Tantric Studies

Gli elementi simbolici e iniziatici hindu nel "Liber Novus" di Carl Gustav Jung

by Alessandro Grossato

In La Visione, a cura di Francesco Zambon, Viridarium VIII, Edizioni Medusa, Milano 2012, pp. 199-208.

Tantrické příběhy o nesmrtelnosti: Literatura bengálských náthů

by Lubomír Ondračka

in: Lubomír Ondračka (ed.), Mé zlaté Bengálsko: Studie k bengálskému náboženství a kultuře věnované Haně Preinhaelterové k jejím sedmdesátinám, Praha: ExOriente a FF UK, 2008, s. 13-34.

"Tantric Stories about Immortality: The Literature of the Bengali Naths". In: Lubomír Ondračka (ed.), My Golden Bengal: Studies on Bengali Religion and Culture Presented to Hana Preinhalterová on the Occasion of her 70th Birthday (in Czech)

Perfected Body, Divine Body and Other Bodies in the Nātha-Siddha Sanskrit Texts

by Lubomír Ondračka

Pre-print of the paper presented at the 13th Sanskrit Conference (Edinburgh 2006).

What Should Mīnanāth Do to Save His Life?

by Lubomír Ondračka

Manuscript of the paper published in slightly different form in:
Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Nāths, David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz (eds.), Albany: SUNY Press, 2011; 129-141, 175-188 (notes)

Il terzo prakaraṇa dello Yogavāsiṣṭha e la dottrina śivaita della vibrazione (spanda)

by Bruno Lo Turco

Rivista degli Studi Orientali 76 (2002).

More on Birds, Ascetics and Kings in Central Java; Kakavin Ramayana, 24.111-115 and 25.19-22

by Andrea Acri

Download the whole book here:
http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=399317;keyword=acri

The Sanskrit-Old Javanese Tutur Literature from Bali. The Textual Basis of Śaivism in Ancient Indonesia

by Andrea Acri

Glimpses of Early Saiva Siddhanta. Echoes of doctrines ascribed to Brhaspati in the Sanskrit-Old Javanese Vrhaspatitattva

by Andrea Acri

Dharma Pātañjala: a Śaiva scripture from ancient Java: studied in the light of related old Javanese and Sanskrit texts

by Andrea Acri

Il tema del giardino e della foresta nella letteratura indiana medievale

by Alessandro Grossato

Alessandro Magno e l’India. Storico intreccio di miti e di simboli

by Alessandro Grossato

The doctrine of magic female spirits: a critical edition of selected chapters of the Siddhayogeśvarīmata (tantra) with annotated translation and analysis INTRO

by Judit Torzsok

Part 1 of my thesis (1999). A revised and enlarged version of the whole is to be published soon.

Antinomianism and Gradualism: The contextualization of the practices of sensual enjoyment (caryā) in the Guhyasamāja Ārya Tradition

by Christian K. Wedemeyer

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, (New Series) No. 3 (2002), pp. 181–195.

tattva.pdf

by Whitney Cox

This is the critical edition of a section of Maheśvarānanda's Mahārthamañjarīparimala that I included as an appendix to my dissertation.  This file and the main file for my diss. share a single pagination.

Beef, Dog and Other Mythologies: Connotative Semiotics in Mahāyoga Tantra Ritual and Scripture

by Christian K. Wedemeyer

Scholars have long debated how the antinomian elements in the Buddhist Tantras are to be interpreted. Some maintain... more Scholars have long debated how the antinomian elements in the Buddhist Tantras are to be interpreted. Some maintain that they are to be taken literally; others that they are figurative or “symbolic.” Both, however—in approaching these statements as examples of directly denotative natural language—miss the most essential aspect of the semiology of these traditions. This paper demonstrates that the Buddhist Mahāyoga Tantras employ a form of signification (theorized by Roland Barthes) called “connotative semiotics,” in which signs (a signifier–signified union) from natural language function as signifiers in a higher-order discourse. Employing these semiological tools enables criticism to recognize that what is fundamentally operative—in both ritual performance and scriptural narrative—is a grammar of purity and pollution in significant dialog with both earlier Buddhist Tantras and broader Indian religious norms. This suggests that such antinomianism—far from representing either “tribal” practices or rarified yogic codes—reflects concerns native to mainstream Indian religion.

