The primordial throb ādya spanda which originates by the self-volition of the Transcendent Absolute, starts a series of vibrations that take the form of sound nāda. This is the word, the Word Eternal nityā vāk of the Veda which itself became all the worlds, vāgeva viśvā bhuvanāṇi jarñe. Vak is the creatrix descending with her four cosmic steps in manifestation. The Veda says that all speech is measured out in four steps or planes and these are known to the knowers of Brahman, impelled by the mind. The three are hidden in the secrecy while the fourth step is the human speech that is the ordinary word. What are these steps? The step that is visible and palpable to us is the gross, sthūla, the physical substance of matter. Sustaining and circumfusing it is the subtle sūkṣma, the vital life-force. Supporting and cherishing it is the casual kāraṇa, the mind-principle. The basis of all these three is the great causal, mahākāraṇa, the High Supernal where abides the Word with all the original rhythms. These steps correspond to the four states of consciousness: jāgrat, the waking consciousness operating in the world of matter; svapna, the dream-state having its play in the field of the life-forces; suṣupti, deep sleep having its sway over the divine illumined mind-principle and turiya, the fourth that transcends these three states of consciousness. “The Tantriks while admitting the principle of the division, apply it for practical purposes, dealing with the subject apply it for practical purposes, dealing with the subject from a psycho-physical and psycho-spiritual point of view; naturally therefore, since the subtle centres play a vital part in their Yoga they locate the Vāk of the states in the nervous system. They name it parā, paśyanti, madhyamā and vaikhari.
The first and the supreme source—the primordial parā vāk is beyond; it is unmanifest, but turned towards manifestation; it is the great causal mahā-kāraṇa. and as such its centre is at the bottom of the spinal column that supports the nervous system. This bottom is mulādhāra, the root-centre of the physical being. Next is the paśyanti vāk, the word that perceives, and this is the causal located in the navel centre; then is the madhyamā vāk, the middle, the word in the intermediate subtle region between the navel and throat which last is the region for the express speech called vaikharī vāk.
This vaikharī vāk, the Word expressed as speech, the Tantrics acclaim as the ninth in the Dasa Maha Vidyas, the great Goddess Mātangi. As Śrī Aurobindo says: “The words which we use in our speech seem to be, if we look only at their external formation, mere physical sounds which a device of the mind has made to represent certain objects and ideas and perceptions,—a machinery nervous perhaps in origin, but developed for a constantly finer and more intricate use by the growing intelligence; but if we look at them in their inmost psychological and not solely at their more external aspect, we shall see that what constitutes speech and gives in its life and appeal and significance is a subtle conscious force which informs and is the soul of the body of sound: it is a superconscient Nature-Force raising its material out of our subconscience, but growingly conscious in its operations in the human mind that develops itself in one fundamental way and yet variously in language. It is this Force, this Shakti to which the old Vedic thinkers gave the name of Vak, the goddess of creative Speech, and the Tantric psychists supposed that this Power acts in us through different subtle nervous centres on higher and higher levels of its force and that thus the word has a graduation of its expressive powers of truth and vision.”
The unmanifest Word turned towards manifestation, parā vāk, is the pent up energy the concentrated tapas in the mulādhāra centre in the subtle body, denoted by Tripura Bhairavi. The seeing Word, the word that perceives and brings into being the manifestation, paśyanti vāk is Tara, abiding in the centre maṇipūraka. And the expressed Word, articulated Speech, vaikhari vāk, is Mātaṅgī posited in the throat-centre, viśuddhī.
The word in its pristine sweetness becomes particularly harsh viśeṣeṇa khara when it has to undergo the effort of articulation and so the articulated word is known as vaikhari. To find expression, the primordial Word from the high supernal has to descend into the tenebrous womb of matter and so the Goddess Mātaṅgī is known as Śyāmalā, the dark one. She is greenish dark in complexion, marakata śyāmā, dark as emerald. She is also exolled as bluish dark in hue; māhendra nīla dyuti komalāngi, her tender limbs have the glow of sapphire, sings the poet. The Tantra does not stop with calling the goddess dark. It accosts her as cāṇḍāli and that too is ucchiṣṭa cāṇḍāli.
Birth as a daughter of Matanga
In the Mahabharata is mentioned the story of a sage Matanga who was a Chandala by birth, but aspired for Brahminhood and prayed to Indra. The goddess of expressed speech manifested herself as the daughter of the sage Matanga and thus got her name mātangi-matanga muni kanyakā. As the goddess took birth as the daughter of a Chandala she became a Chandali. This is a satisfactory explanation of the appellation of the goddess, no doubt. But there is bound to be in this, something more than that meets the eye. Because the Tantra Shastra is justly famous for its picturesque speech, for its occult and symbolic nomenclature. Following the way of the Veda, the Tantra employs an outward common place object or word for clothing the inner significance, presses into service popular anecdotes for symbolising profound truths. The intention is that those who have the vision will see through, cakṣuṣmanto' nu paśyanti; the others who are not yet fit to enter the precincts of knowledge will remain happy at the periphery.
