Tantric Studies Volume 2, 2016
Tantric Studies. Fruits of a Franco-German project on Early Tantra.
INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DE PONDICHÉRY, ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE D’EXTRÊME-ORIENT,
ASIEN-AFRIKA-INSTITUT, UNIVERSITÄT HAMBURG
Scholarship has only rather recently begun to recognize the deep and
pervasive influence which tantric traditions (initiatory and esoteric
forms of religion emphasizing mantric forms of deities) have had
throughout Asia, beginning from their origins in South Asia around the
sixth century of the Common Era, and then spreading rapidly through
Central, South-East and East Asia. Concurrently, microfilming and
digitization have recently made large archives of primary
source-material, such as the manuscript libraries of Kathmandu and
Pondicherry, more widely accessible than they have been for centuries.
Tantric Studies, a new peer-reviewed series publishing articles
and book-reviews, provides a forum for research in this rapidly
developing field.