ns have an exoteric and an esoteric side, the
religion of the 'right hand' and of the 'left hand.' It is the latter
(to which belong many that deny the fact) wherein centre the
abominations of Civaism; in less degree, those of Vishnuism also.
Obscenity is the soul of this cult. Bestiality equalled only by the
orgies of the Indic savages among the hill-tribes is the form of this
'religion.'[47] It is screened by an Orphic philosophy, for is not
Nature or Illusion the female side of the Divine Male? It is screened
again by religious fervor, for it is pious profligacy that prompts the
rites. It is induced practically by an initial carousal and
drunkenness; and this is antique, for even the old _soma_-feasts were
to a great extent drunken revels, and the gods have got drunk from the
time of the Vedas[48] to do their greatest deeds. But in practice,
Cakti-worship, when unveiled, amounts to this, that men and women of
the same class and family indulge in a Bacchanalian orgy, and that, as
they proceed, they give themselves over to every excess which liquor
and lust can prompt. A description of the different rites would be to
reduplicate an account of indecencies, of which the least vile is too
esoteric to sketch faithfully. Vaguely to outline one such religious
festival will suffice. A naked woman, the wife of the chief priest,
sits in the middle of the 'holy circle.' She represents Durg[=a], the
divine female principle. The Bacchic orgy begins with hard drinking.
Civa as Bh[=a]irava, 'the dreadful,' has his human counterpart also,
who must then and there pair with the impersonated Durg[=a]. The
worship proper consists in the repetition of meaningless _mantra_
syllables and yells; the worship improper, in indulgence in 'wine and
women' (particularly enjoined in the rite-books called Tantras). Human
sacrifice at these rites is said to be extinct at the present day.[49]

But blood-lust is appeased by the hacking of their own bodies.
Garments are cast in a heap. Lots are drawn for the women's
garments[50] by the men. With her whose clothes he gets each man
continues the debauch, inviting incest in addition to all other
excess.[51]

The older Vishnuite sects (P[=a][=n]car[=a]tras, etc.) may have had
some of this filth in their make-up; but mass for mass the practices
are characteristic of Civaism and not of Vishnuism.[52] Especially
Civaite, however, is the 'mother worship,' to which reference was made
in the chapter on epic Hin