Stra

Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

A Thousand Years of Ever New Secrets

Revealed: Reflections on the Millennial
Legacy of Abhinavagupta
by Jeffrey S. Lidke

A thousand years ago to the year one of the worlds most prolific and brilliant literary critics is
said to have penned his final work. If our historical estimations on the birth date, the date of
Abhinavaguptas final literary workhis luminous commentary, Reflections on the Recognition
of the Lord (varapratyabhij-vimarin)and death are accurate, then this brilliant Kashmiri
polymath put down his pen around the age of 66 at the time of the winter solstice in 1015, some
five years before dying, or as lore would have it, transforming back into his divine, Bhairava self.
Looking back through the lens of time we can only imagine what Abhinavagupta would have
done after concluding his final work. Certainly, his options would have been many. During his
life (ca. 950-1020) he had over 19 respected teachers who aided him in the mastery of a variety
of subjects, ranging from grammar to logic to Buddhist philosophy to tantric ritual and
meditative practice to art, music and aesthetics. One wonders, did he put down his pen and pick
up his brush? Did he sip wine with a beloved consort (dt) or did he tune his veena and play an
intoxicating raga? Or did he sit in meditative stillness after first engaging in the worship of the
deities of his tantric tradition? Perhaps he did all these things.
Certainly, the great master had many options at his disposal for how he might live out his
retirement days. By that point he had written at least 44 works (21 extant, 23 referenced from
known works), ranging across four general categories: philosophy, Tantra, aesthetics and hymns.
His education was unrivaled. He had esteemed teachers in grammar, poetry, logic, philosophy,
esoteric ritual practice, yoga, art, music and aesthetics. By the end of his career he had already
earned widespread regard as one of the greatest teachers, writers and spiritual masters of his day.
A millennium later, he is recognized by many as being not just one of Indias greatest
intellectuals but as one of the most brilliant writers, philosophers and aestheticians the world has
ever known.

Lidke Ever New Secrets

Born of a Yogin
It is safe to say that Abhinavaguptas life both began and ended with a proverbial bang. In the
opening verse to his Distillation of the Tantra (Tantrasra) Abhinavagupta poetically links his
own birth with the birth of creation itself. The preeminent Abhinavagupta scholar, Alexis
Sanderson, brilliantly renders Abhinavaguptas invocatory double meaning as follows:
May my heart shine forth, embodying the bliss of the ultimate, [for it is] {one with the
state of absolute potential made manifest in the fusion of these two, the Mother
grounded in pure representation, radiant in ever new genesis, and the Father, allenfolding [Bhairava], who maintains the light [of consciousness] through his five
faces}/{formed from the emissions produced through the fusion of these two, my mother
Vimal whose greatest joy was in my birth, and my father [Nara]sihagupta [when both
were] all-embracing [in their union]}. (Sanderson 2005, 89)
With these words Abhinavagupta begins his brilliant synopsis of the spiritual tradition that he
himself would bring to an apex, namely the Tantra, or specifically the Tantra of the Embodied
Triad (Trika Kaula), which itself was a particular lineage within the broader spectrum of panIndian Tantra (Dyczkowski 1992, 12; White 2005). Abhinavaguptas creative synthesis of the
Embodied Triad placed emphasis on the use of the body as a means to attaining a non-dual state
of recognition of the all-pervasive nature of divine consciousness, termed Bhairava or
Paramevara. True to the tenor of his Embodied Triad tradition, Abhinavagupta begins his
Distillation of the Tantra by equating his own self with the Self of the cosmos at large. In this
interpretive spirit, he conflates the divine couple, the goddess mother akti and supreme father
Bhairava, with his own mother and father, Vimala and Narasihagupta whose physical union,
enacted according to the injunctions of Tantric ritual, created Abhinavagupta, just as the union of
akti and Bhairava, is understood to birth the cosmos, not just at the beginning of time, but at the
beginning of all the times that the universe has been recreated (that number itself being infinite).
In this way, Abhinavagupta affirms the most profound and central tenet of his Embodied Triad
tradition: ones own I-awareness is itself that supreme awareness that is God.1

1 That such a claim resounds with potential hubris is a danger of which Abhinavagupta himself was quite aware. In
his writings he frequently distinguished between a lower level of awareness, characterized by delusion and a higher,
perfected awareness in which ego is subsumed into the transcendent bliss of God, which Abhinavagupta termed
Bhairava (among other names).

