6.1. Bālāviṃśati stotra and Bālādīkṣāpaddhati—Mapping Śrīvidyā onto the Keralan Cultural Landscape
The reading of Bālāviṃśati through the above-mentioned Sanskrit and Malayalam commentaries shows how the Bālā mantra and her cult were encoded in the local cultural matrix. In the second part of our paper, we would like to focus on the transmission of the mantra as an act of perpetuating the tradition and an act of empowerment. The two texts discussed here seem complementary: while the Bālādīkṣāpaddhati instructs how to impart the mantra, the Bālāviṃśati explains the purpose of its chanting and decodes its deeper layers of meaning.
Berliner and Sarró (
2007, p. 10) indicate two modes of religious transmission: a transmission of religious practice through a frequently repeated, standardized form that relies on explicit verbal knowledge stored in semantic memory (sermon type), and the imagistic mode that includes initiations and involves highly emotional arousal that activates episodic or flashbulb memories. In the context of Tantric rites,
dīkṣā, a ritual of initiation, is an example of the second mode, and, according to belief, it enables an adept to participate in ritual acts of a tradition and helps them to attain liberation. The theme
dīkṣā is not new to the academic study of Tantric traditions. Tantric traditions have always promised liberation from the suffering of life through rites of initiation by a guru, a liberated master. According to Tantric traditions, mantras are not to be chanted without initiation, and the practice of mantra after initiation leads an adept towards union with the divine and, in some cases, induces states of ecstatic or religious bliss (
Urban 1997, p. 11). In the act of transmitting the mantra from guru to adept, the mantra is given together with a
mantra-vīrya, the energy (
śakti) of the enlightened consciousness of the teacher (
Müller-Ortega 1989, p. 83). In many traditions of Śākta Tantra, adepts are empowered with goddesses’ mantras, and a process of initiation (
dīkṣā) involves a
Śaktipāta, the awakening of
śakti within practitioners’ bodies (
Caldwell 2001).
The initiations involve a drastic reconfiguration of one’s life aims, forsaking previous identities and gaining a new status within a religious community. In some cases, a
dīkṣā requires an adept to leave the ordinary lifestyle or even “travel” to other spiritual worlds, receive blessing from the guardians of the tradition, and prove their worth by surviving trails. Tantric gurus often indicate the secretive nature of Śākta Tantric initiatory rituals that are conducted within the hermetic circles called “families” (
kula). Indeed, in Kerala, a Tantric community is often either a particular clan or family-like group, with a guru being a spiritual parent and senior adepts playing the roles of elder siblings and helpers. Tantric groups, like many secret societies, forged their identities based on the concept of secret revelation that is available only to the members of the tradition who are on a quest towards spiritual upliftment. The initiations mark the adepts’ path towards liberation in life (
jivanmukti) or for supernatural powers (
Wallis 2008).
Initiations play a crucial role in the Tantric traditions of Kerala but are rarely discussed in the textual sources. Sarma observes that while some early Tantric ritual manuals of Kerala (e.g.,
Prayogamañjarī)
38 explain the rules of initiation, later ones either omit the subject of
dīkṣā or discuss it briefly, giving it less importance than the previous texts (
Karasinski 2020). In time
39, the complex rites of initiation were replaced in the texts with a simple transmission of the mantra (
mantra-dīkṣā) or consecrations (
abhiṣeka). This is especially true in the case of
Tantrasamuccaya and other ritual manuals that deal with temple rituals and are designed for priests officiating in the temples (
Sarma 2010). In contemporary times, the living Śākta traditions of Kerala initiations are vital—they allow an adept to enter a community of practitioners and to assume a new identity and spiritual guidance. The rules of these initiations are also found in a few obscure Tantric texts that belong to certain Brahmin families or Śākta communities. In the case of
dīkṣā of the Bālā mantra, the first initiation of the Śrīvidyā tradition, its procedure differs from one guru-lineage to another. In this study, we present a succinct manual
Bālādīkṣāpaddhati and compare the methods of initiation found therein with those revealed by modern gurus of Kerala.
