in-between.  Many of them have the principle of Paramashiva as the formless reality that encomposses everything, having two major aspects of Shiva and Shakti.  The universe is seen as the interaction or interplay between Shiva and Shakti.  The consciousness and energy principles or Shiva and Shakti.  A pantheon of deities are worshipped/invoked including Shiva, Sakthi, Ganesha, Skanda, Kali and several others (Such as Goddess 'Para' worshipped in Kaula tradition, she is equated with the deity Saraswathi from the Vedic tradition -- the deity for Vak).  Some even consider Ganapathyam that I mentioned earlier, Shaktism and Kaumaram (the 5th and 6th sect that will be described later in this thread) as branches of Shaivism. 

 

These are the nine major tantric subsects of Shaivism.  They have overlap with Shaktism as seen below in the list.

•  Saiva Siddhanta -  The orthodox tradition, started as a dualistic school, the earliest shaiva tantra school, later adopted non-dual views.  Still prevalent in south India.
• Vama -  The left handed schools of Tantra
• Yamala - Brahmayamalatantra - sect that worships various goddesses
• Mantra pita
• Amriteswara
• Trika 

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  This is a Shaiva sect found in North India, especially Kashmir. It is also known as the Kashmiri school. However, it should be made clear that the term Kashmir Shaivism does not refer only to the Trika sect. It is composed of two radically opposed schools, the Trika and Krama with nondualistic traditions and the Shaiva Siddhanta which is dualistic. And in Kashmir itself, the dominant Shaiva doctrine is Shaiva Siddhanta, while the principal Shaiva cult is the worship of Svacandra Bhairava, which is a form of Shaivism between the two extremes of nonduality and duality (see Kashmir Shaivism, Shaiva Siddhanta, and Svacandra Bhairavas).
  Trika Shaivism incorporated Tantric and Buddhist influences and adopted a monistic metaphysical doctrine similar to Advaita Vedanta (nondualist). The doctrines of Trika Shaivism have five main elements. First is the doctrine of the co-essentiality of the trika or triad. This constitutes the anu or nara, the individual, shakti, cosmic power, and Shiva, the ground of shakti. Second is the worship of a trika of the goddesses Para, Parapara, and Apara, who are associated with Kali. Worship of the three goddesses is equated with liberating awareness of the unity in pure consciousness. Third comes ascent through the three means of salvation, anava, ritual and yogic action, sakta, moving from intellectually perceived reality to self-transcendent revelation, and sambhava, inner self-realisation. Fourth is the hierarchy of seven levels of the contraction of the self from Shiva-mode to the individual. Lastly, the Trika claims to be a summation and key to all Shaiva orthodox and heterodox traditions.
  Abhinavagupta, the greatest thinker of the sect, considered the Malinivijayottara Tantra the fundamental scripture of the Trika and the essence of multi-branched Shaivism. In his Malinivijayavarttika he expanded this claim and argued for paramadvayavada, supreme nondualism, with the Absolute being self-represented in both plurality and unity. The Trika was shown to be the embodiment in revelation of this Absolute, transcending and containing the dichotomy between orthodox (dualist) and heterodox (nondualist) aspects of Shaivism which were confronting each other in the early eleventh century CE. Abhinavagupta's great Tantraloka expounded all the theoretical, yogic, and ritual aspects of the Trika. His Paratrimsikavivarana studies the Kaula cult of the Trika with its worship of the goddess Tripurasundari or Srividya.

   

• Kali Kula - Shaktism - Family of Kali - dominant in Nepal, North and Eastern India
• Kubjika - Shaktism - The worship of Kubjika as one of the main aspect of Adishakti
• Sri Vidya -  This will also go under Shaktism 

 

 

There are numerous shrines for Shiva all over India and the world.  The 12 Jyotirlinga temples are the most popular ones where Shiva is worshipped as the radiant light.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga

[s1va]

4. Vaishnavism -   Vishnu is worshipped as the supreme deity.  There are some comparable concepts that are similar to the Shaiva traditions and tantras.  For example Narayana or Maha Vishnu can be equated with the concept of Paramashiva principle that we saw in Shaivism.  I should point out some similarities does not mean they are exactly the same concepts.  There are some key differences also between Shaiva and Vaishnava tantras.  Many of the Vishnu followers adhere to some form of dwaitic or dualistic philosophies, compared to the monistic, advaitic and dualistic philosophies of the Shaiva tantras.  Interestingly there are completely non-dual Vaishnava sects also, but they are small and not so popular.

 

Some comparisons that can be made with the principles or concepts are:  Paramashiva <-> Narayana or Maha Vishnu, the formless reality.  Vasudeva/Narayana is also like the consciousness or male aspect that comes out of Narayana (similar to the concept of Shiva in Shaivism) and Lakshmi the female aspect (similar to Shakti in Shaivism).  Lakshmi-Narayana is the unity of the female and male principles, similar to the Shiva-Shakti union in Shaiva traditions.  Compare to Radha-Krishna in traditions that consider Krishna as their supreme deity.

 

There is vast literature in Vaishnava Tantras also.  Please check below -- Pancharatra is one of the most popular ones.  It is also considered as an Agama.  The Agamas that were popular before pancharatra was the Vaikhanasa Agamas that were followed from the Vedic times.  The popular Tirumala Tirupati Venkateswara Temple follows the Vaikhanasa Agama or method or worship and procedures.  The Srirangam Ranganathaswamy Temple is a famous example of a temple that follows the Pancharatra Agamas. 

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The literature of the Vaishnavites is commonly called the "Pancharatra'' (five nights), so called because the sect is associated with five special nights of worship and ritual during the year, said to be auspicious on the spiritual path. Supposedly, it consists of 108 agamas but the actual number is not certain. According to the "Sammohanan Tantra", Vaishnava literature consists Of 75 tantras, 205 upa-tantras and various yamalas and damaras. The tantras and upa-tantras are intended for the spiritually receptive (sattvic), the yamalas for those more active in nature (rajasic), and the damaras for those who who lack any spiritual aspiration whatsoever (tamasic). Most of the Pancharatra texts have been lost or destroyed. Among those still available are the "Vishnu Rahasya" and the "Mahasanatkumar Samhitas".

 

 

 

 

There are numerous temples of Vishnu all over India and the world.  The temples at Divya Desams are considered very special.

 

 

 

The Angkor Wat Vishnu Temple in Cambodia (14th Century) is one of the examples of major Vishnu Temples built outside India.  This is on my to do lists as one of the tourist sites I would like to visit.  Interestingly this became a Buddhist temple later in History from around 17th century.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

 

[s1va]

Some consider Tantra to have only 3 major branches.  The Shaiva Tantra, Vaishnava Tantra and the Buddhist Tantra.  This makes sense in some ways.  The smaller sects like Souryam that followed Sun god as their deity became extinct in the later days.  The worshippers of Ganesha, Shakthi, Kali, Skanda/Murugan can be viewed as branches of Shaivism.  I am not including Buddhist Tantra in this list because this topic is about the six major Hindu tantra sects.  The Buddhist Tantra is also fascinating and has some concepts in common with other tantra sects.  Perhaps we can discuss this in a separate topic later.