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Tantrasāra

Tantrasāra — “The Essence of the Tantras,” twenty-two chapters of Abhinavagupta

Source: sanskrit-trikashaivism.com — translation from Sanskrit, all explanations and the entire Sanskrit apparatus belong to Gabriel Pradīpaka. Here they are reproduced unchanged: not a line of translation on these pages is ours. For the exact meaning, go to the source.

What is this text

Tantrasāra — “The Essence of the Tantras”: Abhinavagupta himself (c. 950–1020) condensed his own “Tantrāloka](/en/ksh/ta/)” into twenty-two chapters, written for the most part in prose. “Tantrāloka” — thirty-seven chapters in verse and the most extensive work of the tradition; reading it straight through is nearly impossible, and Abhinavagupta wrote a summary for his own disciples. He himself says this in the second stanza of the first chapter: “Not all can immerse themselves in the vast Tantrāloka; hear, then, this Tantrasāra, set forth in simple speech.”

The same material, but in a manageable form: methods (upāya), the paths of time and space, the thirty-six tattvas, the descent of Power, initiation and ritual. Alongside the “Paratriśikā-vivaraṇa](/en/ksh/pv/)” — the most difficult text of the tradition — the “Tantrasāra” reads as something one should have started with.

Why she lies here

Then, site search searches the pages of this repository, not those of others. Text left behind a link will not enter the index in any way: a query for “abhiṣeka” or “descent of the Force” simply will not find the “Tantrasāra,” even though it is there. For it to be found, it must lie here.

We did not make a translation and will not: Gabriel Pradīpaka already has one, and complete, all twenty-two chapters. Our work was not a translation but a transfer.

How to read these pages

Each chapter is structured the same way as in the source: first the entire chapter in Sanskrit, then the same in Russian.

Green marks Sanskrit, and beneath each of its lines — the same line in IAST transliteration. The green here is the same as on /ksh/pv/: it marks the words of Abhinavagupta himself, and the “Tantrasāra” is his own from the first line to the last. In the source, both walls stand apart — first all the Sanskrit of the chapter, then all the transliteration; here the lines are paired so you do not have to flip back and forth.
Next comes the translation. In it, above the Russian word, in small type, stands the Sanskrit (saṁskṛta) — the one that in the source stands in parentheses right after. The parentheses have not gone anywhere: they are visible when copying and in search. A word that has an entry in the glossary of terms is a link there; from the glossary, links lead back, straight to the paragraphs where the term is discussed most thoroughly. The explanations in the glossary are written for this site: the translation here is someone else’s, but the interpretations are our own, and they are not passed off as translation.
Above the wall of Sanskrit are two buttons: to take its Devanagari or its transliteration in full. The lines alternate, and one script cannot be selected with the mouse.

Important (this is the translator’s note): everything in the translation that appears in parentheses in italics has been added by them to complete the phrase. And everything between double dashes, — like this —, is their explanatory clarifications, which are not present in the original.

Glossary of terms

Dictionary — 144 entries, gathered from those very Sanskrit annotations that accompany every Russian word. It is shared with the dictionary of the “Tantrāloka”: the book is the same, condensed, and there is no need to explain tattva here in one set of words and there in another. Thirty entries are nonetheless its own, and almost all are ritualistic — for the “Tantrāloka” in Russian there is only the doctrinal half, while here everything is translated, together with the ritual.