Stra Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

A Bearer of Many Lineages

Abhinavaguptas cosmicized description of his own birth matches the claims that he was in fact
an incarnation of the god Bhairava, conceived through extraordinary circumstances in which his
mother and father engaged in ritualized sexual union (Rastogi 1987, 20). His birth, in other
words, was not the beginning of his life-journey but rather the appropriate means by which a
god-being entered into the world for the sake of revealing ancient wisdom toward the end of
providing a path of liberation for worthy seekers. Similar to the narrative of the historical
Buddha, Abhinavagupta lost his mother Vimala at an early age. Thereafter, he was raised by his
father, Narasihagupta together with his brother Manoratha and sister Amb. His father was a
pious Brahmin, devoted to the worship of lord iva. He was Abhinavaguptas first teacher or
guru, instructing him in grammar, logic and Sanskrit literature (Gnoli 1999, 4). After his early
training in his fathers home, Abhinavagupta would then go on to study with some twenty
esteemed teachers, from a variety of traditions and disciplines (Pandey 1963, 12). Although his
father was a aivite, or follower of the Hindu god iva, Abhinavagupta would study from
Vaiavas, Buddhists and teachers from other, non-aivite, lineages.
Of his many teachers, five stand out (Mller-Ortega 1988, 45-47). The first of these is
Lakmanagupta, disciple of Utpaladeva in the lineage of the revered Somnanda, author of the
Vision of iva (ivadi) and initiate of the esteemed Tryambaka lineage (Nemec 2011). From
Lakmanagupta, Abhinavagupta learned several systems of non-dual philosophy and practice
that were central to his own eventual systematization, including the Triad (Trika) and
Recognition (Pratyabhij) systems. From Bhtirja he learned the Sequence (Krama) system.
Under the tutelage of Bhskara he learned the Vibration (Spanda) system and guided by Bhaa
Tauta he immersed himself in aesthetics and philosophy of language. The most important of his
many teachers is undoubtedly ambhuntha who initiated Abhinavagupta into the Kaula or
Embodied tradition and guided him into what Abhinavagupta believed to be the highest stages of
spiritual realization. So great was Abhinavaguptas adoration for ambhuntha that he compared
him with the sun and described him as the moon appearing over the ocean of Trika knowledge
(Dupuche 2008, 7). It is from ambhuntha that Abhinavagupta received the esoteric and sacred
descent of power (aktipta) that awakens the Coiled Power (kualin-akti) at the base of the
spinal column leading to the purification of the subtle body as a result of the ascendance of this
spiritual energy into the crown of the headan ascendance that is said to bring about full

