Timalsina_cpi_cb_WAWRYTKODD.

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While Indian visual culture and Tantric images have drawn wide attention, the culture
of images, particularly that of the divine images, is broadly misunderstood. This book

71
is the first to systematically address the hermeneutic and philosophical aspects of
visualizing images in Tantric practices. While examining the issues of embodiment and

Timalsina
emotion, this volume initiates a discourse on image-consciousness, imagination,
memory, and recall. The main objective of this book is to explore the meaning of the
opaque Tantric forms, and with this, the text aims to introduce visual language to dis-
course. Language of Images is the result of a long and sustained engagement with Tantric

ASIAN

practitioners and philosophical and exegetical texts. Due to its synthetic approach

Language of Images
of utilizing multiple ways to read cultural artifacts, this work stands alone in its
attempt to unravel the esoteric domains of Tantric practice by means of addressing
the culture of visualization. THOUGHT
It is refreshing to see a study that takes seriously visual images and visualization as
primary pieces of evidence in seeking to understand the meaning and purpose of Tantra AND
CULTURE
and South Asian religious traditions generally. The overwhelming majority of peo-
ple experience the meaning of their religious traditions through seeing images and hear-
ing recitations. Sthaneshwar Timalsinas work on the visual image as itself a kind of
language is a welcome addition to research on Tantra.
Gerald James Larson, Research Professor, University of California, Irvine;
Tagore Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington; and
Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Sthaneshwar Timalsina (Ph.D., Martin Luther University) is Professor of Indian

Religions and Philosophies in the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State
University. His primary areas of interest include Tantric studies and Indian philosophies.
While his early books Seeing and Appearance and Consciousness in Indian Philosophy
address various Advaita theories of consciousness, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive
Approach explores the cognitive and philosophical domains of the Indian culture of
visualization with a focus on Tantric images. Timalsina has also published over three
dozen articles and book chapters. He is currently working on the philosophical and

Language of Images
psychological aspects of memory, disposition, recognition, imagination, and emotion.

Visualization and Meaning

in Tantras
PETER LANG

www.peterlang.com
Sthaneshwar Timalsina
Timalsina_cpi_cb_WAWRYTKODD.qxd 4/23/2015 8:46 AM Page 1

While Indian visual culture and Tantric images have drawn wide attention, the culture
of images, particularly that of the divine images, is broadly misunderstood. This book

71
is the first to systematically address the hermeneutic and philosophical aspects of
visualizing images in Tantric practices. While examining the issues of embodiment and

Timalsina
emotion, this volume initiates a discourse on image-consciousness, imagination,
memory, and recall. The main objective of this book is to explore the meaning of the
opaque Tantric forms, and with this, the text aims to introduce visual language to dis-
course. Language of Images is the result of a long and sustained engagement with Tantric

ASIAN

practitioners and philosophical and exegetical texts. Due to its synthetic approach

Language of Images
of utilizing multiple ways to read cultural artifacts, this work stands alone in its
attempt to unravel the esoteric domains of Tantric practice by means of addressing
the culture of visualization. THOUGHT
It is refreshing to see a study that takes seriously visual images and visualization as
primary pieces of evidence in seeking to understand the meaning and purpose of Tantra AND
CULTURE
and South Asian religious traditions generally. The overwhelming majority of peo-
ple experience the meaning of their religious traditions through seeing images and hear-
ing recitations. Sthaneshwar Timalsinas work on the visual image as itself a kind of
language is a welcome addition to research on Tantra.
Gerald James Larson, Research Professor, University of California, Irvine;
Tagore Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington; and
Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Sthaneshwar Timalsina (Ph.D., Martin Luther University) is Professor of Indian

Religions and Philosophies in the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State
University. His primary areas of interest include Tantric studies and Indian philosophies.
While his early books Seeing and Appearance and Consciousness in Indian Philosophy
address various Advaita theories of consciousness, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive
Approach explores the cognitive and philosophical domains of the Indian culture of
visualization with a focus on Tantric images. Timalsina has also published over three
dozen articles and book chapters. He is currently working on the philosophical and

Language of Images
psychological aspects of memory, disposition, recognition, imagination, and emotion.

