This volume contains the first detailed investigation into the yogic teachings of the Malinivijayottaratantra, a Saiva Tantra of the Trika commented on extensively by the celebrated Kashmirian philosopher Abhinavagupta (9-10th century AD). The source text (Malinivijayottara) 1-4- 7, and 12-17) has been critically edited and prefaced by a description of the manuscripts used and the editorial policies followed.
A running commentary adds further explanatory material, parallel passages from related Saiva Tantras (many unpublished) and attempts to tackle problems raised by Abhinavagupta's exegesis.
Somadeva Vasudeva studied Sanskrit and Prakrit in London (MA, 1993), then in Oxford (DPhil., 2000) and spent two years as a scholar of the French Institute of Pondicherry (1198 to 2000). He is currently engaged in translating and editing Sanskrit poetry for the Clay Sanskrit Library.
Introduction
Questions about the Malinivijayottara's yoga have hitherto been posed in misleading terms. This is because the Malinivijayottara presents not a single yoga but attempts to integrate a whole plethora of competing yogic systems. At the core of this integration lie homologies of phenomenological gradations involving primarily three series; the [I.] seven experients (pramatr), the [2.] four immersions of Kaula yoga (pindadi), themselves already correlated with four stages of Gnostic development (sarvatobhadradi) and the [3.] five states of lucidity (jagradadyavastha). The basis of the whole system is the "fifteen-fold division [in apperception]" (pancadasabhedana), an important innovation of the Malinivijayottara extensively applied in the detailed "conquest of the levels of reality" (tattvajaya) and elsewhere. Since this fifteen-fold division forms the backbone of the primary yogic teachings collected in the Malinivijayottara the seven perceivers it derives from are discussed in some detail.
Only the preliminary yogic teachings of the Malinivijayottara are presented here. The defining characteristic of these yogas in that they require the Yogin to traverse a "path" (adhvan) towards a "goal" laksya. In the Malinivijayottara's higher, Kaula subitist forms of yoga the final level of Siva is accessed more directly-"path" and "goal" and no longer helpful descriptive terms. Nevertheless, even these teachings present themselves as rejections of the goal. Oriented yogic systems discussed here. It is therefore a truism that these higher systems cannot be fully understood if the doctrines they transcend are not first understood.
The source text (Malinivijayottara I-4, 7 and 12-17) has been critically edited and prefaced by a description of the MS-material and the editorial policies. The source passages of the Malinivijayottara, presented largely in the order in which they occur in the text, have been translated and annotated. A running commentary adds further explanatory material, parallel passages from related Saiva Tantras, and attempts to tackle problems raised by Abhinavagupta's exegesis in the Tantraloka (largely drawn from its tenth Abnika).
A have neglected to investigate the complicated relation that the Saiddhantika Sadangayoga taught in Malinivijayottara 17 bears to Pasupata yogas since this urgent task is better tackled by a specialist of those systems.
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Abhinavagupta (29)
Buddhist (70)
Chakra (41)
Goddess (123)
History (36)
Kundalini (144)
Mantra (53)
Original Tantric Texts (18)
Philosophy (106)
Shaivism (62)
Yantra (37)
हिन्दी (94)
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