Lidke Ever New Secrets

recognition of ones divine nature (Ferrario 2015; Wallis 2007; Lidke 2005; Silburn 1988). Just
as Abhinavagupta was conceived through an act of esoteric Tantric, sexual ritual so was his
initiation by ambhuntha bestowed via a secret sexual rite in which a Tantric messenger (dt)
served as the conduit for his mystical awakening. In his Light on Tantra (Tantrloka), the
massive compendium on Tantric practice that Abhinavagupta would later write at the behest of
ambhuntha, Abhinavagupta would devote an entire chapter to this rite, which he termed the
rahaysa-vidhi or secret injunction (Lidke 2005; Dupuche 2008).
A Renaissance Mystic
Abhinavagupta likely completed his extensive studies and stages of mystical realization by his
mid-thirties. At that point he lived out the rest of his life as a teacher and prolific author, turning
his home in Kashmir into a place of spiritual learning (rama) in which he wrote his many
works and attended to the training of the numerous disciples who were drawn to him like bees to
honey. The vibrant setting of Abhinavaguptas world at this time is described palpably by his
disciple Madhurja in the Meditation Verses (Dhynaloka) from his Reflections on the Lord
Teacher (Guruntha Parmara). In these oft-quoted verses, Abhinavagupta is hailed as a divine
incarnation who sits amidst a garden of grapes within a pavilion adorned with crystal and
beautiful works of art. The room is fragrant with the smell of flowers, incense and oil lamps.
Beautiful women dance to the instruments and songs of master musicians all in adoration of the
master teacher, Abhinavagupta, who is surrounded by students and various spiritual adepts. The
eyes of the long-haired master are described as trembling in ecstasy as he sits in a yogic posture,
holding a prayer bead in one hand and a musical instrument in another (see full translation by
Masson and Patwardhan 1969, 38-39).
In this wonderful portrait by Madhurja, we get a clear vision of Abhinavagupta as one
who lived and embodied the ecstatic states about which he wrote in such powerful and inspiring
ways. Like Leonardo Da Vinci and other renaissance scholars he was at once a philosopher,
artist and visionary, embodying his knowledge through multiple mediums. In other words,
Abhinavagupta was far more than just a great writer. Rather, his writings are testimony to his
holistic mastery of multiple fields of experience and expressionphilosophy, grammar, poetry,
Tantra and art. While Pandey believed that Abhinavaguptas career can be marked by three
distinct stages in which he first wrote solely on Tantra, then aesthetics and then philosophy

Stra Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

(Pandey 1963, 41) it is more likely the case, as Gnoli has pointed out, that his interest in and
writings on philosophy, Tantra and aesthetics interpenetrated each other throughout his literary
career (Gnoli 1999, 56). Certainly, each of Abhinavaguptas writings, whether they be on the
topic of Tantric ritual, philosophy or aesthetics represent a mystically-charged artistic vision in
which the divine reality is understood as an ever-creative impulse arising within the heart which
is itself identified as the ultimate and most sublime location of divinity.
For Abhinavagupta, in other words, art, the spirituality path and the divine reality were
clearly one and the same. In the mind of Abhinavagupta, this cosmos is Gods artistic creation, a
creation within which every smallest unit of that creation itself embodies and reflects the divine
Artist which is its origin. For this reason, artistic expressionbe it poetry, drama, music painting
or any other artistic mediumis just as capable of bringing about spiritual realization as yogic
practice. For Abhinavagupta, the artist is a yogin and the yogin is an artist. The ultimate artistic
expression is life itself which presents the opportunity for the attainment of spiritual realization,
an event which empowers the individual to recognize his or her own identity as non-distinct from
the identity of that ultimate Artist who is the source and very body of creation itself.
At the heart of Abhinavaguptas writings is the linking of a trinitarian theological and
ritual tradition together with a philosophy of intuitive perception in which the ability to cognize
is itself recognized as proof of the presence of divinity. The influence of the former arose from
his initiation into Triadic (Trika) Tantra. That training revealed to him a Godhead whose being
gave expression through a myriad of triads, which he learned to worship and internalize through
the use of mystical diagrams known as yantras. Foremost among these divine triads was the
trinity of goddesses known as Supreme (Par), Supreme-Nonsupreme (Parpar) and
Nonsupreme (Apar). These three divinities were in turn associated with a host of other
theological and epistimelogical triads including the three powers of will (icchakti), knowledge
(jnaakti), and activity (kriyakti), the triad of God (iva), Goddess (akti) and man (nara),
the triad of past, present and future, the triad of scriptures as dual (dvaita), dual-cum-nondual
(dvaitdvaita) and nondual (advaita), levels of initiation as mild, medium and intense, etc.
Containing within itself and pervading each of these triads, Abhinavagupta recognized one
singular, Supreme Lord, Paramevara, as itself the ultimate source of all the triads. This supreme
consciousness Abhinavagupta understood to be nondistinct from ones very own self-awareness.
Drawing from both literary and aesthetic theory, Abhinavagupta identified the literary