6.2. Bālādīkṣāpaddhati: The Rules of Initiation
The text of
Bālādīkṣāpaddhati was found in the collection of P. Gopalakrishna Nambi from Chalappuram. The manuscript itself is a transcript copied by Ramachandra Sharma, a Brahmin who resided in the so-called Cākyār maṭham (literally: a property of the Cākyārs), a religious centre built by the authorities of the Tali Temple of Kozhikode. The Tali Temple has remained an important spiritual centre of Kozhikode and has organized various artistic festivals and literary traditions.
40 The Cākyār maṭham (was used by the Cākyārs, a caste of storytellers and bards who were often invited to temple festivals to recite the ancient legends.
41 After the time of prosperity, the Cākyārs’ property was bought by Tamil Brahmins, who turned it into a library and a study. One of them, Ramachandra Sharma, resided in the maṭham in the 1920s and devoted his time to transcribing palm-leaf manuscripts related to rituals, poetry, and Tantric studies.
In the 1970s, after the death of Ramachandra Sharma, his successors donated his rare collection of transcripts to their neighbour P. Gopalakrishna Nambi, an academician and a Sanskrit scholar well versed in Tantra and astrology. In his transcript of Bālādīkṣāpaddhati, Ramachandra Sharma indicated that the original manuscript contained more than one text: it opens with Bālādīkṣāpaddhati and continues with Sanskrit commentary on the mantras of various Hindu goddesses (Vāgvādinī, Rājamātaṅgī, Bahalā and Vārāhī). It includes a short Sanskrit chant, Svayamvarakavaca (a chant for the protection of marriage), and a long treatise on Mantraśāstra (magical incantations) written in the Malayalam language.
The Bālādīkṣāpaddhati prescribes an initiation into the ritual system of the Bālā goddess for deserving adepts (adhikārins). Having selected an adept for initiation, the guru should go to a temple or sacred ground and make offerings to the goddess in Bālā cakra. The cakra, drawn on the ground, should have a central point (bindu) surrounded by a triangle, a six-angled figure, a circle, and a square. Inside the diagram, a guru should cast a handful of paddy rice and, above it, place a decorated vessel that must also be perfumed, filled with water, and enveloped with a newly prepared piece of cloth. The guru should place a leaf of the mango or coconut tree, a holy image, and gems into a jar decorated with flowers. The text cautions that the guru should perform the ritual only on an auspicious day and gives astrological requirements for the day of initiation.
The next step prescribed by the text is the
kalaśapūjā or “honouring of the vessel”. The guru should make a vow to perform the
kalaśapūjā by saying: “I will perform a rite of the vessel for the Bālā goddess as stated in the manual of Bālā, the highest goddess”.
42 The guru must then make another vow to honour the vessel and a conch used in the ritual. After giving offerings of perfumes, flowers, and unhusked rice (
akṣata), the guru visualizes Bālā sitting in the lotus of their heart. Next, by performing
prāṇāyāma (breathing in through the right nostril), the guru imagines the goddess in the vessel, visualizing therein her limbs (
aṅgas), weapons, and her divine entourage. Then, the guru chants the main mantra of Bālā composed of six syllables,
43 and by doing so, invokes the goddess into the vessel. The mantra is also mentioned in the text as pure wisdom (
Śuddha-
vidyā), as she represents pure consciousness. The invoked goddess is then treated like a guest, and the guru addresses her with the following words that correspond to polite requests given to a special visitor:
Avahitā bhava—please come here
Saṃsthāpitā bhava—please be seated
Sanniruddhā bhava—please come and listen (literally: allow me to command you)
Summukhī bhava—grace me with your look (literally: please face me)
Suprasannā bhava—be serene
Varadā bhava—grant my wishes
The guru summons the deity through a combination of mantras, visualizations, and specific
mudrās, ritual gestures. Once the deity is visualized as appearing and taking her seat at the designated spot, the guru invites her to stay and listen to the prayers. He then performs a
prāṇa pratiṣṭhā, a rite of consecration in which the vital force (
prāṇa) of the deity is invoked into the said vessel. This ritual is done with the following mantra: “Let the
prāṇa of Bālā descend into this vessel and stay pleasantly and long”.
