Kashmir Shaivism · Tantrāloka · Site search
This dictionary is not in the treatise. It is compiled from those very Sanskrit annotations,
which stand in parentheses next to each Russian word: annotations in the translated chapters
46 302, and there was plenty to choose from — at the top by frequency are function words,
tatas, atra, syāt. What remains here is what the reader stumbles over.
Whose work this is. The translation of the Tantrāloka into Russian is by Gabriela Pradīpaka; it is reproduced here unchanged, and not a line of it did we write. The dictionary entries are selected from his notes, but the interpretations are written for this site and are not presented as his words. For the precise meaning, go where the term is discussed: the last column leads directly to those paragraphs.
The reverse path also exists: a Sanskrit word in the translation’s interlinear gloss leads here by itself.
The ♪ button pronounces the term. The sound is synthesized in advance from the Devanagari spelling using the voice Lekha (hi_IN) — this is not a recording of a reader and not a reference for pronunciation: be careful with aspirated, retroflex, and long vowels.
The voice reads according to the rules of Hindi, and Hindi swallows the final short “a”:
शिव he pronounced “śiv”. Therefore, to a word ending in a consonant, a
visarga is appended — and the voice pronounces the nominative case, śivaḥ, by which the word is
named aloud. The only price for this is: at the end a slight aspiration is heard,
which is not present in the spelling above the button.
Voice:
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanāgarī | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Śiva | śiva | शिव | God as the resting side of Reality — the Light of Consciousness, not different from His own Power. The most frequent word of the treatise: 376 occurrences. | 6.173 · 8.345 · 15.259 |
| Bhairava | bhairava | भैरव | name of the Supreme Lord in Trika: He who holds the universe, bears it, and draws it back into Himself. Not a “terrifying deity,” but the fullness of Consciousness. | 1.277 · 3.180 · 5.22 |
| Anuttara | anuttara | अनुत्तर | “that above which there is nothing”: the Supreme Reality from which everything proceeds and in which everything rests. | 1.1 · 3.180 · 5.50 |
| Sadāśiva | sadāśiva | सदाशिव | the third tattva: the stage where “I am this” still sounds with the emphasis on “I.” | 6.37 · 13.329 · 15.196 |
| Īśvara | īśvara | ईश्वर | the fourth tattva — and at the same time simply “Lord.” Here the emphasis is already on “this”: the universe is seen clearly, and “I” holds it. | 1.301 · 6.37 · 10.116 |
| Maheśvara | maheśvara | महेश्वर | Great Lord. The word serves both as a name and as an indication that this lordship depends on nothing. | 1.9 · 3.90 · 8.428 |
| Śrīkaṇṭha | śrīkaṇṭha | श्रीकण्ठ | “fair-throated” — Śiva from whom the transmission of the teaching in the treatise is traced. | 1.9 · 5.39 · 8.234 |
| Devī | devī | देवी | Goddess — the Power of God taken as His own inseparable aspect; in the Tantrāloka she is also the interlocutor who asks questions. | 3.69 · 15.322 · 16.1 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prakāśa | prakāśa | प्रकाश | Light — that side of Reality by which it manifests. Without it nothing would be; without a response it would not know that it shines. | 3.121 · 10.23 · 15.196 |
| Vimarśa | vimarśa | विमर्श | response, the self-awareness of Light: “this — I am.” The pair to prakāśa, and the whole system rests on their being one. | 5.50 · 11.46 · 16.252 |
| Cit | cit | चित् | Consciousness as such, the pure capacity to shine. Everything is composed of it: cinmaya — “consisting of Consciousness.” | 1.277 · 5.9 · 9.144 |
| Saṁvid | saṁvid | संविद् | Consciousness — not “my consciousness,” but that one by which anything at all exists. | 1.172 · 4.106 · 5.99 |
