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Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidhārāvrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2016

Shaman Hatley
Shaman Hatley*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Boston
*
shaman.hatley@umb.edu
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Abstract

This essay examines shifting representations of the asidhārāvrata (lit. “sword's edge observance”) across a range of Sanskrit literary and religious texts. Originally a Brāhmaṇical ascetic discipline, an observance (vrata) by this name is the earliest ritual involving sexual contact documented in the corpus of Śaiva tantras. In its tantric adaptation, an orthodox practice for the cultivation of sensory restraint was transformed into a means for supernatural attainment (siddhi). Diachronic study of the observance in three early Śaiva texts – the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Mataṅgapārameśvara, and Brahmayāmala – reveals changes in ritual emphases, women's roles, and the nature of engagement in eroticism. Analysis of the asidhārāvrata thus sheds light on the early history of tantric sexual rituals, which by the end of the first millennium had become highly diverse. It is argued that the observance became increasingly obsolete with the rise of Śaiva sexual practices more magical, ecstatic, or gnostic in orientation.

Keywords

Tantric ritualReligion and sexualityAsceticismŚaivismVrata
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 329 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2016 

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Footnotes

1

I would like to thank Harunaga Isaacson, Mrinal Kaul, Csaba Kiss, James Mallinson and the anonymous reviewers for providing a number of valuable suggestions and corrections. I would also like to thank Jacob Dalton for inviting me to present a version of this essay at a workshop, “The evolution of tantric ritual” (Berkeley, March 2014). This provided an occasion to revise the essay, which was first written in 2009.

