ŚAIVISM AND THE TANTRIC TRADITIONS EXAM

Examiners: Dr. Shaman Hatley (UMass Boston) and Prof. Anne Monius

Seth Powell

The aim of this exam is to provide a strong foundation and overview of the academic study of
Śaivism and tantric traditions. The exam draws upon a variety of disciplinary approaches
including philology, art history, philosophy, and religious studies, and considers how they may
be brought together most fruitfully. The exam has been heuristically divided into six sections.
The first four provide a broad overview of: 1) general and early Śaivism; 2) general studies of
tantra, including Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions; 3) tantric Śaivism; and 4) the tantric
body. The final two sections of the exam provide surveys of particular Śaiva/tantric orders or
religious movements: 5) Nātha, Siddha, and Mahāsiddha traditions; and 6) Vīraśaiva or
Liṅgāyata traditions.

PART 1: GENERAL AND EARLY ŚAIVISM

Bakker, Hans T. 2001. “Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Śiva Worship.” In
Les Sources et Le Temps / Sources and Time. A Colloquium, edited by Grimal Francois,
397–412. Pondicherry: Institut francais de Pondichery, EFEO.

Bisschop, Peter C. 2006. Early Śaivism and the Skandapurāṇa: Sects and Centres. Vol. 21.
Groningen Oriental Studies. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.

———. 2010. “Śaivism in the Gupta-Vākāṭaka Age.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 20
(4): 477–88.

———. 2014. “Invoking the Powers That Be: The Śivadharma’s Mahāśānti Mantra.”
South Asian Studies 30 (2): 133–41.

Dasgupta, Surendranath. 1955. A History of Indian Philosophy. Volume V. Southern Schools

of Śaivism. Cambridge: University Press.

Doniger, Wendy. 1981 [1973]. Śiva: the Erotic Ascetic. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kramrisch, Stella. 1992. The Presence of Śiva. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Meister, Michael W., ed. 1984. Discourses on Śiva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the
Nature of Religious Imagery. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
[selections].

Sears, Tamara I. 2014. Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings: Architecture and Asceticism in
Medieval India. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
PART 2: GENERAL TANTRA STUDIES

Hindu Tantra

Biernacki, Loriliai. 2007. Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex, and Speech in Tantra.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Bühnemann, Gudrun, ed. 2003. Maṇḍalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions. Brill’s
Indological Library, v.18. Leiden ; Boston: Brill [selections].

Dehejia, Vidya. 1986. Yoginī, Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition. New Delhi: National
Museum.

Dimock, Edward C. 1966. The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇava-
Sahajiyā Cult of Bengal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Goudriaan, Teun, and S. Gupta. 1981. Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature. Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrassowitz.

Olesen, Bjarne Wernicke, ed. 2016. Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism: History,
Practice and Doctrine. Routledge Studies in Tantric Traditions. New York, NY:
Routledge [selections].

Padoux, André. 1990. Vāc: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras. Albany:
State University of New York Press.

Padoux, André, and Teun Goudriaan. 1992. Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism:
Studies in Honour of André Padoux. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Urban, Hugh B. 1999. “The Extreme Orient: The Construction of ‘Tantrism’ as a

Category in the Orientalist Imagination.” Journal of Religion 29: 123–146.

———. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. Berkeley:
University of California Press.

White, David Gordon, ed. 2000. Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press.

Buddhist Tantra

Davidson, Ronald M. 2004. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: Social History of the Tantric
Movement. New York: Columbia University Press.

———. 2002. “Reframing Sahaja: Genre, Representation, Ritual and Lineage.” Journal
of Indian Philosophy 30 (1): 43–81.

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Gellner, David N. 1992. Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its
Hierarchy of Ritual. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Gray, David B., and Ryan Richard Overbey, eds. 2016. Tantric Traditions in Transmission
and Translation. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press
[selections].

Isaacson, Harunaga. 1998. “Tantric Buddhism in India (from c. A.D. 800 to c. A.D.
1200).” Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart 2: 23–49.

Lopez, Donald S. 1996. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sūtra. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press.

Sanderson, Alexis. 1994. “Vajrayāna: Origin and Function.”

Shaw, Miranda Eberle. 1994. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Snellgrove, David L. 1987. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan
Successors. Boston ; New York: Shambhala .

Wallace, Vesna A. 2001. The Inner Kālacakratantra a Buddhist Tantric View of the
Individual. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wedemeyer, Christian K. 2013. Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and
Transgression in the Indian Traditions. New York: Columbia University Press. 


