Centre for Tantric Studies

The First International Workshop on Early Tantra is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 15th to 26th September, 2008.

The Workshop, convened in connection with the Early Tantra project, explores the interrelationships and ritual syntax of Śaiva, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and Saura tantric traditions in their formative period.

In the morning sessions, participants read draft editions of the tantric works selected for the project, namely the Niśvāsa Guhyasūtra, Brahmayāmala, Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, and an anonymous commentary on the Trisamayarājatantra.

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 Isaacson’s text was included in the unpublished D. Phil.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.