Lidke Ever New Secrets

and artistic principles of intuitive insight (pratibh) and interpretive resonance (dhvani), as
indicators of divine awareness itself (Larson 1976; Timalsina 2007; Lawrence 2013; Cuneo
2015). In other words, the ability of an individual to recognize an object, to have the aha!
moment, to experience the flash of insight was identified by Abhinavagupta as the presence of a
Godhead that reveals itself through each and every act of self-awareness. It was this brilliant
insight that formed the foundation of Abhinavaguptas philosophical writings as distilled in his
final work, Reflections on the Recognition of the Lord (varapratyabhijvimarin). For
Abhinavagupta the intuitive flash of insight (pratibh) is the very principle that makes possible
the recognition of ones own conscious self as the God that one seeks. Toward the aim of
experiencing this intuitive flashing forth, Abhinavagupta himself prescribed and engaged in a
complex host of artistically-grounded ritual practices through which the sensations triggered by
contact of the senses with ritually prescribed sense objects would be fused and channeled toward
a unitive cognitive act in which the ritualist would perceive him or herself as being pervaded
within and by the body of God (Sanderson 1986). In this way, Abhinavagupta established a
profound connection between the tasting of aesthetic experience (rassvda) with the tasting
of spiritual experience (brahmsvda), a link made possible through the synthesizing of his
Tantric training with his immersion into the field of Indian art, grammar and literature (Larson
1976).
Abhinavaguptas brilliant systematization of multiple fields of religious, philosophical
artistic and literary knowledge itself is nowhere better captured than in these words from his final
work, Reflections on the Recognition of the Lord:
One who realizes that [the powers of] knowledge (jna) and activity (kriy) are but
manifestations of the svtantrya [independent power of God] and that these
manifestations are nondistinct from oneself and from the very essence of the ultimate,
whose form is the Lord (vararpa)a person [in this way] resonating entirely with
the awareness that knowledge and activity are really onewhatever this person desires
he or she is certainly able to accomplish. Such a person abides in a state of complete
mystical absorption (samvea), even though still in a body. Such a person, while still in
the body, is not just liberated while living (jvanmukta) but has in fact attained the

Stra Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

ultimate

realization

of

identity

with

the

supreme

lord

(paramevara).

(varapratyabhijvimarin 4.1.15)
In this typically luminous passage Abhinavagupta identifies the mystical absorption (samvea)
of his Tantric practice with the cognitive act of resonance (dhvani) that flashes forth (pratibh)
as the awareness that ones own embodied consciousness is itself the very presence of supreme
consciousness that is the object and goal of ones meditative and ritual practice. In this way,
Abhinavagupta affirms that mystical realization is itself a creative, cognitive act, one in which
divinity itself recognizes its own presence in and as the embodied cosmos (kula), on both cosmic
and personal levels.
Returning to the Cave of God
In a number of his writings Abhinavagupta dallies with the etymological resonances of his name,
offering, among other interpretations, the rendering that his name itself highlights that he is a
teacher or revealer of ever new (abhi-nava) secrets (gupta). Indeed, Abhinavaguptas entire
life is one in which he himself was first awakened to the secrets of creation by his own teachers
and then from that point on dedicated his remaining days to teaching, writing, experiencing and
revealing those great secrets of the nature of existence.
We have observed the way in which Abhinavagupta perceived his birth as appropriately
cosmic. It should come as no surprise that the day of his so-called death was likewise
transcendentally indicative of the depths of his personage. On that eventful date, somewhere
around 1020 C.E. it is said that Abhinavagupta entered Bhairava Cave near the city of Srinagar
in his native land of Kashmir, India together with 1200 disciples (Mller-Ortega 2000, 574).
Therein, Abhinavagupta is believed to have chanted a hymn to Bhairava, the supreme deity of
which he himself was identified as an earthly incarnation. Abhinavagupta was never again seen
in human form. This was not a death by any ordinary convention but an alchemical
transformation of a body that had long since been recognized as perfected and awakened through
the practices that had been revealed to him by his own masters. At the heart of these practices
was the teaching that the entire cosmos is itself the body of God, a body that is luminous, everawakened, consciousness. A master like Abhinavagupta does not and cannot die for he

