''Tantrāloka'' ( sa, तन्त्रालोक, translit=tantrāloka, lit=Elucidation of Tantra) is the masterwork of
Abhinavagupta
Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 CE) was a philosopher, mystic and aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logicianRe-accessing Abhinavagupta, Navjivan Rastogi, ...
, a writer and philosopher of the
Kashmir Shaivism school of
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy encompasses the philosophies, world views and teachings of Hinduism that emerged in Ancient India which include six systems ('' shad-darśana'') – Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.Andrew Nicholson ( ...
.
Overview
The work contains the synthesis of the 64 monistic ''
āgamas'' and the different schools of
tantra
Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...
. It discussed both ritualistic and philosophic aspects in 37 chapters; the first chapter contains the essential teachings in condensed form. On account of its size and scope it is considered an encyclopedia of the nondual school of
Hindu tantra
Tantras ("''doctrine''" or "''framework''" or "''system''" ) refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The religious culture of the Tantras is essentially ...
.
''Tantrāloka'' was written in the 10th century and, after Kashmir Shaivism all but disappeared, it was rediscovered in old manuscripts towards the end of the 19th century.
Its only complete translation into a European language to-date – Italian – is credited to
Raniero Gnoli, now at its second edition. The esoteric chapter 29 on the Kaula ritual was translated in English together with ''Jayarathas commentary by John R. Dupuche.
A complex study on the context, authors, contents and references of ''Tantrāloka'' was published by Navjivan Rastogi, Prof. of the Lucknow University. Though there are no English translations of ''Tantrāloka'' to date, the last recognized master of the oral tradition of Kashmir Shaivism,
Swami Lakshman Joo, gave a condensed version of the key philosophical chapters of ''Tantrāloka'' in his book, ''Kashmir Shaivism – The Secret Supreme''.
[Kashmir Shaivism – ''The Secret Supreme'', ed, John Hughes, SUNY press, 1985.]
References
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Kashmir Shaivism
Esoteric schools of thought
Hindu tantra
Shaiva texts
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