The Sanskrit expression -pādānudhyāta, often met with in inscriptions, is commonly translated as 'meditating on the feet of.' Adducing copious evidence from inscriptions as well as from classical Sanskrit literature, this article argues that the traditional translation is wrong, at least in the case of inscriptions dated before the tenth century AD. From the available sources it appears that meditation on the feet-whether on a god's or on a king's-came to be common practice only from around the tenth century in India. Moreover, several parallels show that the original understanding of the phrase was 'favoured / blessed by the respected,' pāda being an honorific term here. In addition to this argument, the study also attempts to define the nature of the hierarchical relationship that the above expression probably implied and to show that the wrong understanding of the term was probably due to misconceptions about the divine nature of kingship in ancient India.
Women in Early Śākta Tantras:Dūtī, Yoginī and Sādhakī* SUMMARY: Rather than studying various manifestations of the "divine feminine" in Hindu tantric texts, this paper proposes to examine the ritual role of women in the earliest (seventh to ninth centuries CE) scriptural sources that teach the cult of goddesses and other divine females (yoginīs). Women have three main ritual roles in these sources, which often overlap: they may be (1) consorts in sexual rites (dūtī/ śakti), (2) witch-like semi-divine yoginīs, who transmit the doctrine and help practitioners to obtain supernatural powers, and (3) female practitioners (sādhakī/bhaginī), who are initiated in the same way as male ones. Concerning the last category, it is shown that women had the right to receive full initiation according to early śākta scriptures (which was not the case according to mainstream śaiva Tantras) and were able to practice the same rites for the same purposes as men.KEYWORDS: female practitioners, yoginī cult, women in early medieval India, women's rights to perform ritual, tantric ritual, Hindu śākta scriptures.* I would like to thank Prof. Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz for inviting me to present a paper in this volume and the two anonymous readers of the CIS for their helpful comments, suggestions and questions. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Csaba Kiss for his comments, suggestions and corrections of an earlier draft of this paper.
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