References

References

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Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Mukhāgama. Draft edition of Nirajan Kafle.Google Scholar
Pañcatantra of Viṣṇuśarman . Kale, M.R. (ed.), Reprint. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986 [1912].Google Scholar
Brahmayāmala. National Archives of Kathmandu ms. 3–370; Nepal–German Manuscript Preservation Project microfilm reel A42/6.Google Scholar
Brahmayāmala. See Hatley 2007; forthcoming; and Kiss 2015.Google Scholar
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Svacchandatantra. Kaul Shāstrī, Madhusūdan (ed.), The Svacchanda Tantram, with Commentary by Kshemarāja. 6 vols. ksts nos. 31, 38, 44, 48, 51 (vol. 5a), 51 (vol. 5b), 56. Bombay: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1921–35.Google Scholar
Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa. Führer, A.A. (ed.), Śrīharṣacaritamahākāvyam. Bāṇabhaṭṭa's Biography of King Harshavardhana of Sthāṇvīśvara with Śaṅkara's Commentary, Saṅketa. (Bombay Sanskrit and Prakrit Series, no. 66.) Bombay: Goverment Central Press, 1909.Google Scholar
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Biernacki, Loriliai. 2007. Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex, and Speech in Tantra. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Caland, W. (trans.). 1929. Vaikhānasasmārtasūtram. The Domestic Rules and Sacred Laws of the Vaikhānasa School Belonging to the Black Yajurveda. (Bibliotheca Indica, no. 251.) Kolkata: Asiatic Society of Bengal.Google Scholar
Dimock, Edward C. 1966. The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇava-Sahajiyā Cult of Bengal. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.Google Scholar
Dupuche, John R. 2003. Abhinavagupta: the Kula Ritual, as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Goodall, Dominic and Isaacson, Harunaga. 2007. “Workshop on the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: the earliest surviving Śaiva tantra?”, Newsletter of the NGMCP 3 (Jan.–Feb.), 4–6.Google Scholar
Goudriaan, Teun. 1978. Māyā Divine and Human. A Study of Magic and Its Religious Foundations in Sanskrit Texts, with Particular Attention to a Fragment on Viṣṇu's Māyā Preserved in Bali. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Harris, Liz. 1994. “O Guru, Guru, Guru”, The New Yorker, 14 November, 92–8.Google Scholar
Hatley, Shaman. 2007. “The Brahmayāmalatantra and early Śaiva cult of Yoginīs”, PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hatley, Shaman. Forthcoming. The Brahmayāmala Tantra or Picumata, Volume I. (Collection Indologie. Early Tantra Series.) Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient/Universität Hamburg.Google Scholar
Inden, Ronald. 2000. “Imperial Purāṇas: Kashmir as Vaiṣṇava center of the world”, in Inden, Ronald, Walters, Jonathan and Ali, Daud (eds), Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia, 29–98. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaacson, Harunaga. 2010. “Observations on the development of the ritual of initiation (Abhiṣeka) in the higher Buddhist tantric systems”, in Zotter, Astrid and Zotter, Christof, Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal, 261–79. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. 1968. History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law), vol. I.1. Second edition. Government Oriental Series Class B, no. 6. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.Google Scholar
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. 1974. History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V.1. Second edition.Google Scholar
Khan, Dominique-Sila. 1994. “Deux rites tantriques dans une communauté d'intouchables au Rajasthan”, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 211/4, 443–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiss, Csaba. 2015. The Brahmayāmala Tantra or Picumata, volume II. The Religious Observances and Sexual Rituals of the Tantric Practitioner: Chapters 3, 21, and 45. (Collection Indologie, no. 130. Early Tantra Series, no. 3.) Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient/Universität Hamburg.Google Scholar
Lal, Vinay. 2000. “Nakedness, nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi's experiments in celibate sexuality”, Journal of the History of Sexuality 9/1–2, 105–36.Google Scholar
Mallinson, James. Forthcoming. “Yoga and sex: what is the purpose of Vajrolīmudrā?”, in Baier, Karl, Böckle, Alexandra, Maas, Philipp A. and Preisendanz, Karin C. (eds), Yoga in Transformation. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick (trans.). 1996. Upaniṣads (World's Classics). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 1985. Review of Bhatt, N.R., Mataṅgapārameśvarāgama (Kriyāpāda, Yogapāda et Caryāpāda), avec le commentaire de Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha: Édition critique, Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie 65, Pondicherry, 1982; and Rauravottarāgama: Édition critique, introduction et notes, Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie 66, Pondicherry, 1983. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48/3, 564–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 1988. “Saivism and the Tantric traditions”, in Sutherland, S. et al. (eds), The World's Religions, 660–704. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2006a. “The Lākulas: new evidence of a system intermediate between Pāñcārthika Pāśupatism and Āgamic Śaivism” (Ramalinga Reddy Memorial Lectures, 1997.), The Indian Philosophical Annual 24, 143–217.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2006b. “The date of Sadyojyotis and Bṛhaspati”, Cracow Indological Studies 8, 1–53.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2007. “The Śaiva exegesis of Kashmir”, in Goodall, Dominic and Padoux, André (eds), Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d'Hélène Brunner / Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, 231–442. Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Sferra, Francesco. 2000. The Ṣaḍaṅgayoga by Anupamarakṣita with Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇīnāmaṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī. (Serie Orientale Roma, no. 85.) Rome: Instituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.Google Scholar
