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Title:
Mountains of Wisdom: On the Interface between Siddha and Vidydhara Cults and the Siddha
Orders in Medieval India
Author:
white, david gordon, UC Santa Barbara
Publication Date:
April 1997
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Mountains of Wisdom: On the Interface between Siddha and Vidydhara Cults and the Siddha
Orders in Medieval India
Author(s): David Gordon White
Source: International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Apr., 1997), pp. 73-95
Published by: Springer
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Mountains of wisdom: On the interface

between Siddha and Vidy?dhara cults
and the Siddha orders inmedieval India

David Gordon White

THEMAIDEN, THE HORSE, AND MERCURY

1.53-62; Rasaratnasamucchaya
alchemical texts (?nandakanda
the thirteenth-to-fourteenth
from
Rasendrac?d?mani
1.85-88;
15.13-15) dating
remarkable instructions for the extraction of
centuries provide the following
mercury from the wells or pits in which it naturally occurs:
Three Hindu

first coming into

Upon seeing a well-adorned maiden who, having bathed after
is
found in wells,
which
a
mounted
season, [rides by]
horse, mercury,
upon
out
rushes
a
to
seize her, [and]
[of that well].
up
[becomes] possessed of desire
her for the distance of
Upon seeing it, she gallops away. The mercury pursues
one yojana [eight to nine miles], [When] that [mercury which is] born of Siva
then quickly returns to the well, it is caught in troughs dug in its path. That
mercury, because of its heaviness, fell from the mouth of Agni [the god of
absorbed into the
Fire] in Darada de?a ['Cinnabar land']. That mercury,
in
that
to
came
remain
surface of the earth there,
country. By placing that
one extracts
[mercury-rich] ore in ?p?tana yantra ['sublimating apparatus'],
is found in all of those places that the
the mercury [from those ores]. Mercury
that
Perfecti [Siddhas] andWizards
[Vidy?dharas] caused it to fall [by using
technique].
for at least three reasons. The first of these
concerns its provenience;
the second its technological referent (the 'sublimating
referent (the Perfecti andWizards of
the
third
and
its mythological
apparatus');
This

account

is remarkable

Journal of Hindu Studies 1,1 (April 1997): 73-95.

?
1997 by theWorld Heritage Press Inc.

International

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74 / David GordonWhite
Darada desa).
On the first score, we find that this account

is not unique to India alone. We

it in the seventeenth-century
the Ho han sans ts'ai
Chinese encyclopedia,
t'ou hui, whose chapter entitled 'yin-shuV ('silver water, quicksilver'), gives the
same information, but locates its mercurial well 'in the land of Fou-lin [that is,
1895: 332-33). This detail is corroborated by
Syria] far to the west' (De Mely

find

the earliest extant source that we have for this account: Syriac recensions of the
dated to the fourth through sixth century
alchemical works of Pseudo-Zosimus,
is
to
rise up out of its well when a beautiful
describe
how
induced
CE,
mercury
past it, and then runs quickly away. Young men attack the
flowing metal with hatchets and cut it up into bars (Needham 1980: 337). This
account is further corroborated by the Syrian toponym, Bir es Zeibaq, which

naked maiden

means

walks

'Well of quicksilver' (De Mely 1895: 334).

implications of these three parallel accounts

are staggering. First, they

tradi
nature of the Eastern world's alchemical
attest to the very cosmopolitan
was
India's
can
which
We
that
the
well
Silk
tions.
Road,
pipeline for
imagine
the raw materials of alchemy, would also have served as a conduit for alchemical
The

world and East and South

and legend between the Mediterranean
than this, we may glimpse, behind the language of this extraction
of the uni
tradition?that
technique, references to another very cosmopolitan
corn. The presence of a virgin, a horse, and the theme of capturing an elusive
theWestern unicorn legend was
'game' are all present in these accounts. While
sage
very probably a borrowing from the Indian myth of an antelope-horned
the
West
that
in
the
it
is
named Rsyasmga
3.110.1-113.25),
only
(Mah?bh?rata
it
tames
a
who
the
aid
of
the
of
unicorn?with
by grasping its
virgin,
hunting

knowledge
Asia. More

horn?as

well

as the transmutative properties

of its horn, are brought

to the fore

(DeMely 1895:334).
in an
legend as well,
which
the
of
called the 'Physician
may
sea,'
the 'jewel engir
itself be a borrowing from the Indian legend of Manimekhal?,
dled one' (L?vi 1937: 371-83). The 'Physician of the sea* is described as having
transmutes base
a golden stone set into its forehead which, when removed,
ca.
The
metals into gold and cures all human and animal diseases.
tenth-century
J?birian corpus of Persian alchemy describes the capture of one of these fish-like
creatures which, upon being netted and brought aboard a ship off the coast of an
to be a
shows itself, after the fashion of a mermaid,
island called Sindiyyat,
one
son
of the
a
beautiful woman. She remains on board the ship, bears
by
same mytheme
account of a wondrous
This

appears
creature

in Persian

alchemical

sea monster
sailors, and later jumps back into the sea, where she becomes a great
who swallows the entire ocean during a great storm (Kraus 1986: 90-93).
stratum, and see in
to dig down to a still deeper mythological
It is possible

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Mountains

of wisdom

/ 75

theme of a
on the quite widespread
Indo-European
well whose fiery fluid contents erupt in pursuit of a woman, but which are
If this is an Indo-European
channeled and thereby neutralized.
subsequently
as
as
Ireland and India), it would
well
(the myth is attested in Rome
mytheme
these accounts

variations

the third millennium BCE or earlier (Dum?zil 1981 [1968], 3:

alchemical gloss
1986:
In this case, Pseudo-Zosimus's
27-31;
277-83).
a
would have been much later addition.
These legends present more problems than can possibly be treated here. Not
have to date from
Puhvel

the least of these problems is the direction of transmission of alchemical legend,

lore, techniques, and raw materials
throughout the first fifteen centuries of the
common era. As Joseph Needham
(1980: 339-55) has demonstrated, China
stands, according the best evidence, as the primal source for the world's trans
mutational and elixir alchemy. The Chinese technique of kim or chin, 'aurifac
tion,' probably emerged in China in about the first century CE; from there, it
would have been carried west to the Mediterranean world in perhaps the third
century CE. This Chinese term would then have been transliterated, by Pseudo
Zosimus or someone before him, into the Greek chymia or chemia, later Arabi
cized into al-lnrniy?, and finally Latinized as alchymia, alchemy. If this historical
then Syria, which received its alchemy from China in
about the third century CE, would have exported itsmythic extraction technique
Indian sources, to China
back to the east, via our thirteenth-to-fourteenth-century
reconstruction

is correct,

in the seventeenth

century.
to say with any certainty that this was in fact the route that this
direc
particular mythic tradition took. It is equally impossible to determine the
tions in which the many alchemical exchanges of this long period, effected along
It is impossible

the Silk Road, may have occurred. Each of the medieval world's alchemical
as we have just
traditions was?in
spite of such striking cases of borrowing
and specific to its particular cultural and
self-contained
described?generally
as
J?birian alchemy was ShTite and Chinese
religious context So it is that just
alchemy Taoist,

so the symbol

system of Hindu

alchemy was overwhelmingly

?aiva.

