{"id": "DISC-0024", "item_id": "ITEM-0014", "source_id": "SRC-0021", "year": "1913", "date_precision": "year", "disclosure_method": "academic_research", "extent": "full", "coverage": "The form of the rite prescribed by the Mahānirvāṇa Tantra.", "review_status": "unreviewed", "notes": "", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0014", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Kaula ritual of the five elements (pañcatattva)", "secrecy_type": "closed_liturgy", "restricted_to": "Initiates gathered in a ritual circle (cakra)", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement;social_sanction", "stated_reason": "The rite is held to be dangerous for, or misunderstood by, the uninitiated", "current_status": "unknown", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A rite using five substances or acts conventionally forbidden in orthodox practice, interpreted literally or symbolically depending on the lineage.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Śākta Tantra (Kaula and Śrīvidyā)", "tradition_type": "religious_branch", "founded": "c. 9th–11th century", "region": "India / Nepal", "status": "active", "wikidata": "Q849345", "notes": "Goddess-centred tantric lineages; the Wikidata item is for Shaktism as a whole."}, "source": {"id": "SRC-0021", "title": "Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahānirvāṇa Tantra)", "author": "Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe), trans.", "original_year": "1913", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "book", "url": "https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.205077", "identifiers": "ia:b24878376;ia:dli.ernet.205077", "provenance": "archival_collection", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "public_domain", "content_hash": "", "notes": "The Sanskrit text's date and authority are disputed; some scholars place it in the late 18th century. 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VI, vv. 1–14 (1913 ed., pp. 103–104)", "review_status": "reviewed", "verification_notes": "Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04. Read from the readable copy of the same 1913 edition (ia:dli.ernet.205077). The text treats the elements as literal substances, with restrictions.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0014", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Kaula ritual of the five elements (pañcatattva)", "secrecy_type": "closed_liturgy", "restricted_to": "Initiates gathered in a ritual circle (cakra)", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement;social_sanction", "stated_reason": "The rite is held to be dangerous for, or misunderstood by, the uninitiated", "current_status": "unknown", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A rite using five substances or acts conventionally forbidden in orthodox practice, interpreted literally or symbolically depending on the lineage.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Śākta Tantra (Kaula and Śrīvidyā)", "tradition_type": "religious_branch", "founded": "c. 9th–11th century", "region": "India / Nepal", "status": "active", "wikidata": "Q849345", "notes": "Goddess-centred tantric lineages; the Wikidata item is for Shaktism as a whole."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0021", "title": "Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahānirvāṇa Tantra)", "author": "Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe), trans.", "original_year": "1913", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "book", "url": "https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.205077", "identifiers": "ia:b24878376;ia:dli.ernet.205077", "provenance": "archival_collection", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "public_domain", "content_hash": "", "notes": "The Sanskrit text's date and authority are disputed; some scholars place it in the late 18th century. 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Doniger notes that White shows the texts prescribe these acts but cannot prove they were performed.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0014", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Kaula ritual of the five elements (pañcatattva)", "secrecy_type": "closed_liturgy", "restricted_to": "Initiates gathered in a ritual circle (cakra)", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement;social_sanction", "stated_reason": "The rite is held to be dangerous for, or misunderstood by, the uninitiated", "current_status": "unknown", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A rite using five substances or acts conventionally forbidden in orthodox practice, interpreted literally or symbolically depending on the lineage.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Śākta Tantra (Kaula and Śrīvidyā)", "tradition_type": "religious_branch", "founded": "c. 9th–11th century", "region": "India / Nepal", "status": "active", "wikidata": "Q849345", "notes": "Goddess-centred tantric lineages; the Wikidata item is for Shaktism as a whole."