Early Tantric Vaiṣṇavism: Three Newly
Discovered Works of the Pañcarātra. The
Svāyambhuvapañcarātra, Devāmṛtapañcarātra and
Aṣṭādaśavidhāna
Critically edited from their 11th- and 12th-century Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts
with an Introduction and Notes by Diwakar Acharya. Collection Indologie n˚ 129; Early Tantra
Series n˚ 2, Institut Français de Pondichéry / Ecole
française d’Extrême-Orient / Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg,
lxxxvi, 229 p.
Language:
Sanskrit, English. 700 Rs (30 €). ISBN: 978-81-8470-206-4
(IFP) / 978-2-85539-152-6 (EFEO).
The
three works presented in this volume are hitherto
unpublished texts of great significance for the early
history of tantric Vaiṣṇavism, and we have grounds for
supposing that they are older than any hitherto published
Vaiṣṇava Tantras. They preserve archaic elements not found
in other Pañcarātra works, such as Vaiṣṇava brahma-mantras
styled after the Pāśupata ones, and the veneration of
eight heroes of the Vṛṣṇi clan, as well as of the pentad
of Varāha, Narasiṃha, Trivikrama, Vāmana, and Vasudeva.
Their ritual makes profuse use of Vedic mantras, one of
them even requiring the installation of Vedic hymns
(rather than tantric mantras!) chosen from each of the ten
maṇḍalas of the
Ṛgveda in every
image of Viṣṇu. In a spirit rare in the Vaiṣṇava
traditions of the second millennium, these scriptures call
on devotees to identify Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. They thus
present a picture of Tantric Vaiṣṇavism in the first
millennium AD as imbricated with Śaivism and Brahmanism
and tell us much about the early history of tantrism and
of Hinduism in general.
The
first and third of these texts are transmitted to us in a
single palm-leaf manuscript dated to Nepal Samvat 147
(1027 AD), and the second in a slightly newer and undated
one, both from the treasure trove of the National
Archives, Kathmandu. This volume contains a first edition
of these texts with a detailed introduction, including an
English synopsis, along with text-critical notes and
indices, as well as facsimiles of the manuscript leaves.
Keywords: Mantramārga, Vaiṣṇavism, Pañcarātra, Early
Tantra, Ritual
About the Editor
Diwakar Acharya studied Sanskrit with
traditional teachers beginning with his father and at
universities in Nepal, India, and Germany. He started his
teaching career in 1993 in Nepal and is currently teaching
Indian philosophy and classical Sanskrit studies at Kyoto
University, Japan. His research covers a wide range of
topics in Sanskrit literature, Indian religious and
philosophical traditions, and the early history of Nepal.
He has published Vācaspatimiśra’s
Tattvasamīkṣā: The Earliest Commentary on Maṇḍanamiśra’s
Brahmasiddhi (2006) and The Little Clay Cart
(2009), as well as a number of articles in journals and
anthologies.
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