The Āmnāyas

By WolfOfRudra

Initiatic Śaivism is typically classified into two sub-groups, each of which have sub-groups of their own: Atimārga and Mantramārga. The various Kaulāmnāyas are classified under Mantramārga. The term ‘āmnāya’ is defined by Monier-Williams as a “sacred tradition, sacred texts handed down by repetition”.¹ In the context of initiatic Śaivism/Śāktism, the āmnāyas are various streams of revelation in the form of scriptures, practices, deities, etc. There are many āmnāyas which are all complex and which integrate features of each into the other. Generally, however, there are at the very least four or five mentioned in the more well known scriptural sources. It is said in the Paraśurāmakalpasūtra, a text belonging to the Śrīvidyā traiditon:

Having attained, by way of amusement, the respective states and instituted the eighteen sciences beginning with the Veda and all systems of philosophies, Lord Śiva, the supreme sovereign, asked by the Divine Bhairavī, the very form of consciousness, inseparate from Himself, promulgated the five traditions which are the essence of the supreme truth through His five mouths.²

The five faces of Śiva are the traditional five forms which correspond to (more accurately, are) the five Brahmamantras, well known to Śaiva traditions; the “limbs” of Sadāśiva³. The motif of the Goddess⁴ being instructed by the God contains deep metaphysical and philosophical meanings, but it is not necessary to delve into that here. The five faces of Śiva are said to reveal an āmnāya: Tatpuruṣa to the east, Aghora to the south, Sadyojāta to the west, Vāmadeva to the north, and Īśāna above. The āmnāyas are appropriately named: pūrvāmnāya, dakṣiṇāmnāya, paścimāmnāya, uttarāmnāya, and ūrdhvāmnāya. At the esoteric level of the Kālikākrama, these five correspond to the five “flows” (among other such configurations of five) which are the main cycles of that system which pertain to the dynamism of consciousness. A description of each of these āmnāyas is found in the Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya, a text belonging to the Kubjikā school which nevertheless is very syncratic.

The pūrvāmnāya is described, in accord with the text, by Mark Dyczkowski:

This tradition transmits the consciousness which pervades the Sky of transcendental reality and through it Trika was brought into this world. Trika doctrine is here embodied as Trikā, the goddess of three-fold form who is the Mistress of the Three Worlds (Tribhuvaneśvarī).⁵

The paścimāmnāya is the tradition of the Goddess Kubjikā. Although historically it appears to have emerged after the Trika and Krama traditions, I will talk about it next because of how it treats the aforementioned pūrvāmnāya. The word “pūrva” means east, but it can also mean something preceding or prior. This is the context in which it is understood in the Kubjikā Tantras. As I already mentioned, the Trika did predate the Kubjikā tradition historically, but there is also a deeper meaning. In the mythical narrative that underlies the Kubjikā Tantras, after Bhairava is given Kālikā by Her father Himavat, He reveals to Her that in the previous age, the “previous tradition” (i.e. pūrvāmnāya), the ājñā (Command, a technical term with paramount significance in the Kubjikā Tantras which simultaneously refers to divine grace, the supreme state of consciousness, the source of the universe and the traditions), was transmitted between Himself and the Goddess. Now, in order to perfect it, She must receive it and spread it as the paścimāmnāya. The word “paścima”, besides meaning west, can also mean what is final, which in the context of the Kubjikā Tantras refers to the perfected state of the Command, the highest revelation and by extension the highest state of consciousness/being. On a basic level this likely means that the Kubjikā tradition is viewed as perfecting the prior teachings of the Trika, but more fundamentally it means that this, the highest state of consciousness, transcends and encompasses all of the “prior”, that is, lower levels of being. This is indeed the goal of the practitioner of the Kubjikā Tantras, even if such a practitioner doesn’t necessarily view the Trika tradition in this light. More on this later.