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0067", "title": "Tantric bodies (review of David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogini)", "author": "Wendy Doniger", "original_year": "2004", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "periodical", "url": "https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_2049.html", "identifiers": "", "provenance": "scholarship", "source_authenticity": "probable", "verification_notes": "Read in a full repost of 5 August 2004 that gives the TLS heading, date and book details; not yet checked against the TLS archive.", "rights": "copyrighted", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Times Literary Supplement, 20 May 2004.", "artifacts": []}], "contradicting_sources": [], "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_authenticity_probable", "message": "Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}]}, {"id": "CLM-0069", "item_id": "ITEM-0014", "claim_type": "content", "suppression_method": "", "statement": "White reads mudrā in the five Ms as the consort's vulva and the fluids from it, and maithuna as the fluid product of intercourse rather than intercourse itself. He traces the five Ms to an earlier Kaula pentad of semen, urine, faeces, menstrual blood and phlegm (or marrow), which he takes as a reversal of the orthodox five products of the cow.", "period": "", "claim_support": "single_source", "supporting_source_ids": "SRC-0067", "independent_source_ids": "", "contradicting_source_ids": "", "locators": "SRC-0067: paras 10–11", "review_status": "reviewed", "verification_notes": "Reported through SRC-0067. Doniger notes that not every scholar accepts these readings.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0014", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Kaula ritual of the five elements (pañcatattva)", "secrecy_type": "closed_liturgy", "restricted_to": "Initiates gathered in a ritual circle (cakra)", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement;social_sanction", "stated_reason": "The rite is held to be dangerous for, or misunderstood by, the uninitiated", "current_status": "unknown", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A rite using five substances or acts conventionally forbidden in orthodox practice, interpreted literally or symbolically depending on the lineage.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Śākta Tantra (Kaula and Śrīvidyā)", "tradition_type": "religious_branch", "founded": "c. 9th–11th century", "region": "India / Nepal", "status": "active", "wikidata": "Q849345", "notes": "Goddess-centred tantric lineages; the Wikidata item is for Shaktism as a whole."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0067", "title": "Tantric bodies (review of David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogini)", "author": "Wendy Doniger", "original_year": "2004", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "periodical", "url": "https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_2049.html", "identifiers": "", "provenance": "scholarship", "source_authenticity": "probable", "verification_notes": "Read in a full repost of 5 August 2004 that gives the TLS heading, date and book details; not yet checked against the TLS archive.", "rights": "copyrighted", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Times Literary Supplement, 20 May 2004.", "artifacts": []}], "contradicting_sources": [], "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_authenticity_probable", "message": "Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}]}, {"id": "CLM-0070", "item_id": "ITEM-0014", "claim_type": "suppression", "suppression_method": "apologetic_reinterpretation", "statement": "From the eleventh century, Brahmin theologians led by Abhinavagupta set aside the consumption of fluids and recast the rite as meditation and a blissful expansion of consciousness. That metaphorical reading became dominant, and Hindu nationalist groups now press it as the only acceptable view, while the literal practice survives among groups such as the Bauls.", "period": "11th century to present", "claim_support": "single_source", "supporting_source_ids": "SRC-0067", "independent_source_ids": "", "contradicting_source_ids": "", "locators": "SRC-0067: paras 5–7, 9 and 16–18", "review_status": "reviewed", "verification_notes": "Doniger's review, reporting and endorsing White's argument. A defender of the metaphorical reading would contradict it; none is recorded yet.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0014", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Kaula ritual of the five elements (pañcatattva)", "secrecy_type": "closed_liturgy", "restricted_to": "Initiates gathered in a ritual circle (cakra)", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement;social_sanction", "stated_reason": "The rite is held to be dangerous for, or misunderstood by, the uninitiated", "current_status": "unknown", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A rite using five substances or acts conventionally forbidden in orthodox practice, interpreted literally or symbolically depending on the lineage.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0011", "name": "Śākta Tantra (Kaula and Śrīvidyā)", "tradition_type": "religious_branch", "founded": "c. 9th–11th century", "region": "India / Nepal", "status": "active", "wikidata": "Q849345", "notes": "Goddess-centred tantric lineages; the Wikidata item is for Shaktism as a whole."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0067", "title": "Tantric bodies (review of David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogini)", "author": "Wendy Doniger", "original_year": "2004", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "periodical", "url": "https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_2049.html", "identifiers": "", "provenance": "scholarship", "source_authenticity": "probable", "verification_notes": "Read in a full repost of 5 August 2004 that gives the TLS heading, date and book details; not yet checked against the TLS archive.", "rights": "copyrighted", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Times Literary Supplement, 20 May 2004.", "artifacts": []}], "contradicting_sources": [], "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_authenticity_probable", "message": "Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0067", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}]}]}