Early Tantra: Interrelationships and Common Ritual Syntax
Discovering the Interrelationships and Common Ritual Syntax of the Śaiva, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and Saura traditions
The primary goal of this project, which is being carried out in cooperation with the École française d’Extrême-Orient, and directed on the French side by Dominic Goodall and on the German side by Harunaga Isaacson, is to elucidate the interactions between the early tantric traditions through studying the similarities as well as the differences between their ritual systems and terminology. Through this we aim to arrive at a better understanding of how such traditions arise and define themselves.
An essential step towards this goal is to make available for the first time reliable scholarly editions of a number of early texts, all hitherto unpublished. The texts selected for editing and close comparative study include two representatives from Śaivism and Buddhism respectively:
- the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā
- the Brahmayāmala
- the Nepalese manuscript of the Mañjuśriyamūlakalpa and
- the Trisamayarājatantra commentary.
The Early Tantra project envisages the collaboration of a number of specialists in different locations, in order to highlight connections in a range of early material, over a period of three years.
Workshops on Early Tantra
Three workshops are planned as part of this collaboration.
- The First International Workshop On Early Tantra was held in Kathmandu, Nepal, during September 2008.
- The Second International Workshop On Early Tantra was held in Pondicherry, Monday 20th July to Saturday 1st August, 2009.
- A third workshop took place in Hamburg in 2010.
Funding
This project is kindly funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale de Recherche) and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
Nepalese manuscript of the Brahmayāmala.