Now the Dakṣiṇāmnāya:

Kāmeśvarī descends into this āmnāya. She arises from the three pīṭhas and resides in their centre, pleasing to behold as the early morning sun and yet brilliant like a hundred million lightning flashes. She is the Passionate One, full of the passion (Kāma) which devours Kumārīkula, desirous of herself. Kāmeśvarī descends into the world in the form of a young virgin (kumārī). She melts the Circle of Birth of her own nature by her energy, and by the intent of her own vitality fills it. She is Kulayoginī of divine form, peaceful and pure as translucent crystal. ⁶

This is what eventually became the Śrīvidyā tradition. Although during the time when the Ciñcinīmatasārasamuccaya was written Śrīvidyā had not yet evolved into a fully developed tradition, the text itself contains evidence of the earliest strata of the cult of the Goddess Kāmeśvarī which would become Śrīvidyā.

The Uttarāmnāya is the Kālikākrama, which teaches that Kālī is Bhānavī, the Sun which rises as the all-consuming Void of consciousness whose twelve rays emerge to greedily devour the world and which dissolve into the inner Sun of the Sun. The most important Goddesses of the post-scriptural Uttarāmnāya are Guhyākālī, Kāmakalākālī and Siddhilakṣmī. Importantly, the paddhatis that explain the worship of these Goddesses revolve around the maṇḍala of the classical Krama, although in some cases the names of the deities are either added where there were none originally or changed.

Ūrdhvāmnāya is given a relevant and detailed exposition in the Kulārṇavatantra, where the deity is Ardhanārīśvara, the combined form of Śiva and Devī. There, the Ūrdhvāmnāya is (not surprisingly) called the best of āmnāyas, and that its true purport can only be known from the oral teachings of a guru. In certain lineages, there is another one above this, the Anuttarāmnāya.

There is also an āmnāya that arises from the secret lower face of Śiva, or the secret “Mouth of the Yoginī”, the Adharāmnāya. According to the Parātantra:

The lower direction is that of the Buddhist path and is presided over by Vajrayoginī. She bestows benefits in this Age of Strife (kaliyuga) to Buddhists, but not ultimate liberation.⁷

But, according to a practitioner of the Sarvāmnāya system from Nepal, this is the significance of the Adharāmnāya:

Hātakeśī (Goddess of the pātālalokas) bestows all wealth. You please her by meditating on the mūlādhāra region. When you feel either heat, cold, or spanda (trembling) then know that she is pleased. When she is pleased, these following signs will manifest in your outer life: great material wealth, success in all your endeavors, a voice like thunder that will command the respect of all, and perfect health. What more could there be than this? Having attained the prosperous blessings of Hātakeśī, why would you want to continue on from the base-camp? The answer is: mukti. The blessings of Hātakeśī are ultimately illusory. Although success in yoga cannot be won without her blessings, ironically, those blessings must be renounced. And this makes sense. If I am a poor man and renounce a Rolls Royce, is this true renunciation? No, only when I have the wealth to own a Rolls Royce do I have the power to renounce. If I am rich and renounce wealth, then I am a true renunciant. In the same way, we must first obtain the wealth that Hātakeśī has to offer. Then, we must develop the viveka (discrimination) to perceive such wealth as illusion and continue our journey towards the summit.⁸

The significance of the “journey towards the summit” is explained in the context of Sarvāmnāya by Divakar Acarya:

The āmnāyas all arise from the mouth of Śiva. Śiva may be depicted with multiple mouths, but Śiva is one. For a practitioner, the śāstras of the different āmnāyas are related. They represent stages in the evolution of man back to God. So as we receive initiation, step by step, into each āmnāya, we move closer and closer towards the goal of Tantric practice - the realization that we ourselves are omnipotent.⁹

Although, as Dyczkowski explains in the context of the practices of the Newars:¹⁰

