Centre for Tantric Studies

We are pleased to announce the commencement of a new research project with a tantric studies component — Early Śaiva Mythology: A study of the formative period of an integrated religious vision.

This project, a collaboration between Peter Bisschop at the University of Edinburgh and Harunaga Isaacson, is funded by the DFG and the AHRC. It aims to investigate developments culminating in the production of the first Śaiva Purāṇas through the study of a variety of sources, including representatives of the epic, Purāṇic, poetic (kāvya), and tantric genres. It will be carried out over the next three years.

• For further information, please see the Early Śaiva Mythology project.

Mr. Péter-Daniel Szántó, a doctoral student at Oxford University, will give the following presentation:

A Sanskrit Manuscript of the Anāvilatantra —
Biography of a ‘Spurious’ Tantric Buddhist Scripture

• Date: Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 6:15 pm
• Venue: Room 123, Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 (Ostflügel)

We are pleased to announce the release of our largest e-text to date, the Nārāyaṇīya Tantrasārasaṃgraha or Viṣanārāyaṇīya by Nārāyaṇa of Śivapuram. This work belongs to the Gāruḍatantra or Bhūtatantra category of Śaiva tantras, which deals with tantric remedies for ailments such as snakebite.

This e-text was kindly input and contributed by Michael Slouber at the University of California, Berkeley. Contributions to our corpus of e-texts (see our guidelines) are welcome.

• The e-text: NāTaSāSa.txt.