Visualization and Meaning

in Tantras
PETER LANG

www.peterlang.com
Sthaneshwar Timalsina
 Advance Praise for Language of Images
Hindu and Buddhist Tantra-s have attracted the attention not only of Sanskritists
but of scholars of cultural anthropology, religious studies, and, of late even of some
Jungian psychologists. But rigorous Western philosophers have kept a safe and often
suspicious distance from such oriental mysticisms. In this book, for the first time,
Sthaneshwar Timalsina builds bridges between twenty-first-century psychology,
phenomenology, semiotics, and philosophy of mind on the one hand and the wide and
complex use of visual and proprioceptive images in altering bodily and mental states
through contemplative practice.
Written with uncompromising clarity and robust common sense, this prasanna-
pad(gracefully phrased) exposition of the meaning and use of images in Tantric
transformative spiritual practices is sure to transform the field of comparative
philosophy of mind and of phenomenology of imagination. We have been waiting for
an accessible yet textually meticulous introduction to theancient but alivetheory
and practice of re-imagining the felt body that would attract a broadly philosophical
readership the world over. With Timalsinas book, the wait has ended
Arindam Chakrabarti, Professor of Philosophy and Director
of the EPOCH (Eastern Philosophy of Consciousness
and the Humanities) Project, University of Hawaii, Mnoa
Language of Images
 ASIAN
THOUGHT
AND
CULTURE

Sandra A. Wawrytko
General Editor

Vol. 71

This book is a volume in a Peter Lang monograph series.

Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York Bern Frankfurt Berlin
Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw
 Sthaneshwar Timalsina

Language of Images

Visualization and Meaning

in Tantras

PETER LANG
New York Bern Frankfurt Berlin
Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Timalsina, Sthaneshwar.
Language of images: visualization and meaning in tantras / Sthaneshwar Timalsina.
pages cm. (Asian thought and culture; v. 71)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Tantrism. 2. Visualization. 3. Philosophy, Indic. I. Title.
BL1283.84.T557 294.5514dc23 2014047067
ISBN 978-1-4331-2556-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1512-7 (e-book)
ISSN 0893-6870

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

2015 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
 CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................... vii

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................... ix
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................... xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... xv

Chapter 1. Image, Imagination, and Meaning

Hermeneutics of Tantric Visualization................................................ 1
Imagination and Meaning .................................................................. 11
The Visual Domain of Language....................................................... 16

Chapter 2. Image and Visualization in Classical Hinduism

Historical Overview........................................................................... 21
Enlivening Images: The First Step towards Visualization ................ 24
Significance of Visualization in Classical Hinduism ........................ 27
Visualization: Where Imagining Becomes a Ritual .......................... 33
Conclusion ......................................................................................... 39

Chapter 3. Better than Real: Imagining the Body in Tantric Rituals

Transforming the Image of the Body ................................................ 41
Elements of the Tantric Body ............................................................ 49
The Mantra Body .............................................................................. 51
Maala as an Integral System ......................................................... 53
Body as a Temple .............................................................................. 60
The Body is Identical to the Cosmos ................................................. 66
Body as an Extension of Bliss and Awareness .................................. 68

Chapter 4. Materializing Space and Time in Tantric Images

Background ........................................................................................ 73
Image and Space ................................................................................ 77
The Union of Physical Space and Mythical Planes..................... 77
mnyas and the Directionality of Emanations of the Goddess ... 81
Mental Space, Gocars, and Khecars ........................................ 86
The Space Divine: Images of Bhuvanevar and Tripur ........... 88
vi LANGUAGE OF IMAGES

The Image of Time ............................................................................ 92

The Mistress of Time: Kl and Her Manifestations ................... 97
Twelvefold Sequence .................................................................. 99
Samaya and Samay .................................................................. 107
Kmakalkl ............................................................................. 109
Analysis and Conclusion ....................................................................... 111

Chapter 5. Transformative Role of Imagination in Visualizing

the Image of Bhairava
Introduction ..................................................................................... 113
Encountering Bhairava .................................................................... 116

Chapter 6. Surplus of Imagination: Images with Multiple Arms

Imagination and Meaning ................................................................ 125
Engaging History: A Case of Visualizing Viu ............................. 130
Deciphering Complex Tantric Images ...................................... 134
Analysis and Conclusion ................................................................. 141

