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Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 18:49:14 +0700
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Subject: [agathiyar] Re: Agamas and Tantras - Definition
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Dear Balachandran,

At 04:12 PM 9/29/99 +0800, you wrote:

>>>>The Agamas are theological manuals of
sectarian Hindus, namely Shaivas,Shaktas and Vaishnavas.
They present the philosophy behind and the
>practice of adoring various deities, such as
Vishnu, Shiva and Devi. They give less mportance to yagnas
and more importance to idol worship, the
construction>of temples and the performance of pujas.
Hence, they are considered >avaidika, uninspired by the Vedas.<<<<<
>
>>>>tantra is a loose term for scriptures
associated with occult practices. It is often difficult
to differentiate a tantra from an agama. To add to the
confusion, the term 'tantra' is often used to simply mean 'manual'.<<<<<<
>
>
>If tantra do not give importance to idols then what are tantric
>idols (like tantric Ganesa) do they form a different category of
>worship. How about Kapalikas who were ardent followers of Siva but
>practiced human sacrifice and worshipped Siva in a fearce form?
>
>Anban
>Balachandran

In the above text, it says that the agama gives
less importance to yagnas and more importance to idol
worship.
As I pointed out earlier, this article is
very general and not very accurate.
In tantrik worship, you do have homas also.
But they are not of the same nature and elaborateness
as the Vedic yagnas and homas. They are of a different
type. Any tantrik scholar or adept can perform them.
The Vedic yagnas have to be performed only by certain
classes of Brahmins like Hota, Atharvayu, etc. And then
there are also specificities like which shaka of which
veda a person belongs to, etc.
The Tantriks don't adhere to all these specificities.
Sivaji was crowned as the Chatrapathi according to
Vedic rituals at first. But then somethings were seen to go
wrong. So the scholars decided to redo the coronation ceremony,
a second time according to the Tantrik rites. It took place.
There are certain classes of deities which are known
as the Tantrik deities. Their description can be found in
some of the Tantras. The mantras and the mode of worship
will also be described there.
The Kaapaalikas are different. Again there several
classes of Kaapaalikas. The practices that you mentioned
were followed by the Avidya Tantrik Kaapaalikas. The
Vidayatantrik Kaapaalikas did not do all those rituals.
Most of the kaapaalikas wore bones and smeared cremetorial
ash. But they did not perform sacrifices. As time passed
by, everything got generalised. Everyone got blamed for the
things that they did not do but some others did.
When Shankara did away with Kaapaalicism, horror
stories were attributed to it,to make people shy away
from it.
They were picturised as bogeymen. I will tell
you some specific words which were created for them,
but mean something else now.
But the horror stories were also true. But they
were not that rampant as you would imagine.
They had their own doctrines and theology. High
philosophy was also developed by them. We have Appar
mentioning about them. You can find a passage where he
describes Thiruvaaruur as a place where these sects' people
went about.
There were many important Saivite temples which
were originally built or controlled by these people.
They were wide-spread - right from Nagapattinam to Erode.
There is so much, much more.
Alas! Time and physical constraints.

Regards

Jayabarathi

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