Lidke Ever New Secrets

recognizes that there is no death but only awakening into the recognition that death itself is
nothing more than the illusion of separation from God.
Abhinavagupta captures this profound state in his Quintessence of the Supreme Truth
(Paramrthasra):
If one comes to know ones own Self as the very nature of divinity, as immaculate
intelligence comprised of a knowing subject who transcends the universe, [who is]
omnipresent like an unsetting arisen sun, comprising a divine will devoid of [the
restrictions of the] space-time continuum, immovable, imperishable[perceiving oneself
in this way as] the completely perfect Lord who is the sole agent in the formation of the
dissolution and arising of the multitude of powers [that give rise to and sustain creation],
being the wise creator of the laws of creation, etc.for such an omniscient yogin how
could there be [death and subsequent] transmigration? Where would he roam, and why?
(Paramrthasra 64-66)
Let us close by imagining ourselves as among those 1200 disciplines who entered together with
Abhinavagupta into the Cave of Bhairava at the end of his life 1,000 years ago. Sitting with the
other disciples and chanting the Hymn of Bhairava (Bhairavastotram) one imagines that
Abhinavagupta therein revealed his final secret: that he himself had fully become that unsetting
arisen sun, that principle of life ever transcendent to death, being itself the light of illuminating
wisdom. Perhaps in the darkness of the cave we actually perceive a tangible light emanating
from Abhinavaguptas body and entering into our own, penetrating to a place of insight that
awakens in our own heart, that interior cave of wisdom, the recognition of the deepest truths of
our being.
While our closing meditative journey back to Abhinavaguptas final act of revelation
occurs solely in the realms of imagination, the illuminating impact of Abhinavagupta on the
many disciples of his day and on the thousands of subsequent students, teachers and scholars
who continue to find inspiration in his many extant works is quite real. A thousand years after
he entered the Bhairava Cave never to be seen again we are still only just beginning to appreciate
the treasure trove of secrets illuminated by this great Kamir master who left in his wake a
priceless legacy of timeless and universal, revelatory wisdom.

Stra Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

Selective Bibliography on Abhinavagupta and Kashmir aiva Studies2

Abhinavagupta, Rjnaka & Balajinntha Paita. 1992. Essence of the exact reality,
or, Paramrthasra of Abhinavagupta. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal
Publishers.
Bansat-Boudon, Lynne & Kamalesha Datta Tripathi. 2015. An Introduction to Tantric
Philosophy: The Paramrthasra of Abhinavagupta with the Commentary of
Yogarja. Introduction, notes, critically revised Sanskrit text, appendix, and indices by
Lynne Bansat-Boudon. Routledge Studies in Tantric Traditions. New York:
Routledge.
Baumer, Bettina. 2011. Abhinavaguptas Hermeneutics of the Absolute: An Interpretation
of his Partriik Vivaraa. DK Printworld.
Biernacki, Loriliai. 2013. Panentheism and Hindu Tantra: Abhinavaguptas Grammatical
Cosmology. In Loriliai Biernacki & Philip Clayton, eds., Gods Body: Panentheism
Across the Worlds Religious Traditions (New York: Oxford University Press): 161-176.
Chakravarty, H.N. & Boris Marjonovic. 2012. Tantrasra of Abhinavagupta. Portland: Rudra
Press.
Cuneo, Daniel. 2015. Rasa: Abhinavagupta on the Purpose(s) of Art. In Nair Sreenath, ed.,
The Natyashastra and the Body in Performance: Essays on Indian Theories of Dance
and Drama (New York: McFarland): 72-88.
Deshpande, G.T. 1989. Abhinavagupta. Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Dupuche, John. R. 2008. Abhinavagupta: The Kula Ritual as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of
the Tantrloka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Dwivedi, R.C., and Navjivan Rastogi, eds. 1987. The Tantrloka of Abhinavagupta with the
Commentary of Jayaratha. 8 vols. Originally edited by Madhusudan Kaul Shastri and
Mukunda Rama Shastri. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies.
Dyczkowski, Mark S. G., trans. 1992. The stanzas on vibration: The Spandakrik with Four
Commentaries: The Spandasadoha by Kemarja; the Spandavtti by Kallaabhaa;
the Spandavivti by Rjnaka Rma; [and] the Spandapradpik by Bhagavadutpala.
Albany: State University of New York Press.

