Illness and Immortality

Mantra, Mandala, and Meditation in the Netra Tantra

Patricia Sauthoff (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

240 Seiten

2022
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-755326-8 (ISBN)

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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.

Patricia Sauthoff is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta and the ERC-funded AyurYog project. She received her PhD from SOAS, University of London, in South Asian Languages and Cultures. Her research focuses on health and immortality in the tantric and rasasastric traditions. She is particularly interested in the role women played in medieval ritual and health practices.

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

Erscheinungsdatum	07.02.2022
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	239 x 164 mm
Gewicht	499 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Hinduismus
ISBN-10	0-19-755326-5 / 0197553265
ISBN-13	978-0-19-755326-8 / 9780197553268
Zustand	Neuware