Hindu Tantra is a broad family of ritual, meditative and philosophical traditions within Hinduism, attested from roughly the sixth century of the common era onward, that use mantra, visualization and structured ritual to pursue both liberation and worldly power, treating the body and the cosmos as mirror images of one another. It spans Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava lineages, with Kashmir Shaivism and Shri Vidya among its most studied schools. Its deities, philosophy and many of its texts, including the Lalita Sahasranama and the wider Shakta hymn literature, are openly taught and described elsewhere in this atlas, and its central emblem, the Sri Chakra, and its central goddess figure, Lalita Tripurasundari, are public objects of worship and scholarship. Within certain Shakta currents, above all Kaula lineages and left hand strands of Shri Vidya, specific ritual procedures, most notably the panchamakara or five Ms rite, are transmitted only through initiation into a particular lineage. That ritual detail and its performance are not described here.
Facts
Cultural Restriction
Restricted TraditionCertain Hindu Shakta tantric currents, most closely associated with Kaula lineages and with left hand practice within Shri Vidya, transmit specific ritual detail, above all the panchamakara or five Ms rite, only through initiation within a particular lineage. What is withheld is that ritual detail and its performance. The goddess Lalita Tripurasundari, the Sri Chakra, the Lalita Sahasranama and the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism that most Shakta and Shri Vidya practitioners actually use are openly worshipped and taught, and remain fully described elsewhere in the atlas. This does not extend to yoga generally, to openly taught Vedanta, or to Hinduism as a whole. 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
The panchamakara or five Ms rite is the specific initiatory ritual content this carrier withholds. Panchamakara's own entry already describes it only at the level published scholarship reaches and names it initiatory and restricted.
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