The Forgotten Consort: The Goddess and Kāmadeva in the Early Worship of Tripurasundarī

Abstract

This article examines continuities between the Hindu Tantric tradition of Tripurasundarī, which later came to be known as Śrīvidyā, and the antecedent tradition of Nityās. A prominent role of Kāmadeva (the god of love) as the consort of the principal goddess in the antecedent tradition of Nityās provides important clues for later development of the worship of Tripurasundarī. Continuities between the worship of Tripurā and the Nityā tradition include a triangle at the heart of the Śrīcakra (the principal ritual diagram), names of subordinate goddesses that clearly demonstrate a historical connection with Kāmadeva, and elements of iconography of the principal goddess modeled after visualizations of the god of love. Practices in the antecedent Nityā tradition, outlined in the Nityākaula Tantra, and the early tradition of Tripurasundarī in the Vāmakeśvarīmata were meant exclusively for a male audience, a stance that was revised in the later Śrīvidyā. Furthermore, propitiation of Tripurasundarī in the ritual sections of the Vāmakeśvarīmata served primarily to satisfy desire by means of rituals of attraction (ākarṣaṇa) and subjugation (vaśīkaraṇa). Although Kāmadeva was no longer propitiated in the Vāmakeśvarīmata, his prominent role in the ritual system of the antecedent tradition illuminates features that remained at the core of the worship of Tripurasundarī for more than a millennium.