Reference

Sources

The texts behind these pages, tradition by tradition: their principal editions, their commentaries, and the modern scholarship that made them readable.

A bibliography rather than a reading list, arranged by tradition — the svara texts, the Siddhānta, the Bhairava tantras, the Kashmirian exegesis, the Śākta and the Pāñcarātra — with a sentence on what each text is and, where one exists, the edition in which it is normally read.

The svara textsस्वरशास्त्र

Śiva Svarodayaशिवस्वरोदय: Some 395 ślokas, a dialogue of Śiva and Pārvatī, and the root text of svara-śāstra: the channels, the five tattvas, the application of the breath to ordinary decision, and the omens of death. Best known in English through Swami Muktibodhananda's Swara Yoga: The Tantric Science of Brain Breathing (Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, 1984).
Svara Cintāmaṇiस्वरचिन्तामणि: Twenty-four chapters of applied svara — a practitioner's casebook rather than a revealed text, concerned with diagnosis, timing and prognosis. Verse numbering restarts in each chapter, so a verse is cited by chapter and number together. No critical edition.
Narpati Jayacaryā Svarodayaनरपतिजयचर्या: Śrī Narapati, son of Nṛdeva of a family seated at Dhārāpurī in Mālava; the writing itself is placed at Āsāvallī in Gujarat, and no date appears in the text or its commentaries

The Siddhānta Āgamasसिद्धान्त

The mild stream, and until the modern period much the larger: twenty-eight Āgamas divided into ten Śiva-bheda and eighteen Rudra-bheda, with their upāgamas. Several of the philosophically weightiest works are technically subsidiary texts rather than root Āgamas.

Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitāनिश्वासतत्त्वसंहिता: On present evidence the earliest surviving Śaiva tantra of any kind, its oldest strata perhaps fifth or sixth century, preserved in a single early Nepalese manuscript. Volume 1 edited by Dominic Goodall with Alexis Sanderson and Harunaga Isaacson (Pondicherry, 2015).
Kiraṇatantraकिरणतन्त्र: A doctrinally central scripture, read with Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha II's commentary; volume I critically edited and translated by Dominic Goodall (Pondicherry, 1998).
Mataṅgapārameśvarāgamaमतङ्गपारमेश्वरागम: The most sustained philosophical statement in the canon, with Rāmakaṇṭha's vṛtti. Edited by N. R. Bhatt in separate volumes for the vidyāpāda and the kriyāpāda.
Mṛgendrāgamaमृगेन्द्रागम: An upāgama of the Kāmika and the clearest short summary of the system. Edited by N. R. Bhatt with Nārāyaṇakaṇṭha's vṛtti; French translations by Michel Hulin (vidyāpāda) and Hélène Brunner (kriyā- and caryāpāda).
Rauravāgama · Ajitāgamaरौरव · अजित: Two of the twenty-eight, each edited in three volumes by N. R. Bhatt at Pondicherry — the ritual backbone of the Saiddhāntika temple tradition.
Somaśambhupaddhatiसोमशम्भुपद्धति: The eleventh-century manual that standardised Saiddhāntika ritual. Edited and translated into French by Hélène Brunner-Lachaux in four volumes (Pondicherry, 1963–1998), whose apparatus remains the best introduction to Śaiva ritual anywhere.
Tattvaprakāśaतत्त्वप्रकाश: Bhojadeva's compact verse statement of Siddhānta doctrine, from the same eleventh-century Paramāra court at Dhārā that later produced the Narpati Jayacaryā.

The Pondicherry editions

The Institut Français de Pondichéry, founded in 1955, holds several thousand palm-leaf bundles of Śaiva material collected from South Indian temples and maṭhas — inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register — and its volumes, in Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie and later Collection Indologie, are the standard scholarly texts for the Siddhānta. Much of the work is done jointly with the École française d'Extrême-Orient, whose Pondicherry centre shares the building and the editors. Related to it is the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, the dictionary of tantric terminology begun by Hélène Brunner, Gerhard Oberhammer and André Padoux and published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna — the only reference work of its kind.