| Ānanda | ānanda | आनन्द | bliss — not pleasure, but the fullness of Consciousness content with itself. | 3.92 · 5.43 · 15.282 |
| Spanda | spanda | स्पन्द | throb: not movement in space, but that stirring within Consciousness without which it would manifest nothing. | 3.92 · 4.184 · 7.57 |
| Sphurattā | sphurattā | स्फुरत्ता | flashing, shimmering — the same stirring taken as radiance. | 1.172 · 3.287 · 4.184 |
| Śakti | śakti | शक्ति | The Power of God, His Self-Consciousness: the same Reality taken as will and movement. Three hundred annotations — the treatise’s second most frequent word. | 3.180 · 8.345 · 10.299 |
| Icchā | icchā | इच्छा | will, desire — the first of the three Powers: with it every manifestation begins. | 3.92 · 5.50 · 8.345 |
| Jñāna | jñāna | ज्ञान | knowledge — the second Power: that in which desire sees what it desires. | 1.236 · 10.23 · 13.312 |
| Kriyā | kriyā | क्रिया | action — the third Power: knowledge become deed. | 1.150 · 3.92 · 15.79 |
| Svātantrya | svātantrya | स्वातन्त्र्य | Absolute Freedom — that which makes the Lord the Lord: the wholly unconstrained possibility to manifest or not to manifest. | 1.90 · 4.106 · 5.9 |
| Camatkāra | camatkāra | चमत्कार | the delight of recognition — the flash in which Consciousness tastes itself. | 1.53 · 11.72 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tattva | tattva | तत्त्व | beginning, level of Reality; there are thirty-six of them—from Śiva down to the earth. The most frequent concept of the treatise after Śiva: 323 annotations. | 1.277 · 8.12 · 9.30 |
| Adhvan | adhvan | अध्वन् | path: a way of breaking the universe into a series along which one traverses it. There are six paths, three on the side of the word and three on the side of the thing. | 1.277 · 6.34 · 11.55 |
| Kalā | kalā | कला | portion, part—the largest division of the path: five kalās into which the entire universe is broken down. Not to be confused with kāla, time. | 1.277 · 9.30 · 16.32 |
| Varṇa | varṇa | वर्ण | sound of speech, letter—the smallest portion of the path on the side of the word. | 1.277 · 11.72 · 16.129 |
| Pada | pada | पद | word as a unit of the path—and generally “place, state.” | 6.224 · 7.45 · 16.209 |
| Bhuvana | bhuvana | भुवन | world, inhabited region; there are one hundred and eighteen of them, and they are the most fractional portion of the path on the side of the thing. | 1.62 · 8.403 · 11.9 |
| Viśva | viśva | विश्व | universe as a whole—everything that exists, taken in a single glance. | 3.180 · 4.106 · 6.173 |
| Jagat | jagat | जगत् | world—that which moves. | 1.13 · 3.147 · 8.307 |
| Māyā | māyā | माया | the Power by which the Lord conceals Himself and manifests the world as separate. Not deception, but measure: the sixth tattva. | 8.328 · 9.160 · 10.105 |
| Kañcuka | kañcuka | कञ्चुक | covering: five sheaths by which māyā cuts the boundless down to “so much”—kalā, vidyā, rāga, kāla-time, niyati. | 6.152 · 9.154 · 10.105 |
| Prakṛti | prakṛti | प्रकृति | nature—that from which everything material is made; the thirteenth tattva. | 8.249 · 11.9 · 13.266 |
| Puruṣa | puruṣa | पुरुष | limited being: Consciousness that has forgotten its boundlessness. | 1.41 · 8.417 · 9.68 |
| Guṇa | guṇa | गुण | three threads from which nature is woven: sattva, rajas, tamas. | 6.224 · 7.2 · 8.249 |
| Kāla (time) | kāla | काल | time—both as a covering that cuts eternity down to “now,” and as the One who devours. Written with a long “a,” unlike the portion kalā. | 6.152 · 7.57 · 9.30 |
| Sṛṣṭi | sṛṣṭi | सृष्टि | manifestation, emission—the first of the five acts of the Lord. | 5.25 · 6.173 · 14.1 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vāc | vāc | वाच् | Speech — not sound, but that by which anything at all can be named and therefore be. It has four stages: the highest (parā), paśyantī, madhyamā, and vaikharī. | 1.158 · 2.33 · 8.216 |
