Upanishads · Tripurātāpinī 49
॥
Devanāgarī
द्वितीयमन्तरालं भवति । तृतीयमष्टयोन्यङ्कितं भवति
Transliteration (IAST)
dvitīyamantarālaṃ bhavati | tṛtīyamaṣṭayonyaṅkitaṃ bhavati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
द्वितीयम् अन्तरालं भवतिdvitīyam antarālaṃ bhavatithe second is the intermediate
तृतीयम् अष्ट-योनि-अङ्कितं भवतिtṛtīyam aṣṭa-yoni-aṅkitaṃ bhavatithe third is marked with eight wombs
Translation
«The second is the intermediate; the third is marked with eight wombs».
Version
c284a2164a26 · published Aug 7, 2026, 5:19:24 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The construction continues, and the word yoni must be explained, or it will cause confusion. It means «womb, source, place of birth», and in the language of drafting simply a downward-pointing triangle. In the śrī-cakra there are forty-three of them, formed from nine large ones: four pointing upward (Śiva) and five downward (Śakti). In construction this is a drafting term, like «acute angle», and reading it as something indecent is a failure to understand the language.
For the sake of precision one must say something else too. The term is not chosen by accident: this diagram truly is conceived as the meeting of the male and the female, and the book speaks of this openly. But it is conceived not as a depiction of intercourse, but as a diagram of begetting: the intersection of the rising and falling triangles gives forty-three small ones, and every one of them is a place where two have met.
No prudishness is called for here. Vaishnava books speak constantly of birth and kinship, and describe the highest through them; and that tantra took the word of begetting for its diagram is not coarseness but consistency: if the world comes from the union of two (5, 17, 18), its diagram too must be a diagram of union.