The Bhairava tantrasभैरव

The fierce, non-dual stream, counted at sixty-four and divided between the god-centred Mantrapīṭha and the goddess-centred Vidyāpīṭha. Its early literature survives largely in Nepalese manuscripts, and its critical edition is still substantially in progress.

Svacchandatantraस्वच्छन्दतन्त्र: The principal Mantrapīṭha scripture, deity Svacchandabhairava with Aghoreśvarī, and in Kashmir the tantra of general practice. Kashmir Series with Kṣemarāja's Uddyota, edited by Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī in six volumes.
Netratantraनेत्रतन्त्र: The Mṛtyujit — Amṛteśa, protection, healing and the conquest of death, and an unusually informative witness to religious life in early medieval Kashmir. Kashmir Series, with Kṣemarāja's Netroddyota.
Mālinīvijayottaratantraमालिनीविजयोत्तर: Root scripture of the Trika: the three goddesses, the mālinī ordering of the alphabet, the four upāyas. Kashmir Series vol. XXXVII, 1922, edited by Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī; the yoga chapters in Somadeva Vasudeva, The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra (Pondicherry, 2004).
Brahmayāmala · Picumataब्रह्मयामल: Among the earliest surviving Bhairava tantras, transmitted in a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript dated 1052 CE: Caṇḍā Kāpālinī, the yoginīs, and the kāpālika observance unsoftened. No complete edition; selected chapters edited by Shaman Hatley and Csaba Kiss in Collection Indologie.
Siddhayogeśvarīmataसिद्धयोगेश्वरीमत: An early Trika scripture quoted heavily by Abhinavagupta, critically edited from the surviving Nepalese witnesses by Judit Törzsök.
Vijñāna Bhairavaविज्ञानभैरव: A hundred and twelve dhāraṇās, framed by the Devī's question and Bhairava's refusal of every describable form; it names the Rudrayāmala as its source. Kashmir Series, with Kṣemarāja on the opening verses and Śivopādhyāya's Vivṛti for the rest.
Rudrayāmala Uttara Tantraरुद्रयामल: A Yāmala of the Vidyāpīṭha — mantra, the subtle body, kuṇḍalinī and yoga. The text now printed under this name is later than the Rudrayāmala the early authorities cite, and the relation between them is unresolved.

The Kashmirian exegesis

The scriptures are anonymous; the philosophy has authors. This is the literature through which most readers meet the tradition, and almost all of it was first printed in Srinagar.

Śiva Sūtraशिवसूत्र: Seventy-seven sūtras revealed to Vasugupta in the early ninth century, in three unmeṣas. Read with Kṣemarāja's Vimarśinī, the first volume of the Kashmir Series, edited by J. C. Chatterji in 1911.
Spanda Kārikāस्पन्दकारिका: The doctrine of the pulse — reality as a vibration that is neither motion nor rest — attributed to Vasugupta or to his pupil Kallaṭa. With Kallaṭa's Vṛtti and Kṣemarāja's Spandanirṇaya and Spandasandoha in the Kashmir Series; translated by Mark Dyczkowski (SUNY, 1992).
Śivadṛṣṭiशिवदृष्टि: Somānanda's founding work of the Pratyabhijñā, with Utpaladeva's vṛtti, and a sustained attack on the grammarians' claim that the ultimate is the word. Kashmir Series, edited by Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī, 1934.
Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikāईश्वरप्रत्यभिज्ञाकारिका: Utpaladeva's verses with his own vṛtti: the philosophical core of the tradition. Abhinavagupta commented on it twice, in the Vimarśinī and the far longer Vivṛtivimarśinī, both in the Kashmir Series. Raffaele Torella's edition and translation (Rome, 1994; corrected reprint Delhi, 2002) is the standard modern text.
Tantrālokaतन्त्रालोक: Abhinavagupta's thirty-seven chapters, the summation of the Trika, presented as an unfolding of the Mālinīvijayottara alone. Twelve Kashmir Series volumes with Jayaratha's Viveka, which preserves quotations from scores of tantras now lost. Translated into Italian by Raniero Gnoli.
Tantrasāraतन्त्रसार: Abhinavagupta's own prose abridgement of the Tantrāloka, and the usual way in.
Parātrīśikāvivaraṇaपरात्रीशिकाविवरण: His commentary on a short Trika scripture, and his most concentrated writing on mantra, phoneme and the emergence of speech.
Pratyabhijñāhṛdayaप्रत्यभिज्ञाहृदय: Kṣemarāja's twenty sūtras with his own commentary — the shortest complete statement of the Recognition doctrine, and the standard first text.
Paramārthasāraपरमार्थसार: Abhinavagupta's hundred verses on the essence, with Yogarāja's vivṛti; translated with a full study by Lyne Bansat-Boudon and Kamaleshadatta Tripathi.
Śivastotrāvalīशिवस्तोत्रावली: Utpaladeva's hymns with Kṣemarāja's commentary — the same philosopher in another register, and the tradition's answer to the charge that non-dualism leaves no room for love.

