Auspicious Wisdom

Douglas Renfrew Brooks is Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Asian Studies, University of Rochester. Brook's textual and historical investigations of Sakta tantrism are augmented by extensive field work and experience among contemporary practitioners. He is also the author of The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism.

• Acknowledgments Abbreviations Preface Studying Goddess-Centered Hindu Tantrism: Take Srividya, for exampleReading Auspicious Wisdom Part One: Srividya Tradition and Texts Introduction Identifying Srividya in Sakta TantrismSrividya and Smarta BrahmanismOrthodoxy and Orthopraxies in Srividya 1. Kula Tantrism and Srividya Tradition Oral and Written Tantric Tradition and the Development of Tantric CanonsSrividya: Goddess Worship in the Srikula TantrasSrividya within and beyond Kula Tantrism 2. Earliest Historical Evidence for Srividya in Tamil Literature 3. Srividya in Text and History Determining Srividya Sources in South Indian TraditionThe Srikula Trantras and Other Early SourcesGaudapada, Sankara, and the Sankara TraditionRitual Source Books, Treatises, and Later TraditionRegional and Vernacular Sources of Srividya and Further Remarks on the Concept of Authority and Scripture 4. The Goddess Lalita Mahatripurasundari: The Sthula Aspect Lalita the Great GoddessThe Making of a Great GoddessLalita Tripurasundari and Her SubordinatesThe Iconographic and Mythic Lalita in South Indian TemplesThe Esoteric Interpretation of Lalita's Image and Mythology 5. The Srividya Mantra: srividya The Subtle Aspect of DeviInterpreting the Canon of SignsMythical and Historical Derivation of the srividyaKamesvara and Lopamudra: kadi and hadi vidyasThe srividya, Sakta speculations, and Triadic symbolismThe srividya, Vedic gayatri, and Vedic traditionsEsoteric Meanings of the srividyaThe srividya Appended to other MantrasTripura Upanisad, Hadi, and Kadi VidyaSodasaksari: The Sixteen Syllable Form of the srividyaThe Meaning of the Vidya, Initiation, and other MantrasSecrecy and the Articulation of the Mantra 6. Sricakara: The Transcendent Aspect of Devi Introductory RemarksSricakra: Creation as the Form of GodThe Sricakra Deities Part Two: Interpreting Tantric Ritual Introduction: Why Theorize about Srividya Ritual?The Vaidika Tantric: Acquiring Power by Exploiting IncongruityThe Fivefold Structure of Srividya RitualTantric Scholarship and Modes of ComparisonTantric and Non-Tantric Worlds of Convergence and DisjunctureConvergent and Utopic Maps of the WorldRitual Strategies and ObjectivesBeyond Tantric and Vedic Ritual Ideologies: The Religious Virtuosi Appendix of Diagrams Notes Bibliography