A study of the cult of Guhyakālī in the medieval Kathmandu Valley through the manuscripts of the Newars

Thesis

This thesis concerns worship in the Krama or the cult of Guhyakālī in medieval Nepal, drawing mainly on unpublished liturgical sources and Tantras for its analysis. A major part of the thesis is the edition of Vimalaprabodha’s previously unpublished Kālīkulakramārcana, the most elaborate known Krama liturgy. Beyond this edition, the thesis is the first full study of the ritual practice, rather than philosophy, of the Krama and is split into two rough sections. The first (Chapters 1 – 3) deals with the iconography of the Krama as found in the medieval Kathmandu Valley. Chapter 1 provides an analysis of the salient features of the 54-armed, ten-faced Guhyakālī as visualised in several textual and visual sources, allowing us to assess the consistency of Guhyakālī’s depiction and decipher problematic elements. This chapter also raises interesting questions on the nature of iconography and the relationship between the worshipper and worshipped in Krama visualisation. A new edition of the supreme Guhyakālī’s dhyāna from the Parātantra benefitting from these findings and new manuscript evidence accompanies the analysis. In Chapter 2, we cover the iconography of the entire Krama pantheon and note important trends concerning both central and ancillary deities. Meanwhile, Chapter 3 attempts to decode the description of some significant yet complex cakras of the Krama that warrant independent treatment.

The second section (Chapters 4 and 5) includes an extended exposition of the Kālīkulakramārcana’s entire ritual sequence. The commentary in Chapter 4 examines the ritual process of both routine and occasional rites by clarifying cryptic aspects and remarking upon distinctive elements. Chapter 5 is devoted to the last three occasional rites of the Kālīkulakramārcana, especially the Mahāśivarātrividhi. These rites find their parallel in another text by Vimalaprabodha still unknown to scholarship - the Parvatrayavidhāna – whose edition is also published as part of the thesis. The last chapter also conjectures the social context of the Krama’s rites in medieval Nepal. The non-dual theology underpinning Krama ritual is touched upon here and discussed more extensively in the conclusion.

Authors: Pangsrivongse, P

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-o8gxwzjm4
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English, Sanskrit
• Keywords: Śākta Tantra; Kaula; Śaivism; Tantric iconography; Newar manuscripts; ̐Guhyakālī; Hindu rituals; Newar religion
• Subjects: Religion; Idols and images; Newar (Nepalese people)--Religion; Philology; Hindu arts; Criticism, Textual; Transmission of texts; Ritual; Didactic literature, Sanskrit