The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval IndiaBeginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science. |
Contents
Indian Paths to Immortality | 1 |
Categories of Indian Thought The Universe by Numbers | 15 |
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy | 48 |
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy in India | 78 |
Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature | 123 |
Tantra in the Rasārṇava | 171 |
Corresponding Hierarchies The Substance of the Alchemical Body | 184 |
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body | 218 |
The Dynamics of Transformation in Siddha Alchemy | 263 |
Penetration Perfection and Immortality | 303 |
The Siddha Legacy in Modern India | 335 |
NOTES | 353 |
| 521 | |
| 555 | |
Other editions - View all
The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India David Gordon White No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
Abhinavagupta alchemical alchemist ashes Ayurved Ayurvedic Ayurvedīya Benares Bhairava bodily Brāhmaṇa breath Buddhist cakras called century chap Chapter Five cited commentary cranial vault cult Dasgupta Delhi dhātus disciple divine Dvivedi Dyczkowski elements elixir female fire Goddess gold Gopīcand Gorakh Bānī Gorakhnath guru hatha yoga hathayogic Hindu History human identified immortality Indian initiation kalās Kāpālika Kaula king KJñN kundalinī legend lineage lists located lunar Matsyendra medieval mercury metals microcosm Misra moon mouth mudrā myth Nāga Nāgārjuna Nāth Nath Siddhas nectar Nepal nine Notes to Chapter pīthas practice Purāṇa Rasa Siddhas rasāyana reference ritual Roşu RRĀ Sabadī sacrifice Śaiva Śaivism Śakti Sāmkhya sampradāya samskāras Sanskrit semen serpent sexual fluids Sharma Śiva Śiva's sources Srisailam subtle body sulfur Tantra tantric tantric alchemy tantrism techniques term Tibetan tion tradition transformation transmutation University Upaniṣad Vedic verse Vidyādharas western worship Yogi yogic yogin