Divinisation rituals establishing oneness between practitioners and divinities are common across Tantric traditions. While scholars largely argue that divinisation occurs through meditative practices, implying a clear demarcation between contemplative
samayācāra rituals and body-focused
kaulācāra rituals, I suggest that
samayācāra divinisation rituals entail fundamental
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Divinisation rituals establishing oneness between practitioners and divinities are common across Tantric traditions. While scholars largely argue that divinisation occurs through meditative practices, implying a clear demarcation between contemplative
samayācāra rituals and body-focused
kaulācāra rituals, I suggest that
samayācāra divinisation rituals entail fundamental corporeal elements; furthermore, I argue that the distinction between
samayācāra and
kaulācāra rituals is not obvious, but negotiated on a continuum ranging between representational and embodied corporeality. Based on extensive anthropological fieldwork in the temple-complex Śaktipur, I first illustrate divinised Śrīvidyā bodies: they are permeated by goddess Tripurasundarī in her anthropomorphic form and as a diagram, or
yantra (the Śrīcakra), and by the deities Gaṇapati, Śyāmā, and Vārāhī, and their respective
yantras. Thereafter, I describe
yantrapūjās, which are
samayācāra rituals through which practitioners divinise their bodies, outlining, particularly, their corporeal elements. I also illustrate
sirījyotipūjā, which is a ritual directly transmitted by Tripurasundarī to Śaktipur’s guru and is, therefore, unique to his disciples. Foreseeing the creation of a large Śrīcakra decorated with flowers, around and at the centre of which practitioners congregate, the ritual facilitates the superimposition of the Śrīcakra, Tripurasundarī and worshippers’ bodies; including both representational and embodied elements,
sirījyotipūjā occupies the fluid intersection between
samayācāra and
kaulācāra rituals.
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