Liberating the Liberated
Early Saiva Tantric Death Rites
edited by NIna Mirnig
This volume examines the formation and development of Saiva tantric funerary practices and rituals of post-mortem ancestor worship (sraddha) as preserved in the earliest extant strata of textual sources. These tantric scriptures and ritual manuals of the Saiva Siddhanta cover a period from about the 5th to the 12th century CE. A close analysis of individual texts shows how the incorporation of death rites into the tantric repertoire was directly linked to the tradition’s development from once focused on private worship and limited to ascetics living outside society to a dominant religion throughout the Indic world. A focal point of the study is how, in this process, Saiva ritual specialists catered to initiates who were established in the brahmanical householder society, with their death rites essentially coming to serve as the model for Saiva equivalents. To make these rites more meaningful in terms of Saiva doctrine, cremation and post-mortem ancestor worship were redefined as a means for liberating the deceased person’s soul, this through its funerary initiation and subsequent worship in manifestations of increasingly potent forms of Siva. The book first introduces the socio-historical context of early Saivism, and then in five chapters traces the development of Saiva funerary rites in the available text sources, examining also the extent to which Saiva propagators were willing to tolerate doctrinal compromises to be able to include a wider clientele. The appendices contain editions and annotated translations of the passages on cremation and post-mortem ancestor worship from the pre-9th century tantric scriptures Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha 22.9-20, Sarvajnanottara 12 and 13, and Kirana 60 and 61, as well as the chapters on cremation and post-mortem ancestor worship in the 12th-century South-Indian ritual manual Jnanaratnavali.
- Edited by NIna Mirnig
Other Titles in this Series
Death and Beyond in Ancient Tibet
Archaic Concepts and Practices in a Thousand-Year-Old Illuminated Funerary Manuscript and Old Tibetan Funerary Documents of Gathang Bumpa and Dunhuang
Volume 77
Reverberations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy
Proceedings of the Fifth International Dharmakirti Conference Heidelberg, August 26 to 30, 2014
Volume 104
In Clear Words
The Prasannapada, Chapter One: Volume I: Introduction, Manuscript Description, Sanskrit Text Volume II: Prasannapada, Tibetan Text
Volume 86
Tantrikabhidhanakosa III
Dictionnaire des termes techniques de la litterature hindoue tantrique / A Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature / Worterbuch zur Terminologie hinduistischer Tantren
Volume 76
Scriptural Authority, Reason and Action
Proceedings of a Panel at the 14th World Sanskrit Conference, Kyoto, September 1st-5th, 2009
Volume 79
History and Transmission of the Nyayamanjari
Critical Edition of the Section on the Sphota.
Volume 91
From Birch Bark to Digital Data
Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research: Papers Presented at the Conference Indic Buddhist Manuscripts: The State of the Field. Stanford, June 15-19 2009
Volume 80
A Fine Blend of Mahamudra and Madhyamaka
Maitripa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikara)
Volume 90
Buddhist Epistemology as Apologetics
Studies on the History, Self-understanding and Dogmatic Foundations of Late Indian Buddhist Philosophy
Volume 81
Anton Schiefner (1817-1879). Briefe und Schriftenverzeichnis
Briefe an Bernhard Jalg (1825-1886), Karl Ernst von Bar (1792-1876), Reinhold Kohler (1830-1892), Victor Hehn (1813-1890), August Friedrich Pott (1802-1887), Ernst Jung (1846-1920), L. Diefenbach (1806-1883), E. Forstermann (1822-1906) und K. Dziatzk
Volume 94
Une critique bouddhique du Soi selon la Mimamsa
Presentation, edition critique et traduction de la Mimamsakaparikalpitatmapariksa de Santaraksita
Volume 84
Marga
Paths to Liberation in South Asian Buddhist Traditions. Papers from an International Symposium held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 17 - 18 December, 2015
Volume 100
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