Tantra's History: Atimarga, Mantramarga, Trika, and the Naths — Rajarshi Nandy

The author describes the Panchabrahma as the five-faced form of Sadashiva from which tantric mantras are traditionally said to originate. Sadyojata (western, white) governs creation and the earth element, tied to the Muladhara chakra; Vamadeva (northern, fiery red) governs sustenance and the water element, tied to the sacral chakra; Aghora (associated with cremation-ground aspects of Shaiva sadhana) governs the fire element and the Manipura chakra; Tatpurusha (eastern, golden) governs touch and the air element; and Ishana (upper face) bestows grace and governs the ether element and the throat chakra. Some tantras add a sixth, downward-facing head called Adhomukha. Every tantric mantra of every deity, he notes, is traced back to one of these faces as its point of revelation.

The author describes the Atimarga as an early, largely monastic and renunciate stream of Tantric Shaivism emerging from Kashmir, requiring formal initiation (Diksha) as the necessary entry point. Its major sub-tradition, Pashupata Shaivism, is called the oldest recognizable school of Shaiva Dharma, attested from at least the 1st century CE and spread from Afghanistan to South India. Philosophically, 'pashu' (a soul bound by worldly fetters) is to be liberated by 'pati' (the Lord, i.e. Pashupati/Shiva) — pursued through the Pashupata Vrata, a strict vow that included anointing the body with vibhuti (holy ash) from cremation grounds and living as a wandering ascetic with only a skull for twelve years.

According to Puranic tradition, Mahadeva is said to have entered the body of a dead Brahmin at Kayavatara in Gujarat and re-awoken as Lakulisa, who then traveled to the Shaiva center at Ujjain. His followers regard him as the 28th and last avatara of Shiva in the present cycle. He is credited with introducing reforms that made the Pashupata system unambiguously tantric — a sharper departure from Vedic orthopraxy than earlier Pashupata practice. His iconography (skull-cup/KapalaThe human skull or cranial bone — believed to contain the consciousness centered in the head and the cumulative memory of past lives, which is why beads carved from it are considered spiritually potent., club, rudraksha, and an ithyphallic depiction) was not meant as erotic imagery — the author explains it as a sign of urdhvaretas, the yogic mastery of sublimating sexual energy (ojas) upward toward siddhi.

Unlike the ascetic Atimarga, the author explains that the Mantramarga found its main following among grihasthas (householders), with the careful cultivation of mantras (mantra siddhi) as its central practice, pursuing both bhoga (worldly enjoyment) and moksha (liberation) without demanding renunciation. While Rudra/Shiva remained central, the Mantramarga expanded to include powerful feminine deities — especially through the non-dual Bhairava Tantras, where worship of goddesses like the fierce Kali and Tripurasundari (also called Lalita or Sodashi) became prominent, seeding what later became Shakta Tantra.

The author describes Trika Saivism as the philosophy built around three Shaktis residing on the prongs of the divine trishula: Para governs the most transcendental consciousness (middle prong), Apara governs the material, most ordinary plane (right prong), and Parapara mediates between the two (left prong). Together they're presented as covering every level of reality, from the most mundane to the most transcendent, as aspects of the Supreme Parashakti.

Within Trika, the author lists several subdivisions: Pratyabhijna, focused on a spontaneous recognition (gnosis) of one's own oneness with Shiva; Kula marga, oriented toward realizing Shiva comprehensively across mundane and transcendental levels alike; the path of Krama, a gradual, staged progression of sadhana built around deep knowledge of cycles of time and place, with worship of twelve Kalis as its central focus; and the path of Spanda, built on the principle that vibration or pulsation itself is what drives spiritual advancement — a path that produced meditative scriptures like the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

The author describes Saiva Siddhanta as tantric in method (requiring initiation, mantra, and ritual per its own AgamaA body of Tantric scriptural injunction (such as Shivagama) specifying rules for worship, including where and how sacrifice is sanctioned — violating its rules for mere taste or sensory enjoyment forfeits any higher spiritual attainment.s) but mostly dualistic in philosophy and closely aligned with the wider Vedic-Puranic system, making it more palatable to orthodox circles. Its Agama texts covered far more than theology — royal coronation, temple architecture and consecration, protection rituals, and life-cycle samskaras — and powerful monastic institutions spread its influence from Punjab and Bengal to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Its reach even extended to Southeast Asia, becoming the state religion of the Khmer Empire at Angkor.