The Śākta literatureशाक्त

Where the Goddess is not a consort of the ultimate but the ultimate itself — from the fierce Kālī cults of the Vidyāpīṭha to the highly refined Śrīvidyā, with later strata shading into the Purāṇic and the devotional.

Jayadrathayāmalaजयद्रथयामल: An enormous Kālīkula scripture in four ṣaṭkas, also called the Tantrarājabhaṭṭāraka, surviving in Nepalese manuscripts and still largely unpublished. The principal source for the Krama and for the cult of Kālasaṃkarṣiṇī.
Kubjikāmatatantraकुब्जिकामततन्त्र: Root scripture of the Paścimāmnāya, the Western Transmission of the goddess Kubjikā — a tradition that vanished in India and survived among the Newars of the Kathmandu valley. Critically edited by T. Goudriaan and J. A. Schoterman (Leiden, 1988).
Nityāṣoḍaśikārṇava · Yoginīhṛdayaनित्याषोडशिकार्णव · योगिनीहृदय: The two halves of the Vāmakeśvarīmata and the foundation of the Śrīvidyā: the śrīcakra, the fifteen-syllable vidyā, Tripurasundarī. With Jayaratha's Vivaraṇa, Amṛtānanda's Dīpikā and Bhāskararāya's Setubandha.
Kulārṇava Tantraकुलार्णवतन्त्र: The classic statement of Kaula discipline — the guru, the vow, the meaning of the transgressive substances, and long passages on what disqualifies a candidate. Tāntrik Texts series.
Śāradātilakaशारदातिलक: Lakṣmaṇadeśika's eleventh-century compendium of mantra-śāstra with Rāghavabhaṭṭa's Padārthādarśa: for centuries the working handbook of the mantra tradition across sectarian lines.
Devīmāhātmyaदेवीमाहात्म्य: The Durgāsaptaśatī, seven hundred verses embedded in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — the earliest text to present the Goddess as the single supreme reality, and the most recited Śākta text in India. Studied by Thomas Coburn.
Mahānirvāṇa Tantraमहानिर्वाणतन्त्र: A late work, probably eighteenth-century Bengali, and atypical of the tradition it is taken to represent — but the text through which Sir John Woodroffe, writing as Arthur Avalon, introduced tantra to English readers in 1913.

The Pāñcarātraपाञ्चरात्र

The Vaiṣṇava Āgama: the same ritual architecture — initiation, mantra, maṇḍala, temple installation — organised around Viṣṇu-Vāsudeva and the doctrine of the vyūhas. It supplies the liturgy of most Vaiṣṇava temples in South India, and its scriptural standing was defended by Yāmuna and Rāmānuja.

