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.

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 Isaacson’s text was included in the unpublished D. Phil.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

• 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.

The Nāda Theory of Language:
A Śaiva Perspective on Verbal Communication.

Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, 30 April 2007.

In the seminar ‘Tibetan Sādhanas from Dunhuang’, a number of manuscripts connected with the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgraha are being read: IOL Tib J 417, 447, 448 and others (*Tattvasaṃgraha sādhanopāyikas) and Pelliot tibétain 300, 792, and others.

In the ‘Developments in Early Tantric Ritual’ lectures, Prof. Dalton surveys the historical factors at work in the first formative periods of tantric Buddhism, starting with Brahmanical and proto-tantric liturgy and concluding with the advent of Mahāyoga tantras in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Prof. Dalton’s classes are offered as part of the Asia-Africa Institute’s ongoing teaching in tantric studies.

Words of the Yoginīs:
Reflections on the Textual History of the Buddhist Yoginītantras

• Date: Friday, 25th April 2008, 5 pm
• Venue: Lecture Room 1 (LR1), Oriental Institute (Oxford University Faculty of Oriental Studies), Pusey Lane, Oxford, UK
• Convenor: Dr. Robert Mayer, Oriental Institute, Oxford

• Conceptions of bodhi in Indian Tantric Buddhism (Prof. Harunaga Isaacson)
• Besitzer von [magischem und soteriologischem] Wissen (rig ’dzin: vidyādhara) in tibetischen tantrischen Texten (Dr. Dorji Wangchuk)
• Die [durch] Gold [erworbenen] Lehren (gser chos): Tantrische Schriften der Shangs-pa-bka’-brgyud-Schule (Dorji Wangchuk)
• Ausgewähle Passage aus dem Mila rnam mgur (Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes)

We will also offer two classes specifically in tantric studies, both to be taught from May by this semester’s Numata Professor, Jacob Dalton, visiting from Yale University:

• Developments in Early Tantric Ritual
• Tibetan Sādhanas from Dunhuang

For further details, please see our full list.

• 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.] ]]> http://www.tantric-studies.org/2008/02/19/pajavi-gusamavi/feed/ http://www.tantric-studies.org/2008/02/08/manuscript-cultures/ http://www.tantric-studies.org/2008/02/08/manuscript-cultures/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:48:57 +0000 CTS http://www.tantric-studies.org/2008/02/08/manuscript-cultures/ An interdisciplinary project, the Manuscript Cultures Research Group at the University of Hamburg, has just been awarded three years’ funding by the DFG. The Group aims to advance the study of the vast manuscript heritage of India, Tibet, Japan, China, Iran, Ethiopia and the Arab world.

Of particular relevance to tantric studies are the projects on the Manuscript Collections of the Ancient Tantras (rNying ma rgyud ‘bum) and Marginal Annotations in Sanskrit Manuscripts, both to be overseen by Prof. Harunaga Isaacson.

Funding is allocated for a number of research positions, and also for the support of international Fellows, conferences and publications. The Manuscript Cultures Group builds on the University’s well-known experience with manuscript collections from Nepal, now continuing into its third decade under the auspices of the NGMCP.

• Press release outlining the project (6 February 2008)
• Summary of the subprojects connected with the CTS
• Official site: www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de

This project, a collaboration with the École française d’Extrême-Orient, directed on the French side by Dominic Goodall and on the German side by Harunaga Isaacson, and funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale de Recherche) and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), aims to uncover connections between tantric systems through the study of a number of early sources. Texts to be edited include the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Brahmayāmala, the Nepalese Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa manuscript and the Trisamayarājatantra commentary. It will be carried out over the next three years.

• Please visit our Early Tantra project page for further information.