In this last system, mercury was the mineral equivalent of the semen of the
Siva and sulfur that of the uterine or menstrual blood of Siva's
phallic-god
consort, the Goddess. These identifications find their etiological foundations in
the origin myths of these two reagents, origin myths dating from the eleventh
of the divine birth of
through thirteenth centuries. It is in the context of the myth
(1.8
Skanda that themyth of the origin of mercury is cast, in the Anandakanda
a
and
Rasendrac?damani
(15.4-12),
(1.23-29),
15), Rasaratnasamucchaya
Siva sheds his
number of other alchemical sources. As in the Pur?nic mythology,
a
of
the
form
taken
has
seed into the mouth of Agni, who
pigeon. Agni in turn

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76 / David Gordon White

in
spits the seed into the Ganga River, where it gives birth to the child Skanda
sources offer the following
the midst of a clump of reeds. The alchemical
to bear the heat of
on
to
the
his way
additional detail: while
Gang?, Agni, unable
that seed, drops some of it from his mouth. In those places where it falls, it
into the ground to form five wells of mercury, hundred yojanas (about
nine hundred miles) in depth. It is there, the accounts conclude, that that semen
is found today, in the form of mercury. Of the five wells inwhich this seed-born
burrows

itself, the ?nandakanda

(1.15) and Rasarat
out
in
the
northern
which
mercury is red and
well,
(1.80) single
nasamucchaya
pure, as superior to the other four. This northern well is identified with Darada
desa, the 'Cinnabar land' of our mercury extraction myth, a toponym that geog
raphers have identified with Dardistan, in northern Kashmir (Sircar 1977 [1971]:

mercury

is said to have established

34,68; Wink 1990:232).

The Skanda Pur?na (1.29.87) appears to refer to this myth in its account of the
birth of Skanda. At one point in this myth, the gods all become pregnant because
of the gods.
Agni, who has already swallowed the semen of Siva, is the mouth
Then, 'after Siva's semen had torn open their bellies, an unattractive mercurial
was formed.'
[parada] lake ofthat [semen], hundred yojanas [in expanse],
of
Sulfur too has its origin myth, which parallels that mercury inasmuch as it
that gives rise to this primary alchemical
is the sexual essence of the Goddess
to male mercury (Dash 1986: 102; Ras?rnava
Hindu alchemical classic,
the
eleventh-century
7.72, 11.82). The Ras?rnava,
frames this myth within the Pur?nic account of the churning of the Ocean of
Milk from which, it will be recalled, the gods gained the amrta that rendered
them immortal and invulnerable to the onslaughts of the antigods, the asuras, in
the
the Ras?rnava,
their sempiternal war for universal supremacy. According
Siddha-maidens,
Goddess, while sporting together with theWizard-maidens,
coast of White
the
off
of
Milk
the
in
Ocean
and Celestial Nymphs
Goddesses,
Island, becomes aware of menstrual blood issuing from her body. Later, during
reagent,

the female

counterpart

the churning of the same Ocean of Milk, that blood rises to the surface, captivat
this be
ing the gods and asuras with its aroma (gandha). They thereby say, 'May
and
calcination
in
the
it
used
be
called gandhaka
("aromatic," "sulfur"). May
in
be
found
also
fixing of mercury. May those qualities that are found inmercury
is called gandhaka here on earth (Kakacand??vara
3.2-12; Ras?rnava 7.57-66).
Kalpatantra 44.2-3; Rasaratnasamucchaya
In the context of these two accounts, the use of a menstruating maiden as
we
'bait' makes perfect sense in the extraction of mercury account with which
sulfur and mercury is, for
began this study. Every recombination of the reagents
a
of
this divine pair whose
to
union
sexual
tantamount
the Hindu alchemist,
standard mode of creation and maintenance of the entire universe is, precisely, a
this sulfur.' Thus

[sulfur]

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Mountains

of wisdom

/ 11

sexual one. It is not for nothing that the standard iconic image of this pair, as
found in temples all over India since at least the second century BCE, is that of
the lihgam-yoni,
that is, a stylized representation of a phallus set into a vulva
(Mitterwallner 1984: 18-19; Srinivasan 1984: 34).
Not all such alchemical unions occur in the laboratory, however; they are also
present in nature, in the form of such geothermal phenomena as sulfur springs
and gas vents, found at the Darada desa of our extraction account and other sites.
Such reactions may also be effected within the human body, through the tech
in India in the
niques of hatha yoga, a generally &aiva tradition which emerged
same period as did Hindu alchemy. In this discipline,
it is through the internal
androgynous)
channeling of sexual fluids (the yogic body being symbolically
is
that the sexual union of male and female principles, divine and mineral,
the
of
the
is
at
level
navel,
effected. Here, the hathayogic subtle body
divided,
that lies above the navel is male, and thereby
moon that exudes vivifying nectar, and the
the
with
seed,
god ?iva. It is in the cranial vault, portrayed as a downturned well, that these
male elements are concentrated: semen that has been transformed into nectar
out by that same
through yogic practice oozes from a moon that has been filled
lies below the
that
All
Siva.
a
the
seminal deity
nectar, moon that is the abode of
navel is female, identified with female uterine or menstrual blood, with the sun
between male

and female. All

identified with male

the thermal energy necessary to fuel the transformation of seed into

nectar, and the goddess Sakti whose name means
'Energy.' At the beginning of
which
yogic practice, these elements are all concentrated in the lower abdomen,
that provides

is portrayed as an upturned well, the complement to the downturned well in the

cranial vault. This double-well configuration is one that is reproduced in alchem
ical apparatus, as we will now demonstrate.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE VTOY?DHARAAPPARATUS

of mercury from its wells in 'Cinnabar land'

is today found in those places in
the statement that mercury
extracted it from its ore, using the patona
which the Perfecti and Wizards
alchemists in fact knew of
the
yantra,
'sublimating apparatus.' The medieval
three types of sublimating apparatus for the extraction of mercury from cinnabar,
that is, naturally occurring mercuric sulfide (darada): these are the apparatus of
and
upward sublimation (?rddhvap?tana), downward sublimation (adhop?tana),
transversal sublimation (tiryakp?tana). In all three apparatus, mercury ismade to
sublimate and thereby leave bebind its residual impurities in the ores in which it