The ratnatrayathe three gems: Sāttvata, Pauṣkara and Jayākhya Saṃhitā, the three the tradition ranks first. The Jayākhyasaṃhitā was edited by Embar Krishnamacharya in the Gaekwad's Oriental Series (Baroda, 1931).
Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitāअहिर्बुध्न्यसंहिता: The most philosophically developed of the saṃhitās, and the classic source on the vyūhas and on śakti as divine activity. Edited by M. D. Ramanujacharya for the Adyar Library, 1916, alongside F. Otto Schrader's Introduction to the Pāñcarātra (Adyar, 1916) — still the standard survey.
Lakṣmī Tantraलक्ष्मीतन्त्र: A Pāñcarātra text spoken by the Goddess, in which Lakṣmī is the active principle of the cosmos. Translated by Sanjukta Gupta (Leiden, 1972).
Pārameśvara · Īśvara Saṃhitā: The manuals governing worship at Śrīraṅgam and Melkote — Pāñcarātra as unbroken temple practice rather than historical corpus.

The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies

Almost everything in Kashmir Śaivism was first printed in a single series. The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies was issued from Srinagar between 1911 and 1947 by the Research Department of the Jammu and Kashmir State, under editors including J. C. Chatterji, who founded the department and edited the first volumes, Mukunda Rāma Śāstrī, Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī and Harabhaṭṭa Śāstrī. It ran to more than eighty volumes and printed, often for the first and still the only time, the Śiva Sūtra with the Vimarśinī, the Spanda literature, the Śivadṛṣṭi, both Pratyabhijñā commentaries, the Tantrāloka with Jayaratha, the Tantrasāra, the Svacchanda and Netra tantras with Kṣemarāja's Uddyotas, the Mālinīvijayottara and the Vijñāna Bhairava.

The volumes carry the Sanskrit with the classical commentaries and are long out of copyright; complete scanned sets circulate freely, notably through the eGangotri Digital Preservation Trust and the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, which also maintains searchable e-texts. Their editorial standards belong to their period, and several texts have since been re-edited — but no later project has replaced them.

Modern scholarship

Historical understanding of this material has changed more in the last forty years than in the preceding four hundred, and a reader who stops at the mid-century literature will carry a picture the specialists abandoned long ago.

Alexis Sanderson: The most consequential body of work on the subject. "Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions" (1988) established the classification of the streams now used by everyone; "Purity and Power among the Brahmans of Kashmir" (1985) reconstructed the social setting; and "The Śaiva Age" (Tokyo, 2009) argues at monograph length that Śaivism was the dominant religion of the subcontinent from the seventh to the thirteenth century.
Mark S. G. Dyczkowski: The Doctrine of Vibration (1987) and The Stanzas on Vibration (1992) remain the fullest treatment of Spanda in English; The Canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras (1988) mapped the canon as the tradition conceived it; and his edition of the Kubjikā Manthānabhairavatantra runs to more than a dozen volumes.
The Pondicherry school: The IFP and EFEO editors — N. R. Bhatt, Hélène Brunner, Bruno Dagens, and now Dominic Goodall with Harunaga Isaacson, Judit Törzsök, Diwakar Acharya and Shaman Hatley — who produced most of the reliable critical editions in existence, working from manuscripts rather than from printed editions of printed editions.
André Padoux: Vāc: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras (1990) — the standard account of how these traditions think about sound, phoneme and mantra.
Bibliographic surveys: Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta, Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature (Wiesbaden, 1981), remains the standard title-by-title inventory; Gupta, Hoens and Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism (Leiden, 1979), the standard descriptive introduction.
The Nepalese manuscripts: Much of what is now known rests on the Nepalese-German Manuscript Preservation Project, which microfilmed the holdings of the Kathmandu valley. The oldest witnesses of the early tantras are Nepalese, and several texts survive nowhere else.