Shaw, Miranda. 1994. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Miranda. 2009. “Magical lovers, sisters, and mothers: Yakṣiṇī sādhana in Tantric Buddhism”, in Humes, Cynthia Ann and McDermott, Rachel Fell (eds), Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Śaktism, 265–96. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Stenzler, Adolf Friedrich. 1886. “Das Schwertklingen-Gelübde des Inder”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 40, 523–5.Google Scholar
Szántó, Péter-Dániel. 2014. “How to organize a gaṇacakra”, lecture handout for the workshop “Evolution of Tantric Ritual”, Berkeley, March 2014. https://www.academia.edu/6515801/Handout\_for\_The\_Evolution\_of\_Tantric\_Ritual\_Berkeley\_2014\_ (accessed August 2014).Google Scholar
Wallace, Vesna A. 2012. “The six-phased yoga of the abbreviated wheel of time Tantra (Laghukālacakratantra) according to Vajrapāṇi”, in White, David Gordon (ed.), Yoga in Practice, 204–22. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, David Gordon. 2003. Kiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamano, Chieko. 2013. “The Yakṣinī-Sādhana in the Kakṣapuṭa-Tantra: introduction, critical edition, and translation”, Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 17, 61–99.Google Scholar
Kaṭhopaniṣad. Olivelle, Patrick (ed.), The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation. (South Asia Research Series.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra. George, Christopher S. (ed.), The Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra, Chapters I–VIII. A Critical Edition and English Translation. (American Oriental Series, no. 56.) New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1974.Google Scholar
Tantrasadbhāva. Dyczkowski, Mark (ed.), “Partially and provisionally edited” e-text available from the Digital Library of the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute. http://www.muktabodhalib.org/digital_library.htm.Google Scholar
Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta. Mukund Rām Shāstrī (v. 1) and Madhusūdan Kaul Shāstrī (vv. 2–12) (eds), The Tantrāloka of Abhinava-Gupta, with Commentary by Rājānaka Jayaratha. ksts, nos 23, 28, 30, 36, 35, 29, 41, 47, 59, 52, 57, 58. Allahabad and Bombay: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1918–38.Google Scholar
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. Goodall, Dominic et al. (eds), The Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. The Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra, volume 1. A critical edition and annotated translation of the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra, and Nayasūtra. (Collection Indologie, no. 128. Early Tantra Series, no. 1.) Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie/École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2015.Google Scholar
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Guhyasūtra. Draft edition of Dominic Goodall et al.Google Scholar
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Mukhāgama. Draft edition of Nirajan Kafle.Google Scholar
Pañcatantra of Viṣṇuśarman . Kale, M.R. (ed.), Reprint. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986 [1912].Google Scholar
Brahmayāmala. National Archives of Kathmandu ms. 3–370; Nepal–German Manuscript Preservation Project microfilm reel A42/6.Google Scholar
Brahmayāmala. See Hatley 2007; forthcoming; and Kiss 2015.Google Scholar
Mataṅgapārameśvara. Bhatt, N.R. (ed.), Mataṅgapārameśvarāgama (Kriyāpāda, Yogapāda et Caryāpāda), avec le commentaire de Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha: Édition critique. (Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie, no. 65.) Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1982.Google Scholar
Mṛgendrāgama. Bhatt, N.R. (ed.), Mṛgendrāgama (Kriyāpāda et Caryāpāda), avec le commentaire de Bhaṭṭa-Nārāyaṇakaṇṭha. (Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie, no. 23.) Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1962.Google Scholar
Raghuvaṃśa of Kālidāsa. Nandargikar, Gopal Raghunath (ed.), The Raghuvaṃśa of Kālidāsa with the Commentary of Mallinātha. 4th edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971.Google Scholar
Laghucakrasaṃvara. Pandey, Janardan Shastri (ed.), Śrīherukābhidhānam Cakrasaṃvaratantram, with the Commentary of Bhavabhaṭṭa. 2 vols. (Rare Buddhist Texts Series, no. 26.) Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2002.Google Scholar
Laṅkāvatārasūtra. Nanjio, Bunyiu (ed.), (Bibliotheca Otaniensis, no. 1.) Kyoto: Otani University Press, 1923.Google Scholar
Vāmakeśvarīmata. Shastri, Madhusudan Kaul (ed.), The Vāmakeśvarīmatam with the Commentary of Rājānaka Jayaratha. (Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, no. 66.) Srinagar: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir Government, 1945.Google Scholar
Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa. Śrīkṛṣṇadāsa, Kṣemarāja (ed.). Mumbai: Śrīveṅkateśvara, 1912–13.Google Scholar
Vaikhānasagṛhyasūtra. Caland, W. (ed.), Vaikhānasasmārtasūtram. The Domestic Rules of the Vaikhānasa School, Belonging to the Black Yajurveda. (Bibliotheca Indica, no. 242.) Kolkata: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927.Google Scholar
Svacchandatantra. Kaul Shāstrī, Madhusūdan (ed.), The Svacchanda Tantram, with Commentary by Kshemarāja. 6 vols. ksts nos. 31, 38, 44, 48, 51 (vol. 5a), 51 (vol. 5b), 56. Bombay: the Research Department of Jammu and Kashmir State, 1921–35.Google Scholar
Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa. Führer, A.A. (ed.), Śrīharṣacaritamahākāvyam. Bāṇabhaṭṭa's Biography of King Harshavardhana of Sthāṇvīśvara with Śaṅkara's Commentary, Saṅketa. (Bombay Sanskrit and Prakrit Series, no. 66.) Bombay: Goverment Central Press, 1909.Google Scholar
Acri, Andrea. 2011. “Glimpses of early Śaiva Siddhānta: echoes of doctrines ascribed to Bṛhaspati in the Sanskrit–Old Javanese Vṛhaspatitattva ”, Indo-Iranian Journal 54/3, 209–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biernacki, Loriliai. 2007. Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex, and Speech in Tantra. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Caland, W. (trans.). 1929. Vaikhānasasmārtasūtram. The Domestic Rules and Sacred Laws of the Vaikhānasa School Belonging to the Black Yajurveda. (Bibliotheca Indica, no. 251.) Kolkata: Asiatic Society of Bengal.Google Scholar
