Centre for Tantric Studies » E-texts

New e-text: Nārāyaṇīya Tantrasārasaṃgraha

CTS — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:30:25 +0000

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.

New e-text: Kāśyapīya Garuḍapañcākṣarīkalpa

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:27:17 +0000

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.

New e-text: Abhiṣekanirukti

CTS — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:06:21 +0000

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 Isaacson’s text was included in the unpublished D. Phil.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

Three new e-texts

CTS — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:28:49 +0000

There are three new additions to our collection of e-texts:

The first two e-texts are a Parājapavidhi and Parāmantravidhi, and a *Bhadrakālī-mantravidhiprakaraṇa, from a Śaiva-influenced Āṅgirasa manuscript originating in Orissa.

These e-texts are derived from the editions published in Prof. Alexis Sanderson’s article “Atharvavedins in Tantric Territory” (2007). This article, conveniently available online, provides critical apparatus and English translations of these texts. We thank Prof. Sanderson for permission to include these e-texts in the CTS collection.

The third e-text is the Guhyasamājamaṇḍalavidhi of Dīpaṃkarabhadra. Our e-text of this very influential early Buddhist tantric work comprises a completely new transcription by Sabine Klein-Schwind, proofread and revised by Prof. Harunaga Isaacson.

This transcription has not hitherto been published; the text is available only via our website. It offers a number of improvements on the version of this work published in Dhīḥ no.42 (2006).

[Update: a new version of the Parājapavidhi and Parāmantravidhi e-text has been uploaded, with a number of errors corrected. We are grateful to Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva for pointing out these conversion errors in our first release.]

Pañcakrama e-text added

CTS — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:39:29 +0000

Our e-text of the Pañcakrama, traditionally attributed to Nāgārjuna, is now available here.

The Pañcakrama, which belongs to the Ārya school of Guhyasamāja exegesis, is a work which came to have fundamental importance in tantric Buddhism.

The present e-text is based on the edition in Tomabechi (2006), with a few corrections by Harunaga Isaacson (most substantially in 4.37b). Further materials related to the text are given in Mimaki & Tomabechi (1994). Please see our e-text references for full citations.