Centre for Tantric Studies

We are pleased to announce an e-text of the Kāśyapīya Garuḍapañcākṣarīkalpa by Kāśyapa. This work in thirteen adhyāyas offers prescriptions on the treatment of poison, particularly snakebite, using various mantric procedures. It belongs to a once-common class of tantric literature, the Gāruḍatantras, of which few examples now survive.

This e-text was kindly input and contributed by Michael Slouber at the University of California, Berkeley.

We cordially welcome such contributions. Those who are interested in submitting e-texts are invited to read our guidelines.

• The e-text: GaPaKa.txt.

Our new e-text is a partly edited transcription by Prof. Harunaga Isaacson of the Abhiṣekanirukti of Jinasujayaśrīgupta, a student of the famous scholar Ratnākaraśānti.

In the Abhiṣekanirukti Jinasujayaśrīgupta treats in unusual detail theoretical questions concerning tantric Buddhist initiation, such as how and why the performance of this ritual is effective. A number of divergent views on these central questions are presented. This unique work has not been published before, though an earlier version of Prof. Isaacson’s text was included in the unpublished D. Phil. dissertation of Dr. Isabelle Onians, and translated as ‘The Explanation of Initiation’ (Oxford, 2001, pp.323–348).

• The e-text: AbhiNir.txt.
• See also other CTS e-texts.
• This is one of several Vajrayāna works being read in Prof. Isaacson’s ‘Conceptions of bodhi in Indian Tantric Buddhism’ class. See our current teaching program for details.

We are pleased to announce recent appointments in projects connected with the Centre for Tantric Studies:

• The Early Tantra project brings Dr. Martin Delhey to the ‘Nepalese Manuscript of the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa‘ sub-project.
• The Manuscript Cultures Research Group has two sub-projects of relevance to tantric studies. Mr. Camillo Formigatti, M.A., comes to Hamburg for the ‘Indian and Nepalese Manuscript Annotations‘ sub-project. Dr. Orna Almogi is attached to the ‘Variants in Manuscripts of the rNying ma rgyud ‘bum‘ sub-project.

For further information, please see our page on research projects.