The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1767 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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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.

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