Kubjikā is the presiding goddess (kaulanāyikā) of the Paścimāmnāya tradition, one of the four principal Kaula traditions associated with the western quarter. Aside from her role in this initiatory community, she is also a pan-Indic goddess who transcends geographies, languages, social groups, and even traditions. Despite her elusive nature, she can actually be found in multiple textual canons, living traditions, and regions spanning the entire breadth of the Indic subcontinent from the Deccan region to Rajasthan, Kashmir, Nepal, Uttarakhand, Bengal, and even as far south as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The importance of her role in goddess centered (Śākta) tantric traditions and the larger history of goddess worship in Śaivism is only just becoming understood.

Although Kubjikā is often studied and understood to be a secret goddess identified with tantric traditions (and royal power) in Nepal, her reception throughout the Indic world tells another side of her story—she is also a forgotten goddess. Kubjikā’s immense popularity amongst lay devotees and initiated practitioners is indexed by her pervasive presence throughout tantric literature, ritual manuals, temples, and art. Kubjikā’s incredible diversity of mantras, practices, and forms is a testament to her once widespread veneration and worship.

Kubjikā can be found in several tantric traditions including Śrīvidyā, where her presence has been something of an open secret. Kubjikā’s veneration and the recitation of her principal mantra, which is correctly transmitted in Śrīvidyā tantras including the Jñānārṇava Tantra, has been offered as part of Śrīcakra pūjā for at least 800 years, if not longer. Although not a major goddess within the larger Śrīvidyā tradition, Kubjikā figures prominently as one of the four Samaya Vidyeśvarī goddesses (the goddesses of the initiatory lineages) where she is associated with the Paścimāmnāya. The mantras of all four Samaya Vidyeśvarī goddesses, including Kubjikā (often spelled, Kuñjikā), are recorded as the four Āmnāya mantras (caturāmnāyamantrāḥ) and are used within the Śrīcakra Āmnāyasamaṣṭi Pūjā—the ritual worship of all the Kaulāmnāya traditions and their presiding goddesses. The names of the Samaya Vidyeśvarī goddesses and their mantras were first openly published in the second edition of Śrī Umānandanātha’s Nityotsava commentary on the Paraśurāmakalpasūtra in 1930. A few years later, Śrī Cidānandanāthar (N. Subramania Iyer) of the Guhananda Mandali published all of the Samaya Vidyeśvarī mantras, including that of Kubjikā, in his groundbreaking ritual manual for the worship of the Śrīcakra entitled Śrīvidyā Saparyā Paddhatiḥ, released in 1938. There are a number of reasons scholars were unable to recognize Kubjikā’s presence in these works and continued to think her worship was extinct well into the early 2000s, but they will have to be dealt with in another publication.

The Śāmbhavodaya, and other works from the Ṣaḍanvayaśāmbhava tradition, clearly reveal that Kubjikā was known, venerated, and worshiped in South India. The Ṣaḍanvayaśāmbhava tradition was transmitted in conjunction with, and was eventually absorbed into, the Śrīvidyā. Early Śrīvidyā commentators, such as Vidyānanda, were well acquainted with the Kubjikā tantras and even cited them to help explain the intricacies of Śrīvidyā doctrine and practice. Kubjikā has never been a stranger to Śrīvidyā. Her presence and worship have been quietly preserved by the foundational Śrīvidyā commentators and gurus for countless generations. What the Śāmbhavodaya makes clear is that Kubjikā’s presence in Śrīvidyā was not limited to that of a Samaya Vidyeśvarī: she was also worshiped by the foundational Śrīvidyā gurus with proper meditational verses (dhyāna), mantras, initiations (dīkṣā), and procedures.

Learn more about Kubjikā in Śrīvidyā in “Hymns from the Śāmbhavodaya.”