Revisiting Tantrasamuccaya: A Fundamental text for Kerala Tantra

Abstract

Tantrasamuccaya of Chennas Narayanan Namboothiri is Kerala's most influential and widely practised ritual manual. It primarily deals with temple-related rituals, from constructing a new temple to installing and expiatory traditions. It is written in the Malayalam language. The author was considered to be an authority in the fields of mathematics and tantra. Tantrasamuchaya is still considered the authentic reference manual in temple architecture and rituals. The temple in Śaiva theology is conceived as a powerful, sacred space where various divine energies are invoked and worshipped for the benefit of all creation. Temple construction was a perfect collaboration between the Ācārya and the Sthapati, using the canonical texts of the śaivāgama-s and śilpa śāstra manuals. The rich temple-building culture of Hinduism seems to have been carried to foreign shores, at least in part with traders, merchants and emperors. Tantra is very close to actual practice. Things done come first, and interpretations come later. No Tantrika would expect to be able to move straight from ordinary life to the most exalted stages of internal symbolism by mere thought. Some people will say The Tantra represents a thoroughgoing, practical system for manipulating and focusing human libido, enhancing it and then withdrawing it entirely from the passing and valueness phenomena of the word and directing it instead to a transcendent object. According to Tantra, creation is sexual self-realisation through the activity of the goddess. Tantra is esoteric, and much of it is always kept secret. In all Indian ceremonies, pooja is the root activity. In Tantric Pooja, the most crucial point is that the symbolism of the whole ceremony is taken over and applied by the pujari to himself through an intense meditation on the significance of each act as he performs it. Innumerable works of Tantra contain references to basic pooja. The vessels and implements by the Tantric pujaris are often worshipped as devatha emblematic of the activities of the transmuted self.