HomeGlossarypanchamakara

panchamakara

पञ्चमकार pañcamakāra

The 'five m's' of Kaula tantric ritual: madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and maithuna (union). In left-hand practice they are used literally; in right-hand and Samaya practice they are taken symbolically or internally.

Where this term appears

  • What is Tantra? Lineages

    The point of friction is a set of practices called the panchamakara , the "five Ms," because each begins with the sound ma in Sanskrit: madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and mait…

  • The 64 Śākta Tantras Lineages

    The five m's, honestly No account of the Śākta Tantras can avoid the pañcamakāra , the "five m's," because no subject in Tantra has been more distorted.

  • What are Mudras? Lineages

    A mudra is a "seal," and the word covers four different things that most people never connect: the hand-poses of temple images (like the raised palm of…

  • What is Shaktism? Lineages

    …ate ritually uses five substances that ordinary religion forbids: the panchamakara , the five Ms, being wine, meat, fish, parched grain and sexual union.

  • Kameshvara - And The Four Acharas Treatise

    …dures the orthodox brahmanical tradition treats as unacceptable - the panchamakara (the five M-substances: madya wine, mamsa meat, matsya fish, mudra parched grain, maithuna ritual sexual union), cremation-grou…

  • The Caste And Gender Question Treatise

    This included, in the accounts that survive, the Panchamakara engagement that Chapter 3 walked.

  • The Closing Treatise

    Volume 5 walked the open disputes — the Kaula-Samaya dispute, the Panchamakara question, the Vedic-Tantric authorisation, the caste-and-gender question, the mantric primacy question, the householder-renunciate …

  • The Dispute Frame Treatise

    The second dispute Chapter 3 walks is the Panchamakara question — whether the five ritual substances of the Tantric tradition (wine, meat, fish, parched grain, sexual union) are to be taken literally (Vamachara…

Related terms

← All terms · Search the site