Abstract
The doctrine of the twelve Kālīs is one of the earliest developments of the Śākta tradition of the Kālīkula/Kālīkrama/Mahānaya and it is well known in the later exegetical works of Abhinavagupta (10th–11th c.), Kṣemarāja (11th c.), and Maheśvarānanda (13th–14th c.). Although the twelve Kālīs have been treated to some extent in secondary literature, a systematic study of the development and reception of this doctrine has not been undertaken yet. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the Kālīkula scriptures are available in manuscript form, and methodical analysis of their contents remains a desideratum. In this article, I intend to examine selected tantric scriptures teaching the doctrine of the twelve Kālīs, focusing on the development of the constituent elements of this doctrine, as they appear in different tantric sources. This article traces the origins of the twelve Kālīs to the esoteric teaching of the Sun-Goddess, linked to the tradition of the Skeleton of Kālī (kālīkaṅkāla/kaṅkāla). It will argue that in the subsequent phase of the doctrine’s development the solar context gradually diminished and an emphasis on the twelve goddesses’ function as the destroyers of time became more and more pronounced. This tendency, in turn, influenced the codification of the twelve Kālīs as the fully-fledged doctrine of time-consumption (kālagrāsa), popular in the Trika and the Trika-inspired Krama sources.
Highlights
The doctrine of the twelve Kalıs has been traditionally referred to as the “arising of the sequence of the wheel of Kalıs” and recognized as the core teaching of the northern tradition of Saivism
This article has presented preliminary evidence for the development of the doctrine of the twelve Kalıs focusing on the doctrinal, and in some places, intertextual relationship existing between various tantric texts teaching it
The commonality of themes, lexical similarities, especially visible in a usage of shared technical terminology, and conceptual formulations detected in the sources presented here shows that the development of the doctrine of the twelve Kalıs was the outcome of a gradual evolution that seems to have proceeded from the early Kula/Kaula phase to the later Trika-Pratyabhijnaphase
Summary
The doctrine of the twelve Kalıs has been traditionally referred to as the “arising of the sequence of the wheel of Kalıs” (kālīcakrakramodaya) and recognized as the core teaching of the northern tradition (uttarāmnāya/*uttaragharāmnāya) of Saivism. 4 Among the later adaptations of the twelve Kalıs, one has to mention the concept of kramamudrā attested, for example, in the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, which teaches the practice of assimilating into one’s own self the sequences of emission, permanence, and dissolution.. 4 Among the later adaptations of the twelve Kalıs, one has to mention the concept of kramamudrā attested, for example, in the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, which teaches the practice of assimilating into one’s own self the sequences of emission, permanence, and dissolution.5 These formulations represent, later versions of the kālīcakrakramodaya, and are the outcome of the development that occurred in connection with philosophical, theological and ritualistic changes the doctrine underwent For the tenth-eleventh-century polymath Abhinavagupta, the founder of the Trika, the twelve Kalıs represent the “arising of the wheel of consciousness” (saṃviccakrodaya) unfolding in the wheel of the inexplicable (anākhyacakra) and they are described as such in detail in chapter IV of his Tantrāloka. Abhinavagupta’s disciple Kṣemaraja, in his commentary (nirṇaya) on the first verse of the Spandakārikā, identifies the twelve Kalıs—called the ‘ray-goddesses’ (marīcidevīnām)—with the ‘wheel of powers’ (śakticakra), which he glosses, in cosmological terms, as the cause (hetu) of the creative evolution of the universe (vibhava) that goes through the four stages of exertion, manifestation, relishing, and dissolution. Kṣemaraja, probably drawing on Abhinavagupta’s Kramastotra, adds theological interpretation to the understanding of the twelve Kalıs when he associates them with Manthanabhairava, the ancient god of the Jayadrathayāmala, who resides amidst the twelve goddesses as the lord of the wheel (cakreśvara). 4 Among the later adaptations of the twelve Kalıs, one has to mention the concept of kramamudrā attested, for example, in the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, which teaches the practice of assimilating into one’s own self the sequences of emission, permanence, and dissolution. These formulations represent, later versions of the kālīcakrakramodaya, and are the outcome of the development that occurred in connection with philosophical, theological and ritualistic changes the doctrine underwent
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