De-constructing The Horrific In: Sahajāyāna And Kālacakrayāna

De-constructing the horrific in Sahajāyāna and Kālacakrayāna: Analytical transcreation of the caryās or the bardo songs of siddha Kāṇhapa or Kṛṣṇācārya

Vajradhara, Nairatmya, Kanhu and Virupa (clockwise from top left), c. 1450 CE, Central Tibet: Ngor Monastery

Left: Kanhupa, 17th century, gilt bronze, Tibet, CSMVS; Right: Kanhupa, 16th century CE, metal alloy, Private collection

Mekhala and Kankhala llustration based on various sets of thangkas and wood-block prints, some of which were provided by John C. Huntington. They have been drawn by Rosalyn White under the direction of Tarthang Tulku for James Robinson’s book: Buddha’s LionsThe Lives of Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas

In the biography of the author of the doha, Krsnacarya or

ugly

Kanhupa, one finds mention of the particularly “ dakini, with glasses on, uneven teeth, a coarse body, badly coloured and wearing tattered clothes”, whose initiation he had to seek in a ganacakra or a ritual feast on the insistence of his guru Jalandharipa. The mahasiddha is noted to have 72 initiated disciples,

37

out of which were yoginis and 35 were yogis. The biographer, Lama Taranatha, yields names of two female disciples, the sisters-Mekhala and Kankhla, adept in the eight ritual gazes, daughters of the King Lalitchandra, whom he had converted earlier. However Krsnacarya’s death is surrounded with mystery as refusing to obey to his guru’s order he went to Devikota from Varendra and was struck by a severe ritual gaze of a yogini. In these last moments before death, he is said to have spontaneously sung these songs in the esoteric sandhyo-bhasha or twilight language, before achieving Nirvana in the

bardo phase.

“Outside the town you go toward your tattered hut You go touching priest and touching monks, you slut.

I’ll fuck you, slut, I blackie, so full of lust,

I, naked skull-bearer, so far beyond disgust. She climbs upon the flower, there assumes a stanceOn the many petalled lotus, the slut performs her dance. I sincerely ask you slut, and I truly want to know ‘In whose boat are you coming, in whose do you go?’ Sell me a basket, slut, and a piece of string For you I’ve given up my own, given everything. You are the slut, I the beggar- a skull is all I own; For you I wear the garland made from bits of bone.

The slut eats the lotus root; the pond is full of strife; And so I kill you slut,- I must take away your life.” -Lee Siegel, Bengal Blackie and the Sacred Slut: A Sahajayana Buddhist Song

Erotic Scene, Ratnagiri, Odisha: Photograph by author

Haraprasad Sastri’s categorization from the 12 songs of Kanhu: Out of 438 total words

• 68 are Sanskrit with four Buddhist terminologies– Evamkara, tathata, tathagata and dasabala • 60 words in modern colloquial Bengali, 55 of which are unique to Bengali, 3 which have fallen out of use in colloquial Bengali • 186 which can be found in old Bengali manuscripts from which modern words have originated • 129 which have originated from Sanskrit but are not present in modern Bengali but in other similar vernacular dialects in the neighbouring areas (Sastri, 1916)

• The “slut” or “dombi” refers to a woman of the despised low “Dom” caste engaged in the lowly occupation of crematoria. The prevalent view of scholars that the debauched and depraved feminine partner was effectively used as a means to an end, as upaya to prajna, experienced and enjoyed solely by the male yogin. However, the Candamaharosana Tantra, one of the chief yogini Tantras of Buddhism clearly states“The man sees the woman as a goddess

The woman sees the man as a god. By joining the diamond sceptre and lotus, They should make offering to each other. There is no worship other than this.”

• “Every gesture becomes an act of worship, every sigh and word of love becomes a prayer, and gazing into the lover’s eye becomes a one-pointed meditation.”

Gambhira Mask Dance, Habibpur, Malda

Gambhira Masks from Malda and Maymansingha; Gurusaday Museum and Swaraj Archives, early 20th century