44 One should then, according to the text, honour the seat with 16 services (
upacāras). The
upacāras differ from tradition to tradition but usually include: invocation (
āvāhana), the offering of a seat (
āsana); water for washing the feet (
pādya); the offering of water admixed with several ingredients (like sandalwood paste or raw rice grains:
akṣata) to honour the guest (
arghya); water for sipping (
ācamanīya); sweet light food (
madhuparka), usually a mixture of honey and clarified butter; bath (
snāna); clothes (
vastra); ornaments (
bhūṣaṇa); perfumes or fragrances (
gandha or
candana); flowers (
puṣpa); incense (
dhūpa); light (
dīpa); food (
naivedya); sometimes water is given again to rinse the mouth and hands (
punar acamana); finally, prostrations (
praṇāma) or circumambulations (
pradakṣiṇā) are performed. Sometimes, the ritual includes offering flowers and mantras (
mantrapuṣpāñjali) or betel leaves and betel nuts (
tāmbūla) before the formal act of farewell (
visarjana) (
Bühnemann 1988, pp. 102–3).
As observed by
Bühnemann (
1988, p. 137), the offering of
āsana-pādya-arghya-ācamanīya can be traced back to an old Indian custom of honouring distinguished guests (
arghya) by giving them a place to sit, water to wash their feet and hands, and water to drink. These 16 services are inscribed in a paradigm of invocation or welcoming of the divine guest and the act of farewell. Afterwards, the guru should honour the elements (
tattva) of the universe and chant the main mantra of the goddess again. Next, the 16 services should be repeated, and this part of the ritual should be concluded with a water satiation (
tarpaṇa). The satiation is followed by flower offerings carried out 108 times. After this, the guru is instructed to perform a
homa, a fire offering for the goddess Bālā. The text reminds us that the guru should have prepared a Bālā
yantra (a mystical diagram) on the right-hand side of the fire pit, and above this, they should place a decorated vessel for the adept who is to be initiated. Then, the guru takes a vow to perform a fire offering and sanctify the vessel and conch.
Tantric
homa rituals are usually performed to purify and protect a person (or a place) from various dangers and negative influences. The ritual space itself should also be designated and protected. Hence, the text instructs the guru to decorate the fire altar with flowers and incenses and worship the eight guardians of directions (
aṣṭa-dik-pāla) in the following manner:
45indrāya namaḥ (east)
agnaye namaḥ (southeast)
yamāya namaḥ (south)
nirṛtaye namaḥ (southwest)
varuṇāya namaḥ (west)
vāyave namaḥ (northwest)
somāya namaḥ (north)
īśānāya namaḥ (northeast)
Having worshipped these guardians, the guru should meditate on the goddess Bālā and visualize her in the sacred fire pit. He then worships the pedestal (pīṭhapūjā), places the vessel upon it, and uses the Bālā mantra again to invoke the goddess therein.
Then, the guru is supposed to perform various forms of
nyāsas—the imposition of mantras on their body. The text mentions
ṛṣi-nyāsa (the imposition of names of sages);
46 kara-nyāsa (the empowerment of hands with mantras); and sixfold
nyāsa (the imposition of mantras on six limbs of the body). In
kara-nyāsa, the guru recites mantras ascribed to their fingers; they recite a mantra and move the thumb from the base to the tip of the finger. In the case of the thumb, the
nyāsa is done with the index finger, which should press the thumb from base to the tip. The
kara-nyāsa is concluded with one hand swiping across the other. In
aṅga-
nyāsa, the six limbs are touched with various combinations of right-hand fingers. The act of the sixfold
aṅga-
nyāsa can be interpreted as a practice of moving awareness to various points of the body and enclosing one body within a sacred space. With various
