Chinnamasta:
The Aweful (sic) Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess
Reviewed by Rachel Fell McDermott
The Journal of the American Oriental Society
Vol. 116 No.2 (April-June 1996)
pp.357-358
COPYRIGHT 1996 American Oriental Society
This is a short but very interesting study of the goddess
Chinnamasta as she appears in Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions.
A revised version of Benard's Ph.D. thesis from Columbia University,
Chinnamasta is the first monograph to examine the rituals,
symbolisms, and iconographic conventions of this goddess who, in
both religious traditions, holds aloft her own decapitated head,
while three streams of blood from her truncated neck spurt into her
own mouth and the mouths of her two flanking female attendants. This
goddess, though recognized by many who study South Asian
religiosity, is for most of us nevertheless at the periphery of our
knowledge: so Benard's work is a welcome addition to the growing
literature on Hindu and Buddhist goddesses.
Methodologically, Chinnamasta is largely a textual study, focusing
on Sanskrit and Hindi texts of the Hindu Tantric tradition (such as
the Sakta puranas, tantras and Tantric digests, and namastotras, or
lists of the deity's names) and on Tibetan tantras for the Buddhist
Vajrayana tradition. Many of these sources, particularly the
Buddhist ones, are in manuscript form only, and Benard spent much
time in Sarnath and Kathmandu copying and translating them. Some of
these translations are included in her book: the entire Hindu
"Chinnamastatantra" section of the Sakta Pramoda, as well as the
Buddhist "Chinnamunda Vajravarahi Sadhana" and the
"Trikayavajrayogini Stuti." In addition to her textual work, she
also spent some time in the field, actively seeking sites where the
goddess is worshipped today; appendix 2 contains a brief list of
temples dedicated to the Hindu Chinnamasta in northern India and the
Kathmandu Valley.
For this reviewer the most fascinating aspect of Benard's book is
the juxtaposition between Hindu and Buddhist perceptions of
Chinnamasta, or Chinnamunda, as she is also known in Buddhist texts.
The reader is introduced to these different interpretations from the
very beginning, where, on a page called "Invocation," Benard quotes
two verses of praise to the goddess, one Hindu, in Sanskrit, and the
other Buddhist, in Tibetan. The former offers homage to Chinnamasta
as the sacrifice, the sacrificer, and the sacrificed, whereas the
latter petitions Chinnamunda's blessing towards the realization that
such a sacrificial triad does not ultimately exist. This initial
description of the Hindu-Buddhist tension sets the scene for a
number of other distinctions made throughout the book. For instance,
in both traditions the esoteric meaning of the Chinnamasta image is
to be understood through reference to kundalini yoga and the three
channels of the body's subtle physiognomy. Chinnamasta represents
the central channel, the susumna, and her two attendants the two
subsidiary channels, the ida and pingala. False perceptions of
duality are caused by subtle wind which courses through the two side
channels but which is unable to enter the blocked susumna,
specifically at the navel, where Chinnamasta is said to stand. The
iconography of the freely flowing blood, from central to side
channels, represents the liberated Tantric adept, who has learned
how to untie the knots to allow the unhindered circulation of subtle
energy. However, while in both Hindu and Buddhist texts the
goddess's severed head symbolizes the destruction of error, the
former interpret this error as a reliance on the individual self
enmeshed in duality, as opposed to the unified realization of the
atman, whereas the latter see all ideas of self - whether the
individual or the atman - as deserving of destruction. In a similar
vein, Chinnamasta in Hindu iconography stands on the copulating
bodies of Kama and Rati, demonstrating that creation and destruction
are both part of one overarching divine cycle; Chinnamunda, on the
other hand, stands on Kali, which Benard understands as the Buddhist
claim for her victory over time, atman, and Hinduism itself. In
other words, the same goddess, in two traditions, conveys opposite
messages: underlying all is either oneness, or the void.
Other discussions to interest the reader include Benard's
balanced overview of the arguments concerning the goddess's Hindu or
Buddhist origins (chap. 1); her word and category studies of
namastotra (chap. 3) and heads and the decapitation motif (chap. 5);
and her occasional comments about people's actual reactions to this
goddess, on the ground. She could find no temples to the Buddhist
goddess Chinnamunda, for example, and in a locally famous Hindu
Chinnamasta temple at Cintapurni in Himachal Pradesh, the only
pictures available for sale in the bazaars were of Durga! Finally,
Benard presents an intriguing way of substantiating her claim that
Chinnamasta indeed exemplifies ultimate reality, described by
Rudolph Otto as awe-inspiring (tremendum) and fascinating
(fascinans).(1) In order to describe the contents of two Chinnamasta
namastotras, she classifies each epithet according to the nine
rasas, or moods evoked in spectators of classical Indian drama. For
both lists of names, 108 and 1,000, she finds the marvelous, or
adbhuta, rasa to be predominant. Though one could argue that some of
the epithets placed in this category are more appropriate to the
terrifying, or bhayankara, category, she makes her point well: the
goddess with the severed head evokes fear and awe, as well as
curiosity.
Chinnamasta is appropriately placed in Motilal Banarsidass' Buddhist
Tradition Series, as it is definitely not a book for the
non-specialist. The meanings of many Sanskrit and Tibetan words are
assumed, there is no glossary at the end, and the discussions are
sometimes terse and technical. It should, however, be of great
interest to scholars studying Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, Hindu and
Buddhist goddesses, and the transformations that occur when South
Asian religious traditions influence one another.
RACHEL FELL McDERMOTT BARNARD COLLEGE
1 Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy (New York: Oxford Univ. Press,
1958).