Mahānirvāņatantraのvarņa観

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To what extent and in what way the Dharmaśāstric traditions have been retained in the Hindu Tantric literature or replaced with new Tantric ideas such as the concept of equality of all varņas (classes, castes) and of men and women as well as in the kali age, are questions about which not much has been resolved until now. so that our general understanding of the problems should be deepened through detailed examinations of relevant materials. The present paper makes an attempt to find a concrete answer with respect to the Mahānirvāņatantra (= Mnt), one of the texts considered to belong to the Left-hand Śākta (Vāmācāraśākta), and presumably written in the late eighteenth century, by exploring its view of varņas. First of all, it must be noted that in addition to the traditional four - that is, brāhmaņa, kşatriya, vaişya and śūdra - the Mnt acknowledges the fifth varņa called sāmānya for the kali age when humanity is assumed to have been corrupted. Although we are not quite certain what this sāmānya precisely means, there seem to be good reasons to accept S. J. Voodroffe's observation that it is the name for the class of people who are born as a result of intermarriage between different varņas and have been excluded from the varņa system by the traditional Dharmaśāstras as represented by the Nanusmŗti (= Manu). It is also worth noting in this connection that some regulations, such as the one concerning how long a certain kind of impurity will continue to attach to a person, treat the sāmānya on equal terms with the śūdra, seeing no serious distinction such as is found in the Manu among the people within and outside the traditional framework of four varņas. Thus the Nnt is obviously opposed to the Dharmaśāstras in that the Tantric text, at least insofar as the kali age is concerned, accepts the legality of intermarriage, which would evidently violate the old concept of the varņa system. Furthermore, the Mnt completely denies any discrimination among varņas in the practice of kuladharmas, the only possible means of attaining mokşa (deliverance) in the kali age. The Mnt's idea that all human beings are eligible for kuladharmas stands in clear contrast with the Manu's limitation of eligibility for dharmas to the upper three varņas. The Not does not, however, deny the existence of the varņa system itself. For all the absoluteness of kuladharmas in the kali age, the Mnt, at the same time, preaches the observance of the discrimination among varņas with reference to many occasions in daily life. In other words, two kinds of dharmas coexist in the Hat: kuladharmas and the traditional dharmas which the Manu limits to the upper three varņas. Then which dharmas have priority in the Mnt? We can answer this question by saying that knladharmas are praised as the absolute means of attaining mokşa, and that the traditional dharmas are prescribed for the majority of daily and secular life including inheritance, although śaiva marriage, in which discrimination among varņas is strictly prohibited, is allowed.
1994-09-30

Mahānirvāņatantraのvarņa観

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