Ritual

SCIENCE
The scientific concepts of the tantras run parallel to the
metaphysical. While the latter provide an inherent teleology and
ontological framework grafted mainly on the Samkhya system
(c. 500 BC) of Vedic and Vedantic thought (c. 2000-1000 BC),
within which ritual and art were assimilated, science helped to free
dogmas and gave tantric rituals an empirico-experiential dimension.
The tantrikas conducted experiments mainly in the field of
chemical operations, particularly in the preparation of medicines
consisting mostly of mercury and sulphur. Otherwise, tantra did
not evolve any system of scientific thought independently, but
drew freely for its own purposes from the various aspects of
ancient Indian scientific knowledge. Those aspects of science
which had a practical ritualistic interest were of utmost importance.
Thus, astronomy and astrology, which revealed the
movement of the vast spectrum of celestial bodies and their
interaction on man, mapped out the heavens and determined
ceremonial periods. Similarly, notions of molecular and atomic
structure in the Nyaya-Vaiseshika system were useful for the
preparation of chemical formulae; and the polarity principle of
tantra was supported by the theory of cosmic evolution derived
mainly from the Samkhya-Patanjali system. Mathematical and
geometrical knowledge provided useful keys to the construction
of various kinds of yantras. This syncretic trend made tantra an
elastic and assimilative system and a fusion of many disciplines.
Men's age-old questions about the origin and nature of the
cosmos are not new; only the contexts and the methods of the
search for conclusive answers can be unique. Science, by the very
definition of its pursuit, bases its investigations on observations and
experimental methods susceptible to verification. It is the realm of
posterior knowledge based on empirical facts, and in diametrical
opposition to it is another domain of knowledge which pursues its
search principally along a priori lines of knowing. Paradoxically,
the empirical and the intuitive disciplines share a common
denominator: both transcend the appearances of the phenomenal
world and go into the realm of the unknown to unravel the
mysteries of the universe. Both these methods were applied by the
Opposite and above: Creation of
the universe showing the energy
circles in the course of evolution
emanating from a single
transcendent source. Gujarat,
c. 18th century. Gouache on paper.
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