Illness and Immortality
Mantra, Mandala, and Meditation in the Netra Tantra
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 29 April 2022
- ISBN 9780197553268
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages240 pages
- Size 164x239x21 mm
- Weight 499 g
- Language English 258
Categories
Short description:
This work examines a medieval Sanskrit text, the Netra Tantra, which is devoted to health and healing through a yogic practice dedicated to the chanting of mantras, the building of mandalas, and meditation. It discusses the nature and efficacy of these practices and explores non-medical routes to the alleviation of pain, illness, and even death. A focal point of the study is the iconography of the deity Amrtesa (non-death), also known as Mrtyujit or Mrtyuñjaya (Conqueror of Death), a deity who continues to be popular today among those seeking to ease physical suffering.
MoreLong description:
Illness and Immortality examines a medieval Sanskrit text, the Netra Tantra, which is devoted to health and healing through a yogic practice dedicated to the chanting of mantras, the building of mandalas, and meditation. Patricia Sauthoff examines the role of such ritual elements in rites to alleviate illness and death. She includes analysis of the various forms of the deity Amrtesa or Mrtyuñjaya (Conqueror of Death), the nature of mantra, and the relationship between the tantric practitioner and the patient. This work explores what is meant by immortality within the medieval context and how one goes about attaining it. It asks how ritual alleviates illness, what role the deity plays in health and healing, and finally who has access to the rites described within the text. Central to this study is the conception of a body vulnerable to demons and reliant on deities for continued existence, and how the three yogic bodies (sthula, suksma, and para) play a role in physical and spiritual well-being. Featuring new translations of large sections of the Netra Tantra, the book offers readers various points of entry into the text so that tantric practitioners and scholars alike can access the influential and important concepts and practices found within this long-revered but under-studied work.
This is one of a very short list of books on Hindu Tantra that works to provide an overview of the subject accessible to non-specialists... We as scholars owe it to our discipline to make true scholarship accessible and relevant, and [Sauthoff's] book does just that.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
A. Summary
B. Importance of Study
Chapter One: Mantra
I. Om Jum Sah: decoding the mantra
A. Overview of Tantric mantras
B. Encoding the mantra: NT 2.17-33
II. Language, the Body, and Mantra
A. The Nature of Mantra
B. Mantric Physicality: Siva, anu, and consciousness, NT 21.1-19
C. The Mrtyuñjaya Mantra: Exposition on the components of om jum sah NT 22.5-18
Chapter Two: Iconography
I. Iconography: the various forms of Ametesa
A. Visual representations in art history
B. The mythology of Siva
II. Mrtyujit in literature
A. Worshipping Amrtesa
B. Deities in the Netra Tantra
Chapter Three: Mandalas
I. Mandala: locating the divine in the physical world
II. Conclusion
Chapter Four: Diksa
I. Creating the Tantric Identity
II. Caste: initiation and purity
III. Purity and Interpretation: auspicious and inauspicious in the Svacchanda Tantra
Chapter Five: Nirajana
I. Diksa: building a new identity through initiation
A. Transgression: the benefits of breaking the rules
II. Religion of Monarchs
A. Kings, Poets and Patronage
B. Protecting the King: Netra Tantra 19.84-133
C. Private nirajana: Netra Tantra 15.1-19a
III. Conclusion
Chapter Six: Yoga
I. Conquering Death Through Ritual
A. Impurities, Kapalikas, and Exorcism
B. Vanquishing Death: mrtyu vañcana
II. Sthula Yoga
A. Maintaining the Physical Body
B. Easing the Pain of Death and Disease
C. Mandalas of Protection
D. Mantra and Color
III. Visualizing Amrta: Svacchanda Tantra 7.207-225
IV. Conclusion
Conclusion
