Shivacandra Vidyarnava

Shivacandra Vidyarnava (1860-1914)

Shri Shiva Chandra Bhattacharyya was born in the village of kumArkhAli in Nadia district of Bengal in 1860. He earned the honorific vidyArnava (ocean of learning) in his youth. He was introduced to writing script by the writer saint kAngAl harinAth. He went to vAraNasi and studied vedanta, agamas and nigamas with leading proponents. He returned home and began study and practice in tantra from his grandfather kRSNasundar.

Shiva Chandra travelled to kailAsh, manas sarovar, jwalamukhi and other places in his spiritual quest. He returned to his home and a temple to sarvamangallA (the goddess who bestows all blessings).

He was a great orator and authored books of poetry and prose, gitAnjali, rAslilA, and the famous tantra tattva. The last was translated by his famed disciple, Sir John Woodroffe, aka Arthur Avalon, as the "Principles of Tantra".


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Kathleen Taylor: For an example of someone who was both a śākta devotee and also very definitely a tantric ritualist, we can turn to Sivacandra Vidyarnava himself. Sivacandra displays in his Tantratattva all the characteristics of a fervent bhakta saint in the mould of Ramakrishna, and this is also how he is portrayed in his biography by Pal. But Sivacandra was also very particular as to the importance of ritual and he was known for his performance of elaborate tantric pūjās. He also practised sādhanā in the cremation grounds.

Kumarkhali, Sivacandra’s birthplace, was then a village in East Bengal; now it is a town in Bangladesh. He was born into a family of Brahmin Tantrics and was educated in the traditional fashion as a pandit at the nearby Bhatpāra Tol. Later he had ashrams at Kumarkhali and at other places, including Calcutta and Benares. His greatness was acknowledged in his lifetime. He was a well-known charismatic saint rather like his contemporary Ramakrishna, and like him attracted the English-educated urban bhadralok to his re-statement of the traditional forms of religion. The obituary of Woodroffe in Bharat Varsa declares that authentic Tantrics such as Sivacandra were rare at this time. Like Ramakrishna, he was an ardent devotee (bhakta) of the Mother, whom he called, however, not Kālī as Ramakrishna did, but Tarā and Sarvamangalā. Unlike Ramakrishna, he had literary skills: he was a poet, and a fine orator who drew large crowds.  He was also famous for the elaborate rituals he conducted. He practised his own sādhanā in the cremation grounds. Along with other prominent traditionalist figures including the ‘reactionary’ Hindu revivalist Sasadhar Tarkacudamani, and Gopal Krishna Goswami (who departed from the Brahmo Samāj in favour of a passionate vaisnava devotionalism), Sivacandra founded the Sarvamangalā Sabhā. This organization attempted to unite Sākta Tantrics in Bengal and elsewhere but also aimed to build bridges between śāktas and vaisnavas, the other main sect of Bengal. Sivacandra also had connections with the hauls who were on the fringes of society, and invited the famous haul saint, Lalan Faquir to sing at his ashrams.

Arthur Avalon’s translation of the guru’s Tantratattva gives an insight into his religious outlook, which was equally devotional as it was ritual [Principles of Tantra vols 1 & 2]. Sivacandra’s book defends traditional Sākta Tantrism against its detractors from whatever direction: orthodox (‘Vedic’) advaitins who renounced the senses, vaisnava sectarians who condemned Sāktism, and modernist reformers such as the Brahmo Samāj. Against the latter he argued passionately and cogently in defence of ritual and the worship of images in the face of their ‘protestant’ rejection of both. He defends the multiplicity of divine forms (‘polytheism’) arguing that this accorded with the notion of ultimate unity better than what he calls the ‘ephemeral and modern monism’ of the Brahmo Samāj who claimed to  worship only the ‘formless Brahman’. In a passage where his powerful oratory and poetic skill come through strongly in translation he shows how ‘magic powers’ (siddhi) and liberation are seen as one and the same goal and gives a vivid, dramatic picture of what a traditional Kaula tantric’s faith was:

"In every Indian cremation ground the refulgent and divine halo of Bhairavas and Bhairavis is yet to be seen mingling with the light of the flames of funeral pyres rending apart the waves of nocturnal darkness and illuminating the wide expanse of Heaven. Dead and putrefying corpses submerged near cremation grounds are still brought to life by the force of the Sādhakas’ Mantras, and made to render aid to Sādhanā and Siddhi. Tantrik Yogis even now and in this world obtain, through the potency of Mantras, direct vision of the world of Devas, which lies beyond our senses. She, with dishevelled hair [Kālī] the Dispeller of fear from the hearts of those who worship Her, still appears in great cremation grounds to give liberation to Her devoted Sādhakas who, fearful of this existence, make obeisance ... to Her ... The throne of the Daughter of the Mountain is still moved by the wondrous, attractive force of Mantras. This, in the eyes of Sādhakas, is the ever broad and royal road upon which they travel untiring to the city of liberation. Maybe there is nothing but darkness for the bedridden and dying blind man. Yet know that of a surety, oh blind man, that the darkness exists only in your eyes".

Although traditionalist, Sivacandra was not simply ‘reactionary’. His reaching out to vaisnavas and, more controversially, to the hauls, many of whom were Muslim, was a bold innovation. S.N. Bagchi commends Sivacandra especially for his openness to the foreigner Woodroffe and the half-foreign Coomaraswamy and this is one of the themes of his articles.

Woodroffe:  At one time I was searching for the path of life with a restless mind, wandering hither and thither without direction. I thought desperately: in my search for the true path, who will place me on the ladder to the highest sādhanā? I felt deep in my heart that there was no guru to be found in this life and with that thought I could find no rest. At that very moment the man who first showed me the path and whose company — the company which was blessed by the gods — calmed my mind and directed it to the path of self realization (ātmacaitanya), saved me from utter destruction. To that man, the great man amongst all men, the king among all the kings, my guru, God’s gift to humanity, Sivacandra, to the feet of that person I offer all my humble prayers and humble offerings. Blessed be the guru.

....Just as I entered the house of Sivacandra for the first time I felt something like an electric shock through my body. I felt as if the world was spinning and receding from me. My mind stopped and I lost all the senses of the outer world. A little while later a white Omkāra in the form of lightening and decorated with Maya-bija and Matri—bija mantras was floating in front of my eyes. I stood there speechless in wonder and was made to sit down by Haridev perhaps at a sign from Sivacandra.

One of the witnesses: Shivacandra seemed the living image of Tantrik learning and Sakti sadhana, his eyes like very sharp knives, his hair very long. He had a bright red tilak on his forehead and red sandalpaste smeared there. Around his neck were rudrāksa beads and other stones. And (he wore) a saffron robe. So Woodroffe kept looking at this figure almost as if in a trance. Long discussions on the Tantra began. Whatever question Woodroffe put to him, Sivacandra seemed to solve with lots of examples from the Sastras and Woodroffe was amazed. He thought that this kind of mind does not occur from just scholarly engagement in texts. There was something supernatural in the power he had as he interpreted and dispelled doubts from Woodroffe’s mind

Woodroffe: One day I was listening to the arguments of a complicated legal case ... I was noting down the important points and remarks ... I was also looking at the faces of the witnesses and trying to guess their inner mind ... whether they were speaking the truth or not. While looking at the witnesses from time to time, once suddenly my eyes fell on the wall opposite and there was a beautiful and pleasant sight waiting to feast my eyes on. I saw my gurudev sitting there and just as our eyes met he raised his hand and blessed me. Even in broad daylight at noon I saw this vision of my guru very clearly and I offered my obeisance to him in my mind. And he said: Kalyanam astu ... And again another day I was sitting at home at night and writing the verdict of a difficult case. And suddenly I saw my gurudev standing in front of me clad in the tantric apparel with a trident in hand. Just as I rose from the seat to do the pranām to him, touching his feet, he extended his hand and said: Kalyanam astu. And then that image multiplied into several such images and filled up the whole room with lots and lots of images of my gurudev, wherever I looked in the room. I was quite surprised and I felt the blessing of my gurudev on me and my eyes filled up with tears. When I wiped my eyes and looked again even then all the apparitions were present. A person like Sivacandra, Woodroffe is reported as saying, is impenetrable to ordinary people. His feelings and mental states (bhāva) cannot be comprehended. He is a great mystery