Tantric Studies

The principal works that have emerged from our stimulating project on ‘Early Tantra’ are critical editions and translations of previously unpublished primary material, which have begun to appear in this new series. This volume complements those publications by gathering together some of the fruits, direct and indirect, of the wide-ranging discussions that took place during the project’s workshops. By way of introduction, the volume opens with an attempt by the editors to draw together our findings about the “shared ritual syntax” of some of the earliest known works of the tantric traditions, with a particular emphasis on the Buddhist Manjusriyamulakalpa and the Saiva Nisvasatattvasamhita. Seven further contributions, by Dominic Goodall, Peter Bisschop, Judit Törzsök, Diwakar Acharya, Anna A. Slaczka, Libbie Mills and Péter-Daniel Szanto, throw light on a wide range of topics: the Saivatattvas and their evolution, yogini-temples, alphabet-deities, an early treatise of snake-related magic, iconographic prescriptions in early pratisthatantras, the implications of the use of the bhutasankhya system, and a fragment of a Buddhist tantric sadhana.ContentsPreface / PréfaceDominic Goodall and Harunaga IsaacsonAbbreviationsList of FiguresNotes on Contributors / À propos des contributeursOn the Shared ‘Ritual Syntax’ of the Early Tantric TraditionsDominic Goodall and Harunaga IsaacsonHow the Tattvas of Tantric Saivism Came to Be 36: The Evidence of the NisvasatattvasamhitaDominic GoodallA 12th-Century Varanasimahatmya and Its Account of a Hypethral Yogini-TemplePeter BisschopThe Emergence of the Alphabet Goddess Matrka in Early Saiva TantrasJudit TörzsökThree Fragmentary Folios of a 9th-Century Manuscript of an Early Bhutatantra Taught by MahamahesvaraDiwakar AcharyaThe Two Iconographic Chapters from the Devyamata and the Art of BengalAnna A. SlaczkaBhutasa?khyas as a Dating Tool for Pratistha LiteratureLibbie MillsMinor Vajrayana Texts I: A Fragment from Abhayakaragupta’s SrisamvarabhisamayopayikaPéter-Dániel SzántóIndexIllustrations