Early tantric Vaisnavism: three newly discovered works of the Pancaratra, the Svayambhuvapancaratra, Devamrtapancaratra and Astadasavidhana, critically ed. from their 11th and...

Book Details

• Author: Diwakar Acharya

• Publisher: ADITYA PRAKASHAN Indological Publishers & Booksellers

• Language: English

• Edition: Pondichery

• Year: 2015

• ISBN-13: 9788184702064

• ISBN-10: 818470206X

• Subject: Philosophy

About the Book
This volume presents three previously unpublished 12th-century Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts of great significance for the early history of Tantric Vaisnavism. Likely older than any previously published Vaisnava Tantras, these texts preserve archaic elements such as Vaisnava brahma-mantras modeled on Pasupata traditions, veneration of the eight heroes of the Vrsni clan, and rituals invoking the pentad of Varaha, Narasimha, Trivikrama, Vamana, and Vasudeva.

Remarkably, the manuscripts integrate Vedic mantras alongside Tantric rites, including one text that requires selecting hymns from all ten mandalas of the Rgveda for installation in every image of Vishnu. The scriptures call on devotees to identify Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, presenting an early picture of Tantric Vaisnavism interwoven with Saivism and Brahmanism, and offering valuable insight into the development of tantrism and Hinduism in the first millennium AD.

The book includes a detailed introduction with English synopsis, text-critical notes, indices, and facsimiles of the manuscript leaves, making it an essential resource for scholars, researchers, and students of Hindu philosophy, Tantric studies, and early Vaisnava traditions.