Matanga, Mātaṅgī
Mati is the thinking mind and mata is thought or idea. Matanga means that which goes to the thought matam gacchati iti. The unmanifest Word perceives itself for manifestation and then reaches the thinking mind for expression. This stage of the word is matanga. When the word fashioned by the heart and formulated by the mind is expressed, articulated, it is mātangi.
Lowest cast speech (antya varṇa)
From the mighty height of paramam vyoma, the Word in the course of expression descends to the lowest physical level of articulation. The great radiance which transcends all colour schemes becomes coloured when it descends for, manifestation. The Word of pristine purity becomes coloured during expression. The Sanskrit term varṇa which means colour is the term for caste, is the term for the letters of alphabet. The speech, the articulated word which is raised as an edifice of alphabets, the lowest level in the involution of Vak is picturesquely described as antya varṇa, the lowest caste. Thus the Word which is cast out is called the last caste, Chandali.
Ucchishta
What is then the significance of the term Ucchishta? Here we can do no better than quote the luminous words of Śrī Kapali Sastriar: "The Atharva Veda contains a short section of verses in which the Abode of the Supreme Being from which creation proceeds is named with great significance. It is an irony that the term it employs to denote the Supreme Source and mainstay of all creation has come to mean in later Sanskrit 'leavings of food’ ucchiṣṭa. In the Vedic text, it is used in the sense of ‘The Residual above', ut-śiṣṭa. Obviously it is so termed because any number of creations cannot diminish the infinitude of the Supreme Being that forever remains above the creation which descends from it. When the supreme Force, Shakti, of the Infinite Being above deploys certain energies for the creation of the worlds, He remains still inexhaustible and rests there forming the foundation above, upari budhna, for the creation in its downward corusel."
Thus the word when expressed does not exhaust itself. There is a vast inexhaustible ocean maho arṇah of the Word high above from which a thousand streams downward flow as articulated speech. By catching this tail-end of articulated speech, one can get at the very source of speech. If the gross is studied properly, it will lead to the subtle, the more subtle and ultimately to the great causal. The worship of Mātaṅgī leads one to the realisation of the Residual Above. This is the import of the profound appellation ucchiṣṭa cāṇḍāli.
Ganapati and Mātaṅgī
The term ‘Ucchishta Chandali' calls to the discerning mind a similar term famous in the Mantric lore Ucchishta Ganapati'. Is there any connection between the ways of worship of Ganapati and Mātaṅgī? The Word in the Veda is denoted by the term Brahman. This became in the Upanishads the term to denote the Ultimate, the Supreme Creative Godhead. Later on in the Puranas, the term became Brahma, the first of the Trinity, in charge of creation. In the Veda, the creator of the Word is Brahmanaspati. He is also accosted as Brihaspati, the master of the creative Word, "the stress in this name falling upon the potency of the Word rather than upon the thought of the general soul power which is behind it. Brihaspati gives the Word of knowledge, the rhythm of expression of the superconscient, to the gods and especially to Indra, the Lord of Mind, when they work in man as Aryan powers for the great consummation." He is one of the Angiras Rishis, at times their leader, breaking with the potency of his Word the rocks of inconscience and releasing from there the waters of divine knowledge. It can be easily seen how the Puranas absorbed this concept in their system and made Brihaspati the teacher of the gods, the Prime Minister of Indra. But what cannot be easily inferred is Brahmanaspati of the Veda continues in the Tantra, with a change of name, as Ganapati the foremost of the gods to be worshipped. The proof conclusive is the Mantra in use to invoke the God Ganapati before beginning any worship, which is the same Rik pronounced by the Vedic Seer Gritsamada of yore to call the Godhead Brahmanaspati. “O Brahmanaspati, the superb lord of the Words superb, we call thee, the master of the hosts superb, the superb poet-seer of poet-seers, one of excellent hearing, the luminous foremost; hearing us enter with thy protections and increases (our) abode". In this Rik Brahmanaspati is identified with the master of the hosts superb gaṇānām gaṇapati. In fact, in the Veda, it is the master of the hosts of Angiras Rishis, their leader. The Tantra calls the godhead, borrowing the Vedic name, Ganapati. He is vināyaka, the special leader, dvaimātura, having two mothers (earth and heaven in the Veda). He is the breaker of barriers, having mastery over them, vaughneśvara, vighnarāja, corresponding to his function in the Veda of shattering the rocks of inconscience with his luminous cry and winning the sources of knowledge. It has to be borne in mind that the Tantra, while taking the concept from the Veda, clothes it in its own imagery. Ganapati is depicted as a god with an elephant's head. If we study the common Sanskrit terms used to denote the elephant and its species, we find that they are connected with the concept of Brahmanaspati. For example airāvata, Indra’s elephant, is the offspring of irāvān, possessor of irā or ilā. And Ila is the Vedic goddess representing intuition. sāmaja which means an elephant is used in the Veda as an attribute to Brahmanaspati, one who is born of the rhythmic word sāma. Again, there is the word hasti, one who has the hasta, hand denoting skill in action in the case of Brahmanaspati and the trunk in the case of an elephant. And the elephant is noted for its sagacity, for its thinking power and memory. The words matanga, mātanga, matangaja (attaining what is thought) are well known synonyms for the elephant. Thus we see that Ganapati and Mātaṅgī denote the same concept that is expressed by the Vedic Brahmanaspati. And Ganapati, as the Word, is fourfold. As parā vāk, he is seated in the mulādhāra centre; his elephant face is in the form of Omkara, the Word that perceives what is to be created paśyantī vāk; as vaikharī vāk, he is ucchiṣṭa gaṇapati, the word with the Residual Above. In Sadhana, one should understand that Mātaṅgī is the female counterpart of Ganapati.
