Parātrīṃśikā Vivaraṇa (Part 95): The Alternate Kṣa-Based Order of Reabsorption

The alternate kṣa-based tattva-order used for adhva-śuddhi, showing the ascent from Pṛthivī and kṣa through the tattvas to Śiva-tattva, where the vowels return from visarga toward akāra.

After completing the mapping of the thirty-four tattvas and showing how the whole process takes akāra as its initial form, Abhinava now pauses and asks a very important question: what kind of sequence is this?

This is not a minor technical issue. In tantric śāstra, order matters. A sequence can express sṛṣṭi-krama, the order of emanation; saṃhāra-krama, the order of reabsorption; jñapti-krama, the order of cognition; sthiti-krama, the order of stable arrangement; or avatāra-krama, the order of descent. If one does not know which order is being used, the whole map can be misunderstood. The same tattvas and letters can be arranged differently depending on whether the scripture is teaching manifestation, return, purification, cognition, or descent.

Here the problem is sharp because the present Tantra begins with a and first places Śiva-tattva in the vowel-field, then moves through the elements and eventually reaches Śakti-tattva. But other major śāstras — Mālinīvijayottara, Siddhātantra, Svacchanda, and others — use a different arrangement, beginning from kṣa and moving through the tattvas in another order.

So Abhinava now compares orders. This is not scholastic fussiness. It is the discipline of not confusing one ritual-cognitive map with another. In one context, beginning from kṣa may be appropriate because the practice concerns adhva-śuddhi, purification of the paths, where the order of reabsorption matters. In another context, beginning from akāra may disclose the primacy of Śiva and the unfolding of the alphabetic body from the supreme ground.

The use for us is simple but serious: spiritual maps are not interchangeable diagrams. A map has a purpose. If one uses a dissolution-map as if it were an emanation-map, or a cognition-map as if it were a ritual-purification map, confusion follows. Abhinava is teaching the reader to ask: what is this sequence doing? What does this order reveal? Why does this śāstra begin here and another there?

This part therefore opens a hermeneutic investigation into order itself. It is Abhinava at his most exact: not only what the tattvas are, but why they are arranged this way.

Abhinava asks what kind of order this alphabetic sequence represents

tatra idaṃ vicāryate - prathamataḥ śivatattvam a varge tato bhūtāni ityādi yāvadante śaktitattvam - iti ko'yaṃ sṛṣṭisaṃhārajñaptisthityavatārakramāṇāṃ madhyāt kramaḥ

“Here this is to be considered: first, Śiva-tattva is placed in the a-varga; then the elements and so on follow, up to Śakti-tattva at the end. Among the possible orders — creation, dissolution, cognition, stability, or descent — what kind of order is this?”

Abhinava now stops the flow and asks the question that a serious reader must ask. The Tantra has given an order: first Śiva-tattva in the vowel group beginning with a, then the elements, then the rest of the tattvas, up to Śakti-tattva at the end. But what does this sequence mean?

This is the force of ko’yaṃ kramaḥ — what is this order? Abhinava does not assume that a list explains itself. A sequence can express many different things. It can show how reality emanates; how it is reabsorbed; how it is known; how it is stably arranged; or how it descends into manifestation. The same tattvas can be real, but their order may change depending on the purpose of the teaching.

The five possibilities he names are important. Sṛṣṭi-krama is the order of creation or emanation. Saṃhāra-krama is the order of dissolution or reabsorption. Jñapti-krama is the order of cognition or disclosure. Sthiti-krama is the order of stable arrangement. Avatāra-krama is the order of descent. These are not decorative categories; they are different ways of reading the same metaphysical field.

This is why Abhinava’s method is so powerful. He does not merely say: “Here is the map.” He asks: “What is the function of this map?” That is the difference between memorizing śāstra and understanding it. A person can repeat the tattvas and letters but still not know what the order is doing.

So this point opens the next investigation. The present sequence begins with a and Śiva, but other śāstras begin from kṣa and arrange the tattvas differently. Abhinava will now compare these orders, not to create confusion, but to show the precise purpose of each.

Other śāstras place the tattvas from kṣa toward the vowel group

sarvatra ca śrīmālinīvijayottarasiddhātantra-svacchandādiśāstreṣu kṣakārāt prabhṛti avargāntaṃ pārthivādīnāṃ śivāntānāṃ tattvānāṃ niveśaḥ uktaḥ

“And in all such scriptures as the revered Mālinīvijayottara, Siddhātantra, Svacchanda, and others, the placement of the tattvas beginning with earth and ending with Śiva is taught from kṣa onward up to the a-varga.”