mudrās, the Tantric guru touches their heart, head, tuft of their hair, the three eyes (with three fingers), crosses their hands on their chest, and ends the
nyāsa by uttering the
astra (weapon) mantra for protection. The last act is often performed with a gesture imitating shooting an arrow and biding the direction (
Bühnemann 1988, pp. 122–23). By imposing the mantras, the body of an adept is purified, empowered, and finally divinized. Afterwards, the guru should prepare vessels with melted butter and milk and place a tuft of grass near them. The guru is instructed to chant the mantra of the goddess twice and set the grass on fire. Afterwards, the goddess is invoked into the fire and presented with the offerings again. The text teaches that the fire should be fed with wood: either Bastard Teak (
palāśa),
aegle marmelos (
bilva),
sindura (vermilion),
guḷūcī or
durva. The guru adds two ladles of ghee to the fire and performs fire oblations 28 times with the mantra:
aim klīṃ sauḥ bālāparameśvari svāhā. The procedure is then repeated 28 times with milk. Finally, the guru should make offerings with a drop of water from the vessel into a water pitcher and into the fire. All this should be done with the main mantra of Bālā. Afterwards, the guru makes offerings of
pūrṇa pātra hūti, a burnt offering at the close of sacrifices. The text says that the
pūrṇāhūti is the last of the offerings. Interestingly, the term
uttamam used in this statement can mean the last but also the best. The text explains that with this offering they acquire everything they need. The
pūrṇāhūti is done with a single drop of clarified butter offered into the fire. Thus, the fire ritual is concluded. When the
pūrṇāhūti is completed, the
dīpārādhana, the waving of a lamp, should be performed. After this, in a process of
visarjana (bidding farewell), the deity leaves all the places in which she was previously invoked, that is, the vessel, fire, and the worshipper’s heart. In the end, the sanctified food is collected, and an adept awaiting initiation is called. The guru should sprinkle the adept with water from the conch, saying:
ātmatattvaṃ śodhayāmi—“I purify the principle of Self (ātma).”
vidyātattvaṃ śodhayāmi—“I purify the principle of Wisdom (vidyā).”
In this way, the guru purifies the elements or principles (
tattvas) of the adept’s body. According to
Paraśurāmakalpasūtra (6.18), there are three main principles:
ātmatattvaṃ, vidyātattvaṃ and
śivatattvaṃ. In fact,
ātmatatvaṃ is again subdivided into 24 elements from
kṣiti to
prakṛti and
vidyātattvaṃ is divided into 7 from
puruṣa to
māyā. All these elements are supposed to be purified with the sanctified water of the conch. Afterwards, the guru makes an offering with
pañcagavya, the “five products of cow”,
47 saying:
yat-tvag-asth-igataṃ pāpaṃ
dehe tiṣṭhati mām-eka[m]
prāśanaṃ pañcagavyasya
dahatv-agnir ivêndhanaṃ
“By taking of the five products of the cow, the sin that has entered into the skin and bones shall be burned, like fuel on a fire”.
Next, the guru should cleanse the body of the adept with the holy ash and invoke the Bālā goddess into the body of the adept by performing the mātṛka-nyāsa, the casting down of Sanskrit syllables of the goddess’ mantra. In fact, the goddess in the Śrīvidyā tradition is often called Mātṛkadevi (Vāmakeśvarīmata 2005, verse 1.11) and praised as Parā Vāc, the Supreme Speech. Then, the guru gives five offerings again to honour the goddess. This is the time when the adept awaiting initiation is requested to stand near the guru facing east in the place where the water consecration (abhiṣeka) should be performed. The guru needs to stand in front of the adept, showing the light of the lamp (nirañjana). While doing so, the guru chants a mantra that says:
antas-tejo bahis-tejaḥ
ekīkṛtyâmitaprabhaṃ
sambāhyâbhantaraṃ jyotir
dīpôyaṃ pratigṛhyatāṃ
“The inner light and the external light are one that shines bright,
with inner and outer flash, I accept this lamp”.