The description
concludes with

of the extraction

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78 / David Gordon White

naturally occurs (or with which it is amalgamated), and thereafter to recondense

through the mediation of a source of cold water (?nandakanda 4.38-43; Rasahr
9.56,11.37'; Ras?rnava 7.49,10.55).
daya Tarara 2&\ Rasaratnasamucchaya
The upward-sublimation
mouths are sealed

whose

stretched

across

of two superimposed vessels,

cloth
layers of mud-smeared
their interface. A slow fire beneath the lower vessel heats a
apparatus is composed
together with several

of herbs and powdered mercuric sulfide. The mercury that evaporates

upwards condenses on the inner surface of the downturned base of the upper
chamber, which is cooled from above by a cloth soaked in cold water (or by a

mixture

cold-water recipient). The mercury that has condensed on this

superimposed
downturned inner surface has a smoky luster to ii: when rubbed with a cloth, it
immediately takes on the properties of fluidity, luster, and so on one associates
with pure quicksilver. In the bottom of the lower vessel there remains the dross
of this reaction: free sulfur together with other mineral and plant matter, oxidized
and devoid of its original mercury content (Rasaratnasamucchaya
9.24-25).
Because

of the function

this apparatus is known as the urddhva

the sole name by which it is known: a number of

it serves,

p?tana. This is not, however,

medieval
alchemical sources also call it the damaru yantra ('?iva's two-headed
drum apparatus') (Rasaratnasamucchaya
9.57), the e?mbhavi mudr? (the 'her

that is, of Siva), and the vidy?dhara yantra (the 'Wizard

This first designation
4.42, 5.51-52).
clearly
apparatus') (Rasendrac?d?mani
to
refers
the shape of this apparatus; the second to a technique of hatha yoga;
and the third to both such a technique and to the mythic Wizards who were the

metic

seal of Sambhu,'

innovators
practice
wisdom,'

of a body of techniques that, precisely, fused alchemical and yogic

into a single Saiva discipline. Here, vidy?dhara,
literally 'bearer of
to translate it as
is a technical term: we will, however, continue

'wizard.'

structure and dynamics of this apparatus recall the dynamics of yogic

from the time of the Mah?bh?rata
onwards, as ?rddhvaretas
reversal?known,
semen'). In the subtle physiology of the yogic body, it is in the
('upward-tending
head and torso that the two chambers of the sublimating apparatus find their
The

homologues. As has been noted, these two poles or 'chambers' of the hathayogic
system are further identified with the visceral sun and cranial moon, through the
interaction of which the yogin comes to partake of the cooling nectar (mercury,
the refined semen of ?iva) that 'condenses' to ooze downward from the top of
the cranial vault, also called the lunar circle. As in the alchemical apparatus, the
system is activated through the interplay of thermal energy (the burning sun
below and the cooling moon above) and female and male sexual fluids (uterine
blood below and refined semen above). These parallels are made explicit in a
texts. In the fifteenth-century
alchemical Rasendracint?mani
number of medieval

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Mountains

of wisdom

/ 79

of Dhundhukan?tha

(Prakash 1960: 575), this bicameral alchemical apparatus is

termed i?mbhavi mudr?. Now, this sametern is employed, in ?ieAmanaskayoga
(2.15) of Goraksan?tha, a hathayogic text of a slightly earlier period, to introduce
a yogic technique that that text appears to further identify with the vidy?dhara

yantra: 'Here is the description of the i?mbhavi mudr?: The [?] fist (musti)
above and the gaze (drsti) below, the cleft (bheda) above and the channels
liberated in the body (jivanmukta)
(sir?h) below, one becomes
by using the
dh?ra

yantra.'

In this description, the yogin is clearly standing on his head, with the 'channels
below' being the 'network' or 'ganglia' of subtle energy channels that meet in
the region of the throat. A classic hathayogic technique, called the j?lamdhara
bandha, the 'lock of the net-bearer,' uses this network of channels to seal off the
head as the bearer or recipient (dhara) of the nectar that is held up in the cranial
vault. The hathayogic
'hermetic seal of ?ambhu' (s?mbhavi mudr?) or 'Wizard
apparatus' ([vidy?-]dh[a]ra
yantra) described in this verse is an upside-down
of the 'lock of the net-bearer':
the two chambers of the alchemical
apparatus are the head and torso of the yogin; the mud-smeared
layers of cloth
stretched across their mouths
the network of channels in the throat, and the
nectar that is held in the head is the mercury that condenses on the incurved
version

upper chamber. The 'lock of the net-bearer' is

in verse 62 of what was likely Goraksan?tha's
(or Gorakhn?th's)
earliest work on hathayoga,
the late twelfth-century Goraksa ?ataka ('Hundred
verses of Gorakh,' although there are actually 201!). Other verses (131a, 138c)
inner surface of the downturned

described

of the same work mention

which

the yogin

a pool

is to drink

(dhara) of lunar nectar in the cranial vault,

internally, lest it fall into the sun in the lower

abdomen.

sources enjoin the practitioner to follow his use of the ?rddh

with
that of the adhop?tana yantra, the 'downward-sublima
vap?tana yantra,
tion apparatus': after having sublimated mercury three times in the former, one
is to do so seven times in the latter (Rasaratnasamucchaya
11.38). The adho
Most

alchemical

yantra is identical to the ?rddhvap?tana with the sole difference being

in a hollow dug into
in
this case, the 'cool' chamber is placed rightside-up
that,
the ground. Its mouth is bonded to that of the 'hot' chamber, here placed face
down, with the cooking fire burning atop the latter's upturned base. In this case,

p?tana

'hot* chamber with an amalgam

is
of mercury ore and copper. When
this
heated, the mercury sublimates and
falls down into the 'cool' chamber, which is this time filled with water. There, it
recondenses into its natural, but purified and stabilized, form (Dash 1986: 58

one smears the inner surface of this downturned

61; Rasaratnasamucchaya
9..9, 11.39).
The downward-sublimation
apparatus

is in fact a closer

homologue

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to the

80 / David Gordon White

than is the upward

upside-down yogic posture described in the Amanaskayoga
sublimation apparatus. In both the alchemical apparatus and the hathayogic tech
nique, the seminal fluid (mineral or human), transformed by a heat source located
above, drips downward to remain (held there by gravity) in the reversed upper
chamber of the apparatus or, in the yogic case, the cranial vault. This posture
the viparftakarani or 'reverse practice' of yoga, which Gorakhn?th
praises in his Goraksa Sataka as a foolproof method for retaining in one's head
also evokes

nectar one has so carefully distilled from 'raw' semen. Here, the
the posture itself is clearly the inspiration for that of theWizard
of
description
apparatus in everything but name:
the precious

That which

rains down from

the downturned mouth of the moon

is swallowed

by the upturned mouth of the sun. The practice [of viparitakarani]

performed as a means to obtaining the nectar [which would otherwise
The

navel

the palate below;

above,

(Goraksa ?ataka

the sun above

133-35; Hathayogapradipik?

and the moon

3.77-79;

is to be
be lost].
below...

