Niśvāsamukhatattvasamhitā, A Preface to the Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra (on non-Tantric Śaivism at the Dawn of the Mantramārga).
This volume presents the first edition, along with an English translation, of a Sanskrit work of perhaps the seventh century surviving in a single ninth-century Nepalese witness: the Niśvāsamukhatattvasaṃhitā. It would be difficult to exaggerate the usefulness of this primary source for the history of the Śaiva religions. Ostensibly an introduction to the Niśvāsamukhatattvasaṃhitā, it purports to sketch the religious context in which the Mantramārga emerged. In so doing, it provides invaluable help in mapping the contours of the relations between four different traditions of early Śaivism, namely: 1) that of the Pāñcārthika Pāśupatas, 2) that of the Lākulas (here lokātīta), 3) the the Mantramārga and 4) pre-Mantramārga "lay" practices. The work is bracketed by a detailed introduction and an appendix presenting material borrowed into the Śivadharmasaṅgraha.
Get it now and save 10%
BECOME A MEMBER
-
Hindu Scriptures
-
The Pancavaranastava of Aghorasiva
-
The Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa: With its Earliest Commentary (Volume 1)
-
An Enquiry into the Nature of Liberation: Bhatta Ramakantha's Paramoksanirasakarikavrtti, A Commentary on Sadyojyotih's Refutation of Twenty Conceptions of the Liberated State (moksa)
Bibliographic information
Dominic Goodall