Corresponding to Brihaspati being the Minister to the God Indra, Mātaṅgī is worshipped as the Minister to the great Goddess Lalita, Rajarajeshwari. She is Mantrini, the Counsellor to Her Imperial Majesty parā bhaṭṭārikā and shares her regal power and splendour. So, she is called Rajamatangi, Rajashyamala. The Srividya tradition attaches much importance to her worship. Her favour leads the aspirant to the august presence of Lalita Tripurasundari. As counsellor to Lalita, as Mantrini, immense are her powers and there is nothing which she does not control. Hence she is acclaimed as sarva vaśankari. Her Mantra is mainly made up of the seed sound aiṁ and the accostations, ucchiṣṭa cāṇḍāli, mātangi, sarvavaśankarī.
Vagvadini
Vagvadini and Nakuli are her personalities. “Speak, speak, vada, vada, O Vagvadini" exhorts the aspirant with the Mantra. She is the goddess who gives the vāgvilāsa the fluency and felicity in speech. While Bagalamukhi is the stifling Shakti, Vagvadini is the Power as Expression.
Nakuli
Nakuli is described as the thunderous Word covered by the lips and encircled by the teeth. Sovereign of all speech, she confers charm and finish on one's expression. Kula in the Tantra represents the base-centre mūladhāra where is dissolved the earth element ku (pṛthvī tattvam) asmin liyate iti kulam. As the seat of fire of aspiration ever burning at the root of all, it is kulakuṇḍa. The coiled up energy that lies dormant there is the mystic serpent kula kuṇḍalini and the path it traverses from mūladhāra centre to the sahasradala centre at the top, the whole of the Sushumna channel is known as kula mārga, the path of kula. The Word traverses this path kula as parā, paśyanti and madhyama before finding itself as the formulated articulated word. It is known as vāgvajra, the thunder speech as it is born along with the lightning perception. When this word comes to the mouth and is uttered it is no longer in the kula, it is nakula and so Nakuli is the name of the Goddess of articulated expression, vaikhari.
Vina
The Sushumna channel is encased in the human body by the backbone which is picturesquely described in the Tantra as veeṇā daṇḍa, the stem of the musical instrument veena while the network of the nerves is compared to the strings. So at times Mātaṅgī is contemplated as having a Veena in her hand. Her deft fingers move swiftly on the strings enthralling the whole being in the divine melody. She is the Mother of Music, sangīta mātṛkā, the harbinger of harmonies opening the occult ear to the inaudible cadences. In the being of the aspirant who takes refuge in her there is no discord, no disharmony. He becomes a joyous instrument in the hands of the Divine Player.
Parrot
Mātaṅgī is lauded as keera karā, having the parrot in her hand. What is the significance of the parrot? All birds, like all animals, make sound: they chirp, twitter, warble etc. They do not speak. Only in the human being the sound can be expressed in the ordered form of speech. But a parrot can be trained to imitate human speech. At any rate, the parrot has not got a developed sense like that of man; even so, the sound that emanates from its bill can evolve into something like human speech without the employment of any of its known faculties. It is appropriate that the Goddess Mātaṅgī who is the ultimate expression of the Para Vāk is depicted as playfully donning a parrot in her hand. It is to indicate that it is also possible for human beings to express in speech the highest intuitions without the employment of any of their known mental faculties. In fact the worshipper of Mātaṅgī is assured of such accomplishment. Accomplished writers, skillful orators, inspired poets, marvellous musicians have always a universal appeal because they are all the myriad rays of the effulgent Mātaṅgī in manifestation.
Upasana
In the upāsana of Mātaṅgī, one should not be content with doing the japa of the Mantra or contemplating on her form as prescribed in the Tantra. One should be actively expressing oneself so as to afford a field for Mātaṅgī's manifestation. The person interested in music, while seeking her favour, should be assiduously practicing his music lessons. He who aspires to become a writer should be engaged in writing. All those who take up the Sadhana of this mahāvidyā should be constantly engaged in self-expression as a part of their Sadhana. Then
"Attention to an unseen Truth they seize
A sound as of invisible augur wings
Voices of an unplumbed significance,
Mutterings that brood in the core of Matter's sleep.
In the heart's profound audition they can catch
The murmurs lost by life's uncaring ear,
A prophet speech in thought's omniscient trance”.
Śrī Aurobtado: Savitri I. 4.
Source: The Ten Great Cosmic Powers by S. Shankaranarayanan
