Abstract
This essay discusses the religious experience of Srividya practices at Devipuram in Andhra Pradesh, South India, based on ethnographic studies conducted in 2014 and 2015. A summary of phenomena described by Amritanandanatha Saraswati in his memoirs situates the background. Interviews with three disciples of Amritananda probe their visionary experiences, practical methodologies and relationships with the Goddess. An inter-textual study of interviews, memoirs and narratives helps identify a theme of vision and embodiment—in particular, the aniconic graphic form of the Goddess, the Sriyantra, which is experienced as embodied within the practitioner.
Highlights
Pradesh, South India, based on ethnographic studies conducted in 2014 and 2015
“Srividya” may be translated as “Auspicious Knowledge;” it refers to a tantric religious tradition in which the primary deity is Goddess Lalita Tripurasundari, a form of the primordial feminine principle referred to as “Shakti.” Srividya is practiced at Devipuram in South India, where
One may not extrapolate from Devipuram narratives to all experience of Srividya, and it would take a much wider study to think about discernable patterns of experience we can identify as Srividya experience
Summary
“Srividya” may be translated as “Auspicious Knowledge;” it refers to a tantric religious tradition in which the primary deity is Goddess Lalita Tripurasundari, a form of the primordial feminine principle referred to as “Shakti.” Srividya is practiced at Devipuram in South India, where. My ethnographic research in Living Mantra: Mantra, Deity and Visionary Experience (Rao 2019) brings a new area, that of practice, into scholarship. Along with questions about the nature of a mantra and its relationship to deities in this book, I probed the visionary experiences of contemporary practitioners in Andhra-Telangana, especially at three communities including Devipuram. Derived from the Sanskrit “siddh” (to achieve), sadhana refers to earnest effort that results in achievement, and a practitioner who does sadhana is a “sadhaka.” Advanced sadhakas tend to become gurus for other sadhakas, and function as primary sources—they author books, disseminate guides. Commenting on a Kuranko ritual, Jackson upholds “the practical and embodied nature of Kuranko thought [ . . . ] as an ethical preference, not a mark of primitiveness or speculative failure” (p. 341)
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