Trika is a system of ritual whose goal is the acquisition of the supernatural powers of the harmony of female deities. It epitomises the human-friendly and destructive aspects of existence. The eight mother goddesses and their expressions in families of female spirits called Yoginis were associated with this cult. They may be invoked and pacified, in the impure cremation ground on the margins of society, with offerings of impure and potent substances like blood, flesh and wine.

According to the Trika Darsana there are three realities that include the Supreme Transcendent, the Supreme Creative Energy and the Spiritual Atom. The cult adopted the all-devouring Goddess Kali as the unifying form of the original trinity. From 900 CE the Trika was competing with the dualistic system of ritual and theology known as Shaiva Siddhanta. Trika was articulated in the sophisticated Pratyabhijna philosophy and it was able to defeat the challenges posed by dualism, Buddhism and Vedantic illusionism. Impure substances are held to induce ecstasy, a sense of freedom that arises from violating a taboo. Trika votaries understand bondage to worldly existence as the self-limitation.

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