Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Katherine Anne Harper Introduction Robert L. Brown PART I: Overviews 1. What Do We Mean by Tantrism? Andre Padoux 2. Early Evidence for Tantric Religion David N. Lorenzen PART II: The History and Development of Tantra 3. Historical and Iconographic Aspects of Sakta Tantrism M. C. Joshi 4. Auspicious Fragments and Uncertain Wisdom: The Roots of Srividya Sakta Tantrism in South India Douglas Renfrew Brooks 5. The Structural Interplay of Tantra, Vedanta, and Bhakti: Nondualist Commentary on the Goddess Thomas B. Coburn PART III: The Art History and Archaeology of Tantra 6. The Spinal Serpent Thomas McEvilley 7. The Warring Saktis: A Paradigm for Gupta Conquests Katherine Anne Harper 8. Early Evidence of the Pancaratra Agama Dennis Hudson PART IV: The Vedas and Tantra 9. Imagery of the Self from Veda to Tantra Teun 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-laghuvrtti Paul E. Muller-Ortega 12. Tantric Incantation in the Devi Purana: The Padamala Mantra Vidya Lina Gupta List of Contributors Glossary Index

About the Author

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.