| Paśyantī | paśyantī | पश्यन्ती | “seeing” — the second stage: the meaning is seen as a whole, but not yet broken down into words. | 1.270 · 3.236 |
| Madhyamā | madhyamā | मध्यमा | “middle” — the third: words are already separate, but sound within. | 3.236 · 7.55 · 10.192 |
| Vaikharī | vaikharī | वैखरी | “manifest” — the fourth: speech aloud. | 1.270 · 3.236 |
| Śabda | śabda | शब्द | sound, word — what is heard, as opposed to what it means. | 3.24 · 9.294 · 16.252 |
| Nāda | nāda | नाद | hum, undifferentiated sounding, from which the sounds of speech are distinguished. | 3.237 · 6.152 · 8.386 |
| Bindu | bindu | बिन्दु | point, drop: compressed into one, from which the many unfolds. | 1.62 · 5.78 · 15.79 |
| Bīja | bīja | बीज | seed — a one-syllable mantra, from which a whole grows. | 3.82 · 10.220 · 15.21 |
| Mātṛkā | mātṛkā | मातृका | “mother” — the entire sound series as the mother of every word and every knowledge. | 3.180 · 15.79 · 16.129 |
| Mantra | mantra | मन्त्र | a word by which one acts. For Abhinavagupta, the power of a mantra lies not in sound, but in Consciousness, which recognizes itself through it. | 10.299 · 11.51 · 16.252 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deha | deha | देह | body. In the Tantrāloka it is not an obstacle but the place where everything happens. | 5.99 · 9.123 · 13.240 |
| Prāṇa | prāṇa | प्राण | breath-life — and its ascending current in particular. | 5.9 · 6.173 · 16.32 |
| Apāna | apāna | अपान | descending current of breath, the counterpart to prāṇa. | 5.43 · 6.173 · 16.32 |
| Udāna | udāna | उदान | current going upward along the central channel: the one that raises into Turīya. | 5.43 · 6.173 |
| Nāḍī | nāḍī | नाडी | channel along which breath moves; there are three main ones. | 5.70 · 6.173 · 7.57 |
| Suṣumnā | suṣumnā | सुषुम्ना | central channel — the one along which udāna moves. | 8.386 |
| Kuṇḍalinī | kuṇḍalinī | कुण्डलिनी | coiled Power in the body; the treatise distinguishes its lower and upper forms. | 3.121 · 5.50 · 8.417 |
| Cakra | cakra | चक्र | wheel: both a center in the body, and a circle of deities, and an assembly of initiates. Abhinavagupta uses all three senses. | 5.25 · 7.2 · 16.1 |
| Hṛdaya | hṛdaya | हृदय | Heart — not an organ but a center: that to which everything converges and from which everything issues. | 1.331 · 5.50 · 8.345 |
| Madhya | madhya | मध्य | middle — both the place between the two breaths, and that state entered through any interval. | 8.12 · 13.240 · 16.1 |
| Dvādaśānta | dvādaśānta | द्वादशान्त | “end of twelve” — a point twelve fingers from the body or from the palate, where breath ends and begins. | 5.88 · 6.173 · 15.517 |
| Aṅgula | aṅgula | अङ्गुल | finger as a measure of length: by it the path of breath is measured. | 6.64 · 10.185 · 16.100 |
| Ucchāra | ucchāra | उच्चार | rise — a prolonged utterance by which consciousness is led upward along the central channel. | 1.167 · 5.50 · 15.48 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pramātṛ | pramātṛ | प्रमातृ | the knower — the one for whom something exists. Its levels are seven, from Śiva to the bound being. | 3.121 · 6.37 · 10.105 |
| Pramāṇa | pramāṇa | प्रमाण | the means of cognition — that by which the knower takes the knowable. | 1.55 · 10.6 · 11.55 |
| Prameya | prameya | प्रमेय | the knowable — that which is taken. | 1.2 · 5.43 · 10.102 |
| Vedya | vedya | वेद्य | the same knowable under another word; the pair to vedaka. | 6.76 · 10.23 · 15.339 |
| Vedaka | vedaka | वेदक | the knower — the pair to vedya; together they constitute the “duality.” | 6.76 · 10.22 · 13.266 |
| Bodha | bodha | बोध | awakeness, discernment — Consciousness taken as that which understands. | 1.16 · 3.57 · 8.12 |
| Buddhi | buddhi | बुद्धि | the discriminating faculty: that which decides “this is that.” | 4.160 · 5.9 · 8.249 |
| Manas | manas | मनस् | the mind: that which assembles impressions into an image. | 1.74 · 8.216 · 9.271 |
