Chinnamasta: The Aweful (sic) Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess.

• Author: McDermott, Rachel Fell

This is a short but very interesting study of the goddess Chinnamasta as she appears in Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions. A revised version of Benard's Ph.D. thesis from Columbia University, Chinnamasta is the first monograph to examine the rituals, symbolisms, and iconographic conventions of this goddess who, in both religious traditions, holds aloft her own decapitated head, while three streams of blood from her truncated neck spurt into her own mouth and the mouths of her two flanking female attendants. This goddess, though recognized by many who study South Asian religiosity, is for most of us nevertheless at the periphery of our knowledge: so Benard's work is a welcome addition to the growing literature on Hindu and Buddhist goddesses.

Methodologically, Chinnamasta is largely a textual study, focusing on Sanskrit and Hindi texts of the Hindu Tantric tradition (such as the Sakta puranas, tantras and Tantric digests, and namastotras, or lists of the deity's names) and on Tibetan tantras for the Buddhist Vajrayana tradition. Many of these sources, particularly the Buddhist ones, are in manuscript form only, and Benard spent much time in Sarnath and Kathmandu copying and translating them. Some of these translations are included in her book: the entire Hindu "Chinnamastatantra" section of the Sakta Pramoda, as well as the Buddhist "Chinnamunda Vajravarahi Sadhana" and the "Trikayavajrayogini Stuti." In addition to her textual work, she also spent some time in the field, actively seeking sites where the goddess is worshipped today; appendix 2 contains a brief list of temples dedicated to the Hindu Chinnamasta in northern India and the Kathmandu Valley.

For this reviewer the most fascinating aspect of Benard's book is the juxtaposition between Hindu and Buddhist perceptions of Chinnamasta, or Chinnamunda, as she is also known in Buddhist texts. The reader is introduced to these different interpretations from the very beginning, where, on a page called "Invocation," Benard quotes two verses of praise to the goddess, one Hindu, in Sanskrit, and the other Buddhist, in Tibetan. The former offers homage to Chinnamasta as the sacrifice, the sacrificer, and the sacrificed, whereas the latter petitions Chinnamunda's blessing towards the realization that such a sacrificial triad does not ultimately exist. This initial description of the Hindu-Buddhist tension sets the scene for a number of other distinctions made throughout the book. For...