This bibliography is meant to provide an introduction to the top scholarship on Abhinavagupta around the world.
If there are authors or works not in this bibliography that should be present, I apologize. The authors and works
listed represent the primary influences in my own career.

Lidke Ever New Secrets

____. 1987. The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of
Kashmir Shaivism. SUNY Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir. State
University of New York Press.
Ferrario, Alberta. 2015. Grace in Degrees: aktipta, Devotion, and Religious Authority in the
aivism of Abhinavagupta. Ph.D. dissertation in religious studies, University of
Pennsylvania.
Gnoli, Raniero, ed. and trans. 1999 [1972]. Abhinavagupta, luce dei Tantra: Tantrloka. Milan:
Adelphi Edizioni.
____. 1968. The Aesthetic Experience According to Abhinavagupta. Varanasi: 100 D.
Lawrence Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
Hanneder, Jrgen. 1998. Abhinavagupta's philosophy of revelation: an edition and
annotated translation of Mlinloklavrttika I, 1-399. Groningen Oriental
Studies, 14. Leiden: Brill.
Kaviraj, Gopinath. 1966. The Doctrine of Pratibh in Indian Philosophy. In Aspects of Indian
Thought. Burdwan: University of Burdwan.
Lakshman Joo, Swami & John Hughes. 2003. Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme.
AuthorHouse.
Larson, Gerald James. 1976. The Aesthetic (Rassvda) and the Religious
(Brahmsvda) in Abhinavagupta's Kashmir aivism. Philosophy East and West
26: 371-3871974.
____. The Sources for akti in Abhinavagupta's Kashmir aivism: A Linguistic and
Aesthetic Category. Philosophy East and West 24: 41-56.
Lawrence, David Peter. 2013. The Disclosure of akti in Aesthetics: Remarks on the Relation
of Abhinavaguptas Poetics and Nondual Kashmiri aivism. In Southeast Review of
Asian Studies (SERAS), Volume 25: 90-102.
Lidke, Jeffrey S. 2013. Quintessence of the Highest Purpose: A Translation, Introduction and
Analysis of r Abhinavaguptas Paramrthasra. Journal of
Indian Research, Vol.
1, Number 4 (October-December): 1-24.
____. 2005. Interpreting Across Mystical Boundaries: An Analysis of Samdhi in the TrikaKaula Tradition. In Knut Jacobsen, ed., The Theory and Practice of Yoga: Essays in
Honour of Gerald James Larson (Leiden: Brill): 143-180.
Masson, J.L. and M.V. Patwardhan. 1969. ntarasa and Abhinavaguptas Philosophy of
Aesthetics. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

10

Stra Journal 1.3 (January 2016)

Mller-Ortega, Paul E. 2000. On the Seal of ambhu: A Poem by Abhinavagupta. In David G.

