vamachara
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word vamachara. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word vamachara, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say vamachara in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word vamachara you have here. The definition of the word vamachara will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofvamachara, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Vamachara
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Sanskrit वामाचार (vāmācāra, “left (-hand) path; left-handed attainment”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) /'vɑːmɑːtʃɑːrə/
Noun
vamachara (countable and uncountable, plural vamacharas)
- (religion, tantric religion) A path to bliss through practices, including meat-eating, breaking social taboos and indulging in sex and intoxicants, that are sometimes considered immoral.
- 1977, Saiva Siddhanta, volume 12, page 65:
- The other vamachara does indeed exist here with all its objectionable practices, in the name of the worship of innumerable petty female deities such as Mariyamman.
- 2002, Vamachara, entry in James G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z, page 736,
- Within the tantric tradiion itself there is a long-standing debate about the propriety of such acts, and whereas the vamachara practice uses these elements in their actual forms, in the dakshinachara ("right-hand") practice other items are substituted for the forbidden ones.
- 2014, Om Swami, If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir, unnumbered page:
- She also predicted the tantric sadhanas I would do in the future, both vamachara and dakshinachara.
‘Vamachara? I have no such plan, Mother.’
'You will have to do lata sadhan, mahacheen kram, kaulik sadhana and mahamudra.'
She laughed, for she had just named sadhanas that required a female consort.
- (countable) Any such path, set of practices or individual practice.
- 1981, Ca. Vē Cuppiramaṇiyan̲, S. V. Subramanian, Na Kaṭikācalam, editors, Literary Heritage of the Tamils, page 367:
- Side by side with popular saivism, which was being guided by tantras, including those of vamacharas, from a fairly earl period […] .
- 1994, H. Kumar Kaul, Aspects of yoga, page 201:
- […] he strongly reproves the yogic ideal of rejection of household life, indulgence in mortification of the body and the vamacharas for the realisation of so-called Mahasukha.
- 2012, Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-Hand Path: Forbidden Practices and Spiritual Heresies, unnumbered page:
- It is said that one is born into one of the dakshinacharas, but that one must be initiated into any of the vamacharas.
Synonyms
- (tantric path): vamamarga