The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1767 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
13.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Pañca-mak
ra
or pañca-tattva
.
Five ritual ingredients whose first letter is ‘m’:
madya
(wine or alcoholic beverage),
ma
sa
(meat),
matsya
(fish),
mudr
(parched grain), and
maithuna
(sexual intercourse). The five Ms are central to
Tantric
liturgy, and are interpreted, either literally by left-hand (
v
m
c
ra
) sects such as the
Kaulas
and
K
p
likas
, or symbolically by right-hand (
dak
in
c
ra
) sects. The left-hand groups seek perfection and power (
siddhi
) through the use of prohibited substances.

Other books

Blood on the Verde River by Dusty Richards
SEAL Team Six: Hunt the Fox by Don Mann, Ralph Pezzullo
The Laird Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins
Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt
100 Days of April-May by Edyth Bulbring
Promised to Another by Laura Hilton