Abhinava now sets the present Tantra’s order against the order found in other major scriptures. In those śāstras, the mapping begins from kṣa and moves toward the a-varga. The tattvas begin with pārthiva, earth, and proceed up to Śiva.

This matters because the present passage has just given a different-looking sequence: first Śiva-tattva in the a-varga, then the elements and the remaining tattvas, up to Śakti-tattva at the end. So Abhinava is asking: why does this Tantra begin where other scriptures end? What kind of order is being followed here?

The mention of Mālinīvijayottara, Siddhātantra, and Svacchanda is not casual. These are serious scriptural authorities. Abhinava is not dismissing them. He is comparing valid maps. The issue is not “which scripture is right?” in a crude way. The issue is: what is the function of each arrangement?

In the kṣa-based order, the movement begins from earth, the most contracted and gross tattva, and proceeds toward the higher principles. Such an order naturally suits reabsorption, purification, or ascent: beginning from the dense field and moving back toward the subtle and supreme. That is why Abhinava will soon connect this with saṃhāra-krama and adhva-śuddhi.

So the contrast is now clear. The present Tantra’s a-based order and the other śāstras’ kṣa-based order are not random alternatives. They encode different movements through the same total field. The same tattvas can be arranged differently depending on whether the scripture is showing emanation, reabsorption, purification, or another function.

The kṣa-based order begins with earth

[kṣakārāt prabhṛtīti itthamatra kramaḥ - pṛthivyāṃ kṣakāramekameva padamantravarṇarūpaṃ

“‘Beginning from kṣa’ — here the order is as follows: in earth, kṣa alone has the form of pada, mantra, varṇa, and tattva.”

The gloss now begins unpacking the alternate order used in the other śāstras. There, the sequence begins from kṣa, and the first placement is pṛthivī, earth. In earth, kṣakāra alone functions as pada, mantra, varṇa, and tattva.

This is very different from the present Tantra’s a-based opening. Here, in the kṣa-order, the movement starts from the most condensed level: earth, the grossest and most solid tattva. That already tells us something about the function of this arrangement. It is not beginning from the supreme source; it is beginning from the contracted end of manifestation.

The fact that kṣa alone is said to be pada-mantra-varṇa-rūpa is important. The letter is not merely a phonetic sign. It functions simultaneously as syllabic unit, mantraic unit, letter, and tattvic marker. In this kind of mapping, sound and tattva are not externally associated. The letter is a point where sound, mantra, and ontological level coincide.

So the order begins at the dense end of the cosmos: earth marked by kṣa. That makes sense if the context is reabsorption or purification. One begins from the grossest, most outward level and moves back toward the subtle. This is why Abhinava is comparing orders carefully. A kṣa-based sequence does not contradict an a-based sequence. It serves another ritual and contemplative function.

From water to avyakta, twenty-three letters are distributed among the tattvas

avādyavyaktānteṣu tattveṣu hādi-ṭāntāstrayoviṃśativarṇāḥ caturakṣare dve padamantre pañcākṣarāṇi trīṇi

“In the tattvas beginning with water and ending with avyakta, there are twenty-three letters, from ha to ṭa: two pada-mantras of four syllables, and three of five syllables.”

The gloss now continues explaining the alternate kṣa-based order used in other śāstras. After earth is assigned kṣa alone, the sequence moves through the tattvas beginning with water and ending with avyakta, the unmanifest. Across these tattvas are distributed twenty-three letters, from ha to ṭa.

This is no longer the simple single-letter assignment seen with earth. Here the letters are grouped into pada-mantras: two of four syllables and three of five syllables. The important point is that the alphabet is being used not merely as a list of sounds, but as a mantraic map of the tattvas. Letter, word-unit, mantra-unit, and ontological level are being coordinated.

The practical meaning is that the other śāstric order is not random or inferior. It has its own internal precision. Beginning from kṣa, it moves from the most contracted level upward, distributing the letters through the tattvas in a way suited to its own ritual and contemplative purpose. Abhinava is showing the logic of that system before comparing it with the present Tantra’s order.

So the movement remains clear: the present Tantra begins from a and Śiva, but these other śāstras begin from kṣa and earth. One is not simply “right” and the other “wrong.” They are different mappings for different processes. Here, the kṣa-based sequence begins from the gross end and organizes the ascent through letters and mantraic groupings.

