Pañca-mak
ra
or pañca-tattva
.
Five ritual ingredients whose first letter is ‘m’:
madya
(wine or alcoholic beverage),
ma
sa
(meat),
matsya
(fish),
mudr
![](/files/02/59/75/f025975/public/00006.jpg)
(parched grain), and
maithuna
(sexual intercourse). The five Ms are central to
Tantric
liturgy, and are interpreted, either literally by left-hand (
v
m
c
ra
) sects such as the
Kaulas
and
K
p
likas
, or symbolically by right-hand (
dak
in
c
ra
) sects. The left-hand groups seek perfection and power (
siddhi
) through the use of prohibited substances.