‘Cette fraude littéraire ne peut tromper personne’: Jo nang Tāranātha and the Historiography of the gSang ’dus ’phags lugs

by Christian K. Wedemeyer

proofs, to appear in: Maret Kark and Horst Lasic, eds., Studies in the Philosophy and History of Tibet (Proceedings of the XIth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bonn 2006) (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 145–174.

Tropes, Typologies and Turnarounds: A Brief Genealogy of the Historiography of Tantric Buddhism

by Christian K. Wedemeyer

Locating Tantric Antinomianism: An Essay toward an Intellectual History of the ‘Practices/Practice Observance’ (caryā/caryāvrata)

by Christian K. Wedemeyer

To appear shortly in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 34

This paper aims to demonstrate that, contrary to how it has generally be construed in studies of the Tantras,... more This paper aims to demonstrate that, contrary to how it has generally be construed in studies of the Tantras, caryā/caryāvrata/vratacaryā does not refer to "tantric practice" or "post-initiatory practice" in the generic, but is rather a) a highly specific term of art in the literature of the Buddhist Mahāyoga and Yoginī Tantras, signifying a very precise undertaking. It further argues b) that close attention to the semiotics of the rite reveals a very clear ritual intent that is evident throughout the Buddhist literature, and c) that the sources explicitly (if somewhat obliquely) stress that this rite is appropriate only in quite specific and elite ritual contexts with very specific prerequisites. It will also show d) that this term of art is also common to the contemporaneous non-dual Śaiva Tantras of the Vidyāpīṭha, and that the patterns of usage across the two traditions suggest an alternative way of understanding the interaction of these communities. Specifically, close attention to the available literature suggests that the semiology of the early Śaiva observance differs significantly from that of the early Buddhists as outlined in b), and that the nature of the Buddhist and Śaiva variants further suggests that e) a distinctively Buddhist semiology came ultimately to exert a profound influence on the later Śaiva understanding of the rite (and, indeed, their understanding of Tantric practice in general) after the ninth century. This conclusion further suggests that, contra the theories of a “substratum” or a total Buddhist dependence on Śaivism, f) the shared religious observances (vrata) of these two groups are the product of a common Zeitgeist of antinomian practice in and around charnel grounds wherein (as is in evidence throughout Indian religious history), groups shared a common vocabulary of terms and rites to which they gave their own distinctive inflections, and in which the borrowing was mutual.

Clustering Face Carvings: Exploring the Devata of Angkor Wat

by Kent Davis

Co-authored by Anil K Jain, Brendan Klare, Pavan Mallapragada,
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI, U.S.A.

Presented in August 2010 at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition in Istanbul, Turkey http://www.icpr2010.org/

We propose a framework for clustering and visualization of images of face carvings at archaeological sites.
more We propose a framework for clustering and visualization of images of face carvings at archaeological sites.

The pairwise similarities among face carvings are computed by performing Procrustes analysis on local facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). The distance between corresponding face features is computed using point distribution models; the final pairwise similarity is the weighted sum of feature similarities.

A web-based interface is provided to allow domain experts to interactively assign different weights to each face feature, and display hierarchical clustering results in 2D or 3D projections obtained by multidimensional scaling. The proposed framework has been successfully applied to the devata goddesses depicted in the ancient Angkor Wat temple. The resulting clusterings and visualization will enable a systematic anthropological, ethnological and artistic analysis of nearly 1,800 stone portraits of devatas of Angkor Wat.