Among the levels from puṃs to māyā, seven letters are assigned

pumādimāyānteṣu ghādi-ñāntāḥ sapta varṇāḥ padamantre dve pañcākṣaramekaṃ dvyakṣaraṃ dvitīyamiti

“Among the levels beginning with puṃs and ending with māyā, there are seven letters, from gha to ña: two pada-mantras, one of five syllables and the second of two syllables.”

The gloss now continues the alternate kṣa-based arrangement. After the twenty-three letters distributed among the tattvas from water to avyakta, the next range concerns the levels from puṃs to māyā. Here seven letters are assigned, from gha to ña.

This is a more compact grouping. The letters are arranged into two pada-mantras: one five-syllabled, one two-syllabled. Again, the point is not merely arithmetic. The tattvas are being gathered into mantraic units. The alphabet is not only marking metaphysical categories one by one; it is being shaped into mantra-structures appropriate for a specific ritual and contemplative use.

The range from puṃs to māyā is also meaningful. This is the field where the limited subject and the powers of limitation become central. Puṃs is the finite experiencer. Māyā is the principle through which separative manifestation becomes operative. So this cluster concerns the transition from the individual limited subject into the broader structure of differentiation that conditions that subject.

In this alternate order, these levels are not explained from the supreme downward, but from the contracted side upward. The practitioner moves from earth and grossness, through subtle structures, toward the limiting principles and eventually toward the higher divine levels. That is why the kṣa-based order is suited to saṃhāra and purification: it takes the bound condition seriously as the starting point and traces it back toward its source.

For Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva, three letters are assigned

śuddhavidyeśvarasadāśiveṣu ca ga-kha-kā varṇāstrayaḥ

“And in Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva, there are the three letters ga, kha, and ka.”

The gloss now reaches the higher divine levels in the alternate kṣa-based order. After earth receives kṣa, after the lower tattvas receive the letters from ha to ṭa, and after the field from puṃs to māyā receives the letters from gha to ña, the next three levels — Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva — receive ga, kha, and ka.

The movement is now very compressed. As the sequence rises toward the supreme levels, fewer letters are needed. The lower and middle domains require wider distribution because differentiation is more spread out. But as the order ascends toward the divine strata, the structure becomes more concentrated. Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva are not grossly plural fields in the same way; they are purer articulations of the relation between aham and idam.

This also helps us understand why the other śāstras begin from kṣa. The movement is one of return from grossness toward source: earth, then subtler tattvas, then the limited subject and Māyā, then the divine triad of Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva. The alphabet contracts as the field becomes more unified.

So the gloss is not merely listing letters. It is showing how the kṣa-order climbs from dense manifestation back toward the luminous center. The divine levels receive the first consonants of the ka-varga, approaching the threshold where the vowels will finally mark Śiva-tattva itself.

In Śiva-tattva, the sixteen vowels form one single varṇa-pada-mantra-tattva

śivatattve punaḥ svaraṣoḍaśātmakamekameva varṇapadamantratattvam

“And in Śiva-tattva, again, there is one single varṇa-pada-mantra-tattva, whose nature is the sixteen vowels.”

The gloss now reaches the summit of the alternate kṣa-based order. After the ascent through earth, the lower tattvas, puṃs, māyā, Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva, it arrives at Śiva-tattva. Here the structure becomes radically simple: the sixteen vowels together form one single reality — ekam eva varṇa-pada-mantra-tattvam.

This matters because the vowels are not being treated as many separate items in the ordinary sense. At the level of Śiva-tattva, the sixteen vowels form one undivided unit. Letter, word, mantra, and tattva are no longer functioning as separate layers. They converge. The sound-body is gathered into unity.

This is the logic of ascent in the kṣa-based order. At the lower levels, letters are distributed across differentiated tattvas. As the sequence rises, the distribution becomes more concentrated. Finally, in Śiva-tattva, the whole vowel-field is one. Differentiation has been reabsorbed into the supreme vocalic ground.

So the alternate order has its own beauty. It begins from kṣa and earth, the most condensed point, and moves back toward the pure vowel-field of Śiva. The sixteen vowels here are not a list but a single luminous totality. The many sounds return to one sound-body.

