The Ubiquitous Siva Somananda's Sivadrsti and His Tantric Interlocutors

by Nemec, John

• ISBN13: 9780199795468
• ISBN10: 0199795460
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

John Nemec examines the beginnings of the non-dual tantric philosophy of the famed Pratyabhij#xF1;a or "Recognition [of God]" School of tenth-century Kashmir, the tradition most closely associated with Kashmiri Shaivism. In doing so it offers, for the very first time, a critical edition and annotated translation of a large portion of the first Pratyabhij#xF1;a text ever composed, the Sivadrsti of Somananda. In an extended introduction, Nemec argues that the author presents a unique form of non-dualism, a strict pantheism that declares all beings and entities found in the universe to be fully identical with the active and willful god Siva. This view stands in contrast to the philosophically more flexible panentheism of both his disciple and commentator, Utpaladeva, and the very few other Saiva tantric works that were extant in the author's day. Nemec also argues that the text was written for the author's fellow tantric initiates, not for a wider audience. This can be adduced from the structure of the work, the opponents the author addresses, and various other editorial strategies. Even the author's famous and vociferous arguments against the non-tantric Hindu grammarians may be shown to have been ultimately directed at an opposing Hindu tantric school that subscribed to many of the grammarians' philosophical views. Included in the volume is a critical edition and annotated translation of the first three (of seven) chapters of the text, along with the corresponding chapters of the commentary. These are the chapters in which Somananda formulates his arguments against opposing tantric authors and schools of thought. None of the materials made available in the present volume has ever been translated into English, apart from a brief rendering of the first chapter that was published without the commentary in 1957. None of the commentary has previously been translated into any language at all.

Author Biography

John Nemec is Assistant Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction to the Translation
Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 3
Somananda's Works and His Biography	p. 12
The Author and His Works	p. 12
Somananda's Biography and Autobiography	p. 19
The Author's Thought and the Intellectual History of the Pratyabhijña	p. 25
Somananda's "Settled Opinion" (siddhanta)	p. 25
Divergences Between the Writings of Somananda and Utpaladeva	p. 31
Divergences Between the Sivadrsti and the Isvarapratyabhijña-karikas and-vrtti	p. 31
Continuities and Divergences Between the Sivadrsti and the Sivadrstivrtti	p. 35
The Use of Trika and Technical Terminology in the Sivadrsti	p. 39
The Influence of the Trika VBh on the Sivadrsti	p. 44
Somananda's Tantric Interlocutors, and the Philosophy of the Grammarians	p. 51
The Tantric Post-Scriptural Schools and Authors Known to Somananda	p. 51
The Sivadrsti and the Spanda School	p. 53
Krama Influences on the Sivadrsti	p. 56
Somananda and the Saiva Siddhanta	p. 58
The Sivadrsti and the Philosophy of the Grammarians	p. 59
Somananda's Arguments Against the Grammarians' Pasyanti	p. 62
Bhartrhari's Avidya and Utpaladeva's Abhedakhyati	p. 64
On What Differentiates the Two Schools	p. 66
Bhatta Pradyumna and His Tattvagarbhastotra	p. 67
Known and Heretofore Unidentified Passages of the Tattvagarbhastotra	p. 69
Bhatta Pradyumna as Pkurvapaksin, and Somananda's Arguments Against the Saktas	p. 72
Conclusions: Somananda's Sivadrsti and the Emergence of the Pratyabhijña	p. 76
About the Edition and the Translation	p. 79
The Manuscripts of the Sivadrsti	p. 79
Manuscripts Consulted	p. 79
Other Sivadrsti Manuscripts	p. 81
About the Edition	p. 82
The Relationship of the Manuscripts	p. 82
Conventions of the Edition	p. 90
About the Translation	p. 91
The Translation
Chapter One of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti: Siva and His Powers	p. 99
Chapter Two of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti: The Arguments against the Grammarians	p. 146
Chapter Three of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti: The Arguments against the Saktas	p. 211
The Edition
Chapter One of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti	p. 275
Chapter Two of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti	p. 304
Chapter Three of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti	p. 350
Bibliography	p. 397
Alphabetical Index of the Half-Verses of SD 1-3	p. 417
Index of References to the IPK and IPVr	p. 427
Index of Key Authors, Terms, and Textual References	p. 431
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