White, Ed., Tantra in Practice (Princeton University Press): 573-586.
____. 1988. The Triadic Heart of iva: Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-Dual
Shaivism of Kashmir. aiva Traditions of Kashmir Series. State University of New York
Press.
Nemec, John. 2011. The Ubiquitous iva: Somnandas ivadi and His Tantric
Interlocutors. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Padoux, Andr. 1990 [1963]. Vc: The concept of the Word in selected Hindu Tantras.
Albany: State University of New York Press.
Pandey, Kanti Chandra. 1963. Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study.
Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office; Enlarged 2nd
edition.
Paita, Balajinntha. 1989. History of Kashmir Shaivism. Utpal Publications.
____. 1973. Kamra-aiva-Darana. Jammu: r Raavra Kendrya Saskta Vidypha.
Rastogi. Navjivan. 2013. Quintessentiality of Camatkra in Rasa Experience:
RevisitingAbhinavagupta. In Navjivan Rastogi and Meera Rastogi, eds., Abhinav:
Perspectives on Abhinavagupta, Studies in Memory of K.C. Pandey on his Centenary
(Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal): 429-455.
____. 1987. Introduction to the Tantrloka. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Rati, Isabelle. 2011. Le Soi et lAutre. Identit, diffrence et altrit dans la philosophie de
Pratyabhij. Leiden-Boston: Brill.

la

____. 2006. La Mmoire et le Soi dans lvarapratyabhijvimarin dAbhinavagupta,

Indo-Iranian Journal 49 (1-2): 39-103.
Sanderson, Alexis. 2005. A Commentary on the Opening Verses of the Tantrasra of
Abhinavagupta. In Sadananda Das & Ernst Frlinger, eds., Smarasya: Studies in
Indian Arts, Philosophy, and Interreligious Dialgoue (Delhi: DK Printworld):
89148.
____. 1988. aivism and the Tantric Traditions. In Stewart Sutherland, ed., The World's
Religions (London: Routledge): 660-704.
____. 1986. Mandala and gamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir. In Andr Padoux,
ed., Mantras et Diagrammes Rituelles dans l'Hindouisme (Paris: ditions du Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique): 169-214.

11

Lidke Ever New Secrets

____. 1985. Purity and Power among the Brhmans of Kashmir. In M. Carrithers, S. Collins
& S. Lukes. eds., The Category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy, History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 190-216.
Sastri, Mukunda Ram, ed. 1982. The Tantrasra of Abhinavagupta. Kashmir Series of Texts and
Studies, no. 17. Reprint; Delhi: Bani Prakashan.
Shastri, Madhusudan Kaul, ed. 1987. The varapratyabhijvivtivimarin by Abhinavagupta. 3
vols. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies. Reprint, Delhi: Akay Book Corporation.
Singh, Jaideva, ed. and trans. 1989. A Trident of Wisdom: Translation of PartrikVivaraa. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Skora, Kerry Martin. 2013. The Bodily Efflorescence of Words: The Crossing of
Divine-Voice and the Body-Self in Abhinavaguptas Cosmology. In Southeast Review
of Asian Studies (SERAS), Volume 25, 70-89.
Silburn, Lilian. 1988, Kualin: Energy of the Depths. Albany: State University of New York
Press.
Subramania Iyer, K.A., and K.C. Pandey, eds. 1986. Bhskar (varapratyabhijvimarin
of Abhinavagupta with commentary by Bhskara). Vols. 1-2. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.
Timalsina, Sthaneshwar. 2007. Metaphor, Rasa, and Dhvani: Suggested Meaning in Tantric
Esotericism. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 19: 134-162.
Torella, Raffaele, ed. and trans. 2002. The varapratyabhijkrik of Utpaladeva with the
Authors Vtti. Corrected Edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Tripathi, Ramasagara, ed. 1975-1981. Dhvanyloka of nandavardhana with the Locana of
Abhinavagupta. 3 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Vasudeva, Somananda. 2004. The Yoga of the Mlinvijayottaratantra: Critical Text,
Translation and Notes. Collection Indologie. Institut Francais De Pondichery Ecole
Francaise D'Extreme-Orient.
Wallis, Christopher. 2007. The Descent of Power: Possession, Mysticism, and Initiation in the
aiva Theology of Abhinavagupta. In Journal of Indian Philosophy, Volume 36, Issue
2, 247-295.
White, David Gordon. 2006. Kiss of the Yogin: Tantric Sex in its Asian Contexts.
University of Chicago Press.

12