Centre for Tantric Studies

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.

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 Isaacson’s text was included in the unpublished D. Phil.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