Because Śakti is primary and not different from Śiva, this vowel-totality is one

tacca śaktitvaprādhānyādekameva śaktirhi na śaktimato bhinnā bhavitumarhatīti bhāvaḥ |

“And that is one only, because of the primacy of Śakti. For Śakti cannot be different from the possessor of Śakti — this is the sense.”

The gloss now explains why, in Śiva-tattva, the sixteen vowels form one single varṇa-pada-mantra-tattva. The reason is śaktitva-prādhānya — the primacy of Śakti. The vowel-totality is one because the power is not truly different from the possessor of power.

This is a crucial point. One might imagine Śiva as the possessor and Śakti as something added to him, like an instrument or attribute. Abhinava does not allow that. Śakti is not external to Śaktimat, the one who possesses power. Power is the very self-expression of the powerful. If Śiva were without Śakti, he would not be the living source of manifestation; and if Śakti were separate from Śiva, nonduality would be broken.

So the sixteen vowels, though multiple in phonetic articulation, are one in the supreme tattva because they express the unity of Śiva-Śakti. The vowels are not many separate powers scattered in Śiva-tattva. They are the one power of consciousness in its vocalic fullness.

This also clarifies why the alternate kṣa-based order culminates in a single vowel-totality. As the sequence ascends from the dense field of earth back toward the supreme, differentiation is gathered into unity. At Śiva-tattva, sound is no longer dispersed as many separate placements. The whole vowel-field is one because Śakti is not other than Śiva.

This line is short, but doctrinally enormous. It prevents any split between transcendence and power, possessor and potency, silence and expression. The supreme is not mute emptiness with Śakti later attached. The supreme is already living power, and that power is one with him.

In Śiva-tattva, the vowel sequence is used in reverse for saṃhāra and adhva-śuddhi

kṣityāditattvacatustriṃśataḥ kṣakārātprabhṛti caikamekaṃ yojayitvā pūrve vyāpakatayābhimate saśaktike ṣaṭtriṃśe tattve saṃhārakramasya adhvaśuddhāvucitatvāt visargādārabhya ānulomyena akāraparyantasvaraṣoḍaśakatvam

“Having assigned one letter at a time from kṣa onward to the thirty-four tattvas beginning with earth, then, in the earlier, all-pervasive thirty-sixth tattva together with Śakti, because the order of reabsorption is appropriate for adhva-śuddhi, there is the sixteenfold sequence of vowels beginning with visarga and proceeding in order up to akāra.”

The gloss now explains why this alternate kṣa-based order uses the vowels in the way it does. First, the thirty-four tattvas beginning with kṣiti, earth, are assigned letters one by one from kṣa onward. This confirms the basic orientation: the sequence begins from the gross, contracted end of manifestation and moves back toward the supreme.

Then the text reaches the ṣaṭtriṃśa tattva, the thirty-sixth tattva, understood as all-pervasive and together with Śakti — saśaktika. Here the order becomes specifically a saṃhāra-krama, an order of reabsorption, because this is appropriate for adhva-śuddhi, purification of the paths. In ritual and contemplative purification, one often begins from the manifest, gross, bound condition and reabsorbs it back into the subtle and supreme. So the order must follow the logic of return, not outward emanation.

That is why the vowels are taken from visarga back toward akāra. Visarga marks emission, outpouring, the point where expression has already opened. Akāra is the root opening, the first sound, the source-like beginning. In a reabsorptive order, the movement returns from emitted expansion toward the primal source. The vowel sequence is therefore not arbitrary. It mirrors the ritual logic of purification: what has spread outward is led back into its origin.

This point is important for understanding Abhinava’s larger question. Different scriptures arrange the letters differently because they are doing different work. The kṣa-based order is suitable for adhva-śuddhi, because it begins from the gross tattvas and moves through reabsorption toward the supreme. The present Tantra’s a-based order will need to be understood according to a different function. The question is not which alphabetic order is “correct” in isolation, but which order serves which process.

Supporting verse: the kṣa-based order leads to the sixteen vowels in the supreme Śiva-tattva

uktaṃ cānyatra

tata ekaikavarṇatvaṃ tattve tattve kṣamāditaḥ |
kṛtvā śaive pare proktaḥ ṣoḍaśārṇo visargataḥ ||

iti |

“And it has been said elsewhere:

‘Having assigned one letter to each tattva, beginning with earth from kṣa onward, the sixteen-lettered sequence beginning with visarga is taught in the supreme Śaiva level.’”