48
In this context, the kula may also mean “family”, as the ritual virtually introduces a new adept into the Tantric community. According to Bālādīkṣāpaddhati, after nirañjana, the guru should perform an abhiṣeka, that is, pour the water from the vessel onto the head of the adept while chanting a mantra. Interestingly, the mantra used here is derived not from Tantric but from the Vedic tradition (Taittirīya-Brāhmaṇa):
devasya tvā savituḥ prasave aśvinor bāhubhyāṃ pūṣṇo hastābhyāṃ aśvinor bheṣajena tejase brahma—varcasenâ nandādyen â bhiṣiñcāmi||
“On the impulse of god Savitṛ, with the arms of the two Aśvins, with the hands of Pūsan, with the healing power of the Aśvins, with the power of the sacred knowledge and so forth, for the illuminating light, I besprinkle [you]”
After the abhiṣeka, the guru should again show the light of the lamp (nirañjana) and again make an offering with five products of the cow. Then, after the abhiṣeka, the adept should change into new clothes. Besmeared with ashes, with their tattvas purified with the water, the adept appears again in front of the guru with a thread-bangle (pratisarā) in their right hand. At this time, the guru should recite a bṛhatsāma mantra:
bṛhat-sāma kṣatra-bhṛt vṛddha-vṛṣṇiyaṃ|
tṛṣṭubh-aujaḥ śubhitaṃ ugra-vīraṃ||
indra-stomena pañca-daśena madhyam|idaṃ vātena sagareṇa rakṣa||
“Bṛhat is a sacred verse (sāman), a supporter of the dominion, of great strength, [it has] power adorned with the triṣṭubh [meter] and [a retinue of] powerful men. O Indra, with the fifteenfold stoma, with the wind and air protect this [that is] in the middle”.
Chanting that mantra, the guru should tie the thread around adept’s left hand. After this, the guru should whisper the Bālā mantra into the right ear of the adept. The text instructs the performer of the rite to honor the tradition from gurus to pīṭhas and offer food to the goddess.
After communicating the mantra to the adept, the guru should perform the
dīpārādhana: the worship of the goddess by waving a lamp. The guru then honors the vessels used in the ritual for the last time and recites a
Śāntistava, a hymn of peace. The ritual of initiation is concluded with the sanctified food being distributed among the community. The text says that it is customary for an adept to give
gurudakṣiṇā (gifts or tokens of gratitude) to the guru. In modern Kerala, adepts who request the tuition of a Tantric guru usually offer him or her a cloth (
dhoti) along with the guru’s fee placed on a leaf. This
gurudakṣiṇā is, in most cases, a voluntary fee.
49 The money is put on a leaf with a coin on top, and then the leaf is placed on a folded loincloth. A disciple would kneel before the guru to give the
gurudakṣiṇā and receive the mantra (
Karasinski 2020).
6.4. Bālādīkṣā in Vadakara—Notes from a Field Research of Maciej Karasinski (March 2012)
Vadakara is a coastal town in the Kozhikode district, famous for its Hindu temples and martial arts centres,
kaḷari. The initiation ceremony took place at the guru’s own house, a small but graceful Keralan manor with a garden of lush bushes buzzing with cicadas. To get there, one was supposed to traverse a long, palm-fringed road from a dusty bus station. The adepts to be initiated were asked to arrive in the afternoon and bring two pieces of loin cloth (
dhoti) with them. One piece was given to the guru at the time of initiation and the other should be worn by the adept after the initiation. At the time of the
Bālā mantra initiation, adepts were asked to sit outside the guru’s house on the steps leading to the main entrance. There,
abhiṣeka, the ritual sprinkling of adepts with holy water, was performed. Once the adepts were ready, the guru, wearing an expensive-looking loin cloth and a sacred thread (Malayalam
pūṇūl) across his bare chest, stepped out of the manor holding a garlanded jar. The sanctified water that was poured on the heads of the newly initiated adepts from the jar had been mixed with wine as a symbol of the fierce (
raudra) Śākta path. The adepts were afterwards informed by their preceptor that their sins had been removed with this
abhiṣeka from a vessel that the guru had “held on his head during his meditation”.
52Next, the adepts were invited to the guru’s home, where they changed into new clothes and were individually taught the new mantra (as described in Bālādīkṣāpaddhati) and, subsequently, their spiritual routine. One by one, each adept was invited to sit in the room alone with his guru, who would pray and whisper the mantra into their right ear. In the room where the rite took place, the adepts could recognize the ritual paraphernalia mentioned in the Bālādīkṣāpaddhati: the firepit, the vessels, and yantras. After the “giving of mantra,” the guru gave the adepts an opportunity to choose their new name. However, it was an unspoken rule of the community for an adept to refuse and instead ask the guru to choose their new name. After this, all initiated members were welcomed by the senior students who, up to this time, remained in other parts of the house.