Yogam?rtanda

121

22a, 123b).
also refers to this posture in one of his vernacular mystic poems, in
which he says to hold the yantra, the bodily apparatus, upside-down
( ulati yantr
on
one's
head
1979
dhare) by standing
(Barthwal
[1942]: 242).
Gorakhn?th

VIDY?DHARAS AS WIZARDS AND STRUCTURES

Returning yet again to the account of the extraction of mercury with which we
began, we should also note that vidy?dhara is not only an alternative name for
the sublimation

apparatus with which the alchemist extracts mercury from the

it naturally occurs, but that it is also the name for the original
alchemical Wizards who performed this operation illo tempore. It is with this
observation
to alchemical
that we now move from alchemical
technology
ores

in which

to the mythology
and
of theWizards,
the Vidy?dharas,
mythology,
specifically
India. These two groups are, in fact, a perma
Perfecti, the Siddhas of medieval
nent fixture in the Indian pantheon of gods and demigods, falling in the middle
range between the wholly transcendent and auspicious high gods and the wholly
immanent but noxious

genie and demonic spirits of the earthly and subterranean

in
the pantheon is delineated in the fifth century CE lexicon
Their
spheres.
place
entitled the Amarako?a
(1.1.11), which states: 'TheWizards, Nymphs, Dryads,
Protectors, Celestial Musicians,
Centaurs, Ghouls, Hidden Ones, Perfecti, and

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Mountains

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/ 81

Beings: these constitute the class of the demigods.'

In Buddhist and Hindu traditions alike, these demigods, inhabiting the inter
face between earth and sky?mountaintops
and the atmospheric region?were
standard fare in the adventure and fantasy literature of the Indian middle ages,
and the stuff that many medieval
Indian dreams were made of. Gradually,
or
however, the notion arose that the specific worlds or levels of theWizards
Perfecti were also accessible to certain humans, who could reach them through
esoteric practice, or simply by traveling to their far-flung abodes. In this way, an
elite corps of exceptional humans ('self-made gods,' in the words of Charlotte
Vaudeville
[1974: 96]) have come, over time, to swell the ranks of these
denizens

of the empyrean?although
this reason that a number of Tantric

of Perfecti ?those
(m?navaugha)

they have never supplanted them. It is for

sources distinguish between three 'streams'

of divine

and human
'Siddha' (siddhaugha),
(divyaugha\
Tantra 6.63-68;
Paratur?makalpas?tra
ages, a growing pool of such Wizards and
to be shared, together with an expanding body of legend on

descent

4.10). Throughout
Perfecti has come

(Kul?rnava
the Indian middle

their subject, by Hindus, Buddhist, and Jains alike. One even finds them in
Burma, where Buddhist Therav?da monks, alternatively called weizkas (Vidy?
[dharas]) or zawgyis (Siddhas), have been ingesting mercury, well into the
present century, to immortalize, or at least pickle their bodies (Aung 1978: 41

50;Needham 1976:166; Spiro 1970: 163-71).

Vy?sa, a fifth-century commentator on the Yogas?tras of Pata?jali, provides
us, albeit in an apophatic way, with what can only be termed a charter for those
persons aspiring to this semidivine status. This he does in his commentary on
Yogas?tra 3.51, in which Pata?jali states: 'When invited by the celestial beings,
it
that invitation should not be accepted nor should it cause vanity because
involves

the possibility

of undesirable

consequences.'

Vy?sa's

commentary

reads

as follows:
The celestial beings residing in lofty regions, noticing the purity of the intellect
of those who have attained unalloyed truth...try to invite them by tempting
'O
them with enjoyments available in their regions in the following manner:
Great Soul, come and sit here and enjoy yourself. It is lovely here. Here is a
lovely lady. This elixir prevents death and decay. Here is a vehicle which can
take you to the skies. The tree which fulfils all wishes is here... .Here are the
Perfecti and the great sec?. Beautiftd and obedient nymphs, supernormal eyes
and ears, a body of adamantine strength, all are here (Aranya 1981: 334).
This goal, of transforming oneself into a demigod
was not reserved
immortal Perfecti and Wizards,

and of dwelling
for alchemists

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with
alone

the
in

82 / David Gordon White

traditions also made such
mystic
their highest goal. Many of these groups called themselves
transformations
Siddhas: these include theMahe?vara Siddhas of the Deccan region, the Sittars
of
of Tamil tradition, the north Indian N?th Siddhas, and even theMah?siddhas

medieval

India. A number of other medieval

Indian Buddhism. What

means

these groups from one another were

the realization of this common end. So,

differentiated

the

toward

for

they employed
the N?th Siddhas mainly relied on the techniques of hatha yoga?
effect such transformations, while
pioneered by their founder, Gorakhn?th?to
for the Rasa Siddhas, it was a combination of laboratory and hathayogic opera
example,

tions that elevated

the practitioner

to demigod

status.

In themedieval
literature however, it ismost often innately divine, rather than
the legendary guru of Gora
human Wizards, who are evoked. Matsyendran?th,
a
of
Tantric
of
number
other
khn?th and founder
orders, twice mentions Vidy?
in his
the female counterparts of themale Vidy?dharas)
dhai?s (Wizard-maidens,
ca. tenth century CE Kaulaj?ananirnaya.
In both cases, he describes techniques
for attracting and sexually exciting these female demigods, as ameans to gaining
access, through sexual union with than, to the all-powerful god Bhairava (Kaula
a seventh
14.40, 55-56, 63-65). The Harsacarita
(3.112-28),
j?ananirnaya
a
ascetic
named
features
work
Saiva
Bhairav?c?rya,
by B?nabhatta,
century
In a
whose goal it is to transform himself into the lord of the divine Wizards.
tenth-century Sanskrit play, the Candakaus'ika of KsemKvara, the final apotheo
sis of the hero, superintended by the Hindu god of righteousness
(Dharma) who
is effected through an aerial car,
has disguised himself as a Saiva alchemist,
eleventh
(Gupta 1962: 109-11). In the late
brought to him by the Wizards
can
with
he
fetch
a
claims
entitled
Prabodhacandrodaya,
century play
K?p?lika
he
chooses
or
his power any virgin Dryad-, Wizard-,
(Nambiar
Serpent-maiden
in the
seeks to become aWizard
1971: 124-30). So too, a Saiva mah?vratin
tale of Devadatta

the gambler (Penzer 1924-28,2:

236).1
Rasa
Siddhas
and
Siddhas
N?th
in the technical literature of the
that we encounter the most elaborate descriptions of this transformation from
man to superman. So it is that the twelfth-century Rasendra M?ngala
(fol. 28b.
in
succeeded
an
who
has
alchemist
how
of
describes
29a.
8-10,
1)
N?g?rjuna
transformed
to
recovers
find
himself
fully transmuting his body swoons and then
into the three-eyed, four-armed Ganan?tha (lord of Siva's host). The Perfecti and
Wizards come en masse to view the transformed alchemist, and, together with
Kath?sarits?gara
It is, however,

of this atmospheric region, he flies through the air and is brought

before M?hesvara, whom he worships. This apotheosis corresponds quite closely
to the mystic goal of the old Saiva P??upata order, as described in the P?Supata
S?tras (1.33-38):
'[one] moves unobstructed everywhere; being equipped with
these qualities one becomes the great chief of the ganas of Bhagav?n Mah?deva'
these denizens

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Mountains

of wisdom

/ 83

(Gonda 1977: 218). According to the ca. thirteenth-century M?trkabheda Tantra

(7.36), the practitioner who follows its instructions becomes a 'Siddha who is the
manifest equal of Siva.' So too, the ?iva Samhit? (4.46; 5.202, 204), a relatively
late N?th Siddha manual
through his practice

of hatha yoga ends with the promise that the yogin may
gain a vision of the (divine) Siddhas, and control over the

Vidy?dharas.
It is, however,
extended

in the eleventh-century
that we find the most
Ras?rnava
references to this apotheosis to the level of the Perfecti and Wizards.

So, for example,

this source concludes

its description

of khecar?jarana
('flight
ingests mercury that has been

calcination') by stating that the alchemist who

calcinated by means of this technique is immediately uplifted into the presence
of the gods, Perfecti, and Wizards, with whom he flies
through the air at will
on a similar note. Its
The
entire
ends
work
also
(Ras?rnava 11.104b-6,
12.337).
final twenty verses (18.208-28),
which open with a description of the ultimate
alchemical

operation,

in the process of which the alchemist himself becomes

conclude with an account of his final apotheosis.

the

corpus alchymicum,
First, then, the description

of the operation itself: 'Diamond-bound' mercury

that has proven its efficacity by restoring cripples, freaks, and mutants to whole
ness and transmuting ten million times its mass of base metals into
gold is to be
in the ultimate alchemical Work,
the transformation of the entire
employed
a
person of the alchemist into a Siddha. This he does by plunging himself?after
a
of
ritual?into
oil
man-sized
cauldron
into
preliminary worship
superheated
which pellets of diamond-bound mercury have been placed.
Once the alchemist has plunged himself into the cauldron, his laboratory assis
tant serially adds the alchemical equivalents of the five subtle elements (earth,
water, air, fire, and ether) to the mixture, culminating with kha ('ether,' but also
sexual emission), which is
'mica,' another mineral equivalent of the Goddess's
to be placed inside the alchemist's
skull (presumably all that remains of his
gross body at this point). Then,
pumping the bellows [until the mix has] the look of molten gold, [the assis
tant] should add an alkaline substance (ks?ra). No sooner has this been done
than [the transformed alchemist] rises up with a mighty bellow: *Humi' He
mounts into an aerial car made of divine gold studded with divine gemstones
and rubies, and filled with flowered garlands
conches and musical
instruments. Thereupon,

and banners, and the roar of

a divine maiden, a singer of
an
melodies
and
nymphen
alluring dancer, decked out in divine finery and
lusty beauty and a veritable image of Love in a female form?
garlands?a
comes to him, and takes that consummate practitioner [with her] to dwell in
the world

of the Perfecti.

There, having

bathed, wined,

and dined him, and

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84 / David Gordon White

having clothed him in divine finery, the love-starved Siddha-maiden

with him for hundreds and thousands of years (Ras?rnava 18.222-27).

sports

This passage is remarkable on a number of counts. First, it is the sole Hindu

description of an alchemical operation in which the alchemist actually enters
into his apparatus (amercurial well!) in order to directly effect the transmutation
of his body. Second, it is a description with a mythic correlate. Abu Rayhan al
savant who accompanied Mahmud
Sh?h of Ghazn? in his
B?r?n?, the Muslim
conquest of western
alchemical legends,

India between CE 998 and 1030, relates a number of Indian

including the following:

In the city of Dhara,

the capital of M?lav?, which is in our days ruled by

there lies in the door of the Government
house an
Bhojadeva
[1000-1055],
a
of
man are
of
the
of
in
which
limbs
the
outlines
silver,
pure
oblong piece
visible.

Its origin is accounted for by the following story: Once in olden times
to a king of theirs, bringing him an elixir, the use of which would
make him immortal, victorious, invincible, and capable of doing everything he
a man went

desired. He asked the king to come alone to the place of their meeting, and the
king gave orders to keep in readiness all theman required.
The man began to boil the oil for several days, until at last it acquired
consistency. Then he spoke to the king: 'Spring into it and I shall finish the
process.* But the king, terrified at what he saw, had not the courage to dive
into it. The man, on perceiving his cowardice, spoke to him: 'If you have not
sufficient courage, and will not do it for yourself, will you allow me myself to
do it?' Whereupon
the king answered,
'Do as you like.' Now he produced
several packets of drugs, and instructed him that when such and such symp
toms should appear, he should throw upon him this or that packet. Then the
man

stepped forward to the cauldron and threw himself into it, and at once he
was dissolved and reduced into
pulp. Now the king proceeded according to his
instruction, but when he had nearly finished the process, and there remained
only one packet that was not yet thrown into themass, he began to be anxious,
and to think what might happen
life as an immortal, victorious,

to his realm, in case the man should return to

invincible person, as has above been men

tioned. And so he thought it preferable not to throw the last packet into the
mass. The consequence was that the cauldron became cold, and the dissolved
man became consolidated
in the shape of the said piece of silver (1983 [1910],
1:191-92;
This mythic
principle,

emphasis

in original).

account of a failed alchemical

already delineated

experiment nonetheless retains the

in the Ras?rnava quoted above, that in order for the

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Mountains

of wisdom

85

to fully join the ranks of the Perfecti andWizards, he must physically

enter into his alchemical apparatus. This is a
principle also found in a number of
Chinese alchemical sources?sources
in the light of which this and a number of
alchemist

other elements of Hindu alchemical

lore are brought into higher relief.