PART 3: TANTRIC ŚAIVISM

Acharya, Diwakar. 2011. “Pāśupatas.” Edited by Jacobsen, Knut A. Brill Encyclopedia of

Hinduism 3: 458–66.

Brunner, Hélène. 1992. “The Four Pādas of the Śaivāgamas.” In Dr. S. S. Janaki
Felicitation Volume. Madras: Kuppuswamy Research Institute.

Brooks, Douglas Renfrew. 1990. The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu
Śākta Tantrism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Davis, Richard H. 1991. Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Śiva in Medieval India.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Dyczkowski, Mark S. G. 1987. The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and
Practices of Kashmir Shaivism. State University of New York Press.

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———. 1988. The Canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā: Tantras of the Western Kaula
Tradition. SUNY Press.


Goodall, Dominic. 1998. Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Commentary on the Kiraṇatantra. Volume I.

Chapters 1-6. Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Pondicherry: Institut
Français d’Indologie.

———. 2011. “The Throne of Worship: An ‘Archaeological Tell’ of Religious Rivalries.”

Studies in History 27 (2): 221–250.

———. 2015. “How the Tattvas of Tantric Śaivism Came to Be 36: The Evidence of the
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā.” Tantric Studies, November 15, Article 2: 77-111.

Goodall, Dominic, Alexis Sanderson, and Harunaga Isaacson. 2015. The

Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: The Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra. Collection Indologie. Early
Tantra Series ; 1. Pondicherry, India: Institut Français de Pondichéry ; Paris, France
[Introduction].

Hara, Minoru. 2002. Pāśupata Studies. Edited by Jun Takashima. Publications of the De
Nobili Research Library ; v. 30. Vienna: Sammlung De Nobili.

Hatley, Shaman. 2007. “The Brahmayamalatantra and Early Saiva Cult of Yoginis.”
Ph.D., United States — Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania.

———. 2010. “Tantric Śaivism in Early Medieval India: Recent Research and Future
Directions.” Religion Compass 4 (10): 615–28.

Lorenzen, David N. 1972. The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas; Two Lost Śaivite Sects. Berkeley:
University of California Press.

Muller-Ortega, Paul E. 1989. The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta
in the Non-Dual Shaivism of Kashmir. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Nemec, John. 2011. The Ubiquitous Śiva: Somanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi and His Tantric Interlocutors.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rastelli, Marion. 2000. “The Religious Practice of the Sādhaka According to the
Jayākhyasamhitā.” Indo-Iranian Journal 43 (4): 319–95.

Sanderson, Alexis. 1985. “Purity and Power among the Brahmins of Kashmir.” In The
Category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy and History, edited by S. Collins, M.
Carrithers, and S. Lukes, 190–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. 1986. “Maṇḍala and Āgamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir.” In Mantras et dia-
grammes rituels dans L’hinduisme, edited by André Padoux, 169–214. Paris: Éditions du
CNRS.

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———. 1988. “Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions.” In The World’s Religions: The Religions
of Asia, edited by S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke, and F. Hardy, 660–704.
London: Routledge.

———. 1990. “The Visualization of the Deities of the Trika.” In L’image divine: Culte et
meditation dans l’hinduisme, edited by André Padoux, 31–88. Paris: Éditions du CNRS.

———. 1995. “Meaning in Tantric Ritual.” In Essais sur le Rituel III. Colloque du centenaire
de la selection des sciences religieuses de l’Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes, edited by
Anne-Marie Blondeau and Kristofer Schippers, 15–95. Louvain: Peeters.

———. 2002a. “History through Textual Criticism in the Study of Śaivism, the
Pañcarātra and the Buddhist Yoginītantras.” In Les sources et le temps. Sources and
Time. A Colloquium. Pondicherry 11–13 January 1997, edited by François Grimal, PDI
91, 1-47. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry / Ecole Française d’Extrême-
Orient.

———. 2004. “Religion and the State: Śaiva Officiants in the Territory of the King’s
Brahmanical Chaplain.” Indo-Iranian Journal 47 (3-4): 229–300.

———. 2006. “The Lākulas: New Evidence of a System Intermediate between

Pāñcārthika Pāśupatism and Āgamic Śaivism.” Indian Philosophical Annual 24: 143–
217. 


———. 2007. “The Śaiva Exegetes of Kashmir.” In Mélanges tantrique à la mémoire

d’Hélène Brunner. Tantric Studies in Honor of Hélène Brunner, edited by Dominic
Goodall and André Padoux, 231–442. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry /
École Française d’Extrême-Orient. 


———. 2009. “The Śaiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism during the Early
Medieval Period.” In Genesis and Development of Tantrism, edited by Shingo Einoo,
41-350. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo.