After the initiates had integrated with the senior students, the whole community attended a
śrīcakra ritual performed by the guru. The disciples were asked to sit on the floor in front of a powder drawn
śrīcakra. Before the commencement of the ritual, the guru introduced the lineage of masters to which he belonged and talked about his teacher, who had initiated him into the secrets of Tantra years ago. The names of the masters, he explained, were to be chanted before every mantra practice: “They have a power to bless you; without their blessings your chanting may not bring any results”. The guru, sitting cross-legged near the adepts, warned everyone that the names should not be revealed to the uninitiated. As his students sitting in front of him nodded, they promised to obey the instructions, the guru placed a small
śrīcakra meru (a
śrīcakra in its three-dimensional form) in the middle of a decorated ritual space. “This one”—he pointed to the
śrīcakra and inched it towards the centre of the yantra drawn on the floor—“is a special one, I have received it from my beloved guru.”
53Afterwards, in the late evening, the
śrīcakra ritual began and lasted until late. All through the night, long litanies of divine names were recited by the guru and his disciples. With each divine name being chanted, flower petals were thrown on the
śrīcakra, the mandalic body of the goddess. The śrīcakra lay shining among the floral garlands and filigrees of Gaṇapati. The mantras, according to the Tantric philosophy, are gods’ sonic forms, and by repeating them one may feel a divine presence. Sitting there with all the devotees, chanting, and listening to the chants, I felt as if, with each incantation, the material world around us was ceasing to exist and the tiny
śrīcakra was the only reality. It reminded me of the words of
Clooney (
2010, p. 91), who once observed that goddess hymns are indeed “acts of living speech, generative of worship”.
The ritual was a visionary journey through the enclosures of śrīcakra into its central point, where the followers were supposed to meditate on the goddess Tripurā. At one point, a few pages dropped from the guru’s spiral notebook that he kept open on his lap throughout the ritual. “There are some secrets here”—he gathered the scattered pages in a hurry—“and I shall recite them silently as you have all only just been initiated into the Bālā mantra”. He continued, murmuring the litanies and asked the attendees to silently chant the “om” mantra. Once the ritual was over, the victuals (fish, fried chicken, wine, and parched beans) were sanctified and distributed among the devotees. Then, the adepts cleaned the ritual place, swept the colorful maṇḍalas away, and got ready to call it a day. Once the guru had disappeared into the rooms upstairs, the students almost instantaneously fell asleep. Some of them, like me, lay down on the hard floor of the hall; our backpacks became pillows. Others retreated to the veranda, where they slept covered with their loincloths. Still others huddled up to the stove in the kitchen and fell asleep with their heads on each other’s shoulders.
Bālādīkṣāpaddhati seems to suggest that the ritual should take only one day, but, in fact, in most cases in Kerala, the initiation involves night observances and morning rites. On the morning of the second day, the newly initiated adepts woke up early and washed their bodies in cold water from the well in the garden. Later, after a simple breakfast, everyone was taught a prayer for the Bālā goddess to be recited before the mantra:
raktâmbarāṃ candrakalâvataṃsāṃ samudyad-āditya-nibhāṃ tri-netrāmi|
vidyâkṣa-mālâbhayadāna-hastāṃ dhyāyāmi bālām aruṇâṃbuja-sthām||
“I meditate on goddess Bālā sitting on a crimson lotus, who has three eyes, is clad in red, effulgent as the rising sun, with a crescent moon on her forehead, who is holding a book and a rosary, showing the gestures of protection and blessings”.
54
With the morning practice done, the day after the initiation is the start of a new life for the Tantric adepts in Kerala. The newly initiated adepts converse with senior adepts, who give them advice on spiritual exercises and share their own experience. As the new members of the community leave their guru’s house, they make a promise to meet again and perform rites together soon. The senior adepts would, often in an emotional, older-brother kind of talk, tell the new adepts that the three syllables of the Bālā mantra would fulfill whatever wish they had. One of the advanced adepts of the Vadakara Tantric Community explained the meaning of the mantra in the following way, counting the mantric syllables on his fingers: “Aim gives you the eloquence, kḷīṃ the power to overcome obstacles and sauḥ prosperity, all these [syllables] together make you more attractive”. This popular interpretation again refers to what we previously said about the message of Bālāviṃśati and its commentaries. Moreover, as with the commentators of Bālāviṃśati, the contemporary practitioners point to the efficacy of the mantra that has many versions and can be pronounced in various ways.