oneself into an immortal by entering into one's

First of all, transforming

apparatus is a commonplace

alchemical

of Taoist alchemy. In the Chinese case,

in question, called hu-lu, is formed out of two superimposed
spherical gourds, a configuration at once identified with the head and torso of
the subtle body, a double-mountain
located to the far east or west of China, and
an abode of the Immortals (hsien) (Stein 1942: 53-55, 58).
Entering into one's
alchemical apparatus is, in the Taoist sources, somewhat less dramatic than the
the apparatus

its results are, however, wholly as trans

operation described in the Ras?rnava:
formative as those promised in the Hindu alchemical tradition. Taoist alchemical
sources dating from the first half of the first millennium CE are particularly rich
in legends on this subject, of which

the following:

Che Ts'ouen, who came from Lu, was a student of the Great Alchemical Path.
After meeting Chang Chen, he became the administrator of Yun-t'ai (i.e., the
mountain called Chiang-su).
It was his habit to suspend a hu[-lu] vessel of
about ten liter's volume [from the roofbeam of his house]. This hu[-lu] vase
into Heaven and Earth; it contained sun and moon. Che
his
'Heaven in a [Double-]
passed
nights there, and called himself
(hu-tHen). The people called him the 'OldMan of the Gourd.' Follow

transformed
Ts'ouen
Gourd'

itself

ing this he realized the Tao

In the Chinese

sources,

[and became an immortal] (Stein 1942: 57).

these identifications?between

a bicameral alchemical

and an
apparatus, a configuration within the subtle body, a double-mountain,
abode of the immortals?are
made much more explicitly than they are in the
Hindu sources we have reviewed to this point. To be sure, the Hindu use of the
term vidy?dhara, wizard, applies equally to a bicameral apparatus, a hathayogic
them. What is
alchemists who mastered
technique, and the mountain-dwelling
in the Hindu material

is the explicit identification of these semidivine

themselves, an
figures and alchemical apparatus with these sacred mountains
identification which the Taoists make with especial reference to two immortal
lacking

located to the far east

H'un-lun and K'un-lun,
names
of
these
both
The
of
respectively.
peaks are derived
same
as
the
root (hu)
the term for the double-chambered
gourd of Taoist

abodes. These
and west
from

are the mountains

of China

retain the shape of the

alchemy: more than this, both of these mythic mountains
two superimposed
mount
alchemical
the
form
of
H'un-lun
has
apparatus:
cones
while
two
of
K'un-lun
that
spheres,
joined at their apex.
superimposed

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86 / David Gordon White

These mountains

are, moreover, situated within the subtle body of the alchemist,

in his lower abdomen and head, respectively. As such,
they are further identified
as the Gates orWells of Earth (H'un-lun) and Heaven
(K'un-lun) (Stein 1957:
176,185).

Now, the Hindus also know of a mythic double-mountain:

this is Meru, the
of
the
Hindu
universe
the
to
located
north
of
which,
pivot
India, has the form of
two cones or truncated pyramids joined at their
tapered ends (Ali 1973 [1966]:
48; Bh?gavata Pur?na 5.16.7).2 Like the Chinese H'un-lun, Meru has itsmicro
as well: it is identified with the
cosmic homologue
spinal column (called the
of the subtle body, along whose vertical axis the
meru-danda,
'Mem-rod')
nectar of immortality is drawn upwards.
Epic and Pur?nic descriptions of Meru
locate gods and demigods of the likes of theWizards
and Perfecti on its slopes,
and describe its summit as an extensive plateau, hemmed in by a ring of peaks,
so as to have the form of a basin or saucer (Ali 1973 [1966]: 49; Mabbett
1983:
68,71).

MOUNTAINS OF WISDOM INHINDU COSMOLOGY AND

SACREDGEOGRAPHY

It is perhaps incorrect to state that the Hindus made no explicit identification

between their immortal Wizards,
their alchemical apparatus, and their sacred
mountains. The Sanskrit term dhara, generated from the root dhr, means, as has
already been noted, 'bearer' or 'recipient.' One of the senses of dhr, however, is
'to support,' a meaning
that generates another reading of dhara: a 'mountain'
(dhara) is that which supports (dhr) the earth or the mineral riches within the
earth. In this case, vidy?dhara may be read as 'mountain of wisdom' or 'wisdom
theWizards may be considered to be not only
mountain,' while the Vidy?dharas,
the denizens of such mountains, but also the mountains themselves. What we are
and
Indian cults of divine Wizards
suggesting here is that behind the medieval
moun
Perfecti as denizens of mountains
a
more
cult
of
archaic
these
there lay
tains themselves as a group of demigods.
A number of medieval
Indian works have much to say on this subject An
is
the
Tantra
important example
great Tantric opus entitled the Svacchanda
much

of whose

is adapted nearly verbatim by the Trika

cosmology
in his massive Tantr?loka
Here, in an
(8.119-38).
theologian Abhinavagupta
enumeration of the atmospheric
levels located above the terrestrial disk and
(10.424-51)

separated from one another by distances of either one hundred or five hundred
yojanas, this source describes cloud masses (megh?h) (i) that strike down trees

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Mountains

of wisdom

/ SI

on earth [with thunderbolts]; (ii) that cause rains of fish, frogs, and turtles to fall;
and (iii) that cause disease-inducing
poison rains to fall. It then continues:
Five hundred yojanas higher is [the abode of] theWind
[named] 'Lightning
'lowest
streak.' Here at [the abode of] 'Lightning-streak' are stationed...the
level Vidyadharas.' These are beings who, when in the [prior] form of human
carried out cremation ground-related practices. When
wizards (vidy?pauruse)
them] Siddhas, stationed in the midst of the
at Raivata
hundred yojanas higher...there
Yellow
[named]
Orpiment, Black
(?disiddh?h)

they died, that siddhi [rendered

wind....Five
'Lightning-streak'

itself are the primal Siddhas

(Tantr?loka
Antimony, andMercury-ash

8.133).3

ever higher levels, inhabited by superior

sing the praises
(vi?esa) Vidyadharas who, together with the celestial musicians,
of Siva Paramesvara, the highest god; and still higher levels in which the most
are stationed. We will, however, dwell for a
elevated (uttama) Vidyadharas
moment upon the particular case of the toponym Raivata and the clearly alchem
the latter, we
ical siddhis and Siddhas with which it is associated. Concerning
This passage

goes on to describe

first reproduce the Svacchanda

gupta bases his description:
On Raivata

Tantra

are indeed stationed

(10.452) passage upon which Abhinava

Siddhas. Having under

the black antimony
[of
orpiment,
the shoes [of magical
flight], the

those great-souled

taken the practices

[dealing] in yellow
the ash [of transmutation],
hairy-skin [of the tiger, goat, or dog worn or carried by the Saiva mah?vratin
or renouncer], and so on, these great-souled ones became Siddhas.
invisibility],

