The Niśvāsatattvasaṃ̣hitā. The
Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra. Volume 1.
A Critical Edition & Annotated Translation of the
Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra & Nayasūtra.
Edited by Dominic Goodall in collaboration with
Alexis Sanderson & Harunaga Isaacson with contributions of
Nirajan Kafle, Diwakar Acharya & others, Collection Indologie n˚ 128; Early Tantra Series
n˚ 1, Institut Français de Pondichéry / Ecole française
d’Extrême-Orient / Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg, 662
p.
Language: Sanskrit,
English. 1200 Rs (52 €). ISBN: 978-81-8470-205-7
(IFP) / 978-2-85539-151-9 (EFEO).
Transmitted to us in a well-preserved
ninth-century Nepalese manuscript, the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā
has come in recent years to be recognised as probably the
oldest surviving complete scripture of the Mantramārga. Although its historical
importance has been hinted at by a range of scholars across
the twentieth century, this is the first time its text appears
in print.
This volume presents a critical edition and annotated
translation of the three earliest layers of the text: the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra and Nayasūtra. The
topics dealt with include cosmology, rituals of worship and
initiation, and forms of yoga. A lengthy introduction sets
these sūtras in
context, in particular by examining the evidence for dating
them. There follow a summary of their contents, an account of
the early manuscript and its three twentieth-century
apographs, and a treatment of the various ways in which the
language of the Niśvāsa deviates from Pāṇinian norms.
Keywords: Mantramārga, Śaivism, Śaivasiddhānta, Early
Tantra, Ritual, Initiation, Cosmography, Yoga
About the Editors
After studies in Oxford and in Hamburg, Dominic
Goodall passed several years working in Pondicherry,
where he was head of the Pondicherry Centre of the École
française d’Extrême-Orient from 2002 to 2011. He has
published critical editions of Śaiva works and of
classical Sanskrit poetry (most recently, with Csaba Dezső,
the eighth-century Kuṭṭanīmata of Dāmodaragupta). He
is currently based in Paris, where he gives lectures on Indian
and Cambodian Sanskrit literature at the École pratique des
hautes études (religious science section).
Alexis
G. J. S. Sanderson is a renowned expert on the history of Śaivism
and on tantric traditions. After taking undergraduate degrees
in Classics and Sanskrit at Balliol College, Oxford, he spent
six years in Kashmir studying with the celebrated scholar and
Śaiva guru Swami Lakshman Joo. From 1977 to 1992 he was
Lecturer in Sanskrit in the University of Oxford, and Fellow
of Wolfson College. Since 1992 he has held the Spalding Chair
of Eastern Religions and Ethics in the University of Oxford,
and is a Fellow of All Souls College.
Harunaga
Isaacson studied in Groningen (MA 1990) and was awarded a
PhD in Sanskrit by the University of Leiden in 1995. After
holding positions for research and teaching at the
Universities of Oxford, Hamburg and Pennsylvania, he was
appointed Professor of Classical Indology in the Department of
Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Hamburg, in
2006. His main research areas are: tantric traditions in
pre-13th-century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna
Buddhism; classical Sanskrit poetry; classical Indian
philosophy; and Purāṇic literature.
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