The Agamas and Tantras
The Agamas and Tantras, the scriptures behind Hindu temple worship, ritual and meditation: their traditions, contents and the true meaning of Tantra.
The Agamas and Tantras are a large body of scriptures that govern much of Hindu religious practice, especially temple worship. They explain how temples should be built, how sacred images should be made and consecrated, how daily worship should be performed, and how devotees should be initiated and meditate. Although less famous than the Vedas or the Bhagavad Gita, they shape what most Hindus actually experience when they visit a temple.
The word agama means “that which has come down” (tradition). Tantra comes from a root meaning “to stretch” or “to weave”, and refers to a text, system or technique. The two terms are often used for similar texts, though “Agama” is more common in the Shaiva traditions of south India and “Tantra” for Shakta and other texts.
Three main traditions
| Tradition | Texts | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Shaiva | The Shaiva Agamas, traditionally 28, the basis of Shaiva Siddhanta | Worship of Shiva |
| Vaishnava | The Pancharatra Samhitas and the Vaikhanasa Agamas | Worship of Vishnu |
| Shakta | The Shakta Tantras | Worship of the Goddess, Devi |
These texts began to be composed around the 5th–6th centuries CE and continued to be produced for many centuries. Their followers regard them as revealed scripture, equal in authority to the Vedas, and as especially suited to the present age.
What the Agamas contain
A complete Agama is traditionally divided into four sections:
- Jnana (knowledge): philosophy and theology.
- Yoga: meditation and spiritual discipline.
- Kriya (action): ritual, including temple construction, making and consecrating images, and festivals. This is usually the largest section.
- Charya (conduct): rules of personal behaviour and religious observance.
In south Indian temples today, priests still follow the detailed procedures of particular Agamas when performing daily puja, installing murtis and conducting festivals.
Tantric practice
Tantric traditions developed a rich set of spiritual techniques, many of which became part of mainstream Hinduism:
- Mantra: sacred sounds, often given by a guru at initiation (diksha). See Mantras.
- Yantra and mandala: geometric diagrams used as focuses of worship and meditation, such as the Sri Yantra of the goddess Lalita Tripurasundari.
- Nyasa: placing mantras on parts of the body to make it divine.
- The subtle body: the idea of channels (nadis) and energy centres (chakras) through which the energy called kundalini can be awakened.
What Tantra is not
In the West, “tantra” is often associated mainly with sex. This is a narrow view. A small number of tantric traditions, known as “left-hand” (vamachara), used substances and practices normally forbidden, including ritual sexual union, as a way of transcending ideas of purity and impurity. But most Tantric practice is “right-hand” (dakshinachara): disciplined ritual, mantra and meditation, fully compatible with conventional morality.
Tantric philosophy
Tantric traditions produced sophisticated philosophy. The non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir, whose greatest thinker was Abhinavagupta (10th–11th centuries), taught that the whole universe is the free, joyful self-expression of divine consciousness, and that liberation is recognising one's own identity with Shiva.
Sources and further reading
- André Padoux, The Hindu Tantric World: An Overview (University of Chicago Press, 2017).
- Richard H. Davis, Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshipping Siva in Medieval India (Princeton University Press, 1991).
- David Gordon White (ed.), Tantra in Practice (Princeton University Press, 2000).