———. 2013. “The Impact of Inscriptions on the Interpretation of Early Śaiva

Literature.” Indo-Iranian Journal 56 (3–4): 211–44.

———. 2015. “Śaiva Texts.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Törzsök, Judit. 2000. “Tantric Goddesses and Their Supernatural Powers in the Trika of
Kashmir (Bhedatraya in the Siddhayogeśvarīmata).” Rivista degli Studi Orientali 73/1–4:
131–147.

White, David Gordon. 2003. Kiss of the Yogini: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts.
Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.


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PART 4: THE TANTRIC BODY

Avalon, Arthur (Sir John Woodroffe). 1958. The Serpent Power: Being the Ṣaṭ-Cakra-
Nirūpaṇa and Pādukā-Pañcaka: Two Works on Laya Yoga. Madras: Ganesh.

Bouillier, Véronique, and Gilles Tarabout, eds. 2002. Images du corps dans le monde
hindou. Collection Monde Indien. Paris: CNRS [selections].

Heilijgers-Seelen, Dorothea Maria. 1994. The System of Five Cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra

14-16. Groningen, the Netherlands: E. Forsten.

Flood, Gavin. 2005. The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion. I. B. Tauri

———. 2009. “Body, Breath and Representation in Śaiva Tantrism.” Paragrana

Internationale Zeitschrift Für Historische Anthropologie 18 (1): 78–92.

Hatley, Shaman. 2015. “Kuṇḍalinī.” Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Springer).


Padoux, André. 1990. “The Body in Tantric Ritual: The Case of the Mudrās.” In The
Sanskrit Tradition and Tantrism, ed. by Teun Goudriaan, 66–75. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

White, David Gordon. 2006. “‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ Models of the Human Body In Indian
Medical and Yogic Traditions.” Asian Medicine 2 (1): 1–13.

Wujastyk, Dominik. 2009. “Interpreting the Image of the Human Body in Premodern
India.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 13 (2): 189–228.

PART 5: NĀTHA, SIDDHA, AND MAHĀSIDDHA TRADITIONS

Banerjea, Akshaya Kumar. 1962. Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-

Sangraha. Gorakhpur: Mahant Dig Vijai Nath Trust.

Bouillier, Véronique. 2009. “The Pilgrimage to Kadri Monastery (Mangalore,

Karnataka): A Nāth Yogī Peformance.” In Patronage and Popularisation, Pilgrimage and
Procession: Channels of Transcultural Translation and Transmission in Early Modern
South Asia : Papers in Honour of Monika Horstmann, edited by Heidi Rika Maria
Pauwels, 135–46. Studies in Oriental Religions ; v. 58. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag.

———. 2017. Monastic Wanderers: Nāth Yogī Ascetics in Modern South Asia. Delhi,
Manohar.

Briggs, George Weston. 1989 [1938]. Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis. Delhi: Narendra
Prakash Jain for Motilal Banarsidass.

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Dasgupta, Shashi Bhushan. 1946. Obscure Religious Cults. Calcutta: Firma K.L.
Mukhopadhyay.

Dowman, Keith, and Hugh R. Downs. 1985. Masters of Mahāmudrā: Songs and Histories of
the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Gold, Daniel. 1999. “Nath Yogis as Established Alternatives: Householders and Ascetics
Today.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 34 (1): 68–88.

Gold, Daniel, and Ann Grodzins Gold. 1984. “The Fate of the Householder Nath.”
History of Religions 24 (2): 113–32.

Horstmann, Monika. 2014. “The Emergence of the Nāthyogī Order in the Light of
Vernacular Sources.” International Journal of Tantric Studies 10 (1).

Kiehnle, Catharina. 1997. Songs on Yoga: Texts and Teachings of the Mahārāṣṭrian Nāths.
Stuttgart: FSteiner Verlag.

Linrothe, Robert N., ed. 2006. Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas. New York: Rubin
Museum of Art ; Chicago.

Lorenzen, David N., and Adrián Muñoz, eds. 2012. Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and
Legends of the Naths. New York: State University of New York Press.

Mallik, Kalyani. 1954. Siddha-Siddhānta-Paddhati and Other Works of the Nātha Yogīs.
Oriental Book House.

Mallinson, James. 2011. “Nāth Saṃpradāya.” Brill Encyclopedia of Religions 3: 407–28.

———. Forthcoming. “Nāth Yogis in Early Material and Textual Sources.”

Ondračka, Lubomír. 2015. “Perfected Body, Divine Body and Other Bodies in the Nātha-
Siddha Sanskrit Texts.” The Journal of Hindu Studies 8 (2): 210–32.