Abhinava now supports the gloss’s explanation with a cited verse. The verse confirms the structure of the alternate kṣa-based order: beginning with earth, one letter is assigned to each tattva. The movement starts from the dense end of manifestation — kṣamā, earth — and proceeds upward.

Then, when the sequence reaches the supreme Śaiva level, śaive pare, the sixteen vowels are taught beginning from visarga. This matches the reabsorptive logic explained in the previous point. In adhva-śuddhi, the practitioner moves from gross manifestation back toward source. The order therefore begins from kṣa, earth, and returns through the tattvas until the vowel-field is reached.

The verse matters because it shows that this alternate order is not Abhinava’s private reconstruction. It is grounded in another śāstric statement. The kṣa-to-earth mapping and the visarga-to-vowel sequence are already part of a recognized ritual-cosmological arrangement.

So this point seals the legitimacy of the other order before Abhinava returns to the present Tantra’s own sequence. He is not rejecting the kṣa-based arrangement. He is showing that it belongs to a particular function — especially reabsorption and purification. Only after that can he ask why the present text uses a different order beginning from a.

This placement is called ādyadhārikā

ādyadhārikayā [dhāriketi

mataṃ caitanmaheśasya śrīpūrve yadabhāṣata |
dhārikāpyāyinī boddhrī pavitrī cāvakāśadā ||

iti |]

“By the ādyadhārikā — and regarding dhārikā, it is said in the revered Pūrva:

‘This is the doctrine of Maheśa, which he taught in the Śrīpūrva: she is dhārikā, nourishing, awakening, purifying, and space-giving.’”

Abhinava now introduces the term ādyadhārikā to characterize this placement of tattvas from earth up to Śiva in the alternate kṣa-based order. The gloss explains dhārikā through a cited verse from the Śrīpūrva: she holds, nourishes, awakens, purifies, and gives space.

This is important because the order is not merely classificatory. It has a ritual and transformative function. Dhārikā is not just “the holder” in a static sense. She is also āpyāyinī, nourishing; boddhrī, awakening; pavitrī, purifying; and avakāśadā, giving space or opening. So this sequence is a power of holding that also restores, clarifies, purifies, and makes room for ascent.

That fits the earlier point about adhva-śuddhi. In purification of the paths, one begins from the contracted field and moves back through the tattvas. The order must be able to hold the practitioner’s movement, nourish the process, awaken insight, purify the layers, and open space for reabsorption into the higher principles. This is why the kṣa-based order is appropriate in that context.

So this point gives the alternate sequence its living name. It is not only a reverse alphabetic arrangement. It is ādyadhārikā, a holding power that guides the tattvas through purification and return. 

The pervaded supreme tattva is accepted as one

vyāptaṃ tatraikaṃ tattvamiṣyate |

“There, the pervaded supreme tattva is accepted as one.”

The supporting verse now completes the point about the supreme level in the alternate kṣa-based order. After the letters have been assigned one by one through the tattvas beginning with earth, the supreme Śaiva level is not treated as another fragmented domain. It is accepted as ekaṃ tattvam — one tattva.

This follows the logic already explained: in the supreme level, the sixteen vowels form one varṇa-pada-mantra-tattva because Śakti is not separate from Śiva. Multiplicity of vowels does not break the unity of the supreme. The whole vowel-field is gathered into one luminous totality.

So the verse confirms that the ascent from kṣa does not end in another plural structure. It ends in unity — the all-pervasive supreme tattva where the reabsorptive order reaches its source.

The kṣa-syllable should be remembered distinctly in padas, varṇas, and mantras

ekamevaṃ pṛthak kṣārṇaṃ padārṇamanuṣu smaret ||

“In this way, one should remember the single kṣa-syllable distinctly in the padas, varṇas, and mantras.”

The verse closes by returning to the practical memory of the arrangement. The kṣārṇa, the syllable kṣa, is to be remembered distinctly in relation to pada, varṇa, and mantra. This confirms again that the order is not merely theoretical. It is meant to be held in ritual and contemplative memory.

The alternate sequence is therefore a usable map: beginning from kṣa and earth, moving through the tattvas, and reabsorbing the field back toward the supreme vowel-totality. The practitioner is not only studying metaphysics; he is learning how sound, mantra, and tattva are to be placed and remembered.

So the movement closes well here. The kṣa-based order has been shown as a legitimate reabsorptive sequence, appropriate for adhva-śuddhi, supported by śāstric citation, and grounded in the unity of Śiva and Śakti at the supreme level.