Tantric adepts in Kerala commonly believe that a follower of Śrīvidyā may experience misfortunes soon after initiation. These hardships of the spiritual practice are thought to cleanse sins and ultimately lead to spiritual purity. An initiated adept is therefore asked to chant mantras every day for a prolonged period and face all adversities with unshaken faith. Sometimes, a guru may ask an adept to additionally recite
Lalitāsahasranāma and
Bālāviṃśati, which are supposed to deepen their understanding of mantras and tradition. Moreover,
Bālāviṃśati is believed to instill various images of the goddess in the mind of an adept who, after longer practice, starts to consider her a close spiritual companion rather than a deity watching them from afar.
55In this context, the goddess is idealized as transcendent yet approachable. In this respect, it is interesting to note that the goddess in the Bālādīkṣāpaddhati and Bālāviṃśati is invoked, inter alia, as Mātaṅginī, the divine artist and a friendly, spirited dancer. Her nature represents the dynamism of life and a world that is in a constant dance-like flux. She is therefore a “divine playmate” who accompanies the adept in their ups and downs of life. One of the Śrīvidyā adepts in Kozhikode admitted that he had a vision of Bālā in her form of Mātaṅgini during his Śrīvidyā ritual. One afternoon he was performing the śrīcakra ritual alone in his old house situated in the vicinity of Vaḷayanāṭu kāvu. Suddenly, he fell into a meditative state and lost all sense of time. The humid, ocean-flavoured air was seeping through half-opened windows. Outside, lime-green fields bordered by swaying palms and ornate temples paled in the midday sun. He remembered, remotely, the sweet smell of incense and the ghee-lamps flickering in the silence of the lazy afternoon. When he woke up, he saw a girl, approximately 13 years of age, sitting in front of him. The girl, dressed in a bright sari, was smiling cheerfully at him through the long, interlocked fingers of her henna-coloured hands. He immediately said his prayers and asked the girl who she was. “Don’t you know?” she giggled. “I live here”. He then slowly stood up, presented the child with sweets, and observed as she ate and then danced around the room. The man closed his eyes and uttered mantras to calm himself down. When he reopened his eyes, there was nobody in the room, but the ghee-lamps were still burning brightly. “I asked around and we found out that it was a daughter of our new neighbours. But for me it was a sign from the goddess, that’s how She appears in the ordinariness of our life,” he concluded his story.
One might say that the young appearance and playful nature of the goddess Bālā represents the characteristics of a new adept: they are generally enthusiastic, inexperienced, and eager to follow the spiritual teachings of Śāktism. The Bālā mantra is therefore a symbol of new spiritual quests, a rebirth of an adept in a new community of believers. The potency of the mantra is recognized not only by Śrīvidyā adepts but by all the Tantric traditions in Kerala. The Tantric
dīkṣā has a similar function to
saṃskāras, the rites of passage in the Hindu way of life. In fact, in some Brahmin families in Kerala apart from the usual set of
saṃskāras, young boys undergo so-called Śākta
saṃskāras, additional initiations that give them Tantric mantras such as the Bālā mantra. In many households where
śrīcakra is worshipped, the family members are initiated into the Bālā mantra, as it enables them to perform the
navāvaraṇa pūjā—a ritual of nine enclosures of
śrīcakra. Similarly, it is required for priests of those temples in which
śrīcakras are installed. In fact,
śrīcakras are found in various family temples in Kerala that do not strictly belong to the Śākta, Śaiva or Vaiṣṇava tradition, but form complex systems where various deities are invoked and honored.
566.5. Kaḷaris, the Bālā Goddess and Warriors’ Traditions
The Bālā goddess also plays an important role in other family traditions, for instance in the Meppāṭ Nāyar
sampradāya (tradition) of Kannur district. According to the devotees, the Meppāṭ is one of the oldest Kaula Tantra
sampradāya of the so-called Māntrika Nāyars. The word Nāyar is traditionally linked to the Sanskrit term
nāyaka (army leader), as many Nāyars, such as Kaḷari Panikkars and Kaḷari Kurupps, were traditionally martial artists and warriors (
Bayly 1984).