Pauwels, Heidi Rika Maria. 2012. “Whose Satire? Gorakhnāth Confronts Krishna in
Kanhāvat.” In Indian Satire in the Period of First Modernity, eds. Monika Horstmann
and Heidi Rika Maria Pauwels, 35-64.

Saletore, B.A. 1937. “Kānaphāṭa Jogis in Southern History.” The Poona Orientalist 1 (4): 16–
22.

Sastri, V.V. Ramana. 1956. “The Doctrinal Culture and Tradition of the Siddhas.” In The
Cultural Heritage of India, edited by Haridas Bhattacharya, Vol. IV: The Religions:
300–309. Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.

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White, David Gordon. 1996. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

PART 6: VĪRAŚAIVA AND LIṄGĀYATA TRADITIONS

Allchin, Raymond. 1971. “The Attaining of the Void: A Review of Some Recent
Contributions in English to the Study of Vīraśaivism.” Religious Studies 7 (4): 339–59.


Ben-Herut, Gil. 2012. “Literary Genres and Textual Representations of Early

Vīraśaiva History: Revisiting Ekānta Rāmayya’s Self-Beheading.”
International Journal of Hindu Studies 16 (2): 129–87.


———. 2013. “Narrating Devotion: Representation and Prescriptions of the

Early Kannada Śivabhakti Tradition according to Harihara’s Śivaśaranara
Ragalěgalu.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.


———. “Figuring the South-Indian Śivabhakti Movement: The Broad Narrative

Gaze of Early Kannada Hagiographic Literature.” The Journal of Hindu
Studies 8 (3): 274–95.


———. 2016. “Things Standing Shall Move: Temple Worship in Early Kannada
Śivabhakti Hagiographies.” International Journal of Hindu Studies, February,
1–30.


Chandra Shobhi, Prithvi Datta. 2005. “Pre-Modern Communities and Modern

Histories: Narrating Vīraśaiva and Lingayat Selves.” PhD Thesis, The
University of Chicago.


Chekki, Danesh A. 1997. Religion and Social System of the Vīraśaiva Community.
Contributions to the Study of Anthropology; No. 8. Westport, Conn:
Greenwood Press.


Fisher, Elaine M. forthcoming, 2017. “Remaking South Indian Śaivism: Greater

Śaiva Advaita and the Legacy of the Śaktiviśiṣṭādvaita Vīraśaiva Tradition.”
International Journal of Hindu Studies.

———. forthcoming, 2017. “Translating Vīraśaivism: The Early Modern

Monastery as Transregional Religious Network.”

Glasbrenner, Eva-Maria. 2015. “Cakra System and Tantric Ritual in Vīraśaivism.”

The Journal of Hindu Studies 8 (2): 180–201.


Hiranmaya. 2003 [1967]. “Basava and Gorakhnāth.” In Śrī Basavēśvara. A

Commemoration Volume. Eighth Centenary Commemoration Volume, Edited by
Wodeyar S. S. et al. Bangalore: Directorate of Kannada & Culture, pp. 309–

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 23.


Ishwaran, K. 1992. Speaking of Basava: Lingayat Religion and Culture in South Asia.
Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.


Marulasiddiah, G. 1967. “Vīraśaiva Literature During the Vijayanagar Empire [A.

D. 1400- 1800].” In Kaviraj Abhinandana Grantha. Edited by Kulpati Niwas, et.
al. Lucknow: Akhila Bharatiya Samskrta Parisad. 


Michael, R. Blake. 1983. “Foundation Myths of the Two Denominations of

Virasaivism: Viraktas and Gurusthalins.” The Journal of Asian Studies 42 (2):
309.

———. 1992. The Origins of Vīraśaiva Sects: A Typological Analysis of Ritual and
Associational Patterns in the Śūnyasaṃpādane. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
Publishers.

Nandimath, S. C. 1979. A Handbook of Vīraśaivism. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal

Banarsidass.


Ramanujan, A. K. 1973. Speaking of Śiva. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth:

Penguin.


Ripepi, Tiziana. 2007. “The Feet of the Jaṅgama: Identity and Ritual Issues
Among the Vīraśaivas of Karnataka.” Kervan - Rivista Internationale di Studii
Afroasiatici 6: 69- 100.

Rao, Velcheru Narayana, and Gene H. Roghair. 2014. Śiva’s Warriors: The Basava
Purāṇa of Pālkuriki Somanātha. Princeton University Press.

Steinschneider, Eric. Forthcoming. “The Song of Non-Contradiction: Vīraśaivas

in Late-Precolonial Tamil South India.” The Journal of Hindu Studies.

111 Total

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