[INDOLOGY] Fw: Olga Serbaeva on the Jayadrathayāmala

[Nemec, John William (jwn3y)]

Dear Colleagues,

I share the following on behalf of Rob Mayer of Oxford University.   Do join the Oxford Treasure Seminar, as per below!

- John

________________________________
Oxford Treasure Seminar, 6th Series


Dr Olga Serbaeva, Universität Zürich


Wednesday 26th February 2025, 17:00 GMT, On Zoom https://bit.ly/treasureseminar


Title:

"Nidhi (treasure) in the Jayadrathayāmala, a 10th century tantric compendium from Kashmir".


Abstract:

"The tantric texts dedicate special chapters to the search for nidhi (treasures). The vision of hidden treasures is considered to be a siddhi  (supernatural ability) that occurs after many thousand rounds of mantra repetition and other rituals. Generally, nidhi is considered material treasures, i.e. gold, precious stones, and any other objects related to becoming wealthy. In JY, there is a strong link between nidhi and Kubera,  and a particular form of Kālī, called Nidhīśvarī or Kuberajananī, from JY.4.54, once propitiated, bestows the treasures to the sādhakas. Another aspect, closer to the visionary nature of the experiences leading to finding treasures, shall allow us to bring in the JY materials on the altered states of consciousness, where the visionary switch happens in particular conditions after particular auditive and physical forerunning signs. We shall discover how nidhi fits among other consciousness-altering practices such as āveśa/svasthāveśa, khorika, prasena. The prescriptive JY shall be compared to the flowery Kathāsāritsāgara,  a text recompiled by Somadeva in the late 11th century Kashmir, reusing some contemporary tantric references and materials."


Bio:

Olga Serbaeva completed her PhD on yoginīs in Śaiva Purāṇas and Tantras at the University of Lausanne, followed by a habilitation thesis at  Zurich on the Vidyāpīṭha Tantras. She has published and lectured widely in Russian, German, English and French, and is a well known expert in the voluminous and important Jayadrathayāmala compendium, a key source for  the non-dual Śaivism of Kashmir.  Her research interests include Śaiva Tantric texts, yoginīs, conceptualisation of the feminine in Indian traditions, and the transcreations of Indian concepts related to altered states of consciousness in contemporary Europe. Since 2012 she is working as databases designer and developer at various Swiss Universities (UZH, UNIL, UNIBAS) and creates applications and performs data analysis for the research projects in Humanities.




[cid:c36d2f57-0576-457a-8842-cc72da3c7486 at GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM]


Robert Mayer
Wolfson College & Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford

https://thsc.web.ox.ac.uk/treasure-seminar-series

https://oxford.academia.edu/RobertMayer


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