Hoe, we can see thatwhereas the Svacchanda Tantra evokes a certain number
of mineral preparations instrumentally?to
explain that the Siddhas of Raivata
are those beings who, while human, gained the siddhis of invisibility, transmu
tation, magical flight, and so on, through the practices of alchemy and renunci
transforms these alchemical staples into a group of demi
ation?Abhinavagupta
we are reminded of a group of
gods whom he terms the 'primal Siddhas.' Here
Siddhas named Fire, Sun, and Moon who, according to the Kubjik?nity?hmkati
document (B?gchi 1934:67; Shastri 1905,
lakam, a twelfth-to-fourteenth-century
the 'Western tradition' of Kaula Tantrism,
1: lxiv, 111-12) of the Pascim?mn?ya,
aided a figure named arin?tha in founding that Tantric lineage (Schoterman
In both cases, these founding Siddhas are nothing other than
1982: 36-39).
elements of the Siddha gnosis itself, here elevated to the station of abstract
to this ambivalent treatment of the Siddhas, who are now
deities. Homologous

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88 / David Gordon White

is that accorded to the
portrayed as humans and now as atmospheric demigods,
In these sources, it is clearly stated that the 'lowest level of Vidya
Wizards.
dharas' is composed of those beings who, while still human, had been Vidy?
purusas ('men of occult wisdom') whose cremation ground practices had won
diem an atmospheric
These descriptions

station after death.

are for us proofs of a point we have been arguing through

out this paper; that is, that the human practitioners of the Siddha disciplines of
themselves to be
ritual considered
alchemy, hatha yoga, and erotico-mystical
divine or semidivine Siddhas in potentia,
and that beyond the supernatural
powers and bodily immortality that were their immediate goals there lay the
to the loftier realms of the semidivine Siddhas and
end of apotheosis
In
certain
India,
Vidyadharas.
lofty pivots between the worlds of
mountaintops,
the gods and demigods and the world of men, have been singled out since the
medieval period as sites at which to realize the various siddhis that enabled one
higher

a Siddha. Primary among

?r?sailam
(Kurnool

to become
tradition

named

these are the holy peaks of ??kta-Saiva

District, Andhra Pradesh), Ked?rn?th
Uttar Pradesh), Mount Abu (Sirohi District, Rajasthan), and

(Chamoli District,
Girn?r (Junagadh District, Gujarat).
This brings us back to the passages just cited from the Svacchanda Tantra and
levels
the Tantr?loka which, in the midst of their descriptions of atmospheric
above the earth's surface, suddenly present the reader
a terrestrial toponym which they identify, precisely, with the alchemical
'primal Siddhas' named Yellow Orpiment, Black Collyrium, and Mercury-ash.
This is the toponym Raivata which was in fact a medieval name for the cluster
located thousands of miles

with

today as Girn?r. In praise of this site, the Jain Raivat?cala

calls it the fifth of the
(a portion of the Satru?jaya
M?h?tmya)
and states that '[here] sages who
Jain siddh?dris (Siddha-mountains)

of peaks known
M?h?tmya
twenty-one
have ceased

Nemln?th.
pass their days in devotion...worship
Here divine nymphs and numerous heavenly beings?Gandharvas,
Siddhas,
1971
and so on?always
Nemln?th'
[1876]:
Vidyadharas,
(Burgess
worship
to the
a
made
A
addition
of
with
ninth
number
Pur?nas,
157).
century
beginning
to eat and who

also devote long

'original' Matsya Pur?na by a Saiva resident of Maharashtra,
to the site, which they term Raivataka
(Bharadvaj 1973: 66-67;
descriptions
Prabh?sa Khanda
Hazra 1975 [1940]: 46). The ca. eleventh-to-twelfth-century
no
less than fifteen
of the Skanda Pur?na
devotes
1975
[1940]: 165)
(Hazra
of this site (in which it describes wells of mercury,
calls Raivata or
[Skanda Pur?na 7.2.6.8]), which it alternatively
rasak?pik?
of J?naprabh?sOri,
Vastr?patha. A CE 1333 Jain source, the Vividha?rthakalpa
contains much similar material on this site (Cort 1990: 251-58).
We clearly appear to be in the presence, in this wide array of sources, of a
chapters

to the wonders

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Mountains

direct

identification

of the modern

Girn?r

of wisdom

as both a terrestrial

/ 89

site to which

human experts in the esoteric sciences could come to perfect themselves through
Siddha techniques, and an atmospheric or celestial realm they would come to
inhabit in their definitively
transformed state of semidivine Siddhas. This pedi
gree of Girn?r goes back further still, being found in earlier Hindu texts under
yet another name: Gomanta (Mani 1975: 294). We find this early toponym for
once in the Mah?bh?rata
in the context of the
Girn?r mentioned
(2.13.53),
episode of Jar?sandha, a regicide king and very early devotee of Rudra-Siva,
who hailed from the Kathiawad region of present day Gujarat.4 Another peak
mentioned
in theMah?bh?rata
has also been identified with Girn?r: this is
describes as one of the holy places of
Ujjayanta, which the epic (3.86.18-20)
Saur?stra (that is, western Gujarat). The same source (Mah?bh?rata 2.42.8) also
names, without describing it, a Raivat?ka Hill, which it also locates inGujarat.
A much more detailed description of Gomanta may be found in the ca. fifth
century CE Harivamia
(2.40), often taken to be an 'appendix' to the Mah?
this appears to
bh?rata, which also relates it to the figure of Jar?sandha.5 While
this
be no different than a great number of other praises of heavenly mountains,
text is important for two reasons: on the one hand, the mountain in question is
this is an early source in which we see the Siddhas
being brought 'down to earth' at specific geographical site.

Girn?r; on the other,

Vidyadharas

and

called Gomanta, a singular peak surrounded by a group of

lofty twin
[lesser] peaks, is difficult to scale, even by the Sky-goers....[I]ts
summits have the form of two shining gods.. ..The interior of this mountain is
the peak is
frequented by Siddhas, C?ranas, and Raksasas, and the surface of
ever thronged with hosts of Vidyadharas (HarivamJa Appendix
17, lines 381
The

[mountain]

82, 386; Appendix

18, lines 448-49).

