Spear-wielding mothers and yoginīs from afar – the revealers of the Śākteya traditions of Kerala.

In this paper, I attempt to highlight the characteristic features of the so-called śākteya traditions of Kerala and examine the role of mother goddesses and yoginīs in the ritual practices of these traditions.

In the literary and oral traditions of Kerala, there are countless legends about the origins, battles and heroic deeds of divine heroines and goddesses. The legendary adventures of these female characters are often adapted for religious performances and the fierce warrior goddesses are worshipped as protectors of villages, temples and sacred groves. These goddesses are easily angered and, according to legends and ritual manuals, must be appeased with the help of tantric specialists or magicians (mantravādins). The wrath of the warrior goddesses is also a common theme in the legends and ballads of the tribes and forest communities of the Wayanad region in Kerala. The Śākteya traditions are still alive and preserved in various clans of the Brahmin and non-Brahmin communities of Kerala. Additionally, the textual sources (manuscripts of the Śākteya clans) show different stages of development of what is now known as Śākteya and its various streams.

Furthermore, the goddesses of many Śākteya sacred groves ( kāvu) and kalaris (martial art temples) in Kerala are believed to be related to each other: they are often praised as sisters or incarnations of other divine heroines. Many of the fierce goddesses are worshipped in the kāvus along with the peaceful Tripura Sundarī goddess of Śrīvidyā and yoginīs. This is reminiscent of the history of Śaivism, which in its early stages involved the worship of mother goddesses (usually seven or eight in number) and wild female spirits (yoginīs) grouped in families (kula)  under the leadership of Rudra-Bhairava.

In several tantric texts from Kerala, the wild goddesses are often worshipped alone or with a retinue of other spirits. Mātṛsadbhāvatantra, an early Śākta text of Kerala, praises the goddess as Mardinī (the destroyer), whose mount (vāhana) is the demon Mahiṣa, and her retinue consists of powerful female divinities: Sumukhī (the fair-faced one), Durmukhī (the dread-faced one) and Māriṇī (the executioner). Fierce goddesses, the text says, should also be worshipped with the retinue of mothers, who are divided into several groups: bhūtamātṛkās (mothers of all beings), guhyamātṛkās (mystic mothers) or sarvamātṛkās (mothers of everything). Similarly, in a popular tantric manual from Kerala, Śeṣasamuccaya, the goddesses are praised as those who delight in meat sacrifices (māṁsapriyā) and are associated with the ḍākinīs. Other tantric texts written in a similar period (12th-15th century) in Kerala also show an insight into the diverse Śākta traditions that elevated the fierce heroines to the status of goddesses. However, the position of the fierce female spirits in the Kerala pantheon is ambiguous: Caṇḍī or Caṇḍikā is a term often used by devotees in Kerala during their prayers, but the dākiṇīs or yākṣiṇis are often feared and presumably invoked by black magicians (durmantravādins).

Many tantric texts from Kerala prescribe ritual methods to control the divine (female) powers and to invoke and propitiate the fierce and fearsome goddesses that dwell in the sacred groves. To achieve this, one must resort to transgressive offerings, which are often not accepted in Brahmanical temples. The paper examines the forms of worship of the Śākteya goddesses and comments on the question of purity and impurity with regard to the offerings prescribed for these deities. According to tantric practitioners, the goddesses worshipped in the kāvus are powerful deities who should be honoured with offerings of animal flesh and intoxicating drinks (vīrapāṇa), which were traditionally consumed by warriors before going to the battlefield. There are indeed legends of fearsome goddesses who were praised in their groves with sacrifices of elephants and goats, and of an annual ceremony of human sacrifice in which a virgin was beheaded in front of the Yakṣī shrine.

In the present paper, I would therefore like to show the complexity of the living tradition of Kerala Tantra with special reference to the Kerala Śākteya saṃpradāya (tradition) and point out its syncretic character. The ritual system of many Śākteya kāvus draws on several goddess traditions. The main goddess of a Śākteya temple is often praised as a lonely warrior or stern mother and personifies the coincidence of opposites. I also present the case of female oracles who, while possessed by goddesses, teach or heal the members of a particular community.

In my paper I refer to selected passages from Śākteya paddhatis, ritual manuals (palm leaf manuscripts) written by families of goddess worshippers in Kerala, in which the mothers (mātṛkā) yoginīs, Kālīs and other female beings are invoked into specific parts of the practitioner's body, who thereby becomes a maṇḍala animated by the divine powers represented by these spiritual beings. I would also like to indicate the various ways in which the Śākteya goddesses of Kerala are visualised and praised as revealers of traditions and spiritual guides who connect the adepts to the spiritual realms of their ancestors.