The author recounts that Jayavarman II, during exile in Java, was initiated by the Brahmin scholar Hiranyadama into the upasana of Tumburu Bhairava — a form said to emanate from Shiva's Vamadeva (northern) face, depicted with four attendant sister goddesses (Jaya, Vijaya, Ajita, Aparajita). Jayavarman II is said to have attained siddhi in this worship and used it to win his long struggle to unify the Khmer kingdom, which lasted over six centuries and produced structures like Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

In contrast to Saiva Siddhanta, the author describes the Non-Siddhantika Mantramarga as worshipping various forms of Bhairava as the supreme deity, drawing scriptural authority from the sixty-four Bhairava AgamaA body of Tantric scriptural injunction (such as Shivagama) specifying rules for worship, including where and how sacrifice is sanctioned — violating its rules for mere taste or sensory enjoyment forfeits any higher spiritual attainment.s. It was radically non-dual (advaita) and consciously heterodox, with an elaborate system of ritual, cosmology, and yogic practice. Its final goal for the sadhaka was to realize complete identity with Para Bhairava — the supreme, all-encompassing state of divine consciousness. This branch, especially as it developed in Kashmir, is presented as a major original source for much of what became modern Shakta Tantra.

The author draws a specific philosophical distinction: Advaita Vedanta holds that the phenomenal world (maya) must be transcended to realize the one transcendental Brahman, treating maya as ontologically false (mithya) though experientially real — a limiting adjunct (upadhi) that causes a soul to falsely perceive multiplicity. Bhairava Tantra, by contrast, treats maya as neither illusion nor indeterminate, but a real projection of Bhairava's Shakti and a natural consequence of his divine freedom — a kanchuka, or limiting power, that contracts Bhairava's infinite nature into finite name and form to enable creation. In this view, both world and self are affirmed as real, vibrant manifestations of one divine consciousness-energy, and Shakti itself is treated as the path to the highest state rather than something to be negated.

The author credits Abhinavagupta with synthesizing the diverse siddhantika and non-siddhantika schools of tantra, along with the rich heritage of the Bhairava AgamaA body of Tantric scriptural injunction (such as Shivagama) specifying rules for worship, including where and how sacrifice is sanctioned — violating its rules for mere taste or sensory enjoyment forfeits any higher spiritual attainment.s and his predecessors' insights, into a single coherent and mature system in his Tantraloka ("Light on Tantra"). The work is described as the landmark encyclopaedic text on the Kashmiri tantric philosophical and practical system, organizing the branches of tantra transmitted through each face of Shiva, along with detailed mantras and prayogas needed for sadhana.

The author describes a sudden decline of the advanced tantric systems and institutional structures of North India following political upheaval and religious conflict during the establishment of Islamic rule — modern attempts to restore these lineages, he notes, remain closer to academic exercises than living traditions. However, in the centuries that followed, Shakti-based tantra continued to flourish and grow in importance in Eastern India (West Bengal, Assam, Odisha) and South India, through systems centered on Kali (the Kalikula tradition) and Tripurasundari (the Srividya tradition) — both of which remain among the most integrative, actively practiced tantric systems today.

The author describes the Naths as a distinct, influential parallel tradition to mainstream Atimarga/Mantramarga Shaivism, blending tantric elements — mantra, yantra, deity yoga focused on Shiva and Shakti — with Hatha Yoga's physical training (asanas, pranayama, bandhas, cleansing routines). Its teachings were transmitted mostly orally, often in local vernaculars rather than Sanskrit, which the author notes is why the Naths have left comparatively little formal literature despite their influence. The tradition traces descent from the legendary Navnath (Nine Naths), perfected yogis taught directly by the primordial Adi Nath — usually identified with Shiva, though some Western Nath lineages identify him with Dattatreya. Figures like Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath, Jalandhara, and Kanifa are named as central to spreading Nath teaching, which later influenced ascetic orders such as the Dashanami Sannyasis.