Roots of Tantra

Katherine Anne Harper is Associate Professor of Art History at Loyola Marymount University and the author of The Iconography of the Saptamatrikas: Seven Hindu Goddesses of Spiritual Transformation. Robert L. Brown is Professor of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Curator of Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is the author of The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law and the Indianization of South East Asia, and editor of Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, also published by SUNY Press, and Art from Thailand.

• List of Illustrations PrefaceKatherine Anne Harper IntroductionRobert L. Brown PART I: Overviews 1. What Do We Mean by Tantrism?André Padoux 2. Early Evidence for Tantric ReligionDavid N. Lorenzen PART II: The History and Development of Tantra 3. Historical and Iconographic Aspects of Sakta TantrismM. C. Joshi 4. Auspicious Fragments and Uncertain Wisdom: The Roots of Srividya Sakta Tantrism in South IndiaDouglas Renfrew Brooks 5. The Structural Interplay of Tantra, Vedanta, and Bhakti: Nondualist Commentary on the GoddessThomas B. Coburn PART III: The Art History and Archaeology of Tantra 6. The Spinal SerpentThomas McEvilley 7. The Warring Saktis: A Paradigm for Gupta ConquestsKatherine Anne Harper 8. Early Evidence of the Pancaratra AgamaDennis Hudson PART IV: The Vedas and Tantra 9. Imagery of the Self from Veda to TantraTeun Goudriaan 10. Tongues of Flame: Homologies in the Tantric Homa Richard K. Payne PART V: The Texts and Tantra 11. Becoming Bhairava: Meditative Vision in Abhinavagupta's Paratrisika-laghuvrttiPaul E. Muller-Ortega 12. Tantric Incantation in the Devi Purana: The Padamala Mantra VidyaLina Gupta List of ContributorsGlossary Index