[INDOLOGY] Early Orientalist attitudes towards mantras

[Matthew Kapstein]

Hi Finn,

I’m off in the boondocks with just my telephone, so I can’t send you precise references just now. But in connection with Buddhist tantra, you may wish to look at A. Csoma de Körös, Tibetan Studies, collecting his shorter articles and notes, with many concerning Indian Buddhist tantras. Burnouf also delved into this material in his Histoire, as did Vasilyev in his Buddizm. These figures were all on the more sympathetic side of the spectrum. L. Austin Waddell, on the other hand, may be the sort of author you’re looking for, if you want to find bald condemnations.

Of course, I am referring only to tantric mantras, not Vedic.

Good luck,
Matthew

On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 15:34, Finn Moore Gerety via INDOLOGY <[indology at list.indology.info](mailto:On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 15:34, Finn Moore Gerety via INDOLOGY <<a href=)> wrote:

> Dear colleagues—
>
> I’m trying to substantiate my vague impression that some 19th-century Orientalists denigrated Sanskrit mantras as mumbo-jumbo and nonsense. I wonder if anyone on this list can point me to direct quotations or historiographic discussions of this.
>
> To be clear, I’m interested in early Orientalist discourse on mantras in particular—not critiques of other Sanskrit genres such as Vedic prose (à la Max Müller’s notorious “twaddle” quotation).
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Finn
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20250816/5af440fd/attachment.htm>