Now, the Girn?r peak which the Jains identify as Nemin?th has long been
known to Hindu pilgrims by the name of Datt?treya (Burgess 1971 [1876]: 159),
the semidivine founder and leader of the Nine N?ths of western Indian, especially
Marathi, tradition. Datt?treya is in fact one of a pair of rocky crags that dominate
the formation of Girn?r, the other being Gorakh: these twin peaks, having a
are by far the highest and most
height of 3450 and 3470 feet respectively,
that form a basin some six miles in
impressive features of the rim of mountains
circumference. Girn?r has furthermore constituted one of the most important
to it,
centers of N?th Siddha activity in western India, as evidenced inreferences
their founders
in legends concerning
century onwards,
Both of
N?thacaritra
1:
Mallik
1954:
2.1-13).
1.2,
10;
197;
(Kaviraj 1962-64,
to
Datt?
shrines
ancient
are
the sites of simple and apparently very
these crags

from

the thirteenth

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90 / David Gordon White

treya and Gorakhn?th respectively, shrines whose custodians are members of the
N?th Siddha order. Here, we wish to argue that the peaks of 'Gorakh' and
'Datt?treya' at Girn?r are so-called not only because they feature shrines to these
Siddhas, but because they are these Siddhas, these Perfecti. The original
Siddhas were divine mountaintops
before they became identified with the yogins
who frequented those mountaintops.
In other words, the bedrock for the presence
N?th

and veneration
whose

of

'human* N?th

Siddhas

at Girn?r

are the semidivine

Siddhas

in joining through their practice. The semi

inside Gomanta (within the basin formed by the rim of

ranks the latter succeeded

divine Siddhas dwelling

peaks?) and the Vidyadharas

dwelling on its surface (on the outer slopes of those

Gorakh and
the
likes
of the twelfth-to-thirteenth-century
preceded
with
who
identified
became
the
and
Datt?treya,
replaced them,
thereby
demigods
its highest twin peaks. In this light, it is tantalizing to note that the Kul?rnava
peaks?)

(6.66) lists Datt?treya and Raivataka in immediate succession as two of

the ten guru s of the siddhaugha, the Siddha stream of the Kaula preceptors.
Data from other regions of the Indian subcontinent appear to support this

Tantra

in the Bengali
'Song of Manik
argument. Gorakh, who is called a Vidy?dhara
Candra' is depicted in the Punjabi 'Legend of P?ran Bhagat' as flying through
the air at the head of 5200 visible and invisible disciples (Grierson 1878: 209;
that the founding
Temple 1963 [1884-86], 2: 375). Popular tradition maintains
as the guardian spirits of the
N?th Siddhas continue to inhabit the Himalayas,
Gulmi District of central Nepal, a non
Himalayan peaks. In the mountainous
'god of the summit' is named 'Siddha' (Dasgupta 1976 [1946]: 207;
descript
Chamba District of the
1993: 159-62). In the mountainous
Lecomte-Tilouine
in the same fashion as
are
nameless
'Siddhs'
Punjab, generally
worshipped,
in primitive temples or shrines (Punjab States
goddesses,
that the 'historical'
1910: 183-84). Elsewhere,
there is evidence
gazetteer
is so named for
Gorakhn?th of Gorakhpur, the present day center of N?th-dom,
serpents

and minor

having discovered a shrine there to the Nepali (Gurkha) Siddha demigod named
into whose
service he devoted himself. Over time, this mountain
and
the
human
yogin became fused into a single figure: Gorakhn?th
godling

Gorakh,

(whose name may be translated as 'He whose Lord

the founder of the N?th samprad?ya
Gorakh'),
(Alexander 1881,6: 371,436).
In the light of this evidence, we must
Gorakhn?th

and Datt?treya, whose

conclude

is [the semidivine Siddha]

at the site of Gorakhpur

that such historical

Siddhas

as

the religious landscape

fused in the Indian imagination

acts and lives defined

of a certain epic and post-epic India, became

with certain classes of gods and demigods, in whose number the divine Siddhas
and Vidyadharas must be counted; and that it was at such peaks as Girn?r, in
western India, the heartland of early and medieval
?aivism, that such identifi

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Mountains

/ 91

of wisdom

cations first occurred. While we cannot say towhat extent these figures were and
remain identified with the sacred peaks themselves, our reading of Vidy?dhara
as 'Mountain of wisdom'
in the
should not be entirely far-fetched, especially
light of theHarivam?a description of Gomanta.
This peak, which we have identified with Girn?r, is said to be inhabited both
inside and out by Siddhas and Vidyadharas. Like many sacred mountains, Girn?r
is a site riddled with caves, of which at least two are identified with N?th
Siddhas (Bhartrhari and Datt?treya)?and
what is a mountain cave, if not the
replica of the cranial vault of the meditating yogin, or the upper
an
of
alchemical
the alchemist
transforms
apparatus within which
into the opus alchymicuml As in the Taoist case, the moebius universe

macrocosmic
chamber
himself

of the Siddhas

is so constructed

as to permit its practitioners to at once identify

with their own subtle bodies and alchemical apparatus, and to
enter into those mountains to realize the final end of their practice, their transfor

cosmic mountains
mation

into the semidivine denizens of those peaks.

So it is that these myriad allusions, found in various Saiva, Siddha, Tantric,
and even Jain sources, are so many literary vestiges of an archaic cult of divine

Siddhas and Vidyadharas who, like the Immortals (hsien) of Taoism, came to be
joined in their ranks by heroic humans (P?supatas, K?p?likas, N?th Siddhas, and
Rasa Siddhas) who, through their dangerous and difficult trials, transcended
their human condition. This is the Siddha foundation of 'high' Kaula Tantrism:
the archaic goal of gaining power over divine Siddha and Vidy?dhara wizards
and nymphs funneled into the Tantric cults of the yoginis, which were in turn
internalized into the practices of hatha yoga and alchemy, as practiced by super
human N?th and Rasa Siddhas, and the more refined and abstract ritual practices
of Kaula Tantrism.

Notes
1.Mah?vmtin

is a generic

term for a ?aiva

ascetic?a

P?&ipata

or K?p?lika?referring

as it does to the 'great vow' (that is, the slaying of a Br?hmana followed by twelve years
of expiation) undertaken by them in their initiation.
2. The Bh?gavota and a number of other Pur?nas describe that portion of Mem which
rises up from the earth's surface: a mirror image of this mountain extends below the
surface of the earth, into the subterraneanworlds of the demonic beings who inhabit them.
The 'lower half of Mem is of lesser dimensions than the upper half.
3. The names of these Siddhas are [Go]rocan?, A?jana, and Bhasma. Gorocan?
fact an organic
from

the urine

dye

having

the same

intense

yellow

color

as orpiment.

Gorocan?

is in

is made

of the cow.

4. This reading is found in the Bengali (B im.2-5) and Bombay Government collection

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92 / David Gordon White

(D) manuscripts only. The critical reading is Bhavanta. The site has also been called
Girinagara andGirin?r?yana, of which Girn?r is a vemacularization.
5. The passage concerning Gomanta is found only in the Bombay and Calcutta recen
sions

of

entitled

the Harivamsa,

or 'The journey

of Gomanta1

'The climbing

in the critical edition, it forms a portion of Appendix

380-507 of the sequentially numbered appendices).

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DAVID

GORDON WHITE

University

of California,

is Associate

Professor

of Religious

Studies at the

Santa Barbara.

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