57 In fact, the Nāyars and Kaḷari Panikkars, in time, developed their own rituals and established temples in which they officiated and worshipped fierce goddesses. While many Panikkar families are also known as traditional astrologers, some Nāyars are adepts of
mantravāda, an indigenous tradition of magic. Their temples gained religious prestige by being recognized by royal courts and soon evolved into local centres of culture.
As already mentioned, the Meppāṭs are also called Māntrika Nāyars. According to Gurukkal Nadanta Anandanatha Nair
58, the current guru of the Meppāṭ, the term “Māntrika” has been traditionally added to the names of clans known for the expertise in Tantra and can protect people against curses and black magicians.
59Nadanta’s family temple is popularly called Meppāṭ Kaḷari. The name
kaḷari, a term used to designate a local martial arts school of
kaḷarippayaṯṯu, suggests that the temple is a place of worship for warrior gods and goddesses. According to Devarajan Nambi, a member of the Vāḷ Nambi Brahmin community and a relative of P. Gopalakrishna Nambi,
kaḷaris have been traditionally attached to the family households of Yogi gurukkals, Nāyars, Kaḷari Panikkars of North Kerala, Kaḷari Kurupps of Central Kerala, and Ezhuttu Asans of South Kerala. Devarajan Nambi also claims that his family (Cheruvottu Vāḷ Nambi) is the only modern-day Brahmin clan that owns a
kaḷari. Similarly,
Thurston (
1909, p. 225), in his classic study on castes and tribes of Kerala, ranks Nambi Brahmins (also called Nambiyassans and Nambiyars) above Nayārs but below Nampūtiris and observes that some of them were “known to have kept gymnasia[kaḷari] and military training schools”.
Thurston (
1909, p. 311) suggests also that the Vāḷ Nambis are related to the Mūssats, but contemporary members of the families disagree with this statement. Even though the Mūssats do not have a martial arts tradition of their own, like Vāḷ Nambis, they still worship demon-slaying goddesses. Similarly, the term “Vāḷ” in Vāḷ Nambi means sword and refers to the martial art tradition of the clan as well as the symbol of the warrior goddess worship in the Śākta temples.
60Many rituals in
kaḷaris of Nāyars, Panikkars, and Vāḷ Nambis focus on the
pūttaṟa, a seven-stepped structure that can be called a form of altar of the tradition ().
61 In many
kaḷaris,
pūttaṟa is considered as a seat of the goddess and her dynamic power (Śakti) that resonates with the adepts’ internal energy (
kuṇḍalinī śakti). The goddess, in her terrifying form, is invoked into the
pūttaṟa where she remains united with Śiva. Their union is symbolically shown in
pūttaṟa design: a conical, serpent-like pyramid with a Śiva
liṅga on top. The symbolism can be read through Tantric philosophy:
pūttaṟa reminds the adepts of the goal of spiritual practice, that is, recognition of the ultimate reality as Śiva-Śakti. (
Karasinski 2021). In the Śākta-Tantra communities, as explained by Devarajan Nambi, the
pūttaṟa represents
śrīcakra in its
meru form, and therefore the practitioners who worship it are required to undergo the initiation of the
Bālā mantra. The
pūttaṟa’s apex (
kumbha) is considered as the
bindu, the central point of
śrīcakra, and the remaining six steps are the upper six
cakras of the
meru. Hence, the daily rituals in modern
kaḷaris (either martial arts centres or temples that grew out of the worship of fierce female deities) of many Śākta-Tantra families are also performed by members who were initiated into the Bālā mantra, the basic mantra of Śrīvidyā that gives one access to
śrīcakra rituals. Similarly, the Meppāṭ
kaḷari temple houses gods and goddesses of several traditions, including Caṇḍikā and Tripurāsundarī. All these deities are visualized on the
bindu, the central point of
śrīcakra. This worship of the deities united within the sphere of
śrīcakra symbolically shows Śrīvidyā as a tradition that unites Tantric cults in Kerala.
Figure 4. pūttaṟa in a Nāyar kaḷari. Photo by Nishanth V. Kunnu.