Chapters

Chapter 1 — Vijñānabhedaprakāśanam — explanation of various kinds of knowledge — 9 stanzas, 25 paragraphs
Chapter 2 — Anupāyaprakāśanam — explanation of Anupāya, devoid of methods — 3 stanzas, 7 paragraphs
Chapter 3 — Śāmbhavopāyaprakāśanam — explanation of the method of Śambhu — 3 stanzas, 37 paragraphs
Chapter 4 — Śāktopāyaprakāśanam — explanation of the method Śakti — 10 stanzas, 51 paragraphs
Chapter 5 — Āṇavaprakāśanam — explanation of the method of the limited being — 13 stanzas, 40 paragraphs
Chapter 6 — Kālādhvaprakāśanam — explanation of the path of Time — 12 stanzas, 88 paragraphs
Chapter 7 — Deśādhvaprakāśanam — explanation of the path of Space — 5 stanzas, 43 paragraphs
Chapter 8 — Tattvasvarūpaprakāśanam — explanation of the essential nature of categories — 4 stanzas, 96 paragraphs
Chapter 9 — Tattvabhedaprakāśanam — explanation of division by categories — 4 stanzas, 55 paragraphs
Chapter 10 — Kalādyadhvaprakāśanam — explanation of the path of Kalā-s and others — 5 stanzas, 23 paragraphs
Chapter 11 — Śaktipātaprakāśanam — explanation of the descent of the Force — 3 stanzas, 29 paragraphs
Chapter 12 — Snānaprakāśanam — explanation of ablution — 3 stanzas, 13 paragraphs
Chapter 13 — Samayidīkṣāprakāśanam — explanation of initiation into the discipline — 7 stanzas, 96 paragraphs
Chapter 14 — Putrakadīkṣāprakāśanam — explanation of initiation into spiritual sonship — 4 stanzas, 33 paragraphs
Chapter 15 — Sapratyayadīkṣāprakāśanam — explanation of initiation with conviction — 3 stanzas, 9 paragraphs
Chapter 16 — Parokṣadīkṣāprakāśanam — explanation of the dedication of the absent one — 6 stanzas, 24 paragraphs
Chapter 17 — Liṅgoddhāraḥ — removal of the mark, or sign — 3 stanzas, 9 paragraphs
Chapter 18 — Abhiṣekaprakāśanam — explanation of consecration — 3 stanzas, 7 paragraphs
Chapter 19 — Śrāddhadīkṣāprakāśanam — explanation of the dedication at the commemoration of the deceased — 3 stanzas, 10 paragraphs
Chapter 20 — Śeṣavartanaprakāśanam — explanation of how to live on — 24 stanzas, 65 paragraphs
Chapter 21 — Āgamaprāmāṇyaprakāśanam — explanation of the authority of the scriptures — 4 stanzas, 10 paragraphs
Chapter 22 — Kulayāgaprakāśanam — explanation of the Kaula ritual — 11 stanzas, 48 paragraphs

Translator’s introduction

Gabriel Pradīpaka prefaces each chapter with the same introduction. Here it appears once — twenty-two repetitions of it are needed neither by the reader nor by search:

This work was written by the great Master Abhinavagupta and represents a concise exposition of Tantrāloka. Tantrāloka is the most important and voluminous work of the greatest Master of Trika. Abhinavagupta was also the teacher of the eminent Kṣemarāja and lived around 975–1025 CE in Kashmir.

This treatise, named Tantrasāra, is a concise encyclopedia of Tantra. Since it is a very advanced text in Trika Shaivism, it is not surprising that a neophyte will find it very difficult to understand. To begin to comprehend it, the reader’s level must be that of a true disciple in Trika.

The goal of life is Liberation. True Liberation constitutes the attainment of His Svātantrya, or Absolute Freedom. When Svātantrya of the Great Lord is achieved, then you see unity in everything, that is, you cease to see duality as before.

Keeping the above in mind, now read Tantrasāra and experience the Supreme Delight, dear Śiva.

The full introduction — about Abhinavagupta himself and why he wrote this exposition — remains at the source.

About the Source

Everything on these pages — Sanskrit, transliteration, translation and explanations — has been transferred from sanskrit-trikashaivism.com without changes. The author of the translation and explanations is Gabriel Pradīpaka; from each chapter there is a link here to the same one at the source.

Two corrections were made, and both were in the Sanskrit, not in the translation. In chapter 6, the chapter heading in Devanagari appears twice in the source; in chapter 10, the heading of chapter 9 comes first (navamamāhnikam instead of daśamamāhnikam); the extra one was removed, otherwise the lines of Sanskrit and transliteration would have diverged by one paragraph and would not have aligned further on. The title of chapter 2 was taken from the source’s table of contents (Anupāyaprakāśanam), not from its own introduction, where the title of the first chapter is repeated.

It is worth keeping at hand Basic principles of Kashmir Shaivism — that minimum of concepts without which the Tantrasāra is unreadable — and a survey of the Trika scriptures: which of them are already available in Russian, and which are not.