This system is alien to the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley. Indeed, it is so contrary to the spirit of their Kaulism that we may understand it better by the sharp contrast there is with it. The Newars who are qualified to take higher Kaula initiations are given access to their tutelary Kaula goddess. As the family deity, the tradition (āmnāya) to which they belong can only be one. The Newars do, however, concede that access to the worship of one of the Kula goddesses also authorises one to worship all the others. However, this is achieved directly through the one initiation, not in stages. Moreover, each goddess is Kuṇḍalinī within the body and she may rise equally through all the Wheels, whichever one of the goddesses she may be.¹¹

But one should not think that any particular āmnāya or their deities is inherently superior to any other. It was said by another practitioner:

I call God Mā Kālī. This is because I am an initiate of Kālī Vidyā. However, Sthanesvar is an initiate of Śrī Vidyā, and so he calls God Mahātripurasundarī. Kālī and Tripurasundarī are not distinct. The lineages are distinct, but the being who is the focus of these traditions is not different. Many different trekking expeditions climb Mount Everest. But for all of them the goal is the same, the mountain is the same. They may take different routes. They may call the mountain by different names, but the mountain still is what it is. So Devī is one.¹²

This is also explained by Śrīvidyācārya Amṛtānandanātha in his Cidvilāsastava:

Here worship of the four [Kaula] streams devoted to various deities and consisting of inner elements and the Śākta pantheon, in its highest form, is uniting with the supreme Self that is present at the peak of the transmental state.¹³

Indeed, in the ritualistic worship of the Śrīcakra, the four primary āmnāyas are worshipped with the (variations of their) primary vidyās. Here Amṛtānanda implies that the same Self is the object of attainment for all of the āmnāyas, hence they are all worshipped together in the ritual worship of just one āmnāya! Maheśvarānanda also says in his Mahārthamañjarī that Bhairava “churns” the inner essence of the four āmnāyas (which here also has the double meaning of the four states of the Krama):

Manthānabhairava, who is God, churns only this reality full of nectar as He churns the ocean of the four waves and no other knowledge.¹⁴

Bibliography:

Durvāsāḥ, David. Mahārthamañjarī. https://mahanaya.org/en/scriptures/maharthamanjari/

Dyczkowski, Mark S.G. The Canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition. State University of New York Press. 1988.

Dyczkowski, Mark S.G. Manthānabhairavatantram Kumārikākhaṇḍaḥ: Section Concerning the Virgin Goddess of the Tantra of the Churning Bhairava. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and D.K. Printworld. Volumes 1-14. 2009.

Lidke, Jeffery S. The Goddess Within and Beyond the Three Cities: Śākta Tantra and the Paradox of Power in Nepāla-Maṇḍala. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company. 2000.

Pandit, M.P. Bases of Tantra Sadhana. DIPTI Publications, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-2. 1972.

Williams, Ben and Campbell, Brian. The Cidvilāsastava "Hymn to the Play of Consciousness". Tripurā Tallikā. 2023.

1. From the entry on Wisdom Library, adapted from the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary

2. M.P. Pandit 1972, 2

3. See Matāṅgāgama Vidyāpāda 4.14-30, Parākhya Tantra 2.84-100, Pauṣkarāgama Vidyāpāda 1.66-68, and Abhinavagupta’s Mālinīvijayavārtika 1.171-294 for explanations of these five faces/limbs

4. Usually it is the Goddess who is the student and the God who is the teacher, although sometimes this role is reversed, as for instance in the Kramasadbhāva and the Kumārikākhaṇḍa of the Manthānabhairava Tantra

5. Dyczkowski 1988, 68

6. Ibid, 71

7. Dyczkowski 2009, II, 350

8. Lidke 2000, 69

9. Ibid, 66-7

10. I am not entirely sure how accurate this conclusion is, so maybe take it with a pinch of salt

11. Dyczkowski 2009, II, 351

12. Lidke 2000, 162

13. Williams 2023, 97

14. Durvāsāḥ’s translation, Mahānaya