21) and the three types of practitioners (sadhakas) (chap. 3) ascetic practices (vratas) aiming at self-purification, followed by pacifying and mingling (melaka) with the yoginis (chap. The three chapters edited and translated by Kiss are devoted to the BraYa's mandala and pantheon (chap.

An appendix summarizing the contents of the first twenty-five of the BraYa's 101 chapters is an additional resource. The same holds for intertextual references: nearly every technical term found in the text is analyzed in the light of usages in other texts from the same canon, and nearly every mantra, verse, and passage cross-referenced wherever possible or applicable. 75) however the pages he devotes to character and numeral charts, 'Ais'a phenomena,' and editorial conventions are thorough and concise (pp. Given his nearly exclusive reliance on MS A, he notes that the importance of a critical apparatus is greatly reduced (p. Addressing the impact of these irregularities on his edition and translation, Kiss states that his aim 'as a kind of experiment, has been to present the text of the BraYa in its extremely Ais'a form' (pp. The Old Newari script of this palm-leaf manuscript (Kiss's MS A) is extremely difficult to decipher in and of itself the Sanskrit, which Kiss qualifies as 'extremely non-standard, non-Paninian, or extremely Ais'a' (even if, 'it sometimes falls back to perfectly standard Paninian language for fairly long passages' ), presents great challenges to translation. The editions and translations of both volumes are based nearly exclusively on Hatley's electronic transcription of a 1052 CE manuscript held in the Nepal National Archives (NAK-3-370) (p. The published version of Hatley's edition and translation of chapters 1 and 2 are forthcoming in a companion (The Brahmayamalatantra or Picumata, vol. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2007) and have long since been available on line. With the present volume, a critical edition and translation of three of the BraYa's one hundred and one chapters (chapters 3, 21, and 45) are now available these complement Shaman Hatley's edition and translation of chapters 1, 2, 55, 73, and 99, which first appeared in his 2007 PhD dissertation ('The Brahmayamalatantra and Early Saiva Cult of Yoginis,' Ph.D. 13), has been largely inaccessible to scholars due to the rarity and near illegibility of the few extant manuscripts of the work. 750.Ĭonsidered by many to be the 'grail' of early Hindu tantric studies, the Brahmaydmalatantra (BraYa), very likely the earliest of the Bhairava Tantras (p. Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY/ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT HAMBURG: ASIEN-AFRIKA-INSTITUT, UNIVERSITAT HAMBURG, 2015. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation.

II: The Religious Observances and Sexual Rituals of the Tantric Practitioner: Chapters 3, 21, and 45.

Bhairava yamala tantra