Dear Dean and others,

Shaman Hatley discusses the widespread motif of the massive, unrevealed Ur-Tantra in his 2007 doctoral thesis (pp.268--272).  It is available through the UPenn repository: <http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3292099/>.  

This idea reminds me of the Purusa-sukta too, where it says that ¾ of him is in heaven and only ¼ on earth, but perhaps this is a tenuous connection.

All the best,

Michael Slouber

Visiting Adjunct Instructor
Religious Studies
Brown University

http://garudam.info

On Feb 14, 2012, at 10:16 AM, Dean Michael Anderson wrote:

I first ran across this idea when reading the Kathasaritsagara of Somadeva. It says that the number of verses in the extant text are only a subset of a larger text that exists in heaven. Depending on the situation on earth a different number of verses might manifest. I've since run across it in passing in some tantric writings as well. Does anyone know the origin of this idea of a large heavenly corpus in contrast to a smaller earthly one? Or have any citations for texts that mention it? Best, Dean