| Ahaṅkāra | ahaṅkāra | अहङ्कार | the “I-maker”: that by which an impersonal impression becomes “mine.” | 4.161 · 8.436 · 9.271 |
| Citta | citta | चित्त | the consciousness of an individual person — that which can be defiled and which is purified. | 1.51 · 3.211 · 4.29 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mala | mala | मल | dirt, stain: that by which consciousness is closed off from itself. There are three, and in the translation they are named in Russian: ānava — “I am incomplete,” from it the boundless becomes a point; māyiya — “this is not I,” the world becomes alien and separate; karma — “I am the doer,” hence the deed, its trace, and new birth. | 1.236 · 9.68 · 13.54 |
| Pāśa | pāśa | पाश | noose, bond — the general name for everything that holds a being bound. | 4.17 · 8.288 · 15.31 |
| Paśu | paśu | पशु | cattle — the bound being: the same Consciousness, but having forgotten itself. | 9.175 · 15.160 · 16.52 |
| Bheda | bheda | भेद | difference, separateness — that by which the bonds are held. 231 notes. | 1.301 · 10.139 · 16.176 |
| Vikalpa | vikalpa | विकल्प | discriminating thought: that which cuts the one into “this” and “not this.” | 1.172 · 4.3 · 7.30 |
| Saṁsāra | saṁsāra | संसार | cycle of births — and at the same time all of ordinary life. | 1.95 · 9.88 · 15.259 |
| Karma | karma | कर्मन् | deed — and its consequence. For Abhinavagupta, not fate, but a trace that is erased by initiation. | 9.123 · 13.12 · 16.302 |
| Saṁskāra | saṁskāra | संस्कार | trace left by a deed; and the rite by which it is set right. | 9.97 · 10.6 · 15.497 |
| Vāsanā | vāsanā | वासना | habit, accumulated inclination — and at the same time “fragrance.” | 6.18 · 15.21 · 16.176 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upāya | upāya | उपाय | means: the way by which a being comes to itself. Abhinavagupta has four of them, and the entire treatise is arranged according to them. | 1.277 · 5.3 · 6.224 |
| Anupāya | anupāya | अनुपाय | “without means” — not a path, but its absence: recognition without a single step. | 2.2 · 3.272 |
| Śāmbhava | śāmbhava | शाम्भव | the path of Śambhu: entry by will alone, without reliance on thought and breath. | 1.172 · 3.211 · 4.17 |
| Śākta | śākta | शाक्त | the path of Power: work with thought — the displacement of bad discriminative thought by pure thought. | 1.277 · 3.180 · 15.247 |
| Āṇava | āṇava | आणव | the path of the limited being: reliance on body, breath, sound, and object. | 1.37 · 3.211 · 5.1 |
| Samāveśa | samāveśa | समावेश | full entry — that for the sake of which all means are set up. | 1.172 · 5.112 · 10.270 |
| Āveśa | āveśa | आवेश | entry, possession: a state when that to which a person is devoted enters into him. | 1.10 · 2.36 · 11.55 |
| Yoga | yoga | योग | union — and the way to achieve it. | 3.160 · 5.25 · 16.289 |
| Dhyāna | dhyāna | ध्यान | contemplation — holding an image until it becomes itself. | 1.116 · 5.41 · 6.69 |
| Dhāraṇā | dhāraṇā | धारणा | concentration: binding consciousness to a single place. | 1.95 · 2.42 · 8.205 |
| Bhāvanā | bhāvanā | भावना | cultivation: not imagination, but holding the truth until it becomes evident. | 9.140 · 10.116 · 13.177 |
| Mudrā | mudrā | मुद्रा | seal: a position of body or consciousness by which a state is fixed. | 1.330 · 3.268 · 4.266 |
| Krama | krama | क्रम | succession, sequence — and at the same time the name of a school. 245 notes: “Tantrāloka” lays out almost everything in steps. | 1.301 · 6.173 · 15.79 |
| Turya | turya | तुर्य | the Fourth — the state beyond waking, dreaming sleep, and dreamless sleep. | 1.77 · 6.76 · 10.270 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanāgarī | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dīkṣā | dīkṣā | दीक्षा | initiation: the rite by which the teacher burns away the bonds of the disciple. The greater part of the treatise is devoted to it. | 1.277 · 15.31 · 16.176 |