APPENDIX I. BHAIRAVNUKARAASTAVA
Hymns in Imitation of Bhairava ...................................................... 145
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources .............................................................................. 159
Secondary Sources........................................................................... 162
INDEX I DEITY NAMES AND TECHNICAL TERMS ................................... 171
INDEX II SCHOLARS CITED .................................................................... 173
 ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
iva Naarja .................................................................................... xvi
Sarasvat ............................................................................................ 46
r Cakra ............................................................................................ 53
Mahkl ............................................................................................ 72
Bhuvanevar ..................................................................................... 75
Tripur ............................................................................................... 90
Guhyakl......................................................................................... 105
Guhyakl Maala.......................................................................... 106
Bhairava ........................................................................................... 114
Bhairava ........................................................................................... 118
Viu ................................................................................................ 124
Siddhilakm .................................................................................... 137

Tables
Bhuvanevar ..................................................................................... 89
Tripur ............................................................................................... 91
Dakiakl ...................................................................................... 103
Guhyakl......................................................................................... 104
 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With images in religious discourse, the topic of imagination in
philosophy, and cognitive images in psychology, the visual aspect of
consciousness has surfaced with full force from its long-banished
oblivion. The central assumption of this monograph is that imagination is
a creative process that constitutes reality, and its ritualized application in
the practice of visualization is crucial for understanding this relationship.
What is central to the practice is discovering the meaning of an obscure
image. With meaning, these images become their own language, and are
the field of hermeneutics. The time-consuming and rigorous practice of
viewing images thus finds its relevance in understanding human
cognitive mechanisms for maintaining a balance between fiction and fact,
imagination and reality. This work is an effort to give the primarily
Tantric practice the attention that it deserves. It is also timely as our
obsession with words and the denial of images is slowly fading in the
mainstream culture. This work is a product of a lengthy engagement, as
most of the chapters in it have been presented in different conferences,
modified in the form of different essays, and finally assembled together
to offer a coherent meaning. The images explored here are cultural,
grounded in the Tantric culture of Indian subcontinent. The reason for
doing so is because these images have been historically accompanied
with words and the marriage of language and images is vividly found in
classical Tantric depictions, whether in the form of maalas, sculptures,
or the manuals prescribing the process of visualization of various deity
forms. If a neurologist were to give a perspective from his discipline, he
might say that we use the same volume of neurons to process images as
we do for processing language. However, when we address images, our
approach has been ethnocentric, and we have confined visual forms to
archaic history. What these images mean is a question linked not only to
exegetical practice, but also with finding the meaning of a particular
civilization. And for a broader discourse, these images provide an
exceptional example of how the cognitive faculty of imagination was
trained through the meticulous practice of visualization.
This work is a result of my long engagement with Tantra: both as
scholar having studied this subject for over a decade and a subject
x LANGUAGE OF IMAGES

emerging from that culture. In this process of writing, I have tried to find
a balance between what it means for a Tantric culture to have images as
its expression and what one can glean from it when viewing the visual
culture from outside. My decades of engagement with Pandits in
Kathmandu and Varanasi has given an imprint in these chapters, and I am
forever grateful to them for their deep insight, meticulous effort to
explain texts and images, and for giving me the arduous desire to engage
the visual aspect of culture in a global discourse on cultures. I offer
special thanks to the late Shree Premchetan Brahmachari, Dr.
Ramananda Brahmachari, Shree Samkara Chaitanya Bharati, Dr.
Vidyanath Upadhyaya, Dr. Ramji Malaviya, and Pandit Vrajavallabh
Dviveda. Without their insight, this work would not have been possible.
This work, however, is not simply located in Indian culture. The
sections here are in dialogue with todays global context and the
discourse envelops various contemporary conversations on culture and
language. I am thankful to Professors Gerald James Larson, David
Gordon White, Walter Slaje, Glen Hayes, Frederick Smith, Phyllis
Granoff, Rebecca Moore, Jeffrey Ruff, Jeffrey Lidke, Loriliai Biernacki,
Kerry Martin Skora, John Nemec, Sushil Mittal, Thomas Oberlies,
Jrgen Hanneder, and Mr. Jason Schwartz for their kind support and
valuable insights. I am equally thankful to Mrs. Mary Hicks for reading
multiple drafts of this work and giving corrections, and to Ms. Beth
Fountain for her technical expertise given for the images herein. Along
the same lines, I express my gratitude to Professor Sandra Wawrytko for
her valuable suggestions.
The idea of working on hermeneutic and philosophical aspects of
Tantric images was inseminated when I was invited to participate in a
presentation at the Art Institute of Chicago, and many thanks go to Dr.
Pratapaditya Pal for his encouragement and accepting my essay for his
edited volume. Although the essay included in Nepal: Old Images, New
Insights, has not been included in this monograph, this work is a
consequence of that engagement. When Professor Gudrun Bhnemann
invited me to give a talk on Tantric Art at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, I became more convinced of the need for a new approach to
Tantric images, as most of the existing scholarship relates to the
historicity of images and does not engage philosophy as much as it
engages socio-political perspectives. I gave additional presentations at
 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi

the Tantra Conference held in Flagstaff in 2005, 2008, and 2010, and at
the American Academy of Religion conferences on multiple occasions,
many of which revolved around engaging the philosophy of images. This
work is thus a decade-long involvement with Western scholarship and I
am sincerely thankful to many colleagues and friends for their constant
support and valuable suggestions.
Rather than engaging the meaning when discussing the signs of
specific cultures, non-hermeneutic approaches often result in imposing
their own meanings and thus an external worldview onto the matter at
hand. Rather than viewing material culture as simple objects of
appropriation, my effort in this volume has been to explore meaning in
light of internal exegetical and hermeneutical traditions. This study has
allowed me to link the system of meaning underlying the material culture
to the meaning system inherent in its language. Many colleagues have
encouraged me to pursue these arguments, as the lack of a visual
hermeneutic capable of addressing material culture is pronounced. This
lacuna has compromised alternative modes of reading culture,
particularly the ability to shift focus from words to images. I am thankful
to all who have influenced and inspired me to pursue this direction.
This work has been possible also by the support of the family and
friends. I am particularly thankful to Dr. Manohar Shinde and Professor
Ved Nanda of the Uberoi Foundation, and Professor Sunil Kumar for
their constant support and encouragement. Dr. Manohar Shinde and the
Dharma Civilization Foundation have supported the inclusion of images
in this book. I am also thankful to my wife Gayatri Devi Timalsina, and
my children Nitya Timalsina and Ishan Timalsina for their
companionship and understanding. Despite all the support I have
received from teachers and colleagues, unnoticed mistakes undoubtedly
remain, and I am solely responsible for any errors.
 COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The following publishers have graciously consented to allow
reproduction of essays that have been previously published and have
been further developed for inclusion in this book.
An earlier version of Chapter 2 was published in 2013 as Image and
Visualization in Classical Hinduism, in SERAS, the Southeast Review of
Asian Studies, volume 35, pages 50-69.
An earlier version of Chapter 3 was published in 2012 as
Reconstructing the Tantric Body: Elements of the Symbolism of Body
in the Monistic Kaula and Trika Tantric Traditions, in the International
Journal of Hindu Studies 16:1, (Springer Journals), pages 57-91.
An earlier version of Chapter 4 was published in 2011 as
Materializing Space and Time in Tantric Images, in the Zeitschrift fr
Indologie und Sdasienstudien 28, pages 145-82.
An earlier version of Chapter 5 was published in 2013 as
Contemplating upon the Image of Bhairava: A Study of Kemarjas
Bhairavnukaraastava, in the Journal of Indian Research, issue 1,
pages 143-52. (Ghaziabad: Mewar University Research Journal).

The image, Siddhilaksm, first appeared as Plate 17 on page 61 in

Kathmandu Valley Painting THE JUCKER COLLECTION, by Hugo E.
Kreijger. The volume was published in 1999 by Serindia Publications,
London.
 ABBREVIATIONS

BAS Bhairavnukaraastava
BU Bhadrayakopaniad
BD Bhaddevat
BG Bhagavadgt
DM Dhynaml
DNC Dvdaranayacakra
GTU Goplaprvatpinyupaniad
KDR Kramadkrahasya
KKV Kmakalvilsa
KMT Kubjikmatatantra
MM Mahrthamajar
MVR Mantravidyrahasya
Nir Nirukta
N Nyastra
NTU Nsihatpinyupaniad
PA Puracaryrava
PH Pratyabhijhdaya
PR Prdhnikarahasya
V gveda
B atapathabrhmaa
P ilpa Praka
S ivastra
STV Skhyatattvavivecana
VT rvidyravatantra
T Tantrloka
Tai Taittiryrayaka
VB Vijnabhairava
VP Vkyapadya
VSU Vstustropaniad
VVK Vstuvidhnakalpa
YH Yoginhdaya
xvi LANGUAGE OF IMAGES

iva Naarja
...an embodiment of meaning through adaptation of the sign systems
that allowed the corporeal positions and gestures to refer to mythical
acts of iva. Each position in the dance system of Bharata refers to a
specific narrative of iva. page 15