Dimock, Edward C. 1966. The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇava-Sahajiyā Cult of Bengal. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.Google Scholar
Dupuche, John R. 2003. Abhinavagupta: the Kula Ritual, as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Goodall, Dominic and Isaacson, Harunaga. 2007. “Workshop on the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: the earliest surviving Śaiva tantra?”, Newsletter of the NGMCP 3 (Jan.–Feb.), 4–6.Google Scholar
Goudriaan, Teun. 1978. Māyā Divine and Human. A Study of Magic and Its Religious Foundations in Sanskrit Texts, with Particular Attention to a Fragment on Viṣṇu's Māyā Preserved in Bali. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Harris, Liz. 1994. “O Guru, Guru, Guru”, The New Yorker, 14 November, 92–8.Google Scholar
Hatley, Shaman. 2007. “The Brahmayāmalatantra and early Śaiva cult of Yoginīs”, PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hatley, Shaman. Forthcoming. The Brahmayāmala Tantra or Picumata, Volume I. (Collection Indologie. Early Tantra Series.) Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient/Universität Hamburg.Google Scholar
Inden, Ronald. 2000. “Imperial Purāṇas: Kashmir as Vaiṣṇava center of the world”, in Inden, Ronald, Walters, Jonathan and Ali, Daud (eds), Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia, 29–98. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaacson, Harunaga. 2010. “Observations on the development of the ritual of initiation (Abhiṣeka) in the higher Buddhist tantric systems”, in Zotter, Astrid and Zotter, Christof, Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal, 261–79. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. 1968. History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law), vol. I.1. Second edition. Government Oriental Series Class B, no. 6. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.Google Scholar
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. 1974. History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V.1. Second edition.Google Scholar
Khan, Dominique-Sila. 1994. “Deux rites tantriques dans une communauté d'intouchables au Rajasthan”, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 211/4, 443–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiss, Csaba. 2015. The Brahmayāmala Tantra or Picumata, volume II. The Religious Observances and Sexual Rituals of the Tantric Practitioner: Chapters 3, 21, and 45. (Collection Indologie, no. 130. Early Tantra Series, no. 3.) Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient/Universität Hamburg.Google Scholar
Lal, Vinay. 2000. “Nakedness, nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi's experiments in celibate sexuality”, Journal of the History of Sexuality 9/1–2, 105–36.Google Scholar
Mallinson, James. Forthcoming. “Yoga and sex: what is the purpose of Vajrolīmudrā?”, in Baier, Karl, Böckle, Alexandra, Maas, Philipp A. and Preisendanz, Karin C. (eds), Yoga in Transformation. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick (trans.). 1996. Upaniṣads (World's Classics). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 1985. Review of Bhatt, N.R., Mataṅgapārameśvarāgama (Kriyāpāda, Yogapāda et Caryāpāda), avec le commentaire de Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha: Édition critique, Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie 65, Pondicherry, 1982; and Rauravottarāgama: Édition critique, introduction et notes, Publications de l'Institut Français d'Indologie 66, Pondicherry, 1983. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48/3, 564–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 1988. “Saivism and the Tantric traditions”, in Sutherland, S. et al. (eds), The World's Religions, 660–704. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2006a. “The Lākulas: new evidence of a system intermediate between Pāñcārthika Pāśupatism and Āgamic Śaivism” (Ramalinga Reddy Memorial Lectures, 1997.), The Indian Philosophical Annual 24, 143–217.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2006b. “The date of Sadyojyotis and Bṛhaspati”, Cracow Indological Studies 8, 1–53.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Alexis. 2007. “The Śaiva exegesis of Kashmir”, in Goodall, Dominic and Padoux, André (eds), Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d'Hélène Brunner / Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, 231–442. Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie/École Française d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Sferra, Francesco. 2000. The Ṣaḍaṅgayoga by Anupamarakṣita with Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇīnāmaṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī. (Serie Orientale Roma, no. 85.) Rome: Instituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.Google Scholar
Shaw, Miranda. 1994. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Miranda. 2009. “Magical lovers, sisters, and mothers: Yakṣiṇī sādhana in Tantric Buddhism”, in Humes, Cynthia Ann and McDermott, Rachel Fell (eds), Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Śaktism, 265–96. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Stenzler, Adolf Friedrich. 1886. “Das Schwertklingen-Gelübde des Inder”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 40, 523–5.Google Scholar
Szántó, Péter-Dániel. 2014. “How to organize a gaṇacakra”, lecture handout for the workshop “Evolution of Tantric Ritual”, Berkeley, March 2014. https://www.academia.edu/6515801/Handout\_for\_The\_Evolution\_of\_Tantric\_Ritual\_Berkeley\_2014\_ (accessed August 2014).Google Scholar
Wallace, Vesna A. 2012. “The six-phased yoga of the abbreviated wheel of time Tantra (Laghukālacakratantra) according to Vajrapāṇi”, in White, David Gordon (ed.), Yoga in Practice, 204–22. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, David Gordon. 2003. Kiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamano, Chieko. 2013. “The Yakṣinī-Sādhana in the Kakṣapuṭa-Tantra: introduction, critical edition, and translation”, Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 17, 61–99.Google Scholar