| Guru | guru | गुरु | teacher. For Abhinavagupta he is not a mentor but one through whom the Power acts. | 13.343 · 15.543 · 16.252 |
| Śiṣya | śiṣya | शिष्य | disciple — the one who is initiated. | 8.417 · 15.447 · 16.157 |
| Śaktipāta | śaktipāta | शक्तिपात | descent of Power: the grace by which the Lord reveals Himself. Without it initiation has no force. | 1.277 · 13.290 · 14.22 |
| Nyāsa | nyāsa | न्यास | placement: the arrangement of mantras over the body, by which the body is made the body of the deity. | 1.301 · 15.79 · 16.209 |
| Maṇḍala | maṇḍala | मण्डल | circle, diagram: the universe laid out on a plane, into which the disciple is led. | 8.216 · 13.343 · 16.1 |
| Yāga | yāga | याग | sacrifice, service — the rite as a whole. | 4.211 · 15.79 · 16.1 |
| Homa | homa | होम | oblation into the fire; for Abhinavagupta what is burnt is not butter but difference. | 3.289 · 4.106 · 6.107 |
| Pūjā | pūjā | पूजा | worship — service to the deity. | 1.301 · 4.106 · 15.181 |
| Abhiṣeka | abhiṣeka | अभिषेक | consecration by sprinkling: that by which one is installed in office. | 1.301 · 4.53 · 13.307 |
| Kula | kula | कुल | clan, family — and at the same time a totality: the body, the Power, the assembly of the initiated. | 4.256 · 5.68 · 15.543 |
| Kaula | kaula | कौल | that which pertains to the Kula: the tradition in which nothing is cast away as impure. | 4.55 · 13.290 · 15.591 |
| Liṅga | liṅga | लिङ्ग | sign — both the object of worship and the mark by which one is recognised. | 1.301 · 4.256 · 5.112 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanāgarī | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mokṣa | mokṣa | मोक्ष | liberation — not a departure from the world, but the recognition that bondage never existed. | 4.17 · 8.345 · 16.176 |
| Mukti | mukti | मुक्ति | the same liberation under another word; used more often where the state is meant. | 1.34 · 4.35 · 15.79 |
| Jīvanmukti | jīvanmukti | जीवन्मुक्ति | liberation while alive: the body remains, the bonds do not. | 13.177 |
| Siddhi | siddhi | सिद्धि | perfection, superpower — and at the same time “that which has come to pass.” | 8.279 · 13.329 · 15.79 |
| Bhoga | bhoga | भोग | tasting, enjoyment. In Trika it is not opposed to liberation: the path leads to both. | 4.17 · 8.12 · 16.176 |
| Svarūpa | svarūpa | स्वरूप | one’s own essential nature — that which the being always was. | 1.301 · 9.20 · 10.6 |
| Pūrṇatā | pūrṇatā | पूर्णता | fullness — a state in which there is nothing to add and nothing to desire. | 1.139 · 10.270 · 15.543 |
| Phala | phala | फल | fruit: that for which one acts — and that which comes out of what was done. | 9.97 · 13.12 · 15.79 |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanāgarī | Meaning | Where in the text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Śāstra | śāstra | शास्त्र | scripture, instruction. Note 171: the “Tantrāloka” continuously refers to other books of the tradition. | 4.69 · 13.343 · 15.543 |
| Āgama | āgama | आगम | “that which has come” — revelation received from the Lord, not deduced by the mind. | 1.88 · 3.250 · 13.343 |
| Tantra | tantra | तन्त्र | book of revelation — and at the same time “the warp of the fabric”: that by which everything is woven together. | 2.38 · 7.57 · 15.469 |
| Trika | trika | त्रिक | “triad” — the name of the school itself: Śiva, Śakti, and the bound soul, taken as one. | 1.18 · 3.180 · 4.273 |
| Siddhānta | siddhānta | सिद्धान्त | the dualistic branch of Śaivism, with which Abhinavagupta argues, relying on its own ritual. | 4.256 · 11.72 · 13.290 |
| Mālinī | mālinī | मालिनी | “she who wears a garland” — the sound series in reverse order, and the name of the tantra on which the treatise relies most heavily. | 1.18 · 15.79 · 16.129 |
| Āhnika | āhnika | आह्निक | “daily” — a chapter: as much as is examined in one day. There are thirty-seven of them. | 1.301 · 2.50 · 3.272 |